The Mistwoods Update introduced a lot of changes to Dota 2 and among them were some new neutral items. Find out which ones are worth it!
Neutral items in Dota 2 were added with patch 7.23 back in November 2019. Throughout 2020, we saw many of them get changed or straight up removed. With patch 7.28, Valve added even more new neutral items that we haven’t seen before. Just how good are they? Let’s take a look.
Tier 1 – Dropped After Minute 7
Fairy’s Trinket
- +100 Health, +5% Spell Amp. Reduces manacosts by 5%
Insanely good on mana-hungry heroes spellcasters like Storm Spirit, worse than Trusty Shovel on almost everyone else.
Chipped Vest
- Grants +3.5 HP Regen and passively returns 26 damage to hero attackers and 13 to creeps.
Overall a good item for any hero that will be the focus in teamfights. It’s only effective vs attack damage and you can look at it as a worse Blademail. It can accelerate the farming speed on a hero like Spectre.
Possessed Mask
- +7 Primary Attribute, +7% Lifesteal
It’s a better Mask of Death and it’s free. The extra stats make you harder to kill and increase your DPS. It’ll also give you sustain during laning/jungling/teamfights. Possessed Mask is a better Ironwood Tree with added Lifesteal and it gives you more health than any other Tier 1 item.
Tier 2 – Dropped After Minute 17
Quicksilver Amulet
- +30% Attack Animation and Projectile Speed. +5% MS and +10 Attack Speed. If any of your abilities are on cooldown, you gain an additional +5% MS and +15 Attack Speed.
Movement speed is great on any hero and attack speed is especially nice on a carry. You’ll probably have at least one ability on cooldown most of the time. Any ranged hero will greatly benefit from the attack animation and projectile speed increase. For most ranged heroes, Grove Bow is still the better choice. In the meantime, Imp Claw is the better choice in terms of DPS so it’s a tough pick between the three.
Bullwhip
- +3 HP Regen and +3 Mana Regen. Can be cast on allies to grant them +16% Movement Speed for 5 seconds, or on enemies to slow them by 16% for 5 seconds. Cast Range: 850. Cooldown: 12
Bullwhip is great on a support hero that will follow and babysit the carry. Perhaps the perfect example is Io. The extra regen provides more sustain to Io and the tethered hero and the movement speed boost is insane. It’s the only support item in Tier 2 after Philosopher’s Stone.
Tier 3 – Dropped After Minute 27
Elven Tunic
- Grants +26 Attack Speed, +16% Evasion, +8% Movement Speed
When you think about it, Elven Tunic is basically Quicksilver Amulet. It once again provides movement and attack speed but instead of animation/projectile speed, you’ll get evasion. Great for an offlane hero that wants to live longer or a core that has no better neutral item (there usually is).
Cloak of Flames
- Grants +5 Armor, +10% Magic Resistance and a passive immolation aura dealing 45 damage per second in a 400 AoE
Another item that’s good on a tanky hero but it can also synergize with similar AoE spells. The closer you are to an enemy, the better. The extra armor and magic resistance will increase your effective HP.
Ceremonial Robe
- Grants +350 Mana. Enemies in 1200 AoE have -10% Status Resistance and -10% Magic Resistance.
One of the weirdest neutral items. It’s the only one with a status resistance reduction aura. It’ll increase the duration of crowd control and outgoing magic damage. The only useless part is the mana. Come on, it’s 27 minutes in, you’re long past having mana issues!
Psychic Headband
- Grants +12% Intelligence and +100 Cast Range. Activate to push the target enemy 400 distance away from you. Cast Range: 800. Cooldown: 30.
A nice support item that grants percentage-based intelligence and cast range. The active will sometimes save you from certain death.
Tier 4 – Dropped After Minute 37
Penta-Edged Sword
- Provides +45 Damage, +80 Melee Attack Range and 20% chance to Maim enemies, reducing their movement speed by 20% and attack speed by 60 for 3 seconds.
PES is a Broom Handle on steroids. It’s the only item in Tier 4 that grants pure damage and the passive is a nice way to chase down fleeing foes. Then again, at 37 minutes, you probably won’t care that much about +45 damage. Other items from the tier offer a nice deal of utility and this one doesn’t.
Stormcrafter
- Grants 4 Mana Regen. Zaps an enemy within 700 range of you every 3 seconds, dealing 200 damage and slowing by 40% for 0.3 seconds. Can be activated to cyclone yourself for 0.75 seconds. Cooldown: 25 Manacost: 50
Stormcrafter is a worse Eul’s Scepter of Divinity. You can only cyclone yourself and it lasts half as long. In addition, you get Razor’s old Storm Surge. The range is quite high and it’s random so unless it’s just one hero around you, don’t count on consistency.
Trickster Cloak
- Grants +20% Evasion, +20% Magic Resistance. Activate to become invisible for 6 seconds. Cooldown: 25
Evasion and magic resistance both increase your effective HP and the invisibility can save your ass from certain death. On the other hand, there are definitely better items in the tier.
Tier 5 - Dropped After Minute 60
Giant’s Ring
- +40 Strength, +60 Movement Speed, +60% Model Size and can walk over any terrain. When standing on top of an enemy (100 AoE), deals 100% of your strength per second.
This item sure is something different. The extra strength and movement speed make it a decent pick over some of the others. You don’t really want extra model size in most cases but there’s a plus side. In addition to walking over any terrain, you’ll deal 100% of your strength per second. There are only a couple of heroes with huge strength gains that want to be close and personal – Centaur Warruner and Pudge... maybe Morphling if you want to meme the enemy into submission.
Book of Shadows
- +12 All Stats, +400 Night Vision. Target an enemy, ally or self. Causes the target to become untargetable but also silenced, muted, and disarmed for 4 seconds. Applies a Basic Dispel. Cast Range: 700 Cooldown: 25
Below average stat gain for a Tier 5 item. The night vision can make the difference in the late game and the active is quite useful. You can save yourself/an ally or make an enemy useless for 4 seconds. The debuff can still be dispelled by someone else.
Which one is your favorite neutral item? Tell us on our Facebook page or Discord server!
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