What is a Tormentor in Dota 2 and how to get a free Aganim Shard?

The Dota 2 universe is always evolving, and with patch 7.33, a new neutral creep boss known as the Tormentor was introduced. These bosses offer tremendous rewards, but are not so easy to engage with, requiring backup from your teammates as well as devising a strategy. If a player is looking to get an Aghanim’s Shard or some team gold from Tormentor, he or she should focus on the Tormentor. How do you defeat these bosses however, is the big question.

Credit: Valve Corporation

What Are Dota 2 Tormentors?

Spawning next to the offlanes, Tormentors are a neutral frontline that can be found at the eastern and western most edges of the map. Unlike Minions or Neutral Creeps, they are, able to attack or move. But in return, these are highly gifted in other features such as having a unique reflective ability along with an Also, Tormentors encircle themselves with a damage barrier that will regenerate once they get inflicted damage and will protect them alone.

Being defeated only once every 10 minutes, it is quite easy to understand why Tormentors are so challenging. Even after sitting through a 10-minute wait, you are still greeted by a 2,500 HP barrier. And for more perspective, breaking down that barrier is no walk in the park as it has the capability of regenerating 100 HP every second. On reaching the 20-minute mark of the match, the Tormentors are ready to spawn but are now considerably stronger than they were last time.

Why Kill a Tormentor?

Tormentors grant Tormentors significantly high rewards when they are killed. Let's say your side manages to score a kill on a Tormentor, then one of the two lowest net worth players in your side not having Aghanim's Shard gets the upgrade free of charge. If all players have received their Shard, the team as a whole gets 280 gold and experience points instead.

Such a reward system means that killing the Tormentor becomes a pivotal goal achievement in the mid-to-late game as you will gain essential features/buffs that increase the chances of you winning the battle.

How Do Tormentors Defend Themselves?

Tormentors have come equipped with many powerful skills and one of the three is lack of the skills making them an easier opponent to kill:

• All Damage Barrier: The All Damage Barrier is the primary Fortress of the Tormentor that is able to endure damage from 2000 multiple sources. This is built on standard physics of energy replenishing at a rate of 100 HP every second. Biomechanics also have an additional factor because once you kill a Tormentor, not only does its HP and regeneration increase by 200, the barrier itself is also accounted.

• Reflect: This is one of the passive skills available and it ensures that an approximate 90% of the incoming damage will be absorbed by the Tormentor along with all other heros located within 1200 mete radius that scales With every death by 20 percent. What's important to remember is that this passive skill affects all heros even the one whos dealing the damage, and in addition– illusions and other non-hero units as well.

• The Shining: This aura does magical damage, 30 per second, to all the units in 1200 radius and the damage is distributed normally. The damage ticks at every 0.2 time interval and all the eligible units in the area such as creep heroes, illusions, and summons are affected.

These abilities make the Tormentor a daunting adversary requiring proper planning and execution of team strategies.

How to Kill a Tormentor

A Tormentor has a very powerful defense so the first thing to do is not just deal damage, but instead also consider how to make the Tormentor’s defenses useless. There are very useful tips to safely killing a Tormentor.

1. Team Composition and Coordination

Dispersing around and saving the team’s health is very important as the Tormentor has the ability to reflect damage directed at her to nearby heroes. Using Mekansm and healing spells like Juggernaut’s Healing Ward would help deal with reflected damage. Instead of attempting to kill Tormentor with few members it would be much easier to try the in a group as it would increase the chances of success and decrease the time taken.

1. Reducing Tormentor Armor

Taking into account Tormentor’s damage reflection mechanics, it makes way more sense to lower his armor rather than trying to increase your damage output. Heroes like Slardar with Corrosive Haze, or Razor with Eye of the Storm, are quite effective at this. Armor reducing items like Desolator, Assault Cuirass, and Solar Crest also aid the problem by greatly reducing the Tormentor’s armament.

1. Can I Solo Put Up A Fight With The Tormentor

There’s a large number of heroes in Dota 2 that can counter assassinate a Tormentor even though it has a massive shield. For example, Templar assassin has the capability of using her Refraction to nullify the reflected damage while Ursa's Enrage helps him to withstand the Tormentor's attacks. Similar to Troll Warlord whose Battle Trance ability helps him self sustain, Dr Bristleback who has an equipment advantage can also take the Tormentor down slowly as he tanks through it.

1. Abilities And Items Potentially Effective Against Tormentors

There are some special abilities and items which are known to be highly effective on Tormentors. For example, Razor would always go in with his Eye of the Storm and Weaver who comes in with Swarm can reduce Tormentor’s chances of coming out alive. Moreover, Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade on Dazzle also gives him an edge to kill Tormentors with assistance from his teammates,

Tormentor Pit Locations and Spawning

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As per the game lore, the rejection offlanes Tormentors under the west and the east edges of the map along with two tier towers locations as a offaling beginning are Pits where tormenters spawn every 10 min in game.bio. These Tier 2 towers are near the said pits and can be seen clearly on the minimap even when braved under fog. The killing of any Tormentor leads to the closure of its pit for 10 minutes and only on the completion of this time 2nd offaling zone of the mini map fully opens up. This feature allows players time to plot their players against both Tormentors in that span of 10 minutes.

Credit: Valve Corporation

Final Thoughts: Is It Worth It?

Killing a Tormentor is not an easy task. Summoning a Tormentor Aghanim’s Shard even requires more planning and understanding of his once dormant A Herculean task indeed as i had mentioned before. The effort pays off when followed up with the massive gold and experience earned by doing so, but at what risk as this leads to resting of the team. Who can dismiss fetching a vital objective in many games? Teams that can deal demolish the Tormentor will seek effective cuts at mid to late game skirmishes.

Easy enough to say gather the team devise a certain strategy and go head onto face the tormented Aghanim’s Shard. It’s easier said than done.