Esports.gg has partnered with Scourge McDuck and Metafy to create a comprehensive guide to taking and defeating Tormentor in Dota 2 Patch 7.33c
Tormentors were one of the brand new additions in the 7.33 update of Dota 2. This pair of new neutral creeps are some of the strongest in the game. Tormentors are insanely valuable for each team, but they are hard to take down. But what are the timings, what are the best heroes to take them with, and why even take them down? Well this guide is all you’ll need to answer all those questions.
This guide was written with assistance and insight from Griffin "Scourge McDuck" Pappert, Div I NA player, founder of The Cut, over 9.5k MMR and a peak of Rank 34 (currently 43) on the NA Leaderboards.
What is a Tormentor ?
Tormentors are the newest neutral creep added to the game, and the strongest other than Roshan. There are two Tormentors locations on the map, one for the Radiant and one for the Dire. Each Tormentor is located in an area that's pretty safe and secure, being located by the tier two offlane tower (beside the Wisdom Rune). But, despite their easy access, they don’t spawn until 20 minutes and have a 10-minute respawn timer which makes them a valuable asset to take advantage of when they appear.
And spawning in that late into the game, Tormentors are no easy feat to take down. Each Tormentor has two passive abilities, has 20 armor, and 55% Magic resistance. And before you get any ideas, they are undispellable. So you can’t cheese them with Silver Edge or other Break abilities. The first passive is Unyielding Shield, which provides a base 2500 HP shield that regenerates 100 HP per second. And each time you take down a Tormentor, this shield increases by 200 HP and the regen increases by another 100 HP per second.
Tormentors don’t only have a huge shield, they deal a good chunk of damage as well. 90% damage done to the Tormentor is reflected to any hero that is in a 1200 unit radius to the Tormentor. Think of Blademail but stronger and the damage type you do is also reflected. So if your Dazzle sits beside you while you are taking the Tormentor, while you are right clicking it, they’ll be taking damage if they get too close and you’ll be taking physical damage. And with each kill, the damage reflection increases by 20%.
When to take Tormentor
Scourge McDuck shared with us the best time to take Tormentor: "The earlier the better. If your team is behind, however, it may be hard to take or be able to group up to take it. And if they enemies are trying to steal your tormentor around the 20-minute mark, you should highly consider fighting them as the Tormentor is very strong and they should take a lot of damage trying to kill it."
"When you’re behind, getting to the enemy's tormentor can be very difficult, so they may end up getting both if you don’t contest yours. The secondary and subsequent spawns are less important. When to take them will depend on if you, or your teammates, really need an Aghanim’s Shard and how convenient it is for your team to be near one."
Why take down a Tormentor?
For taking down the Tormentor, an Aghanim’s Shard will be rewarded to one of the two lowest net worth heroes on your team that doesn't already have one. So it becomes very valuable for your low net worth support. If your entire team has Aghanim’s Shards, your entire team gets 280 Gold and experience points. So suffice to say, Tormentors are an important objective.
Scourge McDuck also points out that there's an additional value to killing a Tormentor: "You get 250 gold for last hitting it, as well as getting an Aghanim's Shard, so why you should take a Tormentor is pretty straight forward. Another bonus is if you take one or two of the Tormentors the enemy team will not be able to take them."
Tips to take down Tormentors
Despite their large shields and damage reflection, Tormentors aren’t impossible to take down. Here are a couple tips, tricks and hero picks to ensure you take them down quickly:
General tips
- The best and safest way is to take it down with your team, as their damage reflection is dispersed.
- Watch your health and make sure you communicate! Oftentimes your teammates won’t be watching your health and will keep attacking the Tormentor so be sure it doesn't take you out and back up!
- The damage reflection has a set range of 1200 units, so as long as you are outside that range, you don’t need to worry about damage.
Item choices
- The Tormentors only have 20 armor, so Desolator carriers or heroes that provide -armor go a long way.
- Although Halberd is a great tool for Roshan, it doesn’t help against Tormentors.
- Tormentors reflect the same type of damage, so picking up items like Pipe of Insight and Crimson Guard can reduce some of the damage
- Assault Cuirass provides good armor and attack speed for yourself and your team
Hero choices and how to solo
Scourge McDuck says: "Usually, you will need two to three heroes to kill a Tormentor. However, auras like Pipe or Crimson or heroes with heals or minus armor such as KotL, Dazzle, Juggernaut, Bristleback, or Templar Assassin can make it a lot easier. Also some heroes can solo cheese the tormentor such as the following:"
Juggernaut: How to solo Tormentor with Jugg
- Heroes with lots of sustain like Juggernaut excel at taking Tormentors. Scourge says: "Juggernaut with maxed out Healing Ward can solo tank through all of its damage and kill it in about 30 seconds alone, depending on your farm level."
Soloing Tormentor with Templar Assassin
- "Templar Assassin can use Refraction and Meld preemptively and wait for a second Meld to be ready along with Refraction almost being off cooldown, which will allow you to use up to 12 Refraction damage block instances and 1020 (1320 with level 10 talent) bonus damage, these along with a Desolator will make quick work of the tormentor even without your team."
Soloing Tormentor with Bristleback
- Serial Bristleback-enjoyer Scourge McDuck also suggests Bristleback: "With an Aghanim’s Scepter and Vanguard, Bristleback can spam Viscous Nasal Goo until the max stacks then kill it very quickly."
Soloing Tormentor with Techies
- Techies can solo Tormentor relatively easily, as shown above, with the use of of seven Proximity Mines.
Other heroes for soloing Tormentor
- Abbadon gets a special mention for his shielding and sustain.
- Meepo is great at taking Tormentors with his shared lifesteal and high damage output.
- Phantom Assassin can burst the Tormentor down quickly with her Phantom Strike and Desolator.
- Sniper can take down Tormentors from outside the damage reflection radius.
- Wraith King can take down Tormentors quickly with his Skeletons, lifesteal and crit.
And that's our comprehensive Tormentor guide, with special thanks to Metafy and Scourge McDuck. For more Div 1-level insights into Dota 2 you can check out Scourge McDuck's coach page on Metafy, with training plans, live coaching sessions, and replay reviews. Also be sure to check out Metafy's exclusive Dota 2 courses with Taiga, Topson, 23 Savage, and more!