How to Master Dota 2's Talent Trees

Dota 2 was recently updated to version 7.00, and with that they added in a brand new feature, the Talent Tree. This new system allows character to passively gain bonuses, even in matches when money is limited. Not all talents are made equal though, so we are here to break down the best ways to utilize them!

What is the Talent Tree

The Talent Tree is found during a match, right beside your character portrait. You open it by clicking the tree icon, naturally.

At levels 10, 15, 20 and 25 you can pick one of two talents. These will then be permanently applied to your character. Don't worry, if you forget to pick a talent, you can always grab it on your next level up!

What Talents Do I Pick?

This is a tricky question to answer. Dota matches are never the same, so there is no hard rule that will work in all situations. With that said, there are several tips we can offer so that you're chances of picking the right talents increase!

Consider Your Role on the Team

One of the first things to consider when dealing with Talents is what role you play on your team.

Supports

When playing as a Support, your Talent Tree is usually broken up in such a way that you can either increase your Survivability, Total Farm, Power or Mobility. When it comes time to decide what to pick, you should consider first what role you are playing. Are you a 5th position support, buying wards and healing items for the team? Then you want survivability and farming Talents. This will allow you to stay alive longer in team fights while also netting you more gold and experience as the game goes on.

Of course, this isn't always the case, so if you're a much more aggressive support, such as Lion, you'll want to consider getting Talents that increase your Power and Mobility. This will allow you to hit harder, faster and zip in and out of combat easier.

Core/Carry

On the opposite end of the spectrum are the Core characters. These are the people getting the last hits and ultimately most of the kills. Their Talent Tree is usually broken down in such a way that it provides Base Stats, Attack Power, Spell Power or Survivability.

Again, just like Supports, you want to consider the role of your character on the team. If you're only goal is to survive as long as possible, then get as many Base Stats and Survivability Talents as you can. If your goal is to hit the enemy hard and fast, then look at getting Base Stats and Power.

How Long do you Expect the Match to Last?

This can be tough to predict, but an estimate is often enough. Some Talents are designed to give you immediate rewards, while others will take several minutes to prove their worth.

If your team is designed to push fast and hard, and have the game finished by minute 20 or 30, then you will find some Talents nearly useless. Gold Per Minute is a great example, as short matches won't last long enough to make the extra gold worth it.

As a basic rule of thumb, if you're planning on finishing the match quickly, grab talents that give you an immediate boost in power and survivability. If however, you plan to play a very long match, grab Talents that will give you passive bonuses over time, so that by minute 45-50 you'll be filthy rich!

What Items Do You Plan to Get?

Another thing to consider when picking a Talent is what items do you plan to purchase. This applies to every position and should always be considered when grabbing a talent.

For instance, if you're a support who would normally get Eul's Scepter of Divinity, then you may not need to get a Movement Speed talent. You want to try to maximize your Talents and Items, which means you don't want them to overlap too much, or else you end up wasting the bonuses you get from them.

Sometimes though, you actually will want to stack up effects. This most often happens for Core characters, as they will want to stack up effects to increase their potential in combat. Below are a few examples of Talents that are worth stacking.

• X% Cooldown Reduction - Casting spells faster is a good thing in almost all situations. If you're playing a character that has this talent, who would also benefit from an Octarine Core, then picking up both is a great option as it will allow you to cast spells even faster! Queen Of Pain is a great example of this, as she has a 12% reduction Talent, and can get an additional 25% from Octarine Core.
• Health Regen - Your biggest challenge in Dota 2 is staying alive, so Health Regen is always a good thing. Although some might opt to skip it, this is generally a good Talent to stack up on, even if you already get Health Regen from items. Tank characters in particular should consider grabbing as much Health Regen as possible so that they're even harder to kill. Bristleback is such a character who can utilize as much Health Regen as possible.
• Attack Speed - As a Core character, there is almost never a situation where you'll want to pass up free Attack Speed. The more the better, even if you already have a lot, so always think hard when picking between two talents where one happens to be a sizeable Attack Speed increase. Slark is a prime example of someone who always wants more Attack Speed.

Enemy Team Composition

Lastly, the final major thing to go over before picking a Talent is what characters the enemy team is playing. This is particularly important when dealing with defensive Talents.

For instance, if you want to get an Evasion talent, look at what kind of damage the enemy team does. Are they are magic casters? Then Evasion is no good, since you can't dodge magic abilities but that 25% Magic Resist talent might be worth getting instead.

Wraith King is another great example. At level 25, you can choose to have a more powerful Vampiric Aura, or have no mana cost for your ultimate. The second option might sound great but there is little point in getting it if the enemy team isn't burning away your mana. Your whole team benefits from a stronger Vampiric Aura, so that's a much better pick up in games where mana isn't an issue.

Level 25 Talents

At level 25, virtually all heroes will gain access to very powerful talents. These will often have a drastic effect on your character, such as changing your ultimate ability, or providing insane amounts of survivability.

As the length of a match increases, you should definitely start planning ahead for these level 25 talents. Some are quite powerful and can be synergized with other Talents and items, greatly boosting their effect. Queen of Pain is a perfect example of this. If the game lasts long enough, she has several skills that all synergize greatly with Octarine Core. At level 25, you can pick up Spell Vamp which further works with Octarine Core, turning Queen of Pain into a Spell Lifesteal monster!

That is just one example of many, but helps show off the level of foresight needed to properly utilize those late game talents. Although half of your matches may never reach that level 25 Talent, it's important to have a plan ready for when you do reach it.

Cooldown Reduction is King

Currently, Cooldown Reduction is one of the absolute best Talents you can pick up. Although we touched on this briefly above, let's go into more detail as to why!

Dota 2 has a lot of active items. Cooldown Reduction will lower the time it takes to not only use your abilities, but these items as well. This is what makes it so powerful, as it allows you to use Teleports more often, giving you much higher mobility. Of course it also means you can use more Eul's Scepters or Scythes of Vyse and other such items.

Sadly, not all characters have a Cooldown Reduction talent, however those that do should almost always pick it. Exceptions do exist, but being able to teleport more frequently and use other items more often generally outweighs all other possible Talent Tree perks.

Read Up On Them!

The best way to learn about the Talent Tree is to simply read up on it. You can do this from the Heroes menu in Dota 2. Pick any hero and you'll be able to see their Talent Tree in their character description.

Dota 2 is a game of knowledge. The more you know before entering a match, the better. Taking a few minutes to read up on some Talent Tree info will go a long way to helping you understand what you'll be facing in a match. When huge changes like the Talent Tree are added to Dota 2, it's a lack of knowledge that usually ends up getting the player killed because they were unaware of what a character is capable of.

Remember that even in the middle of a match you can pull up the main menu and check out hero information. Did you see a hero do something crazy that they shouldn't be able to do? While you're dead, pull up that hero's information and check out their Talents! Now next time, you won't be blindsided by their new skills.