The Dota 2 Competitive Hero Tier List for January 2020 includes data from DreamLeague S13 Leipzig Major, for a total of 183 games played from patches 7.23e to 7.23f.

All heroes are arranged in five tiers based on their draft rate. The tiers are viewed as clusters of data, and each hero is placed in the one they are closer the most.
The requisites for each tier never change. The goal is offering a neutral comparison that shows how the meta evolves over time.
The win rate has no effect on the tiers, but is included for further info. The tiers depend only on drafts (picks + bans), and aren't affected either by the win rate of a hero, or by their performance in pub matches.

This tier list contains all pro matches played from January 1st to 26th during version 7.23e and 7.23f, including DreamLeague Season 13: The Leipzig Major.

Past Tier List: December 2019

More: Updated Dota 2 Hero Tier List

Quick links

Tier 1 - Tier 2 - Tier 3 - Tier 4 - Tier 5

All tables are responsive and sortable. If you are using a phone, turn it sideways for a full view. Otherwise, zoom in or click the grey area of each table to swipe and sort them.

Tier 1

Name	P+B	P+B%	Picks	Picks%	Bans	Bans%	Win%
Doom	174	95.1%	57	31.2%	117	63.9%	56.1%
Disruptor	163	89.1%	69	37.7%	94	51.4%	59.4%
Puck	144	78.7%	54	29.5%	90	49.2%	50.0%
Slark	142	77.6%	55	30.1%	87	47.5%	45.5%
Treant Protector	140	76.5%	50	27.3%	90	49.2%	54.0%
Omniknight	137	74.9%	45	24.6%	92	50.3%	55.6%
Io	135	73.8%	33	18.0%	102	55.7%	60.6%
Lich	131	71.6%	80	43.7%	51	27.9%	56.3%
Tiny	126	68.9%	54	29.5%	72	39.3%	48.2%

The division in tiers is never perfect, and sometimes the heroes at the limit between the highest tiers have similar draft rates.

Learn more:

Recently, I talked about several popular meta picks in my article on the top 10 heroes of 7.23 at 5k MMR: Vengeful Spirit, Drow, Void Spirit, Ursa, Doom, Venomancer, Treant Protector, Bloodseeker.
The December 2019 Tier List featured Tiny, Viper, Razor, and Abaddon.

Tier 2

Name	P+B	P+B%	Picks	Picks%	Bans	Bans%	Win%
Viper	104	56.8%	22	12.0%	82	44.8%	50.0%
Timbersaw	103	56.3%	22	12.0%	81	44.3%	54.6%
Phantom Lancer	101	55.2%	33	18.0%	68	37.2%	66.7%
Abaddon	98	53.6%	50	27.3%	48	26.2%	56.0%
Drow Ranger	96	52.5%	43	23.5%	53	29.0%	51.2%
Winter Wyvern	94	51.4%	46	25.1%	48	26.2%	50.0%
Outworld Devourer	93	50.8%	31	16.9%	62	33.9%	54.8%
Rubick	90	49.2%	68	37.2%	22	12.0%	42.7%
Templar Assassin	84	45.9%	30	16.4%	54	29.5%	40.0%
Batrider	82	44.8%	25	13.7%	57	31.2%	48.0%
Magnus	74	40.4%	35	19.1%	39	21.3%	45.7%

Slark

Slark is both the most picked and banned carry of the game in January. He is extremely popular also in pub games with over 30% pick rate at 5K MMR and around 25% at most ranks.

Most bought items by pros

These are the most bought items on Slark by pro players during January:

Magic Wand: 52
Power Treads: 50
Diffusal Blade: 50
Black King Bar: 37
Aghanim’s Scepter: 30
Abyssal Blade: 12
Eye of Skadi: 10
Drum of Endurance: 10
Mjollnir: 6

The list doesn’t include consumables and basic items.

Diffusal Blade is indispensable as a DPS and ganking tool (100% movement speed slow on the target for 4 seconds).

Afterwards, Slark must build an item to enhance his survivability. Black King Bar is the best choice in most situations, but sometimes I would suggest skipping it and getting Eye of Skadi or Abyssal Blade: in pub games, there aren’t always teams with an adequate amount of disables, thus magic immunity is not essential (be very careful with this choice).

Aghanim’s Scepter became a core item after patch 7.23: the new upgrade replaces Pounce’s cooldown with 2 charges (using the cooldown as recharge time), increases the leap distance from 700 to 1400, and the speed from 933.33 to 1866.66. Most players used to build Blink Dagger or Shadow Blade as an initiation item, but the new Aghanim’s upgrade is a better option, and this item also helps Slark with extra stats and HP.

Note: 7.24 reduced Pounce’s range from 1400 to 1200.

Sange and Yasha provides a mix of useful bonuses, and it was a potential core item in the past, but nowadays there are more impactful ones, such as Abyssal Blade: 7.23 buffed it with a 600 range blink, which expands the mobility of melee cores. You might consider Sange and Yasha only if you are trying to become as bulky as possible and you badly need the status resistance.

The extra blinks given by Abyssal Blade and Aghanim’s Scepter also influenced the boots choice as Phase Boots are not necessary anymore for the extra movement speed (among other reasons, like patch 7.20d rework that removed the attack speed bonus), so Slark can focus on stats and attack speed with Power Treads.

Eye of Skadi is mostly a late game item bought for its stats and passive movement slow, but occasionally you may need to focus on DPS and attack speed (Essence Shift steals stats with each attack), thus Butterfly or Mjollnir are also great choices.

Diffusal Blade or Echo Sabre

I do not recommend Echo Sabre. It is a very niche item with a single goal: its passive Echo Strike allows you to attack twice, and thus to build more Essence Shift’s stacks.

Slark’s item build is already full, so players who get Echo Sabre tend to give up on Diffusal Blade, but the latter is a better choice in most cases.

Diffusal Blade provides more damage and scales better in the late game once you have a higher attack speed.
It is the most cost-effective agility item, and the mana burn effect is amazing versus several heroes, particularly strength cores who struggle with their mana.

Skill build

Slark’s skill build is very straightforward.

You require a point into Essence Shift in the lane phase in order to trade hits: last hitting creeps is a lot easier with a few stacks because agility increases both your attack speed and damage, while the opponent will have a harder time.

Pounce is useful both to escape or to score a kill. Levelling up the skill also increases the leash duration, but 2.5 seconds at level 1 are enough for all your needs.

Dark Pact is a survivability, escape, and damage tool as it purges most negative buffs and inflicts a solid AoE damage (once maxed out), so later on it can be used to farm lane and neutral creeps.

How to counter Slark

Lane phase picks

Most melee offlaners are countered by Slark, but strength cores such as Centaur Warrunner, Doom, Axe, and Timbersaw should not have issues surviving against him. Learn to keep your distance when there are no creeps to kill, and be very careful when trading hits, otherwise he will steal too many stats and become a nuisance.

The position 4 has the biggest impact on the lane matchup as nukers like Skywrath, Lion, Lina, and Leshrac totally overwhelm Slark and can punish all his offensive actions: he won’t be able to farm at all prior level 6 unless helped by a very capable support.

Recommended items

Heaven’s Halberd is a hard counter as its active ability Disarm prevents Essence Shift. Also, it is not dispellable with Dark Pact, and Black King Bar doesn’t nullify it either because the disarm effect persists if was placed before spell immunity.
Ghost Scepter, Glimmer Cape, and Eul’s Scepter of Divinity are all viable options for self-defense on supports and magic cores (like Zeus). Force Staff helps to dodge Pounce: I recommend having 2-3 of them in the team so you can save each other.
Blade Mail is not as efficient as against other cores, but it still improves your survivability during the duration.
Scythe of Vyse’s Hex disables Slark for 3.5 seconds - be careful with timings as Dark Pact can dispel it.

In the video below, Evil Geniuses’ Artour "Arteezy" Babaev as Slark.

Tier 3

Name	P+B	P+B%	Picks	Picks%	Bans	Bans%	Win%
Naga Siren	63	34.4%	23	12.6%	40	21.9%	65.2%
Bloodseeker	63	34.4%	18	9.8%	45	24.6%	44.4%
Enchantress	61	33.3%	21	11.5%	40	21.9%	47.6%
Morphling	61	33.3%	26	14.2%	35	19.1%	34.6%
Vengeful Spirit	60	32.8%	33	18.0%	27	14.8%	42.4%
Legion Commander	58	31.7%	30	16.4%	28	15.3%	46.7%
Lifestealer	56	30.6%	26	14.2%	30	16.4%	46.2%
Huskar	54	29.5%	14	7.7%	40	21.9%	71.4%
Razor	54	29.5%	17	9.3%	37	20.2%	58.8%
Shadow Fiend	53	29.0%	26	14.2%	27	14.8%	30.8%
Leshrac	50	27.3%	21	11.5%	29	15.9%	61.9%
Earthshaker	49	26.8%	34	18.6%	15	8.2%	50.0%
Elder Titan	46	25.1%	25	13.7%	21	11.5%	48.0%
Storm Spirit	45	24.6%	30	16.4%	15	8.2%	56.7%
Ember Spirit	42	23.0%	24	13.1%	18	9.8%	50.0%
Lone Druid	39	21.3%	7	3.8%	32	17.5%	57.1%
Gyrocopter	37	20.2%	23	12.6%	14	7.7%	56.5%
Beastmaster	37	20.2%	16	8.7%	21	11.5%	31.3%
Chen	35	19.1%	20	10.9%	15	8.2%	50.0%

Tier 4

Name	P+B	P+B%	Picks	Picks%	Bans	Bans%	Win%
Underlord	30	16.4%	23	12.6%	7	3.8%	30.4%
Centaur Warrunner	30	16.4%	20	10.9%	10	5.5%	50.0%
Kunkka	30	16.4%	16	8.7%	14	7.7%	62.5%
Lina	29	15.9%	17	9.3%	12	6.6%	35.3%
Arc Warden	24	13.1%	13	7.1%	11	6.0%	69.2%
Brewmaster	24	13.1%	13	7.1%	11	6.0%	23.1%
Clockwerk	24	13.1%	16	8.7%	8	4.4%	43.8%
Ancient Apparition	23	12.6%	11	6.0%	12	6.6%	72.7%
Broodmother	22	12.0%	4	2.2%	18	9.8%	50.0%
Monkey King	18	9.8%	12	6.6%	6	3.3%	66.7%
Night Stalker	17	9.3%	12	6.6%	5	2.7%	58.3%
Faceless Void	17	9.3%	12	6.6%	5	2.7%	58.3%
Necrophos	17	9.3%	8	4.4%	9	4.9%	75.0%
Crystal Maiden	16	8.7%	15	8.2%	1	0.6%	33.3%
Skywrath Mage	15	8.2%	11	6.0%	4	2.2%	54.6%
Tusk	15	8.2%	8	4.4%	7	3.8%	62.5%
Venomancer	15	8.2%	9	4.9%	6	3.3%	44.4%
Queen of Pain	15	8.2%	5	2.7%	10	5.5%	60.0%
Invoker	14	7.7%	8	4.4%	6	3.3%	37.5%
Dark Seer	14	7.7%	9	4.9%	5	2.7%	66.7%
Windranger	14	7.7%	12	6.6%	2	1.1%	83.3%
Anti-Mage	14	7.7%	8	4.4%	6	3.3%	37.5%
Oracle	13	7.1%	11	6.0%	2	1.1%	54.6%
Alchemist	13	7.1%	7	3.8%	6	3.3%	28.6%
Ursa	13	7.1%	5	2.7%	8	4.4%	20.0%
Meepo	12	6.6%	4	2.2%	8	4.4%	50.0%
Dragon Knight	12	6.6%	8	4.4%	4	2.2%	37.5%
Bane	12	6.6%	12	6.6%	0	0.0%	41.7%
Axe	12	6.6%	10	5.5%	2	1.1%	20.0%
Nature's Prophet	11	6.0%	6	3.3%	5	2.7%	33.3%
Slardar	11	6.0%	9	4.9%	2	1.1%	66.7%
Sand King	11	6.0%	9	4.9%	2	1.1%	33.3%
Grimstroke	10	5.5%	8	4.4%	2	1.1%	37.5%
Pangolier	10	5.5%	9	4.9%	1	0.6%	44.4%
Zeus	10	5.5%	4	2.2%	6	3.3%	75.0%

In tier 4 and 5 we find all the situational heroes. They are strong when paired with others, or against specific lineups. These heroes aren't bad, they just don't work in every game, so the pick and ban rates aren't outstanding.

Tier 5

Name	P+B	P+B%	Picks	Picks%	Bans	Bans%	Win%
Terrorblade	9	4.9%	7	3.8%	2	1.1%	0.0%
Shadow Demon	9	4.9%	8	4.4%	1	0.6%	62.5%
Riki	9	4.9%	6	3.3%	3	1.6%	50.0%
Shadow Shaman	9	4.9%	9	4.9%	0	0.0%	33.3%
Lion	9	4.9%	8	4.4%	1	0.6%	50.0%
Troll Warlord	8	4.4%	3	1.6%	5	2.7%	33.3%
Enigma	8	4.4%	5	2.7%	3	1.6%	60.0%
Mars	7	3.8%	7	3.8%	0	0.0%	28.6%
Pugna	7	3.8%	5	2.7%	2	1.1%	20.0%
Tidehunter	7	3.8%	5	2.7%	2	1.1%	100%
Nyx Assassin	6	3.3%	3	1.6%	3	1.6%	100%
Ogre Magi	6	3.3%	5	2.7%	1	0.6%	0.0%
Dark Willow	5	2.7%	5	2.7%	0	0.0%	20.0%
Phoenix	5	2.7%	5	2.7%	0	0.0%	20.0%
Keeper of the Light	5	2.7%	5	2.7%	0	0.0%	60.0%
Lycan	5	2.7%	1	0.6%	4	2.2%	100%
Spectre	5	2.7%	5	2.7%	0	0.0%	20.0%
Warlock	5	2.7%	3	1.6%	2	1.1%	33.3%
Medusa	4	2.2%	4	2.2%	0	0.0%	50.0%
Undying	4	2.2%	2	1.1%	2	1.1%	50.0%
Jakiro	4	2.2%	4	2.2%	0	0.0%	25.0%
Weaver	4	2.2%	2	1.1%	2	1.1%	0.0%
Death Prophet	4	2.2%	3	1.6%	1	0.6%	0.0%
Silencer	3	1.6%	3	1.6%	0	0.0%	33.3%
Spirit Breaker	3	1.6%	3	1.6%	0	0.0%	33.3%
Clinkz	3	1.6%	3	1.6%	0	0.0%	33.3%
Dazzle	2	1.1%	2	1.1%	0	0.0%	50.0%
Sniper	2	1.1%	1	0.6%	1	0.6%	0.0%
Witch Doctor	2	1.1%	2	1.1%	0	0.0%	50.0%
Earth Spirit	1	0.6%	1	0.6%	0	0.0%	0.0%
Bristleback	1	0.6%	1	0.6%	0	0.0%	0.0%
Phantom Assassin	1	0.6%	1	0.6%	0	0.0%	100%
Wraith King	1	0.6%	1	0.6%	0	0.0%	0.0%
Tinker	1	0.6%	1	0.6%	0	0.0%	0.0%
Juggernaut	1	0.6%	1	0.6%	0	0.0%	0.0%

Heroes not drafted

Next Tier List: February 2020

Header image (Ocean Conqueror loading screen for Slark) and hero icons: Valve - Statistics: DatDota