The best Dota 2 Innate Abilities in patch 7.36a

The best Dota 2 Innate Abilities in patch 7.36a

Otomo

23 Apr, 2024, 06:30

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Last updated: 10 Apr, 2025, 02:04

The latest gameplay update to Valve's flagship MOBA introduces Dota 2 Innate Abilities, unique passives for every hero available at level 1.

Some of these abilities are returning abilities such as Zeus' Static Field, while others are level-five upgrades for old passives like Venomancer's Poison Sting.  The most exciting Innate Abilities are original mechanics introducing new ways to play heroes.

In this article, we will list the best Dota 2 Innate Abilities introduced in the latest update and go over why they are so powerful.

The strongest Dota 2 Innate Abilities in patch 7.36a

Shadow Shaman
Don't move! (Credit: Valve)

Fowl Play

Whenever Shadow Shaman takes lethal damage, he survives as a 1 HP chicken with movement speed increased by 10%. Applies Strong Dispel upon transformation and provides 0.75s protection from all damage. Hex Duration: 3s. Cooldown: 90s. Cooldown is reset upon dying

Shadow Shaman gets a form of Shallow Grave added to his hero kit, allowing him to survive any death blow and live for an additional 0.75 seconds. He also removes all debuffs, so he can Hex his attacker and escape from them.

This is an incredible way of buffing the hero, as he is now practically immune to certain long-range abilities such as Thundergod's Wrath and Powershot.

The ability does come with a long cooldown but gets refreshed on death, so it will likely be around for every teamfight.

Overall we love the flexibility Fowl Play provides, Shaman can be more aggressive in teamfights, while enemies will be more wary on targeting Shaman first in fights.

Dragon Knight isn't worth picking right now
Free armor and regen, hell yeah!. (Credit: Valve).

Dragon Blood

Provides Dragon Knight with +4.5 Health Regen and +2.5 Armor, which are further increased by 0.5 with every hero level

Health Regen and Armor bonuses are multiplied by 1.5x while in Dragon form

One of the simplest and most effective of the Dota 2 Innate Abilities. Dragon Blood gives the hero an impressive amount of starting health regeneration and armor for free. It also scales up while leveling and gets a 50% bonus in dragon form.

We love the early power boost Dragon Blood provides, as it makes Davion a very difficult target to bring down in the laning stage. The hero can also have his Fire Breath and Dragon Tail at level two, making him a more aggressive hero early on.

It's good, it helps all game, what's not to love?

Enigma has one of the best Dota 2 Innate Abilities.
One of the best teamfight heroes gets an amazing aura. (Credit: Valve).

Gravity Well

Allies near Enigma have a Damage Reduction bonus that gradually increases with proximity to Enigma.

The effect starts with 0% at 500 distance and increases up to 15% at 200 distance

Enigma is now a walking Wraith Pact, reducing the damage he and his allies receive by up to 15%!

In the past, Enigma players could opt for Aura items or Blink Dagger and boost the hero's ultimate with Aghanim's Scepter.

IceFrog is pushing for more focus on the hero's innate pushing ability and snowball potential, imagine fighting Enigma when he has Greaves, Pipe, and Gravity Well.

Among all the Dota 2 Innate Abilities, this looks like one of the best and the most likely to push the hero into the meta.

Oracle Riddle of the Hierophant
Good luck winning a Duel with this guy around. (Source: Valve)

Prognosticate

Oracle will predict and announce to allies, where the next power rune will spawn (top or bottom).

While it's not an amazing stat upgrade or powerful aura, being able to tell where the next rune spawns is incredibly valuable.

Teams can now gather at Rune spawns and ensure the midlaner always gets it at the 6-minute mark. Additionally, it greatly helps one side to control runes throughout the game.

To put it simply, with an Oracle on one team, the opponents will basically have no rune access, a brutal disadvantage to play with.

morphling The Roiling Surge
Free stats for a hero who loves them, sure! (Credit: Valve)

Accumulation

Morphling receives 50% of Attribute gain bonuses every half level instead of full bonuses at level up. Also increases All Attributes bonus gained for skill points in the Talent Tree from +2 to +4

Gaining half your stats at each half-level is....fine, but getting double the bonus stats from the Talent Tree is massive.

It's an additional 20 stats for Morphling, nearly as many stats as an Eye of Skadi.

Accumulation does come with some drawbacks. It only kicks in when Morphling maxes out his other abilities and it takes time for the extra stats to kick in. But the impact late game makes a world of difference.

Dota 2 support items
Can't touch this. (Credit: Valve)

Blinding Sun

Debuffs from Icarus Dive, Fire Spirits, Sun Ray, and Supernova apply a stackable 2% miss chance per second. Lasts 5 seconds. Applying new stack refreshes the duration.

A debuff that causes enemies to miss is a huge buff for Phoenix and a great way to bring the hero back in the meta.

The miss chance makes it harder to trade hits with Phoenix, a hero who is already notoriously difficult to zone out early on thanks to the attack speed reduction from Fire Spirits.

It also makes it more difficult to kill the hero during Supernova, a welcome upgrade for the hero. The hero's ultimate is a game changer and one missed attack makes the difference between the egg dying or winning a teamfight.

When hitting allies, Phoenix can dive in, throw a Fire Spirit, and Sun Ray his enemies to neuter their right clicks. Imagine a Troll Warlord or Morphling with a 50% miss chance.

Witch Doctor Garments of the Devilish Conjurer
Try his Cleft Death facet with Aghanim's Scepter.. (Credit: Valve)

Gris-Gris

Witch Doctor starts the game with Gris-Gris, a Neutral item that cannot be dropped or placed in the backpack. When the owner dies, 100% of the gold lost from death is added to the item cost, which also passively increases by 1 gold every 3s. Can be consumed to permanently remove the item and refund the gold to Witch Doctor. For that, press right-click on the item and select the "Consume Item" option

One of the more confusing Dota 2 Innate Abilities is Gris-Gris, which has quite a bit going for it.

Firstly Witch Doctor starts with a Neutral Item that collects one gold every three seconds. Think of it as a 20 GPM bonus that you can collect later.

Whenever Witch Doctor dies, the gold he loses from dying is added to Gris-Gris, which he can also collect later.

Truth is that dying doesn't usually cost a whole lot of gold. Each death takes a hero's networth divided by 40 from the victim. So a player loses 100 gold for every 4000 networth they have.

What Gris-Gris does is negate the death cost from dying while providing 20 GPM, in rough game, this allows Witch Doctor to amass a huge amount of gold and make a comeback later with Aghanim's Scepter.

That's our list of the best new Dota 2 Innate Abilities in patch 7.36. If you agree or think there are even more broken passives, let us know in the comments below.

READ MORE: Dota 2 patch 7.36 Completely Changes the Game

Featured Image Source: Valve

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