Over the decade of Dota 2, players have grown to love even the hardest heroes in the game. Perhaps that’s because individual players love the thrill of mastering advanced heroes, which in return, gives them the upper hand in ranked match. Whether it’s for bragging rights or getting a kick out of playing the hardest heroes in Dota 2, here’s a breakdown of the five hardest heroes to play.
On a side note, it is recommended to steer away from picking these heroes while you are learning the game. You have been warned.
Every Dota 2 hero has its own difficulty level and ways to master it. Some are more straightforward then others in terms of mechanics. Playing a hero at a very high level requires hours of practice, especially if you consider how many match ups and scenarios it come across. Nevertheless, mastering one of the hardest Dota 2 heroes in the game can be quite rewarding.
Here’s our top selection of five heroes in terms of difficulty, skill requirement and time investment to master.
More often than not, the hardest Dota 2 heroes are subjective to players’ preferences. For instance, the hero Invoker is a complicated hero with 10 skills at his disposal. Yet, Invoker Dota 2 guide is among the most popular hero guide to date, and for good reasons, “The Wombo Combos.”
If there’s one thing that keeps Invoker players going, it’s most certainly the combos it can perform. The International 2018 Champion, Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen, is known for his exceptional mastery on his signature hero, Invoker.
Thanks to its vast skillset, Invoker can use four or more skills consecutively to deal AOE damage on multiple enemy heroes. This makes seasoned Invoker users a one-man army against the entire enemy team, as a fine Invoker can easily score rampages alone.
Not to be confused with modern Invoker players, who rely on only 2-skill combos, which definitely makes the hero lackluster. With many new utility items introduced into the game, such as Harpoon in Dota Update 7.33, Invoker players can find innovative ways to play their hero for a fragment of the necessary skills. For instance, the Forge Spirit plus Cold Snap combo only requires one click of a button, and Invoker just needs to auto-attack the target. Invoker can be the hardest Dota 2 hero for you if you are unable to mechanically execute his combos quickly and accurately.
On the other end of the popularity spectrum, Meepo is not a popular hero, along with a mediocre win rate to boot. Just like Invoker, most advanced heroes have one thing in common, quantity. In the case of Meepo(s), it’s the high number of units that Meepo players need to control. A Meepo only has 2 active skills, per se. However, its defining trait is having up to five Meepo units to manage.
Attempting to keep track of every single Meepo is already a difficult task itself making him the hardest Dota 2 hero if you cant toggle around each Meepo clone accordingly. However, it’s the fact that every Meepo suffers the same fate if one of them gets killed. Thus, it’s synonymous to the “one-for-all” philosophy of the hero.
When appropriately used, Meepo can become an efficient farming machine, as every Meepo can collect gold and experience in multiple locations across the map. Meepo players leverage their win rate by dominating the early game. As the game reaches midgame, Meepo would reach its peak strength, and victory is very much assured. However, if the game goes on too late, Meepo can fall in effectiveness really quickly, due to its incompatibility with late-game items such as BKB and physical damage items.
Furthermore, Meepo is a popular pick among ‘smurfs’ (high-skilled players queueing in lower-skilled games) as low-skill players do not have a clear grasp of game timing and objectives in the game. Chances are, they would fall victim to Meepo’s Blink and Poof combo in mere seconds.
Another hero that requires excessive micro-managing skills is Chen. Commonly played as a support hero, Chen’s skills aren’t much to talk about, besides being able to control non-hero unit.
Chen’s stronghold revolves around gathering jungle creeps as part of his troop. Once he has gathered the maximum number of creeps, these creeps provide all sorts of active skill and auras. With the latest improvements to neutral creeps in Update 7.33, such as better skills and stats.
Chen is a recommended support hero in occasions when your team can benefit from various aura buffs.
Although unpopular in pub matches, Chen is a competitive pick in pro games. Prominent players such as Johan “N0tail” Sundstein and Clement “Puppey” Ivanov, would pick Chen solely for the incredible auras to support the team indirectly. Since they often play the hard support role, or worse, the cripplingly poor pos-6 role.
Chen offers great value with his ability to own multiple creeps. Furthermore, Chen is also a hero that snowballs well into the midgame, making him one of the strongest midgame support heroes.
Fun fact: Chen has the lowest pick rate of all time, except Muerta, Primal Beast, Marci and Dawnbreaker, who were only introduced into the game two years ago. For keen learners, playing Chen isn’t the worst hero to start learning. After all, you could always just control jungle creeps that do not have any active skills since passive buffs are already beneficial. However, the real concern is when you lose a fight, all your creeps likely will get wiped out too. Hence, once again, you would have to painstakingly gather your creeps, but the more abundant neutral creeps in the latest map of Update 7.33 does make it easier.
Io is a hero that revolves heavily on having compatible allies around. A simple reason to why Io is a hard hero is the requirement to play around your teammates. For instance, if your carry is Phantom Assassin, who relies on her Blink Strike to get on top of opponents, Io will have a rough time keeping himself tethered.
As if it isn’t a difficult task itself to cope with strangers, yet you have to convince your teammates to pick compatible heroes. Nevertheless, if Io is good and so is his team’s cooperation, BEEP! BOOP! You will be winning MMR in no time!
Unlike most supports, Io’s skillset revolves around being tethered to a single ally and continually buffing him with heals, auras and etc. Yet, it’s not always easy to be beside your fighting carry, while the enemy team sees you as a walking target. Like most masteries in Dota 2, to play Io properly is to master positioning and timing. To be at a place during the right moment, so that you don’t risk dying without having any impact.
That said, recent players have overcome Io’s reliant weakness, by controlling a non-hero unit with a Helm of the Dominator. This means Io does not need to be tethered to an ally hero, and can just play alone. Although traditionally classified as a support, two-time champion, Anathan “ana” Pham revolutionized the carry Io meta. The mad lad won every game in the International 2019 when picking Io.
Despite the trend Ana started, Io remains one of the lowest picked heroes to date. While not as bad as Chen, Io’s win rate remains at an all-time low for good reasons. That aside, if you could dedicate your games to just Io, it would be a matter of time before you realize what a terrific support, Io can be when played the right way.
The final hero to make it into our list of hardest heroes is Earth Spirit. Earth Spirit is often played on the support role, especially the pos-4 role, due to his versatile set of skills. However, the most nerve-racking skill to get a grip of is the Boulder Smash (Q skill). To put it in perspective, it’s similar to playing FIFA on an eagle’s eye view, but without auto-targeting. This means that the boulders you kick, can move at any angle, making it a challenging skill shot to land. Earth Spirit is the hardest Dota 2 hero to master if you still struggle to aim your mouse accurately.
Frankly, Earth Spirit is unjustifiably disregarded despite its immense potential as a support hero. He’s durable, has high mobility skills and can deal damage from afar too. Putting aside the incredible mastery required for the hero, Earth Spirit might even be considered as the Burj Khalifa of all supports.
Once again, his win rate and pick rate certainly did not do him justice, as he’s a popular pick among pro players. Watch this absurd clip, where Maroun “GH” Merhej, playing Earth Spirit, single-handedly manhandled a 6-slotted carry.
Ultimately, it’s crucial to note that every Dota 2 Hero has a certain difficulty level. When you watch professionals play, you might not realize how much commitment these players put into making it look effortless.
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