The Ultimate Ability Draft Guide (Dota 2) (2024)

When writing my article about the Dota 2 mini-game “Custom Hero Chaos” – I stumbled upon this Ability Draft Guide on Reddit

It was so comprehensive, and so well written, that I decided to turn it into a whole article.

This text!

I did the same thing with this guide to the legendary fantasy game Lords of Magic, that I (also) found on Reddit.

Here is that article.

It was written by this “Genius Fanboy”, as I like to call him! It was probably the single most impressive guide I have ever read.

Not kidding.

You can read my other text about Lords of Magic here.

About how this one game ALMOST displaced the Heroes of Might & Magic Franchise.

Yep. Almost.

Anyway.

Moving on!

I played unranked Dota 2 for many years, as most players do. I currently have 3500+ Hours (!) on record. Here is a link to my Steam Profile.

After taking a break from the game, I came back, and discovered “Ability Draft”. What an unusual, weird, and “crazy” game mode!

In total, I might have played a couple hundred Ability Draft Games. It was very fun to experiment with different builds – no game WAS EVER the same!

I also noticed that there was a lot less FLAMING in Ability Draft games. People play these games for fun. They do not take it so seriously.

That’s a good thing!

I cannot say that I was especially good at Ability Draft, I never went online – and read guides and such. My win rate was probably 50-55%, or in that range.

But if you want to get good at this specific game mode, you probably SHOULD read a guide – or two!

Are you aware that Weaver’s “Germinate Attack” STACKS FULLY with Echo Sabre for melee heroes? For 3 Instant Attacks?

This is a VERY powerful combination. But you will not draft it, unless you know that it works. There are many other interactions like this.

When you are inside the game drafting these skills, there is no way to know if these abilities stack or not. There isn’t a lot of information about it – inside the game.

The “Tooltips” were made for regular Dota 2, not “Ability Draft”. As far as they are concerned, “Ability Draft” is a fun side experiment.

But this guide should contain the most important interactions between spells and items.

Here are some resources:

• Here is Dota 2 Fandom’s Ability Draft Page (very high quality).

• Here is Reddit’s Ability Draft Page (2.7k members)

• Here is a link to the Ability Draft Guide on Reddit.

• Here is a 20 minute Youtube Guide to Ability Draft.

• Here is a Medium Text about powerful skill combinations for Ability Draft.

• Here is a well written Ability Draft Guide on Dota Fire.

• Here is another Ability Draft Guide on Dota Fire.

Here is a fun Ability Draft Video on Youtube, where several friends play the game together.

But there isn’t a whole lot of Ability Draft Content online.

This Ability Draft Guide was posted on the subreddit r/TrueDoTA2 – which has 106 000 members.

It was posted by a user called “TheGreatGimmick” four months ago (as of this writing moment). On his profile you can see that he has been very active on Reddit.

This guide is all his words.

Whenever I add information, I will write:

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“my comment”

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To make sure that you know WHO’S TALKING!

Alright.

Let’s get to the guide!

Your hero's base stats heavily affect the viability of many builds. Additionally, Talents should be considered when drafting abilities, although they are usually far from the most important factor.

Stats can be found here, while Talents can be found here. You can also just hover over your hero in the drafting screen.

Carefully consider the pick order when choosing which abilities to draft. The earlier you pick, the more likely you are to get an overpowered stand-alone ability, while picking later raises the chances that you can complete a combination of abilities.

If you see an overpowered combo in the draft, but are first-pick, tell your team what you see but pick one of the powerful stand-alone abilities instead, because it is unlikely the second half of the combo will make it all the way back to you.

Some heroes are also far more likely to pick certain abilities than others (e.g., Warlock and Chaotic Offering) which can also affect your assessment of whether you can get away with a combo or not.

Ruining your own build can sometimes be worth denying an enemy build. For example, Arcane Orb is generally a grief pick unless you draft Essence Flux first, but sometimes it is actually the correct play to deny-pick Orb if the enemy has Essence Flux and, say, Swashbuckle already.

The very last person in the pick order is the only hero that drafts two abilities back-to-back (in the first round of drafting), so if you pick earlier, be on the lookout for which abilities you need to pick to deny them a broken combo.

Sometimes your own team will pick abilities you needed for a combo. Communicate in the chat, but do not assume everyone will play along.

Try to get confirmation from your team that they understand not to draft the ability you want. If you are met with negatives or even just silence, assume they may draft your desired ability.

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1. In Ability Draft, the first person has first pick, and can get the best skill.

2. But the last person in the team, will be able to pick two skills, one after the other.

3. This allows them to pick two skills that work well together.

This is how skill drafting in Ability Draft works.

There is an advantage to being FIRST, but there is an advantage to being LAST – also!

Whenever there are powerful standout abilities that EVERYBODY wants, then, you want to be first.

But whenever there is a powerful combination of abilities – you want to be last.

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Ability Draft often lags behind the main game in terms of patch updates. For a while after a patch, new ability changes may or may not have taken effect, and entirely new abilities (e.g., from Aghanim's Shard changes) are often missing entirely.

Conversely, removed parts of the game may still linger in Ability Draft. They've gotten better about updating AD, but this is still something to keep in mind for weeks or months after a major patch.

If your hero's normal Talent option(s) pertain to an ability that you did not draft, you are offered Gold instead. I know free Gold is tempting, but if you have the option, it is almost always better to take a Talent that actually does something over the free Gold.

You must be flexible in your item builds, because you are essentially playing an entirely new hero each game of Ability Draft.

Ask yourself what your abilities need to succeed, then build that, no matter how silly such an item build might seem out of context. Sometimes item builds that are ill-advised in the regular game work exceedingly well in Ability Draft.

A corollary to the above point is that supports in Ability Draft tend to be greedier than in the regular game.

Sometimes this is even justifiable; if their build achieves perma-stun with an Octarine, is it really better to get traditional items like Glimmer Cape instead? Well, yes, it probably still is, but the argument is there at least.

The mid lane usually hosts one of three kinds of builds:

1. The build that is completely useless before 6 but comes online once they can use their ultimate (e.g., Ancient Seal + Decrepify + Ice Vortex + Finger of Death)

2. The build that completely dominates a 1v1 (the most 'vanilla' style of mid-laner, amplified further by custom builds)

3. Or Simply the strongest build on your team (the broken combo)

The point is, you may sometimes see a player who should have been a clear safelane carry or durable offlaner go mid instead, and that may not be a bad thing, simply because if they have a very powerful build they just need to outlevel everyone else and roll over them.

In summary, often you will see builds that do not fit the archetype for a traditional midlaner nonetheless going mid in Ability Draft. Whoever needs levels the most generally goes.

The strength of various builds on a team often makes Ability Draft a more polarized game in terms of target priorities.

Identify whether there is someone on the enemy team that is worth losing 3+ of your own heroes to take out, and if so, do that.

This is occasionally the case in the regular game as well (e.g., going all-in on the enemy carry), but it happens more often in Ability Draft.

Unique sources of Bash that do not normally stack will fully stack in Ability Draft.

Geminate Attack stacks with Echo Sabre, resulting in 3 attacks at once for melee heroes.

Melee heroes can attack with the full attack range of attack modifiers (e.g. Frost Arrows) only if they have a source of True Strike. Otherwise the attacks will miss if distance exceeds 350 units.

Ranged heroes can always use the full distance, but may suffer the reverse problem: Short-ranged modifiers (e.g., Infernal Blade) should not be manually cast, since you must autocast them to use your base hero's range.

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In order to use Doom’s Infernal Blade on RANGED HEROES – you must have it on “autocast”.

Otherwise it will require you to go to melee range – and apply it. It is a very powerful spell for a ranged hero, since it was made for a melee hero.

Lots of damage and a guaranteed stun every 4th second. Who wants to lane against THAT? =)

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For most effects that refresh cooldowns (e.g., Rearm, Blur's Aghanim's Scepter upgrade, etc.), charge-based abilities will only receive 1 charge back, not be fully replenished like Refresher Orb.

Dismember cannot be used while you have eaten someone with its Aghanim's Shard effect.

Several abilities have been altered to work in Ability Draft, but the most drastic of these changes is Poof, which can now target any allied unit within 2000 range. Although I still would not recommend picking Poof, it is not as useless as one might think.

Only Meepo can be globally targeted by an allied Poof from anywhere on the map and have them appear at his location.

Only Monkey King can become trees with Mischief (which is tied to the Wukong's Command ability). Other heroes can still turn into other things.

Bane can freely damage targets under the effects of Nightmare, even if he does not have Nightmare.

Faceless Void can move inside anyone's Chronosphere.

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When you play against Void, and cast Chronosphere, it has no effect whatsoever. The opposing team is often hesitant to draft Chronosphere – for this reason.

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At one time, Batrider used to gain unobstructed vision whenever he had free pathing, which was easy to abuse with abilities like Spin Webs and Arctic Burn.

However, I am not sure if this is the case any longer now that, in the vanilla game, Firefly was changed to be ground vision.

You can also find a helpful list of the current bugs here. Some of them are gamebreaking!

Most interdependent interactions are now included in the tooltips provided by Ability Draft, so this section is less necessary than in ye olden days.

Key Interactions

I'm including some key interactions here for completion's sake, however.

Any time another ability is directly referenced in the description of an ability or its upgrade (e.g., Scepter, Shard, or Talent), that effect requires both abilities to function.

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This is actually a VERY IMPORTANT TIP.

Because there are a lot of abilities in Dota 2 – which trigger other abilities, in some way!

Crystal Maiden’s ultimate “Freezing Field” will trigger “Frostbite” on any enemy inside it for 3.5 seconds. If you have the scepter upgrade.

But you NEED both the ultimate “Freezing Field” – and “Frostbite” for it to work. The scepter upgrade for “Freezing Field” – is VERY STRONG.

It:

1. Gives enemies “Frostbite” (any number of them)

2. Increases damage by 20%

3. Allows you to move around, attack, cast spells, during the ultimate

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The prime example of this is Eclipse requiring Lucent Beam. Don't be that guy. Another notable example is Bristleback needing Quill Spray to fully function.

Geomagnetic Grip, unlike Rolling Boulder or Boulder Smash, is entirely dependent on Stone Remnants (and thus Magnetize) to do anything.

Arcane Orb needs Essence Flux to be fully viable, though it can deal decent damage on the first use if at full mana.

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“Arcane Orb” is completely useless without “Essence Flux”. You only have mana for a couple attacks. Then it will do nothing.

Trust me on this one!

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Neither Charge of Darkness nor Nether Strike will inflict their Greater Bash components if the caster does not have Greater Bash.

Natural Order does not lower Magic Resistance if Astral Spirit is not drafted.

Requiem of Souls requires souls, and thus Necromastery.

Other Interactions

Less Drastic Improvements Include:

Astral Spirit and Echo Stomp, while decent abilities on their own, are heavily interconnected in terms of how they were intended to be used.

Shuriken Toss can only bounce if Track is also on your team, though two different heroes can own the abilities!

Avalanche, Toss, and Grow are all interconnected.

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Tiny’s Grow increases the damage of Toss by 300. Avalanche does DOUBLE DAMAGE to units being tossed.

Any skill that requires another ability to fully function is bad in ability draft. Unless you can draft BOTH of them.

Avalanche, Toss, and Grow are connected. But these abilities are good enough to be picked by themselves, sometimes.

“Avalanche” is good for farming, and in ganks.

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Familiars from Summon Familiars are very fragile without Gravekeeper's Cloak.

Rolling Boulder and Boulder Smash are best used with Stone Remnants (and thus Magnetize).

Relocate can be useful on its own, but half the point of the spell is to take an ally with you, necessitating Tether.

Summon Wolves are usually underwhelming without support from both Feral Impulse and Shapeshift.

Many other abilities (Plague Wards + Poison Sting, Dragon Tail + Elder Dragon Form, Spawn Spiderlings + Spin Webs, etc.) use other abilities as part of their normal function.

Multiple Talents

Luna, Dark Seer, Lone Druid, Puck, Primal Beast, Tidehunter, and Undying each have at least one Talent per Talent tier (4 or more Talents) for Lucent Beam, Ion Shell, Summon Spirit Bear, Waning Rift, Trample, Anchor Smash, or Tombstone, respectively.

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This is what he means.

These heroes all have MANY TALENTS for the SAME ABILITY:

1. Luna: Lucent Beam

2. Dark Seer: Ion Shell

3. Lone Druid: Summon Spirit Bear

4. Puck: Waning Rift

5. Primal Beast: Trample

6. Tidehunter: Anchor Smash

7. Undying: Tombstone

Luna has 4 Talents for “Lucent Beam”. One for each “Tier”, as in 10/15/20/25. The same applies to Dark Seer and his “Ion Shell”.

He has a talent for Ion Shell in every single talent tier. This makes that specific skill much more desirable, as all your talents will improve it significantly.

The same applies to the other heroes in the list.

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Engima's Eidolons can be heavily improved by his Talents.

Many heroes have multiple early Talents for certain abilities (e.g., Underlord with Firestorm) that can be potent to stack up, but don't get baited into planning for level 25, because it usually doesn't happen.

Snapfire can transform into a devastating late game carry with her relevant Lil' Shredder Talents if the game does end up going long enough, though level 25 is a long time to wait.

Single Talents

Ancient Apparition gains +300 Chilling Touch range at level 10, making already-strong Aghs builds even stronger.

Jakiro gains +200 attack range at level 10, making abilities like Arctic Burn, Take Aim, Elder Dragon Form, and especially Impetus more desirable.

Techies gets a casual 20% magic resistance at level 10 (Timbersaw gets this at level 20).

Crystal Maiden's level 20 Talent grants +225 Attack Speed, which can be quite potent with certain modifiers like Scepter Chilling Touch or Bash of the Deep.

Warlock's level 20 Golem On Death Talent makes Chaotic Offering very attractive on the hero, and he gets further Talents for his Golems at 25.

Of course, many level 25 Talents can be incredible and change how your build functions... provided the game even lasts that long.

Niche Talents

Some heroes have Talents that provide auras for the "AFK Infest/Dismember" builds (see the below Ally-Dependent Builds section), such as:

1. Beastmaster's level 15 +20 MS aura

2. Doom's level 15 Devour Ancients for auras

3. Underlord's level 25 Allies gain 50% Atrophy Aura

4. Centaur's level 25 Retaliate Aura

Tinker's level 20 Defense Matrix Grants 25% CDR Talent could allow some Aftershock builds to achieve permastun (see the below Aftershock section).

Skywrath Mage's Global Concussive Shot at level 20 could be highly amusing with Rearm. Perhaps add Rocket Flare into the mix as well.

With a sufficiently tanky build (especially with Kraken Shell to dispel stuns), Terrorblade's 10-second Sunder at level 25 would be incredibly difficult to deal with.

Tiny with Rupture combined with the level 20/25 Toss Talents (to remove the need for a target and grant more charges) could be devastating and hilarious.

Tusk and Ogre Magi both have level 25 Talents that, with enough attack speed, can result in permastun and ridiculous damage. This requires Walrus Punch / Fireblast, respectively.

Of course, many other Talents can be potent as well; be sure to know your hero's Talents before constructing your draft.

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The first thing I look at when I get my hero is my talents.

Because those talents can improve a skill dramatically. Some hero builds revolve around one key skill.

If Dark Seer has Ion Shell, he can lane, he can jungle, and he can be effective in ganks.

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Later sections of this guide will go over how you can combine your own abilities together, but some builds require that the synergistic abilities be drafted on two different heroes.

Most such builds involve one hero going AFK inside of an ally, as described below.

Infest with Tether, Rot, Scepter-upgraded Spirits, Voodoo Restoration, Scepter-upgraded Heartstopper Aura, or (less potently) any AoE passive (e.g. Atrophy Aura, Warcry's Shard upgrade, Inner Beast, etc.) – can make for an AFK build where one hero sits inside an ally all game but still contributes significantly.

This requires that the AFK hero has a viable ally 'host', of course.

An ally with Dismember and an Aghanim's Shard can accomplish the same effect (however, the Tether combo does not work).

This version has the additional requirement of not only needing a viable 'host', but also needing a host that doesn't require an ultimate ability (because they wasted it on Dismember to eat the afk hero).

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Pudge’s new shard enables him to “swallow” a friendly hero, who can stay there indefinitely – and contribute with auras.

This “shard” will upgrade his skill “Dismember”.

Lifestealer can use his ultimate “Infest” to jump into another hero, and stay there forever.

Pudge will ABSORB the other hero, Lifestealer will JUMP INTO the other hero.

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If using the Dismember version, the interior hero can also contribute their ult (since they don't need Infest), opening up builds like Blood Mist (Scepter-upgraded Rupture) constantly burning enemies down, Reincarnation contributing its aura to the exterior ally, or Shard-upgraded Epicenter pulsing occasionally.

Special mention goes to Vengeance Aura with Dismember, since the Scepter illusion can re-eat your hidden ally once your actual hero dies.

Bulwark's Scepter upgrade still works in this situation despite being disabled by stuns/disarms normally.

When using the Dismember version, Glimmer Cape can be used on the host by the interior ("afk") hero without emerging from the host.

If the ally that is being Infested or eating their teammate with Dismember is:

1. Durable

2. Reasonably mobile

–covers whatever weakness the hidden ally does not. You need damage for the Tether build, but not for the Rot build – since Rot deals so much damage anyway.

These can be some of the most potent builds in Ability Draft – due to the combined chimera essentially functioning as two heroes in one.

The Rot builds are very strong, Heartstopper with Infest is broken, and Tether with Infest is one of the most broken possible builds in the mode, easily turning into 800+ heal per second.

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I do not understand how the host can achieve 800 heal per second with this build. Okay. I looked it up.

It is because “Infest” gives the casting hero a 5% max health heal per second (10% with scepter!).

“Tether” transfers that heal to the host – but amplifies it with 20%. With those skills alone, with scepter, the host would be healed by 12% of their MAX HEALTH per second.

This is insane!

He was right. I was wrong! =)

You also have regeneration from other skills, natural regeneration, and from items. For both the “AFK Hero” sitting inside the host, and the Host itself.

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If going for this type of combo, one ally should draft to be a durable meat shield (Flesh Heap, Dispersion, etc.) that would be useless on their own, while the other goes for their 'hidden ally' combo (to buff the meat shield vessel).

Other ally-dependent builds are also possible, such as one hero having an extremely mobile Flaming Lasso build (Icarus Dive, Scepter-upgraded Pounce, etc.) and really wishing they could have also drafted Rupture. If an ally has Rupture... that's -1 enemy hero.

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The hero with “Rupture” casts it on the enemy hero from a distance.

The mobile hero with “Lasso” darts in and catches the enemy hero, and drag him around until he dies. It won’t take long, because “Rupture” does PURE DAMAGE.

In Dota 2, “Pure Damage” cannot be negated by damage block, armor, or magic resistance.

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Often, it can be beneficial to simply get several of the same type of ability, maximizing one strength.

Here is a list of common variants of this kind of build:

Always Useful

All-stun builds are never bad. However, they can often lack in their own damage. This is not necessarily a problem, since if the enemy can't move, your allies should be able to kill them.

The more AoE stuns, the better. Example: Hoof Stomp + Slithereen Crush + Echo Stomp + Reverse Polarity.

Aghanim's Scepter / Shard Abilities: It is almost never a bad idea to just cram your build full of as many Aghanim's Scepter or Aghanim's Shard - upgraded abilities as possible.

Note that despite this being in the "Always Useful" section, it is still technically possible to make a bad build, just unlikely.

You can view all available Scepter/Shard abilities in the current draft by pressing CTRL+ALT. Example: Resonant Pulse + Laser + Gush + Shapeshift.

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You can draft several abilities which have a SHARD or SCEPTER upgrade. You can then upgrade ALL of them by buying one SCEPTER or one SHARD.

This is a very powerful build, and a common strategy in Ability Draft. It is also a common strategy in the custom game Custom Hero Chaos – that I play a lot.

Here is my article about that game.

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Usefully Useful

All-nuke builds are hard to do wrong. If used correctly one can often win fights by deleting a key enemy early on. Example: Lightning Bolt + Brain Sap + Soul Assumption + Laguna Blade.

All-right-click builds are often difficult to implement due to lacking control, mobility, or defense. However, with proper support (or poor opponents), they can be devastating. Example: Searing Arrows + Metamorphosis + Gunslinger + Grow.

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Beginner’s often go “Carry Builds” in Ability Draft, or so-called physical damage dealers. But this build requires certain hero’s with good stats (high armor, high movement speed, high attack speed), certain skills, and a lot of money to function.

Ability Draft, games are usually over before builds like this come online. “Spellcaster Builds” are much more viable.

You will not have hardcore supports in Ability Draft, so keep that in mind. The roles are not clearly defined, since each hero has skills from many different heroes.

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All-long-cast-range builds, or "Artillery" builds as I like to call them, are some of the most fun one can have in Ability Draft barring an OP combo.

Just hang back and fire away!

However, without good aim for the skillshots, these can obviously become underwhelming. Example: Powershot + Heat-Seeking Missiles + Sacred Arrow + Assassinate.

Sometimes Useful

Pure defensive builds can work, don't get me wrong. However, they are often a burden to their team. The wielder must have a way to punish the enemy for ignoring them, because otherwise, the enemy will, of course, ignore them.

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Defensive builds do give vision, and can waste the attention and time of the enemy team.

Remember, this is a CASUAL game! A build like this can create openings for your teammates.

But it is best if you have at least one damaging spell. Preferably low cooldown, or constant damage (Ion Shell, Rot, Thirst + Scepter, Pulse Nova).

It is very hard to farm without a skill that does damage. If possible, you want to have at least one skill which enables you to farm.

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This may be as simple as a good Radiance timing, or be more direct like having sustain for their allies. Example: Nature's Attendants + Dispersion + Counterspell + Reincarnation

Pure mobility builds are usually a great way to end the game with triple 0s in your KDA, and that's not a good thing. If you have an abundance of mobility, be sure to also have a low-cooldown disable or damage option to complement it. Example: Slithreen Crush, Time Walk, Blink (QoP), Fire Remnant.

All-summon builds are usually just food for the enemy. Have a clear gameplan (and preferably a coordinated stack for a team) before trying this. Example: Demonic Conversion + Nature's Call + Summon Wolves + Chaotic Offering.

Permastun

Abilities that result in permastun until the caster runs out of mana:

• Ball Lightning

• Rearm (level 3)

This list used to be much longer before the 7.33 stun reduction nerfs :(

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If I was managing this game, I would give any ability with a cooldown of 10 seconds or less, half the stun time and damage for triggering Aftershock.

Permanently stunning with Aftershock is a really annoying thing – which ruins the game for everyone! This would “nerf” low cooldown abilities, without making them completely useless.

You could even create two “Tiers”.

TIER 1: Spells with a 1-5 second cooldown got Aftershock damage and stun reduced by 50%.

TIER 2: Spells with a 6-10 second cooldown got Aftershock damage and stun reduced by 25%.

This “nerf” would be sufficient. The spells themselves would do FULL DAMAGE, it is the Aftershock Effect we are nerfing.

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Almost Permastun

Abilities that are almost permastun but don't quite get there even with Octarine:

• Arc Lightning

• Arcane Bolt

• Viscous Nasal Goo

Purifying Flames is part of this group with Oracle's relevant Talent.

Abilities that can be used for many stuns:

Any ability with a cooldown less than or equal to about 5 or 6 (there are several) are great for frequent stun output. e.g., Counterspell, Static Remnant, Quill Spray.

Charge-based abilities (e.g., Soul Siphon, Spin Webs, Shrapnel, Fire Remnant, etc.) allow for a burst of multiple stuns, but take a long time to recharge fully.

Some abilities that involve multiple casts (e.g., X-Marks-the-Spot) get multiple uses out of Aftershock. In general, anything that gives a Magic Stick charge will also trigger Aftershock.

Setup

Abilities that make good use of Aftershock for setup:

Kinetic Field, Light Strike Array, Torrent, and other delayed skills appreciate Aftershock holding foes in place for them to land.

Mystic Flare or (less potently) any other AoE-based damage over time skill makes great use of foes being stunned for the first second or so of their duration. One of the better combos in the mode is Aftershock + Ancient Seal + Mystic Flare for incredible early-to-mid-game damage (before the Pipes start coming out).

Sharpshooter allows other skills to be cast and appreciates the setup for its long charging period, not to mention that point-blank shots while they are permastunned by your combo are hilarious.

Proximity Mines are both charge-based and need time to arm, making them almost ideal for Aftershock and one of the most powerful combos in Ability Draft.

Many abilities can make use of attack modifiers to great effect.

Here we are talking about things like:

1. Poison Attack

2. Mana Break

3. Frost Arrows

4. Curse of Avernus

5. Searing Arrows

–and so on.

Some abilities that interact with attack modifiers include:

1. Tricks of the Trade

2. Starbreaker

3. Wukong's Command (terms and conditions apply)

4. Swashbuckle

5. Anchor Smash

6. Stifling Dagger

7. Phase Shift's Aghanim's Shard upgrade

8. Split Shot when upgraded by Medusa's Level 25 Talent

9. Assassinate

That list is not comprehensive, it is just meant to get you thinking about potential applications.

Note that when multiple attacks are done 'at once' (e.g., Anchor Smash, God's Rebuke, etc.) only one target gets the effects of a single-use attack modifier like Enchant Totem or Bash of the Deep.

These abilities are so good that they are usually worth picking up first, before trying to get a combo / synergy.

Some of these are mainly first-pick because you probably don't want the enemy to have them, while others are good regardless of your base hero or the current ability pool.

This list is in alphabetical order, not order of priority.

Mandatory First-Picks

First-picks that are often essentially 'mandatory' include:

1. Arctic Burn (OP range, slow, and scaling damage)

2. Bash of the Deep (great on ranged, good even on melee, often a deny-pick vs a scary enemy)

3. Chemical Rage (now includes Greevil's Greed, making it OP)

4. Glaives of Wisdom (even if you aren't an INT hero, someone on the enemy team probably is)

5. Heartstopper Aura (very high winrate)

6. Reincarnation (second-highest winrate)

7. Shadow Realm (arguably the top priority in most drafts despite mediocre winrate)

8. Shukuchi (invisibility and high mobility)

9. Unleash (depending on the enemy heroes you may be required to deny-pick this)

Strong First-Picks

Strong first-picks that nonetheless usually aren't really 'mandatory' include:

1. Arc Lightning (very strong Shard)

2. Atrophy Aura (DAMAGE... and damage mitigation too, I guess)

3. Either variation of Blink (Never a bad option for any build)

4. Borrowed Time (poor man's Reincarnation)

5. Burrowstrike (solid AoE stun and mobility in one)

6. Cloak and Dagger (most people don't like buying a lot of detection in a fun mode like AD)

7. Dispersion (very high winrate, preferably on tanky hero)

8. Fury Swipes (very strong on ranged heroes or with certain abilities)

9. Storm Hammer (just a solid stun with an Aghs upgrade option)

10. Thirst (personally I think Thirst doesn't stand up to the rest of this list, but statistics disagree)

11. Time Walk (powerful heal and mobility, and the Shard opens many combo options)

12. Vengeance Aura (the Aghs is OP with many abilities)

You can check out this site for a list of the highest-winrate abilities, though be warned that you'll be flamed if you pass up, say, Shadow Realm in favor of Corrosive Skin just because it has a higher winrate!

Stats can be helpful but shouldn't be your sole consideration.

A 'combo' is when both abilities need to be on the same hero to work, as opposed to a 'synergy' where the skills just need to be used in tandem regardless of who casts them.

Several combos have already been discussed and are thus not included. Also, note that combos which already existed in the main game (e.g., Ball Lightning + Overload, Counter Helix + Berserker's Call, etc.) are similarly not included.

Vengeance Aura's Aghanim's Scepter upgrade allows one to cast spells twice: Once while alive, then again after death as the illusion.

This is extremely potent with fire-and-forget abilities independent of the main hero like Tombstone, Chaotic Offering, or Serpent Wards.

It can also be extremely strong with other spells as well if the illusion can survive long enough to cast them optimally. Note that it "refreshes" the full charges of charge-based abilities like Aghs Demonic Purge.

Nightmare is essentially just a 6.5 second stun if no other sources of damage (e.g., an ally Radiance) interfere. This can allow many lengthy combos to land and run their course (e.g., Macropyre, Mystic Flare), or just for your simple right-click build to freely damage the victim.

Any of the following combined with one or more of each other results in ridiculous attack range: Elder Dragon Form, Take Aim, Arctic Burn, Psi Blades, Chilling Touch.

Any Illusion-creating spell with any passives that transfer to Illusions can be potent. Powerful options include Split Shot, Mana Break, and Counter Helix with spells like Mirror Image.

Bristleback + Bulwark makes for the ultimate defense, but be sure to have a way for that to matter (pure defense often doesn't do much on its own).

Berserker's Call with Stone Gaze forces foes to be turned to stone. This also works with any disable that disallows turning, but is most potent with Berserker's Call because Berserker's Call forces foes to look at the caster, making the execution much easier.

Enchant Totem, God's Strength, or Tidebringer with Mortal Strike, God's Rebuke, Boundless Strike, or (less reliably) any other critical strike ability deals insane damage.

Note that Enchant Totem, God's Strength, and Tidebringer stack with each other as well; e.g., the most optimal build is likely Enchant Totem, Tidebringer, Mortal Strike, and God's Strength.

Walrus Punch is an ultimate ability and thus cannot stack with God's Strength, but is otherwise arguably the best critical strike ability for Enchant Totem and Tidebringer.

Coup De Grace's buff can reliably land a massive critical hit along with Enchant Totem or Tidebringer. Enchant Totem works especially well with Stifling Dagger in this case.

Enchant Totem and Jinada can be potent combined with any single-target spell due to Khanda. Add in Aghs Fiend's Grip (which casts three separate Khandas on the victim) for absurd burst damage.

Focus Fire with Shadow Realm, Time Lock, Bash of the Deep, Greater Bash, Fury Swipes, Poison Attack, Chilling Touch, or basically any attack modifier results in the victim nearly always succumbing to the modifier's effects.

Omnislash or Unleash with the aforementioned Focus Fire abilities can also be very potent, albeit less reliably (omnislash) and on a longer cooldown (both).

Geminate Attack (especially on a melee hero with an Echo Sabre) or Gunslinger can have a similar but more tame effect with the aforementioned Focus Fire modifiers. These have the advantage of not relying on a cooldown, however, situationally performing better than their ultimate-ability counterparts!

Impetus with any range-boosting ability deals massive damage, even if the range boost is temporary (e.g., Penitence, Scurry, etc.).

Impetus with any long-range forced-attack abilities (e.g., Boundless Strike, Acorn Shot, Stifling Dagger) also deals massive damage. Assassinate is especially funny with this.

Swashbuckle with Impetus or Arcane Orb is extremely strong, though the latter also requires Essence Flux. Currently Walrus Punch is still bugged to trigger on each and every Swashbuckle hit (please correct me if that has been fixed).

Attack Modifiers like Infernal Blade or Walrus Punch are especially potent with long-range attack abilities like Acorn Shot or Stifling Dagger.

Cloak and Dagger with any channeled or sustained ability (e.g., Shackles, Battery Assault, Rot) allows the user to stay invisible for the duration of the latter spells. Other forms of invisibility also work with this, but are harder to execute.

Rearm with Nether Ward, Tombstone, Living Armor, Shallow Grave, Sacred Arrow, Split Earth, or Rocket Flare are all very potent for different reasons.

Rearm makes the Aghanim's Scepter upgrades for Torrent, Metamorphosis, and Sun Strike completely broken.

Rearm with Nature's Call, Demonic Conversion, Enchant, or other summoning spells can make a huge army, but be careful not to feed them.

Sticky Napalm with abilities like Ion Shell, Rot, Shackles, Torrent, Rocket Barrage, or Dark Pact deals a lot of damage since these abilities deal many instances of damage individually, proc-ing Napalm damage each time.

Thirst with any ability that grants percentage-based movement speed gets very, very fast.

Rolling Thunder with most movement skills (Blink, Time Walk, etc.) can 'come back for seconds', so to speak: Roll through someone, then teleport back and roll through again. Sleight of Fists can do this for multiple enemies at once!

Tether with Chemical Rage, Shadow Dance, or Burrow (Scepter upgrade for Vendetta) could grant considerable healing to the Tethered target.

Blast Off combined with Reincarnation, Berserker's Blood, or Sunder could use the health cost to its advantage.

Omnislash allows one to cast spells during the duration, so short-ranged spells go well with it (e.g., Hoof Stomp, Double Edge).

Snowball allows one to cast spells in the prep period, opening up a wide variety of options. For example, using Teleport to escape while invulnerable.

Rage, Blade Fury, or Repel with any channeled (e.g., Black Hole, Freezing Field, Fiend's Grip) ability grants one protection from interruptions.

Sunder with any invisibility or long-range mobility allows one to intentionally reach low health, sneak up on a foe, Sunder them down to 25% of their health, then finish them off in some way, usually a nuke or Dagon.

Supernova with any long-cooldown ability can be potent due to the refreshed cooldowns. Tombstone is the prime example that comes to mind.

Icarus Dive with any channeling abilities like Death Ward, Dismember, or Black Hole allows one to dive in, begin channeling, but be taken back out by the back-swing of the dive while still channeling. This can also be used for drive-by uses of other spells, but is funniest with channeling spells.

Flaming Lasso with any mobility spell that does not use teleportation (Leap, Pounce, Blast Off, Boundless Strike with Shard, etc.) will take the Lasso target along for the ride.

Special mention goes to Icarus Dive, allowing one to dive in, grab someone, and drag them back out. Reverse Time Walk is the most insane with this combo, as you can Time Walk forward, Blink Dagger even further forward, then Reverse all the way back with your kidnapping victim.

Duel or Culling Blade with Thirst, Charge of Darkness, or Teleport allows one to easily catch up to low-health foes.

Teleport with X-Marks-the-Spot or Time Lapse allows one to teleport in, take an action, then send themselves back. Combined with a nuke, stun, or summoning spell, this can be extremely annoying to the enemy.

Primal Split with Rot gives your current Brewling (begins as the Earth Brewling) your Rot aura. This also works with Bulwark's Scepter upgrade.

Infest your own Summon Spirit Bear for shenanigans.

Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Infest can be surprisingly potent with certain attack modifiers like Arcane Orb or Chilling Touch.

Trample with abilities that grant mobility without teleporting (e.g. Skewer, Surge, Windrun, Time Walk, Shard-upgraded Boundless Strike, etc.) can proc its effect many, many times in rapid succession.

Freezing Field highly benefits from any mobility spell when upgraded by an Aghanim's Scepter, with the most notable example being Shukuchi.

Bulwark's Scepter with any source of cleave (e.g. Tree Grab, Greater Cleave) or potent attack modifiers (e.g. Caustic Finale, Curse of Avernus) can apply their effects to many enemies at once.

Haunt (Shadow Step's Scepter) can also apply attack modifiers to the entire enemy team, with the most notable being Curse Of Avernus (like a Global Silence on a 4-attack delay).

Essence Flux with Mana Shield makes for an extremely tanky hero, provided you have something to spam like Arcane Orb.

Exorcism with abilities that hide the user (e.g., Snowball, Phase Shift, Astral Imprisonment, etc.) can stall for the ghosts to burn enemies or buildings down.

Arcane Supremacy is powerful with most targeted abilities, but is particularly funny with abilities like Pulverize, Dispose, or Walrus Kick where the cast range makes for weird displacement rules.

Poof can target your own illusions globally, which is one of its only viable uses in my opinion. Conjure Image or Mirror Image with Poof could make for an annoyingly mobile, farm-efficient build.

Lucky Shot with any rapid damage over time (e.g. Ion Shell, Rot, etc.) can trigger its effects reliably and repeatedly.

Supernova is one of the most powerful with Lucky Shot due to the massive AoE and Lucky Shot's attack slow synergising very well to protect the Egg.

Skewer or Boulder Smash with any kind of mobility (e.g., Blink, Burrowstrike, etc.) can reposition enemies even early in the game (no items needed).

Assassinate's attack effect can be combined with effects like Mortal Strike and Enchant Totem for extremely long-ranged and damaging shots.

PERSONAL COMMENT START

So you can use “Enchant Totem”, which guarantees a critical hit of 400%, and then use “Assassinate”, and deliver that MASSIVE critical strike.

Cool! I had no idea critical strikes worked on Snipers’ “Assassinate”.

PERSONAL COMMENT END

Dark Ascension can refresh high-impact abilities like Tombstone, Metamorphosis, Nether Ward, and Cataclysm. It is also excellent for refreshing your kit in general, especially stuns.

Heartstopper Aura's Scepter can be combined with regenerative effects like Chemical Rage, Burrow, or especially Infest for extremely high damage.

Blade Fury scales with attack speed, so abilities that grant absurd attack speed like Lil' Shredder, Overpower, Focus Fire, or Unleash will send its damage through the roof!

Mystic Flare's Shard, Shield of the Scion, can grant absurd Armor and Magic Resistance (from INT) when combined with rapid damage-over-time effects like Sandstorm and Rot.

A 'synergy' is when the abilities merely need to be used in tandem regardless of who casts them, as opposed to a 'combo' where both abilities need to be on the same hero to work.

However, most synergies do indeed work better (in terms of execution) if both abilities are on the same hero, hence their potency in Ability Draft.

Note that synergies which already existed in the main game (e.g., X-Marks-the-Spot + Torrent, Kinetic Field + Static Storm, Mana Break + Mana Void, etc.) are not included, nor are any that were already mentioned in this post.

Some synergies were already included in the 'Combos' section for brevity, as I was already describing their build with other abilities.

Laguna Blade or Finger of Death with Decrepify, Ancient Seal, or any other magic damage amplification deals massive damage.

Vacuum with any AoE stun can make for a one-man wombo-combo. Note that you can cast Vacuum on units affected by Song of the Siren as well.

False Promise with Shallow Grave work together extremely well for two reasons. Firstly, no matter how much damage is taken during False Promise, Shallow Grave will allow the victim to survive at the end. This alone makes the target of the caster's protection extremely difficult to kill.

Additionally, with cooldown reduction it is possible to Shallow Grave -> False Promise - > Shallow Grave. This means that - barring Culling Blade's interference - the targeted unit cannot die for 17, 18.5, 20 seconds (+1.5 if the caster is a level 25 Oracle with the relevant Talent).

Ghost Shroud with False Promise makes for extreme healing. The hero being targeted by False Promise must have Ghost Shroud, not the other way around.

Rupture with Meat Hook, Skewer, Toss, Spear of Mars, X-marks-the-Spot, Dead Shot, or any other forced-movement ability allows one to deal massive Rupture damage. Usually more than one of the above movement skills is needed to be effective.

Spark Wraith or Proximity Mines with Meat Hook or Skewer allows one to set up a stack of death – then force an enemy into them. Flaming Lasso and Nether Swap can also be used this way for Spark Wraiths.

Ice Blast or Doom with Purifying Flames allows one to nuke one's victim without worrying about healing them.

Maledict with Finger of Death, Laguna Blade, or an assortment of nukes (i.e., more than one) deals massive damage over time.

Aphotic Shield with Double Edge, Blast Off, or Life Break both mitigates the self-inflicted damage of the latter spells and also pops the shield for added burst.

Earth Splitter, Ghost Ship, Unstable Concoction, Light Strike Array, Kinetic Field, Cold Feet, Torrent, or any other delayed spell benefits greatly from another disable to set it up.

Often, the spell to be set up (e.g. Ghost Ship) is cast before the aiding stun or disable (e.g., Ghost Ship into Burrowstrike, not the other way around).

Nightmare with any ability in need of setup can generally guarantee the ability lands. This applies to the examples mentioned above (e.g., Earth Splitter, Ghost Ship, etc.), but can also be used for abilities like Meat Hook, Skewer, or other hard-to-hit spells. Special mention goes to Nightmare + Static Link.

Mystic Flare with any stun or root allows its full duration to be reliably inflicted, turning a mediocre spell into a terrifying one. The same effect can be achieved with any ground-targeted damage over time spell, but Mystic Flare is the most potent.

Cloak and Dagger with any dispel (e.g., Fortune's End, Aphotic Shield, etc.) can get rid of the Dust debuff on the caster. If the caster also has a Gem to destroy enemy Sentry Wards, the only thing that can reliably see them is an opposing Gem. Dark Pact is a 'combo' using this same premise, as it is required that the same hero have both abilities.

Pit of Malice with any other disable allows one to disable the victim(s) during the 'downtime' of the Pit of Malice root, allowing subsequent Pit of Malice root(s) to trigger.

The Scepter Upgrade for Fiend's Gate and Pit of Malice combos extremely well with the Scepter Upgrade for Sun Strike. The former two abilities must be present on the same hero.

The Scepter upgrade for Wrath Of Nature is arguably even better for this purpose, since it has a lower cooldown and is even easier to execute if you only want to hit a couple of targets.

Sacred Arrow with Hookshot, Fortune's End, Fissure, Homing Missile, or Nightmare (with a mobility spell to move away after casting said Nightmare) allows one to land long-ranged Arrows with ease. Sharpshooter can work similarly.

Tombstone with Decrepify or Sprout allows one to protect their Tombstone.

Proximity Mine with any disable of sufficient length makes the mines' wind-up time irrelevant.

Requiem of Souls with any sufficiently-long disable can insta-kill anyone caught out, provided one has enough Necromastery souls. The stun must be 1.67 seconds or longer, and the caster must also have Necromastery. If the stun also provides mobility (e.g., Burrowstrike, Blast Off, Firesnap Cookie) this makes the execution much easier.

Penitence will allow a Death Ward to attack ludicrously fast. It also works well with Winter's Curse and Chaotic Offering.

Arena of Blood is excellent with large-AoE spells like Midnight Pulse, Shrapnel, or Tombstone (place the Tombstone outside of the arena).

Savage Roar is hilarious with Arena of Blood or Dream Coil, forcing enemies to run away into even worse effects.

Song of the Siren with Tombstone allows zombies to begin stacking up while the Tombstone remains safe. Upheaval can serve a less effective but similar purpose.

Phantom's Embrace, Proximity Mines, or Supernova with any source of disarm (e.g. Inner Fire, Decrepify, Reactive Taser) stops the enemy from attacking the phantom, mines, or egg, respectively.

Any stun that has a moderate cast range works very well with the Ability-Draft-exclusive version of Shadow Raze, which gives 3 charges of the medium-range Raze.

I am certain there are many, many interesting and powerful builds not mentioned here.

Moreover, many obvious synergies (e.g., False Promise with any healing ability) were left out due to their... well... obvious-ness.

Finally, many abilities can make for quite potent builds that were not called out here (such as Pulse Nova) due to them usually not involving any explicit combo, instead just making a build strong overall.

All in all, Ability Draft is a realm of infinite possibilities.

Tell me what you think!

Thank you for your time and feedback!

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This text was written by Theo Alexander Gerken.