History VideoGame / Dota2

** The Block Of Cheese. It creates a shield that blocks 500 damage (either magical or physical), and regenerates 100 shield health per second after only 5 seconds of no hero damage. Sounds great, but in order to get it, you have to collect a total of 18 healing lotuses from the lotus pools at the sides of the map, to combine with the cheese from Roshan. A full pool has only 6, so even if no one touches them, it takes a while to get everything (and they are almost never left untouched, especially in the early game). By the time lotuses aren't worth it to most players, and you can actually start collecting them, you won't have much time to spend on the collecting. And even if you get them, the cheese is usually worth a lot more for itself, healing 2500 health and 1500 mana, than as a component for this item. And even if you ''do'' go through all that and create it, 500 hp at that late stage of the game isn't actually all that much; most carries will quickly burn through that amount anyways. The only heroes it works well on are those whose playstyle is already oriented towards rapidly moving in and out of combat (giving the shield a chance to regenerate), such as Weaver, Storm Spirit, Queen of Pain or Anti-Mage.

** Glimmer Cape is a simple item whose ability briefly grants invisibility to a single target, and provides a bit of spell resistance both passively and when activated. It's nothing particularly special, but it is the cheapest escape item in the game, making it a staple for support heroes to get themselves or an ally out of a sticky situation. Its active ability also grants a magic barrier to the target, which means that even if you or your teammate is revealed by truesight, you/they still might survive a couple of nukes thrown their way.

* EvolvingWeapon: Desolator gains 2 damage every time an enemy hero dies while affected by its armor corruption, to a maximum of 20.

** One of the changes for 7.07 is that a team can now only own 1 animal courier, and couriers are automatically upgraded after 3 minutes. Unfortunately, griefers quickly found that you can simply buy a courier, drop the item instead of deploying the courier, and then deny it, leaving their team courier-less for the entire game. This was eventually patched out by making couriers automatically deploy on purchase, and for additional fool-proofing, making the item unsellable and indestructible if purchased outside the fountain. Then came 7.23, which made all players now start the game with a personal courier already active for them, and which would eventually respawn after being killed.

** Dagon 5 is the single most expensive item in the game and deals a massive 800 damage, but it's simply not efficient to spend a whopping 7720 gold on an item of limited value as the game progresses. As a result, in pro games most heroes never build Dagon at all, and even those that can use Dagon well only build one when their team ''really'' needs burst magical damage, usually opting to prioritize utility items.

* CriticalEncumbranceFailure: As of patch 6.78, flying couriers will fly 30% slower if they're carrying an empty bottle, in an effort to punish "bottle crowing" for mid-lane heroes (which makes little logical sense since the donkey will fly faster once the bottle is filled with water, which makes it heavier). This was later changed to simply making Bottles held by Couriers no longer refill, although this trope came back in a different form when 7.33 made them move slower while carrying consumable healing/mana items.

* KillSteal: There isn't a lot of difference between a late arrival to a pigpile throwing out a quick hit to get an assist credit and accidentally end up getting the kill, and someone doing it deliberately.
** Many players build a Dagon for the sole purpose of stealing kills, though it's debatable whether it's worth to spend 2720 gold (or more) on an item which only makes your score look better...
** Some abilities, like the ults of Lion or (especially!) Zeus, are notorious for being used to killsteal.

* RevenueEnhancingDevices: Even if the game is completely play-for-free from the get-go, and you play as ''every hero from the start'', the online store still manages to have a ridiculous amount of purchasable-with-real-money content. With the exception of tournament tickets (which allow you to spectate international tournaments from in-game) though, all of these store items are only cosmetic in nature, a vast number of them can be obtained through Random Drop as above (with even some only being available through drop and not through the store), and none of the availability of the game itself is locked away. An exception to the tournament ticket rule goes to the Major and International tournament held by Valve. You can watch the in-game matches for free, and Valve makes money by selling "See it live" tickets and (for the 2013 tourney) the Compendium/Battle Pass which is $10 for at least $35 worth of content and a promise for more as more Compendiums are bought.

* EnergyAbsorption: Eternal Shroud absorbs a portion of magical damage taken by the holder and converts it to mana.

** The cheap Cloak provides a 15% magic resistance bonus to the wearer. It can be upgraded either into a Glimmer Cape (which can be used to turn an ally invisible and grant them a significant 45% magic resistance bonus), Pipe of Insight (which can create a temporary barrier that blocks magical damage taken by friendly units and buildings) or Eternal Shroud (which can absorb magical damage and convert it to mana).

** Silences (notably Orchid Malevolence and its upgraded form Bloodthorn) prevents the target from casting active abilities for their duration.

** Some players may be deadly with some heroes (carries), but not so good with others (supports), and are unable to help the team as well, especially if their favorite gets banned.

** No amount of balancing will ever fully take away the fact that some heroes are just plain going to match poorly against some opponents, or synergize very well with some teammates. A balanced team that works well together has an advantage over one that isn't balanced, with abilities that keep causing problems or interfering with each other.

* WeaponOfXSlaying: The aptly-named Mage Slayer causes its wielder's attacks to inflict a debuff which reduces the target's spell damage and deals damage over time, making it particularly useful against enemy mage heroes.

* PowerUp: Aside from the standard upgrading of getting all levels of your standard spells and abilities, some heroes have abilities that give you a permanent upgrade in some way whenever you kill someone with it. Legion Commander's ultimate (which gives her extra attack damage when she kills someone while using her ''Duel'' ability on them) is probably the best known, but there are a lot of others, such as Axe's ultimate giving him extra armor when he kills someone with it, or Tidehunter gets extra damage resistance for ''Kraken Shell'' from anyone who dies while under the effect of his ''Anchor Smash''. Many of these heroes need these extra buffs to be effective as the game goes on; Legion Commander, for example, is almost useless during the late game if she doesn't have enough stacks; if she ''does'' have a lot, however, she can quite literally have the equivalent of a Divine Rapier that isn't dropped on death and doesn't take up room in her inventory.

* PracticalTaunt: Taunt is an actual status effect, which forces afflicted targets to do nothing other than right-click attacking the caster during its duration (passive effects like critical strike or life drain still work). In effect, most of the time it works the same as a stun, since heroes with Taunt generally ''want'' people to attack them (and usually build Blade Mail specifically to pair with it, for obvious reasons).

* BladderOfSteel: If you are not ready to sit for at least 40 minutes non-stop on the computer, then don't press the Find Match button, because the game does not end until an Ancient goes down. Matches that last for under 20 minutes are almost non-existent, and the record length for a match is '''4 hours'''. Need a bathroom break? Tough luck, in a pub game nobody will wait for you; even if your hero is dead you still need to pay attention to stuff like scans, fortification, controlling minions or buying back. And if you need to go AFK for an extended period (around 5 minutes or more), then be prepared to look at the defeat screen and receive four reports from angry teammates.

** The Block Of Cheese. It creates a shield that blocks 500 damage (either magical or physical), and regenerates 100 shield health per second after only 5 seconds of no hero damage. Sounds great, but in order to get it, you have to collect a total of 18 healing lotuses from the lotus pools at the sides of the map, to combine with the cheese from Roshan. A full pool has only 6, so even if no one touches them, it takes a while to get everything (and they are almost never left untouched, especially in the early game). By the time lotuses aren't worth it to most players, and you can actually start collecting them, you won't have much time to spend on the collecting. And even if you get them, the cheese is usually worth a lot more for itself than as a component for this item. And even if you ''do'' go through all that and create it, 500 hp at that late stage of the game isn't actually all that much; most carries will burn through it quickly anyways. The only heroes it works well on are those whose playstyle is oriented towards rapidly moving in and out of combat, such as Weaver, Storm Spirit, Queen of Pain or Anti-Mage.

* AntiRegeneration: Spirit Vessel reduces the effectiveness of regeneration and healing on the target by 60% if used on an enemy, making it a good counter to healing heroes (particularly those without a dispel) or those that build Satanic.

* BigNo: Every single hero has a chance to let one out when killed or when their team loses. [[TheUnintelligible Except for Io and Phoenix]].
* BigYes: By contrast, they shout one out upon victory. [[TheUnintelligible Again, except for Io and Phoenix]].

* ExcusePlot: Literally invoked in some of the supplemental material. The Heroes are mostly seeking their own personal power rather than being strongly for the Radiant or Dire, with the exception of Arc Warden who is actively trying to end the war.

** The instances in which this trope is played straight are in heroes who combine magical and physical damage together (like Outworld Destroyer), can use their magic for defense and mobility as much as offense (like Storm Spirit); or in heroes who on paper appear to be big strong warriors (like Sven or Ursa) but in practice are susceptible to enemies dodging around outside their attack range, or who focus their strength on their durability (like Axe or Centaur) and don't bring much to a late-game fight other than being [[WeNeedADistraction bait or a punching bag]]. (Although granted, sometimes being a big distraction is exactly what a team needs...)

* MakeMyMonsterGrow: The Giant's Ring increases the wielder's model size by 60%, in addition to allowing them to move through terrain and dealing damage to nearby enemies.

** Some other items (namely Battle Fury, Maelstrom and Radiance) can also quickly bolster the owner's income, but they do this by helping the hero clear creeps faster instead of directly providing bonus gold like Hand of Midas.

* SexyDimorphism: Slark, Slardar, and Slithice ([[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Naga Siren]]) all belong to the same species, the [[FishPeople Slithereen]]. The former two are male, and both have ScaryTeeth and a monstrous facial structure. The Naga Siren, meanwhile, has the upper body of a beautiful woman (complete with NonMammalMammaries, and NonMammalianHair with certain cosmetic items) and a human-like face.

* StopPokingMe: In addition to unique lines being stated from clicking on your hero repeatedly ("rare" responses), [[WhatTheHellPlayer they'll also get irritated]] from you trying to cast an ability on cooldown or without enough mana for it repeatedly, or from the game's pause lasting too long.

** At level 10, couriers gain the ''Speed Burst'' ability, which temporarily grants them 50% bonus movement speed. This can help get items quicker or give them an escape from enemy pursuers.

** Magical damage ignores armor, but is reduced by magic resistance, and while debuff immunity itself doesn't stop magical damage, all sources of debuff immunity also provide magic resistance as a side effect.
** Pure damage ignores armor and magic resistance, but is completely blocked by debuff immunity.

* WorldOfPun: Just try finding a hero whose voice responses don't include a number of puns. No, Io and Phoenix don't count.

* ArmorPiercingAttack: Pure Damage ignores armor and magic resistance. Many sources of it also ignore debuff immunity.

* AlwaysAccurateAttack: No matter how fast you move, you can't dodge auto-attacks and unit-targeted projectiles with moving alone, you need evasion or abilities that can disjoint the projectile. And even then, evasion can be mitigated by accuracy (provided by Monkey King Bar) or entirely nullified by True Strike (like Witch Blade and Bloodthorn); and there are some spells that cannot be disjointed and can only be avoided by turning invulnerable or spell immune when the projectile hits.

* AntiRageQuitting: If you abandon a match outside of a co-op bot game or practice lobby (either by deliberately doing so or by being disconnected/AFK for too long), your account will be assessed with an abandon. One single abandon does nothing by itself, but if you abandon 2 matches within a span of 20 matches, enjoy your stay in Low Priority queue. To make things even worse, in order to get out of the Low Priority queue, you are required to ''win'' the game.

* ArmorPiercingAttack: Pure Damage, which ignores armor and magic resistance. Many sources of it also ignore Magic Immunity.

* BreakablePowerUp: A Clarity, Healing Salve, the healing from the Bottle, Royal Jelly, Urn of Shadows or Spirit Vessel, or the Aegis expiration heal will instantly be cancelled, a Regeneration rune will be greatly weakened, and Tumbler's Toy, Blink Dagger, its upgrades and Fallen Sky will be put on a 3-second cooldown, if the recipient takes damage from an enemy hero or Roshan.

* ItemAmplifier: The cooldown of item active abilities can be reduced by many sources of cooldown reduction (the Arcane rune, Quickening Charm, Spell Prism, Octarine Core, Dazzle's ''Bad Juju'' and the Ancient Frostbitten Golem's ''Time Warp Aura'') or reset by ''Rearm''[[note]]except a few select items[[/note]], Refresher Orb, Refresher Shard and Ex Machina (in particular, while Refresher Orb and Shard have very long cooldowns by themselves, Ex Machina effectively allows your carry to pop Black King Bar once every 25 seconds).

* OurDwarvesAreDifferent: While not outright stated, the Keen (Sniper, Tinker, Clockwerk, Gyrocopter, and the smaller half of Alchemist) share similarities with Dwarves. Most are incredibly smart and sport facial hair, and all are very small in stature.

* PowerNullifier: Represented by various kinds of disables: stun (disables everything, usually have short durations), sleep (similar to stuns, but targets can be woken up prematurely), banish (similar to stuns but also turns the target invulnerable), hex (slows movement, disables active, item abilities and right-clicks), silence (disables active abilities), disarm and ethereal (disable right-click attacks), break (disables passive abilities), mute (disables item abilities), root (disables movement), leash (disables movement outside of a specific area, including with abilities), taunt (forces units to attack a specific target instead of doing anything else), and fear (forces the target to run towards a specific point and prevents them from doing anything else).

** Carrying a Gem of True Sight grants the constant ability to see invisible units and wards to any allied vision within 900 range of the carrier. However, the Gem is a risky investment in that it will be dropped if the carrier dies, and the enemy can see it in your inventory - expect to be the ''immediate'' target of the entire other team, who want to keep their invisibility-dependent heroes (Bounty Hunter, Riki, anyone with an invisibility item, etc.) effective. It's also an item that grants no stat bonuses, so picking it up usually falls to the supports, who often are high-profile targets to begin with.

** Patch 6.87 added the Scan team ability, which can be used to detect enemy heroes (or the lack thereof) in a designated area.

* ArtifactName: Book of the Dead's active ability is called ''Greater Demonic Summoning'' and summons three Necronomicon Warriors and Archers, a reference to how when initially introduced, it was a more powerful version of Necronomicon (whose active ability, called ''Demonic Summoning'', summons one Warrior and Archer). Even though Necronomicon has since been removed from the game (and ''Demonic Summoning'' is now the name of Enigma's second skill), Book of the Dead's ability and minions have kept their names.

* RunicMagic:
** Runes are special power ups that grant special effects to the hero that grabs it. The main runes spawn at the river for every two minutes, where it can be contested by both sides due to being place at an intersection. For the first four minutes, the river will produce Water Runes, which instantly gives HP and MP when consumed, but after the six minute mark, it will spawn the power runes that give special effects to the hero, with the newer rune despawning the older rune if it wasn't collected. They can also be bottled up with the Bottle for later use, though non-power runes will only fill the charge by 2 instead of a full 3 charge after use. The power runes includes:
*** Amplify Damage (formerly Double Damage), which multiplies the the hero's attack damage and spell amp.
*** Arcane, which reduces the hero's cooldown and mana cost.
*** Haste, which sets the hero's movement speed to maximum and cannot be slowed.
*** Illusion, which spawns two illusion of the hero.
*** Invisibility, which turns the hero invisible for a set duration.
*** Regeneration, which gradually heals the hero's HP and MP to full.
*** Shield, which grants a shield based on the half of the hero's maximum HP.
** Bounty Runes are runes that grant the team extra gold when collected and will only spawn at a specific spot within the Radiant and Dire jungle. Initially, it will spawn at the river spot and the jungle spot when creeps begin spawning, but it will only spawn in the jungle spot for every three minutes. You can also get Bounty Runes by using the neutral items, Trusty Shovel and Pirate Hat, though the latter is a guarantee rune. Unlike the power runes, Bounty Runes will never despawn the older runes and will collect like a pool.
** Wisdom Runes spawn near the Tormenter after the seven minute mark and will reward experience to the hero's team. Similar to the Bounty Runes, it will never despawn the older runes.

A CardBattleGame SpinOff titled ''VideoGame/{{Artifact}}'' released on November 28, 2018 on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, with UsefulNotes/{{Android|Games}}, and UsefulNotes/{{iOS|Games}} ports planned for sometime in 2019, but it appears to have been put on an indefinite hiatus.

Another spin-off, ''VideoGame/DotaUnderlords'', based on the popular "Dota Auto Chess" custom game, was initially released into closed beta as a Battle pass reward for ''Dota 2'' on June 15, 2019, with the game entering Steam early access with an Open Beta on the 20th. An [[UsefulNotes/AndroidGames Android]] and [[UsefulNotes/IOSGames iOS]] port was ''also'' released a few hours earlier on the same day.

** Runes are special power ups that grant special effects to the hero that grabs it.The main runes spawn at the river for every two minutes, where it can be contested by both sides due to being place at an intersection. For the first four minutes, the river will produce Water Runes, which instantly gives HP and MP when consumed, but after the six minute mark, it will spawn the power runes that give special effects to the hero, with the newer rune despawning the older rune if it wasn't collected. They can also be bottled up with the Bottle for later use, though non-power runes will only fill the charge by 2 instead of a full 3 charge after use. The power runes includes:

** Runes are special power ups that grant special effects to the hero that grabs it. The main runes spawn at the river for every two minutes, where it can be contested by both sides due to being place at an intersection. They can also be bottled up with the Bottle for later use. For the first four minutes, the river will produce Water Runes, which instantly gives HP and MP when consumed, but after the six minute mark, it will spawn the power runes that give special effects to the hero, with the newer rune despawning the older rune if it wasn't collected. The power runes includes:

** Haste, which sets the hero's movement speed to maximum and cannot be slowed.

*** Regeneration, which gradually heals the hero's HP and MP to full (though it will cancel out if damaged).

*** Arcane, which reduces the hero's cooldown and mana cost, Haste, which sets the hero's movement speed to maximum and cannot be slowed.