Dota 2 Attributes & Roles

What Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Universal do in Dota 2, what Valve's eight hero roles mean, and how positions 1 to 5 work.

Updated 3 November 2026Checked for patch patch 7.41f5 sources
Image: dota2 / YouTube

Every Dota 2 hero is built from three attributes: Strength, Agility and Intelligence. Each hero has one primary attribute – each point of it also gives +1 attack damage – or is a Universal hero that gains a little damage from all three. Every level up adds attributes, and the Attribute Bonus gives +2 to all of them.

What each attribute gives

StrengthEach point gives +22 max health and +0.1 health regen.
AgilityEach point gives about +0.17 armor (1/6) and +1 attack speed.
IntelligenceEach point gives +12 max mana, +0.05 mana regen and +0.1% magic resistance.
UniversalNo single main attribute: these heroes gain 0.45 attack damage from every point of all three (since 7.38).

The Universal attribute was added in patch 7.33 (April 2023). Its damage per attribute started at 0.6, went up to 0.7, and was cut to 0.45 in patch 7.38. See every hero's attribute in the hero list.

Valve's eight roles

On dota2.com and in the game, every hero has one or more of these official role tags. They describe what a hero is good at, not where they must play.

CarryGets much stronger later in the game if they gain a big gold advantage.
SupportNeeds less gold and items – uses abilities to help the team win.
NukerKills enemy heroes quickly with high-damage, low-cooldown spells.
DisablerHas a guaranteed stun, hex or other disable in their kit.
DurableLasts a long time in team fights.
EscapeHas a way to quickly get out of danger.
PusherTakes down towers and barracks fast at any point in the game.
InitiatorGood at starting team fights on their terms.

Positions 1 to 5

In a real match, players split into five positions based on farm priority. One hero can fit several positions – for example, a hero with the Support role is usually played as position 4 or 5.

Position 1 – CarrySafe lane, top farm priority. Becomes the team's main damage late in the game.
Position 2 – MidPlays the middle lane alone, levels up fast and makes plays around the map.
Position 3 – OfflanePlays the hard lane, pressures the enemy carry and often starts fights.
Position 4 – Soft supportLanes with the offlaner, then roams, ganks and places wards.
Position 5 – Hard supportProtects the carry in the safe lane and has the lowest farm priority.

Ready to play? Our beginner's guide explains how a match works.

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Reference page written by AI (Claude) and checked against the sources above. Games change with every patch – the patch this page was last checked for is shown at the top.