TANK HERO

A Tanker is the hero which survives the longest in battle. He has high hitpoints and/or armor that allow him to take more damage than other heroes. These predominantly Strength heroes have high base damage, although attack slow. His role in the game is very important, as he usually leads the battle and be the first one in to protect his more fragile allies.

The perfect example of a tanking hero is the Centaur Warchief. His ultimate is passive – it adds strength to boost his hitpoints, health regeneration and attack damage. He has an area of effect stunning skill to disable enemies surrounding him, and he usually initiates the battle by going right in front of battle to stun and take damage for his team.

Another great Tank hero is Axe. His skill Berserker’s Call gives him bonus armor to make him more resilient in battle. On top of the bonus armor, it also forces enemy heroes to focus their attacks on him, which helps trigger his passive Counter-Helix spell that deals AoE damage around him.

The most important thing of a player using a tank hero is to know his heroes’ limits. The tanking hero takes longer than any other type of hero to kill – but they are not invincible. He has to gauge his opponents ability to deal damage to him and/or the presence of stuns and disabling skills to know when to pull out of battle when necessary.

The Shortlist

• Mostly strength-based heroes
• Very high hitpoints and/or armor
• Resilient and hard to kill
• High base damage but slow attack speed
• "In-your-face" hero, leads the battle
• Positions himself in front of battle to receive the bulk of damage

SUPPORT/PUSH HERO

A Support hero stays in the back of the battle more often than not. They aren’t the ones who jumps into battle to fight, but rather stays behind and tries to assist the team during battles. Mages are usually classified as "support" heroes, with their plethora of spells.

One of the best Support heroes is the Shadow Priest. His ultimate can be cast on himself or an allied hero, which results in a lesser time to revive along with not losing any gold upon death. This can be incredibly useful during pushes, if he casts the ultimate skill on a Tank/Carry hero who gets focused fired on a lot. He revives half the time and can potentially teleport or return back to battle with full health, especially if he has Boots of Travel!

On top of this, Shadow Priest also has a healing spell to aid his allies along with two other good spells. His Poison Touch deals damage along with slowing the enemy target and his Weave either adds armor to allies or depletes it for enemy heroes. He also has a healing spell that also damages surrounding enemies.

Another kind of support hero has the ability to quickly push towers down by sheer amount of summoned units or being able to quickly take down incoming enemy creeps. The Undying is a good pushing hero, as he can summon zombies to tank enemy creeps and quickly take down the enemy tower. The Warlock has an Infernal as his ultimate (two -- with Refresher Orb) which is also a great ability to push lanes.

The Shortlist

• Not a good head to head fighter
• Dependent on skills to outwit his enemy
• Easily killed if not careful
• Helps ally heroes with auras and/or spells