The strongest Dota 2 heroes for each role at The International 12

The International 12 (TI12) is entering its final week of the tournament and some heroes have proven that they are head and shoulders above the rest.

In this article, we will list the strongest hero in each role, so whatever lane you like to go to, we have something for you to pick up.

The five strongest Dota 2 heroes, TI12 edition

When talking about the strongest Dota 2 heroes at TI12, we checked the win rates of these heroes and determined which ones were the most successful.

Of course, it's important to include how often a hero is picked. If Crystal Maiden is drafted once and wins, she may have a 100% win rate but it's a small sample size. Also, it's Crystal Maiden, she sucks and will receive -5 movement speed next patch.

Any hero with less than five picks won't be included in this list. You need at least five TI12 appearances to qualify here.

With that out of the way, let's begin!

Spectre

Don't mess with the carry queen. (Credits: Valve)

If you're a carry player then Spectre needs to be a part of your hero pool. She has won 13 out of her 16 appearances so far.

That's a lot higher than more popular heroes such as Chaos Knight ( 65%) and Muerta (56%).

Spectre isn't the strongest laner in Dota 2 but she is generally hard to zone out and shut down. She won't be getting kills in the laning stage but she won't feed either.

Once she reaches level six, Shadow Step gives the hero the ability to join any fight around the map on a very short cooldown.

While Spectre can't contribute a whole lot early on, the ability to join her team anywhere greatly increases her impact and forces the opposing lineup to stick together more.

If you're looking to pick up the hero, make sure to max out Spectral Dagger first to deal more damage in fights, followed by Dispersion, and then Desolate.

The pros almost always pick up the +5 stat talent, 80 bonus damage on Dagger, 350 health at 20, and +5% Dispersion at 25.

Item builds are a bit tricky, as the hero is versatile enough to make almost anything work, so take what works best for you.

Storm Spirit

Wait, this guy got picked? (Credit: Valve)

In a meta where the popular mid-lane picks are tanky bruisers like Kunkka, Primal Beast, and Earth Spirit, it's surprising to see Storm Spirit standing tall, with six victories in his six appearances.

Against fragile spell casters, there is no better hunter than Storm Spirit. The hero dishes out an enormous amount of burst damage while being nearly impossible to pin down.

Storm Spirit scales very well into the late-game, with players focusing on picking up his Aghanim Scepter upgrade,  turning Electric Vortex into a mini Black Hole.

There are two paths players can focus on regarding the hero's skill build. Players can opt to max out Static Remnant first, or Overload. Both builds have worked so far.

In terms of items, all players buy a Black King Bar, an Aghanim's Scepter, Sange and Kaya, and a Hex.

The only thing pros disagree on is the first major item to build, whether it should be a Witch Blade or an Orchid, we prefer Witch Blade for the slow and extra damage.

Night Stalker

Still one of the scariest heroes in Dota 2.

If you're looking for a tanky frontline to charge into the enemy's lineup and provide a ton of vision, then Night Stalker is your (third) best option.

While most games at TI12 tend to go pretty late, some teams like to flip the script and end early. In such situations, Night Stalker is a perfect offlaner.

The hero comes with flying vision and fantastic burst damage. He also has no trouble sticking on top of enemies to silence them.

While he has only been picked five times, he won four of those games, and all of them in 35 minutes or earlier.

When picking Night Stalker, focus on hunting enemies down and setting the tempo for the game.

Since it takes time to find and bring down enemies, most pros opt for a low-cost and effective item build. Phase Boots are bought first, followed by Hand of Midas to farm, then Blink Dagger and BKB.

Pugna

Blink and he will take away your buildings. And your dog. (Credit: Valve)

While Pugna is played as both a position four and five support, he tends to show up more often as part of the offlane duo.

Most supports tend to struggle with pushing objectives since they lack the damage to bring down buildings, Pugna has no such problems.

Nether Blast is one of the best spells to siege with. It deals 220 damage every five seconds. The spell has a 600 cast range but thanks to its 400 AOE, it can hint buildings approximately 1000 units away.

Pair that with an Aether Lens and you have a support who can mow down buildings without risking his life.

Pugna does a good job of discouraging enemies from fighting. Nether Ward punishes spell casters while Decrepify prevents all physical damage.

Life Drain is mostly seen as a great healing spell but its damage shouldn't be ignored. When paired up with Aghanim Shard, the spell can do impressive numbers against grouped-up enemies.

Ancient Apparition

Players get a chill down their spine when they face Ancient Apparition. (Credit: Valve)

The current Dota 2 meta focuses on picking multiple strength heroes, buying Blademail and Heart, and then charging at enemies while being unkillable.

If there is one hero who is perfect at shutting down that playstyle, it's Ancient Apparition (AA).

AA has a decent laning presence with Cold Feet and Chilling Touch, especially when paired with an aggressive carry such as Chaos Knight.

The hero also farms relatively well now, thanks to Ice Vortex dealing damage. AA can use it from a distance on creeps to get gold or to scout for wards on the high ground.

While all that is nice, it is Ice Blast that has allowed the hero to have a 70% win rate in his 26 games.

Ice Blast deals 784 damage at max level while also removing 14% of affected heroes' health. In most situations being hit by an Ice Blast effectively removes 30% of a player's health pool.

That's an obscene amount of damage from a support and just as importantly, it completely negates the healing from enemies.

Heart? useless item. Dazzle? no heals for you bro. Chen has global heal? AA has global nukes.

Oh and with Aghanim Shard the spell also stuns enemies, isn't that nice?

And that's it for the strongest Dota 2 heroes at TI12. It'll be interesting to see if any of these picks get dethroned as we head to the final week of the tournament.

READ MORE: The International 2023 Finals Weekend: Schedule and Predictions

Image Source Provided by: Valve