DOTA 2 PC

Krobelus the Death Prophet,

Powerful necromancy was required to bring our latest hero, Krobelus the Death Prophet, back from the grave.

How much you enjoy a game like Dota 2 is highly dependent on how good you are. If you suck and your team is yelling at you for "feeding" or getting killed, you're probably not going to have a super great time. Not sucking is often dependent on which hero you're playing. And finding a hero that suits your play style is key to success.


I've spent the last few days playing a bunch of heroes, and I've discovered I'm more inclined towards the intelligence heroes, the ones who live and die by their spells. More than that, though, I tend to favor heroes that use strange methods for killing enemies.

Nature's Prophet is a perfect example. As an intelligence hero, his damage comes primarily from his spells, right? Not exactly. Nature's prophet only has one damaging spell -- his ultimate ability -- and it's highly circumstantial. Where Nature's Prophet excels is in his ability to surprise an enemy and trap them. His primary spell creates a ring of trees on a target location, trapping whoever it sprouts around within (or keeping everything else out). He can turn those trees, or any other trees, into living treants with yet another ability. They don't put out much damage, but can be used to push down an enemy turret. But while these abilities impress, they don't really help with the whole surprising-an-enemy thing.

That's where his amazing teleportation skill comes in. Nature's Prophet can, at any time, teleport anywhere on the map that has been explored. That means if the enemy team is knocking down one of your structures, you can zap yourself in behind them, lay down a ring of trees, and begin bleeding them of health with your auto-attack. Of course, if no allies arrive before the ring vanishes, there's a solid chance you've just teleported into your own doom. Nature's Prophet has no real stopping power and is extremely reliant on the rest of his team to finish what he starts.

As is Shadow Shaman, one of my current favorite heroes. Like Nature's Prophet, Shadow Shaman is all about locking down the enemy. The difference, though, is that Shadow Shaman has way more killing power. His primary damaging ability fires a burst of damaging lightning at a target and up to eight nearby enemies. When the bear you've poked inevitably tries to attack, Shadow Shaman can keep the angered enemy from mangling your face with Hex, turning the fearsome foe into a chicken. Any hexed enemy is slowed and can't attack or use any abilities.

Follow the hex up with Shackles, locking an enemy in place for almost five seconds, and it'll be a good long while before you take any hits. But where does the killing power come in? Shadow Shaman's ultimate ability throws down eight angry Serpent Wards. Essentially mini-turrets that attack quickly and for decent damage, if you throw Mass Serpent Ward down directly on top of an enemy they'll be locked in. The general idea, therefore, is to surprise an enemy with Mass Serpent Ward, then Hex and Shackle them while the Wards do the dirty work.

I haven't exclusively enjoyed Intelligence heroes, however. Anti-Mage, an Agility hero, has caught my attention thanks to his fearsome mobility. Anti-Mage, if the name didn't give it away, is awesome at killing casters. His attacks passively burn mana from whoever they hit, dealing damage and ensuring they can't return any fire. He also comes with the ability to build a high resistance to magical damage. What makes him so sweet, though, is his ability to blink -- or teleport short distances -- really frequently.

I can't express enough how enjoyable it is to zip up cliff faces on the fly, or pop myself directly behind an enemy and begin tearing into their health (and mana) with my high-speed attacks. My issue with him, however, lies with how little he can seemingly contribute to a team-fight once a large-scale battle is in full swing. With only his ultimate dealing damage over a wide area, and it being highly dependent on being able to target a caster with very little mana left to deal decent damage, Anti-Mage seems out of place in team battles.

As a relative newbie to DotA perhaps I'm totally missing some of the coolest heroes. If you've got a favorite that I definitely need to try, let me know in the comments below.