How to use Glyph of Fortification in Dota 2

Owen H

| Jan 24, 2026

Dota 2 is filled with complex mechanics and Glyph of Fortification is one of them. A well-timed Glyph can lead to a successful tower defense, but a bad one can be a huge waste of a very long cooldown. In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about the Dota 2 Glyph of Fortification mechanic.

What is Glyph of Fortification in Dota 2?

Glyph of Fortification is a team-wide defensive ability that is available to both the Radiant and Dire teams at the 3rd minute. It can be activated at any time (unless on cooldown) and will strengthen all allied buildings on the Dota 2 map, making them harder to take down.

When Glyph of Fortification is used, here’s what happens:

All allied towers and buildings become immune to damage for 7 seconds.
All allied towers (except for Tier 1 towers) attack multiple targets when Glyph of Fortification is active.
All allied lane creeps are also immune to damage for 4 seconds.

Essentially, Glyph of Fortification is used to slow down or stop enemy sieges on your buildings. They give defending teams enough time to react and move to defend, or just wait for their death timers to tick down a little further.

How to Activate Glyph of Fortification

Activating Glyph of Fortification is extremely simple. There are two ways:

Pressing the Glyph button on the right side of the mini map (golden building icon)
Pressing the Glyph hotkey (default set to “J”)

It is worth noting that activation is shared by the entire team, meaning anyone can use it at will. There is only one Glyph cooldown, so it’s important to coordinate and communicate on its usage.

Glyph Cooldowns and Reset Mechanics

The main downside to Glyph of Fortification is that it has a very long cooldown, so it’s best to be wise with its usage and understand the mechanics around it.

Glyph of Fortification Cooldown

The base cooldown of Glyph’s active ability is 300 seconds, or 5 minutes. This is the longest active cooldown in Dota 2, so you should think twice before using it.

Cooldown Resets

The way glyphs work in Dota has a unique mechanic – its cooldown resets whenever certain towers fall.

The Glyph cooldown resets and is immediately available again when:

The first Tier 1 tower is destroyed
The first Tier 2 tower is destroyed
The first Melee Barracks is destroyed

This means that if your first Tier 1 or Tier 2 tower is about to fall, you might as well press Glyph so you can delay the enemies for a few extra seconds. After the structure falls, Glyph’s cooldown will be reset to 1 second to prevent any accidental double-casts.

Since Glyph’s cooldown does not reset on the destruction of the first Tier 3 or Tier 4 towers, you must use its activation very carefully in the late game, especially when enemy heroes can destroy buildings in seconds at this point in the game.

When Should You Use Glyph of Fortification?

Defending Towers

The most obvious use of Glyph is to protect towers and buildings while enemies are pushing. When you hit the Glyph button while enemies are gathered in front of your tower, it makes them think twice about whether it’s worth committing the extra time into pushing the tower or if they should back off. During this time, your team could be farming the rest of the Dota 2 map.

Delaying Pushes, Especially Tier 2 Towers and Above

As a subpart of “defending towers,” Glyph is also exceptional at stalling incoming sieges. Remember – Tier 2 towers and above are granted multi-attacks, meaning they can also clear out entire enemy creep waves effectively.

One of the best ways to use Glyph is to wait until the enemy wave is within range and use it. The tower will wipe out the wave, buying time for Backdoor Protection to kick in. So, enemies will have to wait for the next creep wave to deal damage.

However, it’s important to remember that it takes several seconds for Backdoor Protection to reactivate. You need to make sure the tower is healthy enough so it doesn’t die in this window.

Protecting Your Team’s Creeps

Remember that Glyph also grants your team’s creeps invulnerability. So if the enemy team is using their Glyph cooldown to wipe out your creeps, you can reply with your own Glyph to protect your own creeps from the tower attacks. This completely negates the enemy’s idea of stalling by killing your creep wave.

These situations, where both teams use Glyph to play around creep waves, are very common in high-level Dota 2 matches, especially when you’re trying to siege or defend high ground.

Advanced Glyph Usage – Pro Tips

Aside from standard Glyph of Fortification usages, here are some advanced ones that you can use in some games:

Enabling Boots of Travel Teleports

Remember when we talked about creeps getting invulnerability? This also helps with Boots of Travel usage. If you’re a hero with Boots of Travel and teleport to an allied creep in the middle of a teamfight, the enemy team is going to pool in resources to take out said creep before you can arrive.

With Glyph’s mechanic, you can teleport on top of any lane creep and activate the cooldown, ensuring you can arrive in the fight with no issues.

Using Glyph’s Multi-Shot to Punish Dives

Sometimes, the enemy team gets a little too big for their boots and dives your team under your own towers. This happens quite frequently, and there is a way to punish them.

If the enemy heroes are under your Tier 2, Tier 3, or Tier 4 towers, you can activate Glyph and have the towers multi-shot on all of these targets. Tower damage shouldn’t be underestimated – they are effective in almost all stages of the game.

Stalling to Get a Tower Deny

If the enemy team is about to destroy your tower, and you are close to the area, you can try timing your Glyph usage when the tower is extremely low, at almost one hit. Then, you can try swooping in for a deny, which will not only reduce the amount of gold the enemy team gets, but also give your entire team gold, too.

Doing this is perfect if it’s your first Tier 1 or Tier 2 tower to go down, as Glyph’s cooldown is going to refresh anyway. Just make sure you don’t die trying this play.

Article Tags

No tags found

Tournaments

No tournaments found

Owen H

Dota 2 writer

Owen is as competitive as it gets, choosing to play the holy trinity of Dota 2, CS2 and Valorant with a primary focus on the former. He peaked at 8,500 MMR in Dota 2 and follows the professional scene religiously. You can still catch him as a regular on the Southeast Asian leaderboards.

How to use Glyph of Fortification in Dota 2

What is Glyph of Fortification in Dota 2?

How to Activate Glyph of Fortification

Glyph Cooldowns and Reset Mechanics

Glyph of Fortification Cooldown

Cooldown Resets

When Should You Use Glyph of Fortification?

Defending Towers

Delaying Pushes, Especially Tier 2 Towers and Above

Protecting Your Team’s Creeps

Advanced Glyph Usage – Pro Tips

Enabling Boots of Travel Teleports

Using Glyph’s Multi-Shot to Punish Dives

Stalling to Get a Tower Deny

Article Tags

Tournaments

Owen H

Dota 2 writer

Related news

Dota 2

Subscribe to the HotSpawn newsletter

Keep up to date on the latest trends

Subscribe to our newsletter