When playing Dota 2, there are valuable spaces called item slots where you can store your weapons and equipment. A hero can carry up to 10 items at a time so you have to be careful with which items you have to buy. Fortunately, there are items in this game that can give you extra space after you use or share them with your allies. These items are called consumables.

Most Dota 2 players are aware of how consumables work, but they rarely use those items as they prioritize building more valuable items. Despite this, consumables still serve a purpose in-game, mostly for the laning phase. If you are interested to learn more about consumable items in Dota 2, here’s what you need to know about them:

What are consumables?

Consumables are basic items in Dota 2 that disappear from your item slot upon use. These items can heal HP or mana and grant special effects besides temporarily increasing a hero’s stats. Also, most consumables are bought by support heroes who are used to sharing such items with their teammates.

What are the different consumables in Dota 2?

There are 15 consumable items in Dota 2, and each of them has different effects:

• Aghanim’s Blessing is a self-affecting item that upgrades the abilities of its user. It can be obtained by killing Roshan a third or fourth time.
• Bottle restores HP and Mana for a short time. Its effect can be interrupted when the user is attacked. Fortunately, it can be refilled by going to the fountain. Bottles can also be used to store runes.
• Cheese provides an instant HP and mana healing effect. It is dropped by Roshan after his second and succeeding deaths. It is stackable in the inventory and can be shared.
• Clarity is a mana regeneration consumable item. It replenishes mana for a few seconds and can be interrupted when the user is attacked or dispelled.
• Dust of Appearance is used to disable invisibility effects among enemies in a certain area. Invisible heroes revealed by this item are also slowed for a while. This item cannot reveal wards.
• Enchanted Mango is an item that instantly restores mana among nearby allies. This item can be stacked up to three times but it cannot be sold.
• Faerie Fire is a self-affecting, non-stackable item that instantly restores HP.
• Greater Faerie Fire restores more HP than Faerie Fire and is dropped by neutral creeps upon death.
• Healing Salve is a stackable healing item that affects allied heroes. The healing effect of this item is channelled and can be disrupted by enemy attacks.
• Observer Ward is an invisible device that can be planted by the user anywhere on the map except the Roshan pit. It provides a ground vision of nearby enemies and can only be stacked up to four times.
• Refresher Shard is a self-affecting item dropped by Roshan from his third death onwards. This item can instantly reset the cooldown timers of all items and abilities of its user. This item can be shared.
• Sentry Ward also provides the same visual effect and restrictions as the Observer Ward but this item has an added effect where invisible enemies can also be seen.
• Smoke of Deceit grants invisibility and a slight movement speed boost among the user and nearby allies to the point where even its minimap icons are hidden. The invisibility wears off when approaching an enemy hero or a tower.
• Tango is made up of three spores that can heal the user’s HP upon consuming a tree, albeit at a slower rate. One spore can be shared among allies so they can also heal. Consuming a tree can also help in the laning phase of the game and revealing hidden enemies.
• Town Portal Scroll is a consumable item given to all heroes at the start of the game. It allows the user to teleport within range of a friendly structure. Teleporting to the same location will take a longer time, except when it is to the fountain.

Note: The Observer and Sentry Wards can be combined to occupy one item slot. However, only one type of ward can be activated upon use.

Strategies in using consumables

Most consumables are bought in the early stages of the game as they are cheap and provide a quick fix when something goes wrong in a skirmish. However, consumables are also available for use when recouping from Roshan’s onslaught.

Supports are often relied upon for purchasing consumables, particularly wards, instant healing items and cooldown resets, and Tangoes. These effects are highly useful in map awareness, team fights, and securing lanes.

Rules on cooldowns of shareable consumables

More than one hero can purchase the same consumable item. However, using these items one after the other would give the team an unfair advantage. To avoid this, there are certain rules as to how long each item must be consumed again after its first use:

• Receiving an unused consumable from a teammate after you use your own consumable places the newly received item on cooldown.
• An item that is on cooldown retains its timer even when it is shared with a teammate.
• Picking up a dropped used consumable from a teammate will place it on cooldown. All unused items of the same kind will also be on cooldown. However, purchasing the same kind of consumable as the one dropped by the teammate before it is picked up will not place the item on cooldown.

Consumables in Dota 2 generally act as temporary item builds for each hero before they focus on their more valuable items. Don’t underestimate the value of each consumable item as it could spell the difference between winning a team fight or losing it. No matter which stage of the game you are in, consumables will provide you with several advantages that won’t hurt your team’s economy.