History Characters / Dota2DireStrength

[[center: [- Radiant - [[Characters/Dota2RadiantStrength Strength]] | [[Characters/Dota2RadiantAgility Agility]] | [[Characters/Dota2RadiantIntelligence Intelligence]]-] ]]
[[center: [- Dire - '''Strength''' | [[Characters/Dota2DireAgility Agility]] | [[Characters/Dota2DireIntelligence Intelligence]]-] ]]

* AwesomeButImpractical: One of his cosmetic items is a bizarre combination between a three-section staff and, well, an axe. Its description notes that it's very dangerous -- to its wielder and his enemies alike.

** With Aghanim's Scepter, he could delay the death of his allies and himself.

* DemBones: His former model was an animated skeleton.
** FireballEyeballs
** GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath
** HellFire: ''Wraithfire Blast'' used to be ''Hellfire Blast'', which seared an enemy with hellfire instead of spectral fire.

* TheLeader: When played right, Wraith King is both a very dangerous foe himself, and a ''Massive'' threat with a team, He specializes in fighting alongside other physical-damage dealers, and leading the charge, dying, walking it off, then leading the charge again anyway, especially with his Aghanim's scepter, personality wise, he fits the Charismatic and Headstrong archetypes.

* SelfDestructiveCharge: Wraith King players sometimes intentionally pull this off, chasing an enemy futilely to their own deaths [[AllPartOfThePlan to slow them with his ultimate]] and let his team catch up to the enemy.

* TakingYouWithMe: Setting off ''Reincarnation'' drastically slows the enemies around Wraith King, so suicide attacks are a common way to initiate a team fight.
** With the Aghanim's Scepter, he and his allies can attack and potentially kill their killer.

* ParanoiaFuel: There's ''no'' way to tell whether that jungle creep you're farming has a Lifestealer in it or not. Or that support you think is all alone, or that lane creep you're lasting hitting. Or the one that's ''supposed to be on your side''.

** Illusion based heroes are also a problem for Doom, but Morphling is his biggest counter. Morphling's illusions take normal damage and can easily fool an enemy Doom since he can replicate anybody of his team to bait the ultimate. Not only that, but Morphling players commonly buy Linken's Sphere, making even more difficult to Doom since he has to worry about the Linkens and if the opponent in question is either real or just another Morphling replicate.

* CrosshairAware: Allies of Spirit Breaker (and he himself) can see a zodiac Taurus symbol over the ''Charge of Darkness'' target.
** Before the 6.75 patch the target was also alerted about the charge via StatusBuff icon roughly 4 seconds before impact.

* 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. He's capable of solo-killing most other heroes in the game, especially if he catches them far from their teammates. 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 for ''Greater Bash'' and ''Nether Strike'' also makes him little more than a melee-range disabler against anyone with spell 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.

* TheMinionMaster: ''Necronomicon'' is often considered core item for Lycan. The thing is, with the Necronomicon minions, his wolves and damage buff from ''Howl'', Lycan is one of (if not the only) the heroes who can lay siege on a tower without any friendly creeps nearby, and actually outdamage the tower's backdoor protection regen rate.

* ZergRush: Despite being extremely powerful illusions, Chaos Knight's ''Phantasm'' Illusions are also very numerous at maximum level, only out-matched in number by Phantom Lancer's horde.

* FixedDamageAttack: ''LVL? Death'' is capable of shaving off more than a fifth of its target's maximum health bar if it meets the level requirement (the target's level is a multiple of whatever level the skill is at).

* LightningBruiser: Slardar can move extremely fast with ''Sprint'', and his other skills make him one of the most powerful 1v1 heroes in the game.

* WhyWontYouDie?: At level 16, Wraith King's ultimate will only have a cooldown of ''one minute''. Combined with an Aegis of the Immortal, this means that a lucky Wraith King can revive three times (or more) in quick succession. Additionally, being a Strength hero (meaning very high HP) who already has a passive crit and lifesteal (which stacks with lifesteal from items), he's capable of regenerating absurd amounts of HP even in the middle of a teamfight, making him hard to bring down even without factoring in his ulti.

[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/e/e5/Skg_invis_02.mp3 "I am King of the Invisible Realm..."]]-] ]]

[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/1/1b/Doom_kill_10.mp3 "You'll wake in lowest hell."]]-] ]]

[[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."]]-] ]]

Axe is typically played as an initator, and a semi carry that can lane almost anywhere, and even jungle. He is quite the force to be reckoned with early and lategame, and if he snowballs enough, he can carry the game. Lategame, his usefulness diminishes and he goes from semi-carry, to more of a supporting role. His role if the game reaches that point is providing an AOE 3.2 second disable that forces the enemy team to attack him, and initate a teamfight for his team.

* FragileSpeedster[=/=]GlassCannon: His wolves max out at 320 health, comparable to ranged creeps. On the other hand, they're also extremely fast, hit fairly hard, have a crit, and are under the effects of ''Feral Impulse'' and often ''Howl'' letting them do outrageous damage, but still easily wiped off the map with a few autoattacks. It's worth noting however, that the Wolves have significant magic resistance, making them nigh-invulnerable against spells.

* NoSell: ''Tombstone'' zombies are immune to magic, preventing them from being easily wiped out by area nukes.

* TheBerserker: One way to play abaddon, [[SkillGateCharacter which works suprisingly well in lower levels]] is to suicidally charge into the enemy with Mask of Madness and possibly Armlet of Mordiggian on, relying on how ''Borrowed Time'' makes you very difficult to kill.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Pudge was strange in Patch 4.00 - 5.xx, because he was more of an EnemySummoner instead of what he is today. He has ''Stitch'' which revive a dead unit, ''Cannibalize'' which restore health over time when devouring a corpse, ''Neurogenesis'' which spawn a dead unit near Pudge, ranging from a Ghoul, to a Rifleman, to a Huntress, and finally '''Tauren'''. His ultimate was ''Carrion Flies'' which spawns a carrion fly that can spawn another one. They were fragile but very evasive.

Sand King is a Initiator with some supporting elements, in early game, sand king often attempts to use his ''Epicenter'' to secure ganks on single heroes through it's raw damage output and slow, as well as farm jungles and creeps with ''Sand Storm'' all in order to build up the gold needed for a ''Blink Dagger'' for the mid-game, at which point his role is to win teamfights for his team through the use of his high aoe damage output, thanks to an entire skillset comprising of area of effect damage of various forms, such as ''Burrowstrike'', an linear nuke where Sand King rushes underground and stuns anyone between where he was, and where he now is, ''Sand Storm'' which deals low damage over a large area of effect for an extremely long duration while Sand king invisibly channels it, ''Caustic Finale'' which causes every enemy sand king attacks to explode on death, and ''Epicenter'', which has Sand King channel for 2 seconds, before unleashing an rapidly expanding earthquake that deals rapid pulses of damage, enough to kill weaker heroes by itself and cripple all but the most durable ones.

* CombatMedic: A particularly absurd and gruesome example. With Aghanims scepter, Lifestealer gains ''Assimilate'' which lets him bring another hero inside of him, while in this state, any healing he receives, such as his various forms of lifesteal, are also handed to the hero inside, so his method of "healing" is best described as "Shove a heavily wounded person side yourself, then go fight something big".
** ''Open Wounds'' also makes all damage a target take return half that much in health. Putting it on a big, high-health hero about to be focused down equals ''alot'' of healing.

* FragileSpeedster[=/=]GlassCannon: His wolves max out at 320 health, comparable to ranged creeps. On the other hand, they're also extremely fast, hit fairly hard, have a crit, and are under the effects of ''Feral Impulse'' and often ''Howl'' letting them do outrageous damage, but still easily wiped off the map with a few autoattacks.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Abaddon certainly sports the ominous BlackKnight feel and dark powers, but by the end of it, he's more of a neutral entity more concerned on the welfare of his House Avernus rather than making his enemies suffer or flaunting his superiority, and has quite a few compliment voice lines if meeting with other heroes. His gameplay is also by nature self-sacrificing, involving TakingTheBullet, healing others with a CastFromHitPoints ability, leading others into a chase against an enemy, and buying support items such as wards.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Abaddon certainly sports the ominous BlackKnight feel and dark powers, but by the end of it, he's more of a neutral entity more concerned on the welfare of his House Avernus rather than making his enemies suffer or flaunting his superiority, and has quite a few compliment voice lines if meeting with other heroes. He's even capable of playing support and has a possible heal move that involves ''hurting himself''.

** ''Borrowed Time'' itself is also this. Upon triggering, it will remove all debuffs from Abaddon, much like ''Aphotic Shield'' above, and disjoint most projectiles flying at him.

* MonsterKnight[=/=]ScaryTeeth: Though difficult to notice under normal conditions, [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/6/64/Cosmetic_icon_Tarnhelm_of_Ruin.png certain lighting]] shows that Abaddon has a large mouth with nasty, jagged teeth.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething

[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Axe_1454.png]]

* RandomNumberGod: As his name implies, there is a lot of randomness and chaos that comes along with using Chaos Knight. All of his abilities are based on random number rolls, and even his damage spread is the highest in the game! The icon for ''Chaos Strike'', which grants extreme critical damage, is even a twenty sided die.

* ImplacableMan: Tidehunter's passive, ''Kraken Shell'', gives him passive damage block (at max level, it's essentially a free Vanguard) and will remove most debuffs once he takes a certain amount of player damage within a short duration. This includes even stuns (except for ground-targeted ones like Enigma ''Black Hole''), one of the very few abilities that do so, making Tidehunter one of the few heroes in the game that cannot be chain-stunned.

* LifeDrain: ''Vampiric Aura''.

* StoutStrength

** With the Aghanim's Scepter, he and his allies can attack and potential kill their killer.

* TheGreatEscape: Jump into a enemy creep with ''Infest'', ride as far as he goes, then take control and try to make a run for it, if they followed you and figured out which one's real, pop out and activate ''Rage'' and ''Open Wounds'' and either try to take whatever pursuit you have down or simply use the disable-immunity and slow to make a run for it.

Ostarion the Wraith King is a melee hero who can withstand massive damage and quickly recover from his injuries. His narrow but useful skillset means that he can carry a team to victory, or utilize his passive aura and powerful stun to act as a durable support and initiator. His only damaging spell, ''Wraithfire Blast'', has Wraith King hurl a ball of ghostly fire at a foe, damaging and stunning a foe, then slowing them while dealing minor damage over time. The rest of his abilities focus on increasing his damage output and survivability - ''Vampiric Aura'' is an aura that grants nearby allies bonus lifesteal, and ''Mortal Strike'' adds a bonus critical chance to Wraith King's normal attacks. His most powerful and iconic ability is his ultimate, ''Reincarnation.'' If Wraith King has enough mana, he will automatically resurrect after dying, simultaneously slowing every enemy nearby, turning the tables on any pretenders to Wraith King's throne.

* TakingYouWithMe: Setting off ''Reincarnation'' drastically slows the enemies around Wraith King, so suicide attacks are a common way to initiate a teamfight.

[[center: [- [[Characters/Dota2Neutrals Neutrals]] | [[Characters/Dota2NPCs Others]]-] ]]

* TheBerserker: He even has an ability for it: ''Berserker's Call'' forces in-range enemies to attack him.

* 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'', Abaddon's ''Borrowed Time'', and any magic immunity buff won't save the target from death.

* FinishingMove: ''Culling Blade'' will kill any hero below a certain amount of health.

* MightyGlacier: Just with other low-mobility carries in the game, kiting is the bane of Lifestealer. No matter how much damage he can dish out, he is still useless if he keeps getting slowed and is unable to approach his enemies, though ''Infest'' helps this problem somewhat by allowing N'aix to temporarily borrow one of his allies' mobility.

* DefogOfWar: Purchasing an Aghanim's Scepter removes any restrictions on Night Stalker's vision range during the nighttime [[note]]From a technical standpoint, it converts his vision type to that of a flying unit[[/note]], allowing him to see up hills and through trees. His FanNickname due to this is "The Legal Map Hack".

* GameFace

* JackOfAllStats: Because of his skill set (particularly his ability to get bonus XP and gold outside of farming, use any creep ability, and guaranteed put any enemy out of a fight for at least 15 seconds), Doom can be reliably put on any position. His high base damage allows him to mid fairly decently and use the early levels to ''Doom'' enemies extremely early in the game which allow him to snowball, but he can also play as the safe lane hard carry and supplement his gold and XP gain in his team's jungle every time ''Devour'' is off cooldown, or get solo experience in the off lane (also supplementing his gold and XP gain in the enemy's jungle with ''Devour'') and have an escape ability in ''Scorched Earth'', or even roam and support if he consumes a creep with a good disable. Played as a hard carry Doom can stand in the middle of teamfights and beat the enemy down with his gold advantage, and played as a utility support he can easily farm up the support items his team needs and still turn any fight into a 4v5 with his ultimate.

** The only other way to prevent ''Borrowed Time'' from triggering is by casting ''Doom'' on him after purchasing an Aghanim's Scepter. Otherwise, even ''Doom'' (Agh's or not) will heal him once ability is triggered.

* 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]].

* NobleDemon

* SkillGateCharacter: Abaddon works surprisingly well as a carry in pub games: his right-click attack scales fairly well, ''Curse of Avernus'' makes him really hard to run away from, and he's quite tanky as well, especially when everyone has no idea that ''Borrowed Time'' will turn all damage that he takes into healing, causing them to continue to focus him even when ''Borrowed Time'' is active and heal him to full in a second, essentially tripling his effective HP. In high-level games, though, that rarely works well: he is a melee carry with little mobility making him vulnerable to kiting, ''Curse of Avernus'' isn't that good of a steroids (it only gives a flat 40 attack speed bonus, so a Lifestealer with equal farm will out-DPS an Abaddon with ease) and works for everyone on his team, and he needs to spam ''Mist Coil'' and ''Aphotic Shield'' to be effective in a fight but his cast time is slow, leading to consistent interrupts to damage-dealing which is NOT something a carry wants. Because of this, whenever played in professional games, Abaddon is most often played as a position 4 support, buying utility and aura items, healing and protecting his cores with ''Mist Coil'' and ''Aphotic Shield'', providing them with an additional damage steroids in ''Curse of Avernus'' and discouraging the other team to focus him with ''Borrowed Time''.