Dota 2’s competitive meta can change at the drop of a hat. Professional players bring out fresh ideas and new schemes all the time, leading to an ever-evolving roster of heroes that seemingly change day-to-day.
In this Dota 2 hero tier list, heroes are roughly arranged in three tiers to signify their importance in the pro scene. About forty heroes are represented, though Dota 2’s balanced nature means that many more heroes are viable.
This isn’t an exhaustive list of the good heroes—they’re ranked by their popularity in the pro scene, where execution matters as much as the draft.
The 7.33 patch barely had time to mature, before a subsequent 7.33b patch dropped literally hours before the start of the Berlin Major. With teams still getting used to the map changes, early lineups were focused on strong neutral farmers and hypermobile heroes. Now that we are well into the playoffs of the Berlin Major, we’ve seen some heroes catapult to the top of the meta — including the particularly egregious snake lady.
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Dota 2 hero tier list | March 2023
Tier one
- Medusa
- Doom
- Underlord
- Storm Spirit
- Alchemist
- Keeper of the Light
- Slark
- Rubick
Medusa
It took a while for the 7.33b changes to catch on, but it didn’t take long for every team to universally regard this hero as first pick and ban material.
The 7.33 update reworked Medusa, giving her zero strength, instead giving her a free skill point in Mana Shield. As we quickly learn with every patch, whenever heroes get free skills — they inevitably become overpowered.
Medusa was probably already strong in 7.33, but the 7.33b patch pushed her to broken levels. Increased base intelligence and added numbers across three of her skills made her the number one hard carry, proving to be an unkillable monster that can also farm speedily and safely thanks to the increased number of neutral camps on the map.
And if you asked Tundra Esports’ Neta “33” Shapira, the hero might be even better in the offlane. He’s a perfect three out of three with Medusa in the Berlin Major at the time of writing, and has emphatically crushed every lane and bullied enemy carries with his Phylactery into Boots of Travel and Aghanim’s Scepter that gives the hero a stun.
Doom
Gone are the days when Doom sacrifices his early game for one of the strongest denial spells.
A versatile laner that sees play across all three lanes and positions one to four, he has one of the best ways to recover in net worth thanks to Devour. If Doom manages to get a strong creep like the Harpy Stormcrafter early on, he’s entirely capable of completely crushing enemy carries with additional damage-over-time from Scorched Earth.
Two Doom extremes are in vogue right now. Either go for the full-on gold battery build with Hand of Midas, Octarine Core, and Boots of Travel, zooming around the whole map and grabbing a lot of farm to become a late-game hyper carry.
The other is a more aura-oriented build, using Devour to stay relevant in the net worth charts, while buying pretty much every aura item your team needs — Crimson Guard, Guardian Greaves, and Pipe of Insight are the big three.
Most players settle somewhere in between the two, often opting for a Hand of Midas whenever they think they can get away with it due to the solid experience boost. Doom has strong talents, including reduced cooldown on his ultimate, and letting the skill apply break — opening up counters against passive-based heroes like Monkey King and Slark.
Either way, the hero stays relevant throughout the whole game because of his ultimate, Doom. It’s great against most heroes, and an Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade can make it AOE, potentially dooming entire teams to a loss.
Underlord
Underlord is the game’s premier aura bot, and a great offlaner in a meta where supports love to roam the map and abuse the Twin Gates to rotate between the top and bottom lanes.
He’s tanky and loves to build tank items. Vanguard is a great item that lets him stay in the offlane against almost every carry hero, and it eventually becomes a Crimson Guard or Pipe of Insight through disassembly. Atrophy Aura is also a strong defensive aura against physical damage, meaning he’s good in nearly every defensive situation.
Plus, Firestorm is a fantastic nuke. It deletes creep waves and neutrals, and can deal sizeable damage in teamfights. It pairs perfectly with Pit of Malice, allowing him to essentially block off enemies and form his own chokepoints.
Underlord’s other purpose is as a mobility enabler. His Fiend’s Gate is unique in that it doesn’t matter whether he’s in the thick of the fight or elsewhere farming on the map. He can join in, or put it down for his allies to come through in almost every teamfight or push for an objective.
Storm Spirit
Gone are the heydays of six-Null Talisman or Bloodstone Storm Spirit, but Storm Spirit has again become one of the more powerful midlaners in the meta.
With the side lanes now becoming the focus of attention because of their increased resources, it’s becoming more and more common for positions one and three to be more static and soak up farm in their lanes.
Enter Storm Spirit, a mobile midlaner that sets up kills all over the map. He’s great with some of the supports we’ve been seeing like Keeper of the Light, Crystal Maiden, Pugna, and Io — mana batteries that make him omnipresent on the map.
Like almost every other hero in the top tier, he’s capable of farming even when facing a bad matchup, though he remains strong against most melee mids. He deals a ton of damage with the Witch Blade build, and scales well into the late-game with an Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade that turns his Electric Vortex into a mini-Black Hole on a 14-second cooldown.
Alchemist
Alchemist was another beneficiary of a free skill point, now getting Greevil’s Greed as an innate passive ability.
He’s seen most of his play in positions one and two, and he can be a surprisingly effective early-game presence — since he no longer needs to invest points into Greevil’s Greed. Instead, he can max out his Acid Spray and Unstable Concoctions, which are both physical damage spells that synergize with each other, and can often pop unwitting support and low armor cores.
The addition of small and medium camps near the safelane’s edges has helped this hero get extra farm in between creep waves. The new Greevil’s Greed means he likely won’t reach the heights of his old peak farming speed, but more camps, better laning, and a bigger map means he’s now very consistent in getting to his first few items — making him a far more reliable carry.
Keeper of the Light
Keeper of the Light might be the best support in the game right now, with flexibility to core roles in mid and offlane.
His laning has improved now that he has Blinding Light as a base skill. It’s already a potent defensive ability with its built-in miss chance, but it can also be an offensive repositioning tool that drags heroes out of position.
Chakra Magic is also a powerful support tool. Giving mana and cooldown reduction in one skill enables even the most mana-starved of heroes, letting his core or himself spam skills and push enemies out of the lane.
Later into the game, he retains usefulness as a great depusher with his Illuminate spam. The Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade grants him Will-O-Wisp, a respectable AOE teamfight spell that demands attention.
Since he’s almost always getting a free Shard through the Tormentors, Recall can be a strong ability that lets teams spread around the map but still be ready to fight at a moment’s notice, enabling even the most immobile of cores.
Slark
Slark received very few changes in 7.33, but he’s already been on the up and up in past months. With nerfs to several of the strongest hard carries, Slark has proven himself as one of the better agility carries in this patch.
He makes up for being one of the weakest laners with near-infinite scaling thanks to Essence Shift. It makes him a good matchup against even tanky targets — like every offlaner who builds Crimson Guard.
He’s also a slippery hero that’s difficult to catch with Dark Pact and Pounce, making him difficult to kill when he’s having a good game.
The hero has even seen play as an off-meta position four, since his Shadow Dance passive lets him detect wards. It can be a bit swingy, but some pros have definitely played it to great effect, since he’s usually okay with trading harassment and has some soft lockdown in Pounce.
Rubick
Rubick has been the beneficiary of multiple small buffs over the past few patches, which have now tipped him over as one of the best teamfight supports in the game.
The Grand Magus is rapidly gaining popularity in multiple positions, including as a five and two. Both benefit from his recent increase in base damage this patch, making him much more consistent at harassing and right-clicking.
The hero generally ventures along two paths. Mid and soft support Rubicks tend to focus on casting spells, going for items like Aether Lens, Blink Daggers, and Aghanim’s Scepter to steal powerful abilities and turn the tides of any teamfight.
The other way is to focus on repositioning, buying a Force Staff and Aghanim’s Shard as quickly as possible. These two powerful displacements can completely break combos on the other side, being especially effective against heroes like Magnus and Disruptor.
Plus, no matter how bad Rubick is as a hero, Spell Steal is a game-changing ultimate that puts off certain heroes simply by existing. Having all these small benefits combine into a hero borders on absurdity as to his limitless potential — whether as a teamfight god, or powerful savior.
Tier two
- Beastmaster
- Crystal Maiden
- Chen
- Enchantress
- Phantom Lancer
- Monkey King
- Terrorblade
- Pangolier
- Disruptor
- Bloodseeker
- Ember Spirit
- Io
Tier two heroes are safe and stable picks that don’t usually warrant instant bans or picks. While not as oppressive as the heroes in tier one, they can be equally strong in a match that favors their skillset.
Beastmaster is still a strong pick, continuing the prevalence of the zoo meta. Helm of the Overlord remains the de facto first item for him, but players have experimented with playing him as an AOE damage-dealer — with Aghanim’s Scepter granting Drums of Slom and Wild Axes spam — to great effect, against illusion carries such as Naga Siren and Phantom Lancer.
Crystal Maiden has once again returned to the meta as a premier support. Her global Arcane Aura has become even better with the new restrictions on consumables, letting heroes stay on the map with more mana. She’s a powerful laner that possesses kill threat with almost every core, and Freezing Field has been a surprisingly reliable teamfight spell that demands attention from opponents.
Tier three
- Naga Siren
- Pugna
- Ursa
- Dark Seer
- Muerta
- Puck
- Void Spirit
- Bounty Hunter
- Skywrath Mage
- Sven
- Timbersaw
The heroes in tier three appear here and there, but are popular enough to be recognized as powerful additions to a team’s draft. They can be cheesy last picks that are impossible to deal with, mesh perfectly with a player or team’s play style, or serve as niche counters to some popular heroes.
Naga Siren is a valuable pick not just for her illusions, but Song of the Siren is a fantastic teamfight spell that requires a lot of discretion. It’s a strong setup that combos well with classic partners like Disruptor and Mirana, and it’s also a great way to disengage. She has one of the higher win rates in the Berlin Major, and will likely continue rising in the ranks as the meta develops.
Pugna’s stock is fast rising as a solid defensive support. With 7.33’s changes to Decrepify that removed its magic amplification for heal amplification, he’s more firmly established himself as a position four or five. What makes Life Drain unique is its ability to restore mana, a godsend for resource-hungry heroes like Storm Spirit and Medusa.
READ MORE: ESL One Berlin Major: Schedule, results, teams, streams
