Dota 2’s competitive meta can change at the drop of a hat. Professional players bring out fresh ideas and new schemes all the time, leading to an ever-evolving roster of heroes that seemingly change day-to-day.
In this Dota 2 hero tier list, heroes are roughly arranged in three tiers to signify their importance in the pro scene. About forty heroes are represented, though Dota 2’s balanced nature means that many more heroes are viable.
This isn’t an exhaustive list of the good heroes—they’re ranked by their popularity in the pro scene, where execution matters as much as the draft.
While new patch 7.31d was supposedly a small one with few major nerfs, it’s affected the meta quite significantly. New Captain’s Mode addition Marci has become one of the most popular supports in the pro scene, along with Dawnbreaker’s viability across every role.
Tier one heroes appear in almost every draft, whether it’s banned or picked. Their strength can come from their flexibility, allowing teams to easily slot them into lanes as they see fit, or overpowering might that no other hero can quite reproduce—or counter.
Puck has surged back into the meta as the premier midlaner. The hero didn’t receive any changes for two straight patches, but circumstantial nerfs to Black King Bar and other mid heroes catapulted the perennial pick back into contention.
The hero fell out of favor when its Aghanim’s Scepter was changed from its Dream Coil upgrades to instead boost Waning Rift. But pros have realized that the hero remains just as potent in lane with two nukes in Waning Rift and Illusory Orb, and is still extremely elusive.
Plus, the Faerie Dragon is one of the few mid laners who don’t buy BKB, instead relying on Orb and Phase Shift to float around the battlefield like the Pucker it is. This gives it room to opt for more damage items, like Witch Blade and Kaya, shifting to utility only when needed.
Later on at level 25, most Pucks opt for the Dream Coil piercing spell immunity talent, which is now no longer tied to an item. With BKB cooldown as long as it is now, you can practically catch an enemy offguard at any time — and just once can spell death with Puck’s high damage spells.
Marci has rapidly shot up the rankings as one of Dota 2’s best aggressive supports. She’s always ready to jump into the fray, and her ability to pull enemies out of position reliably can be a serious threat to any enemy trying to hold a unified line.
Rebound and Dispose is a killer combo starting at level two. It seems nearly impossible for any hero to survive it, especially when another hero arrives with supplementary damage. This can make for ridiculous combos with some heroes, like Juggernaut and Monkey King, who need movement speed to get off their damage.
Sidekick is merely a bonus for most Marcis, giving allies temporary lifesteal and damage buffs. With heroes like Medusa and Gyrocopter, however, this damage is further amplified with their ranged attacks.
Unleash is mostly a spell for core Marcis — which is viable, but uncommon. In the pro scene and high level pubs, Marci is mainly a support, but the flexibility also contributes to her draft rate. Even then, a support Marci can lock down targets with a Basher purchase, making her a valuable, yet disposable spell immunity-piercing fighter.
Dawnbreaker is the most versatile hero in pro play right now, seeing time in every role and position. Core Dawnbreakers can one-shot heroes, support Dawnbreakers can dole out a surprising amount of healing and damage mitigation, and both retain their lane dominance and global capabilities.
Core Dawns, whether positions one to three, are leveraging Starbreaker’s scaling attack to boost their physical damage. The Orb of Corrosion into Desolator build is becoming increasingly popular, reducing opponents’ armor to pitiful levels and punishing them immediately.
Support Dawnbreakers, like Nature’s Prophet, can farm dangerous side lanes or jungle camps, before jumping in with Solar Guardian for a quick assist. Holy Locket, Wraith Pact, and Aghanim’s Scepter are all common choices, depending on what the team needs. She’s so versatile in item build, lane, and role, making her a premier flex draft — especially against teams that have proven multiple players can pick up the hero.
After a long time dominating the position one charts as one of the game’s best hard carries, nuking Tiny is coming back as a mid or soft support.
With nerfs over the past few patches generally targeting Tree Grab, Avalanche and Toss remain just as potent as ever. What’s more, Avalanche’s seemingly small buff in 7.31 that changed each instance to stun for 0.3 seconds instead of 0.2 have made it virtually impossible for heroes to dodge the spell — rendering Black King Bar, Force Staff, or Glimmer Cape ineffectual.
Mid Tinys are increasingly going for Aghanim’s Scepter to flesh out their build. A buff to Tree Volley, which now reduces movement speed and attack speed, makes the spell much easier to land consistently.
The zoo strat never truly dies. Beastmaster’s Helm of the Overlord power spike is hard to beat, even when compared with similar summon heroes.
Picking Beastmaster instantly gives you vision advantage over the opposing team. There are few surveillance spells as powerful as Hawk. Flying vision, near global range, and invisible — it can even be upgraded later in the game to provide a homing stun.
Having a spell immunity-piercing ultimate makes Primal Roar so much more effective in myriad situations. While most carries would feel safe immediately popping Black King Bar in any fight, having a Beastmaster as an enemy means that they need to be increasingly wary not to waste their BKB. Plus, hesitation can allow your own Hawk — or a teammate — to swoop in.
While the 0-4-4 build, which skipped Wild Axes, used to be the standard build, more pros are experimenting with adding early points in Axes. Repeated nerfs to his attack damage means he’s no longer the lane dominator he once was, and Axes help take down hard-to-reach ranged creeps or tack on harass in difficult lanes.
While Dawnbreaker might be the in-thing, Monkey King is still one of the more adaptable heroes in the game, able to slot in for almost any role. But the hero is far less tanky, which makes him difficult to go to the offlane, and can be significantly bullied when getting off to a poor start.
Still, in good games, he’s one of the best carries available. Tree Dance’s vision is important, both as core and support, to find the optimum angles to engage to and line up Boundless Strike.
Like Dawn, he’s also flexible in his item build, though trending toward offensive items. Carry Monkey Kings can pick up anything from Echo Sabre to keep fighting, Battlefury to purely farm, or even cheap damage items like Maelstrom and Desolator. Support Wukongs’ can also trend toward pure ganking builds like Orchid Malevolence and Geipnir, or opt for more utility like +-Vladimir’s Offering.
Mars has become the quintessential offlaner for the 7.00 generation of players. The god of war is ready for battle, anytime and anywhere, thanks to his low cooldowns—even Arena of Blood, at 90 seconds, is low for that impactful of a teamfight ultimate.
He also scales well later into the game, with many players favoring a carry build-up like Desolator and Satanic. It’s why pro teams have experimented with shifting this hero into different roles, with mid and even safelane viable choices in the current meta.
Yet, he’s still flexible enough to go pure utility. Even when stuck in the offlane, without a great lane, he can always contribute with his hard lockdown, and retain edge case usefulness against ranged carries with Bulwark and Arena’s projectile-blocking.
Tier two heroes are safe and stable picks that don’t usually warrant instant bans or picks. While not as oppressive as the heroes in tier one, they can equally strong in a match that favors their skillset.
Of the heroes here, several of them are threatening to close in on tier one status. Viper has become a top-tier pick almost solely due to his inbuilt Break mechanic, and his ability to dominate lanes against most match ups. He’s a great counter against several cheese picks this meta, including Bristleback and Enchantress, and becomes a respectable sieging machine later in the game with an Aghanim’s Shard upgrade that allows Poison Attack to be used on buildings.
As several offlaners make their way out of the rotation, Timbersaw is stepping in as one of the stronger position threes, capable of flexing to two. He’s difficult to push out of the lane against most of the popular carries right now, and benefits heavily from solo experience — allowing supports like Marci, Tiny, and Clockwerk to roam early on. He rewards his teams with some of the highest burst damage one can get from a offlaner, though lacks a bit of crowd control.
Keeper of the Light, often played as a support, is earning a fearsome new role in the midlane. He’s capable of pushing out entire waves, before retreating into the jungle to farm stacks and get an early Boots of Travel, leveraging his mobility to be everywhere at once. He’s let down by his immense squishiness, which can mean your overleveled, high net worth mid dies to any initiation—but the reward of running over your enemy from minute 10 is worth it for many teams.
The heroes in tier three appear here and there, but are popular enough to be recognized as powerful additions to a team’s draft. They can be cheesy last picks that are impossible to deal with, mesh perfectly with a player or team’s play style, or serve as niche counters to some popular heroes.
Bristleback is quickly rising up the ranks as one of the premier hard carries of the patch, despite traditionally being an offlaner. Pros are moving away from Quill stacks and wising up to the simply ridiculous amounts of physical damage Bristleback can dole out with Warpath stacks — up to 350 extra at max level, and 600 with the level 25 talent. The hero is also more than capable of farming up Ancient stacks and accelerating his timing toward items like Aghanim’s Scepter and Assault Cuirass, turning into a frontline tank that rolls down his enemies.
Juggernaut is another carry that’s seeing a rapid rise in stock. Though Omnislash remains a somewhat questionable DPS spell that can do wonders in the right situation, the hero’s Blade Fury talents have helped transform the skill from “use to dodge spells and teleport out” to “kill everything it touches.”
Adding the appropriate duration and damage talents and Aghanim’s Shard causes the skill to deal 315 magic damage for six seconds, along with instant attacks that trigger effects like Mjolnir and Skull Basher. Heroes that do not have mobility — usually supports — are doomed to die nearly instantly to the spell with 18 seconds of cooldown.
