So, back in the late 00's, one of the biggest games that all of my friends got into was Defense of the Ancients, a mod made from Warcraft III maps and featuring a little map where five players fight five other players in a race to destroy each other's "Ancient", all the while leveling up a hero you take while each side constantly spawns minions on a timer. There are also item-buying and tower-destroying and gold-gathering involved. It'll take some time to explain what the game is all about, but essentially, Defense of the Ancients, or DOTA, quickly birthed the genre of Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas, or MOBA's. Actually, click that link to the Wikipedia which will explain the general tropes of what you can find in MOBA's like DOTA and other games inspired by it -- with League of Legends (LOL) being the other long-running, prominent one.While it originally ran for a couple of years with good old Warcraft III graphics and resources, the developers ended up partnering up with gaming company Valve to release a sequel/remake that could charitably be called its own IP, so to speak, allowing them to modify things without being restricted by the relatively limited decade-old engine of Warcraft III, and, y'know, to not be as copyright-bound in case Blizzard decided to get sue-happy or whatever. There was a brief amount of lore about how
Personally... I've never been really that great in DOTA. I'm a passable player when it's just my friends against randoms in the internet, but I'm so casual at the game and I spend more time looking at the graphics and reading the lore and the cool effects than actually trying to GIT GOOD NOOB. So, uh... well, let's talk about DOTA 2's heroes, yeah? It's something that I've been trying to talk about for a while, but the lack of good images of renders on the internet and wikis really ended up being kind of a barrier for me doing this. So last night I decided to say fuck it and just screenshot all of the heroes in DOTA 2 one by one and upload them to imgur. So yeah.
This is going to be a three-parter series. The playable heroes in DOTA 2 are divided by their primary attribute -- Strength, Agility and Intelligence, a neat little leftover mechanic from its Warcraft III roots. Originally, all the heroes are divided into two factions -- the Radiant and the Dire, with the Radiant being the nice folk and the Dire being comprised of demons, undead and monsters. In game mechanic terms... it doesn't really matter since you can pick whichever hero you want anyway in DOTA 2, so after a while the Dire/Radiant separation was abandoned entirely.
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Abaddon, the Lord of Avernus
So let's just jump in! Each hero in DOTA 2, as an artifact from the game's Warcraft III origins, technically has a 'name' and a 'class'. Like, in Warcraft III, you'd have Arthas the Paladin or Thrall the Far Seer. So Abaddon here is the Lord of Avernus... although during the transition from DOTA to DOTA 2, not all the characters retain these title-and-name setup, and the game tends to refer to them with a simple one-word name to keep things simple. Like Abaddon here is just "Abaddon" for the most part in the game.And... design wise, Abaddon was originally represented with the Death Knight model back in the Warcraft III engine, and for the most part, they kept the general silhouette of most of the heroes the same. Sure, Abaddon swaps out his skeletal steed for a pretty cool one made entirely out of ghostly matter, and instead of being a pale undead man, Abaddon's now got one of those Final Fantasy Black Mage style robe that only shows off his eyes and no other feature. He still has that "evil undead rider" vibe going on, but he's distinct enough to look pretty damn cool. (Also, in DOTA 2, you can radically change the appearance of your heroes with cosmetics, but we're mostly discussing the basic looks).
Abaddon's skill set is pretty neat, being a particularly fun defensive character. His Aphotic Shield basically absorbs damage dealt to it before exploding and damaging those around him, while his ultimate ability, "Borrowed Time", will cause all damage dealt to him to heal him instead, which is pretty awesome. All the DOTA 2 heroes have their own lore, which 90% of its players basically ignore, but we'll be dissecting more than the actual character abilities here. Because we're that sort of blog. Abaddon is apparently the heir to the lofty House Avernus, who worships the Font of Avernus, a primal magic fountain of black mist that give them a connection to the mystical powers of the land. Abaddon... absorbed way too much of the mists of Avernus, and instead of protecting it, ended up being able to control it so much that it apparently gave it powers over life and death itself. It's honestly not the most creative backstory, but an interesting one nonetheless!
Razzil Darkbrew, the Alchemist
We're going to move a bit faster now that we've gone through a lot of the introductions. Alchemist now, which are actually two dudes in one! Based on the neutral Goblin Alchemist hero from Warcraft III, again, the concept of a diminutive, smart tinkerer riding on top of his ogre partner is still maintained, but visually we've changed things around a lot, particularly replacing most references to goblins and dwarves with DOTA 2's own weird little pink-haired small-person race. Razzil's apparently a prodigy in chemistry (sorry, "Chymistry"), and was imprisoned for a failed experiment in doing alchemy's greatest feat: turning things into gold. Razzil ends up breaking out from jail with his ogre buddy, driven into a berserker rage with alchemical steroids, and they basically become the Pinky and the Brain. I do really like the simple concept of an ogre serving as both bodyguard and personal vehicle to a tiny, smart and unstable mad scientist, and I really do love how Razzil's backstory does incorporate two of Alchemist's in-game abilities: the Greevil's Greed (essentially turns the corpses of your enemies into extra gold) and his ultimate ability, Berserker Rage, which, well, causes the ogre to basically go all Bane on your enemies.Mogul Khan, the Axe
Mogul Khan, or just Axe, is easily one of DOTA 2's most famous characters and easily my favourite for the simple fact that, well, DOTA 2 has all new voice acting for all of its characters, and Jon St. John's amazing delivery of Axe being a ham can be heard here. Axe's third-person speech and his genuine obsession with his titular axe is pretty hilarious -- hell, he even has responses to buying in-game items that are weapons that are not axes. Honestly, he's not super-duper interesting as a design, just a big muscly red-skinned man that's an orc but also not exactly an orc, because orcs are also nonexistent in DOTA 2 world, apparently. (His Warcraft III model reuses the red-skinned Grom Hellscream model)
Axe's lore is basically that he's apparently a very, very fierce warrior in the Army of the Red Mist who rose up the ranks due to his brutality... but by the time Axe ended up claiming the mantle of 'Axe', his bloody, treacherous rise through the ranks of the Red Mist Army has reduced the number of his subordinates to zero, which is... honestly, kind of darkly hilarious.
Rigwarl, the Bristleback
Bristleback is another hero that DOTA 2 gave a very distinctive drawl and made him a pretty awesome ham. Originally a Quillboar (a pig-man) in Warcraft III, DOTA 2 made Bristleback a lot cooler by turning him into a porcupine creature lugging around a flail with a rock, and also gave him an eyepatch. Certainly a far more threatening porcupine-man monster than Sonic the Hedgehog for sure! I really do like just how scrappy he looks, particularly how the clumps of spikes on his arms, head and back look. Bristleback's a very simple character to play, and, as his name indicates, he deals extra damage to any enemy that attacks him from his back, because, y'know, huge mount of porcupine spines. Pretty neat, if a little gimmicky. Also a left-over from his original concept as a pig-man, one of Bristleback's abilities involves him launching his "Viscous Nasal Goo" at the enemy... and I'm surprised that the name and flavour of the ability remained intact all this while.Also, where other characters have epic backstories on how they are the shapers of the world or have some dead-set vengeance against the killer of their race or are the physical embodiment of entropy... Bristleback's whole lore just talks about how he got into a huge bar fight with Ymir the Tusk (who we'll cover below). It was a huge bar fight, and apparently it was what drove Bristleback to train hard enough to, uh, trade blows with literal gods.
Chaos Knight
Originally called "Nessaj" in the original DOTA but just retaining his class name in the transition to DOTA 2, Chaos Knight is a pretty cool design. A fully armoured knight riding an equally fully armoured horse, all of them burning and brimming with hellfire... and it's kinda sorta generic for this setting, but Chaos Knight's lore really ends up making him a lot cooler than he already is. He's the "veteran of countless battles on a thousand worlds", and arrived from another plane where the laws of the universe have found sentient expression, and Chaos Knight was sent out from this universe to find "the Light" and extinguish it in every universe he passes through, because he's the physical manifestation of chaos itself, and this reflects in his abilities. His ultimate ability, "Phantasm", apparently draws in alternate-universe versions of the Chaos Knight to temporarily help him beat up his foes, while all of his other abilities like "Reality Rift", "Chaos Bolt" and "Chaos Strike" (the latter is represented by a d20 on the icon!) all show his reality warping -- but completely chaotic -- ability. Sure, you can be sure that Chaos Bolt will deal damage, but it is kind of random. Reality Rift will close the gap between Chaos Knight and his prey, but where you land in-between the two of you, you don't know. Pretty cool stuff. Apparently, Chaos Knight is meant to be a part of a set of four heroes representing the four fundamental forces of the universe, with Chaos Knight representing the weak nuclear force, because that's the force behind the destructive radioactive decay.
Also, his hell horse is called "Armageddon". He might be the representation of the forces of chaos, but he can very damn well give his horse a tryhard edgy name. Honestly, Chaos Knight's just pretty dang cool all around.
Rattletrap, the Clockwerk
If you think that title is awkward, you're absolutely right! Rattletrap was originally the "Clockwerk Goblin" in DOTA, but, of course, goblins don't exist. He's part of the Keenfolk, the same blanket race that the Sniper, Tinker, Timbersaw and other used-to-be-goblins-and-gnomes-and-dwarves are lumped together into. But "Clockwerk Keenfolk" doesn't have the same ring to it, so... yeah.Rattletrap isn't just a robot, though he looks like it. Apparently he used to be a peaceful clock-maker, but his village was devastated by war, and taking his father's dying words of "your new trade is battle" to heart, Rattletrap ended up creating into the greatest tool of warfare ever, because he believes that failure is caused by inferior tools or something along the lines. So he's now basically Iron Man, creating a powerful Clockwerk armor that unleashes cog traps, missiles and hookshots towards the enemy so he can bludgeon them to death with his mace. I really do like Clockwerk's design. I believe some of his alternate skins really look cool, but the basic Clockwerk design with the massive trapjaw and the relatively simple look of someone who's cobbled together chunks of armour to make a fantasy robot is pretty neat!
Lucifer, the Doom
Lucifer the Doom (originally 'Doom Bringer') is the first of the many, many demon-men in DOTA 2, which, in turn, is inspired by the large amount of demon models in Warcraft III. Doom's pertty cool, though, even if his proportions does admittedly look a bit stocky. He's a regular old Balrog style demon, being huge, armoured, with a skull-face, two gigantic horns and a big-ass flaming sword. Doom's backstory is essentially a religion-free adaptation of his biblical namesake, with an additional bit of detail of how six is a major part of Doom's backstory, with his branded wings and whatnot. Unfortunately, the not-heaven people tossed Doom to earth, so he quite literally brings his own hell wherever he goes.
In addition to being a big scary demon man, my favourite part about Doom? His ability "Devour", where he just straight-up eats a non-hero enemy to temporarily acquire their abilities and skills. Can you imagine this dude, with his scowling skull-face, opening his mouth wide to eat an entire centaur? Anyway, Doom is cool. He's the more fiery demon lord. There are many in DOTA 2.
Kaolin, the Earth Spirit
Originally in DOTA, the three Spirits were based on the Pandaren units in Warcraft III. Even moreso than the goblins and orcs, the DOTA team were not willing to risk the wrath of copyright for the Blizzard-unique Pandaren race, so with the Spirits, they made more drastic changes. And for the most part, they really worked! Kaolin the Earth Spirit still look distinctively Chinese-inspired, but looks pretty damn cool. A stone-man with jade veins running through his body, dressed in vaguely monk robes, and carrying that always-spinning dual-tipped baton? Kaolin's a pretty cool design, and probably my favourite out of the three former Pandarens. Really love that face, too... apparently, original concept arts basically would've made the Earth Spirit essentially a reskinned version of the Storm Spirit, which I am so glad they didn't work with.Earth Spirit's lore is pretty neat, where he was originally a sacred jade statue buried at the head of an army of stone soldiers based on the real-life Terracotta Army. But while it was buried, the spirit of the earth itself went inside Kaolin's body, forming the unique creature known as Kaolin... but in battle, in addition to controlling the earth, apparently Kaolin's also able to summon his fellow stone-soldier brothers entombed beneath the earth to help beat up the enemy. A pretty cool hero!
Elder Titan, the Worldsmith
Again, another far departure from its original sprite in Warcraft III, where Elder Titan was a Tauren Chieftain. You can still see the homage to its original sprite from the massive horns and the weird giant catapult totem-weapon he carries on his back, but Elder Titan's far, far cooler than just being a bull-man. The Elder Titan's lore talks about how it's closely involved with the creators of the DOTA 2 world, where the Titans are apparently those who, if not created the universe, then witnessed it. And while they might not be responsible for the universe's creation, they hammered, heated and crafted to create smaller worlds. The Elder Titan was... someone who "shattered something that could never be repaired, only thrown aside", and the Elder Titan ended up falling into his own broken world, so he is the dude to blame about the sorry, war-torn state of the DOTA 2 world, and why it "resembles an isle of castaways". Only the Elder Titan remembers, and he's all sad as he blames himself, trying to repair both the world and his soul.
A pretty badass story, honestly, a creator god trapped in a flawed creation, trying to fix it... and he looks like a weird buff dude with bull hooves and goat horns, carrying a... what is that weapon, even? A giant letter C? He's honestly a pretty unconventional design for the creator of worlds, and I really do like that he's not, like, a generic human-like god. Nope, he's a weird mutant bull-man with a yellow-and-blue face. I like that. I think he summons giant copies of himself in battle or something, I don't think I've actually ever played as the Elder Titan.
N'aix, the Lifestealer
Another one that's obviously originally a Pretty neat stuff, but N'aix was once human before he's a gibbering zombie creature. He's apparently once a thief, but was cursed with longevity so that the life-sentence for theft would be as punishing as possible. And... well N'aix had lived so long he forgot his original identity, and at one point, ended up sharing a cell with a nameless wizard who ended up casting his own life-force into N'aix's broken body. Unfortunately, not all prison breakouts are as successful as Razzil the Alchemist and his ogre buddy, because the infusion of life-force causes N'aix's full transformation into the Lifestealer, two minds chaotically linked together, driven by the desire to feed and steal lives. Mostly, I really like N'aix for his in-game ability of "Infest", where he just straight up burrows into another hero or creep's body, essentially biding his time like a Xenomorph, before bursting out to surprise and ambush enemy heroes. It's actually a pretty fun little ability, and I'm also a huge fan of N'aix's little story of an immortal creature whose mind has degenerated into madness merged with a cunning mind.
Magnus, the Magnoceros
Originally, in DOTA, Magnus was a "Magnataur", a giant mammoth-centaur man. In DOTA 2, he is a Magnoceros, which means he's a giant centaur rhinoceros man. It's honestly a pretty cheeky little species change that I find pretty fun, and honestly, the character model we got for good old Magnus is pretty neat and charming, just being a huge, muscly giant rhino-centaur man. Apparently, Magnus spent most of his past as basically the objective of a classic RPG quest -- as the mightiest Magnoceros, his horn is desirable for the master-smiths of the world, and everyone goes up to hunt him and his kin down... but Magnus is an actual badass, so it's these adventurers and bounty hunters that get killed by the giant rhino man. And Magnus is so proud that despite warnings from the clan matriarch, he refused to allow his tribe to seek refuge from their home of Mt. Joerlak. A combination of the mountain itself erupting and an army of opportunistic hunters wiped out a gigantic portion of Magnus's clan. Enough survived to escape to the north... but Magnus remained in these lands, hunting those who are responsible for the eruption of Mt. Joerlak. Which, uh... unless one of the elemental spirits had anything to do with, good luck on that hunting, Magnus.Magnus is a pretty standard strength hero, power wise. He unleashes shockwave, he buffs himself and his allies, he's got charging attacks... pretty standard stuff you expect from a giant rhino-man. And then he unleashes his ultimate ability, "Reverse Polarity", and apparently this giant rhino-centaur-man can just change the property of matter and suck enemies in front of him. Okay then!
Balanar, the Night Stalker
Balanar, the Night Stalker, is a hero whose main mechanic actually hinges on the time of day -- again, another artifact from the original Warcraft III system where the time of day is mostly just flavour to show how much of the map you can see, and affects some wild creatures that sleep. DOTA decides to tie it in to Balanar's mechanics. Originally represented by the very vampiric Dreadlord model, Balanar's new DOTA 2 model is still pretty vampiric, and he gets two, to showcase just how monstrous he becomes at night.See, in the day, Balanar's still a pretty cool demon. Muscly body, blue skin, bat wings, hooves, and a creepy horned head with a mouth that seemed to split three ways... but he's actually kind of a wimp in the day. His skills do less damage, and his passive skill is straight-up disabled. But at night, oooh, he straight-up mutates, adopting a more gaunt pose, and his mouth opens wide in three ways and having unconventional mouth is just such a simple yet horrifying way to make a creature look unnatural. They could've gone a lot overboard, making him truly fucked-up and demonic, but I really do like the restraint. He changes noticeably, sure, but his main features are preserved in both his day and night form, which I thought is pretty cool. Of course, Balanar's ultimate ability is to straight up cause an eclipse that plunges the world in darkness, allowing him to benefit from his powered-up form for longer stretches of time.
Also cool is his lore, noting that "of the Night Stalker, there is no history, only stories woven into the lore of every race and culture". The Night Stalker is a being who survived from a time when there was only darkness, and all of Balanar's kin perished during the 'dawn of the First Day'... except for Balanar. Which is honestly a pretty damn cool little story. Balanar isn't just a random demon, he is the primal fear and the Boogeyman that stalks the night and the nightmares. Pretty damn cool, honestly.
Phoenix
You got to have a phoenix hero, and DOTA's Phoenix (no name given in DOTA 2, originally "Icarus" in the DOTA game) is... it's a pretty cool looking bird, and what made it particularly different is the Phoenix's lack of a face. It's just a beak, a pair of horns and no eyes, and just flame. A simple feature that makes the Phoenix pretty damn cool and looks different from other phoenixes from other games... although you can certainly buy skins to give the Phoenix a more generic eyeballed bird-head.Phoenix's lore is pretty neat, actually. The Phoenix isn't just a god-bird, but a straight-up physical manifestation of a star. Like, we get a pretty sci-fi backstory about how stars go through a cycle of going into a supernova and 'giving birth' to new worlds and whatnot. Well, one of these Stars end up finding out the 'nexus of variety' that is the world of Dota, and this infant star ends up taking up the form of a little firebird... and, y'know, sometimes it goes supernova itself, turning itself into a spherical ball before exploding and being born anew.
Crixalis, the Sand King
You know I'm going to love the bugs, and Sand King was perhaps the first DOTA hero I ever experimented with because he's a cool scorpion monster! DOTA 2 upgraded the simple 'giant scorpion' look of Warcraft III's Arachnatid model into something with a face... and honestly, I actually do like it. The main scorpion body structure is preserved, and the long, elongated Star Wars alien face actually kind of suits the scorpion body pretty well, particularly with the decision to make him look more like a scorpion-centaur instead of just straight-up a giant scorpion. I also find the pretty weird, multi-barbed wide tail to be pretty cool. There are actually a lot of cosmetic options for the Sand King that gives him different looking head, claws and tail, which I definitely appreciate.
Sand King's lore is pretty cool, too. Again, unlike the Phoenix, he's not just a boring giant scorpion, but rather the avatar of the sentient sands of the Scintillant Waste. I do really like the little blurb that they give him, noting that the sands of the desert sometimes need a form to communicate with silly mortals and their limited scope, so they fill a carapace of magic armour based on the scorpions of the desert with some of their sand, creating this avatar called Crixalis the Sand King. Pretty cool stuff!
Slardar, the Slithereen Guard
Slardar's a pretty cool critter! He's part of the Slithereen race (the Naga in Warcraft III), and originally in DOTA 2, he used to have an anglerfish head. Which I thought was kinda cool, but man, his new model is a lot cooler, and while I'm a geek that likes anglerfishes, I must admit that Slardar's just straight up badass fish-man with a massive angular jaw really ends up making him look badass. Slardar takes the original concept of sea-living serpent-people form Warcraft III and ends up honestly taking its own spin on it, making the 'fish' part a lot more apparent. Really love those colours and those massive fins, and, of course, Slardar is part of a fun little Lovecraftian lore where he's part of the Deep Ones, a race that lives in deep, sunken cities in the abyss of the ocean. Apparently he has risen from the ocean both to scout for those who would wish harm to the Slithereen, and those who manage to steal from his treasury. Pretty cool design overall.Leviathan, the Tidehunter
Slardar is far from the only aquatic monster in DOTA 2, and we've got another strength hero here, Leviathan the Tidehunter. Who's originally represented with the Sea Giant model in Warcraft III, but ends up in a far more drastic departure. He's a more abstract giant, hulking fish-man, and I'm definitely a huge fan of him! I really love the fact that he runs around with a giant anchor on one hand and the corpse of a shark in the other, and Tidehunter has some of the more hilarious cosmetic items. Take a look! His 'blink dagger' has a moray eel attached to it! He can carry a naval mine, a hammerhead shark, or squiddles the squid friend! He can have an executioner's hood made out of a stingray, or an octopus hat, or the decapitated shark head, or a ship steering wheel! Even without accessorizing, though, I do appreciate Tidehunter as a creature that's vaguely nautical, but isn't just "oh, it's an octopus monster" or "oh, it's a shark-man". Tidehunter, in addition to being a badass fish-man beating people up with an anchor, is also apparently a cultist of his abyssal god,
Rizzrack, the Timbersaw
Rizzrack the Timbersaw was based on the Goblin Shredder unit from Warcraft III, which, in the Warcraft universe, was just a powered armour mass-produced by the goblins to cut down trees. Free to make its own lore, though, DOTA 2 characterized Rizzrack as not there just to commercially cause deforestation and gather lumber... but Rizzrack is actually traumatized. He is a tiny purple keenfolk man out for revenge, because he can hear the screams in his mind, he has spent countless, obsessive days creating his suit of armour, and his lore blurb is something you have to read as Rizzrack basically has PTSD and continuously flashes back to the horrors of Augury Bay, how his people and an entire city was massacred... by pollen, by branches, by walking trees. And Rizzrack is afraid, so very very afraid, and he is traumatized by the trees... but he has to face them, right? He has to face these evil, evil monstrous trees, and because of that he built his Sawsuit, a suit that ends up being more powerful the more trees are destroyed. Honestly, poor Rizzrack's just freaking obsessed with trees. His buzzsaws do more damage the more trees around him that are cut down. He can launch his right claw like a hookshot as long as there is a tree he can latch on to. His passive ability is defensive, showing just how scared and how much he wants this suit of armour to protect him. His amazingly neurotic voice lines alternate from swearing vengeance to the damn trees, or being afraid of them.
Of course, the whole comedy is that the poor dude is afraid of trees. Who would be afraid of trees? It's not like-
Rooftrellen, the Treant Protector
AUUUGH A WALKING TREE!Yeah, Rooftrellen, the Treant Protector, is a huge, lumbering tree-man based on Warcraft's night elf Ancients, which in turn is based on Tolkien's Ents. And while Rooftrellen is characterized as the gentlest tree man (that can still smash a human into a pulp), his lore did also note that Rooftrellen hails from the Vale of Augury, so if not him, his people are probably the ones responsible for traumatizing poor, poor Rizzrack. (Rizzrack has amazing lines of dialogue if he finds himself in the same team as Rooftrellen). Interestingly, instead of merely just being a giant, ancient tree, the Treant Protector race are apparently created from a mysterious fountain of "eldritch energy" that mutated and causes the things there to grow strangely. Sure, the Treant Protectors are still protectors of nature, as most giant Tolkien-inspired tree-people are. Rooftrellen himself is apparently an ambassador, sent out by the other treants to inspect the wider world and learn about the humans and all the other races out there. In-game, he's both a tank and a healer, and has a pretty interesting ability to become invisible... as long as he's within distance to a tree, which is such a hilarious ability to give a towering, lumbering tree-man.
Treant Protector's basic design is pretty cool, a giant, hulking humanoid figure with tusks and limbs made of wood, but he's pretty... basic, y'know? I much prefer his costumes, where the plant theme is taken a bit further. Fungal Treant, Evil Treant, Winter Treant, this one with the majestic forest god bearded face, this 'dark forest grove' mysterious one, this one with a cooler jaw-face even crystal-growth Treant all look so, so much better than the frankly boring vanilla model.
Tiny, the Stone Giant
Oh man, I love Tiny. See, ironic names are hilarious. Name a tall person 'Tiny' or 'Shorty', y'know? And Tiny, the stone giant... is actually an adorable little baby stone man lugging around a gigantic tree, which is hilarious. He throws rocks, throws allies and enemies (no, really) and manipulates the earth, and grabs trees from forests to throw at his enemies. But his ultimate ability isn't something that's activated, but a permanent stat-boost as Tiny itself grows...
...and grows, and grows. He goes from still being smaller from the gigantic dead tree he's carrying, into a larger stone giant with a beard of grass and moss and a massive giant boulder-arm now holding the tree like a sword, and eventually into his final form, where he truly does look like an ancient walking mountain from the myths, with giant craggy outcroppings and a full beard and a face that looks straight-up old.
And, sure, it's kind of weird that a stone-person would straight-up grow, in the time it takes for other mortal races to not age at all, but it's not like Tiny himself knows what he is, and why he is a tiny little chunk of stone that keeps growing into something larger. Even his little lore blurb is confused what he is. Is he a splinter broken from a larger golem? A shard from a gargoyle sculptor? A fragment of some bizarre plot device or other? Tiny's whole deal is that he's wandering around searching answers for what he even is, all the while growing instead of being weathered like regular stone, and bonking fools in the head with a giant tree and Tossing them around.
Vrogros, the Abyssal Underlord
Okay, this due is pretty cool, although that might partially because I really do find the general look of Warcraft Pit Lords as demons to be pretty cool. Originally "Azgalor, the Pit Lord" in DOTA, referencing a specific character in Warcraft lore, he's named Vrogros the Abyssal Underlord in DOTA 2, and I really do love what they did with him! He still is a massive dinosaur-centaur man, but he now has a pretty cool skull-headed thing with that... set of horns that loop around into being a ring with a glowing green ball of energy inside. His massive blade or weird handle-less axe or whatever it is looks pretty cool, and I really do love the fact that his front legs are actually like, gorilla knuckles instead of just being generic reptilian legs. I dunno, I just really do like how monstrous the Underlord looks, okay?
His lore's kind of simple, if we're being honest, with Vrogros the Underlord being the, well, lord of the subterranean, hellish city of Aziyog located deep underground... and he now ventures out to unleash his brand of flame and malice into the world to expand his territory and conquer all he sees, basically acting as both a one-man scout and herald to the Underworld's incoming invasion of the surface world.
And here are the rest of the Strength heroes, which I really don't have that much to say on. It's not that I dislike any of these, but they really are just... kinda mundane. Which is needed, I suppose, in a game with this many heroes, since without the mundane heroes, characters like Doom, Slardar and Underlord wouldn't feel as exotic. Let's go through them quickly!
Karroch, the Beastmaster
Originally just straight-up Rexxar in DOTA (yes, that Rexxar from Warcraft), the Beastmaster is now just a human that happens to dress exactly like Rexxar. Shirtless, muscle-bound, twin axes, leather pants, and the ability to summon animals. He's got a cool mask, at least, to make himself a bit less boring, but considering the lengths that the DOTA 2 team goes to make some of the orc-transplants less boring, Beastmaster honestly looks pretty damn mundane. Even his lore is kinda... eh? He's got a tragic backstory, beaten down by life, and ends up sympathizing and actually talking with beasts and animals, particularly a beast that is tormented by the rich king that Karroch worked for. His animal buddy died, and driven into anger by it, Karroch started an animal revolution and killed all of the humans in the king's castle. He's... honestly just kinda there.Mangix, the Brewmaster
Originally the Pandaren Brewmaster, DOTA 2's Brewmaster is now... based on a red panda as opposed to the regular panda, which is such a cheeky way to adapt this character design. The Brewmaster is a wandering, happy red panda man carrying a keg of ale, just like his Warcraft counterpart, just being happy and everything... but willing to breathe fire (because alcohol is flammable, you see) or engage in some drunken kung fu fighting if need be. Apparently, the lore is that the Brewmaster comes from the ancient Order of the Oyo, who practices communing with the spirit realm in grand festivals of alcoholic drinks, to achieve enlightenment through drink. Sounds like a great religion to join, actually. He's also apparently got a divine parent, which led to his ultimate ability, Primal Spirit, and when he is drunk, he will split into three specialized warriors.Bradwarden, the Centaur Warrunner
Originally the Centaur Warchief in DOTA, I'm not sure why they changed it to the far less impressive "Warrunner". And centaurs are cool and all, but in a game with characters like Magnus, Underlord, Nyx Assassin,Outworld Devoirer and other cooler centaur permutations, just a straight-up horse centaur with horns and a generic barbaric theme just feels so mundane. The Centaur Warrunner is actually neat to play in-game, if slightly simple, but visual design-wise he's kind of just... there. Bradwarden's lore just describes the centaurs of Druud, which are a culture of where combat is art and expression of self and whatnot, and after being the strongest of his clan, he set out to find challenges... which, you notice, is kinda sorta the same backstory Axe had, but with a lot less black comedy and gusto.Sir Davion, the Dragon Knight
Dragon Knight's actually a pretty dang cool concept. On the surface, he's just a knight. A really cool one with a black-and-red armour that's neither simple nor boring, but just kind of a knight. Based on his name, though, if you assumed he transforms into a dragon... yeah, you're absolutely right. While Dragon Knight's skills are dragon-themed, like breathing fire or unleashing a stunning move based on a dragon's tail, his ultimate ability straight-up allows him to transform, Hulk-style, into a massive Elder Dragon. Apparently, Sir Davion was a dragon-slayer who ended up meeting his longtime quarry, the dragon Slyrak... only to find it ancient, frail and tattered. Davion left the dragon out of the lack of honour of murdering a dying creature, Slyrak ended up begging for Davion to grant him the honor of being allowed to die in combat. For Davion's mercy, Slyrak's blood bathed Davion and allowed centuries of draconic wisdom to be bound to the knight. Pretty cool stuff! I remembered playing around with Davion. He's perhaps not the best hero (or, more likely, I'm not the best Dota player) but man I had a lot of fun running around as a dragon.Raigor Stonehoof, the Earthshaker
The Earthshaker is... he's a bull-man that runs around on his haunches with a massive giant totem on his back! And he slams that thing down and causes earthquakes and fissures and stuff. Pretty cool hero and a very fun one to play, but not one that really appeals to me design-wise. He's just kinda boring, y'know? He's apparently sort of like Kaolin the Earth Spirit, being once earth itself, but has transformed into a fleshy cow-man out of sheer willpower, now able to bleed, breathe and die, seeing himself as the son of the earth. Okay, then? It's honestly kinda weird that an avatar or a child of the earth would turn himself into a fleshy cow-man. But okay. Huskar, the Sacred Warrior
Originally a troll dude in Dota, Huskar... still is basically a Warcraft troll, just without tusks, and wearing a bony helmet to compensate. He also doesn't have the same scoliosis problem and actually stand up perfectly straight, unlike most Warcraft trolls. It's honestly a pretty cool design, and that's a pretty cool looking blade. Apparently, Huskar the Sacred Warrior is the product of a ritual cast by Dazzle (who we'll meet later on), and his spirit was drawn from the afterlife and placed into a body that's "no longer mortal", and every drop spilled by Huskar essentially gave him power... and Huskar hated this immortality, because he was denied his place among the gods because of this. His tribe didn't care, because all they wanted was just a warrior... so Huskar fled his tribe, going around in search of a worthy cause. In-game, Huskar basically has a passive ability that strengthens him the more health he loses, and has an ability where he basically deals part of his own health as damage -- thereby allowing himself to deal even more damage because he's wounded.Io, the Guardian Wisp
The only DOTA 2 hero without actual voice lines, Io is... a wisp! And she's still basically the same Wisp design from Warcraft, sans face. She's a lot more badass, though, with her lore noting that Io is "everywhere, and in all things", and is apparently known as "the Great Unmaker", something that's pretty damn badass for a cute ball of light. Io apparently occupies all planes at once (explaining her in-game teleporting abilities), and the little ball of wisp we see is a mere fraction of the real Io. The true Io is apparently one of the Fundamentals of the universe, the sum of all attractive and repulsive forces, with Io representing the strong nuclear force, itself actually cleverly represented with Io's in-game ability to tether herself to her allies to buff and connect them together. Pretty cool hero concept, honestly, all things considered.Kunkka, the Admiral
Another one that would've been completely forgettable as "just another human" if not for the amazing voicework, Admiral Kunkka (named after one of the game designers) is actually a pretty fun, hammy admiral man. He was apparently once an admiral of the Claddish Navy, defending his homelands from the demons of the Cataract. The clash of man and demons ended with Kunkka's allies, the 'suicide mages of Cladd' (no, really) summoning ancestral spirits to protect the fleet... but this particular mixture of energies ended up awakening the ancient abyssal being Maelrawn, which you would remember as the Cthulhu-like being that Tidehunter serves. Whatever happened next is unknown, but Maelrawn caused the combined energies of man, demon and magic to essentially fuse together, leaving Kunkka alone. Whether he's a man, a zombie, or something else, no one can truly say -- he's certainly still boisterous, but his entire armada is now bound to a Ghost Ship that Kunkka himself can summon to crash down onto the enemies of the admiral. Kunkka's Ghost Ship ability actually buffs any allies it hits with the Admiral's Rum, which I thought is a hilarious detail. A pretty fun little ability Kunkka can do is "X Marks the Spot", which I thought is worth mentioning because it just marks an enemy hero and then returns it to "X", where presumably Kunkka and his allies will have abilities set off to murder the unfortunate soul the admiral has marked for death.Tresdin, the Legion Commander
Originally a dude represented by the Lord Garithros model in Warcraft III, DOTA 2 swapped genders for the Legion Commander, which is neat! Tresdin is still just kind of a human warrior, though, just sort of there as an armoured lady warrior with flags sticking out of her back. Her backstory is pretty neat and long, but it's essentially detailing how Tresdin's fellow soldiers of the Bronze Legion were wiped out by monsters of the Abyssal Horde... so it's the freaking Abyssal Underlord that caused Tresdin so much grief... but Tresdin actually won the duel between her and the Underlord, even at the cost of her city. I mostly really remember her for the pretty fun ultimate ability of "Duel", where upon activation Tresdin and another hero will be forced to fight each other and deal damage without items and abilities, and any who wins the duel (even the enemy!) will gain permanent damage for the rest of the game. Apparently, she's also a massive racist against anything out there. Keenfolk, demons, fish-people, trees and bears. Tresdin does not trust anyone.
Banehallow, the Lycan
Oh, Banehallow's pretty cool. From that pair of Wolverine-esque gauntlets to that Liev Schreiber Sabretooth face, to the pretty neat nobleman outfit, to the sheer awesomeness of the name "Banehallow", this dude's just pretty damn cool, yeah? And that's before taking into consideration that he's a goddamn werewolf, summoning wolf buddies into battle, and shapeshifting into a wolf when he gets really angry. I really do like Lycan a lot. His backstory's pretty cool, too. Born to the noble house of Ambry, Banehallow's family failed in a coup to dethrone the local decadent king, causing their House to pay the price itself. Little Banehallow, then a child, was captured and cursed into a wolf because the evil king wanted him to tear out his own father's throat... but Banehallow retained enough of his sanity to turn upon his assailants, managing to escape and vowing revenge and justice for all he's lost.Mostly, he just looks badass.
Mars, the God of War
I'm not familiar with this one, and after importing all of the original heroes from DOTA, we began to get a bunch of new heroes, which is awesome! Mars over here is a pretty cool design, based on the Roman god of the same name, and very much inspired by Roman gladiators and general artwork depictions of Roman gods with that marble-like skin. Kinda looks like Ganondorf, if you ask me, too, with that red beard. Apparently he is just straight-up Mars, God of War... which honestly kinda fit into the lore, since we've had his daddy Zeus as a hero in Dota since forever. Mars apparently got bored of general war. Like, all the suffering and conquest are neat, but he just ended up having a bit of existential crisis... so clearly, what he needed to do was to wage an EVEN BIGGER WAR, and claim his birthright, so he goes off to essentially burn down the old age and build a new empire to glorify himself. He is a massive ham. I like him already. MAAAARS ULTOR! TO WARRR! He's got a large amount of mocking responses if he fights or allies with any of the other deity-like beings in the game, and it's honestly hilarious.
Purist Thunderwrath, the Omniknight
Holy shit it's Obi-Wan Kenobi as a Paladin. No, really, look at that face and beard. That's just straight-up Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Omniknight is a pretty badass name, though, and I do really like the look of his armour, even if it's kind of what you expect from a holy warrior. That's also a cool hammer, too! He's essentially your typical tanky healer that also can summon angels that basically grants the Omniknight temporary immunity from damage. His backstory is kinda neat. Apparently, he was once a yes-man for the order of the Omniscience, but he began questioning his orders... and challenged the priests and the church, who proceeded to basically try and throw Purist into a 'sacrificial pit. Turns out, though, that Purist was the faithful paladin all this time, and that the priests he took orders from was kind of corrupt (what with the 'sacrificial pit' and all), and the Omniscience ended up causing Purist to glow, choosing Purist as his champion. And, apparently, the Omniscience was the core of the planet itself, a godlike being that formed a massive mineral shell around itself that is the planet. And while the Omniscience's claim to be the creator of the world might be a lie (we know that Elder Titan is the creator of the world, after all, but maybe the Omniscience is involved in some way), seeing it gave Purist renewed strength and the Omniknight became the most powerful warrior of his order.Pudge, the Butcher
Originally represented by the Abomiantion model and a reference to the Butcher from Diablo... Pudge actually didn't change all that much when he got ported over to DOTA 2. Sure, he's missing a lot of the specifics of the model. He's only got two arms which are now encased in gauntlets. There are less stitches, no hole in his stomach, and he's got pants and a dirty apron. But Pudge still definitely looks like the pretty creepy Abomiantion model. Apparently, Pudge originates from the Fields of Endless Carnage, a cursed realm where nothing can decay or decompose, and nothing can return to the earth from which it sprang... and only the Butcher walks through these lands, slicing and cutting his way through the corpses. Pudge's one of the cooler heroes in the game, too, with so much of his gameplay revolving on him using his Meat Hook to launch and draw a hero towards him, and then unleashing his rot-aura and dismembering strikes upon them.Barathrum, the Spirit Breaker
Barathrum the Spirit Breaker is an okay design, but another one where the Warcraft inspiration still clearly shines through. Spirit Breaker is still basically the original Spirit Walker model, just with extra detail and crouching like a football player, which informs its iconic Charge of Darkness ability. Wherever you are on the field, the Spirit Breaker can fix its sight upon you and just charge across the battlefield and slam onto you. The Spirit Breaker is apparently another extra-planar being, an elemental creature who chose to plane-shift into the world of matter to take part in battles that affect his home... and apparently crafted this particular form, combining man and bovine to best show off his strength and power, and apparently that nose-ring is explicitly noted to be a 'reminder that he serves a hidden master'. It's interesting that he's just basically going around our world and viewing it as a 'shadow' of his real world. He's a neat concept, but design-wise he's honestly kinda bland. Heck, even after his badass backstory, none of his lines really inform us of said interesting backstory.Sven, the Rogue Knight
Sven's pretty cool, kinda looking like a human but I'm pretty sure he's not. He's got blue skin that looks... I'm not even sure how to describe it. But he looks pretty cool, with that metallic, horned mask and that big-ass sword. The Rogue Knight is apparently a bastard son of a Vigil Knight and a wild-race woman, and both of Sven's parents were executed by their respective people for violating their laws. Sven ended up growing disillusioned by concepts of honour and societal order. He ended up training with the Vigil Knights without revealing his true identity... and on the day of his supposed swearing, he shattered the holy relics of the order, taking the Outcast Blade and burning the Codex, and striding out -- he is a knight, but a Rogue Knight who only answers to his own code of honour. Pretty cool backstory, and apparently even though he is viewed as an abomination by the Vigil Knights, he's able to use their sacred artifacts and access a godlike strength that also turns his skin red for some reason.
Ymir, the Tusk
Originally a Tuskarr, a Walrus race in Dota, Ymir ended up being called just 'Tusk' in Dota 2, and... and for whatever reason, despite still supposedly being a walrus-man, his tusks now curve outwards like an orc. That's... that's not how walrus tusks work, but okay. Ymir's design is pretty neat, sorta inspired by Vikings, and he looks pretty badass even if I do think that he does lose the goofy charm of his walrus origins. I'm not sure what he's meant to be, because that snout kinda looks more feline than anything. His lore... just details a brawl with the Bristleback. Mostly, Tusk is hilarious for his abilities, which includes his Walrus PUNCH (complete with a 60's Batman TV show style effect showing up), as well as actually just rolling up into a snowball to just spin around and slam onto a target. He's funny. I like him.Undying, the Almighty Dirge
Okay, Undying, the Dirge, is pretty awesome. On the surface, he's a generic fantasy zombie in admittedly pretty cool horned helmet, but compare him to the other spooky undead boys like N'aix or Pudge and he looks sickly and pathetic. Sure, in-game, this doesn't amount to much since he's just as deadly as any other hero, summoning tombstones and turning into giant flesh golems and whatnot. But I do really like his lore. Undying doesn't even know what he once was, other than dim memories of war and battle, and a sacrifice of his comrades into the Pit of the Dead God... where he heard the "Dirge", the funeral song... and nothing else. Time left them, thought left them, sanity left them... and the army that would became the being known as the Undying ended up fighting for each other, only knowing hunger and the song of the Dirge ringing in their ears... and the final, insane sacrifice thought that he would find peace at the arms of the Dead God. Only... well, small problem. The Dead God wanted Undying to spread the great Dirge, the song of the dead, to the world, trudging through death unending so that the Dirge might never end. Pretty tragic yet kinda awesome story, honestly.Ostarion, the Wraith King (a.k.a. the Skeleton King)
It's kinda weird, though, that the hero known as "Undying" doesn't actually have the ability to consistently and constantly return from the dead. The one with that honour is Ostarion, the Wraith King. He was originally the Leoric, the Skeleton King, a homage to the Diablo boss of the same name. And he actually remained the Skeleton King in Dota 2, even receiving an upgraded model with a cool bone-crown... before an in-game event where the Skeleton King decided to obtain a less fragile body caused him to be turned into the Wraith King, all ghostly and shit while having his old armour. Pretty cool stuff to justify what I assume is fear of legal repercussions from Blizzard... even though they didn't change Pudge the Butcher at all. I do like that they didn't just swap the names and models for no reason, though, and actually had an ingame event to justify it.
The lore is that Ostarion was an obsessive king that built a kingdom from the remains of his enemies, wanting to preserve his legacy forever and ever and ever, and ended up preserving himself first as a skeleton, and later on as a wraith. At that point, he basically became an undying king, at the cost of his subjects, who toiled to gather the wraith energy to give him the energy he needed for his new form. And, well, his ultimate ability is Reincarnate, which means that as long as the ability isn't on its pretty dang long cooldown, the Wraith King will resurrect, ready to unleash his kingly might on his foes once more.
And... phew, that sure is a ride, huh? Next up is the agility heroes. Hopefully I don't ramble on as much as I do in this one!
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