If you're playing as an offlaner in Dota 2, you'll want to play as these heroes.

In Dota 2, position three is a core that plays on the offlane, otherwise known as the hard lane. As an offlane player, you're expected to round out your team's needs with utility, usually as an initiator, tank, aura carrier, and the occasional carry. Your most important role is to create space for your cores by disrupting and invading the enemy's side of the map.

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A position three player should have eerie map awareness of the opposing team's whereabouts, as they're in charge of looking for fights and taking objectives. Come prepared and pick the right heroes for the game, as your cores rely on you to make something happen.

Zoo heroes seek to amass an army of summoned units or neutral creeps to destroy buildings quickly. No matter what patch, Beastmaster remains a strong choice. Wild Axes and his boar allow him to shove creep waves, bully enemies, and take towers all day. Additionally, his Inner Beast passive boost nearby allies' attack speed.

The best reason to pick Beastmaster is for his invisible hawk that can easily scout for enemies. The enemy carry is never safe, as they never know when you'll unleash a Primal Roar while sending your army of enhanced units at them.

In Dota 2, anyone out of position is punished with a humiliating death. Dark Seer forces that inconvenience against his opponents by pulling them with his Vacuum. While the ability is good on its own, it's a powerful combo for big area-of-effect ultimates, like Shadow Fiend or Queen of Pain.

Dark Seer is all about making team fights uncomfortable for the enemies. Surge gives his ally maximum movement speed, letting them run down the backline with the additional damage from Ion Surge. His ultimate, Wall of Replica, creates illusions of the enemy team that deals full damage.

Timbersaw is as durable as he is mobile, and capable of dishing out respectable damage. He's a good pick against strength-heavy line-ups or if you want to carry from the offlane without griefing. Whirling Death and Chakram constantly whittles down his opponents, especially if they're standing near trees.

Timber Chain and Reactive Armor lets Timbersaw get away with hyper-aggressive plays. He demands attention from the enemy team because they need massive burst damage to take down a hero casually diving behind towers.

Primal Beast is a self-sufficient durable initiator with abilities themed around being a grumpy baby. What's great about Primal Beast is that Onslaught gives it a reliable long-range initiating tool with a stun, letting it forgo Blink Dagger for other items. Pulverize is a strong ultimate that grabs an enemy while repeatedly pummeling them, stunning nearby enemies.

These two abilities are on a short cooldown, allowing no downtime when roaming. Primal Beast deals good magical damage using Trample and Uproar. Furthermore, the hero scales well with Aghanim's Scepter and Shard, unlocking new ways to ruin your opponent's day.

Brewmaster simultaneously fulfills all expectations of an offlaner. He can initiate with his Cinder Brew and Thunderclap, tank through different damage types by switching Drunker Brawler stances, and provide utility with his different abilities after using Primal Split.

The Storm Brewling is particularly annoying, as it can disable an enemy hero for six seconds. Dispel Magic is an underrated ability that can counter so many other spells, like Omniknight's ultimate. Brewmaster isn't a popular hero despite his power, which gives you the advantage of confusion and surprise.

When Mars is in the game, expect a team fight to break out every time his ultimate is off cooldown. Arena of Blood summons an inescapable arena that damages enemies near its edge. The arena also blocks enemy attacks from the outside; pairing that with his ability to magnet projectiles with Bulwark means that Mars is bad news for any ranged auto-attackers.

Mars can single out a key target with the Spear of Mars and God's Rebuke, dealing huge burst damage and crowd control. An excellent skirmisher, team fighter, and overall nuisance, Mars and active soft support can control the game.

Magnus is a flashy initiator who can group up the enemy team for a clean team wipe. Reverse Polarity pulls every enemy near Magnus while stunning them; the ultimate even pierces spell immunity like Black King Bar. Magnus will always be sought after for his game-changing ultimate that can win fights when paired with another ultimate.

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Skewer is another dangerous ability, as Magnus can drag an enemy back to his teammates. In uncoordinated games, the ability to catch an important core out of position will win his team more games. Finally, Empower is an excellent ability to enable melee cores, giving them melee damage and a cleave effect to their attacks.

Night Stalker has a unique utility to contribute to the team: killing supports. He is the best backline diver in the entire game, able to effortlessly run straight to fragile heroes using Hunter in the Night and right-click them to death. Cripping Fear horrifies nearby enemies, giving him more space to pummel hard supports for existing.

As the name suggests, Night Stalker transforms into a menace during nighttime. Night can occur naturally as the game progresses, or he could block the sun himself with his ultimate, Dark Ascension. It's truly a terrific sight as Night Stalker also gains free pathing, letting him move freely through cliffs and obstacles.

Doom is always relevant because of his ability to reduce another hero to a useless unit. His ultimate curses an enemy hero, preventing them from using items and abilities. This lasts an agonizing 16 seconds while also dealing damage over time. If you're the target of his ultimate, you can only run toward your team and pray they stop him.

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Doom can earn more gold with less farm because he can Devour enemy or neutral creeps. He also gains any special abilities and earns bonus gold at the end.

Tidehunter is always a comfortable choice for the offlane. He is ridiculously durable due to two damage reduction abilities, one from Kraken Shell and the other from Anchor Smash. The former also has a unique effect of cleansing negative effects, like stuns.

Tidehunter is also picked for his reliable ultimate, Ravage, which erupts tendrils over a wide area, stunning and damaging on hit. Additionally, Tidehunter will always lead in gold due to his flash-farming potential. He's one of the few heroes who can directly take on a stack of Ancient neutral creeps at an early level.

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Lawrence is a list article writer for TheGamer. Based in the Philippines, he has happily written about video games for years. When he's not doing that, he's looking for new recipes to cook.