In Dota 2, the carry role is about scaling into a late-game powerhouse. A carry's job is to farm efficiently, secure key kills, and eventually outscale the enemy team. However, becoming a dominant force in the game relies heavily on itemization. With the right items, a carry can turn the tide of a game, while poor choices can lead to a loss. Here, we'll explore the top 10 items essential for carrying heroes, focusing on their strengths, when to buy them, and how they fit into different game scenarios.
Power Treads
Power Treads are a staple for most carry heroes. They provide attack speed, a crucial stat for dealing damage. Power Treads also offer versatility through attribute switching, which can optimize health, mana, or damage depending on the situation. The boost to stats helps heroes farm more efficiently and fight better in early skirmishes. Agility-based heroes like Terrorblade or Phantom Assassin benefit significantly from the additional attack speed and agility, enhancing their damage output early on.
Benefits
- Attack speed and stat bonuses are perfect for most carries.
- Attribute switching offers flexibility in different situations.
- It is affordable and provides an early-game presence.
When to buy
Early game, after a farming item or directly as the first purchase if laning is tough.
Battle Fury
Battle Fury is a farming-oriented item perfect for melee carries like Anti-Mage, Juggernaut, and Phantom Assassin. It provides significant regeneration and cleave damage, allowing the hero to quickly clear waves and jungle camps. The mana regeneration helps with spell usage, making heroes less dependent on returning to base. The cleave damage is particularly effective in team fights, allowing the carry to deal massive damage to multiple targets.
Benefits
- Accelerates farming speed significantly, which is crucial for late-game carries.
- Cleave damage scales well into the late game.
- Provides sustain with health and mana regeneration.
When to buy
Early-mid game, after a small farming or survival item. It's ideal to rush this item to maximize its farming benefits.
Black King Bar (BKB)
Black King Bar (BKB) is arguably the most essential item for any carry during the mid to late game. It grants spell immunity for a limited duration, allowing the carry to avoid crowd control and magic damage during crucial moments. This item is a game-changer in team fights, enabling the carry to deal damage freely without being interrupted by stuns, silences, or nukes.
Benefits
- It provides immunity to most spells, which is crucial in team fights.
- Allows carries to continue dealing damage without being disabled.
- It is essential for surviving against heavy magic damage and crowd control.
When to buy
Mid-game, especially when the enemy team has multiple disables or serious magic damage.
Satanic
Satanic is a powerful item for strength carries or any hero that needs sustainability in fights. It offers lifesteal, strength, and a unique active ability that amplifies the lifesteal significantly for a few seconds. This allows the carry to survive burst damage and sustain in prolonged fights by healing large amounts of health with each attack. Satanic is particularly effective on heroes like Sven, Lifestealer, and Gyrocopter.
Benefits
- Massive lifesteal allows for incredible sustain in fights.
- The active ability can quickly turn the tide of a battle by restoring the carry's health.
- Offers significant strength, adding to the hero's tankiness.
When to buy
Late game, when you need to sustain in fights, or when facing high burst damage that needs to be mitigated.
Monkey King Bar (MKB)
Monkey King Bar (MKB) is essential for dealing with evasion. It provides bonus attack damage, attack speed, and a chance to deal bonus magic damage on a hit. More importantly, it grants True Strike, ensuring attacks cannot be missed. This is crucial against heroes with evasion abilities or items like Butterfly, making landing hits difficult. Heroes like Troll Warlord or Sniper can benefit significantly from MKB.
Benefits
- Provides True Strike, making it perfect against heroes with evasion.
- High bonus damage and attack speed increase the carry's damage output significantly.
- The proc chance for bonus magic damage adds to the overall DPS.
When to buy
Mid to late game, particularly when the enemy has heroes with evasion or after they buy items like Butterfly.
Butterfly
Butterfly is a powerful item that offers a mix of attack speed, agility, damage, and evasion. It's a perfect item for agility carries, boosting their damage output while providing survivability through evasion. The evasion makes the carry much more complicated to kill, especially against physical damage dealers. Heroes like Morphling, Drow Ranger, and Phantom Lancer often prioritize Butterfly.
Benefits
- Increases attack speed and agility, boosting DPS significantly.
- It provides evasion, which is crucial for surviving against physical damage.
- Enhances the carry's overall damage and survivability.
When to buy
Mid to late game, particularly when facing physical damage dealers or when the carry needs more survivability.
Daedalus
Daedalus is the go-to item for heroes looking to maximize their critical strike damage. It provides high attack damage and a chance to deal critical hits, which can drastically increase a carry's damage output in fights. This item is particularly devastating on heroes who already have built-in crit abilities, such as Phantom Assassin or Chaos Knight. Still, it can also be effective on other right-click carries.
Benefits
- Massive damage boost due to high base damage and critical strikes.
- It can quickly burst down enemy heroes, incredibly squishy targets.
- Scales well into the late game.
When to buy
Mid to late game, after acquiring basic attack speed or farming items. It is ideal for increasing overall damage output.
Eye of Skadi
Eye of Skadi is a versatile item that provides a mix of health, mana, and a unique passive that slows enemies' movement and attack speed. It's an excellent item for carries that need to tank up while providing utility in fights. The slow effect is particularly useful in killing enemies or chasing fleeing targets. Heroes like Medusa, Terrorblade, and Slark benefit significantly from Skadi.
Benefits
- It dramatically boosts health and mana, making the carry much tankier.
- The slow effect on attacks can be game-changing in team fights.
- It works well with heroes that need both durability and the ability to kite or chase.
When to buy
It is mid to late game, especially when you need more health and mana or when facing heroes that rely on mobility.
Sange and Yasha
Sange and Yasha (S&Y) is an effective mid-game item that provides a mix of attack speed, movement speed, and status resistance. The item helps carries become more mobile and complex to disable, which is crucial during the mid-game when team fights become more frequent. S&Y is particularly good on strength and agility heroes that must balance damage output with survivability, like Juggernaut or Sven.
Benefits
- Provides a balance of attack speed, movement speed, and status resistance.
- It makes the carry more resilient to disables and slows.
- It is affordable and offers good mid-game power spikes.
When to buy
Mid-game, when you need more mobility and survivability in fights. It can also be upgraded later to include other powerful items like Satanic.
Abyssal Blade
Abyssal Blade is a crucial item for carries that need to lock down slippery enemies. It provides a reliable stun on hit, along with bonus health, damage, and the passive Bash ability, which gives a chance to stun on attacks. Abyssal Blade is crucial for heroes who must ensure kills on key enemy targets, especially those that rely on mobility or escape mechanisms. Heroes like Spectre, Wraith King, and Faceless Void often pick up Abyssal Blade.
Benefits
- The active stun is invaluable for locking down high-priority targets.
- Bash chance adds another layer of control in fights.
- It provides good damage and health, making it a solid all-around item.
When to buy
Late game, after building core damage and survivability items. It is essential when you need to control enemy carries or elusive heroes.