Warlock — Dota 2 hero guide

Warlock is a ranged Intelligence hero played as Support, Initiator, Disabler.

Abilities

• Fatal Bonds: Binds several visible enemy units together, causing a percentage of the damage dealt to one of them to be felt by the others.
• Shadow Word: Warlock whispers an incantation, casting a spell on a unit that makes it deal damage to nearby enemy units and heal nearby ally units. Target Unit will also heal or be damaged depending on whether they are ally or enemy.
• Upheaval: CHANNELED - A powerful slowing and damaging current that grows stronger as it's channeled. Lasts up to 10 seconds. Enemies are slowed for 1 second after leaving the area or the spell ends.
• Eldritch Summoning: Whenever an enemy unit dies while afflicted by one or more of Warlock's abilities, a minor imp is summoned that lasts for 15 seconds and explodes on death. Imps will automatically seek out nearby units, favoring fatally bonded heroes, and will explode when reaching their prey.
• Chaotic Offering: Summons a Golem from the depths, stunning enemies for 0.8 seconds. The Golem lives 60 seconds, takes reduced damage from spells, has increased Slow Resistance, has Permanent Immolation and Flaming Fists on attack.

Lore

As Chief Curator and Head of Acquisitions for the Arcane Archives of the Ultimyr Academy, Demnok Lannik was tireless in his pursuit of lost, rare and forbidden tomes. No cursed temple was so foreboding, no cavern path so treacherous, that any concern for his own survival could dissuade him from entering if rumors hinted that some pamphlet of primordial lore might still survive in its depths. However, so often did his investigations trigger the wrath of protector entities, that he finally found it necessary to master the arts of magic. He bent himself to learning sorcery with the same thorough obsessiveness that marked his quest for incunabula, becoming the most powerful Warlock of the Academy in less time than most practitioners required to complete a course of undergraduate work. Almost as an afterthought, he carved a staff of Dreadwood and summoned into it a captive spirit from the Outer Hells. And anticipating the day when he will have recovered every last lost spellbook, he has commenced writing his own Black Grimoire. It will undoubtedly be instructive.

Hardest counters

Heroes with the best public-match win rate against Warlock: Keeper of the Light, Treant Protector, Slark, Pudge, Shadow Demon. See the full counter list.