Dota 2: All-Time Most Broken Hero Combinations | Part 1

Let's take a look at some of the best hero combinations in Dota 2.

Dota 2 is a game where you can uncover some pretty interesting hero combinations. Some of them were so good that IceFrog released updates just so they could be nerfed.

Generally speaking, every single meta has it’s combos, so it’s impossible to name all of them. However, we will try to point out three of the most deadly combinations that had a huge impact on the professional scene, as well as on pub games. Some of them lasted for a while, whereas others were short-lived.

Spectre and Zeus

If you’ve played Dota 2 for a couple of years now, you probably remember this deadly combo. At first, these two heroes seem to be rather strange together. Spectre is one of the weakest (if not THE weakest) carry in the laning stage, while Zeus is a mid laner who can stomp.

Having said that, once both heroes hit level six, things can get pretty rough for the enemy team. Their global ultimates used to do a lot more damage than they do now, and they stacked up very well. In fact, if the team that had these two heroes in it survived for the first couple of minutes, the victory was pretty much guaranteed. After all, the later the game goes, the better, especially for Spectre.

As you can imagine this combo was nerfed after around a month of ownage. To be exact, it was Spectre that got nerfed — because she became the most picked carry in pub games. Now, the pesky carry is still fairly good. However, she rarely gets picked because the meta is just too fast.

Outworld Devourer and Omniknight

Another combo that’s worth mentioning in the infamous OD + Omni. The funny thing about it is that it was popular during the Zeus and Spectre era, so as you can imagine, these two collided all the time.

However, unlike then, OD had the fire-power from very early on due to his first skill. During that time, the spell did damage based on the intelligence on the hero. As a result, OD was able to quickly rip through his enemies, especially when he got a couple of items.

The biggest problem of OD is the fact that the hero is just too damn squishy. However, this is where Omniknight comes to play and his Repel/Heal. During this patch, Repel was basically a free BKB that had a window of around 4 seconds when it was on CD after use. In other words, OD had a nearly permanent BKB all the time, which was just insane.

To make matters worse, Diffisual Blade was just changed so it didn’t even purge it anymore. As you can imagine, this combo was able to win games very fast and very easy. No wonder both heroes got nerfed.

Rapier Ember Spirit and Magnus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otbpux81CKs

Last, but most definitely not least, we have the legendary “glass-cannon” Ember Spirit build alongside Magnus. This combo became popular mainly due to Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao, who used to play Ember like this all the time.

Nowadays, ES is mainly a tempo controller that’s played as a mid laner. Thanks to the introduction of the Dota 2 talents, this hero is now capable of doing tons of magical damage. However, during that time, there were no such things as talents. That’s why Ember Spirit was mostly played as a glass-cannon right-click carry and oh boy, was it fun.

Despite having around 1.5k-2k HP during the late game, this hero was extremely useful thanks to his broken damage. If you’ve followed all the steps, starting from a Battlefuy, you’d end up having one or even two Divine Rapiers. This, combined with the Empower from Magnus was just gruesome to watch. Ember Spirit was able to slice through the lineup of the enemy team like a knife through butter.

However, as the meta changed, this build became less and less viable. In fact, this is one of the few hero combinations that didn’t really get nerfed a lot. Instead, IceFrog just buffed other heroes, and players figured out that there is an easier way to win games, without having to go through all the hassle of buying Rapiers.

Of course, there is no way that we can cover all epic hero combos in one article. Nevertheless, we believe that the ones we’ve put on this list a good way to start. Expect the second part of the best Dota 2 combos soon.

In the meantime, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Apart from Dota 2, we cover all major esports titles.

Image via Valve