Top ten best disablers in DOTA 2

In DOTA 2, there are several roles you can play to create the best five-man combination before going into the match. One of these roles is the disabler, the one responsible for casting crowd control abilities to either initiate team fights or back teammates up when the odds are against them. 

Just like other hero roles in DOTA 2, disablers exist in three different complexity levels but this article focuses on those heroes most players consider the most effective disabler in the game. If you are interested to know about such heroes, here are ten of them:

Winter Wyvern

Winter Wyvern is an extremely versatile DOTA 2 hero because she can be played in four different positions. Her specialty is freezing and later taunting her opponents across a wide range using her ultimate Winter’s Curse, but she can also slow down enemies, and heal and protect allies from physical damage. Being a Level 2 complexity hero, Winter Wyvern isn’t that hard to learn.

Earthshaker

Another Level 2 complexity disabler, mastering Earthshaker wouldn’t take much time. This hero is a master of crowd control chains through his Aftershock which grants him an additional stun every time he uses a skill. 

He can also either trap or zone out enemies with his Fissure, making him a reliable hero in team fights. If you equip Earthshaker with enough cooldown items, his crowd control chain becomes more spammable and could potentially dish out the longest stun-lock combo in the game.

Enigma

Enigma’s flexibility in positions can be seen when he is either played as a support or as an offlaner. He is usually picked against hero lineups with little to no mobility because his specialty is sucking enemies in through his Blackhole. 

Opponents caught up in this move will be left helpless as they are disabled from using any skills while Blackhole is active. Enigma has also proven himself useful in the early laning phase as he can manipulate minion waves with his abilities.

Disruptor

Disruptor is known as one of those disablers who has great potential to turn the tides in team fights. Players who use him know his main combo consists of combining Kinetic Field and Static Storm to trap enemies in silencing doom. Disruptor can also be used in ambushing enemies and scoring free hits for carries using his Thunder Strike.

Rubick

Rubick is one of the most contested heroes in DOTA 2 due to his ability to mimic any one of an opponent’s moves using his Spell Steal. Because of this, Rubick may as well have already cast a disable on the opponent’s team right before the match even started. If Rubick has been already picked up by the opposing team, you will be discouraged to pick a hero with a better movepool than him since he can always copy your moves anyway.

Treant Protector

One of the earliest heroes to be released in the first DOTA game, Treant Protector boasts five skills in his arsenal instead of the usual four. His specialty is slowing enemies down in team fights and in the laning phase as well as dealing poke damage for good measure. What makes him unique as a disabler is his ability to slow down the opponent’s map control maneuvers by healing allied towers.

Bane

A Level 3 complexity hero, Bane is quite hard to master but pro heroes who can control him well can significantly put opponents at a disadvantage through his ultimate Fiend’s Grip. He also has a unique crowd control ability of putting enemy units to sleep using his Nightmare. The sleep effect wears off when the enemy is attacked, but it is still an effective disable move.

Shadow Shaman

Another difficult disabler hero to get the hang of is Shadow Shaman but heroes who play against him might see him as annoying to deal with. Shadow Shaman currently boasts the longest disabling move in the game with his Shackles. Meanwhile, his Hex turns enemy heroes into chickens who move slowly on the battlefield and cannot cast skills. Both his Shackles and Hex are spammable skills, which is why Shadow Shaman is a pain in the neck as an enemy.

Puck

Puck’s flexibility is unique as she can either be used as a support or as a damage dealer. She can easily whittle down the opponent’s HP using her AOE ultimate Dream Coil but she can also use the mobility from her first and third skills to initiate team fights and reposition herself when necessary. Puck is quite the difficult hero to master but the payoff from this is her reliability in terms of base damage output.

Tidehunter

Disablers usually perform best when they are able to clump enemies together for a massive crowd control chain. To avoid these types of situations, opponents usually avoid fighting together at once and time their skills well for a counterattack. 

Tidehunter ignores all those positioning tactics using his Ravage, an ultra-wide range ultimate which can hit enemies a good distance from him as well as dealing long stuns in the process. Also, his Kraken Shell makes him one of the toughest DOTA 2 heroes.

If you are an experienced DOTA 2 player, you can pay less attention to the complexity of each hero on this list and just try them out straight away, but if you are a beginner player, you are free to practice each of these heroes first before heading to 5v5 matches. 

Remember that this list only shows the disablers that could give you a high chance of winning from the get-go or present an incredible comeback potential when your team is behind. Whatever the case may be, you should study each hero’s movepool and make sure you equip the right items to complement their abilities.