The beauty of Dota is that various roles differ in entirety from each other, making it easy for players to find their niche and play accordingly. Most of the time, in a teamfight, some heroes stand firm on the frontlines, absorbing all the damage while protecting their team from the same. These heroes are exceptionally tanky and shield their teammates to ensure they don’t get in harm's way in any circumstances. Such heroes are often referred to as “tanky” or tank heroes. These heroes are extremely hard to bring kill due to their abilities and skillset.
We have compiled a list of the best 15 Hardest Heros to Kill, to help you pick the right heroes for your games. They are highly relevant to the current meta and they assist your team toward victory without them having to take any damage in teamfights.
15. Pugna
Highly regarded as an annoying self-sustainable and spellcasting hero, Pugna is great at being a tough nut to crack. A pure lane matchup can favor Pugna against squishy cores as he has more INT and mana pool than the latter. Along with that, his enemies face constant harassment and get shoved out of the lane due to the bonkers damage Pugna deals which they can’t negate so easily in the early game. Due to low magic resistance, most heroes are easy to counter, the Decrepify and Life Drain combo decimates enemies within no time.
Pugna may not be a tanky hero like other heroes on the list but his spells make him extremely hard to kill as he can restore his HP quickly while draining his enemy’s HP while being unable to be attacked. Pugna is known to farm effortlessly due to his AoE spell and hit his item timings relatively early. He also loves dishing out magic damage, while not allowing others to do so with Nether Ward. Pugna is an extremely flexible pick and can be played in pretty much all five roles depending on the matchup. This allows him to be a staple pick if you are lacking a durable team-fighting core hero.
Why is Pugna hard to kill?
- Pugna’s Life Drain and Decrepify combination is hard to cancel out in the early game, as it is the reason behind his tanky nature throughout the game, healing him quickly while draining his enemies.
- Pugna is also known to build tanky items like Black King Bar, which further make it hard for enemies to cancel his infamous combo and amplify his durability by a margin.
14. Dragon Knight
Davion, the Dragon Knight is a classic durable hero, his high strength and high HP nature fit the glove. He does not fall despite enemies trying to gank him, his armor shall never betray him. Dragon Knight is a tough nut to crack, he has natural high armor which is amplified by his Dragon’s Blood passive, which makes him unkillable unless all five enemy heroes rotate and hunt him down, which is of course impractical in most games.
It is quite obvious that his foes will try to counter him in the late game by building items that can cause immense harm to his armor, but Dragon Knight is a highly dominant and resilient hero in the late game. His armor isn’t easily threatened, he can also build items to increase his already gigantic and tough armor. He also transforms into a devastating killing machine as the late game approaches, absorbing all the damage from the frontlines and demolishing his foes within no time.
Why is Dragon Knight hard to kill?
- Dragon’s Blood provides immense tank potential, he has increased armor as well as HP regeneration.
- Dragon’s Breath reduces the physical damage dealt by the enemies by a huge margin, making it easy for Dragon Knight to tank his way into the teamfights.
- Dragon Knight is also known to build Black King Bar which provides him with further immunity from magic damage, increasing his durability and contributing more to his tanky status
13. Axe
Mogul Khan, the Axe, is a ruthless frontliner whose impact is felt right from the laning phase. He is an exceptional laner and leaves no stones unturned against melee heroes. The latter group of heroes finds it hard to fight Axe as he has immense armor and killing potential with his spells. His Berserker’s Call provides him with 25 armor for a brief duration, making him hard to kill in the teamfight. Along with that, Axe also builds tank items like Crimson Guard, Blademail, Heart of Tarasque, Black King Bar, etc, which further amplify his tank potential. Axe is a tough nut to crack when he acquires the mentioned items.
With the help of Blademail and Counter Helix Spins Axe can kill multiple heroes and survive a ruthless teamfight thanks to the armor. Most heroes simply can’t do much to Axe when he obtains items like Black King Bar and Blademail, rendering them useless. As the warmonger is tanky, most ignore him largely in teamfights. Even if the enemies manage to hit Axe hard, they may just be susceptible to the Counter Helix spins, which can mow them down within no time if they are reckless!
What makes Axe hard to kill?
- Berserker’s Call provides a bonus of 25 armor, allowing Axe to initiate a fight as well as sustain through it without worrying about dying
- Axe also has high natural armor which makes it easy for him to lane in the early game
- Axe is known to build tank and armor items like Crimson Guard, Blademail, Heart of Tarasque, etc, which further make him hard to kill
12. Enchantress
Enchantress, on the surface level, is seen as a squishy and feeble support hero, while in reality, she is a tough nut to crack if played well. With the help of her ultimate, she is unkillable as enemy attacks directed at her are slowed heavily, making her extremely tanky. She is often overlooked due to her low base attack damage but that should not make you ignore her mid and late-game potential. In 7.34, her abilities allow her to stand her ground and deal some serious damage to her foes. Enchantress is in high demand due to her domination with her impressive buffed toolkit in the current meta.
Enchantress can be a great addition if your team lacks a durable support hero. Her versatility allows her to fit into various roles, which makes her quite flexible in the drafting stage. Enchantress can also easily transition into a semi-carry in the mid and late game if she is given the necessary items and space to farm. In the laning stage, she can harass enemies with her range and slowly chip away at their health, making it easier for her carry to secure kills. With the right timing and items, Enchantress becomes a hard hero to bring down easily.
What makes Enchantress hard to kill?
- With Nature's Attendants, Enchantress can drastically heal herself and her allies in a team fight, giving her team an edge in long teamfights.
- With the help of her ultimate, Untouchable, Enchantress is hard to kill as enemies have their attacks slowed when attacking her, making her a nuisance in teamfights as she can get her Impetus attacks off while her enemies can’t have any physical damage done to her
https://dota2.fandom.com/wiki/Enchantress
11. Centaur Warrunner
Centaur Warrunner, the war chieftain, has seen many strong enemies in his war adventures, his forces have destroyed empires and defeated great warriors. Centaur is naturally a great tank hero, while also being a counter to melee carries due to his ability to gap close with both his ultimate and the Blink Dagger. He can return some serious damage to him and it is further amplified with the Blade Mail. Even a highly farmed carry hero can not fight alone or target a farmed and fat Centaur due to his high armor and HP. Alongside, Centaur can use ultimate to run away from a teamfight or initiate it, essentially disengaging and saving his allies as well as himself in teamfights.
Most heroes surely deal significant damage in the late game, but they merely poke the mighty and tanky Centaur Warruner, making him retaliate with higher damage back at them. Centaur is an effective hero, as he remains powerful throughout the game. His power spikes allow him to both initiate the gank and survive through it with the help of his items. A late-game Centaur can easily catch low-mobility heroes off guard and also ensure he has enough left in the tank to survive a lethal onslaught during teamfights.
What makes Centaur hard to kill?
- Centaur also has Retaliate, the ability that discourages his foes from hitting him, as it returns a percentage of the damage they deal to him.
- Centaur Warruner innately has high armor and HP, making him tanky right from the initial levels, allowing him to stand his ground in teamfights.
- On top of that, Centaur also builds items that amplify his tanky nature, making it easy for him to stand his ground in teamfights.
10. Ursa
Being one of the most played carry heroes is an impressive feat to have, not all heroes are like Ursa. He is an exception due to his ability to deal with ungodly damage while also being able to stand his ground and take little to zero damage in return. Ursa’s high tank potential is attributed to various factors like his ultimate, Enrage, and also the items he makes. His Shard upgrade is also a threat to his foes as it contributes more to his tanking capacity. Ursa is one of the few carry heroes who can 1v5 right from the early game and deal lethal damage to enemies in a fight.
Even as a carry hero, Ursa does not rely much on items, as his spells deal enough damage to rip his foes apart. But buying an early Morbid mask allows him to sustain in lane and turn around a fight swiftly coupled with his ultimate. Ursa almost always purchases a Black King Bar due to his poor natural magic resistance, and doing so against spell-casting heroes is a no-brainer. The combination of his tanky abilities and items together makes him a hard hero to kill regardless of the stage of the game.
What makes Ursa hard to kill?
- Ursa’s ultimate, Enrage, makes him take 80% less damage and provides up to 70% status resistance, making him exceptionally tanky in a teamfight
- Along with that, Ursa’s Aghanim’s Shard upgrade procs Enrage when he uses Earthshock, which further amplifies his tanky nature in a teamfight and makes him a tough kill
- Ursa’s Aghanim Scepter upgrade allows him to use his ultimate even when stunned or silenced, dispelling the enemy spells and making him stand his ground against multiple heroes.
https://dota2.fandom.com/wiki/Ursa
9. Underlord
Underlord is an essential counterpick if you are looking for an Offlaner that can decimate the enemy carry right from minute 0. He is notorious for being a menacing and resilient offlane hero against most squishy heroes. Squishy and melee carry heroes simply hate laning against Underlord as the latter has high physical damage which is hard to negate in the early game, along with high HP and armor which they find hard to penetrate. This relentless damage and tank potential are unmatched by the most relevant offlane heroes in the current meta.
It’s quite a treat to see a farmed and fat Underlord take no damage from the equally farmed counterpart. This causes the latter to ignore him in teamfights, which eventually ends up costing him his life. Underlord can easily outpace and outfarm the enemy carry throughout the game if he is in the offlane with the right lane partner. His impressive skill set is just the cherry on top, allowing his allies to escape and trapping his foes in the Pit of Malice. The late game is a completely different playing field for Underlord as he can essentially frontline and take little to no damage in a teamfight.
Why is Underlord hard to kill?
- Underlord is known to primarily build aura items like Pipe, Guardian Greaves, and Crimson Guard that help him and his allies stand their ground during a teamfight.
- Underlord naturally has high base armor and HP gain, keeping him sustained right from the laning stage
8. Undying
Dirge, the undefeated Undying is nothing short of a nightmare to the enemy team. He is one of the few tanky supports in the game who can stand their ground against multiple enemies at once. Picking him first ensures you threaten your enemy with strength steal and harass potential. Having high HP as support will guarantee your carry ally a free rein as you will be busy shoving your foes away from the XP range while your carry safely farms and outpaces his opponents. His enemies stand no chance once he transforms into the Flesh Golem as he gains bonus strength, making him highly tanky and durable in fights.
Undying has various skills which help him be highly relevant right from the get-go. His high HP makes it easy for him to tank the teamfight and lets his team deal damage from a safe distance, making him hard to kill. Undying is the ideal support in the current brawling meta where all the heroes seem to just fight it out mercilessly in the laning stage. He is a threat to melee and strength heroes as he can sap their strength and deal high damage to them. In 7.34, Undying’s soaring pick rate is highly attributed to his teamfight potential.
What makes Undying hard to kill?
- Undying is known to be a menace with his Decay ability which steals enemy strength, making him highly tanky and hard to kill
- Undying can also use Soul Rip to gain HP, which further makes it hard for enemy heroes to bring him down if he follows it up with Decay or Flesh Golem which provide him with increased HP
https://www.dota2.com/hero/undying
7. Puck
The mystical faerie dragon, Puck is one of the few non-tanky heroes on this list, and the reason why he is so hard to kill is attributed to his spells! Although relatively a weak and squishy laner, Puck can turn the tides around against enemies if he manages to secure his early game by farming sufficiently and ganking other lanes. Puck’s slippery spells make him hard to kill, he can escape with his Illusory Orb, Waning Rift, and also with his Phase Shift. All these spells combined with items like Blink Dagger and Eul’s just enhance his agility and make him one annoying hero to catch.
Even if you manage to catch the Puck with silence, he can just purge it off with his Eul’s! The early game is always Puck favored because he is innately slippery and deals a ton of magical damage and also has decent lockdown. On the offensive, Puck is equally lethal and annoying. His items allow him to catch foes off-guard and deal high amounts of damage to them. Puck does more damage by just kiting his foes around and making them waste time by being painstakingly nimble.
Why is Puck hard to kill?
- Illusory Orb and Waning Rift provide great mobility, allowing Puck to initiate on enemy heroes or to escape, making him hard to kill
- Puck is also known to purchase items like Blink Dagger, Eul’s Scepter, and Linken’s Sphere which make him an extremely nimble hero to get hold of.
https://dota2.fandom.com/wiki/Puck
6. Mars
The first son of heaven, Mars, is somewhat of the rage in the current meta. His exceptional tank potential and damage-dealing abilities rank him high up on this list. Mars is an exceptional hero if you want someone to tank out all the damage and lead the charge for your team, and a great wave-clear hero as well. He synergizes well with most heroes, making him a flexible pick in every game, and can withstand tonnes of damage with his flexible and reliable item build. He is also extremely durable due to his Bulwark, making him stand his ground in teamfights.
Mars is picked often due to his high reliability, allowing him to opt for multiple different builds according to the heroes he is facing, a luxury that not all heroes get to have. He is also an exceptional crowd control hero, courtesy of his ultimate, which prevents people from entering the Arena or dealing damage from outside of it. This way he can shield himself and his allies from enemy onslaught or corner certain enemy heroes and beat them down within no time under its duration, while also making him a tough nut to crack.
What makes Mars hard to kill?
- The Bulwark spell makes it hard for Mars’ enemies to attack him, as he takes less damage if attacked from the front or the sides
- His Arena doesn’t allow him to get any damage dealt to him if it comes from outside of it, allowing him to isolate enemies and trap them inside.
- Mars naturally has high HP and armor, he also builds high armor and HP items (ex. Assault Cuirass, Overwhelming Blink, Shiva’s Guard) which amplify his durability.
5. Medusa
Medusa, the serpentine warrior, is a tough nut to crack, she is one of the most lethal and tanky carry heroes in the game. With the recent buffs to her Mana Shield, she takes little to no damage as all the damage is absorbed by her mana. She is highly effective in the late game as she can amplify her tanky nature with more items which makes her even harder to kill. Her tankiness allows her to be the center of the fight without worrying much about her enemies, which she can still crack down on thanks to her immense attack damage.
Along with being a hard-to-kill hero, Medusa is known to farm faster than most carry heroes. Agreed, some heroes have higher mobility than her, but Medusa has sustainability and effective damage, making her an ideal hero in the later stages of the game due to how well she fares against multiple heroes. This is something that squishy carry heroes can’t excel at. All the attack modifiers and tank potential are too hot for the enemy team to handle even in the late game, making most players eventually tap out against this serpentine warrior.
Why is Medusa hard to kill?
- Mana Shield's ability absorbs the damage she takes, which comes at the cost of her mana pool, but she isn’t highly reliant on it as it is evident.
- Medusa also has innately high armor gain, making her stand her ground right from the laning phase.
- Medusa also builds tanky items like Eye of Skadi, Manta Style, and Butterfly which provide her with increased HP, stats, and evasion, making her a raid boss in the late stages of the game.
https://dota2.fandom.com/wiki/Medusa
4. Timbersaw
The tanky Timbersaw fares extremely well against melee and ranged heroes alike. He is quite a dominating force in the lane right from the early game as the enemy does not have much resistance to his magical and pure damage while also not being able to deal any damage to the mechanical maniac. Timbersaw can dictate the pace of the game with his moves, due to him being such a hard-to-kill hero. Most enemies can surely hinder Timber’s gameplay but the latter does not rely on attack damage to kill creeps or heroes. His abilities are enough to decimate his enemies.
Even if the enemies manage to secure a decent farm, Timber’s Reactive armor stops enemies from advancing any further and ignoring him in teamfights. This forces his foes to jungle early on in the game, which makes them lag in the farm and XP department. Timber can triumph in the late game as well if he is given free rein, he can purchase various items which allow him to maintain control and dominance against his foes, including Crimson Guard or Heaven’s Halberd which further amplify his tanky nature.
Why is Timbersaw hard to kill?
- Timbersaw’s Reactive Armor provides him with increased armor stack every time he is attacked by enemy units, all the armor stacks up making him immensely tanky and durable in a team fight.
- Further, Timbersaw purchases tanky items like Crimson Guard, Heart of Tarasque, Shiva’s Guard, etc, which enhance his armor and HP, making him even tougher to kill.
3. Morphling
Your options are quite limited if your team lacks a durable carry hero. Morphling fits like a glove for that requirement due to his innate ability to deal high damage while also taking little to no in return. Morphling’s Attribute Shift spell quickly provides him with increased strength, making him stand his ground against multiple heroes by making him tanky. His tank potential is further multiplied by the items he purchases (Ex. Satanic, Manta Style, Eye of Skadi, etc.)
In the late game, enemies struggle hard to match Morphling’s pace as their damage simply isn’t enough to cause a dent in Morphling’s health pool (courtesy of Attribute Shift). Morph (the eponymous ultimate spell) can be used to give enemies a taste of their own medicine and have them taken out from teamfights as Morphling just clones them and can use their abilities against them. Along with being hard to kill hero, Morhpling can also deal high damage as his Attribute Shift can be shifted to agility, making him gain agility damage as well.
What makes Morphling hard to kill?
- Attribute Shift ability allows Morphling to quickly gain strength, hence making him gain HP fast, further discouraging enemies from attacking him
- Morphling is also known for building survivability items like Eye of Skadi, Butterfly, and Satanic, which make him stand his ground in a fight and make him a tough target to go on
2. Tidehunter
The mighty and resilient Tidehunter does exceptionally well in any lane is chosen to go, primarily against squishy heroes as he can simply lower their armor and deal high damage while significantly reducing the damage he takes in return. In turn, he gets dealt little to no damage due to Anchor Smash and Kraken Shell which drastically reduces any damage he takes. Tide can simply blink into Ravage and have his team follow up on the enemies, he can also build items like Solar Crest, or Lotus Orb to reduce the amount of damage he takes.
In the late game, players have no choice but to ignore Tidhunter during teamfights as they can not deal damage to him due to Kraken Shell even with the help of their teammates. Tide can simply negate all the damage and tank through the team fight, shielding his cores. Most carry heroes need help to turn the tides against the Tidehunter in the late game due to his immense armor. The offlane impact and survivability of this mighty melon are too hard to be ignored right from the early game.
Why is Tidehunter hard to kill?
- In the early game, carry heroes cannot penetrate Kraken Shell passive and will do almost no damage to Tidehunter even with Medallion of Courage or Solar Crest.
- Anchor Smash reduces the physical damage that enemies do to Tidehunter, hence amplifying his tank potential.
- Along with being innately tanky, Tide purchases items like Shiva’s Guard, Solar Crest, Lotus Orb, etc which further enhance his tanky nature and render him unkillable in the late game
1. Bristleback
There are many reasons why Bristleback is on top of this list. He is innately tanky, makes tanky items, and deals immense damage to heroes, making him hard to kill. He takes no damage while dealing quite a ton of damage in return to him. He is an obnoxious laner, he is but he is quite the fun hero to play since all he does is spam his spells without thinking too much, which he can do effortlessly as he is backed by his insanely high armor, which makes him such a delight for players to pick. He is quite literally invincible once he gets all his required items.
Why is Bristleback hard to kill?
- Bristleback naturally has high armor, which makes him a hard target to focus on in a teamfight
- With the help of his eponymous passive, Bristleback takes less damage (of all types), when he is facing away from the target, making it easy for him to frontline and deal high damage in a fight
- Bristleback is also known for purchasing armor items like Lotus Orb, Shiva’s Guard, Assault Cuirass, Solar Crest, etc., which further amplify his tankiness and make him harder to kill
https://www.dota2.com/hero/bristleback
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