DOTAFire :: DotA 2 Builds & Guides for Hero Strategy

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I was trying to get an article together to follow up on the "pick a support" guide - but the sheer number and variety of carry heroes has made this extremely difficult. Even trying to get a Top 5 list together is taxing!

I originally wanted to do some comparison groups together that reflect groups of heroes who usually outcarry others...this is kind of in my head, but very difficult to get down on paper.

Trying to break down the situation using stats is of limited help - quite often the stats growth of some hard carries isn't that great - so this is more about passive skills, or extremely potent active right click skills.

This is my "top 5" list, vaguely in reverse order of who I consider the hardest (i.e. best hero with maximum farm and levels):

5. is a stats monster, growing strong and able to shift points to where they are most needed. 3 escapes give great mobility, and the ability to make a strong illusion of an enemy hero also helps with scaling.

4. lacklustre stat growth is compensated by the ability to attack the whole enemy team at once, absorb massive amounts of damage with and a good ultimate. Seriously hard to bring down when well farmed.

3. - built in damage resistance and reflection is huge, making her incredibly difficult and painful to take down once she's got big. A cracking ultimate helps too.

2. - probably the best set of passives in the game, plus a great ultimate. Void can probably beat up most other carries in a straight fight, Timelock and Backtrack both scale brilliantly and cannot be countered with items, unlike many similar skills.

1. - somewhat controversial, but having twice as many item slots as any other hero ultimately increases his presence more than any other hero can match, given enough farm.

Do you agree with this list? Who would be your top 5? P.S - this doesn't necessarily mean these heroes could outcarry any others who are not mentioned, there are particular heroes who work well as counters...

Here's some of my honorable mentions:

- alchy's fantastic farming speed from Goblin's Greed is a major factor in his success as a carry, but this is all about - it covers his poor stat growth with improved HP, regen and mostly importantly, massively increased attack speed. This allows him to get maximum procs from a number of items, perma-bash and generally be difficult to deal with.

Lycanthrope - big scaling boosts from and stack up to produce a serious amount of extra damage, combined with maximum movement speed, making him extremely hard to chase down or evade.

- is an extremely nasty skill, scaling to provide extra lifesteal and damage as enemy total HP increases, plus he has some good skills and stats anyway.

- huhhh? But surely AM is one of the hardest carries!? Well, he is - he needs plenty of farm to be successful, and is very effective with it. The difference is the sheer speed with which he can farm it compared to other, similar heroes. His only damage skills that scales is .

- massive stats growth ends up powering massive DPS with annoying mini-stuns and long range. If you can't get to him, he can take you to pieces late game.

- very powerful aura and an ultimate that stacks agility, with lots of equipment she can be extremely difficult to stop.

- once he has enough equipment his illusions can be become incredibly difficult to fight, let alone the actual hero.

- a definite contender for the top 5, his ultimate, attack speed and potential for permabash make him an extremely strong carry.

As you can see, it's incredibly difficult to try and rank carries - and in a real match situation farming speed, team composition and other factors have a massive effect too. I'm sure many people will disagree with these suggestions or be like OMG HOW DID YOU MISS xxx HERO? Which is fair enough, but just goes to show how difficult it is to provide information on this rather than opinion..!

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(51) |

To me, the most hardest carries are:

MEEPO

This bugger have a anti-running skill of 5 seconds, if you throw all the nets at the same target, and his Geostrike will literally kill you even if his Earth Bind doesn't. Especially with Scepter, he can outnumber a team to 10 v 5. ANd his does considerable damage.

MORPHLING

I played a game where ol' keeps changing his stats. If we attacked him, he changed to STR, making him literally unkillable. If we ignore him, he switch to AGI and shoot all of us to death. So, there you have it. Even if we catch him in his AGI mode, his Replicate and Wavefront can assisst his escape.

NAGA SIREN

The hardest thing about her is probably her skills. Once she get or possibly before that, she can morph into a monster, tearing one person after another, the Feedback provided by can also drain mana off people, making Skeleton King unable to use his ultimate. Only problem is , when one does not know how to use it, can become deadweight.

CHAOS KNIGHT

His has probably the longest stun, maybe second to . Point is, within 3 seconds (normally thats how long a Lv4 Chaos Bolt is), he can tear you apart with his three skills. Quite easy to use and fairly pain especially with the right items.

SPECTRE

Global presence. If you continue using without using , some pub players might take this for granted and not fight back. So, imagine the joke if you behind someone and kill him because he didn't attack back. can be very, very painful in middle to late game, especially if you got her core items.

After saying so much, it still sums up to your playing style and team, in the end.

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(12) |

ABADDON343'S TOP 5 HARDEST CARRIES LIST: [DRUMROLL YOU JERKS]

Meepo :The most powerfull of any of the heroes in the game IMO is meepo. No hero can beat his 1v1(or in his case 5v1) potential. He is able to effectively split push at level 11, reach level 25 before anyone reaches the mid teens and is able to get a 6-slot inventory at the 25 min mark. He also has the highest burst damage in the game. The only downside is THIS HERO IS NOT NOOBFRIENDLY.

Lone Druid :The only hero in the game with a 12-slot invent capacity barring Arc warden(who can achieve 18 slot inventory with refresher).

Phantom Lancer :The cancer-lancer needs no introduction.

Alchemist :More gold = More items = More ownage. The free bloodstone/heart combo helps as well.

Faceless Void :The uncounterable evasion and gamebraking ulti speak for itself. Enjoy permabash.

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(25) |

5. Morph=PL
4. Alch
3. Tiny
2. Spectre
1. Void

Of course this list is irrelevant as carries don't carry alone and do different things differently. For example Spectre never does tons of damage to buildings the way a Morph, Alch, PL, or Tiny does, but she takes advantage of a farm differential with supports incredibly.

Alch is entirely reliant on his ultimate but can have six slots at the same time Void has one and a half.

In the current version the "best" carries are Naix, LD, Gyro, and Luna. Note that LD becomes basically useless around 70 minutes as supports start to get 3/4 slotted and the bear dies in seconds.

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(1) |

Don't forget to do timelines of the estimated health such as calculating in voids backtrack and overall dps. Maybe take a cookie cutter build of each and go from there. Look on dotabuff for the most used build of each carry.

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(118) |

Thanks for the feedback guys - some timelines and charts would be a nice way of representing this stuff...the bigger issue is how to provide accurate information to people. A lot of the hard carries don't have massively better stat growth than the others, so a lot of it is to do with equipment/passives - and people don't necessarily buy the same stuff. Also, how do you build in "non-damage" stats like strength for agility heroes? It does nothing for your damage...but without it you might not be alive to deliver damage...etc.

is still a very strong carry late thanks to the 25% scaling damage boost from her aura, but yeah, she didn't make my top 5. Agree can be very strong late on - I've seen one take down as AM just couldn't deal with the volume of illusions whacking him. As always though, this stuff is somewhat farm dependent.

Will keep looking for ways of doing an article, but may just have to leave the ideas a blog if I can't do it justice!

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(24) |

I really like your list. However, can top out eventually, what makes her unique is her domination at early stages, but there are lots of harder carries than her. Someone I think you should add is . He can deal INSANE amounts of damage with his ulti, and just gets better and better and better. Also, don't forget . He can add A LOT of damage with , which just gets more and more as the game goes on, as the opposing team's intelligence gets less and less.

R-Conqueror

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(1) |

Well different carries come online and drop off at different times. Maybe a timeline of stat gain if they all get the same amount of exp in an average game. And then a dps chart calculating in ultimates and skills and their cooldowns and whatnot. It just might be hard to calculate skills that aren't sure damage such as Lvl? death but I'm sure you could figure it out. The list seems right maybe Luna but she still has a presence earlier.

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