What’s a Dota 2 hero without items? No matter how good you are, proper itemization can make or break a game, even for professionals at DreamLeague Season 25. In the ongoing tournament, we’re playing on the same patch, but these players are still figuring new things out. Here are some items being abused by the pros.
Glimmer Cape
No surprises here. Despite making a late entrance, Glimmer Cape has quickly become THE item of the patch. Throughout the past few patches, Valve made heroes focused on magic damage more prominent with nerfs on Pipe of Insight and Eternal Shroud.
However, people have begun realizing that Glimmer Cape provides stats that are almost as good as an Eternal Shroud while costing 1,500 less gold. It’s pretty much what Hood of Defiance offers before it was removed. And let’s not forget that it also has an active ability, which adds even more magic resistance. The invisibility also comes into play in the professional scene, as you’re forcing enemies to spend money and an item slot to carry Dust of Appearance.
This item is incredibly valuable for frontliners, primarily offlaners, as it allows them to go in the middle of fights and significantly reduce the amount of magic damage taken. It’s also a great pickup on agility carries as they tend to have high armor but low HP and magic resistance. A great example is dyrachyo purchasing it on Phantom Assassin.
Sange and Yasha
Nothing much has changed with Sange and Yasha. It was one of the most popular items at the beginning of the patch and one of the the best Dota items overall. With it being a passive item, there’s not much to talk about, except that it offers way too many stats for a single item.
I don’t have to tell you how valuable attributes and status resistance are, but Sange and Yasha also has a secondary purpose – it allows heroes to farm and navigate the map more efficiently.
We have the largest map in Dota 2’s long history, and since there is always downtime during fights, having Sange and Yasha is not only great for hitting creeps, but having the additional movement speed to go from camp to camp enhances the quality of life.
Drum of Endurance
Aura items such as Guardian Greaves, Pipe of Insight, and Crimson Guard have become less prevalent since the nerfs, but you will still need some sort of aura item to help the team.
This is where Drum of Endurance comes in. Though not all heroes need to benefit from attack speed, gaining additional movement speed is always valuable in fights. With it only costing 1,650 gold, Drum of Endurance becomes a must-buy item.
Though it’s very case-specific, getting Drum of Endurance on Gyrocopter is becoming extremely popular. It offers decent stats for an early game item, and you can use all of its charges to your heart’s content, as Gyrocopter’s innate ability allows him to disassemble the item. Once you piece it back together, all eight charges will be refreshed. Super neat.
Solar Crest
Solar Crest was undoubtedly one of the most broken items a few months ago, but believe it or not, we’re still in the same patch. Aside from a few nerfs in the meager letter patches, Solar Crest is still a very solid item to pick up on supports.
When it was being totally abused, both supports in a team would buy the item and spam it on cores. Though this practice isn’t really viable anymore, you should still have at least one person purchasing Solar Crest.
It’s a great item to help your cores tank a little more damage, and also superb for taking objectives such as Roshan or towers.
