History Characters / Dota2DireStrength

* [[GoodCounterpart Nice Counterpart]]: To Luna, They both constantly talk about their mounts, have powerful ultimates, high speed, and a targetted nuke. Luna however is an AxeCrazy BloodKnight while Chaos Knight is an generally AffablyEvil person whose main objective is to bring the DefectorFromDecadence back.

* TestosteronePoisoning: Alongside Axe, he's considered the manliest hero in Dota.

* DifficultbutAwesome

* CannibalismSuperpower: His first ability, ''Devour'', which instantly kills the target creep and gives him bonus gold and whatever abilities it has.
* Determinator: ''Nothing'' keeps him down. Reflected in game by his tendency to turn the game around by killing the enemy carry when he should by no means be able to.
* DifficultbutAwesome: His 3rd skill, LVL? Death is potentially one of the most powerful nukes in the game, rivaling Lina's Laguna Blade and Lion's Finger of Death for sheer power in late game, has a mini-stun and is spamable, the catch? It requires you to use it on the right leveled opponents. In order to properly time it, you have to level it based on ''how fast the enemy is leveling''. Doing so incorrectly gets you an spell about as powerful as one autoattack, doing so correctly gets you over 25% of your target's hp in damage and stops channelled spells.

* ItemCaddy: He's not quite up to par with some of the other farm-heavy carries like Alchemist or Nature's Prophet, but his high Strength in the early game means that he can clear tough camps from level one by utilizing ''Devour''. A very common build for him includes the expensive item Radiance, which stacks with ''Scorched Earth'' and ''Doom'' to deal constant damage over time, Another one takes his innate tanky nature and builds high-hp high armor items to make him neigh on invulnerable.
* LightningBruiser: By himself, Doombringer isn't very fast, and he has among the lowest starting Agility and slowest Agility growth in the game. However, ''Scorched Earth'' provides a movement speed bonus, and if combined with a Kobold Foreman's ''Speed Aura'' ability and Phase Boots, can actually make Doom move pretty quickly.
* MoneyMultiplier: ''Devour'' gives Doom bonus gold with every creep he eats after a short delay.
* MightyGlacier: Doom's extremely low base Agility and growth means that unless he stacks loads of attack speed items, he's going to be hitting very slowly. This also means that he has very little base armor and thus, despite his huge Strength growth, he's quite easily brought down without any armor items. But the key to playing Doom is to utilize ''Devour'' to farm an early Hand of Midas, and then use the two in conjunction to accelerate your farm and get lots of powerful items faster than most other heroes (besides Alchemist) can. Once he has enough armor, he's nearly impossible to bring down without resorting to magic nukes, which purchasing a Black King Bar, Hood of Defiance, or Linken's Sphere can easily nullify.

* PowerNullifier: His ultimate, ''Doom'' is a much more potent version of a silence, disabling items and certain passives as well as making the target unable to cast spells, all on top of inflicting damage over time. It is universally regarded as the hardest disable in the game, and it's often joked that it counters every single hero in the game because of this.
** If Doom gets an Aghanim's Scepter, not only does the damage over time increase, ''the timer won't count down as long as Doom is standing nearby''. This makes Doom all the more scary since the damage over time is usually already enough to severely weaken most heroes, stopping the clock threatens even the tankiest heroes with death even if they were Doomed at full health. [[MortonsFork this leaves enemies with either the option of attempting to escape Doom, with his high speed and possibly dying anyway or a desperate attempt to use their autoattacks to fight back, which rarely works.]]

* ShoutOut: Aside from being based on the [[Literature/TheBible Biblical]] [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]], he also has references to FinalFantasy like the "oddly" named LVL? Death.

** ''Amplify Damage'' reveals targets and applies True Sight on them, meaning that the ''only'' way to run away from him is by blinking or purging the debuff and hoping that you're still far enough ahead of him to escape. Of course, he's usually got his own Blink Bagger so even that may not work.

* ObviousRulePatch: [=DotA=] has an item called "Kelen's Dagger" (Blink Dagger in [=DotA=] 2) that allows [[TeleportSpam teleportation]] of one's own hero. So, it's even possible to teleport yourself into terrain that you cannot escape from, except by using Blink Dagger again once the cooldown ends. The Blink Dagger cannot be held by Pudge or Vengeful Spirit. If it could be, they would be able to blink to an enclosed area and then bring an enemy to them, leaving their foe potentially trapped. However, they can still do this with Force Staff.

* SuperPersistentPredator: Slardar is known for never letting thieves escape. Ever. No matter how far he may have to chase them. Within the gameplay itself, Amplify Damage reveals the player for a time period, and his other skills make him an excellent chaser.

** Every single one of his abilities is designed to make running from him a pointless endeavor. Sprint gives him a large movement speed boost, and lasts far longer than other boosts like surge or windrun, Slithreen Crush is a aoe stun with a small slow attached to the end, bash lets him extend stuns from Slithreen crush or simply knock an opponent out while chasing, and Amplify damage tracks targets, meaning that the ''only'' way to run away from him is blinking, ofcourse, he's usually got his own blink dagger so even that may not work.

* BoringButPractical: Before patch 6.78, he had only one active skill and was basically "baby's first carry," often resulting in jokes that Skeleton King players only need two fingers to play the hero. He's since then had a second (optional) active skill which retains its passive, for players who want to play more strategically.

* VampiricDraining: Vampiric Aura, for being a [[LifeDrain lifesteal]] ability. As of 6.78, he can also temporarily steal his enemy's hitpoints with ''Mortal Strike''.
* WhyWontYouDie?: At level 16, Skeleton King's ultimate will only have a cooldown of one minute. Combined with a Refresher Orb and an Aegis of the Immortal, this means that a lucky Skeleton King can revive four times in quick succession.

* CastingAShadow: His ultimate, ''Darkness'', instantly turns day into night, or stops time from moving if it's already night, essentially extending the length of nighttime. His other spells are all themed around darkness and fear.

* GlowingEyesOfDoom: [[http://www.gamersbook.com/repository/images/_variations/2/2/223d96895a70e43228c7bf00f6ad077a_lightbox.jpg]]

* TheNightThatNeverEnds: Towards the end of the game, Night Stalker can pretty much continually cast ''Darkness'', allowing night to advance 40 seconds at a time (game day and night last 6 minutes each), meaning that enemy heroes can no longer take advantage of his weaknesses.

* WeakenedByTheLight: During the daytime, all of Night Stalker's active abilities are only half as effective, and his passive does nothing at all. Additionally, he has the shortest sight range of any hero during the daytime. He even has various voice lines for whenever it shifts between day and night.

* PowerNullifier: His ultimate, ''Doom'' is a much more [[LimitBreak potent]] version of a silence, disabling items and certain passives as well as making the target unable to cast spells, all on top of inflicting damage over time.

* CrosshairAware: Allies of Spirit Breaker (and he himself) will see an animation over the head of the target. The target will also became aware of the charge (visible as a StatusBuff) when Barathrum is within 3000 distance.
** As of the 6.75 patch players being charged are no longer alerted to the charge however, so unless they were warned by the map or a team member telling them to run they are far more likely to be a sitting duck.
* CycleOfHurting: If lucky and fast enough, he can stunlock any foe for a very long time, and his active abilities can be used to [[LuckManipulationMechanic compensate for unlucky streaks]].

* FoeTossingCharge: Charge of Darkness will cause Spirit breaker to run through anything and everything, homing in on the target from any place on the map, knocking back any opponent he passes through.

* SkillGateCharacter: Spirit Breaker is a very powerful ganker when the opposing team has no ward vision and doesn't know how to counter his charges, capable of solo killing most other heroes in the game. Yet if anyone places any wards around the middle of the map, it becomes easy to see when he's charging, and thus retreat to within tower range, or even put a player or two in his path to disable him as he charges, rendering him helpless and in a location with no backup. His reliance on magic damage also makes him little more than a melee-range disabler against anyone with magic immunity such as Omniknight, and he has little to no attack speed without a Mask of Madness, which greatly increases his vulnerability to all types of damage.

* RandomNumberGod: Three of his four skills are based on random effects, and even his damage spread is the highest in the game! The icon for his passive ability, which grants extreme critical damage, is even a twenty sided die.

* WorthyOpponent: Considers Dragon Knight one, and unlike the rest of the Knight themed characters, doesn't mock him for not having a mount.

* WhyWontYouDie: ''Borrowed Time'' turns all incoming damage into health, meaning that any kind of damage will simply heal him right back up to full health. If Abbaddon decides to focus on durability with items like Heart of Tarrasque and Aghahim's Scepter, then bringing him down in a teamfight becomes a chore in and of itself.
** Among ''Borrowed Time'''s other properties is that it, like ''Aphotic Shield'', can remove debuffs up to and including stuns. However, what makes it so absurd is that it is the only ability in the game that removes Doombringer's ''Doom'', which is otherwise the hardest disable in the entire game.

* ShoutOut: He's a [[{{Warhammer}} Chaos Knight running about in comically heavy armour with a hook-like polearm as a primary weapon covered in spikes and ranting about Chaos]].

* MightyGlacier: Doom's extremely low base Agility and growth means that unless he stacks loads of attack speed items, he's going to be hitting very slowly. This also means that he has very little base armor and thus, despite his huge Strength growth, he's quite easily brought down without any armor items. But the key to playing Doom is to abuse ''Devour'' to farm an early Hand of Midas, and then use the two in conjunction to accelerate your farm and get lots of powerful items faster than most other heroes (besides Alchemist) can. Once he has enough armor, he's nearly impossible to bring down without resorting to magic nukes, which purchasing a Black King Bar, Hood of Defiance, or Linken's Sphere can easily nullify.

* CarryABigStick: He received a large mace as an immortal item from the TI3 Compendium. It changes the particle effects on his Aphotic Shield.

* ChunkySalsaRule: If an enemy is within the instant kill threshold of ''Culling Blade'', Axe removes all buffs on the target before applying the damage. This means that abilities such as Dazzle's ''Shallow Grave'' and any magic immunity buff won't save the target from death.

* OneHitKill: ''Culling Blade'' can instantly kill an enemy unit with low health based on its current level's threshold.
** It's the ''only'' spell that goes through Dazzle's "Shallow Grave", which otherwise grants complete immunity to death (but doesn't negate damage itself). It's also one of two spells that can kill Abaddon through "Borrowed Time" (the other being Ancient Apparition's "Ice Blast"), which otherwise heals Abaddon when he should take damage.

* AchillesHeel: Borrowed Time can be penetrated with Axe's ultimate so long as Abaddon's HP meets the threshold for Culling Blade's instant kill - or skipped by a single attack that gets him from over 400 hp to zero.
* BarrierWarrior: Abaddon's second ability, ''Aphotic Shield'', prevents damage to himself or an ally for a short duration, or until it absorbs a certain amount of damage, at which point it bursts, sending that damage back at the attackers.

* WhyWontYouDie: ''Borrowed Time'' turns all incoming damage into health, meaning that any kind of damage will simply heal him right back up to full health. If Abbaddon decides to focus on durability with items like Heart of Tarrasque and Aghahim's Scepter, then bringing him down in a teamfight becomes a chore in and of itself.

* {{Expy}}: Some see him as a paralell to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, considering his ability split into multiple images.

* VampiricDraining: His passive, ''Curse of Avernus'', slows the movement and attack speed of any enemy he attacks, while simultaneously buffing that of any allies who right-click the target.

[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Undying_3224.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/2/2d/Undying_respawn_05.mp3 "No hells. No heavens. Only this..."]]-] ]]
!!Undying, the Almighty Dirge

''"How long has it been since he lost his name? The torn ruin of his mind no longer knows. Dimly he recalls armor and banners and grim-faced kin riding at his side. He remembers a battle: pain and fear as pale hands ripped him from his saddle. He remembers terror as they threw him into the yawning pit of the Dead God alongside his brothers, to hear the Dirge and be consumed into nothingness. In the darkness below, time left them. Thought left them. Sanity left them. Hunger, however, did not. They turned on each other with split fingernails and shattered teeth. Then it came: distant at first, a fragile note at the edge of perception, joined by another, then another, inescapable and unending. The chorus grew into a living wall of sound pulsing in his mind until no other thought survived. With the Dirge consuming him, he opened his arms to the Dead God and welcomed his obliteration. Yet destruction was not what he'd been chosen for. The Dead God demanded war. In the belly of the great nothing, he was granted a new purpose: to spread the Dirge across the land, to rally the sleepless dead against the living. He was to become the Undying, the herald of the Dead God, to rise and fall and rise again whenever his body failed him. To trudge on through death unending, that the Dirge might never end."''

* AnimateDead[=/=]ClownCarGrave[=/=]NightOfTheLivingMooks[=/=]MookMaker: Dirge can summon a Tombstone that spawns a zombie near every enemy unit within range until it expires.
* BrainFood: As a zombie, he does have a taste for brains.
* BrownNote: The Dirge.
** LoudOfWar: Most combat sounds easily drown in his roars during killsprees, so it must be incredibly loud to the combatants.
* CameBackWrong
** FromNobodyToNightmare: From (probably) a regular soldier to the leader of an undead army.
* DiskOneNuke: ''Decay'' is incredibly powerful starting with level 1, easily reducing some heroes to 300 ''maximum'' hp with a couple casts, while buffing Undying's health and damage to mid-game values.
* FinishingMove: ''Tombstone'' zombies get a huge stats boost when they are chasing low-hp heroes.
* GodOfEvil: The Dead God.
* GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath
* LargeAndInCharge: He is gigantic when compared to his zombies - and to most heroes as well.
* LifeDrain[=/=]YourSoulIsMine: ''Decay'' and ''Soul Rip''.
* MeaningfulRename
* MetaGuy: Sort of. His voice work is full of shout outs and joke lines, though these very rarely ever play in a match or are DummiedOut.
* MonsterLord: The herald and army leader for the Dead God.
* OneWingedAngel: His LimitBreak, ''Flesh Golem''[[note]]Not actually the subject of FleshGolem trope[[/note]].
** PowerMakesYourVoiceDeep: Very much so.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: He eats flesh, decays, but is sentient and serves the Dead God.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: He has a thing for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqQyGfP9RbI "gummy" vitamins]]in some joke lines.
* ShoutOut: To ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' with how he calls some of his allies: Hunter[[note]]Bounty Hunter[[/note]], Charger[[note]]Spirit Breaker[[/note]], Spitter[[note]]Venomancer[[/note]], and Jockey[[note]]Alchemist[[/note]], which leaves himself to be the Tank.
** His various hero kill lines also make reference to [=L4D=] and [=L4D2=] maps, such as Dead Air (whenever killing a flying hero) and Dark Carnival (when killing Alchemist).
** Another one to Left 4 Dead:
-->'''Undying:''' [[MemeticMutation "Wards]] [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/d/d3/Undying_items_02.mp3 here!"]]
* StoneWall: Dirge can attack enemy Heroes with ''Decay'', giving him temporary bonus Strength (and by extension extra damage, HP, and regeneration) in the process. His ultimate, ''Flesh Golem'', turns him into a...
** MightyGlacier: ''Flesh Golem'' amplifies the damage enemies take by a percentage, slows them, and every death in his vicinity will heal a percentage of his own health. Combined with ''Decay'', Dirge will gain a huge amount of Strength to survive and deal damage in the middle of teamfights, where he excels.
* WalkingWasteland: His ultimate has this effect on the environment.
* WhyWontYouDie: ''Flesh Golem'' heals a percentage of his health for every enemy unit that dies nearby. This means that fights against Undying quickly get out of control if anyone dies next to him.

[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Chaos_Knight_4485.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/d/d3/Chaknight_kill_08.mp3 "All creation is order which must be scattered to the wind."]]-] ]]
!!Chaos Knight

''"The veteran of a countless battles on a thousand worlds, Chaos Knight hails from a far upstream plane where the fundamental laws of the universe have found sentient expression. Of all the ancient Fundamentals, he is the oldest and most tireless—endlessly searching out a being he knows only as “The Light.” Long ago the Light ventured out from the progenitor realm, in defiance of the first covenant. Now Chaos Knight shifts from plane to plane, always on the hunt to extinguish the Light wherever he finds it. A thousand times he has snuffed out the source, and always he slides into another plane to continue his search anew. Upon his steed Armageddon he rides, wading into battle with maniacal frenzy, drawing strength from the disorder of the universe. A physical manifestation of chaos itself, in times of need he calls upon other versions of himself from other planes, and together these dark horsemen ride into battle, as unstoppable as any force of nature. Only when the last Light of the world is scoured from existence will the search be ended. Where rides the Chaos Knight, death soon follows."''

* ArchEnemy: The being known only as "The Light". Particularly its embodiment, the Keeper of Light
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: He is the "sentient expression" of Chaos.
* BlackKnight
* CoolHelmet
* CoolHorse
** HellishHorse
* DarkIsEvil
* EntropyAndChaosMagic
* EvilSoundsDeep
* {{Expy}}: Some see him as a paralell to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, considering his ability split into multiple images.
* FireballEyeballs
* GlassCannon: His Illusions do just as much damage as he does, but takes twice as much.
* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: His horse's name is Armageddon and he can summon three copies of himself.
* HorseOfADifferentColor: [[PlayedForLaughs He invokes this by referring to some other heroes' mounts as horses in some of his responses.]]
--> '''Chaos Knight (to Mirana):''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/b/b5/Chaknight_rival_29.mp3 "That is an ugly horse you ride."]]
--> '''Chaos Knight (to Batrider):''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/4/46/Chaknight_rival_31.mp3 "You taught your horse to fly?"]]
* ImprobableWeaponUser: He calls his weapon a [[CarryABigStick "cudgel"]], though it has one end curved into a [[HooksAndCrooks hook]] and SpikesOfVillainy on the opposite and perpendicular sides.
* LightningBruiser: Possesses the second highest natural move speed, and his reality rift lets him jump right into an enemy.
** He also has a fairly high agility gain for a strength hero. The resulting increase in attack speed makes his Chaos Strike more common, increasing his damage output.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: With SpikesOfVillainy on the edges and center.
* MonsterKnight
* MountedCombat
* RandomNumberGod: Three of his four skills are based on random effects, and even his damage spread is the highest in the game! The icon for his passive ability, which grants extreme critical damage, is even a twenty sided die.
** ForMassiveDamage: If you get ''really'' lucky, he and all 3 of his illusions can all proc Chaos Strike at once, causing a grand total of '''''1200%''''' damage.
* TimeAbyss
* VolcanicVeins
* WorthyOpponent: Considers Dragon Knight one, and unlike the rest of the Knight themed characters, doesn't mock him for not having a mount.

[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Doom_Bringer_3903.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/1/1b/Doom_kill_10.mp3 "You'll wake in lowest hell."]]-] ]]
!![[{{Satan}} Lucifer]], [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom the Doom]]

''"He that burns and is not consumed, devours and is never sated, kills and is beyond all judgment—Lucifer brings doom to all who would stand against him. Bearing away souls on the tip of a fiery sword, he is the Fallen One, a once-favored general from the realm behind the light, cast out for the sin of defiance: he would not kneel. Six times his name was tolled from the great bell of Vashundol. Six and sixty times his wings were branded, until only smoking stumps remained. Without wings, he slipped loose from the tethers that bound him within the light and he fell screaming to earth. A crater in the desert, Paradise lost. Now he attacks without mercy, without motive, the only living being able to move freely between the seven dark dominions. Lashed by inescapable needs, twisted by unimaginable talents, Doom carries his own hell with him wherever he goes. [[DefiantToTheEnd Defiant to the last]]. Eventually, the world will belong to Doom."''

* BigRedDevil
* CannibalismSuperpower: His first ability, ''Devour'', which instantly kills the target creep and gives him bonus gold and whatever abilities it has.
* Determinator: ''Nothing'' keeps him down. Reflected in game by his tendency to turn the game around by killing the enemy carry when he should by no means be able to.
* DifficultbutAwesome: His 3rd skill, LVL? Death is potentially one of the most powerful nukes in the game, rivaling Lina's Laguna Blade and Lion's Finger of Death for sheer power in late game, has a mini-stun and is spamable, the catch? It requires you to use it on the right leveled opponents. In order to properly time it, you have to level it based on ''how fast the enemy is leveling''. Doing so incorrectly gets you an spell about as powerful as one autoattack, doing so correctly gets you over 25% of your target's hp in damage and stops channelled spells.
* DoomyDoomsOfDoom: Taken to its logical extreme with his ultimate, ''Doom''.
* EvilOverlord
* EvilSoundsDeep
* FireAndBrimstoneHell: He comes from one.
* FlamingSword

* HellFire [=/=] HellOnEarth: His second ability, ''Scorched Earth''.
* ItemCaddy: He's not quite up to par with some of the other farm-heavy carries like Alchemist or Nature's Prophet, but his high Strength in the early game means that he can clear tough camps from level one by utilizing ''Devour''. A very common build for him includes the expensive item Radiance, which stacks with ''Scorched Earth'' and ''Doom'' to deal constant damage over time, Another one takes his innate tanky nature and builds high-hp high armor items to make him neigh on invulnerable.
* LightningBruiser: By himself, Doombringer isn't very fast, and he has among the lowest starting Agility and slowest Agility growth in the game. However, ''Scorched Earth'' provides a movement speed bonus, and if combined with a Kobold Foreman's ''Speed Aura'' ability and Phase Boots, can actually make Doom move pretty quickly.
* MoneyMultiplier: ''Devour'' gives Doom bonus gold with every creep he eats after a short delay.
* MightyGlacier: Doom's extremely low base Agility and growth means that unless he stacks loads of attack speed items, he's going to be hitting very slowly. This also means that he has very little base armor and thus, despite his huge Strength growth, he's quite easily brought down without any armor items. But the key to playing Doom is to abuse ''Devour'' to farm an early Hand of Midas, and then use the two in conjunction to accelerate your farm and get lots of powerful items faster than most other heroes (besides Alchemist) can. Once he has enough armor, he's nearly impossible to bring down without resorting to magic nukes, which purchasing a Black King Bar, Hood of Defiance, or Linken's Sphere can easily nullify.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast
* OddlyShapedSword
* OurDemonsAreDifferent
* PowerNullifier: His ultimate, ''Doom'' is a much more [[LimitBreak potent]] version of a silence, disabling items and certain passives as well as making the target unable to cast spells, all on top of inflicting damage over time.
** If Doom gets an Aghanim's Scepter, not only does the damage over time increase, ''the timer won't count down as long as Doom is standing nearby''. This makes Doom all the more scary since the damage over time is usually already enough to severely weaken most heroes, stopping the clock threatens even the tankiest heroes with death even if they were Doomed at full health. [[MortonsFork this leaves enemies with either the option of attempting to escape Doom, with his high speed and possibly dying anyway or a desperate attempt to use their autoattacks to fight back, which rarely works.]]
* {{Satan}}: It's heavily implied from his backstory that he is literally Satan.
* ShoutOut: Aside from being based on the [[Literature/TheBible Biblical]] [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]], he also has references to FinalFantasy like the "oddly" named LVL? Death.
* SkullForAHead: Apparently that's how he looks under the helmet.
* TalkingToHimself: Doom has a whole slew of dedicated kill lines for when he kills Storm Spirit. Both are voiced by John Patrick Lowrie.
* TinTyrant
* WholePlotReference: Does his BackStory seem familiar? [[Literature/TheBible It should.]]
* WingsDoNothing: He has wings in the original [=DotA=]. Averted in Dota 2 where it was even described in his BackStory as only smoking stumps remaining.

[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Lifestealer_1781.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/2/2e/Lifest_begin_01.mp3 "Oh Master, behold all these lives for the taking!"]]-] ]]
!!N'aix, the Lifestealer

''"In the dungeons of Devarque, a vengeful wizard lay in shackles, plotting his escape. He shared his cell with a gibbering creature known as N'aix, a thief cursed by the Vile Council with longevity, so that its life-sentence for theft and cozening might be as punishing as possible. Over the years, its chains had corroded, along with its sanity; N'aix retained no memory of its former life and no longer dreamt of escape. Seeing a perfect vessel for his plans, the wizard wove a spell of Infestation and cast his life-force into N'aix's body, intending to compel N'aix to sacrifice itself in a frenzy of violence while the mage returned to his body and crept away unnoticed. Instead, the wizard found his mind caught in a vortex of madness so powerful that it swept away his plans and shattered his will. Jarred to consciousness by the sudden infusion of fresh life, N'aix woke from its nightmare of madness and obeyed the disembodied voice that filled its skull, which had only the one thought: To escape. In that moment Lifestealer was born. The creature cast its mind into dungeon guards and soldiers, compelling them to open locks and cut down their companions, opening an unobstructed path to freedom while feeding on their lives. Lifestealer still wears the broken shackles as a warning that none may hold him, but on the inside remains a prisoner. Two minds inhabit the single form--a nameless creature of malevolent cunning, and the Master whose voice he pretends to obey."''

* AndIMustScream: Which is worse? Having your mind shattered from an eternity of imprisonment or having your consciousness trapped in this being's vortex of madness with no real physical form of your own?
* BodyHorror: Not only does he look nasty himself, but his ultimate, Infest, involves him burrowing into the target and lying dormant. At any point, N'aix may jump out, killing his host instantly if they are a creep.
* TheBerserker: ''Rage''
* CannibalismSuperpower: His second skill, Feast.
* ChainedByFashion: In addition to the symbolism of not being truly free.
* ChestBurster: He can burst out of a unit through Consume after infesting it and the icon for the skill even resembles the ones from ''Franchise/{{Alien}}''.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Punishment for thievery and deception? An immortal lifetime of suffering.
* DoubleEntendre: Players will often use his ult as a "come inside me" joke.
* EvilIsVisceral
* ExtremeOmnivore: He doesn't feed just on flesh, he feeds on anything alive. This includes [[PlantPerson trees]], [[RockMonster giant golems]], ethereal beings, and just about anything else.
* GrandTheftMe: Of a sort, the wizard now shares a body with N'aix, although he originally intended to steal the body outright.
* HorrorHunger: Feast
* IDieFree: Referenced in some of his dying responses and even said in verbatim.
* ImAHumanitarian
* KingMook
* LudicrousGibs: Any non-hero unit consumed by N'aix explodes violently, splattering blood in a radius of a dozen meters. The explosion is so powerful it [[BloodyMurder damages enemies in a huge radius]].
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: Just look at him.
* NoSell: His Rage ability, becoming completely immune to magic.

[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/abaddon_1930.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/b/bd/Abad_begin_02.mp3 "The fog of war is no match for the mist of fate."]]-] ]]
!!Abaddon, the Lord of Avernus

''"The Font of Avernus is the source of a family's strength, a crack in primal stones from which vapors of prophetic power have issued for generations. Each newborn of the cavernous House Avernus is bathed in the black mist, and by this baptism they are given an innate connection to the mystic energies of the land. They grow up believing themselves fierce protectors of their lineal traditions, the customs of the realm--but what they really are protecting is the Font itself. And the motives of the mist are unclear.''

''When the infant Abaddon was bathed in the Font, they say something went awry. In the child's eyes there flared a light of comprehension that startled all present and set the sacerdotes to whispering. He was raised with every expectation of following the path all scions of Avernus took--to train in war, that in times of need he might lead the family's army in defense of the ancestral lands. But Abaddon was always one apart. Where others trained with weapons, he bent himself to meditation in the presence of the mist. He drank deep from the vapors that welled from the Font, learning to blend his spirit with the potency that flowed from far beneath the House; he became a creature of the black mist. There was bitterness within the House Avernus--elders and young alike accusing him of neglecting his responsibilities. But all such accusations stopped when Abaddon rode into battle, and they saw how the powers of the mist had given him mastery over life and death beyond those of any lord the House had ever known."''

* AchillesHeel: Borrowed Time can be penetrated with Axe's ultimate so long as Abaddon's HP meets the threshold for Culling Blade's instant kill - or skipped by a single attack that gets him from over 400 hp to zero.
* BarrierWarrior: Abaddon's second ability, ''Aphotic Shield'', prevents damage to himself or an ally for a short duration, or until it absorbs a certain amount of damage, at which point it bursts, sending that damage back at the attackers.
** AttackReflector
** DeflectorShields
* BlackKnight: Has the look going for him.
* BlueBlood: Notable in some of his quotes.
* CarryABigStick: He received a large mace as an immortal item from the TI3 Compendium. It changes the particle effects on his Aphotic Shield.
* CastFromHitPoints: His first ability, ''Mist Coil'', can either heal allies or damage enemies, at the cost of half of that amount to Abaddon's HP. Furthermore, unlike most other self-damage abilities, this can actually kill Abaddon if his health is below the cost of the spell, so [[TooDumbToLive stupid players can accidentally kill themselves]], or [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled smart players can deny themselves to prevent the enemy from gaining XP or gold from killing them]].
* CoolHorse
* EnergyAbsorption: Abaddon's ultimate, ''Borrowed Time'', turns any damage that Abaddon takes during its duration into healing instead. If timed properly and used against the proper enemies, it can bring Abaddon from near-death up to full health in a matter of seconds.
* Expy: He reminds people of the Nazgûl from ''LordOfTheRings''. He's also been compared to [[WorldOfWarcraft the Lich King]], which is ironic considering pre-Lich King Arthas was his character model and voice in Warcraft 3 DOTA.
* JackOfAllStats: Depending on his item build, Abaddon can fulfill just about any role on a team, acting as a support, tank, or carry with his versatile and adaptable skill build.
** StoneWall: Even when not building specifically to tank, Abaddon can be a beast to take down thanks his damage-absorbing shield and automatically-triggered invulnerability spell that also turns any damage he takes into health.
* MeaningfulName: Abaddon's name means "The Destroyer" in Hebrew, and is the name of an angel thought to come from the Abyss. Avernus is the name of the crater that is the entrance to hell in [[Literature/TheAeneid the Aeneid]].
** Avernus also means "Void" or "Abyss" in latin.
* MountedCombat
* MysteriousMist: Abbadon's elemental and magical motif seems to be mist.
* TheSacredDarkness: The Font of Avernus manifests itself as thick, black mist, and turned Abaddon into "a creature of the black mist", giving him a dark, ghastly appearance. However, the powers given to him by the Font can be used to heal his allies as well as harm his foes.
* SoftspokenSadist: Compared to most other heroes, many who verge on [[LargeHam Large Hams]], Abbadon is surprisingly reserved in both tone and voice. He rarely yells, and his voice is soft and wispy.
* VampiricDraining: His passive, ''Curse of Avernus'', slows the movement and attack speed of any enemy he attacks, while simultaneously buffing that of any allies who right-click the target.

[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Lycanthrope_5683.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/5/5a/Lycan_death_05.mp3 "Was I a wolf who dreamed he was a man?"]]-] ]]
!!Banehallow, the Lycanthrope

''"Banehallow was noble-born to the house of Ambry, the greatest of the landed castes in the old kingdom of Slom. Before the Fall, as the King’s wants grew strange, and his court grew crowded with sorcerers and charlatans, the house of Ambry was the first to rise against the avarice of the throne. No longer willing to pay homage and fealty, they instead sent six-thousand swords into the capital, where they were wiped out in the Massacre of the Apostates. And then came the teeth behind the old truth: When you strike a king’s neck, you had better take his head. Enraged by the betrayal, the king exterminated the vast Ambry bloodline, sparing only the lord of the house and his youngest son, Banehallow. Before all the royal court, with the disgraced lord chained to the ornate marble floor, the King bade his magicians transform the boy into a wolf so that he might tear out his own father’s throat. “Do this,” the king said, “so that Lord Ambry will understand the bite of betrayal.” Powerful magic was invoked, and the child was transformed. But though his body was changed, his spirit remained intact, and instead of biting the exposed neck of his father, he attacked his handlers, tearing them to pieces. A dozen of the King’s knights perished under the wolf’s teeth before they managed to drive it off into the night. Lord Ambry laughed from his chains even as the King ran him through with a sword. Now the heir to the lost house of Ambry, Banehallow wanders the trail as the Lycan, part warrior, part wolf, in search of justice for all that he lost."''

* AntiVillain: Other than being pretty rude, there's nothing really villainous about him.
* AwesomeMcCoolname: ''Banehallow von Ambry''.
* BadassBeard
* BalefulPolymorph: Subverted. This was the intention of the spell which made him a lycanthrope, but he used it instead to kill a number of his captors. He has since accepted and embraced his feral nature.
* BigBadassWolf
* EverythingsWorseWithWolves
* EvilCounterpart: Of Lone Druid. Both of them can summon animals to help them, have abilities that increase their attack speed and damage, and use their ultimates to transform into animal {{Super Mode}}s. However, while Banehallow is a LightningBruiser without much armor or survivability, Syllabear is a MightyGlacier without much in the way of speed, Ironically Banehallow is a Strength hero and Syllabear is an Agility hero.
* {{Familiar}}: His summoned wolves.
* HuskyRusskie: Invoked with his voice actor's FakeRussian accent.
* {{Invisibility}}: His summoned wolves at level 4.
* LightningBruiser: His wolf form lets him run at the maximum move speed possible, and can't be slowed while in it.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast
* NaturalWeapon: His claws in wolf form. He does appear to have claws in human form, but doesn't use them.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Almost entirely wolf when in wolf form. Appears to have burning embers on his mane.
* ShoutOut: To the {{Literature/Twilight}} fandom.
--> '''Lycan:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/0/03/Lycan_death_11.mp3 "I thought you were team Yakov!"]]
* TheBeastmaster Summon Wolves.
* TheRival: To Lone Druid.
--> '''Lycan (killing Lone Druid)''': [[http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/2/29/Lycan_rival_05.mp3 "Bears are no match for the cunning of wolves."]]
* SummonMagic: Summon Wolves
* SuperMode: Shapeshift
* {{Unishment}}: He was [[CursedWithAwesome cursed]] to become a wolf to kill his father but it has GoneHorriblyRight and he turned against his handlers.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: His ultimate, Shapeshift.
* WolverineClaws: His means of attack when not in wolf form.
* WolvesAlwaysHowlAtTheMoon: His second skill, Howl.

[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Magnus_6314.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/9/94/Magn_rare_05.mp3 "I tell you what. You touch my horn, I break your face."]]-] ]]
!!Magnus, the Magnoceros

''"The master-smiths of Mt. Joerlak agree on only a single point: that the horn of a magnoceros is more precious than any alloy. And of all such horns, the largest and sharpest belongs to the beast they call Magnus. For half a generation, Magnus took easy sport goring hunters come to claim the treasures of his kin. Each time he would return to his cave with hooves and horns stained red, until his Matriarch urged him and all their kin to seek refuge to the north beyond the shadow of the mountain. But Magnus scoffed, having never failed to defend his people. The magnoceri would stay, he decided, for a magnoceros does not believe in chance... nor does it ever change its mind. But when Mt. Joerlak erupted without warning, and half his kin perished in the fire and ash, Magnus changed his mind after all. The survivors pushed north, until they reached a blockade watched over by a hundred hunters armed with bow and steel. Magnus expected no less. He led his fiercest brothers and sisters in a charge against their enemies, and fought with a ferocity matched only by the fire-spewing mountain at his back. Meanwhile the magnoceros elders, mothers, and calves vanished into the drifts. The master-smiths are divided about what happened next. Some say Magnus reunited with his kin, while others claim he suffered mortal injuries and expired alongside the body of his Matriarch. Neither theory is correct. Magnus did vow to rejoin his kin...but only after seeking out those responsible for the eruption of Mt. Joerlak and watching them die upon his horn, for a magnoceros does not believe in chance."''

* AntiVillain: Despite belonging to the Dire he's much more likable than his [[EvilCounterpart Good Counterpart]] [[CreepyGood Centaur Warrunner]].
* BerserkButton: Don't touch his horn.
* BladeOnAStick
* DynamicEntry
* EvilPoacher: Those who hunt his people for their horns.
* FakeSpecialAttack: ''Reverse Polarity'' has a relatively long cast time and an easily distinguishable visual effect, allowing Magnus players to fake it by interrupting the animation.
* HornAttack
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: His third skill, Skewer.
* [[OurCentaursAreDifferent Our Magnataurs Are Different]]: In the original Dota Magnus was a member of the {{VideoGame/Warcraft}} race called magnataurs, which can best be described as a mix between a wooly mammoth and a centaur. To avoid legal issues he is now a centauroid rhinoceros.
* PrehistoricMonster: He has many traits of elasmotheres and wooly rhinoceroses in his design.
* ReversePolarity: Used as the name for his ultimate.
* RhinoRampage
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge
* SphereOfDestruction: ''Reverse Polarity'' appears a huge collapsing sphere moments before it goes off.
* [[VigilanteMan Vigilante Magnoceros]]

[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sand_king_3863.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/e/e5/Skg_invis_02.mp3 "I am King of the Invisible Realm..."]]-] ]]
!!Crixalis, the Sand King

''"The sands of the Scintillant Waste are alive and sentient--the whole vast desert speaks to itself, thinking thoughts only such a vastness can conceive. But when it needs must find a form to communicate with those of more limited scope, it frees a fragment of itself, and fills a carapace of magic armor formed by the cunning Djinn of Qaldin. This essential identity calls itself Crixalis, meaning 'Soul of the Sand,' but others know it as Sandking. Sandking takes the form of a huge arachnid, inspired by the Scintillant Waste's small but ubiquitous denizens; and this is a true outward expression of his ferocious nature. Guardian, warrior, ambassador--Sandking is all of these things, inseparable from the endless desert that gave him life."''

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith[=/=]RemoteBody
* BigCreepyCrawlies
* BewareMyStingerTail
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: As the physical manifestation of a sentient desert, he as a negative view towards greenery and vegetation.
* ChargedAttack: Epicenter needs to channel for a few seconds before activating.
* DishingOutDirt
* DynamicEntry: ''Burrowstrike'' moves him underground as well as stuns all enemies in the way.
** FastTunnelling
* GeniusLoci: The Scintillant Waste that uses him as a RemoteBody.

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Victims of ''Burrowstrike''.
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily
* OurGeniesAreDifferent: The Djinn of Qaldin mentioned in his BackStory.
* PoisonousPerson: With his ''Caustic Finale''.
* QuicksandSucks: ''Epicenter'', which damages and slows enemies. From its description...
--> ''Many an explorer was lost to the quicksands of the Scintillant Waste.''
* ScaryScorpions
* ShoutOut: To TheScorpionKing.
* SmokeOut: ''Sand Storm'''s most common use (especially after a buff that gave it guaranteed 2 seconds of invisibility), although it uses a cloud of sand.
* WeatherOfWar: ''Sand Storm'' continually deals damage to anyone inside it.
* WhyAmITicking: ''Causic Finale'' turns the enemies into walking bombs, detonating on death.
* WolverinePublicity: Especially in the original DotA, Sand King's ultimate, Epicenter, was one of the most iconic spells in the game (along with Juggernaut's Omnislash).

[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Skeleton_King_7793.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/0/01/Skel_kill_02.mp3 "Your tongue makes debts my sword collects!"]]-] ]]
!!Ostarion, the Skeleton King

''"The victim of a longevity spell that backfired, the Skeleton King Ostarion, has built an empire from the bones of his enemies. He lives only to extend his reach, for as long as he is perpetually building and adding to his domain he cannot die. The walls of his palace are formed of fired bone; the streets are paved with bones of every sort of creature and every enemy; and even the wood and other natural features of his land have been swept away and replaced with replicas formed of bone. From the Ivory Forest to the Ostarion's towering Throne of Bone, nothing happens in the Empire of Bones without the full of knowledge of its Skeleton King."''

* AutoRevive: His signature ability ''Reincarnation'', as long as he has mana for it.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking
* BackFromTheDead[=/=]BlessedWithSuck[=/=]CameBackWrong
* BadassCape: A torn one.
* {{BFS}}
** One of the unlockables gives him an [[UpToEleven even bigger sword]] broken in half.
* BoringButPractical: Before patch 6.78, he had only one active skill and was basically "baby's first carry," often resulting in jokes that Skeleton King players only need two fingers to play the hero. He's since then had a second (optional) active skill which retains its passive, for players who want to play more strategically.
* CurseCutShort
--> '''Skeleton King failing to kill a hero:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/8/8b/Skel_ability_failure_03.mp3 ''Son of a…'']]
* CursedWithAwesome
* DemBones
* EvilOverlord
* FireballEyeballs
* ForMassiveDamage
* GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath
* HellFire: Hellfire Blast
* LikeABadassOutOfHell: Ostarion calls on his hellish lineage when casting Hellfire Blast.
* MeaningfulName: His name is derived from the greek work for bone, "osteon".
* ResurrectiveImmortality: His ultimate, ''Reincarnation''.
* SceneryGorn[=/=]{{Shadowland}}: His kingdom is described as being made of bones.
* ShouldersOfDoom: He has a shoulder guard on [[FashionableAsymmetry his right shoulder]].
* ShoutOut: To a {{VideoGame/Diablo}} character. In the original [=DotA=] his name was King Leoric.
* SublimeRhyme: He sits upon his Throne of Bone.
* TakingYouWithMe: Setting off ''Reincarnation'' drastically slows the enemies around Skeleton King, so suicide attacks are a common way to initiate a teamfight.
* TestosteronePoisoning: Alongside Axe, he's considered the manliest hero in Dota.
* TheMario: Although he doesn't excel in any one area, he's a good all-around carry and can be built in a variety of ways.
* TinTyrant: His "low violence" skin. Players are already requesting to make this available as a cosmetic item for the global version as well.
* UnholyMatrimony: [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/2/28/Skel_killspecial_11.mp3 He's attracted]] [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/d/d4/Skel_killspecial_10.mp3 to Queen of Pain]]. It's not clear if [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/8/85/Pain_rival_12.mp3 she feels the same way]] [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/8/83/Pain_rival_14.mp3 or not]].
* UnskilledButStrong: His skill set is pretty simple compared to most heroes, but he compensates.
* VampiricDraining: Vampiric Aura, for being a [[LifeDrain lifesteal]] ability. As of 6.78, he can also temporarily steal his enemy's hitpoints with ''Mortal Strike''.
* WhyWontYouDie?: At level 16, Skeleton King's ultimate will only have a cooldown of one minute. Combined with a Refresher Orb and an Aegis of the Immortal, this means that a lucky Skeleton King can revive four times in quick succession.

[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Slardar_1739.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/c/cd/Slar_longdistance_01.mp3 "I cross the world to take you down."]]-] ]]
!!Slardar, the Slithereen Guard

''"Slardar is a Slithereen, one of the Deep Ones, guardian of the great wealth of sunken cities and the ancient wealth buried there. In the lightless gulf of the great ocean abysses, the Slithereen Guard carries his lure-light with him through the secret treasure rooms. Subaqueous thieves (sent into the deeps by covetous dryland sorcerers) are drawn in by its friendly glow, never to return. He is utterly loyal, and his taciturn nature hides deep knowledge of the most secret places of the sea. He rises to the shallows in spite of the pain caused him by brightness, to commit reconnaissance, to make sure no one is conspiring against the depths, and sometimes in relentless pursuit of the rare few who manage to steal off with an item from the Sunken Treasury. Because he has spent his whole life at great pressure, under tremendous weight of the sea, Slardar the Slithereen Guard is a creature of great power."''

* AlluringAnglerfish: His model in Dota 2 is based on this fish.
-->'''Slardar:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/8/8b/Slar_level_02.mp3 My lure brightens!]]
* ArchEnemy: It isn't mentioned at all in his backstory, but his Amplify Damage lines suggest he ''really'' hates Riki.
* ArmorPiercingAttack: Amplify Damage reduces armour.
* BizarreSexualDimorphism: He is of the same species as Naga, although they look very different.
* CarryABigStick: His WeaponOfChoice, made in the shape of blunted ProngsOfPoseidon.
* FishPeople: His race.
* LightningBruiser: Frighteningly fast with Sprint active, albeit at the cost of taking more damage.
* MacGuffinGuardian: His purpose in life is to guard the treasures of the deep, as well as chasing down the occasional thief who manages to make off with some of it.
* MakingASplash
* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: He is overall mer-shaped in appearance. The Pirate Captain Announcer even mistakes him for one.
* RandomNumberGod: ''Bash''.
* RedEyesTakeWarning
* ShoutOut: To the CthulhuMythos
** He is one of the [[TheShadowOverInnsmouth Deep Ones]]
** As he dies and respawns he may say, "That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons death may die."
* SuperPersistentPredator: Slardar is known for never letting thieves escape. Ever. No matter how far he may have to chase them. Within the gameplay itself, Amplify Damage reveals the player for a time period, and his other skills make him an excellent chaser.
-->'''Slardar (after a long chase)''': [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/c/cd/Slar_longdistance_01.mp3 I cross the world to take you down.]]

[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Tidehunter_2452.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/e/e6/Tide_firstblood_01.mp3 "Blood in the water, time to feed!"]]-] ]]
!!Leviathan, the Tidehunter

''"The Tidehunter known as Leviathan was once the champion of the Sunken Isles, but his motives are as mysterious as those of his people. We all know the importance of the Drylanders' shipping lanes, how empires may rise and fall according to who controls the open water. Far less is known of the submarine lanes, and how the warring tribes of the Meranthic Disapora have carved out habitations through endless undersea skirmishes. In the fragile treaties between the Mer and Men, we can glimpse the extent of the drowned empires, but their politics appear complex and opaque. It would seem that Leviathan tired of such petty strife, and set off on his own, loyal only to his abyssal god, Maelrawn the Tentacular. He stalks the shallows now in search of men or meranths who stray into his path, and with a particular loathing for Admiral Kunkka, who has long been his nemesis for reasons lost in the deepest trenches of the sea."''

* AnchorsAway: He smashes people with an anchor.
* ArchEnemy: He and Kunkka hate each other's guts. Taken UpToEleven by Tidehunter in which his responses for killing rivals are almost all about Kunkka, even though he killed someone else.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Tidehunter's motives for interfering into the fight between [[FourStarBadass Kunkka's]] and [[TheLegionsOfHell Demons of the Cataract's]] fleets and destroying both are unknown.
* BuffySpeak
* CombatTentacles: ''Ravage'' summons a wave of tentacles that damage and stun everything in their path.
* EldritchAbomination: Maelrawn the Tentacular.
* FishPeople
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Happens to enemy units hit by Ravage through tentacles.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Tidehunter uses a discarded anchor as a primary weapon, which can deal decent [=AoE=] damage and reduce enemy damage in a specific radius.
* LimitBreak: His passive ability Kraken Shell is activated by taking some damage, and grants a free instant [[StatusBuffDispel debuff dispel]].
* MakingASplash: His Gush spell especially.
* MightyGlacier: With Kraken Shell, he becomes very tough to kill.
* NounVerber
* KrakenAndLeviathan: Maelrawn, judging from his title as "the Tentacular", might be a kraken in contrast to Leviathan. One of Leviathan's skills is also called as Kraken Shell.
* {{Revenge}}: [[NoodleIncident For unknown reasons]], Leviathan has made it his mission in life to kill Admiral Kunkka.
* SerialEscalation: His responses for gaining levels which are about him wanting to eat something, beginning with a plankton and ending with a [[StockDinosaurs plesiosaur]].
--> '''Lvl 25 Tidehunter:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/1/18/Tide_level_25.mp3 ''I'm stuffed!'']]
* SayMyName: [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/5/55/Tide_rival_04.mp3 KUNKAAAAAAAAAAAA!]]
* SummonMagic: ''Ravage'' summons an EldritchAbomination that stuns every player in a large area.
* TheJuggernaut: Kraken Shell purges any stuns and disables except Faceless Void's Chronosphere, so his ultimate is nigh-impossible to prevent even with chain-stuns.
* ThreateningShark: He is one, [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment and can wield some accessories made out of sharks]], too!
** SharkMan
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: With the Kraken Shell.

''"Banehallow was noble-born to the house of Ambry, the greatest of the landed castes in the old kingdom of Slom. Before the Fall, as the King’s wants grew strange, and his court grew crowded with sorcerers and charlatans, the house of Ambry was the first to rise against the avarice of the throne. No longer willing to pay homage and fealty, they instead sent six-thousand swords into the capital, where they were wiped out in the Massacre of the Apostates. And then came the teeth behind the old truth: When you strike a king’s neck, you had better take his head. Enraged by the betrayal, the king exterminated the vast Ambry bloodline, sparing only the lord of the house and his youngest son, Banehallow. Before all the royal court, with the disgraced lord chained to the ornate marble floor, the King bade his magicians transform the boy into a wolf so that he might tear out his own father’s throat. “Do this,” the king said, “so that Lord Ambry will understand the bite of betrayal.” Powerful magic was invoked, and the child was transformed. But though his body was changed, his spirit remained intact, and instead of biting the exposed neck of his father, he attacked his handlers, tearing them to pieces. A dozen of the King’s knights perished under the wolf’s teeth before they managed to drive it off into the night. Lord Ambry laughed from his chains even as the King ran him through with a sword. Now the heir to the lost house of Ambry, Banehallow wanders the trail as the Lycan, part warrior, part wolf, in search of justice for all that he lost."''

* WeakenedByTheLight: During the daytime, all of Night Stalker's active abilities are only half as effective, and his passive does nothing at all. Additionally, he has the shortest sight range of any hero during the daytime.

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Belongs to the Oglodi, which also includes Disruptor, Warlock, and Life Stealer.

** Also, according to some hero responses, that ''thing'' was once [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy an Oglodi]].

''"He that burns and is not consumed, devours and is never sated, kills and is beyond all judgment—Lucifer brings doom to all who would stand against him. Bearing away souls on the tip of a fiery sword, he is the Fallen One, a once-favored general from the realm behind the light, cast out for the sin of defiance: he would not kneel. Six times his name was tolled from the great bell of Vashundol. Six and sixty times his wings were branded, until only smoking stumps remained. Without wings, he slipped loose from the tethers that bound him within the light and he fell screaming to earth. A crater in the desert, Paradise lost. Now he attacks without mercy, without motive, the only living being able to move freely between the seven dark dominions. Lashed by inescapable needs, twisted by unimaginable talents, Doom carries his own hell with him wherever he goes. Defiant to the last. Eventually, the world will belong to Doom."''

* DifficultbutAwesome: His 3rd skill, LVL? Death is potentially one of the most powerful nukes in the game, rivaling Lina's Laguna Blade and Lion's Finger of Death for sheer power in late game, has a mini-stun and is spamable, the catch? It requires you to use it on the right leveled opponents. In order to properly time it, you have to level it based on ''how fast the enemy is leveling''. Doing so incorrectly gets you an spell about as powerful as one autoattack, doing so correctly gets you over 25% of your target's hp in damage and stops channelled spells.

* EvilCounterpart: Of Lone Druid. Both of them can summon animals to help them, have abilities that increase their attack speed and damage, and use their ultimates to transform into animal {{Super Mode}}s. However, while Banehallow is a LightningBruiser without much armor or survivability, Syllabear is more well-rounded.

* WhyWontYouDie?: At level 16, Skeleton King's ultimate will only have a cooldown of one minute. Combined with a Refresher Orb and an Aegis of the Immortal, this means that a lucky Skeleton King can revive four times after being killed.

* DifficultYetAwesome: His 3rd skill, LVL? Death is potentially one of the most powerful nukes in the game, rivaling Lina's Laguna Blade and Lion's Finger of Death for sheer power in late game, has a mini-stun and is spamable, the catch? It requires you to use it on the right leveled opponents. In order to properly time it, you have to level it based on ''how fast the enemy is leveling''. Doing so incorrectly gets you an spell about as powerful as one autoattack, doing so correctly gets you over 25% of your target's hp in damage and stops channelled spells.

* ItemCaddy: He's not quite up to par with some of the other farm-heavy carries like Alchemist or Nature's Prophet, but his high Strength in the early game means that he can clear tough camps from level one by abusing ''Devour''. A very common build for him includes the expensive item Radiance, which stacks with ''Scorched Earth'' and ''Doom'' to deal constant damage over time.

* MightyGlacier: Doom's extremely low base Agility and growth means that unless he stacks loads of attack speed items, he's going to be hitting very slowly. This also means that he has very little base armor and thus, despite his huge Strength growth, he's quite easily brought down without any armor items. But the key to playing Doom is to abuse ''Devour'' to farm an early Hand of Midas, and then use the two in conjunction to accelerate your farm and get lots of powerful items faster than most other heroes (besides Alchemist) can. Once he has enough armor, he's nearly impossible to bring down without resorting to magic nukes, which purchasing a Black King Bar can easily nullify.

** If Doom gets an Aghanim's Scepter, not only does the damage over time increase, ''the timer won't count down as long as Doom is standing nearby''. This makes Doom all the more scary since the damage over time is usually already enough to severely weaken most heroes, stopping the clock threatens even the tankiest heroes with death even if they were Doomed at full health.

* FanNickname: Space Cow.

This is part of the [[{{Characters/Dota2}} character sheet]] for {{Dota 2}}. This page contains all '''Dire Strength''' heroes.