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Dota 2 is a highly complicated game with a vast array of purchasable items.
There are over 200 items in Dota 2, ranging from consumables and basic stat items to expensive late-game upgrades. Most heroes have a preset build to fulfill their roles in the game, optimized to use all of their six active inventory slots effectively.
But, as all games in Dota 2 vary wildly, it can sometimes get tricky to decide which item to purchase.
There are mainly five types of “needs” that can arise in Dota 2
This is a rather arbitrary classification. Items are simply a means to an end in Dota 2. The point here is to understand the type of goal each item can help achieve.
These five goals correspond to the essential aspects a player will have to deal with in every Dota 2 match. It is also worth remembering that these goals intermingle, and many items can serve several of these purposes at once.
Mobility
Movement is perhaps the most basic gameplay element in Dota 2. By this virtue, it helps amplify almost everything else. This includes farming because a carry can flash-farm faster if they can get from one neutral camp to another quicker.
The two primary goals of mobility, however, are relative to the enemy: chasing and kiting. Generally, anything that grants movement speed can be a mobility item, the foremost of them being various types of boots.
An exemplary Dota 2 item that grants mobility through more than just movement speed is Blink Dagger, especially with the Swift Blink upgrade.
Utility
Utility items are mostly there to fill in the gaps. Are the enemies too mobile? Purchase Rod of Atos. Do they have some major buff, and the team lacks innate dispels? Nullifier and Diffusal Blade can address that need.
These are likely the least obvious purchases, and their necessity varies from one Dota 2 match to the next.
The following are some examples, as well as their in-game utility.
- Aeon Disk — can help survive against a team with high burst damage potential, e.g., Enigma and Faceless Void.
- Black King Bar — will help against teams with lots of crowd control spells and items.
- Lotus Orb — a good item for a tank that dissuades enemies from using channeling-based disables like Dismember. Also, it doubles as a dispel.
- Euls’ Scepter — can be used as a means of damage avoidance, a set-up disable for enemies, or a self-dispel as required.
- Scythe of Vyse — an extremely potent hard-disable that cannot be dispelled.
- Linken’s Sphere — can block key disable spells like Legion Commander’s Duel. Also can potentially be used as a support item by manually casting it on cores who are about to be disabled.
Damage
There are three ways to increase damage output: increasing attack speed, increasing primary attribute, or simply adding raw damage. The critical point of consideration is that most late-game damage items provide additional effects.
These effects are called attack modifiers, and the correct modifier can make a massive difference in the right game. Desolator is a mid-game item that can help against high-armor targets. Monkey King Bar counters evasion (e.g., from Butterfly), as well as grants a raw damage increase on high-armor targets because of the high extra magic damage proc chance.
In Dota 2 games that require more raw damage, three are three worthwhile choices. For heroes with good attack speed and base damage, Daedalus is the right choice. For maximum raw damage potential, Divine Rapier can be the ultimate gamble.
Bloodthorn is an in-between item that provides valuable stats for anyone, a good utility through its point-targeted silence, as well as a damage boost through critical procs.
Survivability
The obvious way to increase survivability is by increasing Effective HP. This is a composite of HP and Armor.
Stacking only health items is far less useful than finding a good balance between armor and health, and the only other caveat is understanding armor’s diminishing returns at high values. Generally, 30-35 armor is considered a good level of damage mitigation in the current patch, and stacking armor above 40 is overkill.
For high-agility Dota 2 heroes that naturally gain good armor, getting health is more important. Good examples of these are anything that builds from a Reaver: Heart of Tarrasque, Overwhelming Blink, and Satanic.
The other means of survivability are surviving magic damage or dodging damage altogether. To this end, many utility items also grant survivability — e.g., Glimmer Cape, Guardian Greaves, and Pipe of Insight.
Engagement and disengagement
These are items that help one infiltrate the enemy formation to get their spells off. The most iconic initiation item in Dota 2 is indubitably Blink Dagger. A Force Staff can also grant a similar level of initiation potential.
Generally, initiation items are those that let players navigate through the teamfight without being impeded. Shadow Blade, for example, grants the potential for a surprise initiation.
All engagement items in Dota 2 also grant some form of mobility, and they can also be used to disengage more often than not.
Note: This article reflects the author's views.
