The last carry released in the Dota 2 was Monkey King in December 2016. Finally after four years of waiting, with patch 7.29, we have in out midst, Dawnbreaker.
After four years, with the introduction of Dota 2 patch 7.29, the game has been blessed with Valora, the Dawnbreaker! She is a strength carry – the first one after Legion Commander in 2013 (Legion Commander is not a hard carry, but close enough). But the damage isn’t the only thing Dawnbreaker offers. She is also a healer! There aren’t too many carries who can boast about that, eh? Let’s take a detailed look at this new hero and see how she can be played.
Basic stats
The hero has decent basic stats. She is 24th overall in terms of her strength gain of 3.2 and 31st in terms of total stat gains per level of 7.8. A base attack of 62-66 and starting armour of 3.3 make her a formidable foe in lane, and only 20 heroes in the game have a higher movement speed than her, which is 315.
Skills
1) Starbreaker (active ability)
Starbreaker is a 160 damage AoE nuke and stun, doing physical damage. It’s a great way to get last hits in lane and at the same time, disable your opponent(s) in case they are melee. An important thing to note is the swipe radius is 360 and the smash radius is 250, meaning heroes on the periphery will take damage, but won’t be stunned. It is also a great ability for clearing stacks, in combination with Celestial Hammer.
2) Celestial Hammer (active ability)
Celestial Hammer is an ability with a lot of potential to carry out a number of different functions. First and foremost is the damage, which is magical and gives Dawnbreaker a good mix of physical and magical damage with her first two abilities (Starbreaker and Celestial Hammer). It can be used to get closer to enemies; to get in range for Starbreaker and right-clicking. And lastly, it can be a great escape mechanism, used for getting over cliffs. Throwing the hammer over cliffs or any unpassable terrain and recalling it before two seconds will get Dawnbreaker over the unpassable terrain when she gets pulled towards the hammer and meets it in the middle.
Note: When the hammer has been hurled and isn’t with Dawnbreaker, Starbreaker cannot be used. Valora can still right-click enemies, but the skill is unusable for that duration.
3) Luminosity (passive ability)
Luminosity is a lot like Monkey King’s Jingu Mastery – it will get activated after a certain number of hits and then do additional damage. The difference is, the additional damage in Dawnbreaker’s case is just for one hit, but unlike Monkey King getting lifesteal for himself, Luminosity heals everyone in the vicinity. Considering the critical damage is 180%, the heal (40%) ally heroes will get will be 72% of her damage. Guess it pays to stay close to your carry.
4) Solar Guardian
Solar Guardian is undoubtedly the most intriguing of Dawnbreaker’s abilities. It has a 3 second charge time, in which the ability releases six pulses, which is 420 damage to enemy heroes and 420 heal for allies at level 3 of the ability (what’s with the 420, Valora; you own a dispensary or something?!). On landing, she does an additional 190 damage, so that’s a total of 610 AoE damage (457.5 damage, taking into account the 25% magic resistance all heroes have) followed by a 1.5 second AoE stun. Solar Guardian has a lot of combo potential with heroes like Tidehunter, Magnus, Mars, and Enigma. If Dawnbreaker’s ultimate is timed correctly so that the stuns from big team fight ultimates like Ravage and Reverse Polarity don’t overlap, we are looking at multiple heroes being stunned for a good 4 to 4.5 seconds.
Solar Guardian has also added a new component to global strats. Global strats typically involve heroes like Furion and Spectre who can turn up anywhere on the map coupled with a hero like Zeus, who can damage enemies anywhere on the map. Dawnbreaker fits perfectly into that category, having the ability to jump to the scouting hero or jump to a hero about to die to possibly reverse the outcome gank.
The combo potentials, on the whole, are quite high for this hero and it will be fun to see her being introduced to Captain’s Mode to get an idea of how teams use her in professional games.
While playing a position 1 Dawnbreaker, maxing out Luminosity might have some advantages as the heal from the ability will help the hero farm the jungle and sustain herself. A fast-paced position 2 or position 3 Dawnbreaker could max out the first two skills and wreak havoc all over the map with the combination of the two abilities.
Talents
Based on the selection of talents, Dawnbreaker can possibly be played in multiple roles. There is the primary role of carry, which will go for the damage and crit talents. But then there is also the team fight role Dawnbreaker could play as a position 2 or position 3 hero (mid or offlane) where she prioritizes spells and tankiness and goes for all the talents benefitting Solar Guardian and Starbreaker.
Carry talents: 1-2-1-1 or 2-2-1-1
Mid or offlane talents: 1-1-2-2 or 2-1-2-2
While core positions do look more lucrative for Dawnbreaker, don’t rule out a support position for her. Peter “PPD” Dagger was experimenting with the new hero on his stream after the release of patch 7.29, and he was thinking out loud about how she could be played as a support. The hero does have multiple stuns and two AoE heals, so you never know! The patch is fresh, the hero is new and the possibilities are endless. Get into some pubs, experiment with Dawnbreaker, ruin the game for your team.
Let us know in the comments what you think the best position is for Dota 2’s newest hero.
