What is the Tormentor in Dota 2?

Dota 2

June 17, 2024

Marcus Wong

It’s a creep, it’s a tower! Well, it’s technically both. Tormentors in Dota 2 are introduced back in the New Frontiers Update, alongside various major map changes. Since then, the Tormentor has played a crucial role. If you are still confused about it, here’s the complete on what is the Tormentor in Dota 2.

Dota 2 Tormentors (Image credit: Dota 2)

What does the Tormentor in Dota 2 do exactly?

The Tormentor is a neutral boss ‘creep’ that spawns at only two fixed locations on the map. The Dire’s Tormentor in red theme, is located near Dire’s bottom lane’s entrance, while the Radiant’s is at the top lane. They initially spawn at the 20-minute mark, as a visible cube chained onto the ground, then respawns 10 minutes after it’s destroyed. When in cool down, it’s hidden below the pits on the ground.

The Tormentor in Dota 2 has multiple abilities, which can be rather threatening if you aren’t careful. Firstly, the Tormentor is not easily destroyed because it has a passive ability, Unyielding Shield, which grants a 2,500 All Damage Barrier that also regenerates at 100 health per second.

But what makes it dangerous is its ability, Reflect, which reflects damage it receives evenly to all heroes within a 1,200 radius of the targeted Tormentor. Considering how much damage is necessary to take down the Tormentor, that same amount of damage can easily kill a hard support hero.

As a cherry on top, it also has the Shining, a passive ability that deals 30 damage to all units within the same range every second, similar to Radiance’s Burn.

Dota 2 Tormentors’ abilities (Image Credits: Valve)

What does the Tormentor rewards in Dota 2?

The high stakes of defeating the Tormentor does have its reward, especially for the lowest net worth players within the team that successfully take it down. It randomly picks one of the two lowest net worth players to reward an Aghanim’s Shard buff, so there’s no item to pick up and will automatically apply.

Of course, heroes who already has an Aghanim’s Shard buff will not get the upgrade. This free Aghanim’s Shard means that support players won’t have to spend on the upgrade and can expect it for free in the game.

As for the player, typically the carry, who destroyed the Tormentor, they receive a generous 530 gold reward instead.

Dota 2 Fails with Tormentor

Tormentor’s auto-reflect damage has gotten the best of us, even pro players. In fact, there’s even a top ten fail compilation of Death by Tormentor in the International 2023 (TI12) alone.

One of our favorites is certainly when Gaimin Gladiator’s Erik “tOfu” Engel landed a blind Dead Shot onto Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk after he’s low on health from killing Tormentor. And of course, the “unintentional” team-inflicted kills on support players who were just passing by the vicinity of their carry teammates’ attack on Tormentor.

Yet, what makes the Tormentor such a tricky creep to kill is that you would want more heroes and units to be around the Tormentor’s Reflect range because damage is evenly distributed. In most scenarios, a solo attempt on Tormentor, even from the highest net worth carry hero, is not a good idea.