Dota 2 Tactic (5vs5) – Global Killers

1. Goal of the Global Killers Dota 2 Tactic:

The overall goal of the “Global Killers” tactic is to pick heroes that have a global ultimate or global spell and to release these together in a specific order.

Like that, in a short amount of time, high damage can be done to the enemy team, to pick out 1-2 players instantly. After such a successful move, a lane push is initiated! The simplicity and superb effectiveness of this tactic made it popular. I played it several times with my friends and we nearly won every single time. 😉

This tactic has a high chance of winning and can be played with friends in a party or with a team in a clanwar!

3. The Gameplan

The strength of the Dota 2 tactic Global killers is clearly the offensive power. These heroes could easily have their value in the late-game, but the key message of this tactic is to hit with the ultimate globals when it hurts the most: In the mid-game and early late game!

The Early Game:

Because everyone in the team needs a good farm and good items, focus on farming and good laning. Play passively, setup good wards and let the enemy come. Natures Prophet should skill his teleport on level two to enable his roaming ability. Whenever the enemy team is trying to gang or skip towers, Prophet needs to be there and protect the lane. Spectre has the number one priority, at the end the early Spectre effect wins the game (when the enemy team gets wiped out in the early/mid game vs the biggest late-game carry Spectre, then the moral of the enemy team is broken).

In the early game, Natures Prophet has the hardest job, by teleporting, warding and helping the lanes while he also needs some jungle farm – all at the same time. The early game of this matchup is quite weak, but it’s possible to get away with it. Don’t overcommit, but also don’t lose the lane hard. Keep the death count low, we often even made early kills with a simple gang by Natures Prophet + Naix’s damage and Zeus’s spells. At the latest when Zeus hits 6, Bara should start to charge an enemy, Natures Prophet teleports in and Zeus goes for the ultimate – if done well, this is a safe kill!

As soon as everyone got his items, the attack maneuvers can be initiated.

Attacking Scenario #1 (It’s all about the Kill):

Requirement 1 before starting: All ultimate spells need to be ready, tell everyone 1 or 2 minutes before, to not use their ulti for any long cooldowns now. It’s crucial that everyone sticks to the rule, in the statistics window the ultimate cooldown of every ally can be seen. 😉

Requirement 2 before starting: The team should agree on starting the maneuver in about 2 minutes and Natures Prophet needs to take his time now to place offensive wards. These wards can be placed behind or between enemy tower lanes, in the upper jungle and on the offlane uphill. Good vision is essential and will be life-saving when it comes to fighting.

The Attack:

The party can start and things are getting exciting! 😀 Identify a sweet spot on the map, where an enemy is alone. Now you need to act fast and undercover. Undercover means, that the lanes need to stay visually normal as long as possible otherwise the enemy team will detect missing heroes and can react faster. To find the perfect timing, push out a lane and move back to the tower, like that you have a 10-20 second window in which the enemy can’t see you and thinks you are at the tower or healing up.

Lifestealer now can infest into Spirit Breaker or Natures Prophet to wait for the engagement. Now yo Now Spirit Breaker charges an enemy from a profitable and not-warded angle, where the enemy won’t see him coming, or Natures Prophet teleports to the enemy hero. Now Spirit Breaker can active his Mask of Madness and the bashes will give the other heroes time to strike. Lifestealer jumps out of Spirt Breaker or Natures Prophet and at the same time Zeus and Spectre need to use their ultimate spell. The usage of the ultimates will uncover every enemy hero on the map but don’t forget to bring dust and sentries. Now try to hit the first enemy down as fast as you can, before the enemy heroes are even able to teleport and help. For really tanky heroes, Sprit Breaker can invest his ultimate, but in a normal case, he’s able to keep it for the next one.

You need to act fast now: The vision onto every enemy hero needs to be the time to decide, which hero you pick up next. Is there any hero in range, or any strategical movement possible? Maybe Natures Prophet with a low teleport cooldown can cage the next one? If not a single tower push can be considered, but be careful on the one hand you outnumber the enemy right now, but all of your great fire potentials are gone.

Choose between plan A) Push until you have to go back! or plan B) the retreat! What you should avoid is hunting for more enemies now and chase them because they have their full power and you don’t. If you have to fall back, wait for the cool down, it’s quicker than one might think and repeat the maneuver in an unexpected way. Maybe this time an enemy that is near on a lane can be picked. Repeat this every two minutes and convince every teammate by 100% that he is not allowed to use their ultimate or they will actively ruin the tactic.

Attacking Scenario #2 (Split-Push):

Requirement before starting:Again offensive wards placed by Natures Prophet are the perfect preparation for achieving the next milestones in the game. Natures Prophet can contribute a lot into the win by achieving great vision.

The Attack:

Now, wait for the enemy team to split and to spread into different areas. The goal of the split-pushing attack is to bring down one or even two towers on different lanes.
Zeus needs to go the split push lane and wait there to use his ultimate. Natures Prophet, on the other hand, needs to be on the other lane where the attack starts. Lifestealer now jumps into Spirit Breaker – charge an enemy on the lane (near a tower that can be pushed). Now unleash the full power of attacking scenario #1 and complete all steps.

Blow one enemy down and when he is dead, Natures Prophet teleports to Zeus so that they can push the other lane. The other three heroes can stay on the actual lane and bring this tower down as well. The enemy team will probably teleport instantly to the tower where you attack because it’s easy to get there. If it’s not possible to stay there for Lifestealer, Spectre and Spirit Breaker, they can move back, but Zeus and Natures Prophet will have an easy time because the enemy team will have teleport cooldown.

Repeat this scenario and bring the enemy barracks down! 😉 It won’t stand long!

5. Item and Hero Variations:

Item Variations:
A ton of item variations are possible. Many factors come together that counts: The individual playstyle, the meta, but also the situational effect: Items often need to be adjusted depending on the enemy hero picks. I can just recommend to play it like I have written it down, it just works – and after 1-2 matches you will see if there is something which you don’t like – are there better item options? Let me know in the comment section! 😉

Hero Variations:
In my opinion, Zeus and Spectre can’t be replaced in this tactic, especially for the global vision (and damage). Instead of Natures Prophet, you could pick Ancient Apparition or any support that does at least high (aoe) damage and has good flexibility to place wards on the map.
More heroes that can be picked instead of Natures Prophet are Gyrocopter with Aghanims Scepter, Queen of Pain or Puck.
Options for Spirit Breaker are other tanky engagers that can bash or hold the enemy nearby: Legion Commander with a Dagger, Slardar with a Dagger, Riki with a Basher or Brewmaster with Dagger.
Replacements for Lifestealer are heroes that do remarkable damage in a short amount of time with plain hits. Ursa, Tiny, Jugger, Sven or PA can do that!

For great hero combos checkout the synergie table:

Pup Stomps and Parties with 3 or 4 players.

The setup is perfect for public matchmaking games. If you are playing with three players, just pick the cores Zeus, Spirit Breaker, and Spectre and ask the others for picking support and a hard carry like Lifestealer. The Global Killer tactic also has a high win percentage if you play it with three or four players.

The tactic is adaptable and also profits from other suitable heroes and creates brilliant synergies! 😉

6. Counterpicks

The biggest counterpick is Silencer, you should always ban him. When he silences when you go, the deadly timing window is exposed, and the enemy team wins time to react.

Also, super tanky heroes like Huskar, Shredder, Abaddon, Alchemist, Legion Commander or Mars are strong opponents, because it takes so long to bring them down. If you play against one of these, never focus them, concentrate on heroes with lower hp.