Dota 2 All Items: A Miniguide

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DOTA 2 belongs to a genre that has been constituted as MOBA – Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. In these types of games, there is usually a map with two sides of conflict battling each other either in a team deathmatch or a perpetual siege of each other’s bases. Dota 2 stems from a classical RTS format of Warcraft 3 and bears some resemblance to heroic campaigns of that game. One of the strategic elements of those hero skirmishes is the inventory, which allows your character to carry items boosting their stats.

In today’s read, we’ll look at the range of all the items in Dota 2 obtainable in-game and take a closer look at several items which has been proven to be extra-useful.

How to obtain Dota 2 items?

Items are necessary to improve your survivability and lethality during a match. To say it as simply as one can, there are two main methods of getting all Dota 2 items during your play – you either buy them or loot them from killed monsters. The division doesn’t end there, however, and it needs a bit more explaining.

Let’s dissect buying items first. Killing enemy critters, heroes and hostile jungle monsters is rewarded with gold, which is also divided into reliable gold and unreliable gold, but let’s not focus on that now – most importantly, unreliable gold is spent first. You can buy items in three places – at your base’s fountain, at general merchants on outer lanes and at a secret merchant. Most of the items can be bought at the fountain, along with previewing recipes for higher-grade items. Some of those component items can be only bought at the secret shop within the map’s jungle. You can send a courier to get them for you.

When it comes to dropping items, there are certain items that can drop from neutral critters in between the lanes. There are also three items specifically dropped by Roshan, the game’s boss, and they are Aegis Of The Immortal, Cheese and Refresher Shard.

You can find a list of all Dota 2 items on Dota 2 Wiki, with a very precise description of their stats and recommendations for usage with certain heroes.

Why are they so crucial to the game?

Items are necessary to boost your hero’s performance. Basically, the raise your main three stats which any other hero’s parameter is based on, plus the higher tier they are, the more extra modifications and special actions they bring. You have items that focus on Strength, Agility or Intelligence or some which add a little to each. When you start realizing recipes a couple of minutes into the game, the items start having more sophisticated bonuses and bound skills that can synergize your hero’s abilities. For example, Blade Mail reflects damage dealt to the hero, so it goes great with Elder Titan’s Natural Order ability to debuff resistances and retribute more strongly. The approach depends very much on the hero’s strengths and weaknesses, plus you need to be aware of the item’s usefulness along with the leveling of both your hero and your enemies. It also helps you when you know how in Dota 2 all items in set recipe work together.

Most useful Dota 2 items

Here are several items considered to be universally useful. We’ll describe them in terms of their price, what stats do they boost, and what kind of character they go along best with.

Phase Boots

phase boots dota 2 item

Recipe: Boots of Speed + Chainmail + Claws of Attack
Price: 1450 (price of all ingredients)

These boots add + 4 armor, + 18 melee attack damage / + 12 ranged attack damage, +15% movement bonus, plus Phase Active skill – increased movement speed (+22% for melee characters and +10% for ranged characters) and allows you to pass through units for 3 seconds. It goes well with hit-and-run heroes like Monkey King, persistent chasers like Lifestealer or increases survivability and mobility of heroes like Doom.

Magic Wand

magic wand dota 2 item

Recipe: Magic Stick + 2 x Iron Branch
Price: 450 (150 + ingredients)

A wand that grants + 3 to strength, agility and intelligence and can perform an Energy Charge. It heals 15 health and 15 mana for every charge it contains. A charge is gained whenever a hero casts an ability within 1200 range. It’s a popular choice for support heroes like Crystal Maiden, or is used with Medusa for a small mana loop with her restoring abilities.

Blink Dagger

blink dagger dota 2 item

Recipe: —
Price: 2250

A magic dagger that allows you to teleport in a distance up to 1200. However, you cannot do it for 3 seconds after being attacked by a hero or Roshan. If you double-click it, you will teleport you by 960 towards your base fountain. It is great for disablers like Enigma to enable a quick move towards and away from an enemy group or helps fragile casters like Rubick.

Black King Bar

black king bar dota 2 item

Recipe: Ogre Axe + Mithril Hammer
Price: 4050 (1050 + ingredients)

A mighty staff that makes one’s hero gain +10 strength and + 24 attack damage. Additionally, it allows the bearer to cast Avatar, which makes them spell-immune for a moment. With each use, the time decreases by one second until it reaches 5 seconds and it stays that way. It’s very useful both for strength-based initiators to boost their damage and for casters like Pugna to protect their channeling with the spell immunity.

Aghanim’s Scepter

Aghanim's Scepter

Recipe: Point Booster + Staff Of Wizardry + Ogre Axe + Blade Of Alacrity
Price: 4200

A powerful magic item granting + 10 to all stats, +175 health and mana, and upgrades each heroes’ abilities in a unique way. It can also be turned into an enchantment for an additional 1800 – it then doesn’t boost stats but also is stuck to your hero without occupying the inventory slot. Just to name a few changes it brings to heroes – Brewmaster’s split elementals each gain a new ability with its help, Invoker has a decreased cooldown on all of his spells, turns Nightstalker’s Void ability into an AoE spell or adds another randomly-attacking turret to the Gyrocopter. It’s a great booster to whatever hero you’re playing, but surely you need to weigh on the bonus and use it wisely.

These items should show what is the logic behind equipping your hero. In Dota 2 all items combined provide limitless options.

Summary

In brief, we’ve explained the general rules of items, showed you how to view all items in Dota 2 and in what way you can obtain them during a match. Hopefully, it will be a good gateway for your further learning of the game and creating your first strategies.

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