There's nothing more satisfying than casting just one spell and watching your enemy disintegrate in front of your eyes.
Do you love to kill enemies before they even have time to react? If you do, you will love every hero on this list. In this list, I will be ranking the top ten Dota 2 nukers and explaining exactly why they deserve their spot.
10. Kunkka
Kunkka, the Admiral
Kunkka is a flexible hero that is strong in any lane. He has two nukes with his Ghostship and Torrent. Both of his nukes are also decent stuns. His most significant burst damage comes from his Tidebringer. Tidebringer is a strong physical damage nuke that scales with Kunkka's items.
Kunkka's Tidebringer is best paired up with critical strike items such as Daedalus. Upon crit, Kunkka's splash damage often one-shots weak heroes.
Players can also go the magic damage route by buying an Aghinam's Scepter to gain the ability Torrent Storm. This spawns multiple Torrents around Kunkka that are hard to dodge.
Why Kunkka is Great for Nuking:
- Has both physical and magical damage burst damage.
- His Tidebringer scales dramatically with damage items.
- His level 25 talent, Ghostship Fleet, sends 3 ships to the same location.
- His X Marks the Spot is a versatile setup.
- Ghostship also has the added bonus of buffing his allies.
9. Luna
Luna, the Moon Rider
Luna is a carry hero with high physical and magical damage potential. Players can play her as a traditional carry or equip her with an Aghanim's Scepter to drastically increase her magic damage.
Luna's ultimate, Eclipse, is an AOE nuke that showers enemies in Lucent Beams. These beams increase in damage with her talents and Aghanim's Scepter.
Why Luna is Great for Nuking:
- Both her cast range and spell damage can be increased with talents.
- She has increased night vision, allowing her to spot her prey before they see her.
- Her Lucent Beams do massive damage in the early game.
- She can transform into a physical damage carry if the enemies have too much magic resistance.
- With an Aghanim's Scepter, she can place her Eclipse on an ally, keeping herself out of danger.
8. Tiny
Tiny, the Stone Giant
Tiny is a versatile hero that can be played in any lane. Tiny's Avalanche and Toss are strong nukes that combo well together. Tiny's nuking potential gets increased when he purchases an Aghanim's Scepter. His Aghanim's Scepter gives him a new ability that allows him to toss trees at his enemies in rapid succession.
Tiny's Avalanche and Toss combo is powerful due to a weird mechanic. If you Avalanche an enemy, then toss them right after, they will get hit by Avalanche twice. This makes his early game damage massive.
Why Tiny is Great for Nuking:
- He can perform well on any roll.
- Both his burst damage and his tree grab allow him to farm quickly.
- All of his abilities are great at clearing illusions.
- Aghanim's Scepter gives him ever more burst damage.
- His Toss ability also damages towers.
7. Lion
Lion, the Demon Witch
Lion is a support hero equipped with two disables and a powerful nuke for an ultimate. Lion is often played offensively as his skills synergize well with a Blink Dagger. He can blink in and lock down any hero without a problem.
Lion's ultimate, Finger of Death, is unique as it gains bonus damage with each kill. Making him a great support to snowball with.
Why Lion is Great for Nuking:
- His disables are great at setting up his ultimate.
- Each kill he gets with Finger of Death increases its damage by 40.
- His mana Drain and his Hex both instantly kill illusions.
- He's one of the most beginner-friendly heroes in the game.
- All of his spells benefit from cast range items.
6. Morphling
Morphling
Morphling is a carry hero that requires constant focus to play effectively. The player must constantly shift his agility and strength via his morph ability. He has two nukes at his disposal. One of these nukes, Adaptive Strike, scales with Morphling's current agility.
Morphling's nuking ability relies on having multiple agility items. Morphling is best paired with an Ethereal Blade. Morphling will often Eblade, Adaptive Strikes, then Wave Forms on the enemy to maximize his damage.
Why Morphling is Great for Nuking:
- Adaptive Strike's damage potential is incredibly high.
- Synergizes with Ethereal Blade perfectly, giving him both agility and increased spell damage on the target.
- His agility items also give him attack speed and damage.
- He can Morph into an enemy and use their nukes on them.
- At level 25, he can get a +3 multishot Adaptive Strike.
5. Lina
Lina, the Slayer
Lina is primarily played as a mid hero. She excels at pressuring the enemy midlaner and pushing waves. Her Light Strike Array and Dragon Slave are both magical nuking spells. And her ultimate does a whopping 900 damage at max level, making it excellent at bursting down squishy heroes.
You may look at this and be tempted to think Lion's Finger of Death is a better one-shot laser ultimate. But with an Aghanim's Scepter, Laguna Blade pierces magic resistance, a powerful mechanic many players underestimate.
Why Lina is Great for Nuking:
- She has a high cast range.
- With an Agh's, her ultimate pierces BKB.
- She can use Light Strike Array to quickly set up her nukes.
- When she uses multiple spells in succession, she gets increased movement speed and attack speed.
- Has excellent AoE and single target spells.
4. Shadow Fiend
Nevermore, the Shadow Fiend
Shadow Fiend is a mid hero that excels at dominating his lane in the early game. He has three nukes at his disposal that get stronger with each successful hit. This makes taking out creeps, and even heroes, extremely easy.
His talents only add to his powerful nuking capabilities, with his level 10 being +6% Spell Amplification and his level 20 being +120 Shadowraze Damage. Getting stacks of Shadowraze on the enemy isn't the only way to nuke people down as Shadow Fiend. His ultimate, Requiem of Souls, is an AOE explosion that damages enemies based on how close they are to Shadow Fiend. This is why many players grab a EULs on Shadow Fiend to setup their ultimate for maximum damage.
Why Shadow Fiend is Great for Nuking:
- He has multiple talents that increase his spell damage.
- Each time he hits an enemy with a spell, it does more damage.
- Can transform into a physical carry in the late game.
- His ultimate synergizes with items such as Eul's Scepter.
- His ultimate grows in strength with each soul he devours.
3. Invoker
Carl, the Invoker
Invoker is one of the most complex midlaners in the game. He has a total of ten different abilities, making him extremely versatile. In terms of nuking, Sun Strike, Chaos Meteor, and Deafening Blast are amazing nukes that hit like an atomic bomb when used in succession.
Invoker's nukes can be a little tricky to set up. With enough practice, you can Tornado the enemy then follow up with Cold Snap and Chaos Meteor. Or you can buy a Eul's Scepter of Divinity for easy setups. Recently Invoker received a new ability, Cataclysm, that calls down multiple Sun Strikes on every enemy hero. If multiple enemies are locked down next to each other, just throw down Cataclysm and get an easy rampage.
Why Invoker is Great for Nuking:
- Has many different combos for nuking.
- He is a very versatile hero.
- His burst damage with Cataclysm is among the highest in the game.
- Tornado, Ice Wall, and Cold Snap can all be used to set up his nukes.
- Sunstrike bypasses spell immunity.
2. Techies
Squee, Spleen, and Spoon, the Techies
Everyone hates Techies, and there's a good reason for it. He stacks up invisible mines all over the map that do massive burst damage. And in the lane, he has Blast Off!, a spell that does 300 damage and silences for 4 seconds at level 1. He has the highest burst damage potential in the game, as he can stack up multiple mines on top of each other.
Why Techies is Great for Nuking:
- His Statis Trap and Remote mines are only visible with True Sight.
- Techies is incredibly hard to play against, as he often places his mines near crucial objectives.
- He can deny himself with Blast Off!
- Incredibly high movement speed.
- His Aghanim's Scepter gives him a new ability, Minefield Sign. This makes mines around the sign immune to true sight.
1. Zeus
Zeus, the Lord of Heaven
Zeus can be played as a midlaner or support. Thunderbolt is a nuke that also mini-stuns the opponent. Zeus's Aghanim's Scepter also gives him a third nuke, Nimbus. This ability creates a storm cloud on the map striking the enemies with a lightning bolt every 2 seconds. All of Zeus's abilities are further enhanced by his passive, Static Field, which damages the enemy based on their current health.
Zeus's nukes can be used in quick succession, making him capable of bursting down even the strongest foes. All of Zeus's nukes give him True Sight, making him a great pick against pesky invisible heroes.
Why Zeus is Great for Nuking:
- All of his spells damages enemies proportional to their current health.
- His Lightning Bolt and Nimbus both mini-stun the target.
- Three of his talents increase his spell damage output in one way or another.
- Both Nimbus and Thungergod's Wrath are global spells.
- His spells have cheap mana costs.
