Dota Dictionary - Roles

"Carry", "tank", "support" - these terms must be very familiar in the ears of veteran DOTA players. However, most people acquire their knowledge about these so-called 'DOTA roles' merely from experience. In result, most people still recognise such roles solely based on the heroes belonging to each class, instead of understanding what the roles actually represent. In fact, most DOTA players don't even know that the famous "hard-carry" and "ganker" are not official roles.

OFFICIAL ROLES

There are only 10 official roles that were published in the DOTA community. These include: carry, durable, support, lane support, jungler, pusher, nuker, initiator, disabler, and escape. Contrary to popular belief, no hero is fixed to any one role. Although it is true that every hero is best suited to some roles than the others, players could always play their hero following a different role - even any role for that matter - if the game situation allows for such scenario. To become better in switching roles, it is crucial to first learn and identify each existing roles;

Carry:

Carry heroes benefit the most from long-term farming. They excel during late-game, but are very weak and dependant during early-game. They specialise in killing heroes, although some carries still need to pick their opponents. In short, they are the bringers of victory.

Examples:

Durable:

Durable heroes are what people usually refer to as "tanks". Most of them have abundant health points or massive armour. However, some durables also specialise in damage mitigation. The main responsibility of a durable is to become the targeted shield for the team.

Examples:

Support:

As their name implies, the duty of support heroes is to help their teammates stay alive, and earn as much gold as possible while they are. They are the designated courier, wards, and other perishables purchaser - though the burden can be delegated. Instead of kills, they aim for assists.

Examples:

Lane support:

Lane support is a subrole of support hero that is especially suited to babysit carry heroes in lanes, either by prolonging their life (heal), or shortening the enemy's (harass). Most of them does not require much gold-farming, hence they could pass it to the carries.

Examples:

Jungler:

Junglers have the ability to start farming neutral creeps either from the beginning of the game or sometime still in the early-game. The best junglers could camp in the jungle and does not require travelling back to the fountain due to their healing, health regenerating, or life-stealing factors.

Examples:

Pusher:

Pushers are brilliant creep-leaders. Their strength lies in dragging the creep rendezvous to the enemy's tower, and destroying the tower as well, in the shortest amount of time. Fitting to this nature, most pushers are also talented rats; heroes capable of backdoor or pushing without notice.

Examples:

Nuker:

Heroes classified as nuker possess spells that deals a great amount of damage, be it single-targetted or area-of-effect. Most nukers are combo-equipped, with their 'nuke' as the trump card. Their instant and tremendous burst-damage output makes them a reliable game-changer.

Examples:

Initiator:

To put it simply, initiators are good at commencing team-fights. During pre-war moments, initiators have a key position to set the stage as favourable as possible. Even if an initiator does not start a war, most of them are also equipped with abilities that could turn the tide against the enemy.

Examples:

Disabler:

Disabling spells are skills that could alter the properties of an enemy hero to their own disadvantage, and disablers have a bunch of such spells. This makes them great crowd-controllers, as they could cease enemy's line of combo during wars and ganking attempts.

Examples:

Escape:

Escape heroes have at least one spell at their disposal that allows them to flee from ganks, wars, or chases. For this reason, escape heroes are suitable for going solo on a lane, since they have a lower risk of successfully getting ganked by the opposing team.

Examples:

UNOFFICIAL ROLES

There are some other unofficial terms used to indicate roles that specify the already existing roles. These are created by players to ease hero selection;

Hard carry:

Hard carry heroes are carries that is heavily item-reliant. Without items, even if they have reached level 25, the things that they could do to help their team is still very limited.

Examples:

Semi carry:

The so-called "mid heroes", semi carries are carry heroes that is level-reliant. They can still contribute without completing items. However, they are not as dominating during late-game.

Examples:

Ganker:

Gankers are experts in team-fights. However, instead of initiating a war with the opposing team, gankers are more specialised in kidnapping a single enemy.

Examples:

Roamer:

Roamers specialises in global map control. Roaming heroes doesn't require much farming, and they focus on progressing by assisting teammates in multiple lanes. They are the ward sowers.

Examples:

Off-lane:

When teammates decides to play a jungle hero or to use the tri-lane strategy, an off-laner is a hero who is capable of going solo on the unfavourable lane (Radiant: top, Dire: bottom).

Examples: