Dota 2 is always fun when you play with your friends or gaming partners. You can multiply this fun by playing a Dota 2 combo in your match. These combos are fun in pub game as well as in pro matches too. Because sometimes your lineup totally beats your opponent’s strategy. To help you out with some combo ideas, we have listed some really amazing and cool combos with Pros and Cons of every combo.
1. The Global Dota 2 Combo
Suggested Lineup
- Mid – Zeus
- Carry – Spectre
- Offlaner – Clockwork
- Semi Support – Silencer
- Hard Support – Ancient Apparition / Nature Prophet
Gameplay
I can safely say that everyone who has played more than 1000 Dota 2 games must have played this combo at least once. You can kill almost whole enemy team with this combo without even getting close. Zeus is going to use Thundergod’s Wrath first. As soon as you got the vision of the enemy heroes, Nature prophet will use its ultimate. Then comes Spectre’s ultimate. If Spectre has farmed Radiance and Diffusal Blade, her illusion will easily finish off enemy support and squishy heroes. For rest of the kills, she can use haunt to reach those heroes and meanwhile silencer can use his ultimate so that enemy cant use any spell to run. Still, if some hero is left, Ancient’s ultimate can take care of it. Aghanim Scepter and Refresher orb on Zeus, Nature Prophet will make things more interesting.
- This lineup includes one of the hardest carries of Dota 2, Spectre.
- Effective disable with Silencer’s ultimate.
- Effective lane control with Zeus and Silencer
- Sufficient lane/tower push control
- Once you pick 2 heroes, your opponent team may understand that you are going for Global Combo, therefore picking heroes to counter you hard.
- Spectre needs lots of farm in order to survive the late game.
- This lineup does not have stunner or reliable disabler.
- Can be counter hard with insta kill heroes like Pudge, Tuskar and Tiny etc.
2. You Can’t Move Combo
Suggested Lineup
- Mid – Viper / Huskar / Pudge
- Carry – Drow Ranger
- Offlaner – Bristleback /Beast Master
- Semi Support – Venomancer / Dazzle
- Hard Support – Jakiro / Crystal Maiden / Lich
Gameplay
Although you can not slow anyone’s movement speed below 100, the main theme of this combo is to slow enemy as much as possible. This combo mainly focuses on 1 or 2 isolated heroes pickup. However, team fighting capability of this combo is also not bad.
- A huge amount of attack and magic damage.
- Effective AOE spell with Venomancer / Jakiro in the lineup.
- Extreme lane control in almost all lanes.
- Mostly paper heroes which can be killed very easily if any AOE combo is used properly.
- No hard disable except Pudge / Beast Master.
- Blink heroes can counter this combo easily.
- Can be counter hard with insta kill heroes like Pudge, Tuskar and Tiny etc
3. The Perma-Stun Combo
Suggested Lineup
- Mid – Magnus / Centaur / Lina
- Carry – Sven
- Offlaner – Tide Hunter / Nyx Assassin
- Semi Support – Sand King / Earth Shaker
- Hard Support – Lion
Gameplay
In this team combo, we are going to try to keep the enemy stunned almost forever. You can do it by picking AOE or even solo stunners. With careful timing of your stun and chain stun them to the max. Believe me, this combo frustrates your enemy like hell. Sven needs to use his stun first so that later on he can deal physical damage after using his ultimate while other allies keep the enemy stunned for rest of the time.
- If carefully coordinated and executed, you can keep whole enemy team stunned for almost 9.5 sec with this combo.
- Tanky lineup, harder to kill.
- Lots of AOE damage.
- All roles perfectly fit in this lineup.
- You can also pick off single targets easily with this combo.
- Complete team needs blink or scepter to reach their max potential.
- One BKB and there goes your combo flying into the wind.
- This lineup mostly comprises of melee heroes. So you’ll have to get close in fights in order to execute this Dota 2 combo, thus making an ideal situation for wombo combo execution by your enemies. For example, Enigma’s blackhole, Outworld Devourer’s ultimate and other AOE spells can really ruin your charm. Rubik can also enjoy playing in your enemy team because he will steal all your stuns and use it back on you.
4. The Doctor’s Lineup
Suggested Lineup
- Mid – Huskar / Omni
- Carry – Juggernaut
- Offlaner – Necrophos / Treant Protector
- Semi Support – Warlock / Witch Doctor
- Hard Support – Dazzle / Oracle
Gameplay
The main idea of this combo is to select heroes which have any healing spell. During gameplay, your aim will be to keep everyone alive with your massive healing spells. Ancient Apparition can stop your healing for like forever. So do not forget to ban him for this lineup.
- Because of massive healing spells, it is a very durable lineup and very difficult to kill.
- Nice AOE spells to counter ganks
- You won’t die unless you want to.
- Ancient Appiration can shut down this combo alone and so can Silencer.
- The game will be totally dependent on Juggernaut, if the enemy gets hold of him somehow in the early game, you’ll get a very hard time in the late game.
5. The Wombo Combo
Suggested Lineup
Basically, you can pick any hero with AOE spell for this combo to work, possibilities are endless. However, the suggested lineup is;
- Mid – Invoker / Shadow fiend / Puck / Queen of Pain / Storm Spirit with Aghanim Scepter
- Carry – Faceless Void / Outworld Devourer / Anti Mage
- Offlaner – Tidehunter / Dark Seer / Magnus / Kunka
- Semi Support – Sand King / Earth Shaker / Enigma / Witch Doctor
- Hard Support – Crystal Maiden / Veno Mancer / Warlock
Gameplay
If you watch Dota 2 pro plays every now and then, then you must be knowing that this most common Dota 2 combo in pro plays, but on the same hand very difficult to execute perfectly. The main theme of this lineup is AOE spells and their successive execution. Force your enemy for a team fight. You can do this by using some weak hero as bait or getting hold of any solo enemy and deliberately allowing him to escape deliberately so he calls for backup and join his teammates. Once complete (or most of the) enemy team is nearby, initiate the combo. Enigma, Magnus, and Dark seer are perfect initiators for this. Once the combo is initiated, use all your AOE spells on your enemy.
It must be kept in mind for successful execution that DO NOT engage enemy’s bait. They may send a weak hero as bait to bring you to a place of their advantage. Still, your combo may work, but there are more chances of failure. This lineup is best suited for team fights. So, concentrate on team fights. The positioning of your initiator will matter a lot. You can force team fights while defending your towers or while lying a siege on their towers. Either they will take a team fight or will lose a tower, in both the cases you’ll be at an advantage.
- Invoker alone is enough to extinguish the enemy team if the player knows how to unleash the full potential of Invoker.
- This lineup has some very decent and hard disables which cannot be evaded even with BKB.
- Insane amount of Magical, physical and Pure damage.
- Initiator needs to have good game experience so he knows when to start. The wrong initiation will not only get you killed, but your major spells will also be on cooldown for a long duration.
- This type of combo require deliberation before ganking or even before picking heroes. You can almost never try this combo while playing solo in Dota 2 because all the players do not understand each other’s play style. However, if you are playing with your team, then there are more chances of success.
- Almost all major spells have long cooldowns. Once you use all your spells and enemy buys back and starts to push/force another team fight, there is almost nothing which you can do.
6. The Damage Aura Combo
Suggested Lineup
- Mid – Drow Ranger
- Carry – Luna
- Offlaner – Lycan / Underlord
- Semi Support – Visage / Axe / Dazzle / Bristleback
- Hard Support – Vengeful Spirit
Gameplay
This is another most commonly played/used Dota 2 combo. Your gameplay for this lineup will be simple. Farm as fast as possible and once done with your basic items, start pushing. Once you stay together, all the damage auras will join and give huge physical damage boost. You are taking towers or fighting in ganks, you can really deal a massive amount of damage. Go for Roshan as soon as it is alive and remember, keep pushing till you get enemy’s ancient.
Dazzle in your line up will be a real pain in the ass for your enemies. He will reduce their armor so much that you can take out their supports literally in 3 hits and a shallow graved Bristle back himself is a killing machine with constant quill spray. Visage is viable in this line up because of massive attack speed of his Familiries.
- Strong mid game and a very strong late game. If you are successful with this combo, I doubt that game will last more than 30 mins. I’ve seen this combo live 3 times in our tournament (Dota International Clan Wars) and they always won.
- Massive physical damage with sufficient disables for a good team fight.
- Venge is the only hero who can survive without farm, rest almost all heroes need lots of farm in order to be useful.
- To execute this combo, you need to stay together, but that also causes a problem. Because any Wombo Combo line up will not have any problem with execution as you are already stacked up.
- A good Pudge can really turn the tables and this Dota 2 combo will fail miserably. In fact, all insta kill heroes (Pudge, Tiny, Tuskar, Lina and Skywrath Mage etc) will prove to be a pain in the ass case for you. Because all your heroes are very squishy with not a good escape mechanism (except Lycan).
- All the team fights will rely on successful initiation. Tanks have to be real tanks so the hitters can deal real damage.
7. The Destroyers
Suggested Lineup
- Mid – Tinker / Shadow Fiend / Death Prophet
- Carry – Drow / Troll Warlord
- Offlaner – Enigma / Nature Prophet
- Semi Support – Lesharc / Wind Ranger
- Hard Support – Lich / Sven
Gameplay
Gameplay is simple, you are The Destroyers. You need to destroy any and everything as quick as possible. After your initial farm / laning phase, quickly start taking towers. Lich and Sven can provide massive armor to your team when you are taking towers. Clear creep waves with your massive magical damage. If you have troll warlord in your team, he can eat the towers in a few seconds. Just use any of your hero’s creep to tank and take down their towers 1 by 1. With this lineup, you can easily take down a tower in under 10 sec (even giving the leverage of 5-sec glyph).
- You can end game in like under 30 minutes if your enemy was not careful enough to pick your counters.
- Massive physical damage combined with massive magical damage can easily wreck your enemy even in ganks.
- This lineup is best suited for Wombo Combo with a very strong potential for solo takeouts.
- Strong early game, mid game and even more devastating late game.
- Most of the heroes are squishy with no escape mechanism. A solo killer like Pudge, Tiny, Tuskar etc can be very lethal to your team. Even a good team with counter wombo combo can kill your whole team under 5 sec.
- This lineup and strategy focuses on team fights and always staying together. Thus leaving other lanes prone to enemy ratting. (If you do not have Nature Prophet or Tinker in the team)
- Almost all the heroes in this lineup need good farm to be more useful in late game which is not possible for all 5 team members.
- No strong disable in the whole lineup whereas for team fights you’ll need effective disables. So, must have Enigma or Sven in the team.
8. I fight with my Minions
Suggested Lineup
- Mid – Invoker / Lone Druid
- Carry – Lycan
- Offlaner – Brood Mother
- Semi Support – Enigma / Nature Prophet / Chen
- Hard Support – Warlock / Enchantress
Gameplay
All these heroes have spells to spawn their integral creeps/minions (Forge Spirits, Wolves, Treants etc…). Use these minions to push towers. Take Roshan as soon as possible and then get their throne before someone thinks of Battlefury. With this, you can easily spawn almost 30 minions. That is like 6 waves of creeps combined together. With Lycan’s Howl, each and every minion will get +50 damage. Also, with Necronomicon and Helm of the Dominator, you will get some more creeps with move and attack speed bonus too.
Do not forget to ban Earth Shaker, Ember Spirit, Axe and Legion Commander otherwise executing this Dota 2 combo will be a nightmare for you.
- Massive tower taking force at your disposal.
- This lineup is also suitable for 1 lane or all lane push if you are countered hard.
- In case things go out of hands, you can stop spawning your minions and play the game normally with a little twist of Ratting.
- This combo can be very hard to execute as there are literally a dozen counters for this combo. It is almost impossible that the enemy will not have one of them.
- Even if the enemy team does not have any of your counters, still they can go for Battlefury, maelstrom or Mjolnir. A single battery on a melee core can ruin your dream of executing this combo. So during the pick phase, pick wisely.
9. The Illusionists
Suggested Lineup
- Mid – Morphling / Chaos Knight
- Carry – Spectre / Phantom Lancer
- Offlaner – Dark Seer / Terror Blade
- Semi Support – Naga Siren
- Hard Support – Shadow Demon
Gameplay
All of the heroes in this line up have the capability to spawn illusions and that too lots of it. With these illusions, you should rush enemy towers as fast as possible. Also do not forget to ban Earth Shaker, Ember Spirit, and Legion Commander. Or they will make your life miserable.
- Extremely strong ultra late game, if at all game reaches that point.
- This line up can deal a great amount of physical damage.
- Illusions can easily be used to confuse enemy thus providing every hero with a great escape mechanism.
- Most of the heroes in this line up are those which are rated 3-star carries (hardest carries of Dota 2). Shifting them to support or other roles will be very difficult and otherwise, it is not wise to pick many hard carries as the farm will be split between them, therefore, creating troubles for position 1 carry.
- You may have to modify the meta to make it work that means making unconventional items for few heroes to suit their roles, therefore more chances to fail.
10. The Rats
Suggested Lineup
- Mid – Leshrac / Tinker
- Carry – Anti-mage / Lone Druid / Troll Warlord
- Offlaner – Brood Mother / Clinks / Tiny
- Semi Support – Nature Prophet
- Hard Support – IO
Gameplay
You must try to beat Admiral Bulldog, the Rat King. You should always be looking for the lane which does not have any defense. Go there and push. Then once your enemy comes to defend that lane, go to any other lane and carry on. You must be pushing all the times. With IO as support, you can teleport to any tower any time and immediately take the tower and then fall back. All the heroes in this line up have great potential of taking towers, so do not waste that and try to finish the game as soon as possible by snowballing.
- You’ll have a perfect lineup with perfect heroes for every role.
- If game somehow reaches ultra late game, your 4 heroes can convert to carry role. In the ultra late game, you just need to win 1 team fight, that’s it. Afterward, just TP to the enemy base and take out their ancient.
- Great escape mechanism for almost all the heroes.
- Early game is not that much strong you need farm and you can be wrecked easily in the start and then the enemy can snowball
- If the enemy picks heroes with strong defensive abilities (Techies, Ember Spirit etc), you will have a very hard time finishing the game.
11. John Cena’s Team
Suggested Lineup
- Mid – Clinks / Invoker
- Carry – Slardar
- Offlaner – Nyx Assassin
- Semi Support – Riki / Bounty Hunter
- Hard Support – Mirana
Gameplay
You can’t see them, therefore you can’t gank them. At least without the gem, sentry wards or dust. As all of your heroes have spells to be invisible, therefore it will be comparatively easy for you to gank. You can always try for 5v2 ganks and I can assure you, there are many chances that you’ll succeed. Why pick Slardar as carry? Because you do not want your enemies to pick Slardar and also that Slardar has all the capabilities which are needed to be a really good carry.
- The whole team has spells which can make them invisible, therefore it will it will be difficult for enemies to gank you.
- Very Strong ultra late game.
- A huge amount of Physical and Magical damage can be dealt by this lineup.
- If your ganking strategy fails, you can always go for ratting strategy.
- Just 1 gem can ruin your game like hell. However, you can always kill the gem carrier and get rid of the gem for the next 7 minutes or so.
- You may have to spend lots of gold for sentries to counter enemy ward.
- If the enemy gets to level 3 Necronomicon, then there is literally nothing which you can do. Because this is THE PERMANENT solution for all the invisible heroes.
In the next article, I’ll write about mini Dota 2 combo which you can try in any pub or ranked game. What all combos have you tried that were very successful; tell us in comments below.