History Characters / Dota2DireStrength

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

[[center: [- Strength - [[Characters/Dota2RadiantStrength Radiant]] | '''Dire''' -] ]]
[[center: [- Agility - [[Characters/Dota2RadiantAgility Radiant]] | [[Characters/Dota2DireAgility Dire]] -] ]]
[[center: [- Intelligence - [[Characters/Dota2RadiantIntelligence Radiant]] | [[Characters/Dota2DireIntelligence Dire]]-] ]]
[[center: [- [[Characters/Dota2Neutrals Neutrals]] | [[Characters/Dota2NPCs Others]]-] ]]

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[[folder:Mogul Khan, the Axe]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/978a7d768aed95c14f7ff817ba501417.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[- [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/3/33/Axe_battlebegins_01.mp3 "There can be no battle till Axe is at hand. And Axe is."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' John St. John
''"As a grunt in the Army of Red Mist, Mogul Khan set his sights on the rank of Red Mist General. In battle after battle he proved his worth through gory deed. His rise through the ranks was helped by the fact that he never hesitated to decapitate a superior. Through the seven year Campaign of the Thousand Tarns, he distinguished himself in glorious carnage, his star of fame shining ever brighter, while the number of comrades in arms steadily dwindled. On the night of ultimate victory, Axe declared himself the new Red Mist General, and took on the ultimate title of 'Axe.' But his troops now numbered zero. Of course, many had died in battle, but a significant number had also fallen to Axe's blade. Needless to say, most soldiers now shun his leadership. But this matters not a whit to Axe, who knows that a one-man army is by far the best."''

Axe charges right into the enemy fray, wreaks havoc singlehandedly, allowing his teammates to take advantage of the chaos, and then decapitate the weak from the fray. If Axe manages to get into the enemy's ranks, they better hope they can run before they get axed. Or not, if they get caught in his ''Berserker's Call'', which taunts everyone near Axe and forcing them to attack Axe while he gets bonus protections for a short time. Attacking Axe have a chance to trigger his ''Counter Helix'', which Axe spins around and deals damage to surrounding enemies. If he is attacked many times, there's a chance that he'd be a whirling death to the enemy. Axe also hates cowards and can try to force them to play aggressive by sticking the ''Battle Hunger'' on them, which deals damage over time until they kill something, creep or whatever. Axe also hates weaklings, so his Ultimate, ''Culling Blade'', is designed to be an executioner of the weak, smashing them with his Axe so mightily and dealing big damage, that if the target was below a certain HP threshold, the victim gets in a LudicrousGibs instant death, and no amount of extra protections are going to save them, Axe's axe drives away all those pesky protections. This is also a big spectacle, so any nearby allies witnessing this execution gets a boost in speed, and the cooldown refreshes, allowing Axe to try and execute another weakling. Axe might not be able to single-handedly decimate enemy team by himself, but he is extremely tough and disruptive, making him an excellent initiator. Though his early game is strong that if he snowballs, he might end up as the carry, but it's rare.

* [[TheAllSolvingHammer The All Solving Axe]]: His unlockable, the ''[[NonindicativeName Forgemaster's Hammer]]''[[note]]It's an axe crudely made out of a hammer[[/note]]
--> '''Forgemaster's Hammer description:''' ''The only day Axe declared defeat was the day he tried to forge a weapon with an axe.''
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Axe's skin is blood-red.
* AnAxeToGrind
* BadassBeard[=/=]BeardOfBarbarism: A truly glorious one.
* BadassNormal: Axe has little to no supernatural abilites but makes it with his strength and battle rage alone.
* BerserkButton: Exploited by Axe's ''Battle Hunger'', which deals damage over time to the target until it kills another unit or the duration ends.
* TheBerserker: His playstyle involves blinking right into the enemy team and using ''Berserker's Call'', forcing them to attack him and giving his allies some breathing room.
* BloodKnight: Believes in the glory of battle.
-->'''Axe:''' [[http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/3/3c/Axe_rare_02.mp3 No business but war. No family but death. No mercy but the grave!]]
* BuffySpeak
* 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 spell immunity won't save the target from death.
* CompanionCube: His Axe.
-->'''Axe:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/2/22/Axe_blink_02.mp3 ''Don't worry, precious Axe. Blink Dagger does not come to chop.'']]
* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Manfighting axe, while not advisable, isn't all that suicidal. Manfighting axe while he's also fighting your creep wave is asking politely if you can die.
* CounterAttack[=/=]EverythingsBetterWithSpinning[=/=]SpinAttack: ''Counter Helix''
* CoupDeGrace: ''Culling Blade'' deals moderate damage, but will kill any hero below a certain hp threshold. No exceptions.
* CrutchCharacter: Axe is a powerhouse early and mid game: a few ''Counter Helix'' spins can quickly bring down an enemy's HP, and combined with ''Battle Hunger'' will drive enemies out of lane with ease. When he goes roaming, ''Battle Hunger'' hurts so hard that no smart carry would dare remove it or risk getting beheaded by ''Culling Blade''. However, with his bad stat growth and weak right-click, Axe sharply falls off when enemies get some defensive items (and become able to shrug off his nukes with ease). If he has heavily snowballed from ganks he can still carry the game, but he can be very easily outcarried by almost all proper carries. His only job then is to blink into a bunch of enemies, initiate by taunting them, then look for enemies to execute.
* DynamicEntry: Killing an enemy with ''Culling Blade'' grants a massive movement and attack speed boost to nearby allies, letting them rush into the fight and secure the advantage.
* FinishingMove: ''Culling Blade'' is designed to be one: it kills any hero below a certain amount of health, and if it does so, it gives all nearby allies a speed boost while its cooldown is reset.
** SurprisinglySuddenDeath: He has special voice lines for the extremely effective Blink Dagger into ''Culling Blade'' finishing combo.
--->'''Axe:''' [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/c/c5/Axe_blinkcull_03.mp3 "No escaping Axe!"]]
* FourStarBadass
* GeneralRipper: Ludicrously so.
* GeniusBruiser: Some of his lines indicate that he can be quite articulate if he wants to.
--> '''Axe:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/b/b9/Dlc_axe_announcer_twr_fall_enm_top_03.mp3 The enemy's top tower has capitulated to superior force. Axe brought his thesaurus!]]
** SophisticatedAsHell: But he never even tries to be subtle, and his next response might as well be:
--> '''Axe:''' [[http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/7/7f/Dlc_axe_announcer_twr_fall_rad_mid_03.mp3 "As Radiant's middle tower falls, Axe's middle finger rises."]]
** His comic takes both of these traits even further. He doesn't act anywhere near like the oaf that the game might depict him as, and he only lapses into ThirdPersonPerson a few times, though much of his dialogue is pretty profanity-ridden.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vg4Hj7p230w/Tn2o_kEeoqI/AAAAAAAAAFE/GiAVlrI6rVc/s1600/dota2axe.jpg In the trailer at least]]
* HighPressureBlood: Killing an enemy with ''Culling Blade'' sprays blood all over the ground in the area.
* ICallItVera: He calls his axe... um... [[ShapedLikeItself Axe]].
* KillSteal: ''Culling Blade'' is guaranteed to award the kill to Axe and resets its cooldown if it successfully kills an enemy hero, allowing him to promptly chop off the heads of three or more heroes in a teamfight. If Axe kills someone with ''Culling Blade'' while they are stunned by Necrophos's ''Reaper's Scythe'', however, the enemy will be culled ''and'' Necrophos gets the kill.
* KillStreak: If ''Culling Blade'' manages to successfully kill an enemy hero, its cooldown is reset, meaning that you can instantly use it again to kill another enemy hero if the opportunity presents itself (and as long as you have the mana).
* LargeHam: Even compared to most other heroes. Axe shouts almost all of his lines, most of which are BadassBoasts. Being voiced by [[DukeNukem3D Jon St. John]] certainly doesn't hurt. This makes Axe a very amusing and popular character.
* MightyGlacier: Early game, Axe has great damage output with all of his four skills, but his mobility suffers as a result, forcing him to get Blink Dagger in order to maximise his potential.
** StoneWall: As the game progresses, Axe's role changes into this: because of the bad scaling on his skills, by late game enemies can shrug his damage off with ease.
* MixAndMatchWeapon: 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.
* MonochromaticEyes: Zig-Zagged. He has these on his in-game model, but his comic depicts him with more normal-looking eyes.
* MutualDisadvantage: Against Dazzle. On one hand, Axe is the only hero in the game that can forcibly ignore Dazzle's ''Shallow Grave'' with his ultimate ''Culling Blade''. On the other hand, Axe is very susceptible to ''Shadow Wave'' because of his playstyle, which involves blinking or rushing into a group of enemies and pin them down with ''Berserker's Call'' - the perfect opportunity for a ''Shadow Wave''. ''Weave'' also hurts Axe hard, as it boosts enemy armor, weakening ''Counter Helix'', while reducing his armor, which really hurts a tanky hero like him.
* NoIndoorVoice
* OneHitKill: ''Culling Blade'' can instantly kill an enemy unit with low health based on its current level's threshold. It even works on Roshan.
** It's the ''only'' spell that goes through Dazzle's ''Shallow Grave'', which otherwise grants complete immunity to death (except against self-triggered suicide from Techies' ''Suicide Squad, Attack!'' and Bloodstone's ''Pocket Deny''). 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.
* OneManArmy: Believes himself to be this. Gameplay-wise, he can be this if he gets lucky with spins and is built tanky. Even at the early game, he can deal with an entire wave of creeps alone.
* PracticalTaunt: ''Berserker's Call'' forces enemies to attack him for a few seconds and leave his allies alone. To offset the damage he takes on himself, he also gains a substantial increase in armor.
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Belongs to the Oglodi, which also includes Disruptor and Warlock. Interestingly all of them started as Orcs, and some of this influence can still be seen in Axe's bio.
* PungeonMaster: Any time the letters "Ex" are in a word, he says 'Axe' instead.
* RaceLift: Axe was an Orc using the model of Corrupted Grom Hellscream in [=DotA=]. Some of this influence can still be seen such as being from a warlike race that gathers in clans.
* ShouldersOfDoom: He has a shoulder guard on [[FashionableAsymmetry his right shoulder]].
* ShoutOut: Two of his denial lines are references to the infamous meltdown scene from the 1971 movie: ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory''.
-->'''Axe''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/0/02/Axe_deny_15.mp3 "You get nothing. Good day, sir!"]]
-->'''Axe''': [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/d/da/Axe_deny_16.mp3 "I said GOOD DAY, sir!"]]
** In [=DotA=], his name will sometimes be changed to "Mogul [[Music/MCHammer Kahnt Touch This]]".
* [[SkillGateCharacters Skill Gate Tactic]]: One common tactic with Axe in lower-ranked games is creep-skipping: go to the hard lane, get a Stout Shield, position yourself between the enemy tier 1 and 2 towers, and kill creep waves all by yourself with ''Counter Helix'', either depriving enemies of their XP and pushing the tower with your unopposed creep wave, or having the enemy run around their own tower running from the creeps and having a hard time getting the last hits due to low damage at level 1. Of course Axe is also dangerously far from his tower without allied creeps, so ranged heroes can easily kite him and a good disabler/ganking mid/jungler is almost guaranteed to get first blood, but in low level pubs, dual melee carry safe lanes are disturbingly common and most players do not care about any other lane other than the one they went to at the pregame, and wouldn't bother with a creep-skipping Axe depriving the farm of their teammates.
* SlipknotPonytail: Originally had one, but it was taken out with a patch. Possibly to downplay his resemblance to Grom Hellscream.
* TakeMeInstead: Axe can pull gankers off his allies by calling them, forcing them to fight him instead. Whether or not they ''can'' take Axe however, is doubtful.
* TestosteronePoisoning: Taunts enemies into attacking him? Check. Is so bloodthirsty that it causes physical damage to enemy Heroes? Check. Spins his axe in a huge counter-attack when someone hits him? Check. Can instantly kill enemies when he sees that they're weak? Check oh so very much.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: In the first [=DotA=] if the enemy HP threshold for ''Culling Blade'' was met, Axe would remove all buffs from the target and then deal 100000000 physical damage. In Dota 2, it will do exactly the amount of health that the target has as damage.
* [[TheyCallHimSword They Call Him Axe]]
* ThirdPersonPerson: Constantly refers to himself as Axe.
* WalkingShirtlessScene
* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: In the late game, Axe is often played as a 'walking ''Berserker's Call'' - his main job then is calling as many enemy heroes as possible with his other skills (which drop off quickly, especially ''Battle Hunger'' and ''Counter Helix'') being little more than afterthoughts. While his damage output in the late game is quite negligible, the ability to soft disable multiple enemy heroes on a 10-second cooldown is still quite useful.
* WolverinePublicity: The Heavy Weapons Guy of Dota, Axe is generally considered the most iconic hero of them all.
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Pudge, the Butcher]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pudge_4646.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/f/f5/Pud_rare_02.mp3 "When I'm through with these vermins, they'll be fit for a pie."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' John Patrick Lowrie
''"In the Fields of Endless Carnage, far to the south of Quoidge, a corpulent figure works tirelessly through the night--dismembering, disemboweling, piling up the limbs and viscera of the fallen that the battlefield might be clear by dawn. In this cursed realm, nothing can decay or decompose; no corpse may ever return to the earth from which it sprang, no matter how deep you dig the grave. Flocked by carrion birds who need him to cut their meals into beak-sized chunks, Pudge the Butcher hones his skills with blades that grow sharper the longer he uses them. Swish, swish, thunk. Flesh falls from the bone; tendons and ligaments part like wet paper. And while he always had a taste for the butchery, over the ages, Pudge has developed a taste for its byproduct as well. Starting with a gobbet of muscle here, a sip of blood there... before long he was thrusting his jaws deep into the toughest of torsos, like a dog gnawing at rags. Even those who are beyond fearing the Reaper, fear the Butcher."''

Pudge is generally played as a ganker and an initiator who generally goes to the mid lane. His role in the game is to get enough levels, and start roaming around to get kills for his team, and more importantly, instill fear in the other team and gain control of the map. Pudge's skillset allows his team to be aggressive in the early and mid game. His power to kill heroes by himself diminishes as the game goes on, and as the game goes late, his main role is to hook an enemy into the middle of his team to give his team an advantage in a teamfight by getting rid of one of their players.

* AntiMagic: ''Flesh Heap'' gives Pudge a small amount of magic resistance.
* TheBlackDeath: With the Chains of the Black Death cosmetic set, Pudge becomes host for the plague.
** AnAxeToGrind[=/=]ShovelStrike: The two weapon styles he could choose in this set.
** BeardOfEvil
** ChainedByFashion: He gains a flail but uses it as a belt instead of a weapon.
** GlowingEyesOfDoom
* CastFromHitPoints: ''Rot'' damages Pudge himself as well.
** BetterToDieThanBeKilled: This can be used by skilled Pudges to deny themselves, preventing the enemy team from getting gold an experience from his death.
* CreepyCrows: With the Murder of Crows cosmetic set, Pudge gains a pet crow.
** CarryABigStick: His new weapon in this set, a crow-shaped mace.
** VoodooDoll: On his back he has a doll of Dendi, a professional player that made Pudge even more famous thanks to his performance at the competitive scene.
* DamageSponge: ''Flesh Heap'' slowly increases Pudge's Strength each time an enemy dies near him. A well-played Pudge can therefore end up with a preposterous hit point total before long.
* DeadWeight
* DifficultButAwesome: To make good use of Pudge, one must master ''Meat Hook'', which newbies are liable to miss or snag on creeps instead. An experienced player, though, can catch his victim through gaps in creep waves or even the FogOfWar, dragging them into traps and thus being a valuable supporter.
** LethalJokeCharacter[=/=]SkillGateCharacter: Warding utterly destroys Pudge's attempts to gank. However, skilled Pudge players will adapt and throw more difficult hooks, leading to supports needing to adapt warding positions as well. This leads to an interesting level of progression from the newest players all the way to professionals, where Pudge players have to try to outthink their opponents, or be rendered dead weight.
* DualWield: A butcher knife and his signature hook.
* EvilIsVisceral
* ExactWords: Patch 6.79 allows him to purchase Blink Dagger, but grants free pathing for anyone he trapped in cliffs or ledges. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3FA_5BhIT4&list=UUlp9gv5pDeltRvfPhb_f5ig&index=4 But no one said anything about *trees*....]]
* FatBastard: Possibly as a result of his cannibalism.
* FleshGolem
* GlassCannon: Despite his very high Strength (and appropriately huge raw HP), he is not very durable until late-game: he has almost no base armor, and ''Rot'' does a lot of damage to him if he's silenced or stunned while it's activated. This can be offset with enough kills/assists to get ''Flesh Heap'' stacks, and smart item pickups; good choices include Heart of Tarrasque or Shiva's Guard, both being efficient and having high synergy with his skills.
* HooksAndCrooks[=/=]KnifeNut: He uses a butcher's knife in one hand and a meat hook in the other.
* ImAHumanitarian: Pudge started off as a simple butcher, but eventually developed a taste for flesh, human or otherwise.
-->'''Pudge''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/a/ad/Pud_ability_devour_15.mp3 "HA HA HA HA! FRESH MEAT!"]]
* LeadTheTarget: On top of ''Meat Hook'' itself being this, good Pudge play requires adapting to his slow attack animation in order to get enough last-hits to buy what he needs. In general, playing Pudge well requires thinking ahead and in multiple directions in order to outsmart your opponents and overcome Pudge's limitations.
* LifeDrain: Once he has Aghanim's Scepter, his ultimate ''Dismember'' will heal him for any damage done.
** HyperactiveMetabolism
* MagicKnight: Though Pudge is a Strength hero, he has little use for his right-click attacks, but instead relies on the massive damage of ''Meat Hook'', ''Rot'' and ''Dismember'' to gank.
* MonochromaticEyes
* NoIndoorVoice: Whenever he uses ''Dismember'', everyone in the game will hear him yell "Fresh Meat!" This can also work to his disadvantage, though, as nearby enemies will be alerted to the fact that an ally is in danger and possibly rush to their defense. This is a ShoutOut to ''Dismember'' in [=War3=] Dota, where the same thing would happen.
* ObviousRulePatch: When many players asked about Valve about "Fountain Hooking" exploit (That is, using Chen's teleportation while Pudge is hooking to drag the victim into the fountain), they said that it will be kept as they deemed it too hilarious. However after a competitive deciding match where a pro team manage to score a comeback that shouldn't have been with this exploit, this patched out during the "First Blood" patch, where Meat Hook now has the target land into Pudge's original position ''regardless'' of where Pudge went to.
* PoisonousPerson: ''Rot'' releases a toxic, choking gas emanating from Pudge's putrid mass.
* ProjectileSpell: ''Meat Hook'' will snag and drag the first unit it touches.
* ShoutOut: To a {{VideoGame/Diablo}} character and to a MortalKombat character.
-->'''Pudge:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/b/b9/Pud_ability_devour_04.mp3 "Ahhh...fresh meat!"]]
-->'''Pudge:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/3/38/Pud_ability_hook_04.mp3 ''Get over here!'']]
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: His modus operandi is to pull a single enemy into the FogOfWar away from friendlies, then disable and kill them in a matter of seconds.
* StoutStrength: Pudge has one of the best starting Strength and Strength growths in the game, which can be further boosted with ''Flesh Heap'' - and he ranks amongst the fattest heroes in the game as well.
* VariableLengthChain: ''Meat Hook''. Well, not entirely variable length; its maximum length is relative to the skill level.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Of the FanDisservice variety.
* WolverinePublicity: Ever since Dota 2 was released, Pudge has monopolised the place of 'most played hero' every month, beating out the next most played heroes (usually Sniper, Invoker or Mirana) by at least 1-2 million matches each month.
* YouWillNotEvadeMe: Pudge is one of the best examples of this in Dota. ''Meat Hook'', aimed well, can snag enemies who are attempting to escape from teammates, and then ''Dismember'' used to hold them in place through spell immunity. And even once it's finished channeling, ''Rot'' will apply a slow to any enemies within its radius, meaning that any ''Dismember'' victims will be at a constant speed disadvantage.
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Crixalis, the Sand King]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sand_king_3863.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/d/de/Skg_rare_02.mp3 " I will show you fear in a handful of sand"]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' David Scully
''"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 Sand King. Sand King 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--Sand King is all of these things, inseparable from the endless desert that gave him life."''

Sand King is an initiator most commonly played as a support, 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 gives a debuff to an enemy with a slow and a timer that explodes at the end of the duration. In addition, when the enemy dies, they'll explode which deals damage and slow the enemy. His ultimate ability ''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.

* BewareMyStingerTail: His tail is paddle-like at the tip and pretty much useless as a weapon. And he mostly uses his claw for normal attacks. Of course, it's also used to trigger ''Epicenter'' by beating against the ground, so it's not completely harmless.
* BigCreepyCrawlies
* BlackMage: His base damage and attack speed are both mediocre, but he makes up for it with his massive spell damage; ''Epicenter'' alone can melt an entire team if they're not prepared.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: As the physical manifestation of a sentient desert, he as a negative view towards greenery and vegetation.
* ChargedAttack: ''Epicenter'' needs to channel for 2 seconds before activating. Skilled Sand King players usually activate this ''before'' using Blink Dagger to enter teamfights.
* DeadlyDustStorm: Can create a sand storm that sets himself invisible and damaging anyone that comes within the storm. The storm persists as long as Sand King stays in place, which can be very long.
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Each ''Epicenter'' pulse doesn't hit that hard actually, it just hits ''twice a second'' for 4-6 seconds. ''Sand Storm'' is even better an example, doing 50 damage every hit, twice a second for an utterly ridiculous duration, it only takes 3 seconds for it to do the same damage as the average nuke.
* DifficultButAwesome: Setting up a proper ''Epicenter'' is ''very'' hard to pull off, but doing so properly does damage comparable to ''Finger of Death'' or ''Laguna Blade'' but '' to everyone in range''.
* DishingOutDirt
* DynamicEntry: ''Burrowstrike'' moves him underground as well as stuns all enemies in the way.
** FastTunnelling
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith[=/=]RemoteBody
* EarthquakeMachine: His tail is a magical example.
* GeniusLoci: The Scintillant Waste that uses him as a RemoteBody.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom
* GradualGrinder: His approach to jungling, which consists of using ''Sand Storm'' to grind away at the enemy's health while being invisible and thus unattackable.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Victims of ''Burrowstrike''.
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily
* OurGeniesAreDifferent: The Djinn of Qaldin mentioned in his BackStory.
* OvershadowedByAwesome: ''Caustic Finale'', an attack modifier that causes enemies affected by it to violently explode upon death. On paper, it's a good farming and pushing skill, but in practice, it's hard to land in a teamfight (''Epicenter'' can clear creep waves too fast for ''Caustic Finale'' to kick off) while Sand King already has an even better farming and pushing tool in the form of ''Sand Storm'' (since it renders Sand King invisible, it can be used to safely jungle early game or to disjoint projectiles, and the mana cost is negligible).
* PoisonousPerson: With his ''Caustic Finale''. Engaging him while accompanied by a few of your allied creeps is not a good idea, as he can just take out your creeps, making them explode and damage you and the rest of your allies in the process.
** BloodyMurder: It's effect is shown as a explosive blast of blood.
* PopGoesTheHuman: When a unit affected by ''Caustic Finale'' dies, it violently explodes.
* QuicksandSucks: ''Epicenter'', which damages and slows enemies. From its description...
--> ''Many an explorer was lost to the quicksands of the Scintillant Waste.''
* ScaryScorpions
* SchmuckBait: An extremely early version of Sand King had a passive skill called Dust Trail, which slowed down and caused enemies to miss by a large margin. The description includes the warning "Do not, under any circumstances, learn this skill if you are Sentinel (Radiant)". The reason for this was that the ability was bugged to affect Radiant units regardless of what team ''you were actually on''. Anybody who leveled this skill could expect a nasty reacton from their team.
* ShoutOut: To TheScorpionKing.
** [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/c/ca/Skg_kill_09.mp3 "You were expecting...]] [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Sandy Claws?]]
* 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. However, it's a channeling spell; doing anything else will interrupt it.
* SoftSpokenSadist: His voice is quiet and reserved, bordering on CreepyMonotone.
* SquishyWizard[=/=]GlassCannon: Despite being a Strength hero, his low base Strength and item build (which has no durability item whatsoever) leave him very fragile when compared to other Strength heroes, and even various Intelligence and Agility heroes have higher HP than him. He makes up for this with sheer AoE magical damage output, maneuverability and disables with ''Burrowstrike'' and the ability to dodge projectiles with ''Sand Storm''.
* TheStoic: Sand King's not much for shows of emotion. He'll help himself to the occasional EvilLaugh when killing an enemy hero, but that's about it.
* UselessUsefulSpell: ''Caustic Finale'' causes enemies attacked by Sand King to violently explode, dealing 220 area damage at level 4. Sounds awesome, but in practice not so much. Early game, ''Caustic Finale'' can be used to bully a melee offlaner out of lane, but it also pushes the lane, making it hard for your carry to farm, and ''Sand Storm'' is much better to flash-farm a Blink Dagger, since its invisibility, cheap mana cost and good damage allows Sand King to jungle safely and effectively - if he stacks neutrals correctly he can get Blink Dagger in 10 minutes. Later on, ''Caustic Finale'''s small [=AoE=] makes it hard to land against competent opponents, it does not synergise with the standard ''Epicenter'' into ''Burrowstrike'' combo (which can kill most if not all creeps in a teamfight, leaving none for ''Caustic Finale''), restricting its usage to farming and pushing, for which Sand King has ''Sand Storm'' which can clear creeps just as fast. Because of this, ''Caustic Finale'' is almost always ignored by pros, who choose to get stats to bolster Sand King's weak HP pool instead of investing in a largely redundant skill.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Sand King has a rather long list of vulnerabilities to rather mundane items or abilities, especially when it comes to ''Sand Storm'', including Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, and any AreaOfEffect stun (mini- or otherwise) or knockback (both of which also [[PowerNullifier interrupt]] ''Epicenter'' and put it on cooldown before it can even go off if he's hit mid-channel). ''Sand Storm'''s rather obvious area of effect certainly doesn't happen matters.
* WeatherOfWar: ''Sand Storm'' continually deals damage to anyone inside it.
* WhyAmITicking: ''Caustic 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'').
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Slardar, the Slithereen Guard]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Slardar_1739.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/7/7f/Slar_rare_01.mp3 "I guard what slumbers in the deeps."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Sam A. Mowry
''"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 -- somewhat appropriate, due to Slardar's abilities seemingly tailor-fitted for enemies as evasive as Riki.
* ArmorPiercingAttack: ''Amplify Damage'' reduces armour. It also makes its target visible to Slardar.
* BadassNormal: He's just a normal fish-man; none of his abilities are magical in nature. ''Sprint'' and ''Bash'' are self-explanatory, ''Slithereen Crush'' is an ordinary ShockwaveStomp, and ''Amplify Damage'' is the result of Slardar lighting up an enemy with his lure.
* BizarreSexualDimorphism: He is of the same species as Naga Siren, although they look very different.
* CarryABigStick: His WeaponOfChoice, made in the shape of blunted ProngsOfPoseidon.
* DamageIncreasingDebuff: ''Sprint'' boosts Slardar's movement speed at the cost of making him take more damage. ''Amplify Damage'' decreases armor and gives Slardar true sight of whoever he's targeted.
* FishPeople: His race.
* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner
* LightningBruiser: Slardar can move extremely fast with ''Sprint'', and his other skills make him one of the most powerful 1v1 heroes in the game. Fittingly, he also has one of the highest agility growths for a strength hero, letting him capitalize on his bash.
* 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.
* MagicallyIneptFighter: He does purely physical damage, including the added damage of ''Bash'' and ''Slithereen Crush'', all the better to take advantage of ''Amplify Damage''.
* MakingASplash[=/=]ShockwaveStomp: With ''Slithereen Crush''.
* [[EvilCounterpart Neutral Counterpart]]: To Bounty Hunter; both are lawmen of a sort, excellent chasers, and act as counters to invisible heroes. Compared to Bounty Hunter, Slardar's faster, more durable, but lacks stealth.
* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: He is overall mer-shaped in appearance. The Pirate Captain Announcer even mistakes him for one.
* RandomNumberGod: ''Bash''.
* RedEyesTakeWarning
* ShockwaveStomp: ''Slithereen Crush'' is a slam that stuns and damages nearby enemy units.
* ShoutOut: To the CthulhuMythos.
** He is one of the [[Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth Deep Ones]].
** As he dies and respawns he may say: "That is not dead that can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die."
* StrangeCopInAStrangeLand
* 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 victim for an extended 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.]]
* SuperSpeed: ''Sprint'', when maxed, gives Slardar a 44% boost to movement speed, which equates to 504 with brown boots alone.
* TrainingFromHell: Since he's spent his entire life at crushing depths, Slardar is extremely strong and durable, according to his lore.
* YouWillNotEvadeMe: 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''.
** ''Slithereen Crush'' is an [=AoE=] stun with a small slow attached to the end, letting him stop enemies in their tracks.
** ''Bash'' lets him extend stuns from ''Slithreen Crush'' or simply stop an opponent cold while chasing.
** ''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 out of range for him to simply cast it on you again. Of course, he's usually got his own Blink Dagger so even that may not work.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Leviathan, the Tidehunter]]
[[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!"]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Eric Newsome
''"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 when he mentions Kunkka in all of his rival killing lines, even if the victim isn't Kunkka himself (or even tangentially related to Kunkka). Of all his kill lines, the only exception is one line when killing Morphling.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Tidehunter's motives for interfering into the fight between Kunkka's and the 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.
* 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 ones utlizing constant effects 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.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Tidehunter uses a discarded anchor as a primary weapon, which can deal decent [=AoE=] damage and reduce enemy damage in a specific radius.
** GrievousHarmWithABody[=/=]ImprovisedWeapon: One of his cosmetic weapons is the corpse of a hammerhead shark.
* KrakenAndLeviathan
* LimitBreak: ''Kraken Shell'' automatically procs once Tidehunter takes a certain amount of damage from enemy players within a certain amount of time.
* MagicKnight: Similar to Sand King, Tidehunter has a mediocre right-click attack, but his spells can have a devastating effect on the enemy without expending much mana.
* MakingASplash: His ''Gush'' spell especially.
* NounVerber
* PowerLimiter: Enemies hit by ''Anchor Smash'' lose 60% of their base damage. Used in-lane it can starve your lane opponents of last hits (and experience since you can then easily deny creeps), used in teamfights it can drastically reduce the damage output of the enemy carries.
* {{Revenge}}: [[NoodleIncident For unknown reasons]], Leviathan has made it his mission in life to kill Admiral Kunkka.
* SayMyName: [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/5/55/Tide_rival_04.mp3 KUNKAAAAAAAAAAAA!]]
* SeaMonster
* SerialEscalation: His responses for gaining levels which are about him wanting to eat something, beginning with plankton and ending with a [[StockDinosaurs plesiosaur]].
--> '''Lvl 25 Tidehunter:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/1/18/Tide_level_25.mp3 ''I'm stuffed!'']]
* SpamAttack: Because of its very low cooldown and mana cost, ''Anchor Smash'' is often spammed to flash-farm creep camps.
* SpinAttack: ''Anchor Smash'' spins Tidehunter's anchor.
* StoneWall: With ''Kraken Shell'' and a respectable strength growth he becomes very tough to kill, but his right-click attack is mediocre and his nuke damage quickly falls off in the mid game.
* SummonMagic: ''Ravage'' summons an EldritchAbomination that stuns every player in a large area.
* ThreateningShark: He is one, [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment and can wield some accessories made out of sharks]], too!
** SharkMan
* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Tidehunter's main job in a teamfight is very simple: land a good ''Ravage'' - it usually doesn't matter much if he is unable to use his other skills. His item build is, as a result, centred on maximising the effectiveness of ''Ravage'', with items like Blink Dagger, Arcane Boots and Refresher Orb.
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: With the Kraken Shell.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Ostarion, the Wraith King (formerly the Skeleton King)]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wraith_king_1652.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/7/76/Wraith_spawn_02.mp3 "Bow to your king!"]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Dave Fennoy (both Skeleton King and Wraith King)
''For untold years, King Ostarion built a kingdom from the remains of his enemies. It was an obsessive's errand, done to pass the long eternities of a monarchy that seemed fated never to end. He believed that as long as he built up the towers of his palace, he could not die. But eventually he learned that he had been deluded...that bone itself could perish. Deeply mistrustful of flesh, he sought a more permanent way of extending his reign, and at last settled on pursuit of wraith energy, a form of pure spirit given off by certain dark souls at death. Should he infuse himself with Wraith Essence, he thought he might create a body as luminous and eternal as his ego. On the millennial solstice known as Wraith-Night, he submitted to a rite of transformation, compelling his subjects to harvest enough souls to fuel his ambition for immortality. No one knows how many of his champions died, for the only survivor who mattered was the Wraith King who rose with the sun on the following morn. Now he rarely spends a moment on his glowing throne--but strides out with sword drawn, demanding a fealty that extends far beyond death.''

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. With Aghanim's Scepter, he can delay the death of his allies and himself for 5 seconds, allowing them to use their abilities and attack their enemies.

* AchillesHeel: Wraith King's ultimate will not trigger if he doesn't have enough mana for it. This means that he actually requires at least a certain amount of planning to ensure that he doesn't cast ''Wraithfire Blast'' too many times, and that mana draining abilities can neutralize ''Reincarnation''.
** DifficultButAwesome: Or he can purposefully use up the mana to avoid setting off ''Reincarnation'''s extremely long cooldown if it can't help his current situation.
* AnimatedArmor: To a degree, his armor is actual physical armor as opposed to being a part of him as with most ghostly warriors, which is shown in his ''Reincarnation'' animation, as he "dies" and it scatters, only for the parts to rearrange themselves back into position and for him to come back.
* ArtEvolution: He used to be known as Ostarion the Skeleton King, and his old model was an animated skeleton. In the Wraith-Night event, Skeleton King became Wraith King, with a new model and slightly modified ability effects.
** DemBones
** FireballEyeballs
** GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath
** HellFire: ''Wraithfire Blast'' used to be ''Hellfire Blast'', which seared an enemy with hellfire instead of spectral fire.
* AscendedMeme: On purchasing a Divine Rapier, he'll mention that he is '''"[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/a/ae/Wraith_items_18.mp3 BALLING OUT OF CONTROL!]]"''', a reference to the infamous "[[http://www.playdota.com/guides/epic-return CAPS LOCK LEORIC]]" guide. And yes, [[PaintingTheMedium it is in all caps in the subtitles]].
** He also pledges to '''HELP HIS WEAK AND PUNY ALLIES''' when he can.
** Finally, when he buys the Armlet of Mordiggian (which is a core item in any Wraith King build), he says '''"I NOW HAVE ALL THE SEXY"''' .
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking
* AutoRevive: His signature ability, ''Reincarnation'', revives Wraith King at full health and mana after 3 seconds, as long as he had the minimum mana cost for it upon his first death.
* BackFromTheDead: Both in his backstory ''and'' as an in-game ability!
* BadassBeard
* BadassCape: A torn one.
* BlessedWithSuck: He was initially turned into a skeleton as a side-effect of a longevity spell. Then he realized that his bones were also rotting away and had to find a better form for himself, becoming the Wraith King.
* {{BFS}}: One of the unlockables gives him an [[UpToEleven even bigger sword]] broken in half.
** OneHandedZweihander
* BoringButPractical: He has only one active skill, ''Wraithfire Blast'', and is basically "baby's first carry", often resulting in jokes that Wraith King players only need two fingers to play the Hero.
* CaptainErsatz: From 2011 to 2013, he was an animated skeleton known as Skeleton King, referencing King Leoric from ''Diablo''. For legal reasons, he was changed in December 2013 to Wraith King, and received a new model and lines to go with it.
* CaptainObvious: PlayedForLaughs. He decides to grant Chaos Knight a... ''very'' obvious title:
--> '''Ostarion (meeting Chaos Knight):''' ''[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/b/b0/Wraith_ally_14.mp3 "I dub thee Chaos Knight! How's that for a name? Not bad, eh?"]]''
* CoolSword: His default sword is shaped like half a bone, kept from his old Skeleton King days.
* CriticalHit: ''Mortal Strike'' gives Wraith King a chance to deal up to three times his regular damage with a 15% chance on each attack.
* CursedWithAwesome
* DiscOneNuke: ''Wraithfire Blast'' is the strongest single-target stun at level 1, with 2 seconds of stun, followed by 2 seconds of 20% slow and 80 damage, with a 525 cast range. It's very easy to rack up a ton of early game kills with ''Wraithfire Blast'' so long as you are active on the map and keep your mana pool up.
* EvilOverlord
* FinalBoss: In the Wraith-Night event.
* ForMassiveDamage: ''Mortal Strike'' is arguably the second most powerful critical strike ability in the game (beat by Phantom Assassin's ultimate and tied with Juggernaut's ''Blade Dance''[[note]]Which has double the chance of occuring, but gives half as much extra damage when it does[[/note]]). This allows Wraith King to scale very well with damage items without having to build a Daedalus.
* JackOfAllStats:
** In the case of another carry, they would usually purchase items that synergize well with their abilities, or cover for their intrinsic shortfalls, and still adhere to a certain play style. However, this is not the case with Wraith King, since, despite his simplistic array of abilities, he has a lifesteal, crit, and reliable stun all without having to buy items. This allows Wraith King to diversify greatly and buy whatever items suit the situation, or even be played as a support/utility hero if one so desires.
** Wraith King can be played as either a safe lane farmer, taking advantage of his passives to become a carry that is really hard to kill; or a support, using ''Wraithfire Blast'''s strong stun to roam and get kills all around the map, initiating a teamfight with the massive slow from ''Reincarnation'', and transitioning to the late game as a semi-carry with ''Mortal Strike''.
* TheJuggernaut: After he gets some items and levels, his great combat power combined with AutoRevive ultimate make him this.
** With Divine Rapier, he takes this UpToEleven. Divine Rapier gives a 330 damage boost to attacks (by far and beyond the highest in the game), at the cost that it drops when the holder dies and can be picked up by an enemy. However, it does '''not''' drop when Ostarion dies and is reincarnated. On top of that, it has excellent synergy with his other two passives, turning his Mortal Strikes ''decidedly'' more mortal, and making him even '''harder''' to kill in the first place because his Vampiric Aura heals him for enormous amounts of health from the ridiculous damage he's dishing out. '''BALLING OUT OF CONTROL?''' Absolutely.
* LargeAndInCharge: He is much taller than most heroes.
* LargeHam
** NoIndoorVoice
* 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.
* LifeDrain: ''Vampiric Aura'', which has a uniquely visible "Draining" effect on him on top of the usual green lines.
* LivingOnBorrowedTime: After Wraith King gets Aghanim's Scepter, allies near him when killed become Wraiths for 5 seconds, delaying their death. They can continue to attack, cast, use items,... until the duration ends.
* MeaningfulName: Ostarion's name is derived from the Greek word for bone, "osteon".
* MightyGlacier: By the time Ostarion reaches Level 16, he becomes a pain to kill, yet can easily do so to his opponents. His primary weakness however is his rather low movement speed that allows easy kiting if he doesn't have the mana for ''Wraithfire Blast''.
* NotTheIntendedUse: Despite technically being a carry, Wraith King has lots of useful abilities, especially ''Vampiric Aura'', which actually allows him to be built as a support should one desire.
* OurGhostsAreDifferent
* PlayingWithFire: ''Wraithfire Blast'' sears an enemy with spectral fire.
* RatedMForManly: Thanks to MemeticMutation, he's regarded as this, and when he was updated, quite a few of his new lines are quite fitting for [[FanNickname the manliest hero without testicles]].
* ResurrectiveImmortality: His ultimate, ''Reincarnation''.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething
* SadisticChoice: A farmed Wraith King with his ultimate ready is this for the other team. They can kill the Wraith King first, but suffer the massive slow from ''Reincarnation'' which the other team can capitalize on. Or they can ignore the Wraith King and try to kill his teammates first, but risk letting the Wraith King tear them apart. However, if Wraith King is not farmed, he can simply be ignored in favor of the enemy team, and be killed later once his slow is no longer a threat.
* SceneryGorn[=/=]{{Shadowland}}: His kingdom was described as being made of bones.
* SchmuckBait: ''Reincarnation'' can be used as this, baiting enemies into what seems to be a near-dead carry, only for him to come back, and his team to descend on the would-be ambusher.
* SelfDestructiveCharge: Wraith King is sometimes played as an initiator, suicidally blinking into the enemy team, let them kill him and set off the massive slow from ''Reincarnation''.
* ShouldersOfDoom: He has a shoulder guard on [[FashionableAsymmetry his right shoulder]].
* ShoutOut: As Skeleton King, he was one to a {{VideoGame/Diablo}} character. In the original [=DotA=] his name was King Leoric.
* SicklyGreenGlow
* SkillGateCharacter: Despite being designated as a carry, the Wraith King carry build plays this straight. Wraith King has one of the highest win rates in pub games: ''Vampiric Aura'''s 30% lifesteal aura is absurdly powerful in a common pub 5-carry team (even Satanic only gives 25% lifesteal). Another factor in his winrate is the poor communication between players as to when ''Reincarnation'' is/isn't on cooldown. If you pop an enemy Wraith ult in the early game for example, it's a good idea to tell your team so they can use this knowledge to their advantage, which is something that people don't seem to do. However, he lacks the mobility of other melee carries (Anti-Mage, Slardar,...), he doesn't have particularly good teamfighting abilities or powerful skills (Spectre, Lifestealer,...), and he is too easily kitable. Because of this, whenever he is played competitively, he is either played as a support or as an offlaner buying utility items, acting as an initiator.
* TakingYouWithMe: With Aghanim's Scepter, he and his allies can attack and potentially kill their killer.
* TestosteronePoisoning: Alongside Axe, he's considered the manliest hero in Dota, a sentiment certainly aided by [[http://www.playdota.com/guides/epic-return this guide]].
** After the transformation into the Wraith King, this image became canon.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: He has special reactions for reviving with no allies nearby, which almost all consist of this.
* TinTyrant: His "low violence" skin back in the Skeleton King days.
* 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]].
** The transition from Skeleton King to Wraith King has not [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/6/6d/Wraith_ally_05.mp3 changed]] [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/a/a6/Wraith_rival_03.mp3 his mind.]]
* UnskilledButStrong: His skill set is pretty simple compared to most heroes, but he compensates.
* VampiricDraining: ''Vampiric Aura'' allows Wraith King and any nearby allies to restore 30% of whatever damage they deal with their right-clicks. Not only is this the largest lifesteal percentage next to Satanic's active, it also works for ranged attacks as well (which Vladmir's Offering doesn't), and stacks directly with other lifesteal abilities.
* 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. And once you ''do'' finally kill him, he stays around for five more seconds.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:N'aix, the Lifestealer]]
[[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!"]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Bruce Miles
''"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."''

* ActionBomb: The "Naix Bomb" strategy in a nutshell. Get in some hero good at making a DynamicEntry, wait for your momment, then pop out with explosive force.
* 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?
* TheBerserker: N'aix's playstyle involves hiding himself inside an ally (usually one with high mobility) to jump straight into the enemy team, pop ''Rage'' and ''Open Wounds'', then start to rip all of them apart.
* BloodyMurder: When he kills an infested creep with ''Consume'', N'aix deals damage to all nearby enemies.
* 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 it's an enemy creep.
* CannibalismSuperpower: His second skill, ''Feast''.
* CombatMedic: Of an unusual variety with ''Open Wounds'', which makes all damage a target take return half that much in health, and ''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. ''Assimilate'''s healing is best described as "Shove a heavily wounded person side yourself, then go fight something big".
* 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}}''.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment:
** Lifestealer can steal 3 different values from each autoattack, his ''Feast'' lifesteal, ''Open Wounds'' lifesteal, and any lifesteal items he bought, the latter two also lifestealing off of ''Feast'''s bonus damage.
** With Aghanim's Scepter, he can have someone basically infesting him, while he's also infesting someone else, essentially turning him into a Murder-Turducken.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Punishment for thievery and deception? An immortal lifetime of suffering.
* DoubleEntendre: Players often use ''Infest'' 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[=/=]PupeteerParasite: After casting ''Infest'' on a unit that is not an allied hero, Lifestealer can take direct control of it via the sub-ability ''Control'', giving him access to its movement and abilities. Even more, the unit will still appear normal to enemies (neutral creeps will still appear as neutral, and their lane creeps or summoned units will not switch sides), giving Lifestealer the element of surprise, although enemy players can still attack the unit in question once Lifestealer has control of it once they realize that he's inside.
* HorrorHunger: ''Feast''.
* HumanResources: When he uses ''Consume'' on an infested creep, Lifestealer devours it, healing himself equal to the victim's HP.
* HunterOfHisOwnKind: In a meta sense. ''Feast'' makes Lifestealer, a tanky hero with high HP, a good counter to other tanky heroes with high HP.
* IDieFree: Referenced in some of his dying responses and even said in verbatim.
* ImAHumanitarian
* KingMook: Originally one as a Ghoul that looked rather similar to the ones used as the Scourge's melee creeps in the original [=Dota=].
* LifeDrain: As befitting his name, three of Lifestealer's abilities steal HP from enemies and give it to him, or in the case of ''Open Wounds'', him and his teammates.
* 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]].
* MightyGlacier: Just with other low-mobility melee 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.
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: Just look at him.
* NonStandardSkillLearning: ''Assimilate'' is one of the few skills in the game that cannot be put points in, but is given to Lifestealer when he gets Aghanim's Scepter.
* NoSell: When N'aix uses ''Rage'', he becomes immune to magic.
* NounVerber
* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: He used the model of a Warcraft ghoul in [=DotA=], and he remained a [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Zombie Ghoul]] in [=DotA 2=].
* PercentDamageAttack: ''Feast'' deals extra damage and heals N'aix for a portion of the attacked enemy's current HP.
* PrimalStance
* SerialEscalation: With Aghanim's Scepter, Lifestealer gains a new ability, ''Assimilate'' which is basically a reverse ''Infest'' that lets him grab another hero and stick them in ''him''. He can then infest a third hero normally. With certain combinations of heroes with him at the center of the chain, one can literally drag an entire team into one hero.[[note]]Have Io link up to another hero and prepare to relocate them, then have keeper of the light recall another hero timed to trigger after relocate, then Lifestealer Assimilates Keeper of the Light and enters either Io or his linked hero. Io and the linked hero teleport with Naix and Keeper in tow, who then summons the fifth.[[/note]]
* SwallowedWhole: ''Assimilate'', of the "harmless temporary swallowing" variety.
* 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. His aghanims lets him take another hero, possibly the enemy's actual target with him.
* UnstoppableRage: ''Rage'', which makes N'aix immune to magic and gains increased attack speed for a few seconds.
* WasOnceAMan: One of Bristleback's rival lines refers to Lifestealer as an Oglodi, like Axe. You can kind of see it in N'aix's face (mostly the nose) and skin tone (close to Warlock's, who, like Lifestealer, hasn't gotten much sun over the years).
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Balanar, the Night Stalker]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Night_Stalker_9804.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/6/6c/Nstalk_spawn_03.mp3 "I'm the beast of bedtime tales."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Tony Todd
''"Of the Night Stalker, there is no history—only stories. There are ancient tales woven into the lore of every race and every culture, of an impossible time before sunlight and daytime, when night reigned alone and the world was covered with the creatures of darkness - creatures like Balanar the Night Stalker. It is said that on the dawn of the First Day, all the night creatures perished. All, that is, save one. Evil's embodiment, Night Stalker delights in his malevolence. He created the primal role of the Night Terror, the Boogeyman, and as long as there have been younglings, his is the specter summoned to terrify them. This is a role he relishes—nor are these empty theatrics. He does indeed stalk the unwary, the defenseless, those who have strayed beyond the lighted paths or denied the warnings of their communities. Night Stalker serves as living proof that every child's worst nightmare... is true."''

Night Stalker is a unique hero- he is the only hero who strongly relies on the in-game day/night cycle to maximize his effectiveness. Although he's slow-moving and has poor vision in the daytime, when the sun goes down Balanar undergoes a transformation; nighttime boosts his speed, attacks, vision range and the potency of his spells- and since most heroes have reduced nighttime vision, it provides Night Stalker the ability to gank from unexpected angles. His primary damaging spell, ''Void'', deals damage, mini-stuns, and slows the target; the slow duration gets increased at night. His second active ability, ''Crippling Fear'' silences the target and increases its chance to miss physical attacks; when used in conjunction with ''Void'', Night Stalker can pin any target down to finish them off, since this debuff also lasts longer at night. His passive, ''Hunter in the Night'', is his most important ability, boosting his movement and attack speed during the nighttime. His ultimate, ''Darkness'', can temporarily turn day into night or extend nighttime's duration, depending on when it is used, allowing for surprise ganks, escapes, or prolonged fights. Aghanim's Scepter grants him unobstructed vision at night, granting him almost complete map control so long as the sun is down. Balanar may be at his most vulnerable in the daytime, but when the sun falls... every hero should fear the dark.

* TheBerserker: Due to his inherent tankiness and massive speed boost from ''Hunter of the Night'', Night Stalker is one of the most aggressive heroes in the game, and can tower dive well quite early in the game to chase his prey.
** DifficultButAwesome: However, you need to think carefully what are you going to do when you start running towards your prey. This is the reason why many Night Stalker players fail horribly: they are either too reckless and get killed by the tower, or are too passive and do not snowball hard enough.
* CastingAShadow: His ultimate, ''Darkness'', instantly turns day into night, and reduces the vision range of all enemy units to 675. In addition, ''Void'' and ''Crippling Fear'' are both themed around darkness and fear.
* DarkIsEvil
* DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes: Night Stalker is tied with Batrider for having the lowest daytime vision range (the two are the only heroes in the game with less than 1800 day vision range). Incidentally, however, Balanar has the fourth-highest vision range total in the game (with Slark, Luna and Lycan tied for first, the latter two only under certain conditions).
* 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, on top of his innately very large night vision. His FanNickname due to this is "The Legal Map Hack".
* TheDreaded: According to his lore, he's been terrifying generations of children since civilization began. In the game, a good Night Stalker player could inspire fear all over the other team with this mindset: you are the strongest, fastest, most powerful and deadliest hero in the game so make them suffer, make them play worried of being ganked, make them play fearing being raped every second, in every corner, on every shadow. This is NOT true. You're not the strongest, maybe you're the fastest but this is what THEY must think about you. Play with your brain and the game is yours. By doing this they won't properly farm, they will feel discouraged and inevitably they will lose the game.
* EvilIsNotWellLit: Literally.
* FieldPowerEffect: He becomes a huge threat during the night. In addition, ''Darkness'' makes the night even more terrifying to his enemies, reducing their vision range.
* FrightDeathTrap: ''Crippling Fear''. Though it doesn't deal any damage, it is an extremely long silence combined with a miss chance, making its victim easy prey for Night Stalker.
* GameFace
* GlowingEyesOfDoom
* HourOfPower: Nightfall, and ''especially'' the first night of the game, is Night Stalker's turn to shine. He is unique in that he's one of the two heroes in the game whose abilities depend on the time of day (the other being Keeper of the Light, and only if he has Aghanim's Scepter).
* HumanoidAbomination
* ImAHumanitarian: His voice lines imply that he eats the heroes that he kills.
* InnateNightVision: Night Stalker's vision range is 1800 during the night; in contrast, most other heroes only have 800 night vision.
* JackOfAllStats: While he is often played as a snowballing ganker, using ''Void'' and ''Hunter of the Night'' to relentlessly tower dive and chase his prey, he is sometimes played as a (very greedy) support due to the massive amount of vision he gives his team and takes away from the enemy.
* LastOfHisKind
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: He has special voice lines for when night transitions into day, signaled in-game by a rooster's crow. One of them is this:
--> '''Night Stalker''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/a/ab/Nstalk_dayrise_05.mp3 If I ever get my claws on that bird...]]
* LightningBruiser: Night Stalker's passive ability, ''Hunter in the Night'', gives him dramatic movement and attack speed boosts, and since he's a Strength hero (and has respectable Agility growth as well), he tends to have loads of HP and armor late game, making him hard to bring down unless focused on.
* MechanicallyUnusualClass: Night Stalker is the only hero in Dota who relies on the in-game day-night cycle to maximise his effectiveness. While other heroes are also affected by the time of day to a certain extent (like lowered vision for most heroes, or Keeper of the Light's Aghanim's Scepter upgrade), Night Stalker's entire kit revolves around exploiting the day-night cycle as much as possible.
* MightyGlacier: During the day, he's still capable of dealing some impressive burst damage and hitting hard while taking a hit, he's just not nearly as capable of chasing down victims or escaping from bad situations.
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily
* NightmareFace: During the night, his face splits to reveal a maw with three jaws.
* NounVerber
* PowerNullifier: ''Crippling Fear'' silences its target, on top of adding the miss chance, for up to 8 seconds, though it only lasts 3 seconds at all levels in the daytime.
* TheRival: He has a few rival lines for whenever he kills Lycan.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: And he won't stop until every diurnal creature is dead.
* SwirlyEnergyThingy: ''Void'':
-->Balanar creates a vortex of infinite night, tearing opponents violently into the eternal darkness that once was.
* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight
* TimeAbyss: Not counting the various immortal Fundamental characters, Night Stalker is one of the oldest characters in the game; according to his backstory, he predates almost every race and civilization in the DOTA world.
* TotalEclipseOfThePlot: When ''Darkness'' is cast in the daytime, it blots out the sun while still causing time to pass, meaning that daytime is still ticking down during the ultimate. If he manages to reach level 16, Night Stalker can enforce only 30 second periods of daylight every 50 seconds, giving the enemy only a minute and a half of sunlight out of the eight minute day-night cycle.
* WalkingShirtlessScene
* WeakenedByTheLight: During the daytime, ''Void'' and ''Crippling Fear'' are only half as effective, and ''Hunter of the Night'' does nothing at all. Additionally, he has the shortest sight range of any hero during the daytime, tied with Batrider. He even has various voice lines for whenever it shifts between day and night.
* WingedHumanoid
* WingsDoNothing: Somewhat averted; although at daytime they are useless, at nighttime his wings flap every now and then, but he remains grounded. Only when he activates the Haste rune does he actually take off the ground.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Lucifer, the Doom]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Doom_Bringer_3903.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/2/2e/Doom_rare_01.mp3 "Speak of me, and I shall appear. Face me and face the furnace! "]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' John Patrick Lowrie
''"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."''

* AchillesHeel:
** The only thing that can stop Doom's ultimate is a Linken's Sphere. While Doom can counter this by casting ''LVL? Death'' on the target beforehand, this can make or break an initiation since the very first spell cast can change the entire dynamic of a teamfight, and giving the enemy that fraction of a second can give them a solid advantage.
** Lotus Orb, especially in the hands of a [[SomeDexterityRequired fast-fingered player]]. Since ''Doom'''s cast point is so long, if the enemy manages to buff the Lotus Orb on a hero Doom is facing after blinking, Doom might end up getting hit by his own ultimate.
** Illusion based heroes are also a problem for Doom, but Morphling is his biggest counter. ''Replicate'' 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.
* {{BFS}}: So big it gives him longer range than other melee heroes.
** FlamingSword
** OddlyShapedSword
** OnehandedZweihander: Despite the size of the sword, Doom has no problem wielding or swinging it with one hand alone.
* BigRedDevil: As can be seen in his portrait.
** HornedHumanoid: Which can also be seen in his portrait.
** OurDemonsAreDifferent
* CannibalismSuperpower: His first ability, ''Devour'', instantly kills the target creep and gives him bonus gold and whatever abilities it has. It's one of reasons why Doom can be dangerous to leave alone to farm by himself despite the rest of his skill set, since if he can farm an early Hand of Midas, he can get out of control with his XP and gold gain.
** PowerParasite
* CursedWithAwesome: His punishment in his backstory is the source of his power.
* DifficultButAwesome
** Doom's third 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 spammable. 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 essentially a ministun, doing so correctly gets you over 20% of your target's HP in damage and stops channeling spells.
** Similar philosophy applies to using ''Devour'', as the creep abilities and auras can be extremely useful in the right situations. Devouring certain creeps can give you powerful jungling capability, devouring others can give you clutch abilities to use in teamfights such as purges and disables, and devouring still others can give you massive damage output for yourself and your team.
* DoomyDoomsOfDoom: Taken to its logical extreme with his ultimate, ''Doom''.
-->'''Doom''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/c/cc/Doom_ability_doom_04.mp3 YOU'RE DOOMED.]]
* DumbMuscle: Doom is tied with Phantom Assassin, Troll Warlord and Lone Druid for having the lowest base Intelligence in the game. His mana pool is a measly 169 points at level 1, which only allows him to cast two or three spells (the most expensive of which is only 110 mana) before running completely dry...
** GeniusBruiser: ...however, he also has the sixth-highest Intelligence growth of all Strength heroes in the game (and ties with or beats all Agility heroes except Sniper). So once he gets a few levels in lane, his mana pool becomes somewhat more manageable.
* EvilOverlord: Lorewise, he is the most powerful demon of the [[PowerTrio Doom, Shadow Fiend, and Shadow Demon]] trio.
* EvilSoundsDeep
* FireAndBrimstoneHell: He comes from one.
* FixedDamageAttack: Doom does pure damage, and penetrates magic immunity.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Literally.
* HellFire[=/=]HellOnEarth: His second ability, ''Scorched Earth'', surrounds him with an aura of fire which boosts his movement speed, damages enemies, and heals himself and any creeps under his control.
** FeedItWithFire: The fire heals him and makes him faster.
* HopelessBossFight: Becomes this for solo fights once he gets Aghanim's Scepter. Without it, he's still beatable, but barely. With it, you're taking massive damage every second, none of your abilities or items work, he's faster than you, heals rapidly, and has fifty truck's worth of health to start with. He even looks the part.
* InformedEquipment: Doom has extremely low Agility and one of the lowest base armor amounts in the game despite having the most visible armor on his in-game model.
* ItemCaddy: Like Nature's Prophet and Alchemist, good Doom play revolves around using his abilities to get as much farm as possible, and turn it into powerful game-changing items. ''Devour'' lets him farm a Hand of Midas relatively quickly by accelerating his gold gain, and combined the two can let him snowball out of control if left alone.
* 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 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.
* MagikarpPower: Early on, Doom's barely better than a jungle creep, and often worse, and is only good for getting his face punched in thanks to his literally nonexistant armor. Later on however, Doom is ''really'' good at being punched in the face and ignoring it, can shut down any one or ''two'' enemy heroes and promptly force them out of the fight, and be carrying enough auras to let regular creeps beat [[GiantMook mega creeps]].
* MercyKill: ''Doom'' is one of the very few spells tn the game that allows the afflicted hero to be denied by a teammate. In many cases, the only way for a hero to avoid being killed by Doom is to be killed by a teammate instead.
* 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 once he has farms enough items with ''Devour'' and Hand of Midas, he's nearly impossible to bring down without resorting to magic nukes, which a Black King Bar, Hood of Defiance, Pipe of Insight or Linken's Sphere can easily nullify.
** LightningBruiser: ''Scorched Earth'' provides a movement speed bonus. If combined with a Kobold Foreman's ''Speed Aura'' or speed boosting items like Yasha, Doom can move pretty quickly, while his farming capabilities also allow him to buy all the items he needs to give himself extra attack speed.
* MiniMook: If Doom dies with a Mud Golem (whose passive ability ''Shard Golems'' causes it to split into 2 smaller Shard Golems when killed) devoured, he will split into two Doomlings that can wear his cosmetic items, use the Shard Golem's ''Hurl Boulder'' ability and last 60 seconds exactly as normal Shard Golems.
* MoneyMultiplier: ''Devour'' gives Doom bonus unreliable gold with every creep he eats after a short delay. The catch is that the debuff duration depends on the health of the creep when it was consumed, so using it properly when it's at max level requires you to hit the bigger creeps a few times before using Devour, to ensure that the debuff ends before the ability comes off of cooldown.
** LogicalWeakness: One small weakness with ''Devour'' besides the above is that Doom only gets the gold bonus once he finishes digesting the creep. So, if he's killed while he's chewing it, not only does he lose unreliable gold due to the death, but he also loses the bonus gold from ''Devour''. This gives players a bigger incentive to work down creeps before consuming them.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast
* NumberOfTheBeast: Referred several times in his backstory.
* ObviouslyEvil
* PlayingWithFire: ''Scorched Earth'' burns the ground around Doom.
* PercentDamageAttack: ''Lvl? Death'', if it hits on the right leveled hero, does 20% of their hp ontop of it's normal damage. It's also practically a SpamAttack once Doom has the mana to fuel it.
* PowerNullifier: His ultimate, ''Doom'', is a much more potent version of a silence, disabling items on top of the target's ability to cast, all on top of inflicting damage over time, and lasts extremely long (15 seconds) compared to similar hard disables like stuns or hexes.
** Aghanim's Scepter takes this UpToEleven. Normally, ''Doom'' is not perfectly effective against certain targets who have passive abilities and items that allow them to keep fighting even if they can't cast anything or use their item's active abilities (a Phantom Assassin with levels in ''Blur'' can still evade attacks, which can stack with the evasion from Butterfly, and can still inflict crits from ''Coup de Grace'', all on top of still being able to passively lifesteal from their Satanic if they have one). However, if Doom has an Aghanim's Scepter, all options go out the window, since not only can PA not evade right-clicks anymore, right-clicking enemies doesn't work either since she won't be able to crit or lifesteal either. ''Doom'' is universally regarded as one of the hardest disables in the game, and it's often joked that it counters every single hero in the game because of this.
** As if the above were not enough, not only does the damage over time increase when an Aghanim's Scepter is purchased, ''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 and possibly dying anyway, or a desperate attempt to use their right-clicks to fight back, which rarely works against him if he has enough armor.]]
-->'''[[MemeticMutation Image Macro:]]''' [[http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/5729/si5o.png "Go ahead, call your team; they can't un-Doom you!"]]
* {{Satan}}: In line with Whole Plot Reference, Doom's name is Lucifer.
** FallenHero
* ShoutOut: Aside from being based on the [[Literature/TheBible Biblical]] [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]], he also has references to ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' like the "oddly" named ''LVL? Death''.
** His ability to copy neutral creep abilities by eating them is pretty much lifted directly from ''{{VideoGame/Final Fantasy IX}}'''s Quinoa, who in turn is based on the recurring Blue Mage class.
* SkullForAHead: Apparently that's how he looks under the helmet.
* TinTyrant
* [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer When All You Have Is Doom]]: Doom's ultimate is often treated as the solution to any teamfight problem, casting it on the most threatening enemy target (or the one with the most active abilities and teamfight items) to put them out of the fight, regardless of circumstances. Having trouble dealing with a farmed Phantom Assassin? Get an Aghanim's Scepter and ''Doom'' her to render her entirely useless. The Omniknight with the Mekansm, Crimson Guard and Pipe of Insight making it extremely hard to kill his teammates? ''Doom'' him and he can't use those items or cast his spells, making his teammates much squishier.
* WholePlotReference: Does his BackStory seem familiar? [[Literature/TheBible It should.]]
* WingsDoNothing: He has wings in the original [=DotA=]. Justified in Dota 2 where it was even described in his BackStory as only smoking stumps remaining.
* YouAreAlreadyDead: Killed or gotten away from Doom after he hits you with his titular spell? [[OhCrap Check your health bar.]] Doom still does up to 1280 more damage if he has Aghanim's Scepter.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Barathrum, the Spirit Breaker]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Spirit_Breaker_464.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/b/bb/Spir_spawn_03.mp3 "I'll break their spirits and their backs."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Fred Tatasciore
''"Barathrum the Spirit Breaker is a lordly and powerful being, a fierce and elemental intelligence which chose to plane-shift into the world of matter to take part in events with repercussions in the elemental realm that is his home. To that end, he assembled a form that would serve him well, both in our world and out of it. His physical form borrows from the strengths of this world, blending features both bovine and simian--horns, hooves and hands--as outward emblems of his inner qualities of strength, speed and cunning. He wears a ring in his nose, as a reminder that he serves a hidden master, and that this world in which he works is but a shadow of the real one."''

* 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.
* CycleOfHurting: If lucky and fast enough, he can stun-lock any foe for a very long time, and his active abilities can be used to [[LuckManipulationMechanic compensate for unlucky streaks]].
* DifficultButAwesome: Spirit Breaker's gameplay revolves around 2 area of effect skills with clumsy single-target targetting and delays. Properly using them can bring some of the best BKB-penetrating area of effect and ''spammable'' lockdown in the game, great nuking potential, and knock opponents around, but doing so means choosing a target for a spell quickly and position to get it off right.
* EpicFlail: His signature weapon is a ghostly ball and chain.
* FieldPowerEffect: ''Empowering Haste'' grants bonus movespeed to Spirit Breaker and nearby allies. In earlier [=DotA=] versions, this also gave him a damage bonus relative to his total movespeed. Later versions nerfed this damage bonus, moving it instead to the percentage-chance ''Greater Bash''.
* FlashStep: ''Nether Strike'' has him disappear, then reappear next to the target to deal massive magical damage.
* 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.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith
* GlowingEyesOfDoom
* HornedHumanoid
* {{Knockback}}: ''Greater Bash''. To offset the distance created between Barathrum and his enemy, he also gains a slight movespeed buff.
* LightningBruiser: One of the best examples, being both a Strength hero and one of the fastest in the game. This power is somewhat offset by his limited moveset.
* ALoadOfBull
* MeaningfulName[=/=]AltumVidetur: "Barathrum" means "underworld" in Latin.
* NounVerber
* PoorPredictableRock: Both of his active abilities are centered around ''Greater Bash'', and he can do little more without items.
* PrimalStance: He walks on all fours. Well, except for the hand he uses to hold his flail.
* RedEyesTakeWarning
* SavagePiercings: He wears a ring in his nose and multiple in his ears.
* SelectiveGravity: His flail seems to have no weight at all, floating in the air when he's standing still, but is heavy enough to knock back enemies when it hits.
* SuperPersistentPredator: Once Spirit Breaker charges an enemy, he will keep charging until he hits his target (unless he is stunned/somehow disabled or his controlling player deliberately breaks the charge). If charging from across the map, he will cross over mountains, through the jungle, past towers, across the river, et cetera.
* SuperSpeed: ''Charge of Darkness''.
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: Since his charge no longer alerts the target and he's one of the heroes who can keep up the stun for several seconds, he's very effective at surprise ganks.
* UnskilledButStrong: All he has in terms of damage output is his ultimate and a chance to bash on his normal autoattacks, but he doesn't need much else to win in one-on-one ganks or teamfights.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Banehallow, the Lycan]]
[[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?"]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Nolan North
''"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."''

An adept jungler, a great pusher, and absolutely terrifying when well fed, Banehallow Von Ambry is an adaptable carry capable of decimating towers and entire teams when played correctly. His first skill, "Summon Wolves" does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, summoning 2 wolves that can be used in a variety of ways, including scouting, farming, and fighting alongside the Lycan; at later levels, they also receive critical hits and invisibility. His second skill, "Howl", gives a global attack buff to all allies on the map, allowing the Lycan to support ganks and teamfights anywhere, anytime. His third skill, "Feral Impulse" is a passive buff to himself and his wolves' attack speed and damage. And finally, his ultimate, "Shapeshift", turns Lycan into a LightningBruiser capable of chasing down and killing even the fastest enemy, while also being able to escape at a moment's notice. In the hands of a skilled player, Lycan dominates entire matches.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: ''Banehallow von Ambry''.
* BadassBeard
* BalefulPolymorph: Defied. 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.
* TheBeastmaster: He can summon canine familiars with ''Summon Wolves''. ''Feral Impulse'' also encourages building summoning items like Necronomicon on him as well, since it benefits all units under his control.
* BlueBlood: Formerly, as an Ambry scion.
** NobleFugitive
* CanineCompanion: His wolves.
* CreepyGood: Banehallow looks nasty in both his human and wolf forms, but is an undoubtedly heroic character.
* {{Familiar}}: His summoned wolves.
* FragileSpeedster: His wolves max out at 320 health, comparable to ranged creeps, and have no armor at all. They're also extremely fast, but still easily wiped off the map with a few autoattacks.
* GlassCannon: His wolves max out at 320 health, comparable to ranged creeps, and have no armor at all. On the other hand, they 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.
* HealingFactor: Wolves summoned by level 4 ''Summon Wolves'' gain a massive 15 HP regeneration.
* HuskyRusskie: Invoked with his voice actor's FakeRussian accent.
* {{Invisibility}}: His summoned wolves at level 3.
* LightningBruiser: ''Shapeshift'' lets him run ''faster than the normal maximum movement speed'', and prevents him from being slowed. It also gives him a free critical hit. Good luck trying to get away from him when he's in wolf form.
* TheMinionMaster: Necronomicon is often considered a core item for Lycan. The thing is, with the Necronomicon minions, his wolves and damage buff from ''Howl'' and ''Feral Impulse'', 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.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast
* NaturalWeapon: His claws in wolf form. He does appear to have claws in human form, but doesn't use them.
* [[EvilCounterpart Neutral Counterpart]]: 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, Sylla is a MightyGlacier without much in the way of speed. Ironically, Banehallow is a Strength hero and Sylla is an Agility hero. Despite their allegiances in-game Banehallow is a somewhat rude, yet agreeable person, while Sylla is quite literally attempting to cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
* NobleWolf: Despite being on the Dire ('evil') side, Banehallow is a decidedly heroic character.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Almost entirely wolf when in wolf form. Appears to have burning embers on his mane.
* 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."]]
* ShoutOut: To the {{Literature/Twilight}} fandom.
--> '''Lycan:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/0/03/Lycan_death_11.mp3 "I thought you were team Yakov!"]]
* SummonMagic: ''Summon Wolves''
* SuperMode: ''Shapeshift''
* SuperSpeed: In wolf form, Lycan's movement speed is raised to 650, making him faster than the normal maximum of 522.
* {{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''.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Chaos Knight]]
[[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."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Barry Dennen
''"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."''

* AnimalMotif: Horses, notably the sound effect for ''Chaos Strike'' is a whinnying horse.
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: He is the "sentient expression" of Chaos.
* ArchEnemy: The being known only as "The Light". Particularly its embodiment, the Keeper of the Light.
* BlackKnight: He even calls himself a knight in blackest armor.
* ChaosIsEvil: He's Chaos itself, and it's implied that he brings the apocalypse itself to entire worlds in his hunt for "The Light".
* CoolHelmet
* CoolHorse
** HellishHorse
* DamageIncreasingDebuff: On proc, ''Chaos Strike'' places a debuff on the victim that reduces their armor.
* DarkIsEvil
* DumbMuscle: Chaos Knight's main weakness is his abysmal starting Intelligence and Intelligence growth, which means that his abilities can very quickly deplete his small mana pool.
* DynamicEntry: ''Reality Rift'' opens a wormhole which Chaos Knight and his illusions jump through; all of them will deal bonus damage on their target for their next attack.
* EliteArmy: ''Phantasm'' illusions are much more powerful than any other illusions in the game.
* EntropyAndChaosMagic: ''Chaos Bolt'' launches a bolt of unholy energy which not even Chaos Knight can predict.
* EvilSoundsDeep
* {{Expy}}: Some see him as a parallel, and he even makes a few references to the HorsemenOfTheApocalypse, considering his ability to split into multiple images (at its final level, it produces 3 copies of himself).
* FireballEyeballs
* FourFingeredHands
* GlassCannon: ''Phantasm'' illusions do just as much damage as he does, but take 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?"]]
* HumanoidAbomination: It's hard to tell with the armor on, but Chaos Knight is composed solely of chaotic energy.
* 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 third highest base movement speed (behind Enchantress and Luna, and tied with Skywrath Mage and Lone Druid without his True Form), and his ''Reality Rift'' lets him jump right into an enemy. He also has a fairly high Agility gain for a Strength hero, and the resulting increase in attack speed makes his ''Chaos Strike'' more common, increasing his damage output even more.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: With SpikesOfVillainy on the edges and center.
* MonsterKnight
* MountedCombat
* NamesToRunAwayFromVeryFast: Apart from Chaos Knight himself, his horse is named Armageddon.
* NoNameGiven: Though he was originally named "Nessaj" in [=DOTA=].
* NotSoDifferent: Says this word per word in [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/9/91/Chaknight_rival_26.mp3 one of his lines against Doom]].
* PhysicalGod: As one of the four Fundamentals.
* RandomizedDamageAttack: Chaos Knight's right-click attacks have the highest damage range in the game (30), and ''Chaos Bolt'' inflicts a random but inversely-related amount of damage and stun. Upgrading the spell increases both the maximum and minimum values of both the damage and stun, but there's still a big difference between a 275 damage skill that stuns for 2 seconds, and one that does 100 and stuns for 4.
* 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. ''Chaos Strike'' is particularly noteworthy as it's the second best innate crit in the game (tied with Wraith King and below only Phantom Assassin), but has the lowest chance to proc out of any crit in the game.
** ForMassiveDamage: If you get ''really'' lucky, he and all 4 of his illusions can all proc ''Chaos Strike'' at once, causing a grand total of '''''1475%''''' damage.
* SelfDuplication: ''Phantasm'' illusions are actually copies of the Chaos Knight from alternate dimensions.
* SentientCosmicForce: Chaos Knight is the sentient manifestation of chaos.
* SinisterScythe: The Bone Splitter cosmetic weapon is a scythe.
* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Similar to Tiny, Chaos Knight has very good synergy with Io, since he benefits very well from the mana provided by ''Tether'' (which also synergises with ''Reality Rift'') and the ability to gank globally with ''Relocate''. The trade-off is, Chaos Knight 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.
* TimeAbyss: Being a Fundamental, he is literally as old as creation.
* VolcanicVeins
* WorthyOpponent: Considers Dragon Knight one, and unlike the rest of the knight-themed characters, doesn't mock him for not having a mount.
* YouWillNotEvadeMe: With a Manta Style and fully leveled ''Phantasm'', he can completely suround someone with himself. This is of course, a rather short term propostion since you're surrounded by Chaos Knights beating on you. And if they somehow do escape, he can pull them back in with ''Reality Rift''.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Undying, the Almighty Dirge]]
[[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..."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Fred Tatasciore
''"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[=/=]MookMaker[=/=]NightOfTheLivingMooks: ''Tombstone'' summons a tombstone which spawns zombies 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.
* CoolHelmet
* DamageIncreasingDebuff: When he uses ''Flesh Golem'', Undying gains a Plague Aura that slows all enemy units and amplifies the damage they take. It increases in effectiveness the closer Undying is to a target, so simply standing next to an enemy allows Undying's teammates to focus them down alarmingly quickly.
* DeadWeight: When ''Flesh Golem'' is active, Undying becomes one of the biggest and heaviest heroes in the game, rivalled only by Tiny, Treant Protector and Pudge.
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Undying's main source of damage comes from ''Tombstone'' zombies, which don't hit very hard but are extremely numerous.
* DeceasedAndDiseased
* DiscOneNuke: ''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. The early multi-target utility of ''Decay'' makes it a phenomonal ability versus tri-lanes, growing Undying to almost unkillable size, while making his enemies easy pick offs.
* FinishingMove: ''Tombstone'' zombies get a huge stats boost when they are chasing low HP heroes.
* FriendlyFireproof: ''Soul Rip'', which drains health from all units near the target, friendly or enemy, is notably one of the very few aversions in Dota (although this damage is minuscule and isn't lethal).
* GeniusBruiser: Undying was originally an Intelligence hero, and was changed to be a Strength hero. He has ''the'' highest base Intelligence of all non-INT heroes, to the point where there are only ''two'' Intelligence heroes that beat him (Dark Seer and Jakiro). He also has the second-highest INT growth of Strength heroes, and beats out most Agility heroes except Sniper as well. His Intelligence is even higher than his Strength throughout the game.
* GodOfEvil: The Dead God.
* GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath
* HerdHittingAttack: Undying is all about taking advantage of huge crowds of friends and foes. ''Decay'' increases significantly in power as the enemy group up since it allows Undying to steal up to 20 Strength at a time, while ''Soul Rip'' increases linearly in power the more units there are in its area of effect. ''Tombstone'' will summon a Zombie for every enemy within its radius so it's highly effective if placed among a large concentration of enemies, and give Undying the numbers he needs to make ''Soul Rip'' work.
* IneffectualLoner: Undying's skills do not work well without allies: ''Decay'''s Strength drain is powerful but the actual damage inflicted is very minimal, and he basically relies on allies to go and finish the job, or at least inflict the harassment that will leave enemies on low health when their strength is returned; ''Tombstone'' needs to be combined with a lockdown to prevent enemies from destroying it or quickly running away before many zombies can spawn, while ''Soul Rip'' needs many nearby units (most of the time zombies) to become truly powerful.
* {{Kevlard}}: Undying physically grows larger as he accumulates ''Decay'' stacks.
* KingMook
* 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.
* MightyGlacier: Early game, ''Decay'' is one of the most powerful level 1 spells in the game, able to sap 76 max HP from each enemy hero and give them to Undying for a whopping 40 seconds, while ''Soul Rip'' combined with enough ''Tombstone'' zombies is one of the most powerful nukes in the game...
** StoneWall: Late game, the damage from ''Decay'' falls off hard, and Undying's atrocious Agility means that he'll hit very slowly with his right-clicks, though zombies are still annoying, and ''Flesh Golem'' still works well. His late game is all about tanking and auras, with a little bit of utility thrown in. He wants to cause maximum disruption and survive as long as possible to help inflict damage.
* MonsterLord: The herald and army leader for the Dead God.
* NoSell: ''Tombstone'' zombies are immune to everything but auto-attacks, preventing them from being easily wiped out by area nukes.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: He eats flesh, decays, but is sentient and serves the Dead God.
* PinataEnemy: The ''Tombstone'' has a fairly substantial bounty. Bad ''Tombstone'' usage can thus provide an easy source of free farm for enemies.
* RunOrDie: Usually what the enemy has to resort to if they cannot kill Undying in a certain amount of time. The longer Undying stays alive (whether it's in a teamfight or when the enemy tries to gank him), the more often he can cast ''Decay'' and ''Soul Rip'' to keep himself alive, and the more zombies will pile up from ''Tombstone''. After a certain point, Undying can simply turn on the enemy and annihilate them with ''Soul Rip'' while the zombies pin them down and prevent them from escaping. It's not uncommon for three-man ganks against Undying in the early game to turn into a Triple Kill for Undying if he plays his cards right.
* 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 ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'':
-->'''Undying:''' [[MemeticMutation "Wards]] [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/d/d3/Undying_items_02.mp3 here!"]]
* SicklyGreenGlow: ''Decay'' and ''Soul Rip''.
* SpamAttack: At max levels, ''Decay'' drops down to a cooldown of 4 seconds, while ''Soul Rip'' has a cooldown of 6. With a large enough mana pool and a big enough pool of units under ''Soul Rip'''s radius (more often than not zombies from ''Tombstone''), Undying can steal an absurd amount of Strength, and drop 480 HP nukes/heals every 6 seconds.
* SuperMode: His ultimate, ''Flesh Golem''[[note]]Not actually the subject of FleshGolem trope[[/note]].
** PowerMakesYourVoiceDeep: Very much so.
* ThroatLight: The cosmetic Immortal ''Tombstone'' Pale Mausoleum is shaped like a skull, with glowing green eyes and mouth.
** DemBones: It also reskins the Tombstone Zombies into skeletons.
** RedEyesTakeWarning: The Golden Pale Mausoleum, a golden variation of the Pale Mausoleum, glows red instead of green.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: He has a thing for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqQyGfP9RbI "gummy" vitamins]] in some joke lines.
* VampiricDraining:
** ''Decay'' drains Strength from enemy heroes and gives it to Undying.
** ''Soul Rip'' takes a small amount of health from every unit in a huge area and channels it into a burst of heal for an ally or damage for an enemy.
** ''Flesh Golem'' will heal Undying for a percentage of his maximum HP if an enemy dies under his Plague Aura.
* WalkingWasteland: His ultimate has this effect on the environment.
* WhyWontYouDie: ''Flesh Golem'' heals a percentage of his maximum health for every enemy unit that dies nearby, and ''Soul Rip'' has a 6 second cooldown, allowing him to heal himself for large amounts of health constantly if there are multiple units active (on top of ''Decay'' increasing his maximum health for each stack). This means that fights against Undying quickly get out of control if anyone dies next to him, or too many zombies stack up.
* ZergRush: ''Tombstone'' zombies are individually weak but spawn very fast and are extremely numerous. Notably, ''Tombstone'' zombies will ''always'' outnumber the enemy's own ZergRush since it spawns 1 zombie next to every single enemy unit in its radius, repeatedly.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Magnus, the Magnoceros]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Magnus_6314.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/c/c4/Magn_cast_02.mp3 " Yes, the thunder you hear is my hooves! "]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Dempsey Pappion
''"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."''

Arguably ''the'' initiator of Dota, as well as a fairly competent semi-carry, Magnus is capable of turning teamfights around and setting up entire teams to get mowed down in seconds. His first skill, ''Shockwave'' is a long-ranged nuke with comparatively low mana cost, area of effect, and cooldown, rewarding proper use with the ability to force enemies out of the lane. His second skill, ''Empower'' grants anyone under it's effect a major damage boost, and if they're melee, a powerful Cleave, while his third skill, ''Skewer'' pulls quadruple duty as a escape, early-game replacement for blink dagger until he can farm it, nuke, and repositioning ability either by itself, or comboed with ''Reverse Polarity'' and ''Blink Dagger'' to pull an entire enemy team to their dooms. His Ultimate, ''Reverse Polarity'' is a medium area of effect stun that pulls everyone in it's effect into a small cluster, perfect for skewering, cleaving, and nuking.

* BerserkButton: Don't touch his horn.
* BladeOnAStick
* DifficultButAwesome: All but 1 of his skills falls into this: ''Shockwave'' is a very thin area nuke with a comparatively slow speed, but has a low cooldown and mana cost, letting a Magnus that can reliably hit it force opponents out of lane. ''Skewer'' is a repositioning skill that can drag up to 4 heroes a long distance, being usable to push a ganker away from a low HP hero, drag a hero towards your waiting team or simply ram into them, but like ''Shockwave'', is a very small [=AoE=] ability. ''Reverse Polarity'' has one of the smallest areas of effects for an ultimate ability, but also combines being a very long stun, forcing all opponents together to land a perfect ''Skewer'' or ''Shockwave'' as well as make full use of ''Empower'' granting a cleave to the melee carry. All in all, Magnus relies on smaller area of effect spells with a more powerful and cheaper effect than counterparts like Tidehunter's ''Ravage'' or Dragon Knight's ''Breathe Fire''.
** Arguably the best sign of Magnus's difficulty, is that one has to actually ''turn in the middle of casting Reverse Polarity'' so that they can ''Skewer'' their catch towards their team faster.
* DishingOutDirt: He can channel tectonic energy to create shockwaves, or pull his foes together.
* DropTheHammer: With the Immortal weapon Shock of the Anvil.
** ImprovisedWeapon: It's a hammer made out of an anvil.
* DynamicEntry: ''Skewer'' or Blink Dagger[=/=]''Reverse Polarity'' combo.
* 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.
* FantasticRacism: Magnus seems to hate the Slithereen, given that he has special kill responses towards all of them that insult their race.
* FoeTossingCharge: ''Skewer'' drags every unit he collides with towards his final destination.
* HerdHittingAttack: Magnus can give this to himself or a friendly hero with ''Empower''. ''Reverse Polarity'''s also capable of grouping enemies together, magnifying the effects of these.
* HeroicSacrifice: It's possible to pull a ganker off your ally with ''Skewer'', but if you don't have ''Reverse Polarity'' to follow it up with, or simply don't have enough allies nearby, you end up face to face with a ganker without your escape ability.
** TakeMeInstead
* HornAttack
* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: He's attracted to Enchantress: she's a doe, he's a rhino.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: His third skill, ''Skewer''.
* [[ImprobableUseOfAWeapon Improbable Use Of A Horn]]: Magnus skewers people on the ''side'' of his horn.
* LightningBruiser: Magnus has a movement speed of 315, a very fast charging skewer, high Agility for a Strength hero, is fairly tough, and has arguably the single most powerful teamfight ability in the entire game.
* [[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 woolly mammoth and a centaur. To avoid legal issues he is now a centauroid rhinoceros.
* MagicKnight: A common build for Magnus would be to get a blink dagger, then focus on DPS-increasing items to boost his damage output, as he has a fair bit of agility growth, a good damage steroid, and can hit large groups easily with his cleave and ''Reverse Polarity''. While not as effective as a traditional carry, it's still quite deadly.
* MagikarpPower: Of all focused initiators, Magnus is the worst in early game ganks, but the best at late-game high-stakes teamfights, given that he can help his carry farm with ''Empower'', do a fair bit of damage himself, and usually has his ultimate up every teamfight while the other two mass-disable ultimates, Tidehunter's ''Ravage'' and Enigma's ''Black Hole'' have nearly ''twice'' the cooldown and the heroes themselves can't fight as well as Magnus can.
* MagnetismManipulation: ''Reverse Polarity'' changes properties of matter, sucking all nearby enemies in front of Magnus.
* MarsNeedsWomen: Has a crush on Enchantress, who is more humanoid then him.
* MasterOfNone: Not Magnus himself, but rather his ''Skewer'' ability, which pays for being a low-cost repositoning, nuking, slowing, mobility, and escape skill by being not all that good at any of those. Its slow is incredibly short, does less damage than the more easily spamable ''Shockwave'', has a massive 30 second cooldown, can't escape all that well because it's liable to drag heroes with Magnus, and starts from Magnus's location, meaning a Blink Dagger is needed to really use it as a repositioning ability.
* MoneyMultiplier: While ''Empower'' doesn't directly increase the amount of gold gained, it grants whoever Magnus casts it on both a damage boost, and if they're melee, a cleave and can increase a carry's farming speed by a very notable amount.
* PrehistoricMonster: He has many traits of elasmotheres and woolly rhinoceri in his design.
* RammingAlwaysWorks[=/=]UseYourHead: ''Skewer''.
* ReversePolarity: Used as the name for his ultimate.
* RhinoRampage
* RingOut: Can invoke this with ''Skewer'' to drag other heroes onto a cliff, often during the first moments of the game. What makes this truly hilarious is when he does this to ''the entire enemy team'' with ''Reverse Polarity''. [[DifficultButAwesome Doing so without ending up on a cliff yourself however...]]
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge
* ShockwaveStomp: After sucking all enemies in front of him with ''Reverse Polarity'', Magnus follows up by stunning them with a powerful slam.
* SpamAttack: ''Shockwave'' has a fairly short cooldown and low mana cost. After he gets a Bottle, Magnus can easily use it to harass, last hit and force an enemy out of the lane.
* [[SwordBeam Spear Beam]]: ''Shockwave'' consists of a well, shockwave of energy created by Magnus slamming his spear on the ground.
* SphereOfDestruction: ''Reverse Polarity'' appears a huge collapsing sphere moments before it goes off.
* [[VigilanteMan Vigilante Magnoceros]]
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Abaddon, the Lord of Avernus]]
[[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."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' TJ Ramini
''"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 so long as he doesn't manually trigger it.
** Ancient Apparition's ''Ice Blast'' is perhaps the most powerful counter to Abaddon, as it will prevent any healing done by the ability (though he also won't take any damage either since it would otherwise heal him). If Abaddon somehow manages to slip below the 10% HP threshold though (which can only realistically happen if the blast itself brings him from over 400 HP to below the threshold, as Abaddon is unlikely to farm himself up to above 4,000 HP), he will shatter even if ''Borrowed Time'' is active.
* ArchEnemy: Abaddon's helmet is apparently made from the head of a Zealot Scarab. This is corroborated by a rival line for whenever he kills Nyx Assassin, and a corresponding rival line from Nyx if he kills Abaddon.
* BadassCape
* 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
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled[=/=]TooDumbToLive: The self-damage from ''Mist Coil'' can actually kill Abaddon if his health is below the cost of the spell, so bad players can accidentally kill themselves or smart players can take advantage of it to deny themselves. Abaddon even has special voice lines for when he achieves this.
-->'''Abaddon''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/a/a4/Abad_deathcoil_09.mp3 "My life is mine to spend."]]
* TheBerserker: One way to play Abaddon, [[SkillGateCharacters 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 ''Aphotic Shield'' and ''Borrowed Time'' makes you very difficult to kill and ''Curse of Avernus'' makes it impossible to run away from you.
* BlackKnight: Has the look going for him.
* BlueBlood: Notable in some of his quotes.
* BreathWeapon: ''Mist Coil'':
-->''A mysterious vapor from the Font of Avernus now infuses the breath of Abaddon, who releases it at will.''
* CarryABigStick: The "Mace of the Chosen" Immortal weapon from the [=TI3=] Compendium. It changes the particle effects on his ''Aphotic Shield''.
* CastFromHitPoints[=/=]EmpathicHealing: His first ability, ''Mist Coil'', can either heal allies or damage enemies, at the cost of a fraction of that amount to Abaddon's HP. Furthermore, since it deals Pure damage to Abaddon, it is possible to heal yourself with it while ''Borrowed Time'' is active, or add to ''Aphotic Shield'''s damage counter.
* CastingAShadow: Abaddon's second ability ''Aphotic Shield'' conjures a shield of dark energy around a friendly unit.
* CoolHelmet
* CoolHorse
* CoolSword
* [[EvilCounterpart Dark Counterpart]]: Is often considered this to Omniknight (rather ironic considering their respective models in [=DotA=] were Arthas pre and post FaceHeelTurn), both having a powerful heal/nuke, an anti-debuff barrier, a slowing passive, and a powerful defensive ultimate. Abaddon is more powerful in small-scale battles and is considered to be more offensive-oriented (both ''Aphotic Shield'' and ''Curse of Avernus'' have offensive potential since the former can deal [=AoE=] damage and the latter increases friendly movement and attack speed), while Omniknight is superior for large-scale teamfights and has much more powerful defensive capabilities (''Repel'' is flat-out spell immunity while ''Guardian Angel'' can be applied to the entire friendly team).
* 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. This makes a starking contrast when you consider that his old model was... [[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} Death Knight Arthas]].
* 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}}: His design is similar to that of the Nazgûl from ''Film/LordOfTheRings''. He's also been compared to [[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft the Lich King]], which is ironic considering pre-Lich King Arthas was his character model and voice in Warcraft 3 [=DotA=].
* FieldPowerEffect: If Abaddon purchases an Aghanim's Scepter, triggering ''Borrowed Time'' will redirect 50% of all damage done to all allies nearby, which both guarantees that he will return to full health at the end of the ultimate, and drastically increases the survivability of all his allies for the duration of the ultimate.
* {{Foil}}: To Mirana. Abaddon is loyal to the House of Avernus, while Mirana abandoned the Solar throne for another. Abaddon emphasizes the ''Duty'' of being a Noble, while Mirana emphasizes the ''Privilege''. Abaddon's gameplay is archetypically courageous, protecting his allies while diving fearlessly into the fray, while Mirana acts at times like a EgomaniacHunter, pot-shotting enemies from a safe distance behind her allies before jumping forward to claim the kill. [[DarkIsNotEvil Abaddon, a dire hero, draws his powers from the hidden, dark mists of the Font of Avernus]], while [[LightIsNotGood Mirana, a Radiant hero, draws powers from the moon goddess, Selemene.]]
* GlowingEyesOfDoom
* HellishHorse
* HyperspaceArsenal: Abaddon's weapon disappears when not in use, and reappears in his hand when enemies approach.
* ImplacableMan:
** ''Aphotic Shield'' gives him huge amounts of durability and let him easily absorb damage, meaning that he can tower dive or chase early on in the game while taking minimal damage. It also removes debuffs from the target upon casting, ''including'' stuns (the only other such abilities are Tidehunter's ''Kraken Shell'', Slark's ''Dark Pact'', Legion Commander's ''Press the Attack'' and Abaddon's own ''Borrowed Time'').
** ''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. Only two heroes can put him down while it's own, and even then it's a hard task.
* InTheHood: Abaddon switches his helmet for a hood if wearing the Arsenal of the Demonic Vessel cosmetic set.
** PurpleIsTheNewBlack: With this set, the colour of ''Mist Coil'' and ''Aphotic Shield'' is changed from black to purple.
* MagicKnight: Though reliant on his spells, Abaddon is no slouch in direct combat either due to his relatively high base damage and ''Curse of Avernus''. Plus, he's a literal example.
* 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.
* ModestRoyalty: Despite being nobility, his armor is comparatively low-key and covered by robes. He only really flaunts his BlueBlood when killing enemies.
* 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, possibly a result of being in the mist too long.
* MountedCombat
* MysteriousMist: Abaddon's elemental and magical motif seems to be mist.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: "Abaddon" is the name of the angel of destruction.
* TheRedMage: Abaddon's abilities can all be used to harm his enemies or to aid his allies, often both at once.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: While not ''exactly'' royalty, every member of the House of Avernus is expected to lead their armies against whoever attacks.
* 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.
* SkillGateCharacter: Abaddon works surprisingly well as a carry in pub games: he can dive towers fairly well with ''Borrowed Time'' and ''Aphotic Shield'' and get easily fed, ''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''.
* SoftspokenSadist: Compared to most other heroes, many who verge on {{Large Ham}}s, Abaddon is surprisingly reserved in both tone and voice. He rarely yells, and his voice is soft and wispy.
* StatusBuffDispel: When cast, ''Aphotic Shield'' removes most negative buffs from the target, while ''Borrowed Time'' does the same for Abaddon's himself. Notably, this i includes a number of debuffs that cannot otherwise be dispelled, such as most stuns.
* StoneWall: Even when not building specifically to tank, Abaddon can be a beast to take down thanks to his damage-absorbing shield and automatically-triggered invulnerability that also turns any damage he takes into health. However, ''Mist Coil'' and ''Aphotic Shield'' do not deal much damage, and his steroids, ''Curse of Avernus'', only gives a flat 40 bonus to attack speed, so Abaddon has trouble dishing out damage to the degree a (semi-)carry can.
* TakingTheBullet: With Aghanim's Scepter, ''Borrowed Time'' redirects 50% of all damage dealt to nearby allies to Abaddon. Since he heals from taking damage, this just makes him even ''more'' of a hindrance to his foe's offensive.
* TouchedByVorlons: Received his abilities from the Font Avernus.
* 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.
** YouWillNotEvadeMe: Similar to Omniknight's ''Degen Aura'', this allows Abaddon to keep pace with an enemy and prevent them from escaping, since he simply has to hit them with his sword only once to slow them down enough to give himself a permanent speed advantage to land subsequent hits. And once his allies catch up, they can also start taking advantage of the movement and attack speed boost to gang up on the target.
* WasOnceAMan: Whatever race he belonged to before, he certainly isn't one of them any longer due to the Font's influence.
* WhyWontYouDie: ''Borrowed Time'', on top of removing most debuffs and stuns like ''Aphotic Shield'', turns all incoming damage into health, meaning that any kind of damage will simply heal him right back up to full health. If Abaddon decides to focus on durability with items like Heart of Tarrasque and Aghanim's Scepter, then bringing him down in a teamfight becomes a chore in and of itself (on top of effectively wasting the enemy's damage nukes and time in trying to kill him, leaving his teammates comparatively unscathed and able to fight the enemy).
----
[[/folder]]

** TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything

* ShoutOut: Two of his denial lines are references to the titular character of ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory''.

* PrimalStance: He walks on all fours.

* MonochromaticEyes

[[center: [- [[Characters/Dota2Items Items]] | [[Characters/Dota2Neutrals Neutrals]] | [[Characters/Dota2NPCs Others]]-] ]]

* SchmuckBait: An exremely early version of Sand King had a passive skill called Dust Trail, which slowed down and caused enemies to miss by a large margin. The description includes the warning "Do not, under any circumstances, learn this skill if you are Sentinel (Radiant)". The reason for this was that the ability was bugged to affect Radiant units regardless of what team ''you were actually on''. Anybody who leveled this skill could expect a nasty reacton from their team.

* YouWillNotEvadeMe: With a Manta Style and fully leveled ''Phantasm'', he can completely suround someone with himself. This is of course, a rather short term propostion since you're surrounded by Chaos Knights beating on you.

* MagicKnight: Though reliant on his spells, Abaddon is no slouth in direct combat either.

* TheRedMage

* TouchedByVorlons

* WasOnceAMan

** OnehandedZweihander
* BigRedDevil
** HornedHumanoid

* BlackKnight
* ChaosIsEvil

* HumanoidAbomination

* MagicKnight

* SquishyWizard[=/=]GlassCannon: Despite being a Strength hero with fairly high Strength growth, his low ''base'' Strength leaves him very fragile for most of the game when compared to other Strength heroes, and even various Intelligence and Agility heroes have higher HP than him. He makes up for this with sheer AoE magical damage output, maneuverability and disables with ''Burrowstrike'' and the ability to dodge projectiles with ''Sand Storm''.

* BadassNormal

** ''Even'' if he isn't a threat, simply building a relatively quick ''Vladmir's offering'' and ''Aghanim's Scepter'' makes killing him first a priority, simply so you can burst down others without the 5-second delay.

* RandomNumberGod: Getting the right creep makes or breaks games. Doom's early game can either be exceedingly easy with a troll healer's nigh-infnite mana letting him spam his spells off cooldown to say nothing of his lane partner, or he could end up with a all-but useless hellbear's nuke, which drains his mana even more. Mid game, he wants a disable such as the Centaur's stun, and Lategame, he wants the Alpha wolf's damage boost. Having these simply ''refuse'' to spawn is an all-too-common situation for Doom.

* PrimalStance

** ForMassiveDamage: If you get ''really'' lucky, he and all 4 of his illusions can all proc ''Chaos Strike'' at once, causing a grand total of '''''1600%''''' damage.

** Interestingly, he also has a couple of lines suggesting attraction towards Lina and ([[DummiedOut formerly]]) Windranger. HeroesPreferRedheads, perhaps?

* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily

Arguably ''the'' initiator of Dota, as well as a fairly competent semi-carry, Magnus is capable of turning teamfights around and setting up entire teams to get mowed down in seconds. His first skill, ''Shockwave'' is a long-ranged nuke with comparatively low mana cost, area of effect, and cooldown, rewarding proper use with the ability to force enemies out of the lane. His second skill, ''Empower'' grants anyone under it's effect a major damage boost, and if they're melee, a powerful Cleave, while his third skill, ''Skewer'' pulls quadruple duty as a escape, early-game replacement for blink dagger until he can farm it, nuke, and repositioning ability either by itself, or comboed with ''Reverse Polarity'' and ''Blink Dagger'' to pull an entire enemy team to their dooms. His Ultimate, ''Reverse Polarity'' is a medium area of effect stun that pulls everyone in it's effect into a small clumb, perfect for skewering, cleaving, and nuking.

* RingOut: Can invoke this with ''Skewer'' to drag other heroes onto a cliff, often during the first moments of the game. What makes this ''truly'' hilarious is when he does this to ''the entire enemy team'' with ''Reverse Polarity''. [[DifficultYetAwesome Doing so without ending up on a cliff yourself however...]]

* FieldPowerEffect: If Abaddon purchases an Aghanim's Scepter, triggering ''Borrowed Time'' will redirect 35% of all damage done to all allies nearby, which both guarantees that he will return to full health at the end of the ultimate, and drastically increases the survivability of all his allies for the duration of the ultimate.

* TakingTheBullet: With Aghanim's Scepter, ''Borrowed Time'' redirects 30% of all damage dealt to nearby allies to Abaddon. Since he heals from taking damage, this just makes him even ''more'' of a hindrance to his foe's offensive.

* FragileSpeedster[=/=]GlassCannon: His wolves max out at 320 health, comparable to ranged creeps, and have no armour at all. 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.

Night Stalker is a unique hero- he is the only hero who strongly relies on the in-game day/night cycle to maximize his effectiveness. Although he's slow-moving and has poor vision in the daytime, when the sun goes down Balanar undergoes a transformation; nighttime boosts his speed, attacks, vision range and the potency of his spells- and since most heroes have reduced nighttime vision, it provides Night Stalker the ability to gank from unexpected angles. His primary damaging spell, ''Void'', deals damage, mini-stuns, and slows the target; the slow duration gets increased at night. His second active ability, ''Crippling Fear'' silences the target and increases its chance to miss physical attacks; when used in conjunction with ''Void'', Night Stalker can pin any target down to finish them off, since this debuff also lasts longer at night. His passive, ''Hunter in the Night'', is his most important ability, boosting his movement and attack speed during the nighttime. His ultimate, ''Darkness'', can temporarily turn day into night or extend nighttime's duration, depending on when it is used, allowing for surprise ganks, escapes, or prolonged fights. Aghahim's Scepter grants him unobstructed vision at night, granting him almost complete map control so long as the sun is down. Balanar may be at his most vulnerable in the daytime, but when the sun falls... every hero should fear the dark.

* PrehistoricMonster: He has many traits of elasmotheres and woolly rhinoceroses in his design.

* RingOut: Can invoke this with ''Skewer'' to shove other heroes onto the cliff, often during the first momments of the game. What makes this ''truly'' hillarious is when he uses ''Reverse Polarity'' to grab upwards of the entire enemy team and drag them up there. [[DifficultYetAwesome doing so without ending up on a cliff yourself however.......]]

* ParanoiaFuel: Exploited. 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''.

* {{Foil}} To Miranna, Abaddon is loyal to the House of Avernus, while Miranna abandoned the Solar throne for another, Abaddon emphasizes the ''Duty'' of being a Noble, while Miranna emphasizes the ''Privilege''. Abaddon's gameplay is archetypically courageous, protecting his allies and giving of himself while diving fearlessly into the fray, while Miranna acts at times like a EgomaniacHunter, pot-shotting enemies from a safe distance behind her allies before jumping forward to claim the kill. [[DarkIsNotEvil Abaddon, a dire hero, draws his powers from the hidden, dark mists of the Font of Avernus]], while [[LightIsNotGood Miranna, a Radiant hero, draws powers from the moon goddess, Selemene.]]

** With Divine Rapier, he takes this UpToEleven. Divine Rapier gives a 330 damage boost to attacks (by far and beyond the highest in the game), at the cost that it drops when the holder dies and can be picked up by an enemy. However, it does '''not''' drop when Ostarion dies and is reincarnated. On top of that, it has excellent synergy with his other two passives, turning his Mortal Strikes ''decidedly'' more mortal, and making him even '''harder''' to kill in the first place because his Vampiric Aura heals him for enormous amounts of health from the ridiculous damage he's dishing out.

Sand King is an initiator most commonly played as a support, 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.

* SerialEsclalation: With Aghanim's Scepter, Lifestealer gains a new ability, ''Assimilate'' which is basically a reverse ''Infest'' that lets him grab another hero and stick them in ''him''. He can then infest a third hero normally. With certain combinations of heroes with him at the center of the chain, one can literally drag an entire team into one hero.[[note]]Have Io link up to another hero and prepare to relocate them, then have keeper of the light recall another hero timed to trigger after relocate, then Lifestealer Assimilates Keeper of the Light and enters either Io or his linked hero. Io and the linked hero teleport with Naix and Keeper in tow, who then summons the fifth.[[/note]]