History Characters / Dota2RadiantAgility

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

[[center: [- Strength - [[Characters/Dota2RadiantStrength Radiant]] | [[Characters/Dota2DireStrength Dire]] -] ]]
[[center: [- Agility - '''Radiant''' | [[Characters/Dota2DireAgility Dire]] -] ]]
[[center: [- Intelligence - [[Characters/Dota2RadiantIntelligence Radiant]] | [[Characters/Dota2DireIntelligence Dire]]-] ]]
[[center: [- [[Characters/Dota2Neutrals Neutrals]] | [[Characters/Dota2NPCs Others]]-] ]]

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[[folder:Anti-Mage]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Anti-Mage_654.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/d/d7/Anti_kill_12.mp3 "They who live by the wand shall die by my blade."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Sam A. Mowry
''"The monks of Turstarkuri watched the rugged valleys below their mountain monastery as wave after wave of invaders swept through the lower kingdoms. Ascetic and pragmatic, in their remote monastic eyrie they remained aloof from mundane strife, wrapped in meditation that knew no gods or elements of magic. Then came the Legion of the Dead God, crusaders with a sinister mandate to replace all local worship with their Unliving Lord's poisonous nihilosophy. From a landscape that had known nothing but blood and battle for a thousand years, they tore the souls and bones of countless fallen legions and pitched them against Turstarkuri. The monastery stood scarcely a fortnight against the assault, and the few monks who bothered to surface from their meditations believed the invaders were but demonic visions sent to distract them from meditation. They died where they sat on their silken cushions. Only one youth survived--a pilgrim who had come as an acolyte, seeking wisdom, but had yet to be admitted to the monastery. He watched in horror as the monks to whom he had served tea and nettles were first slaughtered, then raised to join the ranks of the Dead God's priesthood. With nothing but a few of Turstarkuri's prized dogmatic scrolls, he crept away to the comparative safety of other lands, swearing to obliterate not only the Dead God's magic users--but to put an end to magic altogether."''

Anti-Mage is the archetype of hard carry, who are incredibly weak in the early game but later become powerful by the late game. He is not only excelled at fighting in team fights, but he is also excelled in fighting against burst mages. His ability ''Mana Void'' make his basic attacks remove a certain amount of mana and deal additional damage and ''Mana Shield'' which reduces all magic damage. His ''Blink'' which teleport him into his choice of location, making it all-purpose, either to reach farm better, escaping a fight he cannot win, or chasing down enemies. His ultimate ability ''Mana Void'' uses the lack of mana against his enemies and deal damage based on a percentage of missing mana as well as do AOE to the enemy being attacked.

* AchillesHeel: Teams that excel at pushing or have the power to potentially end the game early are a massive bane to Anti-Mage's team. Anti-Mage's only contribution to the earlygame is his ultimate which can act as a massive teamfight nuke, but it relies on one of the enemy heroes having a large mana pool, and having used up a huge amount of said mana pool. All Anti-Mage can do is farm, which forces his team to potentially fight 4v5, and hope that his team can hold out long enough for him to get enough farm to contribute to the lategame, if there will be one.
* AmbiguouslyBrown: He looks vaguely South Asian, probably to fit with his Buddhist WarriorMonk theme.
* AntiMagic: ''Spell Shield''
* BoringButPractical: When you learn what his role is he becomes this, especially if you actually get a good support (especially if it's a reactive Treant, Venomancer or Keeper of the Light) turning your part of the game into a 30 minute farm fest.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Anti-Mage used to be a normal servant boy of the Turstarkuri monastery, but the attack of the Legion of Dead God was extremely scarring with him being the SoleSurvivor and seeing everyone he served loyally die. This led him to believe that magic is an abomination.
* DoubleWeapon
* DualWielding
* FloweryElizabethanEnglish
* FragileSpeedster: Anti-Mage has extremely pitiful Strength gain, so in the early levels he's quite easy to kill, having only his ''Blink'' and ''Mana Break'' to remain mobile while dealing damage.
* GlassCannon: He has notably high agility and low base attack time, giving him high damage and scaling with his basic attacks, but his Strength is pitiful. Heart of Tarrasque is, as a result, a commonly built item on him to bolster the durability of both Anti-Mage and his illusions.
* {{Irony}}: He hates mages, but usually ends up heavily relying on them for survival in the early game.
* ItemCaddy: Anti-Mage's main strength compared to other hard carries is his ability to flash-farm and split-push very quickly: with the cleave and mana regeneration from Battle Fury, he could spam ''Blink'' to jump from jungle camp to jungle camp and farm endlessly, while his low BAT and high Agility means that his Manta Style illusions will easily melt towers. It's not uncommon to see Anti-Mage already six-slotted while the enemy carries are still busy farming their luxuries. The downside to this is that he has a 15-20 minute window where you NEED to win before he gets outcarried, as ''Mana Break'' doesn't scale very well into the ultra lategame and neither do his Manta illusions.
* KnightTemplar: To him, magic is evil so all that use magic are blights to be removed. Indiscriminately.
* LightningBruiser: With enough points in ''Spell Shield'' and armor via his Agility gain, he becomes extremely hard to kill since he can shrug off magic nukes and most of the physical damage that's thrown his way. Not to mention being able to use ''Blink'' to dodge attacks and Manta Style to force the enemy team to spread out their damage.
* MageKiller: ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. This is his claim to fame/infamy and the source of his nickname "Anti-Fun" since playing mages is fun.
* MagicByAnyOtherName: It's never explained how he's capable of doing what he does. He's something of a hypocrite as far as this goes.
** WildMassGuessing theorizes that he uses some form of KiAttacks.
* MagicIsEvil: He believes this.
* MagikarpPower: The archetypical "hard carry"; he's fairly useless early on in the game, but as soon as he finishes farming his core items (usually a Battle Fury and Manta Style) he becomes nearly unstoppable with the right team behind him.
* ManaBurn: He does this on normal attacks. His ultimate, ''Mana Void'', deals damage based on how much mana his target is missing, which synergizes with ''Mana Break''.
* MechanicallyUnusualClass: Anti-Mage is somewhat different from some other hard carries in that if he can get Battle Fury, ''Blink'' allows him to farm incredibly quickly. If he can get BF quickly and uses it effectively, he grows extremely fast and can get big items before many other carries. However, he can still be outgunned later on by even harder carries, because at the end of the game, you can still only carry 6 items, while ''Mana Break'' doesn't scale as well to the late game compared to the steroids skills of other carries like ''Time Lock'' or ''Split Shot''. Because of this, unlike other hard carries who peak at ultra-late game, Anti-Mage's most effective time is when he's accrued a significant farm/level advantage over the opposition.
* MixAndMatchWeapon: The Immortal Basher Blades look like a mix between a pair of hammers and Anti-Mage's standard swords.
* MoneyMultiplier: ''Blink'', with its short cooldown, significantly reduces the time Anti-Mage has to spend walking between creep waves and/or jungle camps, allowing him to farm faster than most other carries. Combined with Battle Fury, he can flash-farm the jungle in 45 seconds and repeat in an endless loop.
* [[EvilCounterpart Neutral Counterpart]]: To Faceless Void, as they're both iconic agility hard carries. They both have a mobility skill (''Blink'' and ''Time Walk''), a passive affecting their auto attacks (''Mana Break'' and ''Time Lock''), a passive that helps them with survivability (''Spell Shield'' and ''Backtrack'') and an AoE ultimate (''Mana Void'' and ''Chronosphere'').
* NoNameGiven: He was once called 'Magina' in the original [=DotA=]. For some reasons, that was removed.
* PercentDamageAttack: Inverted; ''Mana Void'' deals the more damage the more mana the target is missing.
* PurpleEyes: As can be seen in his portrait.
* PurpleIsPowerful
* TeleportSpam: ''Blink'' is spammed to jump from jungle camp to jungle camp and farm after Anti-Mage gets his Battle Fury.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Dead God's Legion used magic to massacre the monks of Turstarkuri and he, being witness to it all and the only survivor, swore to put an end to magic as a whole by killing all magic users, so nobody will ever have to suffer from it.
* WhatTheHellPlayer: If you bought [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Blink Dagger]].
-->'''Antimage:''' [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/9/9f/Anti_blink_01.mp3 Blink Dagger? Really?]]
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Traxex, the Drow Ranger]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Drow_Ranger_8206.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/2/25/Dro_rare_02.mp3 "I walk alone, but the shadows are company enough."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Gin Hammond
''"Drow Ranger's given name is Traxex -- a name well suited to the short, trollish, rather repulsive Drow people. But Traxex herself is not a Drow. Her parents were travelers in a caravan set upon by bandits, whose noisy slaughter of innocents roused the ire of the quiet Drow people. After the battle settled, the Drow discovered a small girl-child hiding in the ruined wagons, and agreed she could not be abandoned. Even as child, Traxex showed herself naturally adept at the arts they prized: Stealth, silence, subtlety. In spirit, if not in physique, she might have been a Drow changeling, returned to her proper home. But as she grew, she towered above her family and came to think of herself as ugly. After all, her features were smooth and symmetrical, entirely devoid of warts and coarse whiskers. Estranged from her adopted tribe, she withdrew to live alone in the woods. Lost travelers who find their way from the forest sometimes speak of an impossibly beautiful Ranger who peered at them from deep among the trees, then vanished like a dream before they could approach. Lithe and stealthy, icy hot, she moves like mist in silence. That whispering you hear is her frozen arrows finding an enemy's heart."''

Drow Ranger is an Agility Carry-type hero, a deadly archer that decimates enemy with raw damage output. She is extremely fragile at early phase of the game and her major weakness is her lack of escape skills, but if she is fed with enough creeps and given the proper items, she becomes an unstoppable archer that shuts down and snipes down her targets in extreme ease. She chases down her target by applying her first skill, ''Frost Arrows'', which adds up extra damage to her normal attack as well as slowing the enemy's movement. In particular, this spell can be applied with auto-cast, or cast normally like a normal spell. Should the enemy get close to her, she can use her second skill, ''Gust'', to blow away the enemy and silencing them in process, also removing invisibility. If her team has a lot of ranged attackers, Drow Ranger can augment them using her third skill, ''Precision Aura'', which increases the ranged attack of nearby allies based on her Agility. She proves her deadliness with her Ultimate, ''Marksmanship'', which just grants her massive Agility bonus, but seeing that it's Drow Ranger's main attribute, this gives her a massive boost in damage for her normal attacks. However, this bonus is annulled if there's an enemy Hero nearby, thus Drow Ranger must keep herself away from the enemy to utilize this bonus.

* ActionGirl: If you let her farm without interruption, then weep as Drow Ranger rains down arrows of death on you and only need a few shots to take you down.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Subverted. She certainly thinks herself ugly and isolated. However, it's unknown how the Drows reacted on her strangeness, whether her isolation is self-inflicted or she's bullied into it.
* BeautifulAllAlong: Due to being raised by Drow, who are a race of midget {{Gonk}}s, Traxex thinks herself as ugly despite being tall and beautiful by human standards.
* BlowYouAway: Her ''Gust'' ability. Formerly a standard silence status effect now blows back her enemies as well. This deals no damage, but keeps her enemies at a distance where she can deal even more damage.
* BoringButPractical: A simple carry. Her only source of damage is her auto-attacks, but passives, auras, and natural stat gains make it an amazing source of damage.
* CloudCuckooLander: Slightly; she lives in the woods alone and is a master of archery, but she also is excited to wear clothes from the people who walk through her woods and pretends to talk to people from time to time.
* CombinationAttack: Drow Ranger's synergy with Visage is notable: Visage's familiars attack extremely quickly, but their damage also drops just as fast, to a minimum of 10, making them only good for hit-and-run attacks. ''Precision Aura'', which gives a damage bonus to allied heroes (and creeps when activated) based on Drow's agility, negates this entirely: if Drow has enough Agility (which is made even easier with ''Marksmanship'') she can multiply the familiars' damage by around 4-6 times, making them much deadlier and less dependent on ''Stone Form'' to replenish their damage.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Drow has a ''lot'' to say about her past. Let's see... true family died in an accident, feeling completely unwelcome to her new family and having to live in isolation as a result...
* DarkIsNotEvil: Subversion. Usually, Drows are to refer to dark, evil elves. However, Drow here is a race of midget {{Gonk}}s, with unclear morality values, so it's nearly impossible to judge Traxex from her race. Traxex herself, while gloomy and borderline insane due to isolation, is not the typical 'evil drow' either despite her appearance, she's dedicated to protect her new forest home, though shows no interest in goody-two-shoes activities.
* DeadpanSnarker: If she's not accidentally being sexual, her lines are pretty much snarking at others.
* FieldPowerEffect: ''Precision Aura'' boosts the ranged damage of all friendly heroes on the map.
* ForestRanger: This is her job taken after distancing herself from the Drows, which fit her like a glove because Drows in this universe are gifted in sneakiness in addition to her strange affinity to woods.
* GlassCannon: Does the most raw damage in the game, but is easily taken down by a good nuker.
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Implied to be the case in the flavor text for one of her cosmetics.
-->'''Mania's Mask''':''To wander the woods knowing you are alone, an orphan of those who birthed you, rejected by those who raised you, hidden from those who might give warmth and comfort... this is a path to madness.''
* HarmlessFreezing: ''Frost Arrows'' deals no additional damage next to the slow.
* HelloNurse: A ''lot'' of her lines are played up as being very sexual. She is also described by whoever had an encounter on her in her forest to be 'an incredibly beautiful ranger'.
* IAmNotPretty: Once again, on account of having been raised by midget [[{{Gonk}} Gonks]].
* AnIcePerson: She can add ice to her arrows with ''Frost Arrows''.
* InTheHood: Not necessarily the originator (it belonged to her old model, the ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} III'' Dark Ranger), but Traxex retained this design, and any MOBA archers who wears this tend to get compared with her because of that.
* InterspeciesAdoption: From an unknown 'elvish' race, adopted by Drows that look more like midgets.
* LongRangeFighter: Drow's main source of Agility, her ultimate ''Marksmanship'', is only active when there's no enemy hero near her, so she's useless in a fight if the enemy can get close to her.
* MsFanservice: Not only she has a sultry voice, she possesses a rather great body as well, only slightly covered with some BreastPlate.
* MutualDisadvantage: Against heroes that rely on stealth or mobility like Riki and Slark. They can close the distance between them and Drow, nullifying her ''Marksmanship'' buff, but if Drow lands ''Gust'' on them, they are silenced for up to ''six seconds'', which is usually more than enough time for Drow and her teammates to pick them off.
* OurElvesAreBetter: Subverted: Though Traxex certainly has the appearance of a Dark Elf from most other settings, Drow in this case are short, ugly and troll-like, while Traxex herself was a child of another race (though which race she was born of is left unsaid).
* PowerNullifier: With ''Gust''.
* TheQuietOne: Most heroes' responses [[ChewingTheScenery force the player to turn the volume down]]. Hers force the player to turn it ''up''.
--> "[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/a/a7/Dro_rare_03.mp3 The only sin is an ungodly racket]]."
* TheRival[=/=]LovelyAngels: With Windranger depending on whether they're on the same team or opposite. They kind of work like {{Foil}}s as well, Drow Ranger has a rather gloomy outlook compared to the more outspoken Windranger. In terms of gameplay, Drow Ranger has high raw damage output [[CripplingOverspecialization but she is limited by her fragility and lack of utility]]. In contrast, Windranger has a stun, a long range nuke, and an escape ability, and a curiously high strength growth, [[MasterOfNone but her damage output is mediocre as a result]].
* TrickArrow: ''Frost Arrows'', which slow the target.
* UnskilledButStrong: Like Viper, Drow Ranger only truly has one ability which is used to disable her targets, with her other ability being an auto-cast attack modifier that can be set and forget. While technically her Agility growth is one of the lowest among Agility heroes, simply reaching level 6 drastically increases her damage output to the point where she just right-clicks enemies to death.
* WeaksauceWeakness: While Drow can put out absurd amounts of damage due to ''Marksmanship'' giving her absurd amounts of Agility, it becomes absolutely useless the second an enemy hero gets within 400 radius of her (her attack range is only marginally longer than that at 625). This, combined with her lack of escape abilities, makes her utterly useless in any teamfight where the enemy has half a brain gets close to her.
** KryptoniteIsEverywhere: With the abundance of heroes that can use invisibility or gap closing skills, and the fact that anybody can buy a Blink Dagger or Shadow Blade to ambush her, playing Drow Ranger requires careful judgement and CombatPragmatist tendencies against experienced players without getting stomped on.
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Yurnero, the Juggernaut]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Juggernaut_8774.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/2/26/Jug_rare_09.mp3 "By the Visage of Vengeance, which drowned in the Isle of Masks, I will carry on the rites of the Faceless Ones."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' David Scully
''"No one has ever seen the face hidden beneath the mask of Yurnero the Juggernaut. It is only speculation that he even has one. For defying a corrupt lord, Yurnero was exiled from the ancient Isle of Masks--a punishment that saved his life. The isle soon after vanished beneath the waves in a night of vengeful magic. He alone remains to carry on the Isle's long Juggernaut tradition, one of ritual and swordplay. The last practitioner of the art, Yurnero's confidence and courage are the result of endless practice; his inventive bladework proves that he has never stopped challenging himself. Still, his motives are as unreadable as his expression. For a hero who has lost everything twice over, he fights as if victory is a foregone conclusion."''

Juggernaut is another Carry hero who is capable of pushing the enemy ranks or charging right ahead to the enemy's formation and cause chaos from within. He is a little fragile, but if he focuses on one enemy, chances are the enemy will drop down dead, cut down by his unstoppable blade. His first skill and signature move is called ''Blade Fury'', where Juggernaut spins around and slashes his enemy with his sword and if he sticks to one certain enemy they will eat up a lot of damage. While he spins, Juggernaut gains spell immunity. The reason he's also known as a pusher is due to his second skill, ''Healing Ward'', where Juggernaut summons a ward that heals himself and nearby allies over time, which can be extremely useful when pushing for towers. A maxed Healing Ward and a sufficiently leveled Juggernaut is capable of taking down a tower single-handedly or provide excellent regenration for the whole team in teamfights provided that the enemy does not hit the ward, as it'll go down in one hit. Using his third skill, ''Blade Dance'', Juggernaut has a chance to turn one of his normal attacks into a critical strike to deal double damage, making him a dangerous duelist. What makes him truly a force to be reckoned with is his Ultimate, ''Omnislash'', where Juggernaut leaps to the enemy and deals one very damaging slash, and leaps to another for another slash, and so on until a certain number of leaps. If there's only one target in sight, Juggernaut will concentrate all slashes to this particular target, mostly likely killing them off before the maximum number of leaps is reached. Creeps will also be affected, so those who face Juggernaut are encouraged to stick with their creeps when possible to minimize Omnislash's damage output, while Juggernaut himself needs to decide the right time to use his Ultimate, specifically when all enemy creeps have been taken care of.

* AchillesHeel: Juggernaut hates unit that can go ethereal, and unit who can multiply, since they can greatly reduce the effectiveness of ''Omnislash''.
* AntiMagic[=/=]NoSell: Juggernaut gains spell immunity when using ''Blade Fury''.
-->'''Juggernaut''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/e/e6/Jug_ability_immunity_01.mp3 Can't touch me."]]
* AwesomeButImpractical: ''Blade Fury'' is best described as a one-point wonder: you put a value point in it, then you skip it until level 23. While the level 1 nuke damage and the spell immunity are certainly useful, it also prevents Juggernaut's right-clicks (which is his main source of damage) from hurting anything but buildings, and from as early as level 3 onwards ''Blade Dance'' crits have the potential to out-DPS ''Blade Fury'' with ease. As a result, after level 1 Juggernaut players usually only use ''Blade Fury'' to be able to safely TP out without having to blow a BKB charge, for which a value point is enough.
* BattleCry: Activating ''Blade Fury'' will make him yell '''[[LeeroyJenkins "JUGGERNAUUUUUTTT!!!"]]'''
* BoringButPractical: The standard Mask of Madness Juggernaut build runs on this. Get only 1 point in ''Blade Fury'' until level 23, max ''Blade Dance'' and put a few points in stats before skilling ''Healing Ward'', and get ''Omnislash'' at every opportunity possible; while getting Mask of Madness as a first item and skip Aghanim's Scepter (a core item for other builds) entirely. The result is a carry who can do little other than right-clicking... but also has an extreme farm rate and sustainability, with a noticable lack of dependance on his ultimate.
* CombatMedic: Juggernaut's ''Healing Ward'' gives a significant boost to nearby allies' health regeneration.
* CoolMask: He's from the 'Isle of Masks', of course he comes with one. And a lot of them, depending on the accessory he's wearing. He makes it clear that he wears masks like that so no one can see his face, for whatever reason.
* CoolSword: You'd be hard-pressed to find a single boring sword in his collection.
* CriticalHit: ''Blade Dance'', which gives Juggernaut a chance to deal double damage with his right-clicks.
* DiscOneNuke: ''Blade Fury'' is able to deal an absurd 400 magical damage right from level 1. Of course, to fully dish out this damage Juggernaut needs to stick to his victim for a whole 5 seconds.
* DontExplainTheJoke: Commits one when he tried a pun while bottling a Rune:
-->'''Juggernaut''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/b/bf/Jug_bottle_03.mp3 Does it matter if I put this in my jug or not? Get it? 'Jug or not']][[note]]Pronounced the same way as 'Juggernaut', his class[[/note]]''
* DualWielding: Not exactly his style, but one of his rare quotes pokes about an over the top version of this:
-->'''Juggernaut''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/e/e5/Jug_rare_08.mp3 Screw it, I'm going to five blades!]]
* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: ''Blade Fury''
** SpinAttack
** SpinToDeflectStuff: It at least deflects magic.
* TheFaceless: Nobody has ever seen him without his mask. People aren't even sure he has a face under the mask.
-->'''Juggernaut:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/5/51/Jug_rare_04.mp3 Nice mask, they said. What mask?]]
* FlashStep: His ultimate, ''Omnislash'', has him do this while dealing large amounts of damage to random nearby enemies.
* GlowingEyes: His only facial feature visible. Although given that some masks change the appearance of his eyes, they may simply be lenses on the mask.
* TheJuggernaut: Squishier than most examples, but he can happily throw off your magic by just spinning; ''Healing Ward'', if left be and leveled up, can let him recover damage enough to solo a tower; and if you meet him alone without protections, he'll stomp you dead with ''Omnislash''.
* KatanasAreJustBetter
* LastOfHisKind: After his homeland sank into the sea.
* MasterSwordsman: Juggernaut makes an emphasis of this, favoring precision and style towards pure brute strength.
-->'''Juggernaut (on beating Sven):''' [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/5/5e/Jugg_rival_01.mp3 It's not the size of the sword, Sven. It's how you use it.]]
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Zig-zagged in his lore. For trying to oppose a corrupt lord, Yurnero is banished from the Isle of Masks... just in time for the whole isle to sink and saving his life.
* NotAfraidToDie: Slightly subverted with one of his rare quotes, probably because dying is not that beneficial in the long run.
-->'''Juggernaut:''' [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/4/4e/Jug_rare_05.mp3 Although I don't fear dying, I still would rather not.]]
* OneHitPointWonder: The ''Healing Ward'' only has 1 HP, so Juggernaut must be careful to place it so it won't get 1-shotted by an enemy hero.
* RandomNumberGod: ''Omnislash'' chooses random targets around Juggernaut, so it's very deadly in 1v1 fights but lose a lot of effectiveness when even a single creep gets nearby.
** Getting Aghanim's Scepter, however, will make him do up to ''12 jumps'' while using Omnislash. If there are only heroes nearby, they are all dead meat.
* ReverseGrip: His default stance is this. Subverted during fights where he switches to forward grip. He can also switch to forward grip when there's an enemy hero nearby.
* {{Samurai}}: For some reason, Juggernaut evokes the image of a lone, wandering Samurai with emphasis of blade mastery and sense of honor.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: He has unique lines when he uses ''Blade Fury'' and the Scroll of Town Portal.
-->'''Juggernaut''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/5/56/Jug_ability_stunteleport_01.mp3 "I'm outta here."]]
-->'''Juggernaut''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/b/b3/Jug_ability_stunteleport_03.mp3 "I'll be back to finish this later."]]
* ShootTheMedicFirst: Healing Wards are a OneHitPointWonder, but they are among the most powerful heals in the game if left alive.
* ShoutOut: To MyWayEntertainment
-->'''Juggernaut:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/e/e4/Jug_rare_06.mp3 I'm the]] [[ComicBook/{{X-Men}} Juggernaut,]] [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/e/e4/Jug_rare_06.mp3 bitch!]]
** IncrediblyLamePun
-->'''Juggernaut:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/c/c4/Jug_rare_17.mp3 I'm the Juggernaut, Lich!]]
** To ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' with his LimitBreak, ''Omnislash''.
** To ''VideoGame/HeroesOfNewerth'' about his 'successor', Swiftblade, might be veering to TakeThat as well:
-->'''Juggernaut:''' (denying) My blade is swifter!
* SophisticatedAsHell: Very much so.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: A minor version. Whenever he uses ''Blade Fury'', he could instead yell ''"Battle Fury!"'', which is in fact a buyable item. Even Juggernaut could spell it right when he wanted when he bought the item.
-->'''Juggernaut:''' [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/1/1a/Jug_ability_bladefury_10.mp3 Battle Fury, meet Blade Fury.]]
* WalkingShirtlessScene
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Mirana, the Princess of the Moon]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Mirana_3437.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/e/ef/Mir_rare_09.mp3 "The stars are in alignment, and our victory is certain."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Gin Hammond
''"Born to a royal family, a blood princess next in line for the Solar Throne, Mirana willingly surrendered any claim to mundane land or titles when she dedicated herself completely to the service of Selemene, Goddess of the Moon. Known ever since as Princess of the Moon, Mirana prowls the sacred Nightsilver Woods searching for any who would dare poach the sacred luminous lotus from the silvery pools of the Goddess's preserve. Riding on her enormous feline familiar, she is poised, proud and fearless, attuned to the phases of the moon and the wheeling of the greater constellations. Her bow, tipped with sharp shards of lunar ore, draws on the moon's power to charge its arrows of light."''

Mirana is a semi-carry, semi-support hero possessing several utilities that can help her and her allies while still contributing a lot of great damage once she buys the necessary carry items. She has an excellent gap-closer, ''Leap'', that she can use to reposition herself in a more favorable position for further attacking or retreating. If her allies are around her point of leaping, they will receive bonus attack and movement speed, making her quite a commander. If she is close to the enemy, she can unleash the ''Starstorm'', raining down meteors in a huge area around her and an enemy closest to her will get struck with another meteor. Mirana's signature skill is the ''Sacred Arrow'', where she shoots one arrow that travels in a very long line and the longer the arrow travels, the more it will stun and damage the first target it hits. A well-positioned and unhindered Mirana can play the deadly sniper that catches the enemy off-guard and let her allies gang up on the victim, however, she has to aim well and make sure no creeps get in the way of the arrow, or else it's the creep that gets stunned. Lastly, she can set up various ambushes or escapes using ''Moonlight Shadow'', where she grants every allies to turn invisible for a set of a time, only revealing themselves when attacking and going invisible again as long as they are idling and the time hasn't expired.

* AbdicateTheThrone: She left the Solar Throne to become a Princess of the Moon.
* AchillesHeel: ''Moonlight Shadow'' will not work if a Hero is silenced, so even in cases where the enemy has no detection, silencing Mirana or her allies before the fade effect sets in will prevent them from going invisible, and casting an [=AoE=] silence can bring them out of invisibility.
* ActionGirl
** KickingAssInAllHerFinery
** LadyOfWar: Very calm, reserved, fights with a bow, and capable of playing a carry to wreck the entire enemy team alone when fed.
* BribingYourWayToVictory: Unintentionally inverted with the Crescent Bow cosmetic item, which actually makes her ''Sacred Arrow'' easier to spot and avoid, giving it the FanNickname "Pay To Lose Arrow."
* CurseCutShort: If the ''Sacred Arrow'' hits a creep instead of a hero.
-->'''Mirana''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/4/46/Mir_ability_arrow_05.mp3 Son of]] [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/6/69/Mir_ability_arrow_08.mp3 a...]]
* DeathFromAbove: Her first skill, ''Starstorm'', drops a wave of shooting stars on every enemy in the vicinity.
* DefiantToTheEnd: One of her death quotes shows just how she valued her pride and nobility status:
-->'''Mirana''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/b/bb/Mir_death_02.mp3 I'll never bow!]]
* DifficultButAwesome: ''Sacred Arrow'' is considered to be the hardest stun to land in the game, since it's an extremely slow projectile that's only effective after it's traveled a long distance. It takes considerable patience to predict your target's path, not to mention that it's easily spotted and evaded by wary players. However, landing a long-range arrow can yield a lot of damage and the longest stun in the game (5 seconds).
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Mirana wears a strap around her heel, mostly barefoot.
* EntitledBastard[=/=]NeverMyFault: Blames others for missing her ''Sacred Arrow''.
* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Though still a rather bitchy princess, it's still quite better, because this princess can still help out with her utilities and skills.
** BadassPrincess
** PrincessesRule
** RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething
** {{Warrior Prince}}ss
* ExactlyWhatIAimedAt: Her reaction to hitting Roshan with ''Sacred Arrow'', which is laughably easy since Roshan doesn't move most of the time. Or worse, Roshan's large hitbox blocked Mirana's true target, and she's too proud to admit it.
* FieldPowerEffect: ''Moonlight Shadow'', Mirana's ultimate, applies a global buff that turns her entire team invisible. It's unique among invisibility spells in that the fade time remains in effect even after breaking invisibility, meaning that allies can turn invisible again for the 15 second duration of the spell.
** {{Invisibility}}
* FragileSpeedster: Mirana has above-average movement speed and ''Leap'', which makes her jump forward and further boosts movement speed, makes her one of the best chasers and escapers in the game. However, she has one of the worst starting Strength and Strength growths in the game, making her easy to kill if ''Leap'' is on cooldown.
* FunWithAcronyms: Mirana's Dota 2 title, "Princess of the Moon", is something of a ShoutOut to her old [=DotA=] title, "Priestess of the Moon", both of which use the same initials. The latter could not be used due to it being a hero title from Warcraft 3.
* ImpossiblyLowNeckline
* InASingleBound: When Mirana uses ''Leap'', her tiger jumps forward a huge 840 distance if maxed.
* JackOfAllStats: Mirana is one of the few heroes in the game who can be played as a full-on carry, or as a utility support due to her skill layout. She has a good damage nuke, a long-range stun, an escape spell that also serves as a speed buff, a global invisibility spell, and is a ranged Agility hero with decent stat growth that allows her physical damage to scale. Due to her flexibility and array of useful spells, she can be played in almost any lane and be put to almost any role depending on her team's needs...
** MasterOfNone: ...however she is most often classified more as a semi-carry rather than a true carry, and her spells are very mana-hungry. If she's played as a carry then she must try to end the game as quickly as possible since she can't fight toe-to-toe against actual carries, and if she's played as a support she has to get lots of levels and a decent amount of farm in order to make the most of her magic nukes and maintain her mana pool.
* TheLeader: Amongst the servants of Selemene, Mirana seems to hold the title, with Luna as her [[TheLancer Lancer]][=/=]NumberTwo. Mirana is also aware of Luna's growing resentment towards her about this and does her best to keep her in line.
** Gameplay-wise, Mirana can be played as such, as her ultimate allows her to make calls about when to initiate team fights either by a well-placed arrow (then leaping headfirst so if she doesn't kill them with Star Storm, her teammates catches up quick enough with the speed boost), or getting everyone invisible for an ambush initiation. She can also save teammates by rendering them invisible when they are being chased away.
* {{Lunacy}}: She draws most of her powers from the moon.
* MagicKnight
* MsFanservice: Often praised for her shapely body, as well as [[ImpossiblyLowNeckline having her shoulders bare and her cleavage displays a nice rack.]] Furthermore, a few of her rare quotes is about meowing like a kitty.
* MountedCombat: On her white tiger, Sagan.
** CrazyCatLady: A lot of her voice lines lend this impression for laughs.
** HorseArcher
** PantheraAwesome
** [[RearingHorse Rearing Tiger]]: Taken to ludicrous extents with ''Leap''.
* [[GoodIsNotNice Neutrality Is Not Nice]]: A more charitable interpretation on her otherwise bitchy personality. Mirana isn't actively malevolent or dedicated to help people, only concerned in the protection of Nightsilver Woods (and possibly other followers of Selemene), and she doesn't take trespassers well.
* ProjectileSpell: Mirana's ''Sacred Arrow'' stuns the first enemy unit it strikes for a duration based on the distance where Mirana fired her arrow and the target hit.
** AccidentalAimingSkills: The arrow's massive hitbox and nigh-invisibility can lead to other heroes running into it, and the sheer damage and stun duration means even if it's not an optimal target, she's still come out far ahead.
-->''Mirana'': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/c/c6/Mir_kill_04.mp3 It was not luck]], [[BlatantLies but skill!]].
** CriticalFailure: However, it has a minimum distance where hitting a target will yield only a mini-stun and a small amount of damage, making it all but useless at point-blank range.
** LeadTheTarget: The arrow travels extremely slowly for a castable spell, making it very easy for opponents to dodge it if they see it coming.
** SpamAttack: Mirana's high mana supply, the Arrow's relative cheapness, and the sheer damage and stun duration all translate to "As soon as one of them hits, she wins" and Mirana can simply let loose an arrow every time it comes off cooldown. She'll hit eventually.
* RedOniBlueOni: The blue, being the calm, composed main acolyte of moon, to Luna's red, the violent and sadistic moon... hit-woman.
* RichBitch: Smug, haughty, entitled, and condescending towards her enemies, calling them "Mutt", "Dog", "Cur", etc... Mirana is pretty much a high class girl, she only has a few interaction with other heroes, though usually more civil.
* SplashDamageAbuse: ''Starstorm'' will drop an extra star at melee range after the initial wave, dealing 75% of the damage of the first wave. This allows Mirana to deal a heavy amount of damage to a target by ''Leap''ing right next to them and casting Starstorm, since the first wave will most likely kill any nearby creeps or weak units, leaving only the strong one to eat another hit.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: On surface, she might seem to be getting along with Luna on a common goal together. But their formalities seem ''forced'', and they seem to be naturally more happy to get into a CatFight about who gets to be the top Selemene servant. Coming from [[RichBitch Mirana]], this makes sense, as she doesn't believe that an ex-bandit like Luna should get the privileges of a leader.
* WeakButSkilled: She has low stat growth across the board, but makes up for it with her extremely powerful kit and the utility she brings to her team.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Despite her flexibility, many of Mirana's greatest strengths are also hard-countered by the right items and spells.
** While ''Moonlight Shadow'' is very powerful in the early game since its global range allows her to effectively give her whole team a Shadow Blade for ganking or escaping, it's dodgy in the late game at best, since it can be easily defeated by any form of detection or silence, and competent teams can use good prediction and map awareness to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard turn ganks completely around by using the other team's complacency against them]]. In fact, simply picking Mirana can actually be a detriment to a team since it will cause your opponents to buy detection items earlier than usual and use them more frequently, meaning that it will greatly hinder any of your teammates with their own invisibility abilities (or who often purchase Shadow Blades), and result in more frequent de-warding.
** ''Sacred Arrow'' has the longest stun duration in the game, however it can also be countered pretty easily by stun-removing spells. This means that if there's an Abaddon, Legion Commander or Oracle on the enemy team, they can simply purge the 5-second stun off of an ally that's been hit with an arrow, and in the first two cases do so on a lower cooldown than ''Sacred Arrow'' itself.
** Mirana herself has low to mediocre base stats and low base damage (combined with slow projectile speed making last-hitting difficult), so while she's capable of making foolproof ganks and scaling decently with farm, early on she's as powerful as a lane creep. Played as a carry she requires a fair amount of babysitting to ensure that she gets the farm she needs, and played as an early roamer virtually all of her effectiveness lies in landing ''Sacred Arrow''.
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Morphling]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Morphling_1763.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/2/2f/Mrph_spawn_06.mp3 "Beware the riptide."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' David Scully
''"For dark eons the comet circled. Held in thrall to a distant sun, bound by gravity’s inexorable pull, the massive ball of ice careened through the blackness between worlds, made strange by its dark journey. On the eve of the ancient war of the Vloy, it punched down through the sky and lit a glowing trail across the night—a sign both armies took for an omen. The frozen ball melted in a flash of boiling heat, as below two forces enjoined in battle across the border of a narrow river. Thus freed from its icy stasis, the Morphling was born into conflict, an elemental power at one with the tides of the ocean, capricious and unconstrained. He entered the fight, instinctively taking the form of the first general who dared set foot across the water—and then struck him dead. As the motley warriors clashed, he shifted from form to form throughout the battle, instantly absorbing the ways of these the strange creatures—now a footsoldier, now an archer, now the cavalryman and his mount--until, by the time the last soldier fell, Morphling had played every part. The battle's end was his beginning."''

* BlobMonster
* CameFromTheSky
* ConfusionFu: Morphling's greatest strength is the ability to shift between Strength and Agility. One minute he might be a frail but powerful GlassCannon scything down your team with ''Adaptive Strike'', the next time you meet him he might have become a nigh-unkillable StoneWall or anything in between these two extremes.
* DashAttack: ''Waveform'' turns Morphling invulnerable and surges him forward, dealing damage to everything it passes through.
* DefogOfWar: Morhpling's ''Replicate'' illusion can be used to safely scout ahead of his team, as well as allow him to instantly jump on any lone targets he finds.
* DynamicEntry: ''Waveform'' has great range, allowing Morphling to easily chase down fleeing enemies or escape from gankers. ''Replicate'' can also be used in this way. A lone enemy who encounters a wandering Crystal Maiden can jump on her with nuking spells, only for her to suddenly turn into a farmed Morphling at full HP who then proceeds to blast them down with the Shotgun.
* ElementalShapeshifter: He can morph into the copies he creates.
* GreatEscape: Morphling can be extremely hard to pin down unless he's silenced (and even then he has methods of avoiding death). ''Waveform'' makes Morphling invulnerable, so not only can it easily disjoint any incoming attacks and spells, it can dispel already-placed disables without penalty such as Slark's ''Pounce'' and Puck's ''Dream Coil''. Additionally, if ''Replicate'' has been cast, then Morphling can always instantly relocate to it, wherever it may be, allowing him to jump away to the entire other side of the map should he so desire.
* LightningBruiser: Because Morphling can shift stat points between Strength and Agility, he can become extremely tanky by shifting lots of points into Strength, or he can deal loads of damage by shifting points into Agility (which has the side benefit of granting him more armor, making him more durable against physical attacks). With enough items, Morphling can dump all of his Strength to Agility while ''still having more than 3k hp,'' being capable of taking tons of damage and dealing tons of damage.
* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Because ''Adaptive Strike'' deals its spell damage based on Morphling's Agility, which scales, it's one of a bare half-dozen or so nukes in the game that plays this trope straight.
* MagicKnight: Morphling is notable for being one of the few heroes in the game who is capable of dealing immense amounts of both Physical and Magical damage simply by building up his Agility through items and levels. When he's not using the Shotgun to instantly wipe a squishy support off the battlefield within a second, he can right-click enemies down extremely quickly, his only real limitation being that he is largely a single-target focused hero that can take down enemies one at a time rather than several at once.
* MakingASplash: He's MADE of water.
* MonsterModesty: Morphling has a surprisingly large wardrobe for a BlobMonster.
* PowerCopying: When Morphling uses ''Hybrid'', he turns into an illusion of a friendly hero that can use all of that hero's regular abilities. It synergises well with heroes with powerful non-ultimate abilities like Undying's ''Tombstone'', Pugna's ''Nether Ward'',...
* ShoutOut: To MagicTheGathering Morphling. Especially his third skill.
* SicklyGreenGlow: The Immortal weapon Blade of Tears, based on the item Ethereal Blade, which glows with ethereal powers and gives ''Adaptive Strike'' an appropriate colour change.
* StoneWall: Illusions created via ''Replicate'' will take no bonus damage, making them among the most durable illusions in the game. However, they also deal 50% of the damage that the hero it's based off of would normally do (and excluding any raw damage or attack speed bonuses).
** Morphling himself can become one by putting most of his points into Strength over Agility. While he hits like a wet noodle and his main nuke is weaker, he also becomes ''stupidly'' hard to gank with his mobility and durability, and ''Adaptive Strike'' becomes a very good stun instead.
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath[=/=]DamageIncreasingDebuff: The popular 'shotgun Morphling' build: shift as many points into Agility as possible and buy Ethereal Blade. Using Ethereal Blade's active ability ''Ether Blast'' plus ''Waveform'' and ''Adaptive Strike'' (which does more damage as you put more points into Agility, meaning that it can scale with levels and Agility items), can deal upwards of ''one thousand magic damage'' to a single enemy, which is only sometimes exceeded by Lion's ''Finger of Death'' and Lina's ''Laguna Blade'', both of which require Aghanim's Scepter (a farm-intensive item on non-carry heroes) and both of which don't scale as you level up. This is enough to burst down, not just supports, but carries as well, even in the late game.
* TwinMaker: ''Replicate'', Morphling's ultimate, allows him create copies of other heroes as an illusion. At any point he can instantly teleport to it by casting ''Morph Replicate''.
* TwinSwitch: Morphling is capable of doing this to any of his teammates by casting ''Replicate'' on them and sending the illusion out. This allows crafty Morphling players to bait out crucial spells from the enemy, since they won't be able to immediately know that they're attacking an illusion rather than the real thing, as it takes just as much damage from their spells and attacks.
** CloningGambit: The illusion effectively acts as this. While the enemy team has spent all their spells on the illusion, the real hero is safe and sound, ready to pounce on the enemy once their important spells are on cooldown (and maybe even the real Morphling simultaenously jumping into the illusion if it hasn't been destroyed yet).
* TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive: Played for laughs.
--> '''Morphling (killing Tidehunter)''': [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/f/f2/Mrph_rival_04.mp3 "I know where you live, Tidehunter!"]]
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: ''Morph'' allows Morphling to shift his form, turning Agility into Strength and vice versa. ''Hybrid'' turns him into an illusion of an allied hero.
* WhyWontYouDie: Morphling can be extremely hard to kill if he's pinned down since he can cast ''Morph Strength Gain'' in order to increase his HP. This means that even if he's jumped on by the enemy team, they'll have to either silence or hex him in order to prevent him from gaining even more HP as he runs away, all the while hoping that he doesn't cast ''Waveform'' or have ''Replicate'' active.
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Azwraith, the Phantom Lancer]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Phantom_Lancer_3608.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/b/b0/Plance_spawn_05.mp3 "From one: an army."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Barry Dennen
''"The remote village of Pole had no knowledge of the wars raging in the heart of the kingdom. For them, the quiet of spear fishing, and a family meal were all that a full life required. Yet war came for them nonetheless. Joining the able-bodied conscripts as they filed passed their homes, the humble lancer Azwraith vowed to bring peace to his kingdom, and in so doing, his people. Placed with his kin in the vanguard of the final assault against the Dread Magus Vorn, the cost to his fellows was absolute. As the charging force battled toward the fortress, Azwraith alone among his kind remained standing, and he alone was able to infiltrate the keep. Focused and infuriated by the slaughter of his brothers, Azwraith bested each of the wizard's deadly traps and conjured guardians. Soon the simple fisherman arrived at Vorn's tower sanctum. The pair dueled through the night, pike to staff, as chaos raged below, and with a deafening cry Azwraith pierced his enemy. But the wizard did not simply expire; he exploded into uncountable shards of light, penetrating his killer with power. As the dust settled and the smoke of combat began to clear, Azwraith found himself standing among a throng of his kin. Each seemed to be dressed as he was, each seemed armed as he was, and he could sense that each thought as he did. Aware that his allies were approaching, he willed these phantoms to hide themselves, and one by one they began to vanish into nothingness. As the soldiers came upon the sanctum, they found the warrior that had bested the wizard. When they approached their champion, the lancer vanished. The pikeman who had stood before them was no more than another phantom."''

Phantom Lancer is a nimble melee attacker who sees use as both a late-game carry and a decent split pusher. Azwraith's skillset allows him to spread chaos on the battlefield with an army of self-replicating illusions, swarming weakened targets or confounding enemies in the midst of a teamfight with his deceptive abilities. His first skill, ''Spirit Lance'', is a ranged attack that damages and slows a target, in addition to summoning an illusion to momentarily attack the target. His second active skill, ''Doppelganger'', summons two illusions after a brief delay in which Phantom Lancer and any of his illusions vanish from the battlefield, reappearing with two new illusions at a random position within the spell radius. These two illusions deal and take varying degrees of damage, allowing them to pass as the real Azwraith long enough to escape. His two passive skills increase his chasing and teamfighting prowess; ''Phantom Rush'' temporarily lets Phantom Lancer and all of his illusions charge at maximum speed toward a target unit, while his ultimate, ''Juxtapose'', causes Phantom Lancer to randomly generate new illusions every time he attacks. It even allows his illusions to create illusions of their own, even though they only last half as long. With his own personal army under his command, even the toughest enemy heroes must brace themselves for Azwraith's illusory onslaught.

* AchillesHeel:
** While Phantom Lancer can be an extremely deadly chaser and is capable of dodging spells and purging debuffs from himself with good timing, he is also quite vulnerable to [[HerdHittingAttack abilities that magnify in damage when targeted on groups of units]], as it is difficult to micromanage his illusions to split up. This is particularly true of heroes such as Earthshaker, Legion Commander and Undying, the first two who can inflict huge amounts of damage to Phantom Lancer and instantly wipe his army off the board just by virtue of him standing next to his illusions, and the latter of which can use his numbers against him and his team. Special mention goes to an Ember Spirit with a Battle Fury, who can inflict huge amounts of cleave damage to Phantom Lancer himself using ''Sleight of Fist'', which has a 5 second cooldown.
** Area stuns likewise can be highly fatal to Phantom Lancer, who rarely takes a Black King Bar as using one might as well be a "Here I am!" sign to the opposing team. Spells like ''Storm Hammer'', ''Hoof Stomp'', or ''Split Earth'' can knock him and his illusions out while dealing enough damage to tell the real one from the illusions, while ultimates like ''Reverse Polarity'' or particularly ''Echo Slam'' are practically a death sentence.
** Simple cleaves can clear out his illusions, making the real Phantom Lancer painfully clear. Best exemplified by ''Great Cleave'' and ''Empower''.
** His illusions' damage (outside of the mana burn from Diffusal Blade) can be nullified with a simple Crimson Guard, turning them into distractions and nonfactors.
* ApologeticAttacker: Downplayed. He sometimes apologizes to creeps killed by him.
* BadassBeard
* BladeOnAStick
* CatFolk
* ConfusionFu: Without the proper spells, Phantom Lancer can be extremely hard to pin down and contain. With enough attack speed, Phantom Lancer can maximize and maintain his army of illusions in just a few attacks, creating a huge amount of chaos and destruction on the battlefield. Even more, ''Doppelganger'' takes all these illusions plus himself and shuffles them around, forcing the enemy to try to pick out the real Phantom Lancer from the crowd. And to top it all off, upon casting the spell, one of the illusions will take 100% damage from all damage sources, making it just as durable as Phantom Lancer and reducing the enemy's chances of singling out the real Phantom Lancer to a maximum of 50%.
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Each illusion does 16% (20% with two certain illusions) of the base damage of the original Azwraith. With ''Juxtapose'' maxed, Phantom Lancer can have up to 10 illusions totalling 160% of his damage, on top of ''Spirit Lance'', ''Doppelganger'' and maybe even Manta Style. On top of that, the illusions has a small chance to create another illusion as they attack, giving them the ability to self-sustain for a short time. The illusions alone can pump out a load of damage and make a pretty good job of slicing down creeps and foes alike by their sheer volume for as long as they last.
* DiscOneNuke: ''Spirit Lance'' is quite strong at level one, but it remains a useful initiation tool throughout the game.
* DifficultButAwesome: Since "Doppelganger" causes Azwraith to disappear for a second, players with fast reflexes can dodge anything that comes their way, including stuns, nukes and simple attack projectiles. Of course, since most projectiles in this game take about 0.5 seconds to travel to a target, this is extremely difficult to pull off.
* DoppelgangerAttack: ''Spirit Lance'' deals damage, slows, and summons an illusion to attack the target.
* EmpoweredBadassNormal: In his backstory. He used to be a simple fisherman and soldier who nonetheless managed to defeat the Dread Magus Vorn and became the Phantom Lancer.
* FragileSpeedster: ''Phantom Rush'' gives Phantom Lancer and his illusions a movement speed boost and phasing when they target an enemy unit, but they don't have a lot of health to survive extended confrontations should the battle go sour.
* IAmLegion: His BackStory suggests that his phantoms are capable of semi-independent thought, but all [[HiveMind think alike]] and obey the will of the original. In his voice lines he almost always refers to himself as "we".
-->'''Phantom Lancer:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/4/48/Plance_respawn_03.mp3 ''Am I the real we?'']]
* MageKiller: With a Diffusal Blade equipped, Azwraith excels at this role. Since each illusion will destroy 25 mana every time it attacks, he can swarm a pesky nuker and drain their mana to nothing in a few seconds. Additionally, since many magic-oriented heroes rely on single-target disables, trying to pin down the real Phantom Lancer amid the clones can be challenging. It's also referenced in his backstory; he was the only member of his army who could fight Vorn and win.
* MagikarpPower: Early game Phantom Lancer is fairly weak, being a melee hero with low HP and mana, small last hit window, while ''Spirit Lance'' can be annoying but costs a ton of mana for his small mana pool. But as soon as he gets Diffusal Blade and some survivability items, he can deal absurd amounts of damage to any target he focuses on due to the sheer number of illusions he can generate with just a few attacks and the amount of mana burn damage the target will take from the illusions alone.
* MasterOfIllusion: The finest example of this trope in the entire game.
* MysticalWhiteHair: Certainly fits the bill, although it's uncertain whether it's his natural hair color or a side effect of him absorbing Vorn's power.
* SelfDuplication / MesACrowd: Phantom Lancer's entire skill set is based around making illusions of himself. With ''Juxtapose'', Phantom Lancer can create several illusions within a few auto-attacks, and quickly reach the illusion cap shortly after that.
* ShoutOut: His model is based off of Kimahri from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', while ''Phantom Rush'' is named after an ability from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''.
* TheStoic: He always manages to keep a cool face, even while laughing.
* SuperPersistentPredator: With a combination of ''Doppelganger'' (when used offensively) and ''Phantom Rush'', Phantom Lancer can close the distance between himself and his chosen target, as well as chase virtually any enemy over long distances, to say nothing of simply using his Diffusal Blade active to slow the target right before jumping on them.
* SuperSpeed: ''Phantom Rush'' gives Phantom Lancer and his clones phase movement and a movement speed of 800, far beyond the movement speed limit, when commanded to attack an enemy within a certain radius. With a cooldown of 4 seconds at max level, this allows Phantom Lancer to mass his illusions on a target from a surprisingly long range, preventing him from being kited under almost any circumstance.
* TookALevelInBadass: He used to be a simple fisherman.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: He seems to speak with the voice of all his Phantoms, even when none appear to be there.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Phantom Lancer's illusions deal a pitiful amount of damage by themselves, even if he's farmed and has loads of Agility items to boost their base damage. Even at its highest each illusion will deal less than 50 damage apiece before reductions, meaning that damage block items (particularly Crimson Guard) will shut down his main source of damage output, reducing them to dealing ManaBurn damage (and even then only if he's purchased a Diffusal Blade).
* ZergRush: Phantom Lancer deserves special mention in this category, as his Zerg Rush can regenerate itself quickly even after being destroyed. Due to ''Juxtapose'''s high proc chance on Phantom Lancer's attacks, even if his illusion army is destroyed, he can create another one almost instantly with enough attack speed.
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Shendelzare, the Vengeful Spirit]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Vengeful_Spirit_full_9472.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/7/77/Vng_rare_04.mp3 "The road of revenge is long, but what awaits me at the end makes it worthwhile."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Gin Hammond
''"Even the most contented Skywrath is an ill-tempered creature, naturally inclined to seek revenge for the slightest insult. But Vengeful Spirit is the essence of vengeance. Once a proud and savage Skywrath scion, first in succession for the Ghastly Eyrie, a sister's treachery robbed her of her birthright. Snared in a hired assassin's net, she tore free only at the cost of her wings, limping way in the ultimate humiliation: On foot. With her wings shattered, she knew her people would never accept her as ruler; and in the high roost of the Skywrath flock, inaccessible except by winged flight, her sister was untouchable. Unwilling to live as a flightless cripple, and desiring revenge far more than earthly power, the fallen princess drove a bargain with the goddess Avilliva Scree'auk: She surrendered her broken body for an imperishable form of spirit energy, driven by vengeance, capable of doing great damage in the material plane. She may spend eternity flightless, but she will have her revenge."''

Unlike most other agility heroes, Vengeful Spirit is generally played as a hard support as her low range prevents her from effectively carrying, but she has spells afford the team strong utility such as initiation spells, a percentage-based damage aura and powerful AoE armor reduction. Her first spell, "Magic Missile" is a single-target stun that deals damage. Her second spell "Wave of Terror" causes targets in a line to lose armor. "Vengeance Aura", her third spell is a passive ability which buffs up attack damage of allies around her, while giving an inverse effect to enemy heroes that have killed her. Her ultimate ability "Nether Swap" instantly swaps the position of Vengeful Spirit and a target hero. Intelligent use of Nether Swap is vital to the play of Vengeful Spirit, as it can either isolate an enemy hero or save an ally, but typically places Vengeful Spirit right in the middle of the action as a result, at the mercy of opponent heroes.

* AbsoluteCleavage
* ActionGirl
* ArmorPiercingAttack: Since it deals pure damage and pierces spell immunity, absolutely nothing can protect a hero from ''Wave of Terror''. Her ultimate ''Nether Swap'' also completely pierces spell immunity, allowing it to be used to interrupt spell-immune enemies (one of the very few spells capable of doing so on a low cooldown).
* ArtEvolution: Her model and art were slightly updated to match the more up-to-date design for the Skywrath race as a whole. Unsurprisingly, this coincided with the release of the game's other hero of the same race, the Skywrath Mage. But even before then, she's had her character model improved, as a previous version of her wore a mask.
* TheArtifact: The icon for her ''Vengeance Aura'' is a red mask, which she wore in a previous version.
* BareYourMidriff
* BrokenAngel
* BrokenBird: Figuratively and literally. On the literal side, she's a Skywrath, a race of winged humanoids. On the figurative side, she was a proud woman until her sister hired an assassin to kill her, and Shendel's wings were lost. This is one of the most traumatic things than can happen to a Skywrath, causing her to devote herself to revenge.
* BrownNote: ''Wave of Terror'' deals a small amount of damage to targets, and decreases their armor by a substantial amount for a period of time.
* CainAndAbel: The Abel to her sister's Cain.
* DamageIncreasingDebuff: ''Wave of Terror'' reduces the armour of its targets, making it a good skill to take Roshan early in the game, especially when combined with a Medallion of Courage.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Read those lores above? Good, that just spells how shitty Shendelzare's life became in the past to the point she became Vengeful Spirit.
* DarkIsNotEvil
* DeadManSwitch: If Vengeful Spirit is killed, her killer is inflicted with a reverse ''Vengeance Aura'' that reduces the damage of their allies.
* DefogOfWar: ''Wave of Terror'' is often used to scout important areas like narrow paths or the Roshan pit.
* EnergyBeings: After she surrendered her body for a form of spirit energy.
* FieldPowerEffect: ''Vengeance Aura'' increases the base damage of all nearby allies by a certain percentage. Early game it's not very powerful, but by late game it can add a large amount of damage to your carry's damage output.
* FourFingeredHands
* GlowingEyes[=/=]RedEyesTakeWarning
* HeroicSacrifice: ''Nether Swap'' can bring an enemy surrounded by his team to yours or bring a focused ally into safety. Of course, this sends you right into the middle of the enemy team. However, since Vengeful Spirit is often played as a hard position 5 support and also has the negative ''Vengeance Aura'', this 'feed to win' swapping style is not often a big deal and even encouraged.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard[=/=]WhatAnIdiot: Usage of ''Nether Swap'' must be considered carefully though, since swapping enemy Heroes that '''want''' to get closer to your team (such as Magnus, Earthshaker and Tidehunter) can effectively give them a free initiation, completely turning the tables.
* LoveInterest: Of Dragonus, the Skywrath Mage. As allies, it seems that Shendelzare still held feelings with him, asking about how he fared in Skywrath. As enemies, however, Shendelzare considered Dragonus still having his wing a treachery she'll never forgive. It's weird.
* NonMammalianHair[=/=]NonMammalianMammaries: Despite being a Skywrath (a race of avian humanoids), she has hair and breasts like mammals.
* NotAfraidToDie: As mentioned under HeroicSacrifice, Vengeful Spirit players have to be willing to put their lives on the line with ''Nether Swap'' to initiate teamfights and save allies. Lore-wise, Vengeful Spirit herself is implied to be this.
--> '''FlavorText of ''Nether Swap''''': Martyrdom is a small price to pay for vengeance.
* OurSpiritsAreDifferent
* PowerGlows: Her hair and eyes.
* RedEyesTakeWarning
* {{Revenge}}: The dreadful emotion within her.
* RingsOfDeath: With some cosmetic items.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge
* {{Stripperiffic}}: She only wears a loincloth and a top that shows her entire cleavage and midriff.
* TheUnintelligible: In the earlier versions of [=DotA=], she did nothing but growl and snarl when selected. Later versions finally gave her actual speaking lines.
* WingedHumanoid: The Skywrath are a race of them. Shendel, however, lost her wings.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Riki, the Stealth Assassin]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/riki_2377.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/6/6e/Riki_respawn_09.mp3 "My skill set is narrow, but very sharp."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Tom Chantler
''"Riki was born middle child to the great dynasty of Tahlin. With an older brother groomed for the throne, and a younger brother coddled and kept, Riki, the small middle son, seemed born for the art of invisibility. It was an art he cultivated, and one which ultimately saved his life on the night that his people were betrayed and his family slaughtered. Of all the royal line, he alone escaped—small and agile, unassuming, using smoke as cover. He cut his way out of the royal grounds, using the advantage of surprise, quietly slitting the throats of one enemy warrior after another. Now free of his royal responsibilities, Riki uses his talents in service to a new trade: Stealth Assassin. He silences his enemies, sharpening his skills, hoping to one day take revenge on those who killed his family and robbed him of his birthright."''

Riki is ''the'' quintessential Stealth carry hero. If he remains undetected, he can easily sneak into the enemy ranks and launch deadly surprise attacks that leave his enemies dead. ''Permanent Invisibility'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, Riki becomes invisible throughout the whole game, allowing him to move undetected and only revealing himself if he's attacking someone, and over time, he returns to stealth once more, without any cost, though improving the skill will make him return to stealth faster. He likes to attack from the back, with his skill ''Backstab'', he will deal extra damage to enemies that did not face him head on, like if they're running away. To facilitate that, Riki has the ''Smoke Screen'', throwing a smoke bomb to the ground that silences and slows both movement and attack speed of enemies in the area, so if they want to face on Riki optimally, they will be forced to get out of the smokes, prompting opportunities for backstabbing. If the enemy runs further, Riki can execute his ultimate, ''Blink Strike'', in which he instantly jumps right on the back on the enemy and delivers a fatal blow, which can be repeated three times. Though a nightmare for squishy heroes with less escape options, a successful Riki does not depends on stealth alone as stealth detections are aplenty within the battlefield, Riki must make sure that the enemy will not be able to retaliate or strike the first blow, otherwise he'll die without taking out anything.

* AchillesHeel: More than other invisibility Heroes, silences will neutralize Riki almost as effectively as a stun, as ''Permanent Invisibility'' doesn't work if he's silenced. Furthermore, he won't be able to cast ''Smoke Screen'' or ''Blink Strike'' in order to escape, making him a sitting duck. As a result, Diffusal Blade is often used as much for purging off Dust of Appearance as it is for purging silence debuffs.
* BackStab: His third ability of the same name, it allows Riki to deal bonus damage based on his Agility when attacking a target from its rear arc. At level 3 or higher, it essentially amounts to a permanent Double Damage that stacks multiplicatively with any percentage-based damage increases.
* CombatPragmatist: Riki's fighting style is essentially sneaking up on the enemy with his invisibility, dropping a ''Smoke Screen'' to prevent them from retaliating, and then ''Backstabbing'' them to death. Lampshaded by the FlavorText of Backstab:
--> The Stealth Assassin is [[TryingToCatchMeFightingDirty not afraid to fight dirty]], and specialises in attacking his opponents from behind.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Riki, a hero specialized in invisibility, can collect the ''Invisibility'' rune, with unique lines regarding it.
-->'''Riki''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/b/ba/Riki_invis_02.mp3 "This is redundant."]]
* DualWielding
* FaunsAndSatyrs: Although not outright stated, he has many features of traditional satyrs. He was actually a Satyr in [=DotA=].
* FlashStep: ''Blink Strike'' teleports Riki behind the target, inflicting bonus damage on top of proccing ''Backstab''. It can even be targeted on allies to escape from enemies.
* FogOfDoom: His first ability, ''Smoke Screen'', blankets an area in smoke, silencing any enemies in the vicinity as well as reducing their movement speed and attack accuracy.
* FragileSpeedster: Riki's movement speed is above average and ''Blink Strike'' lets him instantly jump next to his target or escape from enemies. However, because his base Strength is very low and his Strength gain is quite mediocre, catching Riki with silences or detection will often put him down quite quickly.
* HealingFactor: ''Permanent Invisibility'' gives Riki a large boost to health regeneration when he's invisible.
* HornedHumanoid
* {{Invisibility}}: ''Permanent Invisibility'' makes him unique among invisibility-based Heroes in that he isn't bound by mana costs, items, positioning or cooldowns.
* KnifeNut
* MageKiller: Riki excels at appearing from out of nowhere and picking off lone enemy heroes, especially squishy Intelligence supports, shutting them down with ''Smoke Screen'' before ''Blink Strike'' and ''Backstab'' them to death.
* MiddleChildSyndrome: Actually ended up saving his life.
* PowerNullifier: ''Smoke Screen'' silences opponents, making it uniquely useful for countering blink-escape type Heroes, as well as singling out squishy support casters for elimination.
* ReverseGrip: His offhand dagger only.
* ShoutOut: To {{VideoGame/Tenchu}}.
* SkillGateCharacter: Because Riki is an invisible hero and especially good at picking off heroes out of position, he tends to be an absolute terror in the lower brackets, being able to snowball out of control and 1v5 whole teams by himself.
** ''Backstab'' allows him to deal absurd amounts of damage to a single target, since stacking Agility items will give him extra base damage, attack speed, armor, AND increased ''Backstab'' damage. In low-level games where heroes are frequently out of position and sentries don't exist, he can jump on his victims at any time with ''Permanent Invisibility'', drop a ''Smoke Screen'' on them, then ''Backstab'' a lot as they try to run away from the smoke in panic, and finally use ''Blink Strike'' to chase down and finish them off. The other team usually doesn't realise Riki's danger until he's extremely fat, at which point even sentries and a Gem can't do anything to him.
** On the other hand, he's a very weak laner, easily countered by silences and detection, and new players don't often realize that he deals almost no damage if you turn around and face him. Due to these three factors, he becomes food for even moderately skilled teams, and is almost never picked by professional teams (during The International 3 and The International 4, he was picked a grand total of 1 time), and only then not for ''Permanent Invisibility'', but the legitimately overpowered ''Smoke Screen''.
* SmokeOut: ''Smoke Screen'' can be used to prevent enemies from chasing, since it slows and silences them, keeping them from catching up or using their abilities to stop you.
* StealthHiBye
* TeleportSpam: His ultimate, ''Blink Strike'', is charge-based rather than having a cooldown. So it's possible for Riki to blink around [[UpToEleven 6 times in a row]] if he has the mana for it.
* WarriorPrince: He was born in the great dynasty of Tahlin.
* WeaksauceWeakness: A few Sentry Wards, some Dust of Apppearance, and decent teamwork and communication can utterly shut down Riki's main modus operandi.
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Kardel Sharpeye, the Sniper]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sniperupdated_2792.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/9/99/Snip_spawn_03.mp3 "Time for target practice."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Gary Schwartz
''"Kardel Sharpeye was born deep in the mountainous valleys of Knollen where, since time immemorial, the folk have survived by hunting the strange, cliff-dwelling steepstalkers above their village--killing them from a distance and collecting their carcasses where they fell. Sharpeye was among the best of these strange folk for whom projectile weapons are but another appendage, and to shoot is as natural as to touch. On his day of summoning, when he was to gain full standing in his village, Sharpeye took the ancient test: a single shot from the valley floor to strike a beast down from the cliffs. To miss was to be dishonored. With his entire village standing vigil, Sharpeye took his shot. A steepstalker fell; the crowd cheered. But when the carcass was collected, the village grew silent, for the elders found that the bullet had pierced its glittering central eye then fallen to be clenched in the steepstalker's mandibles. This ominous sign was the literal opening of a dark prophesy, foretelling both greatness and exile for the gunman who made such a shot. Sharpeye the Sniper was thus, by his own skill, condemned to make his way apart from his people--and unwelcome back among them until he has fulfilled the remainder of the prophecy by attaining legendary stature on a field of battle."''

There's only a few things that comes in mind when it comes to Sniper: [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer shoot, shoot and more shooting.]] Sniper lacks flashy skills, but his normal attacks are not to be triffled with. He tremendously increases his normal attack's range with his skill ''Take Aim'', sounds simple, but very vital in harassing the enemies in lane and when maxed, enables Sniper to shoot down Towers without being intercepted. Occasionally, he can also score ''Headshot'', temporarily slowing down movement and attack speed of those he attacked, as well as dealing bonus damage. He can also create a rain of bullets with ''Shrapnel'', covering an area that slows down enemies as they take damage per second, the skill comes with three charges. And lastly, his ultimate, ''Assassinate'', covers even greater range than his normal attack and deals big damage that is perfect for taking down retreating enemies that has low HP. It's also one of the few ultimates with low cooldowns, allowing Sniper to use it often. All these, however, is offset with his lack of escape options, so Sniper requires good positioning or some escape items (such as the Shadow Blade) to not get caught red-handed and get killed, like an actual sniper finding a good sniping spot.

* ADayInTheLimelight: Sniper was long considered one of the SkillGateCharacters in the game: only effective to stomp noobs, and extremely unpopular among pros. Then patch 6.83 came: it buffed ''Shrapnel'' to give it 3 charges, turning it from a very weak slow and pushing skill into an extremely annoying laning skill, while also nerfing pushing strats and introduced a rubberband gold and XP mechanic, which turned the meta into one of farming, turtling and defending high ground: all of which Sniper excels at. As a result, 6.83 turned him from a pubstomper into a top-tier hero. Then 6.84 nerfed the rubberband and ''Shrapnel'' and Sniper faded into obscurity again.
* AnnoyingLaugh: Most Keens are known to have obnoxious voice, but Sniper pretty much is the reigning king of obnoxious voice and laugh, and he's not afraid to shove his laugh to others, especially when casting Shrapnel, where his voice will be heard to everyone in the vicinity. All together now, '''[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/1/17/Snip_ability_shrapnel_03.mp3 "HO HO! HA HA!"]]'''
* BadassBeard: Seems to be standard among his race.
* BadassNormal: Sniper fights exclusively with his rifle and nothing else, and has no magical abilities at all.
* BoomHeadshot: Sniper's passive ''Headshot'', which gives him a chance to slow and deal bonus damage with his right-clicks.
** While Sniper is taking aim for ''Assassinate'', the target receives a debuff that reads "[[HaveANiceDeath Sniper's taking aim at your head!]]"
* BoringButPractical: ''Take Aim'' does nothing more than increase Sniper's range, which doesn't sound very exciting. However, since Sniper's greatest strength lies in his basic attacks, this increased range becomes invaluable. At level 2, his range exceeds that of towers, enabling him to safely push very early in the game.
* CrosshairAware: Sniper's ''Assassinate'' will put a crosshair visible to allies above his target while he's charging the ability; the target can also see it, including the countdown, as a debuff.
* FinishingMove: ''Assassinate'''s excellent range, impressive power, and long casting time effectively make it this. It's best used to finish off fleeing enemies that would otherwise successfully make an escape. In low-level games, where many ganks often end with the victim running away with the last sliver of their health, ''Assassinate'' will easily secure the kill for Sniper.
* FriendlySniper: Quite the talkative and upbeat fellow, for his allies, obviously.
* [[GlassCannon Glass Rifle]]: Although he can potentially dish out tons of damage, he's very fragile.
* HitAndRunTactics: Sniper is one of the best kiters in the game thanks to the extreme range from ''Take Aim'' and two slows, combined with Sange and Yasha and Eye of Skadi being two of his commonly built items.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: The reason he was exiled. ''Assassinate'' can hit from a insane distance away, even people that he can't see naturally, as long as he has sighted them using wards or teammates. [[BulletsDoNotWorkThatWay The bullet will even CURVE to hit the target,]][[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJE2rqBwyMo or even pull a complete 180 turn!]]
* LastSecondWordSwap: One of his possible death quotes is switching what would be 'shit' into 'shoot'.
-->'''Sniper''': ''Oh, shiiiiiiiiiiii-oot!''
* LethalJokeCharacter: Since he's small and starts with low health, slow movement speed, low damage, no escapes, and no disables, this hero seems quite pathetic... except for the fact that he can slow enemies and deal bonus damage with a 40% chance on each shot, and can slow while dealing a considerable damage over an area in a long range for cheap at 3 charges.
* LongRangeFighter: Sniper has the longest attack range in the game with ''Take Aim'', and ''Assassinate'' takes it UpToEleven with its absurd 3000 range. Additionally, ''Shrapnel'' can be cast from an absurd 1800 range away, effectively daytime vision. Of course, Sniper lacks escapes and is incredibly vulnerable, so he's as good as food if the enemy can get close to him.
* MagikarpPower: Starts off incredibly weak, but once he gains enough agility, he hits very hard, shoots very fast, and has the longest range in the game.
* MakingASpectacleOfYourself
* MutualDisadvantage: Blink Dagger buying heroes hates him as much as Sniper hates them. While a sucessful Blink initiation on a Sniper can result in an easy kill, 3 charges of Shrapnel, nice DPS, and super long range of Sniper makes sure that its much harder than it sounds.
* SecondaryFire: ''Shrapnel'' and ''Assassinate''.
* ShoutOut
** Several of his voice lines come straight from the Sniper of VideoGame/TeamFortress2. Incidentally, his voice actor, Gary Schwartz, also voiced the Heavy and Demoman in [=TF2=].
** When casting ''Assassinate'', the rifle makes the same sound as the AWP from VideoGame/CounterStrike.
* SniperRifle: Quite obviously.
* SpreadShot: His ''Shrapnel'' is a RecursiveAmmo.
* UnskilledButStrong: What he lacks in skill, he makes up for in Firepower, and his entire skillset can be summed up as "Things his gun does".
* WeaksauceWeakness:
** Blade Mail completely wrecks Sniper. Since he's so squishy, turning on Blade Mail when he attacks you will kill him first before he can kill you.
** Shadow Blade, Blink Dagger and gap-closing skills also counter Sniper very hard. Since he relies on his excellent range to deal damage without being retaliated, he often builds only damage items and no survivability items, so if that range advantage is nullified, he becomes food.
* YouShallNotPass: A plethora of slows including (but not limited to) a triple ''Shrapnel'', ''Headshot'', Sange and Yasha and Eye of Skadi combined with an extreme range from ''Take Aim'' and constant pressure from ''Assassinate'' makes Sniper one of the best high ground defenders in the game: he can simply stay behind the tier 3 tower and shoot while the enemy team has difficulty breaching the tower from the constant slows. Combined with the rubberband gold mechanics, it is especially disastrous for the enemy team if Sniper can manage to finish their carry off with ''Assassinate''.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Lanaya, the Templar Assassin]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Templar_Assassin_5195.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/4/41/Temp_spawn_01.mp3 "The mysteries cannot protect themselves."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Linda K. Morris
''"Lanaya, the Templar Assassin, came to her calling by a path of curious inquiry. Possessed of a scientific bent, she spent her early years engaged in meticulous study of nature's laws--peering into grimoires of magic and alchemy, recreating experiments from charred fragments of the Violet Archives, and memorizing observations of the Keen record keepers. Already quiet and secretive by nature, the difficulty of acquiring these objects further reinforced her skills of stealth. Had she been less retiring, she might have become notorious among the guilds as a thief-scholar. Instead her investigations led her into far more obscure corners. As she devoted her furtive talents to unlocking the secrets of the universe, she instead unlocked a secret door that exists in nature itself: the entryway to the most Hidden Temple. The intelligences that waited beyond that portal, proved to be expecting her, and whatever mysteries they revealed in the moment of their discovery was nothing compared to the answers they held out to Lanaya should she continue in their service. She swore to protect the mysteries, but more to the point, in service to the Hidden Temple she satisfies her endless craving for understanding. In the eyes of each foe she expunges, a bit more of the mystery is revealed."''

* AchillesHeel: ''Refraction'' blocks her from harm based on how many separate ''instances'' of damage are applied. So, it can absorb ludicrous amounts of burst damage, but weak damage-over-time abilities can destroy the shield almost instantly. ''Meld'' invisibility requires her to stand still, making her only more vulnerable to area-of-effect abilities and True Sight.
* ActionGirl
* AgonyBeam: ''Psi Blades'' "spill" pain, damaging units in a line for exactly the same damage as the first target.
--> '''Psi Blades Description:''' Her blades pierce the skin as much as the mind, furthering her understanding of the mystery that is reality.
* ArmorPiercingAttack: Lanaya is a rather unique damage-dealer in that ''Psi Blades'' will transfer the exact damage that the initial target suffers onto anything behind it. This means that you're actually rewarded for initiating on the squishiest hero in a teamfight, since it will allow you to take advantage of their low armor (especially when combined with ''Meld'') to deal absurd amounts of Pure damage to the heavily armored hard carry behind them.
* BackStab: Any attack that breaks ''Meld'' deals bonus damage and reduces the target's armor, hitting ForMassiveDamage.
* BadassBookworm: She was a scholar before discovering the Hidden Temple and becoming an assassin for them.
* BareYourMidriff: Her navel is revealed in her Hidden Mysteries loading screen, though this trope is absent on the in-game model except with her Clandestine Trail set.
* BoobyTrap: Lanaya's ultimate, ''Psionic Trap'', lets her place traps that turn invisible after a while, providing vision. When sprung, they slow the target, making them easy to catch up to, though they take time to charge up to full potency.
* ChurchMilitant: While the Hidden Temple isn't a religion per se, it is a ''Temple'', nonetheless.
* CombatStilettos: Her shoes have a high-wedge heel to them.
* DeflectorShields: ''Refraction'', Lanaya's first ability, creates a shield around her that completely blocks a certain number of damage instances, while simultaneously giving her bonus damage for the same number of attack instances. This makes her extremely durable against burst damage and spells, though it's easily broken by damage over time and repeated right-clicks.
* DefogOfWar: ''Psionic Trap'' gives a small area of vision around itself, and is permanently invisible, so it essentially acts as a free pseudo-ward that doesn't time out. Smart Templar Assassin players will often place these at key choke points, inside the enemy jungle, and on top of high ground transition ramps (which are most often places where ganks begin), giving their team a decisive edge in position knowledge.
* DifficultButAwesome: Due to her mediocre stats and unorthodox abilities, Templar Assassin can be difficult to learn, since it requires a fair amount of understanding and thinking to utilize her skills to their utmost. However, mastering her abilities and good planning lets you gain easy rune control after the six-minute mark, use the traps to give your team map vision over crucial areas, block off escape routes to make enemies easier to catch, harass enemies from spell-casting range, ignore massive enemy nukes in teamfights, cleave enemy teams from range with high-damage right-clicks, burst down spell immune enemies with your right-clicks, spot and initiate ganks with the traps, and much more.
* DualWielding {{Laser Blade}}s: Her psi blades.
* EnemyMine: Implied to have this relationship to Omniknight when they're fighting on the same team. Considering she is part of an organization called the [[SecretCircleOfSecrets Hidden Temple]] and Omniknight worships a god who [[TheOmniscient sees all]], it's understandable why there's a conflict of interest.
-->'''Templar Assassin:''' [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/1/18/Temp_ally_06.mp3 Your temple is not mine, Omniknight, but the Hidden Ones instruct me to cooperate.]]
* EnlightenmentSuperpowers
* TheFaceless: The lower half of her face is always covered by her mask [[note]]except in only one case with a cosmetic item[[/note]].
* GracefulLadiesLikePurple: A feminine LadyOfWar with a purple colour scheme.
* HighlyVisibleNinja: Not outright stated but her design is very {{Ninja}}-like. Averted with ''Meld''.
* ImpossiblyLowNeckline: Though it's not quite as noticeable as, say, Mirana or Lina.
* {{Invisibility}}: ''Meld'' lets her stay invisible as long as she doesn't move or use any abilities/items, and breaking it by attacking gives her bonus damage ''and'' reduces the target's armor. It's largely useless for ambushing given the mobile nature of the metagame, but quick-casting it in a fight lets Lanaya use it as a damage nuke, and in the early game when the enemy team has no detection or area-of-effect spells, lets her survive ganks and remain untouchable until either help arrives or the enemy gives up.
* LadyOfWar
* MsFanservice: Lanaya is usually favored as one of the hottest heroes in the game, thanks to her ImpossiblyLowNeckline, which also provides some bare armpits, not to mention she was actually one of the bustier female characters in the game (behind only Lina and Queen of Pain). Her ninja-ish attire and her reserved, studious personality may also be a thing to hit on.
* OneHitPolykill: Lanaya is interesting in that she is one of the only two ranged heroes in the game with a "cleave" mechanic [[note]]the other being Dragon Knight's ultimate[[/note]]. ''Psi Blades'' allows her to deal Pure damage to enemies in a narrow line behind the target she attacks (the damage dealt is equal to whatever the first target suffers, after damage amplification or reduction from armor), meaning that it ignores armor and magic resistance.
* PointyEars
* PsychicPowers: Her abilities are described as such.
* SecretCircleOfSecrets: The Hidden Temple is a morally ambiguous version of the trope. It is more than willing to have Lanaya work with the likes of morally upstanding characters like Omniknight, but her kill quotes imply her reasons for murdering certain heroes are a secret known only to the Temple, leaving one to wonder what exactly their motives are.
* SeekerArchetype: Driven by curiosity, Templar Assassin seeks to unlock the secrets of the universe and uncover its mysteries, to the point that she discovered the [[SecretCircleOfSecrets Hidden Temple]].
* ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon: Templar Assassin is technically a ranged hero, but her attacks have a pitiful 140 range, only 12 more than a standard melee hero [[note]]and still shorter than Doom's 150 attack range[[/note]]. Leveling ''Psi Blades'' lets her [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks "throw"]] her blades at her targets at more respectable ranges.
* ShoutOut: She had several to StarCraft in [=DotA=], with mentions of Aiur and the Protoss. In Dota 2, this has been reduced to her title as the ''Templar'' Assassin and her skill, ''Psi Blades''.
* SpellBlade: ''Refraction'' temporarily boosts Templar Assassin's damage for a set amount of attacks.
* TheStoic
* SupernaturalIsPurple
* TouchedByVorlons
* TrapMaster: With ''Psionic Trap''.
* WeakButSkilled: Her stats are pretty mediocre, but she makes up for it with three of her skills drastically increasing damage (with one scaling into lategame), and two increasing her survivability. Meta-wise, playing her well requires good planning when placing traps, and good positioning (and thus game-sense and judgment) to make the most of her attacks.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: And occasionally purple, depending on cosmetic items.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Luna, the Moon Rider]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Luna_dota_2_8879.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/8/87/Luna_levelup_10.mp3 "The moon waxes, and my mercy wanes."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Linda K. Morris
''"How had she been reduced to this? She was once the Scourge of the Plains, a merciless leader of men and beasts, and able to sow terror wherever she dared. Now she was far from her homeland, driven half mad from starvation and months of wandering, her army long dead or turned to worse. As she stood at the edge of an ancient forest, a pair of glowing eyes spied on from an elder branch. Something beautiful and deadly sought a meal in the wilting dusk. Without a sound, it turned and left. Fury overtook her. Clutching a rust-eaten dagger, she charged after the beast determined to reclaim even a shred of her past glory, but her quarry would not be caught. Three times she cornered the creature among the rocks and trees, and three times she pounced only to witness its fading shadow darting further into the woods. Yet the full moon shone brightly, and the creature's trail was easy to follow. Arriving in a clearing atop a high hill, the beast's massive feline form sat in the open, attentive and waiting. When the woman brandished her dagger, the creature reared and roared and charged. Death, it seemed, had come for her at long last in this strange place. She stood, calm and ready. A flash of movement, and the beast snatched the dagger from her hand before vanishing into the forest. Stillness. Hooded figures approached. In reverent tones they revealed that Selemene, Goddess of the Moon, had chosen her, had guided her, had tested her. Unwittingly she had endured the sacred rites of the Dark Moon, warriors of the Nightsilver Woods. She was offered a choice: join the Dark Moon and pledge herself to the service of Selemene, or leave and never return. She did not hesitate. Embracing her absolution, she renounced her bloody past, and took up a new mantle as Luna of the Dark Moon, the dreaded Moon Rider, ruthless and ever-loyal guardian of the Nightsilver Woods."''

* AxCrazy: Fits to a T: Her glaives are best suited to mass slaughter, she reacts to most everything by trying to kill it, and even has a bit of a sadistic streak.
-->'''Luna''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/3/3f/Luna_kill_05.mp3 Aww. Are you not going to beg?]]
* BeamSpam: ''Eclipse'' saturates the area around Luna with multiple simultaneous ''Lucent Beam''s.
* BloodKnight: Bloodseeker says she has a "reputation for bloodlust". Toned down, but she stills shows signs of it:
-->'''Luna''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/0/0f/Luna_rare_01.mp3 I would water the trees with their entrails if Selemene would smile on me.]]
* BoltOfDivineRetribution: ''Lucent Beam'' is described as an equivalent of this from a Moon goddess.
* CleavageWindow: With the Rider's Eclipse set. The Rider's Eclipse Pauldrons is one of the most sought-out items on the community market for a reason.
* FieldPowerEffect: ''Lunar Blessing'' boosts the damage to allies around Luna.
* FragileSpeedster: She has the highest base speed in the game, but her Strength stat is abysmal, meaning she goes down quickly until she turns into a LightningBruiser late game with enough durability items like Black King Bar and Satanic.
* HeelFaceTurn: From Scourge of the Plains to guardian of the Nightsilver Woods, yet she's still an AxCrazy BloodKnight.
* HerdHittingAttack: ''Moon Glaive'' allows Luna's glaive to bounce to enemy units near the attacked unit.
* InnateNightVision: Levelling ''Lunar Blessing'' increases Luna's night vision to 1800, equal to the standard day vision.
* KillSat: ''Lucent Beam'' and ''Eclipse'' summon damaging beams of light from the sky, although they have a [[BoltOfDivineRetribution divine origin]].
* LegacyCharacter: She's a Night Elf in all but name.
* {{Lunacy}}
* MsFanservice: Her curves, bright skin-tight clothing, and... ''posture'' surely attract the viewers' attention.
* NonIndicativeName: Luna's glaive doesn't look like what it's insisted to be.
* PantheraAwesome: Her mount, Nova, a sabre-toothed cat.
* PinballProjectile: Her glaives can hit up to five different targets with each autoattack.
* PurpleEyes
* RedOniBlueOni: The red to Mirana's blue.
* TheResenter, TheStarscream: Luna ''does not'' to like that Mirana is of higher class in service of Selemene. As an ally, she shows respect to Mirana in as much as she can feign by the laws of Selemene, but as an enemy, if Luna kills Mirana, she will remark about succeeding Mirana's spot. The reasoning is that Luna probably saw Mirana as a pampered, stuck-up bitch who got everything handed to her without actually trying, whereas she had to earn her peers as a warrior through tons of bloodbath.
* SpamAttack: ''Eclipse'' aside, her playstyle favors spewing out masses of almost anything she has thanks to their low cooldown. Even ''Eclipse'' can be seen as a burst of ''Lucent Beam'' spam.
* SpyCatsuit: Could be easily mistaken for a LatexSpaceSuit if it wasn't a fantasy world.
* StellarName
* SummonMagic: ''Eclipse'':
-->In times of great need, Selemene herself descends into the world, blocking out the light and hope of the opposed.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: If it wasn't for the laws decreed by Selemene, Luna would be more than glad to rip Mirana a new one and then take over the throne of being Selemene's top servant.
* TotalEclipseofThePlot: ''Eclipse'' temporarily turns day into night for a few seconds.
* ViolentGlaswegian: Has the voice and the temperament to be one.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Gondar, the Bounty Hunter]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Bounty_Hunter_6952.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/0/05/Bount_move_02.mp3 "Five enemies, five bounties."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Michael Gregory
''"When the hunted tell tales of Gondar the Bounty Hunter, none are sure of which are true. In whispered tones they say he was abandoned as a kit, learning his skill in tracking as a matter of simple survival. Others hear he was an orphan of war, taken in by the great Soruq the Hunter to learn the master’s skill with a blade as they plumbed the dark forests for big game. Still others believe he was a lowly street urchin raised among a guild of cutpurses and thieves, trained in the arts of stealth and misdirection. Around campfires in the wild countryside his quarry speaks the rumors of Gondar’s work, growing ever more fearful: they say it was he who tracked down the tyrant King Goff years after the mad regent went into hiding, delivering his head and scepter as proof. That it was he who infiltrated the rebel camps at Highseat, finally bringing the legendary thief White Cape to be judged for his crimes. And that it was he who ended the career of Soruq the Hunter, condemned as a criminal for killing the Prince’s prized hellkite. The tales of Gondar’s incredible skill stretch on, with each daring feat more unbelievable than the last, each target more elusive. For the right price, the hunted know, anyone can be found. For the right price, even the mightiest may find fear in the shadows."''

* BackStab: Both the bonus damage from breaking ''Shadow Walk'' and ''Jinada''. While neither ability is dependent on position, they are often the very first warning that you'll get that a Bounty Hunter is nearby.
* BladeOnAStick[=/=]DoubleWeapon: His primary weapon, a modified mancatcher.
* BountyHunter
* CatFolk
* CriticalHitClass: Bounty Hunter relies on the critical hit and slow from ''Jinada'' and bonus damage from ''Shadow Walk'', to deal a large amount of damage in the first hit during a gank.
* DefogOfWar: ''Track'' provides basic vision and True Sight on the target, meaning that invisibility in all cases but Slark's ultimate will be neutralized.
* DifficultButAwesome: In high-level games where everyone carries detection, smart Bounty Hunter players will have to know not to rely too much on invisibility and still be able to evade and counter detection with good map awareness, '''and''' get ganks off despite the enemy team's efforts. When played as a support and not as a carry, Bounty Hunter has a great amount of utility that gives his team a firm advantage.
** One little-known fact about ''Shadow Walk'' is that it places the damage buff at the beginning of the spell and only removes it when attacking out of complete invisibility or when the spell runs out. This means that if Bounty Hunter attacks a target during the fade time (which gets shorter the more the spell is leveled up), he effectively gets to use the bonus damage twice.
** ''Track'' is a very unique spell in that it doesn't telegraph Bounty Hunter's position to the enemy if he casts it, meaning that if he's in the fog of war and Tracks an enemy, they won't see him do it. However, timing the use of ''Track'' can still be quite difficult, as while the enemy won't see the huge red crosshair or trailing smoke, they can tell that they've been Tracked due to the debuff appearing in their status bar and nearby enemy creeps moving faster from the movement speed bonus. Therefore, against smart enemies, Bounty Hunter has to save casting ''Track'' during a gank until the very last second when the enemy can't react, or risk alerting the target.
* DualWielding: A more realistic variant with an offhand dagger.
* DynamicEntry: Bounty Hunter is often the initiator in a gank due to his combination of skills, as the first warning you get of a Bounty Hunter being around is being hit by a ''Jinada'' crit and ''Shadow Walk'' bonus damage at the same time, followed by ''Track'' and the rest of the enemy team barreling in.
* TheFaceless: By default, Gondar wears a mask that covers the lower half of his face...
** BadassBeard: ...however it also hides the fact that he has a beard, which is accentuated in some cosmetics.
** GoldTooth: His fangs are also a noticeably different color from the rest of his teeth.
* FuumaShuriken: ''Shuriken Toss'' does relatively little damage, and scales very badly, however it does mini-stun its target, which can interrupt channeling spells and escape TP scrolls, and is often enough to finish the job after right-clicking the target down enough.
* GlassCannon: Bounty Hunter suffers from low Strength growth, meaning that he's easily killed if detected.
* HighlyVisibleNinja: Averted during ''[[{{Invisibility}} Shadow Walk]]'', otherwise played straight.
* HunterOfHisOwnKind: In a meta sense. Unusually, as an invisibility hero, Bounty Hunter is extremely adept at killing other invisibility heroes, since ''Track'' will render their invisibility useless and give Bounty Hunter's teammates the gold they need on Dust and Sentries. The same can also apply to blinking escape heroes, since they rely quite a bit on the enemy team not knowing where they blinked to, not simply putting distance between themselves and the attacker.
* {{Invisibility}}: ''Shadow Walk'' gives Bounty Hunter temporary invisibility, allowing him to roam and gank at will. Breaking invisibility with an attack will deal bonus damage to the target.
** InvisibilityFlicker: He has to refresh ''Shadow Walk'' periodically to stay invisible, revealing himself for a moment, though smart players will do this from outside of enemy vision range.
** SmokeOut: ''Shadow Walk'' is started by throwing a smoke bomb.
* KnifeNut: With his other weapon.
* MoneyMultiplier: ''Track'' grants bonus reliable gold [[note]]meaning that it can't be lost upon death[[/note]] to Bounty Hunter and any assisting allies, which means that any successful ganks will often give a huge gold advantage to his team, and if snowballed properly can create a huge gap that will win games.
* NothingPersonal: He's just doing what he's paid for. But then again...
-->'''Gondar:''' [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/d/df/Bount_kill_14.mp3 "Just business, nothing personal."]]
** ItsPersonal
-->'''Gondar''' (when respawning): [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/3/35/Bount_respawn_12.mp3 "Screw business. It just got personal"]]
* [[EvilCounterpart Neutral Counterpart]]: Of Slardar, both being law enforcers of a sort, excellent chasers, and walking stealth detectors. Compared to Slardar, Bounty Hunter is slightly more on the chaotic side of things, stealthier, and less durable.
* OneHitKill: A good Bounty Hunter who gets multiple ''Track'' kills will often have large amounts of farm while simultaneously weakening the enemy's (if the enemy is dead, they lose unreliable gold and are unable to farm while they're respawning, all the while Bounty Hunter's team can take map objectives since they can take fights 4v5). Because of this disparity, Bounty Hunter can often farm up several damage items and inflict this with a ''Jinada'' crit on a squishy enemy support.
* PinballProjectile: ''Shuriken Toss'' will bounce to any target that is affected by ''Track'' within a 900 radius of the previous target. This means that casting ''Track'' on the entire enemy team right before a clash can allow him to deal a surprising amount of damage that also mini-stuns the victim, allowing him to interrupt enemy heroes at critical moments.
* ReverseGrip
* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Bounty Hunter's ultimate, ''Track'', marks the target, granting guaranteed vision (as well as True Sight) of the target for an extended period of time, as well as increasing allied heroes' movement speed anywhere within a certain radius. It can also be spammed, meaning that you can apply the debuff to multiple enemy heroes at once.
* SpamAttack: ''Track'' can be cast once every 4 seconds as needed. This allows Bounty Hunter to apply the debuff to multiple enemies before a teamfight, which in turn allows him to deal more damage with ''Shuriken Toss''.
* SpellBlade: ''Jinada'' enchants Bounty Hunter's blade every few seconds for a guaranteed critical hit. Unlike other critical hits in the game which are [[RandomNumberGod chance-based]], Gondar is guaranteed to proc it once every few seconds, but only once every few seconds, meaning that he benefits more from stacking loads of damage items (increasing the damage of the crit) rather than attack speed items (which doesn't increase the frequency of his crits in this case).
* WeakButSkilled: Bounty Hunter is below average as an Agility hero in most categories short of his Agility growth and base armor, and even has a very slow attack animation (0.59 seconds for a melee hero), making it hard to time last-hits with him in lane (to say nothing of constantly being harassed by the enemy while attempting to last-hit). However, his invisibility spell and passive crit make him a force to be reckoned with in ganks, on top of ''Track'' giving his team a significant vision advantage.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Like other invisibility heroes, he is very vulnerable to disables and invisibility detection, though not nearly to the same degree that Riki is since he can stay at range to use ''Shuriken Toss'' and ''Track''.
* YouWillNotEvadeMe: '''All''' of Bounty Hunter's abilities lend themselves to locking down a target in such a way as to make escape extremely difficult.
** ''Shuriken Toss'' interrupts channeling spells, meaning that TP escapes are virtually impossible even under the best of circumstances and it also has the ability to bounce to tracked units.
** Hitting an enemy with ''Jinada'' slows their movement speed for a short duration, giving Bounty Hunter's team additional time to lock down the target (and giving him more time to get additional right-clicks in).
** ''Shadow Walk'' lets Bounty Hunter scout out the area around his target prior to initiating, and lets him loiter as long as he pleases until his target reaches a place favorable for ganking.
** ''Track'' gives basic vision and True Sight on the target, as well as a movement speed bonus to all allies near the target. This automatically throws juking through trees out the window, and eliminates invisibility as an option, to say nothing of simply running away being difficult at best.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Ulfsaar, the Ursa Warrior]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Ursa_5542.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/0/03/Ursa_spawn_02.mp3 "I defend what is mine."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Fred Tatasciore
''"Ulfsaar the Warrior is the fiercest member of an ursine tribe, protective of his land and his people. During the long winters, while the mothers sleep and nurse their cubs, the males patrol the lands above--tireless, vigilant defenders of their ancient ways. Hearing dim but growing rumors of a spreading evil, Ulfsaar headed out beyond the boundaries of his wild wooded homeland, intending to track down and destroy the threat at its source, before it could endanger his people. He is a proud creature with a bright strong spirit, utterly trustworthy, a staunch ally and defender."''

* ActionDad: Some of his quotes are directed at "his cubs". One of his dying quotes even begs whoever killed him to spare them.
* BattleAura: The visual effect for ''Enrage''.
* BearsAreBadNews: For his enemies at least.
* BearyFriendly: He's one of the friendlier and more upbeat heroes... as long as you're on his side.
* TheBerserker: Ursa's playstyle revolves around getting as close to the enemy as possible, then shred them to pieces with his insane melee physical damage output.
* BloodKnight
--> '''Ursa:''' [[http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/8/85/Ursa_kill_11.mp3 "I was born to war. You died to it."]]
* CloseRangeCombatant[=/=]CripplingOverspecialization: Ursa is best described as an 'all-DPS carry' - his melee single-target physical damage output is unmatched, but that damage comes at the cost of pretty much everything else: he is extremely vulnerable to kiting due to his very low mobility, he can't flash-farm, and he has little utility outside of the slow from ''Earthshock''.
* DamageIncreasingDebuff: ''Fury Swipes'' allows his attacks to place a debuff so that the next attack deals more damage - and place an ''additional'' debuff. Combined with ''Overpower'', this allows Ursa to quickly stack the debuffs to an extent that most of his damage lies from his debuff rather than his base damage.
* FriendToAllChildren: Frequently mentions cubs and his apparent desire to protect them.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom[=/=]RedEyesTakeWarning
* GutturalGrowler
* InstantDeathRadius: The only way to be able to stand next to a farmed Ursa for more than two seconds and survive without being ethereal is to ''be on his team''.
* LickingTheBlade: He's often heard licking the blood off his claws when lasthitting.
* MightyGlacier: Ursa hits extremely hard and fast with a combination of ''Overpower'' + ''Fury Swipes'' + ''Enrage'', which substantially boosts both his attack damage and attack speed. The tradeoff is that in spite of his effective range (which is zero), he has very low mobility which makes him extremely vulnerable to kiting.
* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: Some of his voice lines indicate that the females of his species are even stronger and fiercer than him.
* NaturalWeapon: His claws.
** AbsurdlySharpClaws: Capable of tearing through armored foes as if they're made of paper.
** WolverineClaws
* ObviousRulePatch: Despite the fact that his Strength stats are greater than his Agility, Ursa is an Agility hero, and for good reason: he was formerly a Strength hero and was utterly broken because of it. Since he has an attack speed steroid in ''Overpower'', attack speed is more or less pointless on him; and he could increase his survivability, base damage, and bonus ''Enrage'' (which used to scale with Ursa's current HP) damage simply by stacking Strength items. This meant that an Ursa with a Heart of Tarrasque not only had more HP and significantly more ''Enrage'' bonus damage, but also increased base damage, meaning that he could jump on top of enemies with a Blink Dagger and ''Overpower'' active and eviscerate them almost instantly.
* PapaWolf: Unlike RealLife father bears, he seems to be quite protective of the cubs.
* ScreamingWarrior: He's prone to roaring and growling whenever he uses one of his abilities; most other battle sounds can easily drown in his bellowing as he rampages around.
* ShockwaveStomp: ''Earthshock''.
* SkillGateCharacter:
** While he's one of the most terrifying heroes to fight in close combat (few carries can manfight him), he is very vulnerable to kiting, making it difficult for him to deal that damage, and at higher skill gameplay he requires heavy team support and is a situational pick at best. Ironically however, Ursa was one of the most successful heroes in The International 3 that doesn't have a 100% winrate.
** Ursa can solo Roshan very early in the game with only a Morbid Mask, so in low-level games where hardly anyone buys wards, he is easily able to enter the Roshan pit, solo kill him and snowball his team with Roshan's bounty, while forcing his enemies to fight 6v5 with the Aegis; even moreso when everyone in your team is just blindly walking around the map chasing for kills instead of taking Roshan (which pub teams usually do not do until late game). However, good players can easily spot Ursa sneaking inside the Rosh pit, kill him and snatch the Aegis.
* SoloClass: Ursa's great single-target physical damage allows him to solo Roshan very early in the game, with a single Morbid Mask.
* SpamAttack: His bread-and-butter skill ''Overpower'' gives him a sequence of 3-6 ''very'' fast melee attacks, with damage increasing after each hit.
* TopHeavyGuy: Very much so.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Even moreso than other melee carries, Ursa is extremely vulnerable to kiting. Because all of his damage is strictly melee, Force Staff, Ghost Scepter, hard disables, slows, purges and blinks can make sure he never gets to deal that damage. Even if he gets close he can still be kited easily with items like Eul's Scepter of Divinity (which allows you to run from him and also disables his Blink Dagger) or Force Staff (which pushes you out of his way). Should he get Black King Bar to stop being disabled, it is kinda wasted on him because he needs both BKB and Blink Dagger to be effective, and since he farms very slowly, if he has those items half the game has passed, and he doesn't scale very well into the late game.
* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Ursa's arsenal is relatively limited when compared to other carries and his main method of attacking boils down to firing off all his active abilities simultaneously, but he can dish out quite a lot of damage with what he's got.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Aurel, the Gyrocopter]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Gyrocopter_8551.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/2/2e/Gyro_begins_01.mp3 "So much for my retirement! "]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Nolan North
''"After serving through a lifetime of wars, upheaval, riots, and revolutions, the brass figured Aurel had seen enough. But in addition to a few trinkets and his considerable pension, the erstwhile engineer left with something far more interesting: a long-forgotten, incomplete schematic for a Gyrocopter, the world’s first manned, non-magical flying device. Retiring to the tropical obscurity of the Ash Archipelago with little else but time and money, he set to work building the device. As the years wore on and the remains of failed prototypes began to pile up, he began to wonder if mechanical flight was even possible. A decade and a day after his retirement, on a sunny afternoon with a southerly breeze, Aurel sat in his latest attempt bristling with indignation and expectant failure. With a grunt of effort he pulled the ignition cord and covered his head, waiting for the inevitable explosion. However to his great surprise he began to lift and, following a few panicked adjustments, stabilize. Within an hour, he was ducking and weaving with the breeze, level with the gulls, and Aurel found himself filled with the breathless wonder of flight. As dusk settled in he set a course back to his workshop, but no sooner had he turned his craft when a cannonball tore through his tailfin. Disentangling himself from the wreckage, he swam toward the nearest piece of land in sight, and cursed to see the ship responsible for the cannonball collecting the debris. Days later, when Aurel returned to his workshop, he set to work on yet another gyrocopter, this one capable of carrying a much heavier, more dangerous payload."''

* AcePilot
* AdventurerOutfit: Of the airman variety.
** ScarfOfAsskicking
* BadassGrandpa
* BadassMustache
* {{BFG}}: The weapons mounted on his gyrocopter.
* BunglingInventor: He went through numerous explosions before finally creating a working aircraft.
* DeathFromAbove: ''Call Down'' calls an airstrike over the target area, after which two missiles will arrive in succession.
* DiscOneNuke: ''Rocket Barrage'' is among the most damaging skills if there's only one available target, so it often results in first blood during a 0-minute rune clash.
* DoABarrelRoll: Gyrocopter has a taunt called Do a Barrel Roll, which does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
* GrumpyOldMan: He's very much the stereotypical "old coot".
--> '''Gyrocopter:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/8/8a/Gyro_deny_05.mp3 "Get off my lawn!"]]
* HerdHittingAttack: Gyrocopter is considered one of the best teamfight carries in the game: ''Flak Cannon'' + ''Rocket Barrage'' + ''Call Down'' deal huge [=AoE=] damage: in the mid game they are enough to kill all the supports and leave little health to the enemy carry, unless the enemies counter-initiate or initiate first. When Gyrocopter is farmed, ''Flak Cannon'' is insanely good. Right-click down the enemy carry while their supports are melting at the same time? They just can't take a teamfight while your BKB is up.
* HomingProjectile: His second skill, ''Homing Missile''.
** BigBulkyBomb
** PainfullySlowProjectile: Starts out very slow, but accelerates and has no speed cap.
* KillSat: With Aghanim's Scepter, Gyrocopter's ultimate ''Call Down'' gains global cast range.
* MacrossMissileMassacre: ''Rocket Barrage'' launches 30 missiles from Gyrocopter over the span of 3 seconds.
* MakingASpectacleOfYourself
* MeaningfulName: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurel_Vlaicu Aurel Vlaicu]] was a Romanian pioneer of early flight.
* MultiDirectionalBarrage: ''Flak Cannon'' hits every single hostile unit within attack range. Since it deals Gyrocopter's auto-attack damage and never misses, a popular last resort build involves buying him Divine Rapier for an easy, but risky TotalPartyKill.
* OldSoldier
* PointyEars
* ScienceHero
* ShoutOut: To ''Film/TopGun''.
--> '''Gyrocopter (meeting Viper):''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/5/59/Gyro_ally_01.mp3 "Holy shit, it's Viper!"]]
** And to Franchise/StarFox
--> '''Gyrocopter:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/0/0d/Gyro_level_12.mp3 "Ah, I wonder if this thing can]] DoABarrelRoll."
* SuperPersistentMissile: ''Homing Missile'' never stops until it hits or gets destroyed.
* ThoseMagnificentFlyingMachines: His invention, the gyrocopter.
* TradeSnark: ''The Bomb™''
* VehicularAssault: His M.O.
* WingsDoNothing: A variation: Aurel's Gyrocopter obviously has wings, but for balance reasons cannot use them to bypass terrain.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Sylla, the Lone Druid]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Lone_Druid_6829.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/3/39/Lone_druid_rare_01.mp3 "Thousands of years of waiting... and yet, no time to waste."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Nolan North
''"Long before the first words of the first histories there rose the druidic Bear Clan. Wise and just they were, and focused in their ways to seek an understanding of the natural order. The arch forces of nature saw this, and so sought the most learned among them. Wise old Sylla, clan justiciar and seer, stepped forward for his kin, and to him was given the Seed with these words: 'When all of the world has dimmed, when civilization has left these lands, when the world is slain and wracked by the endless deserts at the end of ages, plant the Seed.' As he grasped his trust, Sylla felt his years recede and his vitality returned. Vast knowledge burst into his mind. He found himself able to project his very will into reality and, with some concentration, alter his own physical form as well. Yet subtle whispers and cruel ears brought word of the Seed and its power to other peoples, and a terrible war crashed upon the Bear Clan. As his ancestral home burned, Sylla took his burden and fled to the wild places. Ages passed, and time and myth forgot the Bear Clan, forgot Sylla and the Seed, forgot wondrous civilizations that rose and fell in Bear Clan’s wake. Through the eons, Sylla has waited, waited for word from his deities, waited for peace to come to the ever warring realms, waited in exile and in secret for the end of all things and for the conclusion of his sacred commitment, preparing himself always to face and destroy whatever would dare threaten his purpose."''

* BadassBeard
* BadassGrandpa
* BadassTeacher: For Ursa.
--> '''Lone Druid (killing Ursa)''': "Have you forgotten what I taught you, Ulfsaar?"
* BearsAreBadNews
* BondCreature[=/=]{{Familiar}}: The Spirit Bear.
* DifficultButAwesome: Lone Druid requires a lot of micromanagement to play effectively, as proper management of the Spirit Bear is paramount to Lone Druid's success. With enough practice, however, Lone Druid can quickly become one of the most dangerous heroes on the map, able to shove down lanes with impunity and deal lots of damage between Sylla himself and the Spirit Bear. The bear, in essence, can act as a sixth hero when properly farmed.
* TheDragon[=/=]TheLancer[=/=]HypercompetentSidekick: Because Lone Druid's effectiveness is so dependent on his bear, managing to kill it will essentially render Sylla himself useless, especially since the cooldown of re-summoning the bear is so long (two ''minutes'' at the least). This makes it dangerous for teams to rely too much on the bear, especially if it's carrying aura items like Assault Cuirass and Radiance, since killing it will render one of their main carries useless for at least that long and deny them the benefits of those auras.
* GlassCannon: Sylla has low starting Strength and average Strength gain, meaning that outside of ''True Form'' he is quite squishy and can be easily killed if focused on.
** MightyGlacier: In ''True Form'', Sylla exchanges his ranged attack and a bit of speed for armor and HP, making him much harder to kill at the cost of mobility.
* GreenThumb: The Spirit Bear's passive ability, ''Entangling Claws'', sprouts roots that hold enemies in place.
* HarbingerOfImpendingDoom: His purpose is recreating life AfterTheEnd, so whatever forced him to join the battle between the Radiant and Dire is not a good sign, and he's more than happy to accelerate the events.
--> '''Lone Druid:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/f/fc/Lone_druid_firstblood_01.mp3 "First blood! The end is set in motion! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"]]
* JackOfAllStats: Unlike most other carries, Lone Druid is well-rounded and fairly potent at all stages of the game; he can harass and last hit with ease in the early game with the aid of his Bear, push towers extremely fast in the middle game, and has enough durability to spearhead pushes in the late game with the right item builds. He is also one of two heroes [[note]]Troll Warlord being the other[[/note]] that can freely switch between melee and ranged attacks at any point in the game, giving him great flexibility in countering enemy tactics.
* KingInTheMountain: His BackStory.
* LightningBruiser: ''True Form'', ''Synergy'', ''Battle Cry'' and ''Rabid'' give Sylla a huge boost in health, damage output and movespeed.
* MetalSlime: Killing his bear yields a very large amount of gold and experience - sometimes more than killing a hero, but he's incredibly hard to kill thanks to his tankiness, an easy escape mechanism, and the ability to resummon him.
* MorphicResonance: In bear form, Sylla retains his shoulderpad and beard; at the same time, his bear gains attributes of Sylla (such as a beard and braids) as it levels up.
* NatureHero
* TheNeedsOfTheMany: He's willing to kill his friends and other {{Nature Hero}}es to guarantee the safety of the Seed, although he's not always happy about it.
--> '''Lone Druid (killing Ursa):''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/1/11/Lone_druid_rival_02.mp3 "There are more important causes in this world than your cubs, Ulfsaar."]]
--> '''Lone Druid (killing Nature's Prophet):''' [[http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/2/24/Lone_druid_rival_19.mp3 "I never thought the day would come that the Prophet's blood stained my hands.]]
* NonindicativeName: He's the "Lone Druid," but his pet bear hardly ever leaves his side.
* NonStandardSkillLearning: Lone Druid has a fifth skill, ''Battle Cry'', only available in ''True Form''.
* NowDoItAgainBackwards: The sound effects that accompany his transformations from and to ''True Form'' are roughly each other's reversals.
* ObviousRulePatch: The 6.78 patch eliminated the ability for the Spirit Bear to use an active Armlet of Mordiggian without suffering the health drain penalty. Prior to this, the Armlet, a 2600 gold item, would give the bear an extra 25 attack speed (which increases its chances of entangling an enemy hero), 5 armor (making it even harder to kill), 7 HP per second regeneration (making it less necessary to re-summon the bear), and 40 damage (increasing the damage it does to enemy heroes and towers), all without having to worry about health drain, so players would just turn the Armlet on permanently and give it the power of a late game item for the price of a mid game one.
* PandaingToTheAudience: One of Lone Druid's cosmetic items, the Spirit of Calm, changes the appearance of the Spirit Bear to that of a panda.
* PointyEars
* Really700YearsOld
* TheRival: To Lycanthrope. Out of universe, they have roughly similar skills (summoning animal familiars to aid them in combat, skills that increase their damage and attack speed, and an ultimate that lets them transform into an animal) although Lycanthrope is more of a LightningBruiser than Sylla himself.
--> '''Lone Druid (killing Lycanthrope)''': [[http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/f/f7/Lone_druid_rival_21.mp3 You and your pack of mongrels are nothing to me!]]
* ScreamingWarrior: ''Battle Cry'' gives both Sylla and his bear a significant boost to damage and armor.
* [[SiegeEngines Siege Engine]]: When ''Spirit Bear'' is maxed, it gains the passive ability ''Demolish'', which gives it a 40% bonus damage against buildings.
* SinisterScythe: Carries a small one around, which he [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks throws at enemies]] as his right-click attack in druid form.
* StoneWall: The Spirit Bear is the tankiest summon in the game and has more HP than any hero until lategame, however his damage output is much worse than of Sylla himself. The most common tactic is therefore outfitting the bear with tank and aura items such as Assault Cuirass and Radiance instead of attack-boosting items.
* StrongerWithAge: Strongly believes in this.
* SuperMode: His ultimate, ''True Form'', turns him into an anthropomorphic bear and gives him access to the ability ''Battle Cry'', boosting his damage and armor.
* {{Synchronization}}: The Spirit Bear cannot attack when it reaches a certain distance away from the Lone Druid, and when the bear is killed, Sylla will also take damage. They also have other skills that affects both of them including a skill appropriately called ''Synergy''.
* TouchedByVorlons
* TransformationIsAFreeAction: During his transformation, Lone Druid becomes invulnerable to damage.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Into an anthropomorphic bear.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Slithice, the Naga Siren]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Naga_Siren_8172.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/1/1b/Naga_spawn_05.mp3 "I sing the Siren song of war."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Linda K. Morris
''"Among the high-sworn of the Slithereen Guard there is a solemn vow oft repeated before battle: No Slithereen may fail. In truth, these words are equal parts oath and enforceable covenant, for those who fall short of their duty are banished from the order. To fail is to be other than Slithereen. Once most highly esteemed of her race, Slithice for many years commanded a battalion of her fellows, using her formidable voice as her greatest weapon. Powerful, sinuous, serpentine, she led her deadly Guard in defense of the Deep Ones, and the great wealth of the sunken cities. But in the final battle of Crey, her forces were driven back by a marauding army of levianths intent on finding tribute for their god Maelrawn. After the long and bloody onslaught, as the bodies were cleared from the sunken halls, a single jeweled chalice was found missing from the trove. Of her hundred Guard, only a handful survived, but their bravery and sacrifice were of little consequence. What mattered was that treasure was taken. Honor destroyed. And so Naga Siren was cast out. Banished to search for the stolen chalice. Though she might add a hundred times her weight to the golden trove, she is doomed to live apart until that day she returns that which was taken. For no amount of gold is equal in honor to the honor she lost."''

* BarbieDollAnatomy: Naga Siren is technically not wearing clothing at all, with only cosmetic items covering her up in certain cases.
** NonMammalMammaries
* BizarreSexualDimorphism: Hard to believe she, Slardar and Slark are of the same race.
* BrownNote: ''Song of the Siren'' can make enemies sleep but [[CursedWithAwesome it also makes them invulnerable during its effect]].
* CombatMedic: With Aghanim's Scepter, ''Song of the Siren'' will heal any ally in its duration by 6% of their maximum HP each second.
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Usually the fate of unfortunate opponents who face a fed Naga Siren. The Radiance-wielding illusions will slowly push all lanes into your base while her team slowly accrues a massive gold advantage with their map control. It's not uncommon to see players begging an enemy Naga to just gather her team and end the game instead of playing an hour-long game where they have to stay in base and fight illusions.
* DifficultButAwesome: Because ''Song of the Siren'' also turns enemies invulnerable, bad players can easily mess up their allies' combos, buy time for enemies late to the fight to catch up, and inadvertently help them win a losing teamfight. Properly used, it is one of the best setup skills in the game, able to let your whole team safely get into position and make otherwise difficult-to-hit skills like Kunkka's ''Ghost Ship'' a piece of cake.
* DualWielding: Of [[CoolSword Cool Swords]].
* EnthrallingSiren: Slithice's ultimate, ''Song of the Siren'', instantly disables all enemies within a huge radius of her, rendering them unable to attack or be attacked. It's one of the more powerful ultimates in the game since it gives your teammates all the time they need to get in position with their nukes, and can be a guaranteed escape mechanism in a gank.
--> '''Pirate Captain Announcer (seeing Slithice):''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/1/1a/Announcer_capn_pick_nagasiren.mp3 "I think she's... callin' to me."]]
* FishPeople: Her race, the Slithereen.
* FullFrontalAssault: Once again, technically not wearing anything.
* GreatEscape: Naga Siren is one of the hardest heroes to catch: ''Song of the Siren'' essentially provides her with a free get-out ticket as nobody can do anything to her, letting her safely teleport out. Even if you pop BKB and can interrupt the TP it's still difficult to chase her down since many of her core items (Boots of Travel and Manta Style) also provide movement speed, especially when not all of your team might have the money to build [=BKBs=].
* HornedHumanoid
* InescapableNet: Her second ability, ''Ensnare'', throws a net at a targeted enemy, keeping them from moving for a short duration. It's one of the very few disables that goes through spell immunity, and the only way to stop it is to either carry a Linken's Sphere, become Ethereal (by using Ghost Scepter's ability ''Ghost Form'' or by using/having Ethereal Blade's ''Ether Blast'' or Pugna's ''Decrepify'' used on you), or blink away the second you see it coming.
** SimpleYetAwesome
* JackOfAllStats: Naga Siren has the odd distinction of being played either as a hard carry who can carry her team to victory singlehandedly with ludicrous amounts of farm, or as a support with her utility-based spells. As a hard carry, she can farm a Radiance and then an Octarine Core, letting her push out all three lanes at once with illusions (while simultaneously earning her huge amounts of gold) to put a lot of pressure on the enemy's towers and barracks, keeping her team's towers out of reach. As a support, she can use those same illusions to scout out the fog of war to spot enemy heroes, catch anyone she finds with ''Ensnare'' to set up kills for her teammates, ''Rip Tide'' their armor down, and use her ultimate to initiate on the enemy or break up enemy ganks.
* MakingASplash: ''Rip Tide'', Naga Siren's third ability, deals splash damage in a radius around her and her illusions, reducing enemies' armor and softening them up for other teammates to attack.
* MoneyMultiplier[=/=]SomeDexterityRequired: After she gets Radiance, Naga Siren can farm multiple camps at once, plus lanes with ease via ''Mirror Image'', so expect insane income after 25 minutes. However, successful and efficient farming as her requires intensive micromanagement and good map awareness from having five of you all over the map.
* MutualDisadvantage: Against spell immune enemies. On one hand, spell immunity will protect them from being put to sleep by ''Song of the Siren''. On the other hand, they'll be wailed on by Naga Siren and her four teammates while their allies sleep around them, unable to help.
* MyGreatestFailure: The stolen chalice.
* SelfDuplication: Naga's first ability, ''Mirror Image'', creates three illusions of herself, which get stronger the more she levels the skill up. They can all cast ''Rip Tide'', making the ability useful for catching every enemy hero with the nuke and armor reduction.
* SinisterScimitar: Uses two scimitars, though she fights for the Radiant, typically considered the good side. In the original [=DotA=] she used a [[BladeOnAStick naginata]].
* SirensAreMermaids
* UnPerson: It seemed that in her failure, the Slithreen race pretended that she didn't even exist. While she could recognize Slardar, he does not even bat an eye. Just about the only fish race guy that recognized her is Slark.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: Her voice has a very distinctive echoing effect.
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Jah'rakal, the Troll Warlord]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/troll_warlord_full_4137.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/6/61/Troll_levelup_06.mp3 "The ultimate in trolling!"]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Nolan North
''"It's an easy thing to offend a troll. A prickly and contentious race, trolls thrive on argument and strife, missing no excuse to raise their voices in dispute. Males grow to maturity in subterranean chambers beneath their matriarch's domicile, feeding and amusing themselves while contributing nothing. Often they stay for years beyond the age of maturity, while the matriarch provides them with sustenance. When young trolls are finally pushed from their sub-chamber, they gather with others of their kind, forming roving gangs of malcontents who complain loudly about all manner of vexation. As much as trolls love to argue, imagine how rare it is for a troll to be driven from his own kind for being too difficult to get along with. Such was Jah'rakal's fate, a monger troll from deep in the Hoven. So deluded was he, so bitter and abrasive, that even other trolls found his company intolerable. After one particularly vitriolic outburst in which he claimed the lion's share of loot from their latest raid, his cohorts finally snapped. They turned on him, beat him with clubs, and drove him from the encampment. Enraged at his banishment, he returned the next day, armed with steel, and slew them all, one by one. He then swore a blood oath: he would ever after be a fighting force unto himself. Now he roams the world as the Troll Warlord, bitter and angry, the Imperial high commander of an army of one. "''

Troll Warlord is an attack speed based carry who specializes in hitting things at a blinding speed, allowing him to tear apart heroes, Roshan, towers, barracks AND the ancient alike in little to no time. Assuming, of course, that he has the proper item build. Uniquely, he can switch between melee and ranged at will thanks to ''Berserker's Rage'', which lets him switch from ranged to melee and vice versa. In addition, ''Berserker's Rage'' gives him a bash chance, attack speed, armor, bonus damage, movement speed and changes his second skill while in melee form. ''Whirling Axes'' is a special ability that's effectively two skills in one with separate cooldowns, changing depending on which form he is in. The ranged version of ''Whirling Axes'' hurls axes that, upon impact with an enemy unit, damages and slows them. The melee version of ''Whirling Axes'' throws out axes that starts whirling around him, inflicting damage and a miss chance to anyone who gets hit by it. ''Fervor'' is a passive ability that grants him increased attack speed the more he attacks the same target, but loses it as soon as he changes target. ''Battle Trance'' is a global range ultimate with a short cooldown that, when used, gives himself and allied heroes a massive attack speed bonus. With the low cooldown, he may happily use it as soon as a teamfight or a tower push breaks out, as he can use it soon after the battle is over. Though he's not very durable, the miss chance from ''Whirling Axes'', his incredible attack speed and passive bash makes him a very dangerous opponent to engage in 1-on-1 combat, and his ability to shred towers into nothing when given the chance means that his enemies must stay aware of his current position, lest they may suddenly lose a tower while they're distracted. Truly, Troll Warlord is an army of one.

* AdaptationDyeJob: In the original [=DotA=], Jah'rakal was green, this also rang true in Dota 2 concept artwork and early models. However, the finished release made the Warlord's skin color red.
* AllTrollsAreDifferent: They live underground in a matriarchy, have long noses, and FourFingeredHands. Jah'rakal is the only Troll shown to be red instead of green.
** AlwaysChaoticEvil: Described as a "prickly and contentious race" and the ones in game act as RandomEncounters. Troll society still found Jah'rakal too unpleasant to be around and kicked him out.
*** Jah'rakal goes as far as to differentiate his breed of trolls from Shadow Shaman's hill trolls.
-->'''Troll Warlord, killing Shadow Shaman:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/c/cf/Troll_rival_10.mp3 "The trolls from the hills are barely trolls at all."]]
* AllTheOtherReindeer: The other trolls found him too difficult to deal with.
* AscendedMeme: Troll Warlord's former ultimate ''Rampage'' boosted his attack speed to an ultimate level for a long period of time. This ability was able to give him instant blinding speed and the potential to wipe out five heroes separately, thus, it was the inspiration of the name of a five hero kill by a single hero "Rampage".
* AnAxeToGrind: Can throw or use them as melee weapons.
* TheBerserker
* BlindedByTheLight[=/=]TemporaryBlindness: ''Whirling Axes'', if used when ''Berserker's Rage'' is active, gives any victim a 60% chance to miss on attacks.
* CoolHelmet: As can be seen in his portrait.
* DualWielding: Wields a pair of handaxes that he can throw at or strike his enemies with.
* DumbMuscle: Troll Warlord has the lowest intelligence growth (a mere 1 point per level, tied with Phantom Assassin) and comes with a pretty weak mana pool. He compensates for it with sheer offensive power and low mana cost for his skills.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The troll are known for being violent and annoying, but they kicked out Jah'rakal because ''they'' find him obnoxious. That really said something when his own lore comments on that.
* GlassCannon: Troll Warlord can hit insanely fast, hard AND potentially stun lock his enemy should he manage to get enough attack speed, and is one of the few heroes capable of manfighting an equally powerful ''Ursa''. Unfortunately for him, Troll Warlord cannot take a lot of damage and has very few ways to escape should he get in trouble.
* HairTriggerTemper: Moments where Troll Warlord isn't murderously pissed off are rare and few.
* HeroicComedicSociopath: For some reason he is on the Radiant side, despite threatening, under various circumstances, to kill his allies, the Shopkeeper, and you, the person controlling him. PlayedForLaughs.
-->'''Troll Warlord, repeatedly being told to use an ability still on cooldown:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/1/1e/Troll_notyet_11.mp3 "Now I'm ready. To stab you."]]
* ImprobableUseOfAWeapon: How he knocks people unconscious with throwing axes is rather inexplicable.
* {{Jerkass}}: One of the most shining examples, to the point that [[EvenEvilHasStandards even his kin kicked him out for being too unbearable]]. Within the game itself, he treats nobody with respect, blames his team whenever he loses, and his "Meeting Ally" lines can basically be summed up as insulting and threatening his own teammates. And when even a huge egomaniac like ''Invoker'' has enough decency to thank whoever healed him nicely, Troll Warlord does not thank, he just feels so entitled on being healed and treats the healer like he deserves all of it, or the healer is ''too slow'' on healing.
* MoreDakka: Thanks to ''Fervor'' and ''Battle Trance'', Troll can easily reach maximum attack speed, allowing him to throw an unending flurry of axes.
* NonStandardSkillLearning: Troll's second ability ''Whirling Axes'' is actually two separate skills that level up at the same time, do not share cooldown and each of them can only be used when ''Berserker's Rage'' is either active or not.
* PointyEars: As can be seen in his portrait.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Pretty much why he seems so angry all the time.
* SuperSpeed: A variant: while Troll isn't the fastest runner, he can hit extremely fast with ''Fervor'', which boosts his attack speed the longer he focuses on a single target. He can also give this to his teammates with his ultimate ''Battle Trance'', which gives a large attack speed bonus to all allied heroes.
* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: If you try to activate an ability that's on cooldown he'll yell at the player; keep trying, and he'll eventually threaten to stab you.
* ThePowerOfHate
* ToBeAMaster: In the original [=DotA=], his motive for fighting was to prove Trolls are the best fighters in the world. In the remake, however, he just wants to kill everyone and everything that's not him.
* TokenEvilTeammate
* {{Troll}}: Some of his quotes [[ShoutOut jokingly echo]] the [[{{GIFT}} internet forum kind]]. His race's backstory is a clear parody of the "basement-dwelling internet troll" stereotype.
-->'''Troll Warlord, killing a hero:''' [[http://dota2.gamepedia.com/images/9/9d/Troll_kill_11.mp3 "You been trolled."]]
* UngratefulBastard: While most heroes, [[PetTheDog even the worst thanked whoever healed them]], Troll's response?
-->'''Troll Warlord (Uses healing item on him)''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/e/e9/Troll_thanks_03.mp3 I'm still going to kill you later]].
* WhatTheHellPlayer: Troll will call you out if you buy Mask of Madness on him: ''Fervor'' and ''Battle Trance'', which can bring Troll's attack speed to the cap of 600, renders the bonus attack speed from Mask of Madness redundant, while it also makes him much squishier.
-->'''Troll Warlord, purchasing Mask of Madness: '''[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/6/61/Troll_items_02.mp3 "Mask of Madness? Seriously!?"]]
[[/folder]]
----
[[folder:Xin, the Ember Spirit]]
[[quoteright:256:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ember_spirit_8427.png]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[-[[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/3/3f/Embr_begin_01.mp3 "They will learn balance."]]-] ]]
->'''Voiced by: ''' Dave Fennoy
''Lost within the Wailing Mountains, the Fortress of Flares lay abandoned, its training halls empty, its courtyard covered in leaves and dust. Upon a dais in its sealed temple rests a topaz cauldron filled with ancient ash, remnants of a pyre for the warrior-poet Xin. For three generations, Xin taught his acolytes the Bonds of the Guardian Flame, a series of mantras to train the mind and body for the harsh realities beyond the fortress walls. However, in teaching a warrior's way he earned a warrior's rivals, and in his autumn Xin was bested and slain. His followers spread to the wind. Yet as years turned to centuries and followers to descendants, his teachings endured by subtle whisper and deed. Touched by the teacher's lasting legacy, the Burning Celestial, inquisitive aspect of fire, cast himself to the Fortress of Flares and reignited the pyre ash. From these glowing embers emerged an image of Xin, wreathed in flame, his thoughtful countenance prepared to train and to teach, and to spread the fires of knowledge to all who seek guidance.''

* AchillesHeel: Because Xin is so frail and relies on his casting abilities to remain mobile, silences can greatly debilitate him, allowing his foes to pin him down.
* BackFromTheDead
* BadassGrandpa: In his backstory, Xin is said to have trained three generations of acolytes before his death.
* BadassTeacher
* BaldOfAwesome
* BarrierWarrior[=/=]AntiMagic: ''Flame Guard'' absorbs a set limit of magical damage, and continually burns everything in a radius around Xin.
* ChainPain: ''Searing Chains'' creates 2 fiery bolas that wrap around 2 random enemies next to Xin, dealing damage and entangling them.
* CriticalExistenceFailure: ''Flame Guard'' will continue to burn for its maximum damage over time up until it has been completely exhausted by enemy spell damage. It doesn't matter whether Xin has absorbed 0 magic damage or 499, the shield will burn for the same amount.
* DifficultButAwesome: There's a fair burden of knowledge that goes with using Xin's abilities effectively, but which can greatly magnify the Hero's effectiveness.
** While simply spamming ''Sleight of Fist'' is fairly easy, it can hit targets through the fog of war, and ''Searing Chains'' can be cast in the middle of jumps. This allows good Xin players to disable enemies from a surprisingly long distance since they can jump to a target with ''Sleight of Fist'' and root them with ''Searing Chains'' in the 0.2 second timing window that Xin is next to the target he's attacking.
** ''Fire Remnant'' will move at a fixed multiplier of Ember Spirit's current speed. This means that bad Ember Spirits can often be paralyzed by slows, since those will affect the speed at which his Fire Remnants move (which, in turn, increases the vulnerability time while Xin waits for the Fire Remnant to reach its destination). Additionally, optimal movement requires a fair amount of planning, particularly since you can only carry three Fire Remnants at a time and you will only arrive at the one you targeted, and Ember Spirit can dash to a Remnant while it's moving (which can result in landing short of your destination if you cast too early). But mastering all of these aspects allows players to take advantage of Xin's high mobility to its utmost, by buffing his movement speed just before deploying a remnant in order to maximize its travel speed, placing remnants in key locations for critical escapes or to ambush enemies (or even both), and so on.
* DualWielding
* DynamicEntry: Xin can at any time dash out to his ''Fire Remnant''s, exploding them for area of effect damage.
* FireballEyeballs
* FlamingSword: Two of them.
* FlashStep: ''Sleight of Fist'' works similarly to Juggernaut's ''Omnislash''; Ember Spirit jumps from enemy to enemy, dealing damage, and returns to his starting point in only a few seconds.
* FragileSpeedster: ''Sleight of Fist'' and ''Fire Remnant'' alone let him zip around the battlefield and wreck just about anything he encounters, but he can't stand up to prolonged damage.
* FusionDance: Between a human swordsman and a Celestial.
* GlassCannon: An Ember Spirit with enough damage items (and a Battle Fury or three) can potentially wipe out an entire enemy team with just ''Sleight of Fist'' alone. However, discounting ''Flame Guard'', which can negate only a finite amount of magic damage, Xin has mediocre Strength and has below-average Agility, meaning that he doesn't have a lot of HP or armor. If he's ever chain-stunned, he can be killed quite quickly.
* GlowingEyes: As can be seen in his model.
* MasterSwordsman
* MechanicallyUnusualClass: He is mostly played as a ''physical nuker'' by building raw damage items with little to no survivability, and then spamming ''Sleight of Fist''.
* NonIndicativeName: Ember Spirit's Rapiers of the Burning God cosmetic swords, which are far too wide to qualify as rapiers.
* OldMaster
* PlayingWithFire
* PowerTrio: Forms one with Storm Spirit and Earth Spirit.
* RandomNumberGod: ''Searing Chains'' chooses 2 random targets around Xin. In a teamfight, it can potentially lock down two enemy heroes, but it loses much effectiveness when there are creeps, illusions or summoned minions involved.
* SealedBadassInACan: His ashes were interred in a temple until his resurrection.
* SomeDexterityRequired: As is the theme among the three Spirits, Ember Spirit is a high-mobility Hero that requires great reflexes and high APM in order to utilize properly. The mechanics revolving around ''Sleight of Fist'', ''Searing Chains'' and ''Fire Remnant'' require precise timing and quick reaction times in order to make the most out of them.
* SpamAttack: ''Sleight of Fist'', with its low cooldown and mana cost.
* SuperSpeed: When using ''Activate Fire Remnant'', Xin can dash out through all of his ''Fire Remnant''s around the map, exploding them for area damage, before arriving at the selected remnant.
* VerbalTic: Almost all of his responses are only four words long.
-->'''Ember Spirit:''' [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/2/24/Embr_rare_03.mp3 "Four words is plenty."]]
* WarriorPoet
* WeakButSkilled: His stat growth is only slightly higher than Alchemist's, he has very low base armor, and among Agility heroes he ties with Arc Warden (not yet ported) for second-lowest Agility gain (beating only Slark, who can use ''Essence Shift'' to steal stats from his targets). However, he compensates with ''Flame Guard'', which absorbs magic damage (traditionally an Agility carry's greatest weakness), a quick auto-attacking ability that applies bonus damage to enemy Heroes, and a great deal of mobility that allows him to dance around his opponents as needed.
* WreathedInFlames: Xin can surround himself in fire with ''Flame Guard'', which blocks magical damage and burns enemies near him.
----
[[/folder]]

-->'''Troll Warlord (Uses Urn of Shadows on him)''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/e/e9/Troll_thanks_03.mp3 I'm still going to kill you later]].

-->(Uses Urn of Shadows on him) ''I'm still going to kill you later''.

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

* TheResenter: For some reason, Luna didn't seem to like that Mirana is of higher class in service of Selemene. As an ally, she shows respect to Mirana, but as an enemy, if Luna kills Mirana, she will remark about succeeding Mirana's spot.

** AccidentalAimingSkill: The arrow's massive hitbox and nigh-invisibility can lead to other heroes running into it, and the sheer damage and stun duration means even if it's not an optimal target, she's still come out far ahead.

** TheGoldenSnitch: Miranna's high mana supply, the Arrow's relative cheapness, and the sheer damage and stun duration translates to "As soon as one of them hits, she wins" and Miranna can simply let loose an arrow every time it comes off cooldown. She'll hit eventually.

* ActionGirl
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer

* DarkIsNotEvil

* ForestRanger

* HelloNurse: A ''lot'' of her lines are played up as being very sexual.

* InTheHood
* InterspeciesAdoption

* MsFanservice

* CoolMask

-->'''Juggernaut''': [[http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/b/bf/Jug_bottle_03.mp3 Does it matter if I put this in my jug or not? Get it? 'Jug or not']][[hottip:*:Pronounced the same way as 'Juggernaut', his class]]''

* {{Jerkass}}: One of the most shining examples, to the point that [[EvenEvilHasStandards even his kin kicked him out for being too unbearable]]. Within the game itself, he treats nobody with respect, blames his team whenever he loses, and his "Meeting Ally" lines can basically be summed up as insulting and threatening his own teammates.

* CoolHelmet
* DualWielding

* HairTriggerTemper

* {{Jerkass}}

* PointyEars

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In very early versions, Morphling possessed a generic area nuke and blink in place of ''Waveform'' and ''Adaptive Strike'', and possessed Rubick's ''Spell Steal'' as an ultimate. The ultimate eventually proved too difficult to maintain from a programming standpoint, and was removed and replaced with extra levels in Attribute Bonus[[note]]mainly because they couldn't think of anything else he needed at the time[[/note]], briefly making Morphling the only hero in the game with no ultimate ability. He was then remade into a hero with three forms that he could switch between at will with his ultimate, with different stats, primary attributes, and abilities, making him a Strength, Agility, and Intelligence hero ''at the same time'' as soon as he got his ultimate.

* ShoutOut: To {{Tenchu}}.

* FragileSpeedster: She has the highest base speed in the game, but her Strength stat is abysmal, meaning she goes down quickly.

** PinballProjectile: The shuriken will bounce to any target that is affected by ''Track'' within a 900 radius of the previous target. This means that casting ''Track'' on the entire enemy team right before a clash can allow him to deal a surprising amount of damage that also mini-stuns the victim, allowing him to interrupt enemy heroes at critical moments.

* JackOfAllStats: Naga Siren has the odd distinction of being played either as a hard carry who can carry her team to victory singlehandedly with ludicrous amounts of farm, or as a support with her utility-based spells. As a hard carry, she can farm a Radiance and then a Heart of Tarrasque, letting her push out all three lanes at once with illusions (while simultaneously earning her huge amounts of gold) to put a lot of pressure on the enemy's towers and barracks, keeping her team's towers out of reach. As a support, she can use those same illusions to scout out the fog of war to spot enemy heroes, catch anyone she finds with ''Ensnare'' to set up kills for her teammates, ''Rip Tide'' their armor down, and use her ultimate to initiate on the enemy or break up enemy ganks.

** Unless you decide to go for a... [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLOlGkipXyU rather unique build that seems contradictory to his usual place at first, but can be loads of Awesome]].

* WolverinePublicity: Anti-Mage is by far one of the most well known heroes of Dota 2.

* WolverinePublicity: One of the more popular heroes; also one of the first to receive an announcer pack.

* TheLeader: Not to the Radiant, but amongst the servants of Selemene, Mirana seems to hold the title, with Luna as her [[TheLancer Lancer]][=/=]NumberTwo. Mirana is also aware of Luna's growing resentment towards her about this and does her best to keep her in line.

Unlike most other agility heroes, Vengeful Spirit is generally played as a supporting hero as her low range prevents her from effectively carrying, but she has spells afford the team strong utility such as initiation spells, a percentage-based damage aura and powerful AoE armor reduction. Her first spell, "Magic Missile" is a single-target stun that deals damage. Her second spell "Wave of Terror" causes targets in a line to lose armor. "Vengeance Aura", her third spell is a passive ability which buffs up attack damage of allies around her, while giving an inverse effect to enemy heroes that have killed her. Her ultimate ability "Nether Swap" instantly swaps the position of Vengeful Spirit and a target hero. Intelligent use of Nether Swap is vital to the play of Vengeful Spirit, as it can either isolate an enemy hero or save an ally, but typically places Vengeful Spirit right in the middle of the action as a result, at the mercy of opponent heroes.

** HoistByHisOwnPetard[=/=]WhatAnIdiot: Usage of ''Nether Swap'' must be considered carefully though, since swapping enemy Heroes that '''want''' to get closer to your team (such as Magnus, Earthshaker and Enigma) can effectively give them a free initiation, completely turning the tables.

* DefogOfWar: ''Track'' will provide basic vision in a small radius around the target, meaning that it can spot the Tracked target's teammates if they stand too close. It also provides True Sight on the target, meaning that invisibility in all cases but Slark's ultimate will be neutralized.

** SpamAttack: ''Track'' can be cast once every 4 seconds as needed. This allows Bounty Hunter to apply the debuff to multiple enemies before a teamfight, which in turn allows him to deal more damage with ''Shuriken Toss''.

* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Ursa's arsenal is relatively limited when compared to other carries- and his main method of attacking boils down to firing off all his active abilities simultaneously- but he can dish out quite a lot of damage with what he's got.

* HerdHittingAttack: Gyrocopter is considered one of the best teamfight carries in the game: ''Flak Cannon'' + ''Rocket Barrage'' + ''Call Down'' deal huge [=AoE=] damage: in the mid game they are enough to kill all the supports and leave little health to the enemy carry, unless the enemies counter-initiate or initiate first.