Study

Carries are the spectacle of every team. They rely on the perfect execution of last hitting creeps (letting them build powerful items) to become a force to be reckoned with. The longer the game lasts, the more dependent your team will become on your stacked inventory and strong abilities to win the game. It’s intimidating to have that much weight on your shoulders, but every role is challenging. These heroes will generally have abilities that allow them to survive early and ones that increase their damage late.

Juggernaut is a katana wielding warrior who has a varied and versatile ability set, making him interesting to play as a carry. His main tool for scaling into the late-game is the passive Blade Dance ability that gives him a chance to crit on attacks, while Blade Fury gives him immunity to enemy spells and Healing Ward makes him harder to kill.

Blade Fury is a spinning attack that deals constant damage to enemies around Juggernaut for a fixed period. It also makes him magic immune, a vital tool for not getting stunned, nuked and taken down. By using Blade Fury in conjunction with a Teleport Scroll, you can escape almost any situation so long as you have the HP to survive basic attacks.

Healing Ward is game breaking if it gets ignored by the enemy team. Creating a movable totem that regenerates you and your team’s HP in a big AoE, it’s effective all the way into the late game due to using percentage rather than fixed values.

His ultimate ability, Omnislash, is dependent on clever use to be powerful. Once activated, Juggernaut will quickly attack targets within range multiple times. If used on an enemy hero while they’re alone, this does extreme damage and generally guarantees a kill in the early- and mid-game. Its effectiveness decreases when there are more units to hit because of the random nature. Usefully, he’s completely immune during the animation.

A classic right-click-to-win hero, Lycan is a wolf-man of the highest calibre. Able to summon two big dogs to his side with a scaling set of abilities and turn into one himself, if you like watching enemies fall over he’s a good pick.

Howl is a globally effective buff for all allied heroes and other player-controlled units that grants them bonus attack damage for a up to thirty seconds. Obviously useful when engaging targets yourself, it’s also a good way to learn map awareness by keeping an eye out for allies engaging and activating it appropriately.

Lycan and his wolves also receive damage and attack speed buffs from his Feral Impulse aura. This is one of several abilities that makes Lycan a very effective jungler along with his ability to carry. With two wolves he is a miniature army of his own in the mid game.

Meanwhile, his ultimate Shapeshift ability transforms him into a super-fast, immune to slows, crit-fiend. Becoming one of the fastest things in the game and unable to be stopped, this is great for hunting down enemies or escaping in a pinch. Should be prepped before use due to a short cast time that leaves him vulnerable for a couple of seconds - though it cannot be interrupted.

You’ll notice all of these abilities are good at buffing one thing: basic attacks, hence his right-click nature. You don’t have to worry about complicated ability usage here, it’s all on your positioning, fight-taking, item building and gold gathering.

Similarly attack-focused, Sniper has more targeted abilities but the biggest boon of all - he’s a ranged hero. While Dota at the higher levels is generally balanced between melee and ranged characters due to relative power levels, when you’re just starting out being able to engage without putting yourself in danger is highly useful.

Sniper, as you may have realised from his name, is the very best at this. His Take Aim ability increases his already massive attack range over the course of the game, eventually allowing him to take on towers without reprisal. This is great for staying safe, but means positioning with him is an even more complex dance than usual.

Headshot is another passive, this time giving him a chance to deal a little extra damage and stop heroes dead in their tracks for a tiny window. It’s a great harassing tool. Combined with Shrapnel, his activated AoE that deals damage over an area and slows anyone trapped inside, Sniper can keep shooting at targets who step out of position for a long time.

His ultimate, Assassinate, is a single long-cast time shot that deals extreme damage at huge range to one target. Useful for picking off low-health heroes or starting a fight with a bang, you’ll love it for letting you kill without getting involved and your team will be happy you can clean up their messes. Try not to steal too many kills with it, mind.