The Best Dota 2 Builds to Try Out

Dota 2 is one of the most dynamic MOBA titles out there, with thousands of builds available for a large roster of heroes. With each new patch, the meta shifts dramatically. Some heroes get nerfed into oblivion with other heroes taking their place as the new “meta hero.” Among them, a few hero builds come out as truly broken.

When you think of “Broken Builds,” the infamous Fountain Hook always comes to mind. But that, too, required some form of teamwork and coordination. It was a high-risk, high-reward play that Na’Vi pulled off skillfully. In this guide, we’re not going for hero builds that require teamwork. Instead, we’ll showcase a few broken hero builds in Dota 2 that are capable of turning games all on their own.

Best Broken Dota 2 Builds That You Should Try

If you want to boost your MMR in Dota 2, here are the most broken builds that you should try right now:

The following builds are based on Dota 2 patch 7.37e. As new patches drop, some of these builds may become outdated.

Magic Lina Position 2

If the thought of going around the map one-shotting enemy heroes no matter how big their HP pool is sounds appealing, then Lina is the perfect hero for you to spam in the current Dota 2 meta. As a midlaner, there are no other heroes in the game right now with as much burst potential as the Fiery Slayer.

With this build, you’ll basically go to the middle lane and start farming your Boots of Travel. Go for Aghanim’s Scepter and Shard next, and follow up with an Ethereal Blade. That, along with proper levels in your ability, will allow you to deal around 4k damage when you use your spells and items in the correct order.

The combo is also pretty simple to pull off. Activate Flame Cloak with Lina and cast Ethereal Blade on an enemy hero. Use Laguna Blade, Light Strike Array, and Dragon Slave in that order, and watch their health pool melt down to nothing. This build doesn’t fall off in the late game, and with some extension items like Octarine Core or Wind Waker, Lina can start to play even more aggressively the longer the game drags on.

Kaya & Yasha is another item that you can pick up afterward to increase your mana efficiency and cast speed.

Methodical Phantom Assassin

The Dota 2 Patch 7.33, aka the Crownfall Update, brought massive changes to the game, including the introduction of Facets and Innate Abilities for all available heroes. The addition of these bonus abilities gave a few heroes some significant buffs, but the biggest beneficiary from this change, at least right now, might be Phantom Assassin.

Phantom Assassin was always a pretty strong carry hero in Dota 2, but she had to rely on a lot of RNG to secure kills. Her ultimate, Coup de Grace, gives her a chance to inflict critical hits, dealing massive damage to enemy units. However, with her Methodical Facet, you take luck out of the equation. With this Facet, Phantom Assassin’s crit procs every six attacks on the same target.

Her item builds are exactly the same as before. You’ll want to go for Power Treads, Battle Fury, Black King Bar, and maybe a Desolator if the enemy team doesn’t have too much control. The reason why the hero is broken right now is because of the Facet and how well it scales into the late game as you stack more attack speed on Phantom Assassin.

Stifling Dagger on a target counts as two attacks from Phantom Assassin.

Aghs Rad Bloodseeker

Bloodseeker always had something of a love-hate relationship with players. While it certainly had its moments in some patches, the hero never really had a lasting impact in the game. If you’re a fan of the hero, then now is the perfect time to pick him up again, since he is pretty much the strongest he has ever been in Dota 2 at the moment.

Bloodseeker plays as the Position 1 Hard Carry, and you’ll need only two items with this build to go online: Radiance and Aghanim’s Scepter. Of course, you can’t just rush these items. At the very least, you’ll want to pick up Boots of Speed, but once you get your hands on your Radiance, you can start to join teamfights to grab a few kills to make your farm go faster.

The moment you get Aghanim’s Scepter, you become the strongest hero on the map. Bloodseeker’s Aghanim’s Scepter grants him a new ability called Blood Mist that he can use to deal AOE damage to enemy heroes. He also takes damage from the spell. However, the upgrade also removes the healing cap from Sanguivore, allowing you to overheal and gain a bonus shield as you kill enemy units and heroes. This build makes Bloodseeker a tanky monstrosity that can overwhelm the enemy team within seconds.

Bloodseeker also gains bonus healing from Sanguivore when Blood Mist is active.

Alpha Wolves Lycan

Another hero build that became downright broken thanks to the Facets is Lycan’s Alpha Wolves build. Lycan’s Summon Wolves were always annoying for enemy supports to deal with. However, with the extra level the Wolves get from the Alpha Wolves Facet, you can straight up kill them anytime you find enemy supports on the map.

For this build to work, you don’t even require any items. As long as you get levels fast in the Offlane and can get your Alpha Wolves maxed out, you can start creating chaos on the map for enemy Support heroes. Picking up a Hand of Midas can be good for fast levels, but you can also skip it and go for a standard Helm of Dominator build if you want.

After maxing out Summon Wolves, you’ll want to head into the jungle with your hero to clear up jungle camps while you use your Wolves to scout the map, looking for kill opportunities. Once a set of Wolves times out, summon a fresh set and keep putting pressure on the map while you farm up your main items in the jungle.

Lycan’s Wolves gain invisibility once they reach level 3 and an extra ability at level 5.

Blink Shard Lich

While most of this build guide is focused around core heroes, there are also plenty of broken support builds that you can try out in your Dota 2 ranked games. Lich, for instance, is in a very strong place because of how his Aghanim’s Shard works in the game. He’s one of those heroes who can scale well in the late game and have an impact even against heavy-hitting carry heroes.

This Blink Shard Lich build doesn’t require a lot of farming and is simple enough to pull off in the mid-game. You’ll only need two items on Lich: Blink Dagger and Aghanim’s Shard. You’ll also want to start with the Frostbound Facet to have your Chain Frost linger on the enemy hero or your Ice Spire.

Once you have your items, you can eliminate an enemy hero off the map at the start of a teamfight. Simply blink on top of the enemy hero, use your Sinister Gaze to disable them, cast your Ice Spire right next to the enemy hero, and hit them with the Chain Frost. With some luck, the Chain Frost will bounce between the enemy hero and your Ice Spire and melt them before they have a chance to do anything.

A Glimmer Cape can be a good choice for this build, since you can use it as a secondary way to initiate when the Blink Dagger is on Cooldown.

The build variety in Dota 2 for different heroes is what makes this such a unique game. Feel free to try out any of the builds we mentioned above and let us know how it worked out for you in your ranked pubs. With some practice, you might even start maining some of the heroes here.