History Characters / Dota2RadiantStrength

** While never officially confirmed, the dominant theory is that Io is a Strength hero primarily for CompetitiveBalance reasons (so that it doesn't get an attack bonus from items such as Force Staff or Dagon), and to encourage Io players to build strength boosting items, such as Heaven's Halberd and Heart of Tarrasque.

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* TestosteronePoisoning: Sven is here to pump you up! With ''War Cry'' (pumps up your toughness and speed) and upgraded ''God's Strength'' (pumps up your strength).

* CombinationAttack: Tiny's synergy with Io is worth noting: ''Tether'' combined with a Bottle solves his mana problems, allowing him to spam ''Toss'' to farm the jungle, and also helps his mobility, while ''Relocate'' allows him to gank globally every minute and snowball, making Tiny come online much earlier than he normally would. The trade-off is, Tiny is just inferior to other carries without Io, and in professional games he is almost never picked without an allied Io, and is only banned when the enemy team has already picked Io.

* SimpleYetAwesome: Dragon Knight is a very simple strength carry, who nonetheless is potent throughout most stages of the game.
** Valve themselves picked up on this, and Dragon Knight is used in the new tutorial system to introduce players to Dota.

* AchillesHeel: Gold, Omniknight is both extremely farm-dependant and all but incapable of actually ''getting'' that farm thanks to being a StoneWall who can't even afford the mana to farm with his nuke, in many games, Omniknight comes into his own ''later'' than the Carry he's supporting, but [[MagikarpPower when he does]].

* MagikarpPower: Omniknight is best described as a late game support. ''Degen Aura'' is a scaling percentage, and ''Repel'' and ''Guardian Angel'' are simple flat-out immunities that don't care if the damage they block in question is the 20 damage hit of a simple creep, or the 4-digit crit of a 6-slotted hard carry, it's still zero. Given that his main weakness, Diffusal Blade, has limited and non-replenishable charges, his impact grows more and more notable over time. The trade-off is that he has little lane presence, isn't able to do much outside of babysitting early game, and is very greedy for a support, needing at least Aghanim's Scepter as a core item (without which it's impossible to land a good ''Guardian Angel''), and probably wants an extra ''Refresher Orb'' and ''Octarine Core'' on top of it to boot.

* SquishyWizard: Despite being a Strength hero (who are supposedly renowned for their durability), Wisp has pathetically low base stats and stat growth in all three areas; of all Strength heroes in the game, it has the lowest base Strength (tied with Phoenix) and second-lowest Strength growth, beat out only by Alchemist. On top of all that, it's one of only three Heroes in the game (the others being Phoenix and Visage) that start with '''negative''' base armor. Needless to say, Wisp is very easy to kill if caught without escape.

* DifficultButAwesome: Knowing when to start a ''Duel'' is one of the most important things a Legion Commander needs to know. Done correctly, Tresdin can easily [[ForMassiveDamage double her base attack damage without items]] before the match is over; done poorly, the other team will have gained plenty of free attack damage. As a result, picking targets requires knowing if she will survive the fight, knowing that she will not be targeted by other members of the enemy team in the interim, and whether the enemy can outclass her without spells or items.

* MagikarpPower: Omniknight is best described as a late game support. ''Degen Aura'' is a scaling percentage, and ''Repel'' and ''Guardian Angel'' are simple flat-out immunities that don't care if the damage they block in question is the 20 damage hit of a simple creep, or the 4-digit crit of a 6-slotted hard carry, it's still zero. Given that his main weakness, Diffusal Blade, has limited and non-replenishable charges, his impact grows more and more notable over time. The trade-off is that he has little lane presence, isn't able to do much outside of babysitting early game, and is very greedy for a support, needing at least Aghanim's Scepter as a core item (without which it's impossible to land a good ''Guardian Angel'').

Sven is a melee Strength hero that works well as a Support hero, but can transition into a semi-carry due to his item independence, self-sufficient skills and ability to flash-farm. He boasts a lot of self-buffs that will enhance his incredible strength as he leaps to the enemy ranks and slashing through the enemy heroes, with beefed up stats to deal great damage. His ''Storm Hammer'' is his only ranged skill, where he launches a big magical fist from his gauntlet to a target enemy, stunning the target and anyone on a circular area near the enemy. With his ''Great Cleave'', Sven gains a cleave attack, allowing his normal attacks to damage enemies nearby his target, basically a free Battle Fury or two[[note]]Though Sven can stack a Battle Fury's cleave with his own cleave for a total of 100%.[[/note]], while using his ''Warcry'', has Sven roar out and pumping up his and his allies' armor and movement speed for sturdier advance or escape. Lastly, his ultimate, ''God's Strength'', has Sven channel his strength to incredible levels that he gains a big amount of bonus strength, allowing his normal attacks to deal great damage. Sven is most often seen building Black King Bar, as its spell immunity allows Sven to shove off spells that hinder his movement so he can freely move in and attack anyone in his range with his great strength.

* JackOfAllStats: Tiny starts the game as a squishy nuker/ganker, then becomes a durable, yet fast rightclicker carry, and with Aghanim's Scepter becomes a pusher. The difference from most other heroes is that he doesn't sacrifice any of these roles for the other; his spells scale well into the lategame, augmenting his slow but damaging melee attacks.
* MagicKnight: Tiny relies on his ''Avalanche'' + ''Toss'' combo to deal massive burst damage

** AnIcePerson: And when it's maxed, the level 3 Blue Dragon's attacks also slow enemies' move and attack speed(It also slows in the splash damage radius).

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The original Omniknight, rather than being a defensive StoneWall, was a melee carry with Repel, a heal over time, 750 range (That still counted as melee), and a better version of ''Gods Strength'' called "Divine Retribution" which gave him an extra 225% damage and ''75 armor''. Yes, Omniknight back then was [[CrazyAwesome an insane combination of Sniper and Sven]] of all things.

* ShootTheMedicFirst: Picking Omniknight off before a teamfight is crucial, as his global physical immunity can easily tip the scales of a fight, to say nothing of his nigh-permanent (Actually permanent with Octarine core) BKB he slapped on his carry. Don't kill him and you're in for a bad day.

* ThePowerOfFriendship: Uniquely, Alchemist has the ability to consume an Aghanim's Scepter to grant all of its bonuses to himself or an allied hero, once each, without taking up a slot. It synergises particularly well with someone whose Aghanim's Scepter upgrade is potentially very strong but they either can't afford it or the way their hero plays makes buying it themselves non-optimal. So a support Treant Protector can be given Scepter and starts legally maphacking with ''Eyes in the Forest'', or for Luna who can now drop ''Eclipse'' like Gyrocopter's ''Call Down'' without losing space for Scepter.
** For the character themselves, neither of them would be a match for other heroes by themselves, and it takes using both the Ogre's muscle and Razzil's chemicals to win.

* DefogOfWar: ''Eyes in the Forest'' enchants a tree, granting Treant vision around it, essentially giving him a free ward every 55 seconds that lasts indefinitely.

** ''Repel'' starts off at 6 seconds of spell immunity at level 1, while a BKB starts at 10. But by the late game, BKB's charges can become depleted, dropping down to 5 seconds at its weakest, while ''Repel'' has a 12 second duration and a 14 cooldown (meaning a 2 second downtime).

* DifficultYetAwesome: Actually hitting groups with Storm bolt, thanks to it's fairly slow projectile and unit-targetting requires a fair bit of prediction on which enemies are going where.

* TopHeavyGuy: Tiny's legs aren't that much bigger than a regular hero's, while his upper body is ''massive''. As a result, he has to use his Right hand to steady himself while walking, and when he gets bigger, just standing.
* WeirdBeard: Made of moss.

* MagicKnight: Kunkka has a wide array of powerful magic spells and nukes, but he's also well known for being able to splash absurd amounts of physical damage across the enemy team as well, making him one of the few examples of a Magic Knight who remains strong in both categories throughout a match. His only real limitations are the difficulty of landing his nukes, and his small mana pool.

* CoolSword

* DragonKnight: Natch.

* GradualGrinder: An area slow, high armor, high regeneration, high health, and a very effective stun let him grind away at enemies, but he lacks straight damage boosts.

* MightyGlacier: Dragon Knight is incredibly durable with natural stat growth and ''Dragon Blood'', and can deal quite a punch in teamfights thanks to ''Elder Dragon Form'''s splash damage. However, he has one of the worst movement speeds in the game, which is only somewhat alleviated by ''Elder Dragon Form''.

* WhyWontYouDie: All but the most deadly physical damage dealers find dealing with him a chore, as he has a long-duration stun, ranged slow, and can easily have 75% physical damage resistance with the right items. [[FromBadToWorse and then he gets evasion]].

* BaldOfAwesome: visible at the back of his helmet

* PoweredArmor: Sven's Blue Muscle suit can be considered as one, Powered by manliness

* Bald of Awesome: visible at the back of his helmet
* Powered armor: Sven's Blue Muscle suit can be considered as one, Powered by manliness

* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: He's both the only hero with a shield ''and'' one of, if not the toughest.

* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe

* BloodyMurder: His abilities are attributed to his blood being a volatile substance. It's not yet explained if he releases its power with BloodMagic or simply douses his weapons with it.

* CripplingOverspecialization: The huge DPS that Huskar deals comes at the expense of all utility - there's nothing he could do except what he's designed to do.

* MageKiller: Huskar excels at picking off lone enemy heroes (''Life Break'' + a few ''Burning Spear''s = casualty), especially Intelligence nukers. If ''Berserker's Blood'' is fully upgraded and he's down to his last sliver of health, Huskar has a whopping ''98%'' natural magic resistance, making him essentially immune to nukes. They will still hurt him on full health, but it's extremely hard to actually kill him, especially if they do incremental/ongoing damage. If they don't have a good stun or reasonably strong physical/pure damage they're easy meat basically.

[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/9/93/Drag_rare_01.mp3 "Never make a deal with a dragon, unless you're prepared to keep your end of it.]]-] ]]

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* BladeSpam: With the right items and a fully leveled "Chemical Rage'', Alchemist can let out upwards of ''five attacks a second''.

* ThePowerOfFriendship: Neither of them would be a match for other heroes by themselves, and it takes using both the Ogre's muscle and Razzil's chemicals to win.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Zig-zagged. Sven in the old [=DotA=] was just a solid defender of justice as a backstory and a BoisterousBruiser with "Pumping Up" jokes in his skillset definitions, but he uses the evil [[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Tichondrius]] voice set. In Dota 2, the "Pumping Up" jokes vanish, and he became more rogue-ish, betraying and slaughtering the Vigil Knights because they violated his personal honor of being a HalfHumanHybrid (after learning from them) although he would still follow the conduct of a normal knight. However, his voiceset is decidedly more honorable and knight-like (if rather Rogue-ish). He's also more of a solitary loner than a boisterous guy.

* MagicKnight: Beastmaster has a large array of spells that give him vast amounts of utility (''Wild Axes'', for instance, can be used to cut down trees and stack or kill Ancient camps), and ''Inner Beast'' helps to give his physical damage output some impact. However, he's stronger in the casting department than in the fighting department, moreso since he's very mana-independent (his ''Wild Axes'' and ''Primal Roar'' are the only spells he has the consume large amounts of mana), and ''Inner Beast'' isn't a very strong damage steroids.

* AwesomeButImpractical: ''Eyes in the Forest'' effectively grants Treant Protector a free Observer Ward which never expires unless dewarded every 25 seconds. If the enemy jungle is warded, the damage addition to ''Overgrowth'' will allow him to kill any jungle creeps within range of a tree almost every minute as they spawn, giving him easy 700+ GPM. However, considering Aghanim's Scepter costs a lot for a support, if ever Treant can afford one it is either because he saved from the beginning of the match, did not support his team in not buying wards or any other support item making him a burden for his team, or because it is very late in the match and it is very likely that his team has stomped, or it will not help much as the enemy team could probably destroy the trees with a Gem and Quelling Blade and handle the extra damage.

Timbersaw's odd playstyle revolves around using the forest, but in a way completely different from the Treant- rather than use the forest for help, Timbersaw seeks to destroy every tree in his wake.

Uniquely one of the two ranged Strength heroes, Huskar is about entering into the fight and killing his foes while he is under fire, soaking up as much damage as he can. He is dangerous at the peak of his own life, with his ''Berserker's Blood'' which increases his attack speed and magic resistance, to which he can tank a powerful nuke once he is near death. Huskar can lower his health more quickly to benefit his passive by two of his abilities, ''Burning Spear,'' which burns his health to burn his foes, and ''Life Break,'' where he leaps to any foe and cutting their health by half. Though when he need emergency health, ''Inner Vitality'' can be casted on himself or his allies to give health based on his attributes and gains more health if the hero is under attack by his foes.

While other heroes may specialize in magic spells or physical damage, Alchemist (and his trusty ogre sidekick) focus on gold, and accumulating lots of it. With the ability to farm more efficiently than most other heroes, Alchemist can be played in a variety of ways: he can use his early-game gold potential to quickly snowball an item advantage over the other team and carry his side to victory, or he can see use as a support and an initiator, focussing more on his damaging spells to help his team. With ''Greevil's Greed'', Alchemist gains extra gold for every last hit; granting an additive bonus for every last hit in a period of time. With healthy reserves of gold rolling in, Alchemist can quickly gain a head start in purchasing items- but don't think that he can't also go on the offensive. His main damaging spell, ''Unstable Concoction'', is a powerful but unreliable area-of-effect stun that needs to be charged before it's thrown at an enemy hero. Wait too long, however, and the spell will explode on Alchemist himself, stunning and damaging him. His other damaging spell, ''Acid Spray'', creates a pool of toxic liquid that reduces armor and damages foes who are caught in its radius. His ultimate, ''Chemical Rage'', is a versatile status buff, temporarily kicking many of his base stats into overdrive. With huge bonuses to health regeneration, movement speed, mana regen, and attack speed, Alchemist can unleash the power of alchemy to its fullest.

Brewmaster as the DrunkenMaster, is able to inflict a lot of damage, and take little damage in return. It is the result of several of his abilities, such as ''Drunken Brawler'' which provides both critical damage and evasions. He is able to stop his foes from escaping or fighting efficiently by his ability ''Thunder Clap'' which creates a shockwave around him. He can further improve his evasion by using his ability, ''Drunken Daze,'' which he throws booze to his enemies which slows and debuffed them to cause their attacks to miss. To further make him even trickier to face, how about facing three of him through his ultimate ability, ''Primal Split.'' Under this ability, Brewmaster is split into three different heroes: Earth Spirit, who is tanky and immune to magic and can use ''Boulder'' to stun an enemy and have chance to deal damage in a close radius, Fire Spirit, who is the quickest and a fighter, who burns enemies around him with ''Permanent Immolation,'' and Storm Spirit, the mage who can ''Dispel Magic,'' remove an enemy with ''Cyclone'' and make himself invisible with ''Wind Walk.'' With Aghanim's Sceptor, Earth Spirit inherits ''Thunder Clap,'' Fire Spirit inherits ''Drunken Brawler,'' and Storm Spirit inherits ''Drunken Daze.''

This lovable tree is very protective of his allies and fight to defend them. He can protect his allies by using ''Nature's Guise'' to blend them with the forest and become invisible. As long as they are in the forest, they will remain invisible until the duration ends. He can use it on himself and can use abilities while invisible. He can heal allies and buildings with ''Living Armor'', while blocking some damage from all sources, which dispels when a number of damage are taken. He can attack his enemies with ''Leech Seed'', which slows an enemy unit and drain their health and heals allies around the enemy, and ''Overgrowth'', which summons vine that root all enemies around him, preventing movement, blinking, invisibility, or attacking. If he acquires the Aghanim's Sceptor, he gains the ''Eyes in the Forest'' ability, which enchants a tree which provides vision and if ''Overgrowth'', enemies near the tree are damaged and rooted.

Dragon Knight's durability and strength is rivalled only by a handful of other heroes, and few of them can outfight a well-played Davion on the offensive. Unlike other melee carries who are vulnerable in the early game, Dragon Knight can mitigate this weakness with his passive skill ''Dragon Blood'', giving him a permanent armor boost as well as buff to his natural health regeneration, meaning that he can farm with impunity for much of the early game. His two main damaging spells ''Breathe Fire'' and ''Dragon Tail'' deal magic damage in an area and stun a single target, respectively, but Dragon Knight's real offensive power lies with his ultimate, ''Elder Dragon From''. Activating this spell temporarily turns the knight into a powerful dragon for sixty seconds, temporarily boosting damage and turning his all of his attacks and ''Dragon Tail'' into ranged damage and giving his attacks a temporary attack modifie which transitions from early game pushing power to late game teamfight domainance as he levels the ability, giving Dragon Knight ample time to tear his enemies apart.

Rattletrap is the one-two killing machine. As both an initiator and a ganker, he can get close and start beating his foes like scrap metal and escape without a dent. He is known for isolating his foes with ''Power Cogs'' which summons 8 cogs around him, prevents escaping and pushes away anyone that get close, damaging and draining mana in the process. Cogs take time to destroy, but Clockwork can destroy it in one hit, which also is useful for escaping. He also prevents foes from counterattacking and teleporting away with ''Battery Assault,'' which causes mini-stuns. His ''Rocket Flare'' fires a rocket that damages enemies in the area-of-effect and reveal the area, and enter the fray with his ultimate ability, ''Hookshot,'' which fires a harpoon and if it connects to any unit, friend or foe, he'll fire straight into the area, either to run from an unwinnable fight or to stun and begin beating his foes to be recycling materials.

Omniknight is the support hero. He is a very difficult hero to play as, but can wreck an entire enemy team if he is played competently, or give tremendous support to his team and bringing them victory, even from the brink of defeat. His primary ability, ''Purification,'' both heals his allies and deal pure damage to any enemies within its area-of-effect. His ''Repel'' can be casted to an unit (and himself) a barrier that prevents any abilities from working on him, which can have more duration than the newly-bought Black King Bar. And enemies must beware his two dangerous abilities such as ''Degen Aura'', which slows all foes within Omniknight's range, and ''Guardian Angel,'' which protects all units within his range from physical damage and also increases health regeneration. His Aghanim's Sceptor upgrade affects ''all'' units in the entire map, even creeps and towers.

* AwesomeMcCoolName

Uniquely one of the two ranged Strength heroes, Huskar is about entering into the fight and killing his foes while he is under fire. He is dangerous at the peak of his own life, with his ''Berserker's Blood'' which increases his attack speed and magic resistance, to which he can tank a powerful nuke once he is near death. Huskar can lower his health more quickly to benefit his passive by two of his abilities, ''Burning Spear,'' which burns his health to burn his foes, and ''Life Break,'' where he leaps to any foe and cutting their health by half. Though when he need emergency health, ''Inner Vitality'' can be casted on himself or his allies to give health based on his attributes and gains more health if the hero is under attack by his foes.

Earthshaker is a melee support and initiator hero who flattens his foes with an arsenal of ground-themed nukes and spells. Excelling at area-of-effect damage, his spells suffer from long casting animations but more than make up for it with their raw damage potential and the potential to stun any foe unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of his power. His ''Fissure'' can block off escape routes and knock dangerous foes out of a team fight, while his ''Enchant Totem'' spell will temporarily boost his auto attack damage to finish off any survivors. ''Aftershock'' gives all of his abilities bonus damage and area-of-effect stuns - which synchronizes well with ''Enchant Totem'' - and his ultimate ''Echo Slam'' will deal cumulative bonus damage based on how many enemies are caught in its area of effect. No matter how overwhelming the odds might seem, a good Earthshaker can quickly level any playing field and leave his opponents eating dirt.

Tiny may seem like a weak hero at the beginning of a match, but give him enough time and he'll soon start to throw his weight around. As the game progresses, he bounces from role to role as he levels up; he can push, initiate, gank, or even carry depending on what items he builds and the needs of the team. Boasting a powerful disable and a versatile initiation attack, Tiny can easily stun his foes with ''Avalanche'', then throw a random nearby unit into the mayhem with ''Toss''. Close range attackers will be discouraged by his ''Craggy Exterior'', which has a chance of negating an attack and stunning its source. As the Stone Giant levels his ultimate, ''Grow'', he'll trade in some of his attack speed for bonus movement speed and attack damage, and prove to his opponents that good things can come in small packages.

As both a carry and an initiator, Kunkka strikes a balance between physical prowess and magical offense. Although many of his spells have long cast times and require careful timing and map awareness, good Kunkka players can easily set up teamfights or take a powerful enemy out of commission. ''Tidebringer'', his passive and main source of offensive utility in lane, periodically cleaves on hit, dealing a healthy amount of physical damage to every nearby enemy. His main nuke, ''Torrent'', damages, stuns, and slows any unwary enemy caught in its area of effect when it activates. ''X Marks the Spot'' will drag any enemy hero back to its original position and synchronizes well with his other spells. His most powerful spell, ''Ghost Ship'', will not only damage and stuns any enemies caught in its path, but will also buff the Admiral and any nearby allies by reducing any incoming damage, turning the Admiral and his mates into a fighting force to be reckoned with.

With one of the longest stuns in the game and two unique summons to help him out, Beastmaster excels at staying alive even against the toughest odds. Though his spells may lack the raw damage potential of other heroes, he makes up for it with their strong versatility and support potential; he can frequently set up advantageous situations for his teammates or save an ally. ''Wild Axes'', his main damage-dealing spell, not only damages everything caught in their looping path but can also slice down trees in their path, meaning that Beastmaster can easily cut a path through normally impassible terrain or remove fog of war on the map. ''Call of the Wild'' has two parts; the first part summons a hawk that, while it cannot attack, can provide flying vision to allies and serve as a mobile ward. The second part summons a boar that can fight alongside its master; its normal ranged attack slows enemies. ''Inner Beast'' provides a passive attack speed to every friendly unit in its radius, including his summoned units. His ultimate ''Primal Roar'' deals magical damage and stuns a target for up to four seconds, providing ample time for the Beastmaster and his wild cohorts to finish off their prey.