Heroes

Heroes

There are currently 102 Heroes available in the Dota 2 lineup. Each of the 10 players in the game controls a hero in DotA 2. The selection of each player's hero depends on the game type selected, which are detailed in the Game Modes section. Each hero starts at level 1 and is capped at level 25. Each hero has 3 abilities and 1 more powerful skill called an 'ultimate'. Each level gained gives the hero 1 skill point to allocate towards any of their skills or get an attribute bonus which grants +2 to all attributes. Each hero starts the game with 1 skill point. Each ability can be leveled 4 times, except the ultimate can only be leveled 3 times. You are limited to how many points you can put in each skill based on your hero's level.
Level 3 - You are allowed to skill an ability to its second level.
Level 5 - You are allowed to skill an ability to its third level.
Level 6 - You are allowed to skill your ultimate to its first level.
Level 7 - You are allowed to skill an ability to its fourth level.
Level 11 - You are allowed to skill your ultimate to its second level.
Level 16 - You are allowed to skill your ultimate to its third level.
The attribute bonus can be leveled at any time.
Each hero has different abilities and learning the different abilities and ultimates for the different heroes will help you become a better player.

Primary Attributes

There are three primary stat categories or attributes in DotA 2. Strength (Str), Agility (Agi), and Intelligence (Int). Each hero starts with a different number of each attribute and gains different attributes at varied rates each level.
Each point of Strength will:

1. Increase the maximum number of hit points (HP) by 19 points.
2. Increase the hit point regeneration by 0.03 HP per second.

Each point of Agility will:

1. Increase the attack speed by 1 point.
2. Increase the armor by 0.14 points.

Each point of Intelligence will:

1. Increase the maximum amount of mana by 13.
2. Increase the mana regeneration by 0.04 points per second.

Beyond these bonuses, each hero has a primary attribute. Adding a point to a hero's primary attribute will add a point of damage in addition to the previous bonuses. Each hero's specific primary attribute is highlighted in yellow on the hero page. 

Other Attributes

There are other attibutes that a hero may have that can be added or bolstered with skills or items. Those include:

Damage - Many items, skills, and abilities can modify a hero's physical damage output.

Armor- Reduces incoming physical damage. This includes standard attacks and some spells.

Movement Speed - The speed at which a hero moves. Each hero has a different starting movement speed and this can be altered with various items and skills, both temporarily and permanently.

Magic Resistance - Some items allow for a absorption of a certain amount of magic damage and others allow the wielder to negate a certain percentage of magic damage.  It should be noted that items and abilities that offer magic resistance do not stack additively. 

Gaining Experience and Levels

Experience can be gained by killing creeps and enemy players. Once enough experience is gained at a certain level, your hero will level up, granting you a skill point to allocate. The amount of experience gained is calculated by the level of creep or player killed and how many allied heroes are in the immediate vicinity.

Hero Overviews

Click on a hero's name on the sidebar or click the name below to see a detailed overview of a particular hero, their skills, and a basic introduction to their roles in the game. Here is an example of the format for the hero overviews.

Strength		18 + 1.40
Agility		20 + 2.20
Intelligence		25 + 2.60

The hero's primary attribute will be highlighted in yellow. So the Ancient Apparition's primary attribute is Intelligence. The starting attribute values are shown along with the amount of that attribute gained per level. So Ancient Apparition starts with 18 strength and gains 1.40 strength per level. As you can see, an Intelligence hero will start with more intelligence and gain more each level than Agility or Strength heroes. Below the hero's description will be the skill descriptions. Those will show you the damage/effect, cooldown(time before it can be used again), and mana cost of each skill at each level.

Hero List

The heroes are separated into the two sides, the Radiant and the Dire. In most game modes, all heroes are available to both sides. There are some game modes that restrict the picking to heroes on a particular side though.

Strength 

Radiant		Dire
Earthshaker	Sven	Axe	Pudge
Tiny	Kunkka	Sand King	Slardar
Beastmaster	Dragon Knight	Tidehunter	Skeleton King
Clockwerk	Omniknight	Lifestealer	Night Stalker
Huskar	Alchemist	Doom	Spirit Breaker
Brewmaster	Treant Protector	Lycanthrope	Chaos Knight
Io	Centaur Warrunner	Undying	Magnus
Timbersaw	Bristleback	Abaddon
Tusk	Elder Titan

Agility

Radiant		Dire
Anti-Mage	Drow Ranger	Bloodseeker	Shadow Fiend
Juggernaut	Mirana	Razor	Venomancer
Morphling	Phantom Lancer	Faceless Void	Phantom Assassin
Vengeful Spirit	Riki	Viper	Clinkz
Sniper	Templar Assassin	Broodmother	Weaver
Luna	Bounty Hunter	Spectre	Meepo
Ursa	Gyrocopter	Nyx Assassin	Slark
Lone Druid	Naga Siren	Medusa
Troll Warlord

Intelligence

Radiant		Dire
Crystal Maiden	Puck	Bane	Lich
Storm Spirit	Windrunner	Lion	Witch Doctor
Zeus	Lina	Enigma	Necrolyte
Shadow Shaman	Tinker	Warlock	Queen of Pain
Nature's Prophet	Enchantress	Death Prophet	Pugna
Jakiro	Chen	Dazzle	Leshrac
Silencer	Ogre Magi	Dark Seer	Batrider
Rubick	Disruptor	Ancient Apparition	Invoker
Keeper of the Light	Skywrath Mage	Outworld Devourer	Shadow Demon