Dota 2 Muerta Guide

Muerta is a relatively new hero, added to the game in the March 2023 update. However, she has already gained a large fan base. Many players appreciate her for her versatility, which makes her a popular choice in both casual games and professional tournaments. From abilities and strengths to weaknesses, playstyles, item builds, and counterpicks, this guide covers everything you need to know about this hero in our Dota 2 Muerta guide.

Muerta’s Abilities

Let’s kick off by going through Muerta skills in Dota 2. It’s worth noting that all her skills scale well as the game progresses.

Dead Shot

Muerta’s first ability, Dead Shot, is a vector-target disable spell. Press the Q key (default), target an enemy unit or a tree, and while holding Q, move your mouse to set the ricochet direction. If you bounce it off a tree, it will destroy the tree on contact. This is especially useful against heroes like Monkey King, Nature’s Prophet, or Timbersaw. If the initial Dead Shot target is an enemy unit, they take damage and are briefly slowed.

After the first contact, the skill ricochets and moves in a targeted direction, damaging units and creeps it passes until it hits any enemy hero. Heroes impacted by the ricochet take damage and are feared away from the impact. Dead Shot is a highly useful ability that works well both in defense and offense. It can cancel channeling spells, interrupt teleports, clear creep waves, or simply deal efficient damage.

The Calling

The second spell, The Calling, is an area-of-effect silence that slows and damages enemy units. It creates a circular field with four ghosts rotating along the outer edge. Enemies touched by these ghosts take damage and are silenced, with the effect refreshing each time they make with ghosts. Additionally, any enemy within the circle is slowed.

The Calling is a powerful spell for both offense and defense but works best in narrow spaces or when combined with other debuffs such as Dead Shot.

Gunslinger

Next is Gunslinger, Muerta’s passive (toggleable) ability that allows for true carry gameplay. When activated, Gunslinger gives a chance to hit two targets in a single attack. Gunslinger is useful for fast farming and high damage output in team fights. It pairs well with items that boost damage, attack speed, or attack range, such as Desolator, Maelstrom or Mjollnir, and Eye of Skadi. Keep in mind that this skill can be disabled by Break effects from items like Silver Edge or abilities such as Phantom Assassin's shard.

Pierce the Veil

Last but not least is Pierce the Veil — Muerta’s ultimate. It’s a mid-active cooldown spell (75/60/45 seconds) that instantly makes the hero ethereal (immune to all physical damage), converts all Muerta’s damage into pure magic, applies a basic dispel, and grants bonus attack damage and phased movement, allowing her to move freely through units.

The primary use of Pierce the Veil is to maximize damage output in teamfights. However, the ability is also useful for farming, especially in the early stages of the game, when Muerta lacks damage, HP, and armor to clear ancients or stacked camps. Additionally, Pierce the Veil can serve as a defensive tool to avoid incoming physical damage. However this effect cannot be dispelled.

The basic combo is to cast The Calling, push the enemy into it with Dead Shot, activate Pierce the Veil, and unleash your attacks, hitting as hard as you can. Even early in the game, this combination can be devastating. However, Muerta performs best in well-coordinated, team-based gameplay.

To sum up, here’s a short video showcasing all Dota 2 Muerta abilities.

Muerta’s Weaknesses

To keep the game balanced, Valve ensures that even the most versatile heroes have weaknesses in certain things, and Muerta is no exception. Let’s talk about them.

The primary weakness that comes to mind is her “fragility.” As an intelligence hero, Muerta has low maximum HP and weak regeneration. Besides, those who play this hero often can notice how her movement speed is lacking. Moreover, if you play Muerta as a support and use spells to harass in the early stages, you will often find yourself running out of mana.

How to Play Muerta in Dota

Muerta’s greatest strength is her flexibility. The hero can be used in almost any role. That is, even though the current meta favors her as a carry, she is often seen as a support, especially in professional matches.

Before going into the specifics of each role, let’s clarify one key rule that applies to all of them: Muerta is a hero that relies on positioning. Do not make yourself an easy target. In every role, you need to stay back, choose the right timing, and pick your targets wisely.

Also, let’s not forget about Muerta’s two facets, and they seem to come with a clear distinction: the red one, Quickdraw, is an option for a core build, and the green one, Dance of the Dead, is intended for supports.

Muerta in Carry/Mid Role

As a position 1 or 2, Muerta’s main goal is to farm consistently. Only take part in fights when the odds are in your favor until you have enough items and levels to make an impact. Besides, picking Muerta as a core is very situational as there are a lot of shortcomings, and many carry heroes that are stronger in the current meta. Therefore, consider Muerta only if you have someone who can zone out the enemy offlaner and support you to let you get as many last hits as possible. While it mostly depends on the enemy pick, good support choices for Muerta may include Disruptor, Shadow Demon, Lich, Witch Doctor, Bane, and Warlock.

If you opt for Muerta in positions 1 or 2, ensure you have sufficient regeneration for laning, as her own health pool and health regeneration are low. In this Dota 2 Muerta build, focus on leveling Dead Shot and Gunslinger over The Calling. Once the game transitions into the mid one, you should be able to farm waves and neutral camps quickly with these two abilities. If the neutral creeps are too tough, using Pierce the Veil can help clear them faster and safer.

Core items for this build include Magic Wand, Bottle (if mid), Power Treads, Falcon Blade (optional but effective), Maelstrom, and Dragon Lance. In the mid to late game, aim for Mjollnir for attack speed, Black King Bar to combine with Pierce the Veil for near-invincibility, Hurricane Pike, Daedalus for massive damage, Monkey King Bar if the enemy team has evasion, Revenant Brooch against magic-vulnerable heroes, and Satanic. Besides, don’t forget to consider Linken’s Sphere if you need extra protection while your ultimate is active.

In fights, focus on quick and lethal strikes. Muerta excels at eliminating supports and backline heroes. Thus, let your third player position themselves and initiate, drawing attention while you target the enemy's vulnerable heroes. Avoid direct engagements with this hero unless absolutely necessary, or you are significantly ahead in farm and experience. And don’t just shoot — stay alert to your own positioning and that of your opponents. Losing focus while playing Muerta will lead to repeated deaths.

Muerta in Support Role

Muerta performs very well as a position 4 or 5 due to her solid base damage. When combined with Dead Shot and The Calling, her auto attacks can make laning extremely difficult for opponents.

To control the lane, start with Iron Branches and ample regeneration. In the mid-game, aim for Rod of Atos or Eul’s Scepter of Divinity, both of which work well with Muerta’s spells. Later, you can upgrade these into Gleipnir and Wind Waker to provide additional control through mass rooting and silence.

In teamfights, Dota 2 Muerta’s role as a support is to be as disruptive as possible without exposing herself. Stay on the backline, constantly monitoring the flow of battle. If the enemy team has Enigma, Pudge, Witch Doctor, or any other hero with channeling ultimate, you can easily cancel their abilities from long range with Dead Shot. The same applies to The Calling. Do not hesitate to use it on a single hero when necessary, but if you sense enemies grouping up, it is better to wait a little for a multi-hero silence.

Best Counters to Muerta

For any Dota 2 hero, there are characters and items that counter them, and Muerta in Dota is no exception. The hero is vulnerable to magical burst damage, heroes that can close the gap quickly, BKB piercing disables, and characters that can endure her damage output for the duration of Pierce the Veil. With that being said, here are the main counterpicks to Muerta:

1. Invoker is a powerful spellcaster who has tons of magical damage and multiple disables, making him one of the best Muerta counters.
2. Axe is a nightmare for any high physical damage carry, not only Muerta. If Axe catches you with his Berserker’s Call, you just accept death.
3. Legion Commander: works similarly to Axe by trapping Muerta in duels she cannot escape.
4. Wraith King (WK): this hero has high HP and armor, and with the equal farm, Muerta cannot bring him down during her ultimate. Besides, even if she somehow manages it, WK will simply respawn to take another round.
5. Spectre is one of the strongest Muerta counters. She comes with high HP and armor, reflects damage back, and can jump on Muerta at any time using her ultimate.
6. Bane is a hero capable of disabling Muerta for the full duration of Pierce the Veil, even if she has BKB. Unless Muerta has a Linken’s Sphere, Bane is a hard counter.
7. Zeus and Skywrath Mage have the highest magical burst damage output in the game — Muerta cannot play into this without BKB.
8. Centaur Warrunner is another tough matchup. Muerta basically cannot kill this hero on her own due to his massive HP pool and return damage.

As for the early game, it is highly situational. With enough regeneration, proper positioning, experience, and a good teammate, Muerta in Dota 2 can control or even dominate most lanes.

Conclusion

That wraps up our Dota 2 Muerta gameplay guide. As you can see, the hero is highly versatile, with abilities that support both core and support playstyles. However, Muerta’s weaknesses are limited damage output and relatively low HP. She is pretty vulnerable to sustainable heroes and those who can quickly close the gap.