Hero Roles

My part to play.

For lane roles, see: Farm Dependency

Heroes are often suggested to play certain roles. A hero can belong to many roles at once. An understanding of these roles can help in composing a well-rounded team to play with.

The roles listed on this page are the in-game suggested roles, and are not based on any opinion of the metagame. Heroes can be sorted by their role and complexity on the hero selection screen.

Complexity levels:
  ■■■ Advanced
  ■■ Moderate
  ■ Straightforward

Heroes with advanced complexity take a high degree of skill and game knowledge to play well.
Heroes with moderate complexity are fairly flexible in terms of difficulty and method of play style.
Heroes with straightforward complexity more forgiving to play while still offering unique play styles.

Roles

Carry

---

"Will become more useful later in the game if they gain a significant gold advantage."

A Carry is the hero that the team rallies around in the late game. The role's name is derived from the act of "carrying" a team, which is to bear the responsibility of leading the team to victory. The carry is expected to have the largest contribution to the team, and is critical in winning team fights. Carries typically lack early game power, but scale to be stronger in the late game. They are highly dependent on items to be successful. Carries often have a built-in farming mechanism to achieve this. Carries also rely on strong and fast physical attacks, but this is not always the case. Having more than one carry can potentially cause competition within your team for resources, which typically results in a number of underpowered carries. For certain team compositions, it is highly recommended that a team have only one hard carry (a hero with strong carry potential but weaker potential in other roles) and as the game progresses the hard carry will secure the majority of the kills. A semi carry (hero that has a bit less carry potential but stronger potential in other roles) that has gained a big enough gold advantage can also end up being the main damage dealer for the team. Carries are typically sent to the safe lane in the early game with one or more supports to protect them until they are strong enough to farm independently.

■■■ Carry
■■ Carry
■ Carry

Nuker

---

"Can quickly kill enemy heroes using high damage spells with low cooldowns."

Nukers are heroes with abilities that deliver high burst damage throughout the game. Their goal is to give the team an advantage by killing enemy heroes before they can react to team fights.

■■■ Nuker
■■ Nuker
■ Nuker

Initiator

---

"Good at starting a team fight."

Initiators are heroes who can safely start a team fight. These heroes typically have a strong area of effect or special skill to affect the positioning of the enemy team. Usually there is an attempt to quickly eliminate the enemy carry to lure the enemy team, which then initiates a large scale battle. Their abilities often have long cooldowns which are best saved for these large confrontations.

■■■ Initiator
■■ Initiator
■ Initiator

Disabler

---

"Has a guaranteed disable for one or more of their spells."

Disablers are heroes with abilities more focused on reliable crowd control, either by single target or area of effect. They can act as initiators in small skirmishes, or as support by holding the enemy down for the carry to finish off.

■■■ Disabler
■■ Disabler
■ Disabler

Durable

---

"Has the ability to last longer in teamfights."

Durable heroes are capable of sustaining large amounts of incoming damage. They tend to have high HP, HP regeneration, healing, magic resistance, or status resistance. They often have abilities to mitigate damage, avoid damage completely, or weaken the power of enemies. Strength heroes are well known to fulfill this role because their primary Strength attribute innately grants HP and magic resistance.

■■■ Durable
■■ Durable
■ Durable

Escape

---

"Has the ability to quickly avoid death."

Escape heroes are equipped with one or more escape mechanisms which allow them (and sometimes their allies) to avoid damage while retreating or repositioning themselves during a team fight. Escape mechanisms include movement speed buffs, invisibility, teleportation, and evasion. This is extremely useful for glass cannon heroes who have low hp and deal high damage, because it forces the enemy to change their play style to counter such high mobility.

■■■ Escape
■■ Escape
■ Escape

Support

---

"Can focus less on massing gold and items, and more on using their abilities to gain an advantage for the team."

Supports are heroes who keep their allies alive and give them opportunities to earn more gold and experience. Supports will usually come with skills such as healing spells or disables, and generally have low damage output but a powerful (yet situational) nuke. Supports are typically not dependent on items. Most of their gold is spent on items for the benefit of the team, such as an Animal Courier, Observer Wards, or Sentry Wards.

Supports are paired with the team's carry at the start of a game. This is because the carry tends to be the weakest and most gold-hungry member of the team. A support should always try to forfeit kills to their team's carry, only securing the kill if none of their allies are able to do it. To protect and help their team control the lane in the early stages of the game is of high importance for a support. They are able to repel enemies and assist in lane survival. Common traits of supports are long range attacks and defensive abilities.

■■■ Support
■■ Support
■ Support

Pusher

---

"Can quickly siege and destroy towers and barracks at all points in the game."

Pushers focus on bringing down towers quickly, thereby acquiring map control. If they succeed, they often shut down the enemy carry by forcing them away from farming. They have skills that fortify allied creep waves, summon units, or deal massive amounts of damage to enemy towers.

■■■ Pusher
■■ Pusher
■ Pusher

Jungler

---

"Can farm effectively from neutral creeps inside the jungle early in the game."

Junglers can clear neutral camps at the start of the game. This allows for them to farm without interfering with the other lanes, which can allow allies to benefit from soloing their lane more. Junglers have skills that allow them to convert neutral creeps, summon units, or sustain themselves efficiently.

■■■ Jungler
■■ Jungler
■ Jungler

Complexity

Heroes can be sorted by overall complexity, taking all of their variables into account.

Complexity levels:
  ■■■ Advanced
  ■■ Moderate
  ■ Straightforward

Heroes with advanced complexity take a high degree of skill and game knowledge to play well.
Heroes with moderate complexity are fairly flexible in terms of difficulty and method of play style.
Heroes with straightforward complexity more forgiving to play while still offering unique play styles.

■■■ Complexity
■■ Complexity
■ Complexity

See also

• Farm Dependency