Dota 2: The Ubiquitous Blink Dagger

Dota is full of amazing items, with complex abilities, and one of the most important aspects of being a competent player (though it's easily overlooked by new players), is knowing which items to buy during a game. All Heroes can carry six items, and while there are some “required items” for everyone, better players don't stick to one build, but have a variety of items to pick from depending on the enemy heroes and the situation during the game.

In spite of the variety, one item is more desired than any other: Blink Dagger. Blink Dagger is unique, because it does not make a hero stronger by increasing strength, agility, or intelligence. It doesn't add damage, or evasion, or armor. Instead, when used, it allows the Hero to blink (teleport) from one space to another space instantly. The hero moves 1200 units, which is about as far as seven inches on my 23inch screen. If the player tries to blink further than the max distance the hero will only blink 960 units (three quarters of the max distance).

After use Blink Dagger is disabled for 12 seconds, and is also disabled for 3 seconds every time the Hero is damaged by enemy Heroes (not towers or creeps). It has a few other idiosyncrasies, such as it disjoints (also called dodging) some projectiles (spells that don't instantly hit), but probably not all. That's a rule of Dota. If something says it makes you spell immune, it doesn't mean all spells. If a spell's description claims it removes all debuffs, there are definitely debuffs it can't remove. Dota is full of exceptions to the rule. Note: Blink Dagger neither removes debuffs, nor makes one magic immune.

Blink dagger is the item that all sorts of heroes pick up. Heroes that are initiators buy it, like Enigma and Tidehunter. They both have critical aoe ultimates that require being in the middle of the enemy team. A Blink Dagger helps them get there. Blink Dagger is so common on these two, I was astonished to see during the ESL One Manila Secret vs Empire neither bought it.

There are other types of heroes that normally buy a Blink Dagger. Heroes that need perfect positioning for spells such as Lion or Crystal maiden buy it. Melee carries buy it so they can jump into range to attack, like Sven and Legion Commander. Pushing Heroes that want to attack a tower and then hide like Nature's Prophet and Shadow Shaman will get it. Heroes that can use it to escape from tricky situations such as Puck and Outworld Devourer will buy it as well. And these are just two examples from the many different types of heroes that consider blink core (necessary). Of the 111 heroes, about half consider it an important, if not necessary item.  In the image below, all heroes without a red circle consider Blink Dagger an item worth buying.

The heroes that don't buy it are the ones where positioning for spells is not quite as crucial, and those who can escape or engage without it. For this reason, ranged carries, as a group, are unlikely to buy Blink Dagger.

In pubs (public games), I've seen nearly every hero purchase a blink dagger. There was the game where a Skywrath Mage bought one. Another time, Viper had one, and I can't think of a reason why either of them need one. They are both ranged Heroes that don't have precision spells. It's not that Blink Dagger is bad for these Heroes. They were stronger than if they didn't have it, but they spent some of the gold, when they would have been better to buy a different item.

Items in Dota cost gold, and Blink Dagger costs 2250 gold. That makes it a mid-game item. Mid-game items are items that is not too expansive, but not too cheap. And because of this, most heroes will buy it in the mid game, 15 – 30 minutes. Blink dagger is odd in that it is a core item, but isn't built by combining other items. It is also one of the most expensive basic items. Only basic items from the secret shop cost more (Core items generally cost 1,000 – 5,000).

If Blink is popular in pubs, it's even more popular in the professional scene. Partly this is because pros are better at earning gold during a game, so they have more to spend. But crucially, it is because Blink Dagger is the play-making item. It's the item that allows professionals to make the key plays, and look cool doing it. It's like the glove of Muhammad Ali, the sneakers of Lebron James, and the helmet of Tom Brady all rolled into one. Watching highlights of Dota on YouTube is mostly watching a compilation of Blink Dagger plays.

Currently Blink Dagger is the second most held item at the a game, only out purchased by Power Treads (the most common shoe item). It beats the ever popular Aghanim's Scepter, BKB, and it's rivals Shadow Blade and Force Staff. And even though it is purchased by almost a third of players, it still has a 56 percent win rate. That's pretty good for a 2250 gold item.

As hinted above, there are two items that sort of do what Blink Dagger does. Shadow Blade is a similarly priced item that allows a hero to be temporarily invisible and do bonus damage on attack. It is better for heroes that want to roam around the map and pick off solo heroes. Blink Dagger is better for heroes that need precision positioning for spells, making it preferable for teams interested in fighting as a team. For this reason, Blink is much preferred by pros, but pub players like Shadow Blade nearly as much.

The other item that is similar is Force Staff. Force Staff has some health regeneration, and provides extra mana, but the main effect is that it pushes the targeted hero or creature 600 units (half a Blink Dagger), in the direction it's facing over one second. Unlike blink it can be targeted on others, in addition to oneself. It's mostly used by heroes that want more mana, in addition to movement. It is also popular on supports. They can use it to rescue an ally in danger, even if they are stunned or disabled. But it isn't as good for initiation as Blink Dagger because it's not instantaneous, and it doesn't allow the hero to travel nearly as far.

In spite of it doing only one thing, and having no stat bonuses, Blink Dagger is overpowered. The item has received a number of nerfs and buffs since Dota began. Mainly these revolved around distance, cooldown, damage disabling use, and mana requirement for cast. At it's inception it was a truly expensive item, but much more powerful. It had a 2 second cooldown, a distance of 1,300 units, and was not disabled for 3 seconds when hit. But it cost 3900 gold. It was quickly made cheaper but weaker. It has bounced around a bit since then, but the current trend is a series of buffs. Since about 2008 it has received mostly buffs, including: increasing distance from 1000 to 1200, cooldown reduce from 30 seconds to 12 seconds, and elimination of mana cost (was 75 mana per use).

Blink Dagger is picked by one third of players, is bought by multiple players each game, and is the favorite item of pros at every tournament. Only boots and Aghanim's can compare. It's time that Blink Dagger receives a nerf. It could be a reduction of any of the buffs mentioned before. The best solution is a reduction of range, requiring players to use greater skill to position themselves, rather than an item. If the developers would prefer to restrict its use to casters, and not carries, they could reintroduce a mana cost that would discourage Heroes with low mana pools from buying it. And if developers want to reduce its escape capacity they could increase the cooldown. Any of these would restrict one of the types of heroes that use it, and put it back in the category of good item for some heroes, but not all.

Which is where all items belong.