Characters / Dota 2 Universal N To Z

This is part of the character sheet for Dota 2. This page contains the Universal heroes that begin with the letter A to M. Please note that this is sorted not by their real names, but their in-game names, which will be bolded in the folder.

Strength | A -- M | N -- Z Agility | A -- M | N -- Z Intelligence | A -- M | N -- Z Universal | A -- M | N — Z Personas | Artifact heroes Dota Underlords Neutrals | Others

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Nyx Assassin

"The blessing of Nyx gives me all the purpose I require."

Voiced by: Dempsey Pappion

The zealot scarabs are a unique species of social insect with telepathic abilities. Nyx, their queen and goddess, chose one egg to serve as her greatest assassin. Anointing the grub within through her own extract, she transformed it into the Nyx Assassin, a caste of one far more cunning and deadly the lowly workers he was raised among. On top of the spiked carapace and mind-reading abilities that zealot scarabs naturally have, the Nyx Assassin was blessed by Nyx's power with sharpened claws and mandibles which he uses to kill his targets as mandated by his queen.

The Nyx Assassin is a hero who specializes in inflicting large amounts of burst damage to a target. He frequently initiates his ganks with Impale, which causes spikes to erupt from the ground in a line, damaging enemies and inflicting a lengthy stun. He can turn the intelligence of magic-wielding foes against them with Mana Burn, which damages the target's health and mana alike based on a multiplier of their intelligence. Should his mark attempt to strike back, the Nyx Assassin can grow a Spiked Carapace to reflect the damage back onto his assailants while also stunning them. But his most important tool for assassination is his ultimate, Vendetta, which turns Nyx invisible and grants him increased movement speed. Additionally, should he break the invisibility by attacking, the target will suffer massive amounts of extra damage. Although the Nyx Assassin usually prefers to approach lone targets and take them out quickly before getting out, Aghanim's Scepter grants him the new Burrow ability, turning him invisible and greatly increasing his survivability at the cost of rendering him immobile: his spells have their range greatly extended, Spiked Carapace instantly stuns all nearby foes when used, and he takes reduced damage while regenerating large amounts of health and mana, turning the Nyx Assassin into a powerful teamfighter.

In Dota Underlords, Nyx Assassin is a tier 1 hero. His ability, Spiked Carapace, reflects up to one attack from each enemy, stunning them. He also has the Vendetta ability, which deals bonus damage and inflicts Break on his target after he jumps to them.

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• Adaptation Species Change: Back in DotA, he's not only classified as Nerubian Assassin, but his name was none other than Anub'arak. Obviously, that did not go well with copyright issues, so in the remake, he becomes the nameless Nyx Assassin.
• Alpha Strike: If built as a Dagon nuker, Nyx relies on the insane burst damage from his Vendetta + Spiked Carapace + Impale + Mind Flare + Energy Burst combo to sneak up on and near-instantly melt squishy heroes.
• Arch-Enemy: Nyx has special kill lines for when he kills Abaddon, whose default helmet is apparently made from the head of a Zealot Scarab.
• Attack Reflector: And how. When activating Spiked Carapace, the next player-based damage he receives is reflected back entirely to the source, along with a bonus stun. May instantly destroy squishy heroes with high-damage nukes.
• Back Stab: Vendetta turns Nyx invisible and lets him deal massive bonus damage on his next attack.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: A huge scarab that can burst you down in second.
• Black Mage: Three out of four of Nyx's skills are nukes, while the final, defensive one can be used in an offensive way as well.
• Born-Again Immortality: Some of his responses imply that each respawn is an entirely new Assassin body retaining the memory of his entire caste.
• The Chosen One: Based on his backstory.
• Curse Cut Short:
  Nyx Assassin, dying to Broodmother: "Broodmotherfff..."
• Damage-Increasing Debuff: A successful Vendetta attack increases the target's spell damage taken if Nyx Assassin has Aghanim's Shard.
• Developer's Foresight: Burrow has a different, "watery" sound effect if used in the river.
• Expy: His Aghanim's Scepter upgrade brings to mind the Zerg Lurker, allowing him to attack by burrowing into the ground and releasing rows of spines through the earth. He even looks the part.
• The Faceless: As can be seen in his portrait, he has no face.
• Fast Tunnelling: It only takes Nyx one second to dig a hole for himself with Burrow.
• Four-Legged Insect: Inverted. Nyx is a beetle with two extra extremities. This is somewhat justified because in the original DotA he was a Nerubian, a kind of arachnid. However, this had to be changed because Nerubians are owned by Activision Blizzard.
• Fragile Speedster: Nyx Assassin can run fast with Vendetta, but his stats leave him rather frail - even if he can pop Spiked Carapace, he is not very hard to kill if caught out of position.
• Glass Cannon: Nyx Assassin can burst down most squishy heroes with the help of Impale and Mind Flare, but his stats leave him rather frail—even if he can pop Spiked Carapace, he is not very hard to kill if caught out of position.
• Healing Factor: While most heroes have a base health regeneration rate of 0.25 per second, Nyx Assassin actually has a base 2.5 rate, second only to Axe's 3, which, combined with his starting strength, becomes a 3.2 HP regen rate at the beginning of the game. Thus, Soul Ring is a decent early game item for him as he can regen the HP lost from Sacrifice. The regeneration increases while burrowing.
• Hive Caste System: Influenced by ants especially. Even though Nyx is modeled after beetles, or, in the first DotA, arachnids.
• Humans Are Ugly: Towards anyone without a carapace.
  Nyx Assassin: "Armorless beings were not meant for life."
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His Impale skill. And his attack when exiting Vendetta is also a claw stab dealing tons of damage. Finally, Spiked Carapace does this to anyone hitting Nyx while active, or just everyone around him if he's Burrowed.
• Invisibility: When activating his ultimate, Vendetta.
• Jack of All Stats: His stats are pretty balanced, making him this stats wise. His versatile kit, in particular a long chainstun in the form of Impale, also allows him to work in any position from the #2 ganking mid to the #5 hard support.
• Literal-Minded: He seems to think the gold from last-hitting creeps is the creep trying to pay him off. Being a giant insect (see Worthless Yellow Rocks below), he scoffs at the prospect.
  Nyx Assassin: "Your bribe of coin is wasted on Nyx."
• Mage Killer: With his Spiked Carapace, high burst damage, and Mind Flare (whose damage scales with the target's Intelligence), he can be a nightmare to Intelligence heroes, who are usually Glass Cannons.
• Mind Rape: He uses his telepathic abilities for Mind Flare.
• Natural Weapon: Those giant claws and horn of his. One unlockable also gives him an appendage specifically to hold a Dagon wand.
• Never Given a Name: Justified as he is literally the Nyx Assassin, as specially created by his Queen Goddess.
• One-Man Army: There are lots of scarabs in each caste, but the Assassin caste's strength is only one.
• Super-Soldier: Nyx Assassin was artifically created by Nyx to be an excellent assassin.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Nyx Assassin can be built as a solo ganker by buying Dagon and combining it with the massive damage from three of his skills to quickly burst down a single enemy, though predictably it becomes less and less effective as you face better players.
• Telepathy:
  "My words enter the mind, but not the ear."
• Verbal Tic: He has a habit of peppering his speech with the word "Nyx". Even laughing with it. The Dota 2 wiki lampshades this by referring to some of his cut lines as "Nyxing".
  Nyx Assassin: "Ahahah, Nyx, Nyx, Nyx, Nyx, Nyx, heh heh."
• Worthless Yellow Rocks: Zealot Scarabs have little use for money as we know it. This leads to some humorous remarks when Nyx Assassin procures last-hit gold.
  Nyx Assassin: "Gold makes soft armor."
• You Have Researched Breathing: Zealot scarabs live underground, and Nyx Assassin can make rock spikes erupt from the ground by stabbing it with his claws. Despite this, he needs Aghanim's Scepter to learn how to burrow.

Donté Panlin, the Pangolier

"Life is but a game. And I've certainly come to play."

Voiced by: Phil LaMarr

Donté Panlin is one of the Nivan Gallants, a group of refined adventurers who live extravagant lives of swordplay, romance, and celebration. Though this organization's members dedicate their lives to exciting quests and the pursuit of pleasure, the Pangolier is a hedonist even by their standards. Through his countless exploits against monsters and tyrants alike, he has risen to stand out among them, equipped with little more than sheer charisma and skill with the blade.

Pangolier is an agile yet durable hero, combining lightning-fast strikes with a tough hide equally useful for blunting blows and barreling through enemies. His kit places a heavy emphasis upon on-hit effects, leading him to generally favor rapid but weak slashes over a single, hard-hitting attack. His first skill, Swashbuckle, uniquely uses a vector targeting system. Pangolier first dashes to a nearby location, then unleashes a flurry of stabs in the targeted direction. Each of these attacks can proc on-hit effects on all targets hit. Pangolier is in his element when surrounded by foes, thanks in part to his second skill, Shield Crash, giving him incredible durability in the middle of a heated brawl. When activated, Pangolier hops a fixed distance forward, passing over walls and cliffs, before slamming his body back down, releasing a shockwave that damages enemies and grants him a temporary damage barrier based on how many enemy heroes were hit. If activated during Rolling Thunder, Pangolier instead uses his forward momentum to carry him. Pangolier's deft blade has a chance to score a Lucky Shot on enemies with attacks and abilities, slowing their attack speed and reducing their armor. Lastly, Rolling Thunder has Pangolier briefly stop on the spot to curl into an armored ball, before rolling around with terrifying speed. During this, Pangolier is magic immune and crashes through any enemies he collides with, damaging and stunning them while also knocking them back. Pangolier then has to wait until the stun wears off before he can impact that enemy again. However, Pangolier's ability to turn is reduced and colliding with a wall will send him back in the opposite direction, and using Swashbuckle will end the roll early.

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• Achilles' Heel: Rooting Pangolier disables two of his active abilities and forces him to jump in place with Shield Crash, making him much more vulnerable. The long start-up for Rolling Thunder also means he can be rooted before it goes off, preventing him from rolling away.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: He's got a lot of confidence in his own swordsmanship and prowess as a warrior, along with all the skills to back it up.
• Badass Normal: Pangolier doesn't have any explicit magical ability, just a tough hide and a steady hand with his rapier.
• Barrier Warrior: Shield Crash gives Pangolier a damage barrier for each hero he lands on, meaning he can be quite difficult to bring down in large fights and especially during Rolling Thunder, which reduces the cooldown of Shield Crash considerably while he's rolling.
• Bash Brothers: He's partnered up with Ursa in the past, and will greet him as an old friend if they're on the same team.
• Blade Spam: Swashbuckle has Pangolier rapidly strike several times in the targeted direction with his blade. Each stab from this ability is treated as a basic attack with fixed damage, allowing them to trigger attack modifiers on each enemy hit, meaning that Pangolier leans towards items such as Skull Basher, Monkey King Bar, and Diffusal Blade to take advantage of this.
• Challenge Seeker:
  Pangolier: One cannot goad me into a fight. It is the danger itself which draws me in.
• Dash Attack: When using Swashbuckle, Pangolier dashes rapidly towards a target location before attacking.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Not the hero himself, as his three basic skills are fairly easy to use, but his ultimate, Rolling Thunder. It sends Donté rolling out as a ball with a painfully reduced turn rate until the duration ends or he manually stops it. Because of the reduced turn rate, it is severely difficult for the Pangolier to turn back if he misses his target. Used poorly, the Rolling Thunder will have no game impact and possibly even send Pangolier to an early death. Used well, however, and Rolling Thunder can help make game winning plays such as permastunning the enemy carry by bouncing off two walls with the carry between them, knock all enemy heroes out of Roshan's pit and then kill Roshan/snatch the aegis, and effortlessly escape from the entire enemy team. A good Pangolier will take advantage of the terrain and use it to show why Rolling Thunder qualifies as his ultimate ability.
• Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Has a strong French accent, sometimes uses French words in certain responses, and is said to be able to charm anyone.
• Expy: He's Don Quixote's knight persona in pangolin form.
• Fun Personified: Probably the best example in the game, Donté Panlin is at his essence a fun-loving, adventurous swashbuckler with plenty of joie de vivre.
• Great Escape: If Pangolier doesn't get interrupted during the transformation time of Rolling Thunder, then he becomes virtually impossible to catch with his high speed and spell immunity. He can even use Town Portal Scrolls while rolling away. Even without Rolling Thunder, Pangolier isn't easy to catch as the long-range dash of Swashbuckle also works well as an escape mechanism, and Shield Crash can be used to hop up cliffs.
• The Gunslinger: The Immortal item Etienne's Revenge changes Swashbuckle from a flurry of stabs with his sword into a barrage of pistol shots.
• The Hedonist: The Nivan Gallants are this as a whole, but Pangolier stands out even then for his exploits.
• Hidden Depths: Depending on who's on his team, Pangolier can show a surprisingly considerate side to himself. If paired up with heroes like Drow Ranger and Death Prophet, he'll encourage them to lighten up and live a little, and he genuinely believes Dark Willow can become a better person and encourages her to do so.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Inverted in one of his level-up quotes, which has him musing about fighting the enemy left-handed as a Self-Imposed Challenge.
• In a Single Bound: If Pangolier uses Shield Crash while Rolling Thunder is active, he will leap over any obstacle, including cliffs.
• Lightning Bruiser: Can deal good damage, especially when Lucky Shot reduces his target's armor. His mobility is also great thanks to Swashbuckle and Rolling Thunder, and he can gain damage reduction by hitting foes with Shield Crash, giving him survivability to boot.
• Not the Intended Use: As of writing, Pangolier has an odd interaction with Eul's Scepter of Divinity. The item is typically used to grant the user invulnerability or to hold enemies in place, but Pangolier can abuse the fact that the cyclone holds him in place. Sweeping himself up into a tornado while under the effects of Rolling Thunder doesn't cancel the roll, nor does it stop him from colliding with nearby enemies, allowing him to effectively guarantee two successive hits on the same target with complete impunity.
• Rolling Attack: When Pangolier uses Rolling Thunder, he curls into a ball that rolls quickly, damaging, stunning, and knocking away any foe he runs into.
• Royal Rapier: A gallant gentleman... er, gentle-pangolin and a skilled fencer.
• Shockwave Stomp: Shield Crash has Pangolier jump into the air and slam into the ground, damaging enemies in a radius.
• Situational Sword: Javelin is a fairly unremarkable item that grants a passive chance to score bonus damage on each attack, and is generally overlooked except as a component for Maelstrom and Monkey King Bar. Pangolier, on the other hand, can make good use of an early Javelin or two, as each Swashbuckle hit has a chance to proc the bonus damage on each enemy hit, greatly amplifying his damage output while still giving the option to later build them into the aforementioned items.
• Slice-and-Dice Swordsmanship: Despite wielding a rapier, most of his auto-attack animations depict him performing a slashing motion. However, he does occasionally thrust, and his Swashbuckle skill is also a stabbing attack.
• Swashbuckler: He's a rapier wielding and charismatic adventurer who is in it for the thrills. One of his skills is even called Swashbuckle to drive the point home.
• Unknown Rival: Donté has a score to settle with Leshrac and sees him as a sworn enemy. Leshrac, on the other hand, doesn't even acknowledge him (though Leshrac being added to the game long before Pangolier may have something to do with it).
• The Worf Effect: The Dueling Fates trailer shows Pangolier making an absolute fool out of Bristleback. In-game, he is actually able to do a number on Bristleback, with Swashbuckle letting him outmaneuver Bristleback and attack his unprotected front, while his mobility lets him shrug off the slow from Viscous Nasal Goo.

Phoenix

"SCREE!"

From the heart of the first sun created by the Keeper of the Light, another star was born to spread light and warmth throughout the universe, eventually becoming a supernova from which new stars were born to set forth through the void and become supernovas themselves. Over countless cycles of death and rebirth, this pattern was repeated across the whole cosmos until the night sky filled with the twinkling of thousands of lights. Eventually, the star that we call the Phoenix came into being. But the Phoenix was curious about the worlds that its brethren warmed, and it soon learned of the War of the Ancients. Desiring to influence the cosmic consequences of this conflict, the Phoenix took a form more suited to an earthly setting, spreading its wings and flying in the direction of our world in order to bring its solar power where it is most needed.

The Phoenix brings powerful spells that are Cast from Hit Points and are capable of crippling enemies while gradually wearing them down. Icarus Dive, its first ability, causes Phoenix to swoop in an arc, burning foes in its path to slow and damage them over time; this dive can be interrupted at any time in order to help Phoenix position itself optimally. Phoenix can also summon Fire Spirits with its second ability; these solar wisps can be launched at enemies in order to light them on fire, inflicting damage over time and greatly reducing their attack speed. Sun Ray fires a beam of solar energy whose power is based on a percentage of Phoenix's maximum health; not only does it damage enemies who stand in it, it also heals allies. With its ultimate ability, Supernova, Phoenix turns into a sun egg which constantly burns all foes in a large radius. Should enemies manage to destroy this egg, the Phoenix dies, but if it survives its duration, the Phoenix is reborn with refilled health and mana and refreshed ability cooldowns, and foes in the area are stunned by the explosive rebirth.

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• Achilles' Heel: Even if Phoenix places all of its debuffs correctly on the enemy team prior to using Supernova, players have to be wary of heroes with targeted debuff removals or attack speed steroids, since they can dispel the Fire Spirits attack speed debuff and then quickly right-click down the egg by themselves. Examples of this include Legion Commander's Press the Attack, any fast-attacking hero with a Black King Bar or an ally with a Lotus Orb, or a Sniper with a Mask of Madness who stays out of the initial fight and doesn't get hit with any debuffs at all.
• Acrophobic Bird: Despite flying around, Phoenix can't fly over terrain except during Icarus Dive and Sun Ray.
• The Artifact: Icarus Dive's name originated from Phoenix's given name, Icarus, in the original DotA. Dota 2 redacted Phoenix's given name, but left the ability's name untouched.
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: It is The Phoenix after all, especially when he uses his ultimate.
• Cast from Hit Points: His first three abilities cost a fraction of his health to activate. His ultimate, Supernova, takes the whole bar, and then gives it back if you survive.
• Cool Mask: It's hard to see due to textures and coloring, but Phoenix actually is wearing a mask◊. His Immortal item, the Solar Forge, replaces his mask.
• Cue the Sun: Supernova turns night into day while active. In addition to affecting heroes' vision, it can potentially be troublesome for Night Stalker in particular, as this effect even overrides the artificial night from Dark Ascension (though Night Stalker keeps all other benefits from the spell).
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: While Phoenix is classified as a Nuker, none of his spells can do any burst damage. Instead, his abilities deal large amounts of damage over time on top of the debuffs, making him extremely deadly in teamfights where the enemy can't reach him.
• Death or Glory Attack: Supernova will result in either refreshed abilities and a load of damage to the enemy (on top of a stun), or death if the enemy can destroy the egg.
• Difficult, but Awesome: In general, playing Phoenix requires good aiming and mechanical skills, as well as health management since all of his spells cost HP in order to use. However, played right, Phoenix can be a very mobile nuker who can apply very strong slow and damage-over-time debuffs to the entire enemy team, swinging teamfights by himself.
  • Fire Spirits have a very small AoE and require you to aim well in order for them to connect, in addition to staggering the casting in order to get the most out of all four spirits (since it's a damage over time ability, hitting an enemy twice with the spirits only refreshes the debuff duration). However, once it connects, it completely neutralises any autoattacker and does strong damage over time.
  • Sun Ray leaves you completely vulnerable and slow during its duration while costing HP, but used wisely it can allow you to damage enemies while healing your allies, and also grants you the ability to move through impassable terrain.
  • Supernova requires impeccable positioning and timing to get the most out of - bad Phoenix players will probably suffer humiliating deaths thanks to poorly placing the egg. Done right, you deal upwards of 1000 damage on top of a stun, in a whopping 1000 AOE.
• Dynamic Entry: Icarus Dive has Phoenix swoop in an arc. Although this causes him to return to his starting point, he can use a sub-ability to stop his flight, allowing him to rapidly cross distance while damaging his foes.
• Empathic Healing: Sun Ray heals allies that it hits and drains Phoenix's health every second it's active.
• Fixed Damage Attack: Sun Ray deals additional damage that scales with targets' max HP.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: He's actually a star. This becomes more apparent during Supernova.
• Great Escape: Icarus Dive is considered one of the most powerful escape spells in the game, since it can displace Phoenix by 1400 range very quickly (more than a Blink Dagger, on top of also not requiring any mana or having a forced cooldown upon enemy player damage), and has only a 0.2 second cast animation, on top of the debuff slowing any enemies it hits.
• Heal It With Fire: Sun Ray serves as a powerful heal in addition to dealing massive damage.
• Hot Wings: Being a phoenix, it naturally has wings made of fire.
• Lead the Target: Fire Spirits have a slow travel speed upon firing, making them hard to land on enemies who are actively trying to dodge them.
• Light Is Good: Phoenix represents sunlight as a source of nurturing warmth.
• Long-Range Fighter: All of Phoenix's spells have very long ranges, making him very powerful in teamfights as he can close or open the distance between himself and his enemies with Icarus Dive, launch Fire Spirits from 1400 range away (more than vision range at nighttime!), blast enemies with Sun Ray from 1300 range away, and apply Supernova's burn damage from 1000 range away.
• Mercy Kill: The Supernova Egg can be denied by his teammates if they have less 50% of their hit count left.
• Never Given a Name: Phoenix's backstory makes it clear that he does not have a given name (his old name Icarus was redacted in Dota 2).
• No Biological Sex: Obviously there's no concept of 'biological sex' for a star like Phoenix.
• Obvious Rule Patch: Prior to being patched out, there was a very good reason to build Blade Mail on Phoenix.
• Percent Damage Attack: Inverted, the cost of his non-ultimate spells are all based on his current HP. This means that while summoning Fire Spirits and performing Icarus Dive at full health will shave off almost a third of your maximum health, doing so when you're below 50% HP will cost significantly less. This means that as long as he has mana he can cast any of his spells regardless of what the HP cost is, and he can cast Icarus Dive no matter what since it costs no mana.
• The Phoenix: No, really? Phoenix is a product of the stellar cycle, in which stars are born and burn, and at the end of their lives, the explode into a brilliant supernova, giving rise to new stars in their wake. This is represented in-game by Supernova, with which Phoenix itself ends its life in a huge explosion and is born anew.
• Playing with Fire: Like most phoenixes in fiction, it wields the power of fire.
• Power Limiter: Any targets hit by Fire Spirits receive a massive 140 attack speed reduction - enough to neutralise their right-click attacks.
• The Power of the Sun: There's Sun Ray, a beam that both damages enemies and heals allies, respectively. And then there's his ultimate Supernova. It sacrifices all of his remaining HP to turn into a glowing sun that deals significant damage over time in a huge 1000-unit radius for six seconds. If the egg survives, it explodes to damage and stun anyone in the burn radius, fills you back up to full hp and mana, and refreshes the cooldowns on your three normal abilities.
• Sacrificial Revival Spell: Inverted. With an Aghanim's Scepter, Phoenix can bring an allied hero into his Supernova and share its effects. The egg surviving six seconds will refresh the target hero and Phoenix's non-ultimate spells while giving them full HP and mana, while destroying the egg will kill both heroes.
• Sadistic Choice: If Phoenix pulls off his combo properly right before using Supernova, such a situation can easily arise. Do you, with your attack speed debuff from Fire Spirits and movement speed debuff from Icarus Dive, attempt to approach the egg to attack it and kill Phoenix, all the while suffering huge damage over time debuffs and with the enemy team possibly bearing down on you? Or do you leave the egg alive to engage the other enemy players, while suffering all of the previously mentioned debuffs and damage over time, in the hope that you can kill the enemy before the egg explodes and stuns you, forcing you to deal with a full-health Phoenix whose abilities were refreshed by the Supernova?
• Schmuck Bait: A well placed Supernova is this for the other team. A Phoenix that's low on health may look like an easy kill, and even if he uses Supernova, it only takes a few hits to kill the egg... except while the team is gathered around the egg to kill it, they're in a perfect position to be hit hard by teamfight skills like Ravage, Black Hole, Reverse Polarity, Epicenter, and the like.
• Sentient Stars: A living star in a bird-shaped form.
• Sharpened to a Single Atom: The lore for Sun Ray:
  The vent through which such stellar energy flows is mere atoms wide.
• Shockwave Stomp: At the end of Supernova, the Phoenix Sun will crash-land, stunning enemies over a large area before Phoenix is reborn.
• The Speechless: Like Io, except with bird sounds.
  "Squawk"
• Squishy Wizard: Phoenix does not have a large amount of survivability, since he has negative base armor, low Agility growth, and spends his hit points to cast his spells on a frequent basis.
• Status Effects: Phoenix's abilities focus on supporting his team by applying powerful debuffs on his enemies. He can slow enemy movement speed, drastically cut down their attack speed, or apply a massive area-of-effect stun.
• Superboss: Before being added in DotA version 6.70, Phoenix was a secret bonus boss in 6.69.
• Super-Speed: Icarus Dive has Phoenix dive forward in an arc in the targeted direction, dealing damage over time and slowing the movement speed of any units he comes into contact with, and then orbiting back to his original position. You can also cancel it partway through if you don't want to return to where you started, making it good for both chasing and getting away.
• Time Abyss: Described as a "fledgling" in its lore, but by star standards, that still likely amounts to a very long time that Phoenix has been in existence, and it will likely continue to exist for many ages.

Crixalis, the Sand King

" I will show you fear in a handful of sand"

Voiced by: David Scully (Dota 2), Jack Daniel (Dota Underlords)

The sands of the vast Scintillant Waste are harsh, treacherous, and sentient. When it is required to interact with lesser beings, a part of its expansive consciousness enters a magical shell forged for it by the Djinn of Qaldin, forming the being known as Crixalis, or "Soul of the Sand". Known as the Sand King by most, Crixalis' scorpion-like form is modelled after the Scintillant Waste's humble arachnid inhabitants. Through its fearsome form, the Sand King may act on behalf of the Scintillant Waste, both conversing with the outside world and destroying those it deems a threat.

Sand King is a hero commonly played as a support, who can be a fearsome initiator. With Burrowstrike, his first spell, Sand King rushes underground for a good distance, stunning and damaging any foe in the way. Sand Storm creates a whirlwind of dust that damages foes and turns Sand King invisible as long as he remains within its area of effect. This ability is useful for farming the jungle, as neutral creeps are unable to detect him and fight back (unless you attack, which briefly reveals you). With his passive ability Caustic Finale, the Sand King's attacks and Burrowstrike inject a venom into victims which slows them and causes them to violently explode upon death. His ultimate ability Epicenter is a very powerful spell in teamfights: after channeling for a short time, the Sand King creates an earthquake, unleashing several powerful pulses in an expanding area around him, which slows and severely damages nearby foes. This allows Sand King to devastate several enemy heroes, leaving any survivors weakened enough for his allies to clean up.

In Dota Underlords, Sand King is a tier 3 hero. He has two abilites: Burrowstrike causes Sand King to dash underground, damaging and stunning enemies in his path, while Caustic Finale lowers the attack speed of enemies he hits and makes them explode upon death, damaging nearby targets.

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• Adaptation Species Change: In the original DotA, Crixalis was a flesh-and-blood Arachnathid (a type of giant scorpion that appeared in Warcraft III). Dota 2 changes him into a Genius Loci planting its consciousness into a scorpion-shaped rock shell.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: His tail is used to trigger Epicenter by beating against the ground, though he uses his claws for his right-click attacks.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Based on a scorpion.
• Black Mage: His base damage and attack speed are both mediocre, but he makes up for it with his massive spell damage; Epicenter alone can melt an entire team if they're not prepared.
• Bloody Murder: Caustic Finale is shown as a explosive blast of blood, even if the target are mechanical (siege creeps), tree person (Treant Protector), a being of ice (Ancient Apparition), etc...
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: As the physical manifestation of a sentient desert, he as a negative view towards greenery and vegetation.
• Charged Attack: Epicenter needs to channel for 2 seconds before activating. Skilled Sand King players usually activate this before using Blink Dagger to enter teamfights.
• Deadly Dust Storm: Can create a sand storm that sets himself invisible and damaging anyone that comes within the storm. The storm persists as long as Sand King stays within its AoE, which can be very long.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: Each Epicenter pulse doesn't hit that hard actually, it just hits twice a second for 4-6 seconds. Sand Storm is even better an example, doing 50 damage every hit, twice a second for an utterly ridiculous duration, it only takes 3 seconds for it to do the same damage as the average nuke.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Setting up a proper Epicenter is very hard to pull off, but doing so properly does damage comparable to Finger of Death or Laguna Blade but to everyone in range.
• Dig Attack: Burrowstrike, as the name suggests, sees him diving underground and charging around while beneath the soil.
• Dishing Out Dirt: In a way, Sand King is a disembodied mind with these abilities, and his body is actually a doll made of earth being manipulated with this kind of power. In-game, he uses these powers in Sand Storm to create a whirlwind of sand, and Epicenter to cause a powerful earthquake.
• Dynamic Entry: The first sign of Sand King's presence in a teamfight is often a Burrowstrike or blink in after channeling Epicenter away from the action.
• Earthquake Machine: His tail is a magical example.
• Fast Tunnelling: Burrowstrike allows him to move very quickly underground, and also stuns all enemies in the way.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Sand King's body is made entirely of earth, being manipulated from afar by the Scintillant Wastes in order to allow it to exist physically.
• Genius Loci: The Scintillant Waste that uses him as a Remote Body.
• Glass Cannon: He makes up for his lack of durability with sheer AoE magical damage output, maneuverability and disables with Burrowstrike and the ability to dodge projectiles with Sand Storm.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: His eyes glow green.
• Hitbox Dissonance: If Sand King gets forcibly moved during Sand Storm without interrupting the ability (by something like Force Staff or an allied Pudge's Meat Hook, for instance), the damage area follows him but the visual effect remains in place. Hilarity Ensues if the enemy doesn't notice that the sandstorm isn't doing any damage, as it can lead to them wasting a bunch of spells on absolutely nothing. No longer the case as of the ability's rework, as it will immediately end when Sand King leaves the area of effect.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Victims of Burrowstrike.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Sand King has a noticeable underbite.
• Our Genies Are Different: The Djinn of Qaldin mentioned in his backstory, who crafted his exoskeleton.
• Poisonous Person: He can inject venom in enemies with his Caustic Finale. Engaging him while accompanied by a few of your allied creeps is not a good idea, as he can just take out your creeps, making them explode and damage you and the rest of your allies in the process.
• "Pop!" Goes the Human: When a unit affected by Caustic Finale dies, it violently explodes.
• Quicksand Sucks: Epicenter, which damages and slows enemies. From its description...
  Many an explorer was lost to the quicksands of the Scintillant Waste.
• Remote Body: The Sand King entity is one of these for the Scintillant Waste.
• Scary Scorpions: And rock scorpions that can trigger earthquakes are even scarier.
• Sentient Sands: The embodiment of a sentient desert.
• Shout-Out:
  • To The Scorpion King.
  • "You were expecting... Sandy Claws?
• Smoke Out: Sand Storm's most common use (especially after a buff that gave it guaranteed 3 seconds of invisibility), although it uses a cloud of sand.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: His voice is quiet and reserved, bordering on Creepy Monotone.
• The Stoic: Sand King's not much for shows of emotion. He'll help himself to the occasional Evil Laugh when killing an enemy hero, but that's about it.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Sand King has a rather long list of vulnerabilities to rather mundane items or abilities, especially when it comes to Sand Storm, including Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, and any Area of Effect stun (mini- or otherwise) or knockback (both of which also interrupt Epicenter if he's hit mid-channel). Sand Storm's rather obvious area of effect certainly doesn't happen matters.
• Weather of War: Sand Storm continually deals damage to anyone inside it.
• Why Am I Ticking?: Caustic Finale turns the enemies into walking bombs, detonating on death or when the debuff expires.

Beatrix Snapfire

"You looking for cookin' tips, violence or both?"

Voiced by: Laraine Newman

Always accompanied by her dragon toad, Mortimer, Beatrix "Beadie" Snapfire is an elderly Keen who has spent much of her life wandering through the deserts of Nanarak. She is all too happy to share both her wisdom and her trademark Snapfire Cookies to any traveller she encounters, but bandits should not underestimate her: you don't live to be that old in such a hostile environment unless you're able to take care of yourself. Indeed, Snapfire's skills at cooking are matched only by her talent for crafting devastating weapons, such as her trusty shotgun and machine guns - a lesson that many crooks who sought to take advantage of her have learned much too late.

Snapfire rides into battle atop Mortimer, packing a variety of powerful nuke spells and utility. With her trusty shotgun at her side, she can fire a Scatterblast to deal damage and slow to enemies in a cone in front of her; the ability deals increased damage at very close range. Her Firesnap Cookies can be fed to Mortimer or an ally; whoever eats it will be propelled forwards and cause an explosion on landing, stunning and damaging foes around them. She can boost Mortimer's shoulder-mounted cannons with Lil' Shredder to rapidly fire six fixed-damage shots with her attacks from an increased range, slowing the attack speed of the target. Her ultimate ability is Mortimer Kisses: Mortimer spits out several globs of flaming saliva, which can be targeted on the ground. Foes who step through the blazing puddles are slowed and take damage over time.

---

• Beware the Silly Ones: As cute, humorous, and friendly as Snapfire may be, she's not one to be underestimated. She packs a large arsenal and can fend for herself in the hostile desert environment.
• Bowel-Breaking Bricks: When upgraded with Aghanim's Shard, eating a Firesnap Cookie causes the recipient to leave a lava pool underneath itself upon landing in a way that very much evokes this trope.
• Cool Old Lady: Snapfire is known for her kindness despite living in a harsh environment, sharing her cookies with the travellers she encounters.
• Dynamic Entry: When Gobble Up is used, Mortimer gobbles up a creep or an allied hero, which he can then spit towards enemies from a distance of 3000, allowing Snapfire's allies to initiate from an utterly ridiculous range.
• Grandma's Recipe: She is known for sharing her signature Firesnap Cookies with travelers. The recipe is a secret, but one ingredient is black powder (which explains why allies who eat them explode when they land).
• Heel–Face Turn: Once an outlaw and arms dealer, now a kindly old lady who tends to reserve bullets for those who've earned it.
• Horse of a Different Color: Snapfire rides upon a "dragon toad", which has no relation to actual toads and only a distant one to dragons.
• Mayfly–December Friendship: As Beatrix notes, dragon toads are extremely long-lived, meaning Mortimer will likely outlive her by many years even though she's raised him from her own youth.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: She's an old lady and one of the smaller heroes, although this is justified as she is a Keen.
• More Dakka: Lil' Shredder reduces Snapfire's base attack time, allowing her to quickly put several bullets in an enemy.
• Never Mess with Granny: As her lore states, bandits who underestimate her for her frail and innocent exterior tend to end up dead.
• Rambling Old Man Monologue: Snapfire has a huge number of "rare" responses organized into long-winded monologues about her past, and she'll happily ramble on about herself if you keep clicking her. On a lesser scale, she beats out Skywrath Mage for having the longest "it's in the bag" taunt in the game.
• Shockwave Stomp: Anyone who eats a Firesnap Cookie will leap forward and cause an explosion around them upon landing, damaging and stunning nearby enemies.
• Short-Range Shotgun: Scatterblast has a decent maximum range, but its optimal range is very small. Hitting enemies from too far away will do less damage.
• Super Spit: As shown with her ultimate ability, Mortimer Kisses, dragon toads have flaming saliva.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She once sold gunpowder to Krimwohl, which resulted in the city invading Hoodwink's people and forcing them out of their home, and it's unknown if Snapfire is aware of this. Regardless, Hoodwink hates her guts because of it.

Squee, Spleen and Spoon, the Techies

"Measurements made." "Bombs built." "Powder's dry." "Okay, let's blow something up!"

Voiced by: Dee Bradley Baker

Where Squee, Spleen, and Spoon go, calamity soon follows, as many now-vanished towns have found out shortly before being blown to smithereens. Their latest catastrophe occurred in the town of Dredger's Bight, as the three founders of Techies Demolitions worked on their new invention: remotely-detonated bombs, meant to make dynamiting the city's mines a safer task. Unfortunately, the Techies do not know the meaning of safety. After burying a bomb for a test, Spleen grabbed the detonator. The first press of the button did nothing, and neither did the next several, but the Techies eventually saw their invention succeed... although it wasn't just the buried explosive that blew up, but the massive stockpile of backup bombs in their workshop as well. The enormous blast caused the ground below Dredger's Bight to cave in, and the entire town vanished into the expanding crater. As the terrified citizens fled their homes, all the Techies could think about was how to give their latest creation even more explosive power.

Back in the old days, Techies were not your usual kind of heroes. They have slow movement speed, slower than even Crystal Maiden, and even creeps can dish out more damage than their normal attacks (and still is even now). Their skills outside of direct combat, on the other hand... were what made them dreaded. They're best known for their Proximity Mines, invisible explosives that trigger after a short delay if any enemy enters its blast radius, inflicting heavy damage. Because they cannot be detected by True Sight, enemies will need to watch their step when treading unfamiliar territory. Aside of damaging mines, they could also plant a Stasis Trap, which instantly rooted any enemy that stepped inside its area of effect. If the enemy got close to them, the Techies could have a final ace in the hole, Blast Off! This ability launched the Techies at an enemy, dealing massive damage to enemies in the surrounding area and to Techies themselves, potentially killing both, and silencing any enemy that survives the blast. Their traps could be set off by enemy creeps, so planting them in the middle of the open battlefield would be wasting mines as the enemies can just wait until their creeps step on it. That was where their Ultimate, Remote Mine, came in, as these mines were manually detonated by Techies instead of exploding when an enemy got close. Unlike Techies' other traps, Remote Mines could be stacked on each other, and any careless enemy treading on a stack of them would end up having quite a blast.

Patch 7.31 saw a rework of Techies, making them lose their Mechanically Unusual Class status and forcing them to fight like every other heroes in lanes. Only Blast Off! and Proximity Mines remained, with the latter one turned into their Ultimate. But in place of that, they gain other nifty tricks: Sticky Bomb had them throw a bomb that stays in place and it explodes, dealing damage to an area. But if a hero was near its landing site, the bomb will stick to said hero. Reactive Taser had them generate electricity around them, causing them to move faster and at the end of the period, disarming nearby heroes. And if a hero attacks them before the period is over, they will be disarmed early, discouraging heroes dependant on normal attacks. They may have a revamped identity, but they're still here to annoy and ruin their enemies' day.

In Dota Underlords, the Techies are the Ace of Inventors, causing enemies to explode if killed by an Inventor's own death explosion. Their ability, Remote Mines plants a bomb which explodes after a delay, dealing heavy damage in a large area; foes nearer to ground zero take double damage.

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• Action Bomb: Blast Off! blows up Techies to deal damage to enemies near them.
• Adaptation Species Change: They used to be Goblins in the original DotA. Now they're... some other creatures, not Goblins.
• And the Rest: Spoon, the third Techie who sits in the barrel tied to Squee's back, is treated like this for laughs. Squee and Spleen share most of the interaction and dialogue, and themselves think that Spoon is dead.
  Squee: Spoon was in the workshop when it exploded, right?
  Spleen: I think so.
  Spoon (from the barrel): No I wasn't.
  Spleen: You know, sometimes I can still hear his voice.
• Animal Motifs: Pigs feature heavily in their Arcana set.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Ah, Techies. They've been nerfed, reworked, and then nerfed again because frankly, getting killed instantly by a hero that doesn't even need to be physically present doesn't make for a terribly entertaining or interactive experience. Their mines have been changed so they take a moment to detonate once they've been triggered and can't be placed too close together, Suicide Squad, Attack! was replaced by Blast Off! so they can't instantly deny themselves if given even a split second to react, and Stasis Trap was changed from a stun to a root so players who get caught by it with enemies nearby at least have a chance to defend themselves. 7.31 reworks them heavily that they're like a new lane hero altogether, with hopes that it makes them less infuriating to fight.
• Anti-True Sight: Proximity Mines cannot be seen by True Sight, but do become visible when standing in the blast radius.
• Arbitrary Gun Power: They use a bazooka, and with the Swine of the Sunken Galley, a cannon for a weapon, yet are completely outclassed in base damage by every other hero, including Sniper, who uses a much smaller rifle. Justified, since the bazooka fires a small firework, and the cannon is trashed beyond repair.
• Ascended Extra: Minefield Sign didn't exist in the first DotA, and was created when Techies got ported into Dota 2 as an ability that did absolutely nothing in the game, exclusive to the owners of the Swine of the Sunken Galley Arcana. Player feedback eventually caused Valve to make Minefield Sign available to people without the Arcana as well. Come 6.84, the gimmicky Arcana promotion has, surprisingly, developed into a very strong ability of its own, albeit only with an Aghanim's Scepter upgrade.
• Cast from Hit Points: Blast Off! causes Techies to lose a percentage of their current HP when it lands.
• Cherry Tapping: Techies has the worst autoattack damage of any hero, and starts out being outclassed by everyone except the smallest neutral creeps. Its also extremely Boring, but Practical, having an extreme base range of 700, Techies could actually outharass most heroes despite the abysmal damage, though actually poking heroes to death requires either extreme luck or extreme incompetence by the enemy. Hilariously, one of their level 25 talent gives them 251 attack damage.
• Cigar Chomper: Squee always has a cigar in his mouth if you don't have any cosmetics equipped that remove it.
• Combat Pragmatist: Fighting the enemy head on will always spell doom to Techies. You have to fight dirty and depend on smartly placed mines in order to maximize Techies' potential.
• Composite Character: Post 7.31 rework, Techies started taking tips from heroes that they inspired or had similar themes in other games:
  • The Sticky Bomb is taken from fellow Mad Bomber in Heroes of Newerth, Bombardier.
  • With Proximity Mines becoming their ultimate and Reactive Taser becoming their speed boost that doubles as an anti-auto attacker tool, the new Techies seems to draw vibes from League of Legends' Teemo. Both of them are also coincidentally their respective games' token "hero/champion designed to utterly Troll their opponents."
• Cool Helmet: Squee and Spleen each get a pig-shaped helmet and visor with the Arcana equipped.
• Crazy-Prepared: A must-have trait when playing Techies, you have to know which routes the enemy heroes will take and plant the proper bombs to ruin their day.
• Death or Glory Attack: Blast Off! deals a massive amount of damage in an area and stuns enemies hit for a long duration, but it strips Techies of a large percentage of their HP, plants them right in the middle of the enemy, and leaves them with little chance of escape if they survive, pretty much guaranteeing their death if its not enough to win the fight.
• Defog of War: All of Techies' mines and traps give varying amounts of vision (from just vision of the area immediately around the mine itself to equal to what Heroes get at night). Proximity Mines can be planted in common smoke gank paths as early warning devices, or at juke spots to finish off fleeing enemies.
• Delayed Explosion: All of Techies' abilities have delays either in their arming time (the time between when you set it down and when it's ready to start working), trigger time (the time between when someone walks into its trigger radius and when it actually goes off), or a combination of both. This means that Techies can't just drop their explosives willy-nilly, but rather have to plan far ahead in order to make the most of their bombs.
• Demolitions Expert: The Techies at least view themselves as geniuses when it comes to explosives. In truth, they're very reckless with their bombs: their lore describes them as frequently destroying entire towns on accident, and they can even blow themselves up with Blast Off!. But if you want something blown up, the Techies are still your go-to hero.
• The Dividual: The Techies are three persons that are controlled together and are treated as the same unit by the game.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Because Techies have extremely little direct combat ability, their play style depends heavily upon the knowledge, map awareness and game sense of the player.
  • In order to be effective, Techies players have to have very good map awareness, predict their enemies' movements, and plan far ahead so that they can lay enough traps in the right places. Even basic enemy vision can give away Techies' plans, as knowing that a Techies is somewhere they're not supposed to be usually means that they have mines there as well, thus telling the enemy where to set up detection.
  • Detection itself is also a major problem for Techies, since a 900 gold item can easily spoil poorly-placed mine clusters. Good Techies players need to place their traps in such a way that even if the enemy has detection they can be effective (such as abusing high ground and corners around trees).
  • Proximity Mines become visible when an enemy is within its blast radius, and with only 1 HP and a fairly high gold bounty, any hero can simply destroy the mine before it goes off and get a handful of gold out of it. As such, badly placed mines can give the enemy a lot of free gold, but well-placed ones can deal quite a bit of damage.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • A properly placed Proximity Mine can be this if an enemy hero (or heroes) can be led towards it. Blast Off! is a powerful 300 damage nuke that also stuns victims, making it potentially deadly in an early gank and giving Techies respectable solo killing potential.
  • Techies' right click is pretty much an unusable joke in the late game, but thanks to its massive range of 700, it's surprisingly potent at the laning stage. With a couple of Null Talismans, it makes for a very strong harassment tool.
• Ditzy Genius: They're very intelligent when it comes to building and detonating explosives but other than that, none of them are right in the head.
• The Engineer: Of the Combat Engineer variety, when using their Proximity Mines against buildings. Proximity Mines can damage structures, including towers and barracks, making it one of the very few spells capable of doing so. A Techies with level 4 Proximity Mines can not only deal large amounts of damage to creep waves and jungle camps, but also knock down towers alarmingly quickly should the need arise.
• Fantastic Fireworks: The Swine of the Sunken Galley Arcana set adds various firework effects to their explosions.
• For Science!: Used in several of their voice lines. They're apparently quite serious about it, to the point that they think it's not proper science if there's no explosions.
• Glass Cannon: Techies can deal large amounts of damage all around the map, and left to their own devices can easily stop pushing creep waves or even destroy enemy towers surprisingly quickly. However, despite their above-average survivability in the early game, Techies need to build mana items non-stop to fuel their mines, and as a result, from the mid-game, they're essentially food if caught without Blast Off!.
• Hope Spot:
  • I hope you're not trying to teleport back to base while standing on their invisible remote mines...
  • Or alternatively, you have finally cornered Techies in low HP, and there's no nearby mines. Free gold and XP? Blast Off! You die in the explosion and end up giving Techies XP and gold.
  • Or the classic case: You are going your merry way, trying to visit a Secret Shop, or maybe you're about to pull a successful gank or you just escaped a deadly gank! ... You stepped into Techies' Proximity Mine. You die or get so heavily wounded you become such easy pickings to the other enemies.
• Land Mine Goes "Click!": Proximity Mines emit a distinctive "bling" sound when an enemy approaches.
• Mad Bomber: They are a bunch of explosives experts, and they are definitely not what you'd call 'sane'.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Techies fall in the category of heroes that are very different from the rest, with Proximity Mine resulting in gameplay based on mind games and skilfully placed traps.
• Non-Standard Skill Learning: Techies have an innate passive skill available from the start, Minefield Sign.
• Nothing Is Scarier: If the enemy is too scared to cross the river or approach the high ground for fear of being blown to hell, Techies are doing their job correctly.
• Outrun the Fireball: Proximity Mine has a 1.75-second detonation delay after being triggered, allowing fast heroes to either get out of range or destroy the mine.
• Schizo Tech: Like many of the Keens, they use pressure mines and remotely detonated explosives while most other heroes still fight with swords and magic.
• Science Hero: What they lack in physical strength or magical power, they make up for with their creative genius and bombs. Lots and lots of bombs.
• Self-Deprecation: Meta-wise. "Who said we couldn't count to three?". Well, seeing that Valve can't seem to make a sequel with the number 3 and... who made this game, again?
• Shout-Out:
  • Has several quotes from Counter-Strike, in terms of Terrorists in Demolition maps.
  • There's also a shout out to Team Fortress 2 in one of their kill lines.
    Squee (killing Lion): They're going to have to glue you back together!
    Spleen: Yeah, in Hell!
• Stone Wall: Strategically a case of this, he's very difficult to push down towers against, and very good at defending areas, as expected of someone who uses mines, but not much use on the offensive and highly risky even for the parts they're good at.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Their specialty is planting bombs, standing back, and watching the ensuing explosive carnage.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Blast Off! deals a lot of damage, especially in the early game. If you try ganking Techies while it's off cooldown, they just might blow you up while you think you have a decent health advantage.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: Their right-click attack, which launches grenades.
• Trap Master: Techies can and should use Proximity Mine to plant as many mines and in as many places as possible.
• Troll: Ever since the original DotA, Techies have been dreaded for being very infuriating to fight against, laying lots of Hope Spots and yanking them away, or luring players to their set mines and traps. Compounding this, when they're included in Dota 2, the Remote Mine art has a Trollface painted on it! Furthermore, Techies can plant warning signs which do absolutely nothing, but certainly can be used for mind games, because they could be planting mines anywhere else far away from the sign... Or is it?
• You Shall Not Pass!: Without a proper ward (which can be placed in high ground) or unobstructed vision, it's extremely hard to push into a base defended by Techies. Even if you carry a Gem of True Sight, it isn't going to do anything if you can't see up the hill where Techies planted their mines, while a Gem carrier or Sentry Ward will be blasted down in seconds, either by the mines or the tower, if they dare approach it.

Rizzrack, the Timbersaw

"I'm not a lumberjack, and no, I'm not okay. I thank you."

Voiced by: TJ Ramini

Rizzrack was an inhabitant of the peaceful town of Augury Bay, a town which fell to a rather unusual invasion. Strange flowers were one day brought in by the tide, but the beautiful flora soon turned deadly as they released clouds of toxic pollen, unleashed strangling vines, and turned trees into monsters. Fleeing from the chaos, Rizzrack barricaded himself in his uncle's workshop and set himself to work on his only hope: a suit of mechanized armor equipped with blades and chains, to be used as a weapon to fight back against the encroaching plants. Over sleepless months, he slaved away at this project, until his saw-suit was finally done. Although he stood ready to take down the floral attackers, the trauma from witnessing their destruction of his home had eroded his sanity and left him a paranoid lunatic bent on the destruction of all plant life.

Timbersaw's odd playstyle revolves around using the forest, but in a way completely different from the Treant's — rather than use the forest for help, Timbersaw seeks to destroy every tree in his wake. His first ability, Whirling Death, causes a saw to split out the sides of Rizzrack's mech, cutting down everyone in a small radius. If a tree is felled in the process, then the attack does Pure damage. Timber Chain is Rizzrack's primary initiation, functioning like Clockwerks ultimate, but instead will only work on trees. As Rizzrack flies, he damages everyone in his wake. His third ability, Reactive Armor, gives Timbersaw more armor and health regen the more times he is attacked. With Aghanim's Scepter, Reactive Armor can be activated to instantly maximize its passive bonuses and give Timbersaw a rapidly replenishing damage barrier that builds more quickly the more enemies are nearby; at the end of its duration, all of the remaining barrier is consumed to damage nearby enemies. Aghanim's Shard grants Timbersaw access to a Flamethrower that spews flames in front of himself, igniting and damaging enemies and buildings caught in the flames while also setting trees on fire to burn them down after a few seconds. Timbersaw's ultimate ability, Chakram, launches a large spinning blade that slows enemies the more health they lack and deals bonus damage for each tree it cuts down. The blade can spin in place indefinitely as long as Timbersaw's mana holds out; however, he can't attack while he has a Chakram active. Upgrading this via talent gives him a second Chakram; both can be deployed at the same time, wreaking devastation on foes and flora alike.

In Artifact, Timbersaw is a red hero. His Continuous Effect, Reactive Armor, grants him +1 Armor for each attacker.

In Dota Underlords, Timbersaw is a tier 2 hero. His ability, Whirling Death, damages nearby foes.

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• Achilles' Heel: A lack of trees (in either faction's home base, for example) will reduce the threat he poses considerably. He's also very vulnerable to breaks, as without Reactive Armor he becomes extremely easy to kill.
• Adaptation Name Change: Rizzrack's name in the original DotA was Rizzrak (notice the absence of the C).
• Adaptation Species Change: He was called Goblin Shredder in the original DotA. His current species is unidentified, but strongly resembles a goblin.
• Anti-Structure: Flamethrower is one of the few nukes that can deal damage to buildings.
• Bucket Helmet: He wears some kind of receptacle with a valve on his head.
• Chainsaw Good: The suit has a chainsaw arm, as well as a circular sawblade which can spin around with Whirling Death or be fired out with Chakram.
• Companion Cube: His Chakram saw blade, of all things.
  Rizzrack (casting Chakram Return): "Here boy!"
• Cowardly Lion: Yes, he is crazy, nervous and afraid of pretty harmless plant life. At the same time he is one of the most aggressive solo hard lane heroes, not only easily surviving, but often decimating a superior force, and is an excellent mid-game damage dealer.
• Crippling Overspecialization:
  • Ironically enough, Timbersaw is extremely dependent on trees to deal damage and contribute to teamfights. As such, he's actually not very good at pushing and defending base as the location has few trees.
  • Reactive Armor makes Timbersaw extremely resilient in sustained fights, but when it isn't stacked Timbersaw has 0 base Armor, leaving him vulnerable to surprise attack.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Might be more likely Played for Laughs. But it's understandable why he'd act this way, you'll probably get a dendrophobia if you went through what Rizzrack went through in the past and cost him his hometown and his sanity.
• Deadly Disc: His ultimate, Chakram fires Timbersaw's main sawblade, rendering him unable to attack until he calls it back.
• Disc-One Nuke: Timber Chain and Whirling Death both deal pure damage, meaning that Timbersaw can easily dominate a lane with his AOE damage; both spells remain extremely strong and useful for most of the game.
• Dynamic Entry: With low mana cost and cooldown, Timber Chain can be used to zip from tree to tree over and over again in both chase and escape scenarios.
• Face Your Fears: Someone gave him this advice once; he took it up a notch.
  Rizzrack on anxiety management: "Someone once told me I needed to face fear to get over it, and I thought, well, why not take a step further and cut my fear into little pieces then set my fear on fire then throw the hot ash of my fear into a lake and then poison the lake - simple!"
• Finishing Move: Chakram decreases enemy speed proportional to the health they've lost, slowing almost-dead heroes to a crawl while dealing damage over time.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: Aghanim's Shard gives him the ability Flamethrower, which causes his suit to spew flames in front of him that burn enemies over time while slowing them (and burn down trees).
• Fixed Damage Attack: Three of his nukes deal Pure damage, while Whirling Death also reduces an enemy's primary attribute, lowering max health on Strength heroes, armor on Agility heroes and both on Universal heroes (most Intelligence heroes are already quite squishy so it doesn't matter much).
• Gadgeteer Genius
• Garden of Evil: It is strongly implied that the Vale of Augury, Rooftrellen's homeland, is connected with the attack on Rizzrack's home city.
• Goggles Do Nothing: While they could be used as protection from sawdust, he's just wearing them on his "helmet".
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: Timber Chain.
• Hearing Voices
  Rizzrack, killing an enemy hero: Mm! That is one less voice in my head.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath
• Irony: He's at his strongest when there's a bunch of trees around for him to cut down. This means that Treant Protector can be a powerful ally for him if he builds Aghanim's Scepter, as it causes any trees he chops down to grow back very quickly to use again. He also is one of the most effective targets in the game for Treant Protector's Living Armor ability to fix his poor base armor and give him even more regeneration for diving on to enemy heroes.
• It's Personal: Chops down trees in retaliation towards the evil plants that attacked his hometown.
  Rizzrack: "I'm not a lumberjack. This... This is personal."
• Level Drain: Whirling Death will temporarily reduce the primary stat of any enemy hero hit (Universal heroes instead take a smaller reduction to all attributes). This makes him an extremely powerful counter against Strength heroes, since they would otherwise be able to shrug off his Pure damage nukes with their massive HP pools.
• Lightning Bruiser: His health regeneration increases successively with every hit thanks to his third ability, Reactive Armour. His other two abilities focus on gradually reducing enemy stats and movement speed while boosting his own defense, leading to a Death of a Thousand Cuts combat style. He is also one of the most mobile heroes in the game with Timber Chain.
• Lovable Coward: He's terrified of trees, but after all he's been through, who can blame him for his paranoia?
• Made of Iron: Due to Reactive Armor giving him loads of armor and HP regen, Timbersaw is extremely resistant to physical damage. His ability to reduce enemies' primary stats with Whirling Death (which is used to calculate physical damage output) and to escape quickly using Timber Chain means that unless you lock him down in place with disables and nuke him with magic spells (which don't scale well late-game), you likely aren't going to be killing him unless you're fighting him five versus one. Eventually one of his talents also fixes his weakness to magic damage by giving him whats basically a free cloak, making him nigh immortal in the late game unless hes getting slapped around by a 6 item carry and even sometimes that isn't enough.
• Madness Mantra: Quite a lot of his responses are this.
  Rizzrack, killing an ememy hero: "Cut cut cutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutCUUUUUT!"
• Mini-Mecha: His "saw suit" is basically a cockpit on legs.
• Mundane Utility: His chakrams grant vision of the area they're deployed in, giving him a convient way to check fog of war. Clearing treelines also allows open vision of enemy backline that might be hiding in them as well.
• Nervous Wreck: The result of spending months barricaded in a small workshop with evil trees banging on his windows and killing everyone he knew: he is now terrified of ANY tree, and given how the Dota 2 map has thousands of them...
• No Mere Windmill: He might look like a Windmill Crusader, unless you remember about heroes like Nature's Prophet and Treant Protector.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: Chakram always comes back to Timbersaw, even if he moved away from where he fired it.
• Properly Paranoid: Given that the When Trees Attack trope is present in the world of DotA 2 (see: Nature's Prophet, Treant Protector), he might be justified in fearing trees so much.
• Renamed the Same: From DotA to Dota 2, his name was changed from Rizzrak to the barely-different Rizzrack with only an additional C.
• Rings of Death: His saw-suit is equipped with a circular saw which is used in his Whirling Death and Chakram attacks.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He went on a forest-chopping rampage after his hometown was destroyed by treants.
• Science Hero: Makes up for his diminutive stature with his powerful mech suit.
• Shout-Out:
  • His gray and orange vest bears some resemblance to Gordon Freeman's HEV suit.
  • He states that he's not a lumberjack and he is not okay.
• Sole Survivor: Of his town.
• Spam Attack: Because all of Timbersaw's abilities have very short cooldowns, if he gets enough mana regeneration he can spam them indefinitely in a teamfight.
• Spectacular Spinning: Whirling Death, by way of the large buzzsaw built into the Timbersaw suit's torso, while Chakram throws his main saw blade and has it spin in place... somehow.
• Spin Attack: Whirling Death causes the saw blade in his midsection to spin.
• Steampunk: His (wooden) saw-suit has a large smokestack that continually belches smoke and fire as he moves.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Chakram
• Unreliable Narrator: He could actually be crazy, as he's been in an insane asylum before:
  Rizzrack, meeting Dark Seer: "Ah, Dark Seer. Finally someone who appreciates a wall without padding."
• Walking Wasteland: Because his abilities rely on destroying trees en masse, it's very easy to tell where he's been.
• When Trees Attack: His hometown apparently fell victim to a treant attack and he has not been the same since then.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: His severe dendrophobia is very apparent — he's even afraid of the trees that aren't capable of harming him. He's also afraid of tree heroes, such as Treant or Nature's Prophet.
  Rizzrack, beginning the battle: "Trees? Well nobody said anything about trees."
  • Even better: one of his respawn lines is the trope name, word for word.
  Respawning: "Trees? Why did it have to be trees?"

Shendelzare, the Vengeful Spirit

"The road of revenge is long, but what awaits me at the end makes it worthwhile."

Voiced by: Gin Hammond

Shendelzare was a Skywrath princess set to inherit the throne of the Ghastly Eyrie. That was until her jealous sister betrayed her, sending an assassin in order to ensure that she would be instead the next queen. Shendelzare escaped with her life, but this came at a great cost: her wings were crippled in the attack, and she would never be able to fly again. Not only did this ostracize her from Skywrath society, it also made revenge impossible as her sister hid in the highest points of the Eyrie, which are only accessible by flight. Desiring vengeance more than anything, Shendelzare struck a deal with the goddess Scree'auk, sacrificing her broken physical form for a stronger body composed of pure spirit energy so that she would be able to one day exact revenge against her sister.

The Vengeful Spirit is a versatile hero generally played as a support thanks to her powerful and versatile spells that can disrupt her foes' positioning while increasing her allies' damage. Her first spell, Magic Missile is a simple single-target nuke that also inflicts a good stun, making it a powerful tool for killing enemies or holding them in place. With her second spell, Wave of Terror, Vengeful Spirit unleashes a powerful scream which deals minor pure damage to enemies in a line and temporarily reduces their armor, and also grants vision. Though the damage is rather weak, the armor reduction makes up for this as her allies will be able to deal much more damage to the debuffed targets. She can then boost their offense even further with Vengeance Aura, a passive ability which buffs the primary attribute and attack range of nearby allies. If Vengeful Spirit dies, this ability will also allow her to linger on the battlefield as a Vengeance Illusion until she respawns. 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, and since it can hold up to two charges, she can also make daring escapes or reposition allies to follow up. However, throwing herself into the middle of the enemy team means that Vengeful Spirit's survival is rarely a guarantee. Not that she minds, as to Shendelzare, death is a small price to pay for destroying her enemies.

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• Adaptation Name Change: In the original DotA, her full name was Shendelzare Silkwood.
• Amicable Exes: She gets along well enough with Skywrath Mage if they're on the same team, although the same thing can't be said if they're on opposite teams.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Since it deals pure damage and pierces debuff immunity, absolutely nothing can protect a hero from Wave of Terror.
• Art Evolution: 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. Before that, she's had her character model improved, as a previous version of her wore a mask.
• The Artifact: The icon for her Vengeance Aura is a red mask, which she wore in a previous version, but no longer wears after her model update.
• Broken Bird: 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.
• Brown Note: Wave of Terror has Vengeful Spirit screech out a wave of energy in a line, which deals a small amount of damage to targets and decreases their armor by a substantial amount for a period of time.
• Calling Your Attacks: She occasionally calls out "Magic Missile!" when casting the ability of the same name.
• Cooldown Manipulation: Indirectly; because the Vengeance Illusion created by her Aghanim's Scepter upgrade spawns with its abilities off cooldown, upon death Vengeful Spirit effectively gets all of her spells refreshed. It's not unheard of for Vengeful Spirit players to deliberately throw themselves into the enemy to die just so they can use Magic Missile or Nether Swap a second time.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: The illusion created by Vengeance Aura (upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter) is immune to skills that normally instantly kill illusions such as Hex and Mana Drain.
• Damage-Increasing Debuff: 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.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She had her sister sic an assassin on her, lost her wings, was ostracized by Skywrath society, and was left unable to take vengeance on her sister. Shendelzare's life was shitty to the point she became Vengeful Spirit.
• Defog of War: Wave of Terror is often used to scout important areas like narrow paths or the Roshan pits.
• Energy Ball: Magic Missile and her basic attacks fling out glowing orbs of pure, magical bluish-white energy.
• Energy Beings: Became one after she surrendered her original body to the goddess Scree’auk in order to serve her goals of vengeance. Her current body is composed of spirit energy.
• A Glass of Chianti: Her The Resurrection of Shen Arcana's third style Queen Imperia (which actually represents her sister) carries a large glass of wine into battle and drinks from it in one of her idle animations.
• Heroic Sacrifice: 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 potential to secure post-mortem kills with Vengeance Aura, this 'feed to win' swapping style is not often a big deal and even encouraged—feeding a support in exchange for bringing a well-farmed ranged carry like Sniper or Drow right into the middle of your team where they can be dog-piled and killed quickly is a pretty good trade, as is saving your well-farmed carry from a dog-pile.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Usage of Nether Swap must be considered carefully, 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.
• I Am the Noun: She has several variations of "I am Vengeance” in her beginning-of-match quotes.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: How does Vengeful Spirit's clothing even work? In real life, the 'shirt' would drop off to the sides instantly.
• Jack of All Stats: Vengeful Spirit is usually played as a hard support, using her skills to set up kills, bolster allies' damage, and occasionally initiate fights. These same tools along with her relatively high stat growth allow her to also function as a semi-carry, taking advantage of her own lockdown and damage buffs to quickly pick off enemies.
• Love Interest: 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.
• Magically Regenerating Clothing: In the Crownfall comic, when Scree'auk restores Shendelzare's wings, her tattered outfit is also restored, as displayed in the Servants of Scree'Auk style for her The Resurrection of Shen Arcana.
• Mook Commander: 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.
• Ms. Fanservice: Let's see: Shapely figure? Check. Wardrobe to emphasize it? Check. Attractive accent? Check. Dark and Troubled Past? Double check.
• Mundane Utility: Wave of Terror is great for its armor reduction, as well as being a very long-range pure-damage spell (albeit pretty low damage, even at level 4). However, it has an extra ability, in that it briefly grants vision of the area it passes over, making her a decent scout. The spell's damage (tiny as it is), along with its extremely long range, also makes it useful for disrupting clarity potions and healing salves in the early game.
• Mystical White Hair: Her hair is pure white, and she's an ethereal being with magical powers.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Her top only covers the sides of her torso, leaving her entire midriff and abdomen exposed.
• Not Afraid to Die: 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.
  Flavor Text of Nether Swap: Martyrdom is a small price to pay for vengeance.
• Only Mostly Dead: If Vengeful Spirit is killed while holding an Aghanim's Scepter, Vengeance Aura spawns an illusion of her that deals and takes regular damage and can cast spells (though it can't use items) and lasts until either it is destroyed or Vengeful Spirit respawns.
• Our Spirits Are Different: She’s a being of pure energy and her title refers to her as a spirit, but she isn't incorporeal and can't possess anyone. She can, however, continue to exist in a somewhat weaker spiritual form after she’s killed if she’s bought an Aghanim’s Scepter until killed again or she respawns.
• Pinball Projectile: Aghanim's Shard allows Magic Missile to bounce at a second target, prioritizing heroes. The bounce can even hit heroes that are invisible.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Her eyes glow red, and with her arsenal of disables, her armor shred, bonus damage aura and ability to swap an enemy into their doom she’s a force to be reckoned with.
• Revenge: Her main driving force is vengeance against the sister that wronged her, to the point of allowing herself to be transformed into a spirit being to pursue her revenge.
• Rings of Death: Several of her cosmetics turn her ethereal ringlike weapon into a more corporeal bladed ring.
• Schmuck Bait: Once Vengeful Spirit gets an Aghanim's Scepter, it becomes literally counter-intuitive to kill her early in a fight. Unless you can kill her again just as quickly, now she's back as an illusion who suddenly has no reason to fear death with a skill whose only disadvantage is that it usually gets her killed...
• Stripperiffic: She only wears a loincloth and a top that shows her entire cleavage and midriff.
• Super-Scream: Wave of Terror is a cry from Vengeful Spirit that damages enemies and weakens their armor.
• Swap Teleportation: Her ultimate ability, Nether Swap, exchanges her position with another hero within a certain range.
• Taking You with Me: Aghanim's Scepter allows Vengeful Spirit to continue fighting after she's killed, by leaving behind an illusion who deals and takes full damage and can use all of her abilities.
• The Unintelligible: In the earlier versions of DotA, she did nothing but growl and snarl when selected. Later versions finally gave her actual speaking lines.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: In the original DotA, she was Phantom Assassin's sister.
• Winged Humanoid: The Skywrath are a race of them. Shendelzare, however, lost her wings.
• Wings Do Nothing: Several of her cosmetic sets include wings, but these are purely decorative rather than functional replacements.

Lesale Deathbringer, the Venomancer

"Nothing touches the heart like my venom."

Voiced by: Dave Fennoy

Lesale was a herbalist who, seeking rare ingredients, ventured into the terrifying Acid Jungles of Jidi Isle, a dangerous biome where every organism is equipped with some kind of deadly poison. It was not long before he was stung by a camouflaged reptilian creature, and Lesale started to succumb to the toxin. With what strength he had left, he hastily crafted a crude antidote from the reptile's venom and the nectar of an armored orchid and injected it into himself using one of the orchid' thorns before falling into a 17-year long coma. As he slept, the unrefined nature of the antidote Lesale had crafted caused his body to undergo a strange mutation. His human features began to fuse with those of the reptile and the flower used to make his antidote, and once he awoke, he was now a completely new creature: the Deathbringer, the most venomous being on the entire island. After proving his dominance over the predators of the region, whatever remained of his humanity pushed the Venomancer to leave Jidi Isle and spread his poisons out to the whole world.

Venomancer is a hero known and feared for his abilities which inflict large amounts of slow and damage over time. Venomous Gale is a ground-targeted projectile which poisons all enemies it passes through: affected enemies are slowed by 50% for a whopping 15 second duration (movement speed is gradually restored over this time) and take large amounts of damage over time. Poison Sting passively adds a poison to Venomancer's attacks, slowing them and inflicting damage over time. Are you seeing a pattern here? Plague Ward summons an immobile unit which attacks any target in range, inflicting them with a weaker version of Venomancer's Poison Sting. This is a highly versatile spell useful for granting vision on important areas, harassing enemies from a distance, or pushing down towers. His Ultimate ability, Noxious Plague, infects an enemy with a plague that deals an initial hit of damage, then damage over time based on the victim's max HP for a few seconds (alongside a massive movement speed slow). When the Noxious Plauge expires, it infects all enemies near the victim with a secondary plague that does the same, save for the spreading effect. Venomancer also gains additional abilities from Aghanim's Scepter and Aghanim's Shard. From the Scepter, he gains Poison Nova, which triggers either when a target dispels Venomous Gale's effect early, or when Venomancer dies. Either way, when the spell triggers, a wave of poison is expelled (either from Venomous Gale's target or Venomancer's point of death, depending on trigger method), dealing non-lethal damage over time to all enemies hit by it based on their maximum HP, while also reducing their magic resistance. From Aghanim's Shard, he gains Latent Toxicity, a weak poison that does a small damage over time and slow effect. This, however, belies its true danger: If the target dispels Latent Toxicity by any means aside from it timing out normally, it will deal a much larger amount of damage and stun the victim.

In Artifact, Venomancer is a blue hero. He has the Passive Ability Venomous Nature, which summons a Plague Ward creep into his lane during each deployment phase. His signature card, Sow Venom, is a spell which summons two Plague Wards. Plague Wards are a creep which deal 2 piercing damage to a random enemy neighbor before the action phase.

In Dota Underlords, Venomancer is a tier 1 hero. His ability, Venomous Gale, fires a ball of venom which damages foes over time and slows their attack and movement speed.

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• Art Evolution: Venomancer's prior model was more reminiscent of an inchworm (and highly resembled a Hydralisk) or to some, a Banana, and was changed to closely resemble a cobra.
• Ascended Meme: Venomancer's old model was often compared to a banana. Although it was changed, the Winter 2016 Battle Pass includes a taunt called "Bananadancer" where Venomancer dances while bananas appear around him.
• Black Mage: All of his abilities are centred around slowing and dealing damage over time to enemy heroes.
• Boring, but Practical: His skills are pretty straightforward to use and understand and not particularly flashy.
• Damage Over Time: Venomancer's specialty; all of his abilities have a damage over time component to them.
• Deadly Gas: Venomous Gale and Poison Nova create clouds of toxic gas that poison enemies that touch them.
• Death-Activated Superpower: Poison Nova activates when Venomancer dies if he has Aghanim's Scepter.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: All of his spells used in conjunction will slow the enemy to a crawl while taking periodic damage, meaning that his allies can easily whale on them while they're disabled — and even if they manage to escape, they'll likely die from his persistent poison damage.
• Defog of War: Because Plague Wards persist for a time after casting, they can be used as pseudo Observer Wards, spotting out enemy movements as long as they're up. Additionally, they have an extremely low cooldown and can block movement, so they can be cast on the other side of a treeline for tactical vision, and placed in juke paths to block off enemies who are trying to pursue or escape.
• Disc-One Nuke: Venomous Gale is widely regarded as one of the best level 1 ganking spells in the game, and will almost always secure a kill in the early game if you have an attentive lanemate(s) and good timing. It remains extremely strong into the late game, when it becomes a handy counterpushing and teamfight utility.
• Elemental Embodiment: Stated in the backstory of Plague Ward:
  A mixture of his old herbalist talents and newfound toxic mastery creates a living embodiment of plague.
• Emergency Transformation: In his backstory, Lesale was bitten by a venomous reptile. The emergency antidote he slapped together didn't nullify the toxin's effect, but rather turned him into this monster.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He was once a simple herbalist, but accidentally transformed himself into a venomous monster.
• Garden of Evil: The Acid Jungles of Jidi Isle from his backstory, a Death World where literally every living organism produces some kind of toxin.
• God Guise: According to tge description of the Cult of Aktok headgear, a cult mistook Venomancer for a herald of their serpent god Aktok, who is destined to devour the world. Venomancer took advantage of the prestige by accepting their human sacrifices.
• HP to One: Poison Nova cannot bring afflicted units below 1 HP.
• Luke Nounverber: His name, Lesale Deathbringer.
• Macabre Moth Motif: The flavor text of the Fatal Bloom set presents a What If? scenario where Lesale ingested a Fradjan moth's cocoon from the orchid that he harvested for his antidote. As a result, Venomancer adapted a moth-like appearance in his transformation.
  "Unseen by Lesale in his urgent compounding, the orchid of his salvation was also host to the pulsing cocoon of a Fradjan moth."
• Meaningful Name: "Le sale" is French for "the dirty one".
• Mercy Kill: A unit under the Venomous Gale debuff can be killed by their teammates if their HP falls below 25%, denying whatever Gold and Experience he would have received from the kill.
• Mundane Utility: Plague Ward can be used as an impromptu Observer Ward. It has only about half a true ward's range of sight, and is far shorter-lived, but it makes an okay substitute in situations where the enemy tends to de-ward a lot (such as their own jungle), or very temporary needs, such as the other side of trees during a push. Especially since you can place as many as Venomancer's mana and cooldown can provide, and you don't need to worry about wasting one from the shop.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Someone with "Deathbringer" in his name definitely isn't going to be a very nice fellow.
• Nature Hero: A villainous example; he uses various poisons and toxins in nature as ingredients for his spells.
• Omnicidal Maniac: He tries to be one, if his dying quote is anything to go by.
  Venomancer (dying): I only wanted to kill... everyone.
• Piñata Enemy: Venomancer’s Plague Wards can’t quite be chain-cast^note They basically can be with the right items and talents, but by the time you can afford/pick them, fights rarely last long enough for you to put up enough to make a difference, but if given some time (and enough mana) he can generate quite a lot of them in his lane, making pushing against him rather hard. However, placement is key, as they die in only a few hits from a hero, and give decent gold when killed. An inattentive Venomancer can end up feeding quite a bit of cash to the other team, especially against ranged fighters like Sniper.
• Poison Is Corrosive: The icon for Poison Sting.
• Poison Is Evil: The venom of the creature that stung Lesale corrupted both his body and mind, turning him into an Omnicidal Maniac that wishes to infect everyone with his poisons and watch them slowly die.
• Poisonous Person: The title "Venomancer" should be a pretty big tipoff. Every one of his abilities can poison enemies.
• Projectile Spell: Venomous Gale can't be aimed at a precise target, but any unit it passes through (including creeps) before dissolving will feel its effect.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Venomancer has four piercing red eyes that show what a menace he is.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Lesale's transformation into the Venomancer gave him features of the reptile that bit him. He is now a mutated snake-man who wants to kill as many people as possible.
• Rip Van Winkle: He was in a coma for seventeen years.
• The Rival: Lesale doesn't get along very well with fellow venomous hero Viper. They just have 'kill rival' quotes to each other.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Aghanim's Shard provides Venomancer with a way to counter dispels (which are normally the hardest counter to heroes that rely on damage over time like him) in the form of Latent Toxicity, a weak slow and poison that, when dispelled, deals large burst damage and stuns the victim. While it doesn't render dispels completely useless, enemy heroes have to be much more careful so they wouldn't accidentally do more harm than good when trying to remove poison from a teammate.
• Self-Deprecation: Venomancer's rare quote refers himself as just a minor inconvenience in the Acid Jungles of Jidi Isle, while his lore says that he's one of the most powerful and venomous creatures there.
• Snake People: His design resembles a cobra.
• Snakes Are Sinister: The Emergency Transformation that turned him into his current snake-like form also did a number on his sanity.
• Squishy Wizard: He's not quite as frail as some other nuke-based supports, but his fairly low strength growth and low HP leave a lot to be desired.
• Status Effects: All of Venomancer's abilities revolve around using poison to deal damage over time and applying slow debuffs.
• Taking You with Me: All of Venomancer's skills deal large amounts of damage over time, meaning that it's quite likely that whoever kills Lesale in a one-on-one fight will die shortly afterwards from gradual poison damage. The YOLO initiator Venomancer build takes advantage of this: blink into a group of enemies, pop Venomous Gale and Noxious Plague, activate Veil of Discord, then quickly die, activating Poison Nova in the process, before getting a triple kill several seconds later.
• Technicolor Toxin
• To Serve Man: According to the flavor text of the Cult of Aktok headgear, Venomancer accepted human sacrifices from a cult that mistook him for a herald of their god. He then followed the shamans back to their homes so that he could slaughter them.
• The Turret Master: His third skill, Plague Ward, creates wards that act like ranged turrets in pushes or teamfights. They can also apply half of Poison Sting's effects on any enemy that they hit, although it won't stack with that of Venomancer's own attacks (only Venomancer's Poison Sting will take effect if both debuffs are active on a target).
• Was Once a Man: He used to be Lesale, a simple herbalist, unlucky enough to get bitten by a venomous creature and in desperation created an antidote that ended up turning him into a monstrosity and destroyed his humanity.
• Whatever Mancy: His title is Venomancer, and his spells all involve toxins.
• You Are Already Dead: At high levels, Noxious Plague deals an absurd amount of damage over time. If combined with Venomancer's other abilities, it is possible to kill an enemy long after they disengage from a teamfight, or even if they teleport into their fountain (the spells can literally deal more damage than the fountain can heal).

Visage, the Bound Form of Necro'lic

"That which passes beyond the veil must forever stay."

Voiced by: Dempsey Pappion

Upon death, the souls of the deceased are sent to the Underscape to navigate the Narrow Maze, where they eventually find their way to their ultimate reward or punishment. Overseeing the traffic of souls is the eternal spirit of death Necro'lic and his gargoyle familiars, who ensure that the deceased will remain in the afterlife for the rest of eternity. If a soul somehow cheats death and escapes from the other side, Necro'lic takes on the form of the spectral gargoyle Visage, and sets forth to bring them back by any means necessary, as well as destroying any who protect an escaped soul from his relentless pursuit.

Visage is a support that excels at dealing and tanking heavy burst damage. Grave Chill slows the target's movement and attack speeds while proportionately boosting his own, allowing Visage to chase and fight on his own terms. Soul Assumption is a unique, low-cooldown nuke fueled by combat. As heroes near Visage take damage, Soul Assumption builds charges which are consumed to damage a target when the ability is cast, with damage being determined by the number of charges. Visage has low armor and is the only hero in the game with below-average magic resistance; Gravekeeper's Cloak offsets this by providing him with a layered shield that absorbs player-based damage. Each time he takes damage, a layer is removed, weakening Visage's defenses; lost layers are replenished over time when he is out of combat. His ultimate ability, Summon Familiars, calls forth a pair of Visage's Familiars to fight by his side (upgraded to three with a late-game talent). These Familiars can fly over terrain and have an extremely fast attack speed, letting them deal heavy burst damage to fuel Soul Assumption. Familiars also benefit from Grave Chill if Visage casts it nearby, letting them tear down enemies even faster. While fragile, the Familiars are not easy to kill, as they can enter an invulnerable Stone Form to restore health and stun enemies, and they benefit from Gravekeeper's Cloak as long as Visage is nearby. With his unholy powers and fearsome Familiars, the unprepared who tangle with Visage will only earn themselves a one-way ticket to the afterlife.

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• Acrophobic Bird: As per game mechanics, Visage cannot fly over terrain (except when Silent as the Grave is active), but his Familiars can.
• Armored But Frail: Visage has up to 70% resistance to both physical and magical damage when he maxes out Gravekeeper's Cloak, letting him withstand even heavy burst damage. Much needed because his skills benefit his team the more he stays in team-fights, and he has poor mobility and is rather fragile otherwise.
• Black Mage
• Charged Attack: Soul Assumption initially deals extremely low damage, but becomes more and more powerful with soul charges which Visage can acquire when heroes take damage near him.
• Dark Is Not Evil: While he is not nice by any stretch of the imagination, his task to make sure the dead stay dead is a necessary one.
• Deflector Shields: Gravekeeper's Cloak generates a four-layered barrier of protection around Visage. One layer is removed every time Visage takes damage from players, making him very durable against burst damage, but damage-over-time effects can break it in no time. Furthermore, Gravekeeper's Cloak has a minimum damage threshold, meaning that abilities which deal numerous ticks of very low damage will ignore it completely.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Like Meepo, Visage is considered one of the more difficult heroes to master given the amount of micromanagement required to manage his ultimate, on top of his other abilities being quite complex. Given the punishing cooldown on summoning his familiars and the large bounty they award to enemy players for killing them, new players can be easily discouraged from learning the hero properly given how easy it is to feed the enemy team with the familiars. But mastering the familiars gives Visage a great deal of flexibility and firepower, since they can globally gank squishy heroes with almost no warning by using trees for cover, and chaining their Stone Form stuns can give you an area-of-effect stun that lasts up to 3 seconds, or even 4.5 seconds with an Aghanim's Scepter. Combined with his other abilities, Visage is one of the deadliest support heroes in the game who can tank damage, burst down enemies extremely quickly, and disable entire teams when used properly.
• Elite Army: Visage's Familiars are weak in a direct fight, but are valued for their ability to globally gank squishy heroes with little warning, their 3 second area stun, and the large bounty that they award to enemies for killing them.
• Familiar: Can summon 2 of his fellow gargoyles (3 with Aghanim's Scepter) from the Narrow Maze.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: The Tolling Shadows cosmetic Familiars carry a bell each.
• Ghostly Chill: Grave Chill, which slows down the target and speeds up Visage.
• Glass Cannon: His familiars are capable of decimating most enemies in seconds, especially with Grave Chill, but don't take much to destroy.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: However, he's a decidedly heroic character.
• Guardian of the Multiverse: Necro'lic is not only in charge of bringing souls to the afterlife, but also keeping various Multiversal Conquerors, Eldritch Abominations and even gods at bay.
  Visage (killing Doom): "This realm is not yours to torment, Doombringer."
• Guide Dang It!: It isn't stated anywhere in-game that Gravekeeper's Cloak and Grave Chill also apply their bonuses to nearby Familiars; it's only mentioned in a patch note.
• Heal Thyself: Activating Stone Form causes a Familiar to quickly regenerate HP over its duration, enough to fully heal itself.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: His familiars are best used to blast enemies and then beat a fast retreat, as they are pretty weak in a direct fight.
• Implacable Man: In lore, Visage is one when in pursuit of escaped souls, helped by him also being The Needless. In-game, he can potentially also become one with Grave Chill neutering the target's attacks and Gravekeeper's Cloak shrugging off damage.
• Lightning Bruiser: Visage can dish out great damage with Soul Assumption and his familiars; Gravekeeper's Cloak makes him extremely resistant to burst damage; and he can also move very quickly with Grave Chill.
• Limit Break: Soul Assumption does very little damage by itself, but it scales up as heroes (allied, enemy, and including Visage himself) take damage in an area around him. Combined with its extremely low cooldown, Visage can nuke down targets extremely quickly during a teamfight.
• Meaningful Name: "Visage" is a term for "face", usually used with regards to form and features, which Visage is for Necro'lic.
• Metal Slime: Visage's familiars give a very large bounty when killed, but move very fast and can fly over terrain, so no good Visage player would allow his enemies to profit from that bounty. Bad ones, on the other hand...
• Our Gargoyles Rock: Both him and his summoned familiars.
• Piñata Enemy: Familiars are worth 100 gold each and have less hp than normal lane creeps. While they make up for that with their temporary invincibility and Gravekeeper's Cloak and can be denied by resummoning, a planned attack on them is as profitable as ganking a hero.
• Power Glows
• Remote Body: For Necro'lic, the spirit of death.
• Shockwave Stomp: Familiars' Stone Form combines this with Taken for Granite, as it also stuns enemies in an area around the Familiar.
• Some Dexterity Required: Playing Visage well requires good micro-management of his familiars; while they can quickly burst down enemy heroes and charge up Soul Assumption in no time, they also do not have much HP and give a huge bounty if the enemy can kill them.
• Sophisticated as Hell: He normally speaks in a tone worthy of the afterlife's overseer. Killing Dirge the Undying yields this response:
  Visage: "Herp Derp Dirge."
• Spam Attack: Soul Assumption has a very low cooldown, allowing Visage to spam it during fights, where heroes are always taking damage and charges accumulate quickly. His Familiars also have absurdly fast attack rates.
• Squishy Wizard: Yes and no. Visage is one of the squishiest early-game heroes in the game, as he starts the game with negative armor and has pathetic Agility along with average at best Strength; however, Gravekeeper's Cloak makes him absurdly resistant to burst damage once he maxes it out, allowing him to shrug off magic nukes and burst physical damage surprisingly well if he survives into the late game. On the other hand, damage over time effects either bypass Gravekeeper's Cloak entirely if the ticks are small enough or rip through it if the ticks are larger, and carries with high attack speed can still make quick work of him.
• Summon Magic: Summon Familiars.
• Taken for Granite: His familiars can do this to themselves as means for both offense and defense. Visage also gains the ability to do this with Aghanim's Shard.
• Vampiric Draining: Grave Chill drains speed from enemies and gives it to Visage.

Inai, the Void Spirit

"I have seen everything just beyond this moment. But there soon comes a point where I am blind."

Voiced by: Rene Mujica

The eldest of the Spirit Brothers, Inai, the Void Spirit, is an unscrutable figure with knowledge of things beyond mortal comprehension. He has long preferred to observe rather than act, watching over the universe from his Hidden Temple while his servants do his bidding. Being able to monitor the cosmos from beyond its borders has given Inai a perspective on existence that transcends mortal perceptions of space-time, and he enters the physical plane only when he alone can steer reality in its proper direction. Upon noticing a moment in the timeline past which nothing else can be seen, the Void Spirit has chosen to take action in order to bring the War of the Ancients to an end, so he can then make preparations to deal with an even greater conflict ahead...

The Void Spirit holds dominion over large swathes of the battlefield. He can summon an Aether Remnant to watch over a location: enemies who cross its gaze are damaged and pulled towards its location. Dissimilate causes the Void Spirit to vanish. Several portals then appear, and Inai can pick one to emerge from, damaging nearby enemies. With Resonant Pulse, the Void Spirit emits a pulse which damages foes in an area around him, and gains a shield which blocks a certain amount of physical damage: the more heroes are hit by the pulse, the more damage the shield can prevent. Astral Step, Void Spirit's ultimate ability, warps him through space, executing an attack against all foes in between his starting point and destination. These foes are then afflicted with a void mark, slowing them before dealing additional damage once it expires. This ability has two charges, letting Void Spirit dash around the battlefield.

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• Achilles' Heel: As a hero reliant on mobility whose kit is made entirely of active abilities, Void Spirit is very vulnerable to roots and silences.
• Deadly Gaze: The Aether Remnants' gaze damages foes and draws them in.
• Diagonal Cut: Simulated by Astral Step, which deals a delayed burst of damage to enemies about a second after Void Spirit slashes through them.
• Double Weapon: Void Spirit wields a two-ended polearm.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Void Spirit's physical form is simply one he takes to interact with the mortal world.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Among the Spirit Brothers, only Ember Spirit seems to like him, with the other two being quite annoyed by his Insufferable Genius mindset.
• Hates Being Touched: His responses to being attacked are more annoyance than pain or distress due to him being a formless spirit in his true state, so physical interaction is downright alien to him. He also says as much when casting Resonant Pulse.
• I Am Legion: As the master of the Hidden Temple, Inai is known as the "Hidden Ones."
• Insufferable Genius: Being borderline omniscient gives Void Spirit a "greater-than-thou" attitude towards most heroes.
• Invulnerable Attack: Void Spirit is invulnerable when he uses Dissimilate, before he emerges from one of the portals.
• Lightning Bruiser: Void Spirit has respectably high Strength growth and decent Agility growth, and his kit gives him both a good amount of magic damage, decently high mobility, and a physical damage shield from Resonant Pulse.
• Magic Knight: Void Spirit is a melee Universal hero with fairly high right-click damage and abilities that help him nuke down enemies with impunity while running circles around them.
• Magikarp Power: Void Spirit's nuke damage is respectable but takes a few levels to fully come into play, and despite having no attack steroids, being a Universal hero more than makes up for it with the damage he gains per level and from items that grant attributes. Early on he doesn't seem to do much, but in the late game he's almost impossible to elude and hits like a sack of bricks.
• The Man Behind the Man: Void Spirit is the master of the Hidden Temple that Templar Assassin serves. Spectre technically also serves him, but is more of a loose cannon. He also allowed the elementalist Thunderkeg to discover the spell that would bind the Storm Spirit to himself.
• Meaningful Name: "Inai" roughly means "to not exist" or "to not be present" in Japanese.
• Power of the Void: His power derives from the void outside of observable existence.
• Puny Earthlings: Inai holds a very low opinion of most mortals, dismissing them as inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, and considers it degrading to even set foot in the mortal world.
• See the Invisible: A level 15 talent allows an Aether Remnant to provide True Sight around it.
• Void Between the Worlds: Inai's origin is the void outside the universe, from which he observes everything unfold. His ability set reflects this by letting him figuratively be everywhere at once.
• Wizard Beard: He sports a long, sagely white beard reflecting his otherworldly knowledge and power.

Lyralei, the Windranger

"Ooh, now I get to shoot stuff!"

Voiced by: Jen Taylor

Lyralei was born on a stormy night. She had barely entered the world when fierce winds killed her family and tore her home apart. But in the destruction left behind, a miracle happened: the spirit of the wind itself noticed of the crying newborn amongst the debris and took pity on her. Gently, it lifted the infant Lyralei into the air and safely placed her at a doorstep in a nearby village. The spirit of the wind had taken Lyralei as its godchild, blessing the girl with its power and continuing to watch over her. As Lyralei grew up, she took to archery and quickly mastered it, her divine gift granting her supernatural prowess with a bow and arrow. Now, she guards the western forests, calling upon the power of the wind to take down enemies with a shower of arrows.

Windranger is a hero that uses powerful abilities in conjunction with her physical attack to take down enemies. She can snipe foes from afar by using Powershot, which charges up a powerful arrow which damages all enemies hit and destroying trees; the longer it is charged for, the stronger the damage. Anyone facing Windranger should watch where they stand when facing her Shackleshot: this ability stuns a target, which is barely a mini-stun normally, but is multiplied several times if they are standing near a tree or another enemy (the enemy is also stunned for the duration). Windrun, allows her to 'become the wind', granting her extra speed while making any normal attacks always miss for a time, which can save her from various normal attack carries. Her ultimate, Focus Fire, makes Windranger focus upon a certain target and greatly boosts her attack speed against that target at cost of lowered damage. This can help trigger on-hit item effects or destroy towers very quickly. With her versatile abilities, this is one ginger you shouldn't underestimate.

In Dota Underlords, Windranger is a tier 2 hero. Her ability, Powershot, charges up a powerful arrow which deals damage to all enemies in its path, dealing less damage for each target struck.

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• Adaptation Name Change: Her name was changed from Alleria (which was the name of a Warcraft character) to Lyralei in the transition from DotA to Dota 2, and her third skill was also renamed from Windrunner to simply Windrun.
• Adaptation Species Change: Her original incarnation was the elf Alleria Windrunner; in the port, she became a human instead.
• Attack Speed Buff: Focus Fire marks a target against whom Windranger gains a massive attack speed boost, at the cost of reduced damage per shot.
• Badass Adorable: Windranger is an energetic Plucky Girl and is reasonably attractive, making her one of the more conventionally cute heroes. She's also capable of ripping most enemies apart in seconds with a veritable shower of arrows.
• Blow You Away: Powershot fires an arrow empowered by the wind, Windrun surrounds her with a gust that slows down enemies and deflects attacks, and Gale Force pushes all enemies in the target area towards a direction.
• Born During a Storm: The storm in which she was born in was so destructive it leveled her village and killed her family, but also blessed her with the spirit of the wind.
• Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie
  Dying: Bury me beneath a tree.
• Cerebus Retcon: Her backstory initially implies that the storm that orphaned her was a freak accident, and the wind itself took pity on the newborn Lyralei in return. However, her dialogue with the Compass of the Rising Gale Arcana indicates that she looked into her past, and that the storm occurred because she was born, and the wind took her under its wing while destroying her village intentionally as punishment for atrocities committed by its people against worshippers of the wind among their population.
• Chain Lethality Enabler: A level 25 talent refreshes the cooldown of Focus Fire (which is 30 seconds when maxed) by 20 seconds if it manages to kill an enemy hero, so Windranger will only need to wait for a few seconds before proceeding to repeat Focus Fire to delete yet another enemy.
• Charged Attack: Powershot needs to be charged for up to 1 second before shooting. If the channel is cancelled prematurely, the shot will still occur but deal less damage.
• Cleavage Window: Due to a combination of low neckline and her Scarf of Asskicking.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: Focus Fire ramps her attack speed up to maximum on a single target while reducing the damage of each individual arrow. The buff lasts for 20 seconds and is only active on the target that she casts it against (which is more often than not a tower).
• Difficult, but Awesome: Her abilities are tricky to use, particularly Shackleshot, since they can result in absolutely nothing if not properly used (Powershot has a very thin radius so it's easy to miss, and Shackleshot is essentially a mini-stun if it doesn't latch). However, mastering them can produce extremely effective results, like sniping a fleeing enemy hero from outside of visual range and behind obstacles, or shackling two enemy heroes together for up to four seconds, all on top of making a clean getaway.
• Do Not Run with a Gun: The first aversion of this trope in the game is Focus Fire, which allows Windranger to move and attack the target at the same time.
• Forest Ranger: Windranger is a Master Archer who uses her enchanted bow to protect the forests. In particular, her Shackleshot makes her effective in wooded areas, as it can tie enemies to a nearby tree, inflicting a lengthy stun.
• Genki Girl: The closest Dota 2 could get for the trope. Windranger is fun-loving and full of energy. This is also what made her a Foil to fellow Forest Ranger, the dour and serious Drow Ranger.
• Happily Adopted: We don't see her foster family in-game, but Lyralei is quite fond of them.
• Homing Boulders: Shackleshot has an utterly ridiculous detection radius and cannot be disjointed (meaning that it will follow you if you teleport to another part of the map). It's not uncommon for the shackle to make a 90 degree turn on hitting a target to find a tree or other target.
• Jack of All Stats: Unlike most heroes, she can be (and is) played in every role, from hard carry to hard support, but isn't particularly good at any role. In pro play, of course, this is a huge disadvantage.
• Lightning Bruiser: Despite her low base Strength making her an early-game Squishy Wizard, Windranger actually has very respectable Strength gain, meaning that she becomes much less squishy as the game goes on. This is amplified by Windrun which allows her to ignore right-clicks from enemy heroes for a short period of time while further boosting her movement speed. Her main drawback compared to most carries is her low Agility growth, meaning that her attack speed is fairly poor outside of Focus Fire, which has a relatively lengthy 30 second cooldown at max level and only lets her focus a single enemy at a time.
• Master Archer: She is noted for being exceptionally skilled with a bow and arrow thanks to a blessing she received from a wind spirit. Her talents include her Shackleshot, which binds foes with ropes, Powershot, an arrow powerful enough to cut down trees, and Focus Fire, which lets her loose arrows at an extremely high rate (though at the cost of reduced damage per shot).
• Moonwalk Dance: Focus Fire allows Windranger to move and attack the target at the same time, no matter which direction she's moving in. This can sometimes cause her to move while facing at the completely opposite direction to attack an enemy.
• Navel Window: Her default outfit exposes the skin around her navel and a bit of her lower back.
• Noun Verber: Her previous title, Windrunner.
• One-Hit Polykill: The arrow fired by Powershot will pierce through and deal damage to everything it hits until it reaches maximum distance; that said, scoring an actual multi-kill with it is extremely rare.
• Plucky Girl: Windranger lost her real family because of the storm and sometimes thinks about them and her birthplace, but despite this she's still chipper and happy-go-lucky in spite of that instead of moping about it. This does make her old Dota self Hilarious in Hindsight, because she was using the normal Night Elf Archer sound set, and a result of being constantly clicked had her say "I'm not just some Plucky Girl you can string along." Her Arcana adds another layer of this, showing that she had some Stepford Smiler tendencies and ran away from the thoughts of her past for a while before slowing down and listening to the wind tell her about the circumstances behind her birth - namely, her parents weren't victims of a freak accident, but rather recipients of divine retribution, as were the entire village. Being Lyralei, she makes peace with the dark past of her people pretty quickly and remains as chipper as ever as she looks to the future.
• Progressively Prettier: The Compass of the Rising Gale Arcana gives her a significant facelift with a higher-definition character model and slimmer features.
• Rain of Arrows: Focus Fire boosts Windranger's attack speed to the cap of 600. Since Windranger already has an improved base attack time of 1.5, with Focus Fire she essentially attacks faster than any other hero (barring Alchemist) ever will; and in spite of the damage reduction of each individual attack she still has insane single-target DPS, able to whittle down both heroes and towers with ease. Focus Fire is the reason why attack modifiers like Maelstrom and Monkey King Bar are so good on her, or why Windranger is perhaps the only ranged hero who can viably build Skull Basher.
  Windranger: Is it raining arrows?
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The fun-loving and energetic red to Drow Ranger's blue.
• Redhead In Green: The Windranger has bright red hair and is dressed in green; this color scheme is kept across nearly all of her alternate cosmetics.
• The Rival:
  • To Drow Ranger when they're on opposing teams.
  • Also has a bit of this with Sniper, mainly regarding the virtues of guns versus bows. Of course, Sniper tends to mock all the archer heroes, but Windranger is the primary one to return the sentiment.
• Sole Survivor: Her birth village, Zaru'Kina, was destroyed entirely by the storm that whisked her away, with no other survivors.
• Scarf of Asskicking
• Super-Speed: Her Windrun allows her to sprint very fast temporarily while evading most basic attacks targeted at her. Its Aghanim's Scepter upgrade allows the skill to have 2 charges and removes Windranger's movespeed limit on in its duration.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: With enough items, including at least one initiation item like Blink Dagger or Force Staff, she can appear out of nowhere to use Shackleshot + Focus Fire. If the Shackleshot is successful, targets of this combo, including carries, tend to die during its duration without being able to do anything.
• Touched by Vorlons: She obtained her powers from the wind itself.
• Trick Arrow: Shackleshot fires an arrow which deals no damage but provides a long stun if it latches.
• Weak, but Skilled: In contrast to Drow Ranger, Windranger has weaker DPS via auto-attack. She makes it up with various skillful utilities she gives with her arrows.

Auroth, the Winter Wyvern

"Some breathe fire. I breathe ice."

Voiced by: Merle Dandridge (original), Tara Platt (Artifact)

The last of the Eldwurms and one of the few remaining dragon scholars, Auroth is the keeper of the Eldwurm Eddas. These long and coloful collections of poetry are considered to be among dragonkind's most triumphant achievements, but the recent past has seen fewer and fewer updates to the epics. So in pursuit of new inspiration for her writing, Auroth frequently sets out on research expeditions to collect reading material, tangling with numerous enemies along the way. While this has earned her a formidable reputation as a warrior, Auroth is still a poet at heart, and she ultimately aspires to just find the time to create new works as great as the stories that others tell of her own exploits.

Winter Wyvern is a hero with powerful teamfighting abilities, often played as a support but able to fill a variety of roles. Arctic Burn allows Auroth to take to the skies, allowing her to fly over terrain and granting increased night vision. Additionally, this ability greatly increases Winter Wyvern's attack range, and causes her attacks to slow enemies and burn away their health over time. Splinter Blast fires a ball of ice that does nothing to the primary target; however, upon impact, it shatters into shards that damage and slow nearby enemies. Cold Embrace allows Winter Wyvern to heal allies by encasing them in ice, preventing them from moving but also making them immune to physical damage. Finally, Winter Wyvern can turn the enemies' strength on themselves using her ultimate ability Winter's Curse, freezing an enemy to the spot while forcing its nearby allies to attack them uncontrollably with increased attack speed, making her a bookwurm not to be crossed.

In Artifact, Winter Wyvern is a black hero. She has the Active Ability Arctic Burn, which allows her to move to an empty combat position and grant her +4 Attack for one round. Winter's Curse, her signature card, is a spell which disarms an enemy unit and forces its allied neighbors to battle it.

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• Adventurer Archaeologist: She occasionally goes on research expeditions to obtain more reading material. Which is, frankly, an unusual occupation for a dragon.
• Badass Bookworm: She collects books and scrolls as part of her intellectual pursuits, and has needed to learn how to fight in order to obtain some of her collection's specimens. She also wants to become a warrior worthy of having prose written about herself.
• Berserk Button: Don't ask about her age. All she's going to say is that it's somewhere in the vicinity of Really 700 Years Old.
• Beware the Nice Ones: One of the more affable heroes, but it's still obviously not a good idea to get on her bad side given that she's a dragon. Her speech to Crystal Maiden in The New Neighbors sums it up quite well:
  Winter Wyvern: You know, Warden... most people would fall to their knees and praise a dragon for just. Eating. Their livestock. Because most dragons raze cities to the ground. Enslave humans. And eat whatever - whomever - they please. Now, I am not most dragons. I am an artist. But if my eating habits bother you, I could always be more... traditional.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Victims of Winter's Curse are frozen in place while their nearby allies are turned mad and fight against them.
• Breath Weapon: As with all dragons, she has an elemental breath, though it's of ice rather than the normal fire.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Winter Wyvern's spells aren't very effective against lone enemies: Arctic Burn's debuff can't be refreshed with additional attacks unless she has Aghanim's Scepter, Splinter Blast does absolutely nothing to the primary target, and Winter's Curse on a target with no allies nearby is little more than a stun that also makes the target invulnerable. However, against multiple enemies, Splinter Blast becomes a deadly area nuke, Arctic Burn can tear through the HP of multiple targets, and Winter's Curse becomes a potential instagib.
• Cool Old Lady: She's old even for a dragon, and is generally polite and genial. And yes, the pun is intentional.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • While it is relatively simple to use Cold Embrace to heal a protected allied carry so they won't have to run back to the fountain to regenerate, it becomes much harder to use in big fights. You can make beautiful saves with it, but also huge mistakes and ending up killing someone who may have had a way of escaping.
  • Winter's Curse, like Naga Siren's Song of the Siren, is a mass disable that also makes the targets invulnerable to damage (save for the poor schmuck being torn apart by his own allies). As such, good coordination and timing is essential for making the most of the ability, as it can heavily shift teamfights in favor of Auroth's team if used well, but can just as easily ruin them if used badly. If you land a bad Winter's Curse, expect to receive four reports from teammates as they blow all their ultimates which end up doing zero damage on the targets.
• Double-Edged Buff:
  • When Cold Embrace is active, the target is healed and immune to physical damage but cannot act. Used incorrectly, it can inadvertently save an enemy, kill a teammate who might have been able to escape, or render them useless in a fight.
  • Those affected by Winter's Curse (both primary and secondary targets) also become immune to all damage inflicted by Winter Wyvern's teammates. Without good coordination, it can easily cause your teammates to whiff their ultimates (and subsequently report you for game ruining).
• Dracolich: The Arctic Recluse cosmetic set gives Winter Wyvern a skeletal appearance, as a reference to her Dota version being a Frost Wyrm.
• Dragon Hoard: Like many traditional Western dragons Auroth often lies on a hoard, though in her case it's a hoard of books instead of wealth, which she stores in a different room, and refers to as "not-books".
• Gender Flip: In the original DotA, Auroth reused the model of the genderless Frost Wyrm and used masculine pronouns. The first hint that she would receive the trope treatment is that way before her reveal, she was confirmed to share the same VA as Legion Commander (who, interestingly, had also undergone this trope).
• Giant Flyer: She is one of the larger heroes in the game, but flaps around for her normal movement animation (unless she's at low health, in which case she's reduced to crawling on the ground) and can soar over obstacles when using Arctic Burn.
• Glowing Eyes: Her blue eyes glow, as you'd expect from an ice-elemental dragon.
• Good All Along: The New Neighbors comic involves Crystal Maiden investigating a case of missing livestock of the farmers in Icewrack. It turns out Auroth has nested in an abandoned keep nearby and was responsible for the disappearances, and Rylai isn't happy about it, but Auroth herself is quite polite, offering Rylai the priceless Frost Avalanche cape as payment for the keep and the missing livestock.
• Harmless Freezing: Auroth can freeze an ally by using Cold Embrace, which restores their health and blocks physical attacks, but also stuns them for a few seconds.
• Human Popsicle: Cold Embrace encases an allied hero in ice, healing them and protecting them from physical damage but prevents them from acting.
• An Ice Person: It's in her name, obviously. All of Winter Wyvern's abilities involve ice in some way, from firing ice shards to healing allies with a refreshing ice cocoon.
• Inadequate Inheritor: She knew Slyrak before the Dragon Knight killed him; as a result she's rather dismissive of Dragon Knight.
• Mage Marksman: Winter Wyvern's Aghanim's Scepter upgrade turns Arctic Burn into a toggle ability that lasts until toggled off, increases her movement speed while it's active, and allows the burn debuff to be refreshed by subsequent attacks. This allows her to potentially remain airborne indefinitely while outranging nearly everything in the game and slowing them to a crawl, burning away their health all the while, like an unholy combination of Dragon Knight's Elder Dragon Form with Sniper's range and all of her other spells on tap. While it does come with a hefty dose of Magikarp Power (Upgraded Arctic Burn drains mana while active so you need at least one big mana item to sustain it along with some stat items to make her basic attack damage not suck before going for the Scepter, though her spells are still very good early on), core Winter Wyverns are not unheard of thanks to the upgrade.
• No-Sell: A unit affected by Cold Embrace is immune to all physical damage applied to them while in that ice cocoon.
• Offing the Offspring: A writer has confirmed that she's Jakiro's mother, so if they're on opposite teams, this trope or the opposite can easily be the result.
  Winter Wyvern: (killing Jakiro) I should have crushed you in the nest.
• Our Wyverns Are Different: She's a two-legged dragon, but unlike the common depiction of wyverns, she is a very intelligent and polite character, and has an ice breath. Some heroes refer to her as a dragon, implying that wyverns are considered a type of dragon in the Dota 2 universe.
• Percent Damage Attack: Arctic Burn inflicts a debuff that deals damage equal to 6% of the target's current HP each second.
• The Phoenix: The Frostheart cosmetic set turns Winter Wyvern into a Frostheart Phoenix from Warhammer.
• Pun: She's a dragon who loves books. Wurm means dragon in Old High German. Ergo, she's a Bookwurm. In fact, she's even called that in descriptions for some of her skills.^note For those who are wondering, Dragon Knight's Dragon form is a Wyrm, Auroth is a Wyvern.
• The Red Mage: Outside of her damage output from Arctic Burn and Splinter Blast, Winter Wyvern can heal allies with Cold Embrace.
• Spell Blade: Activating Arctic Burn makes Winter Wyvern inflict a debuff that deals damage equal to 6% of the target's current HP each second with her right-click attacks.
• Squishy Wizard: While Winter Wyvern's Strength growth is actually fairly respectable, it's undermined by her poor Agility and slow movement speed, meaning she needs to position herself well to avoid being focused down and wreak havoc on the enemy team. Cold Embrace can fend off attacks if she's caught out, but it'll usually only delay the inevitable.
• Treasure Room: Auroth's lair has a room where she stores her riches.
• Warrior Poet: She is depicted as an 'artistic' dragon with interests in books.
• Worthless Yellow Rocks: She barely even cares about her gold, and parts with some just to pay for the keep and livestock. Fitting in the game, where she is often played as an underfarmed position 5 hard support.

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