etofok dota 2 layout - Advanced Dota 2 Hotkeys and Setup

Hotkeys Overview

Abilities 1-4: Q W E R
Abilities (Self): Q W E R + Alt
Abilities (Learn): Q W E R + Ctrl
Ability 5 & 6: Wildcard

Items: A S D Z X C
Items (Self): A S D Z X C + Alt

Neutral: V
Neutral (Self): V + Alt

Teleport Scroll: G
Teleport Base: G + Alt

Attack: Spacebar
Stop: F
Directional Move: CapsLock

Select Group 1: 1
Select Group 2: 2
Select Group 3: 3
Select Group 4: 4

Select Hero: WheelUp
Select All Other Units: WheelDown
Select All Units: WheelDown + Alt
Unified Orders: Ctrl

Select Courier: F1
Open Shop: Alt+1
Quickbuy: Alt+2
Courier Deliver: Alt+3
Courier Burst: Alt+4
Buy Sticky: Y

Talents: `
Left Talent: 1
Right Talent: 2

Chat Wheel 1: F2
Chat Wheel 2: F2+Alt

Alt modifier

Alt is our self-cast modifier.

Think of Alt as "to me".

Hold down Alt and everything targetable targets your own hero i.e. Glimmer Cape, Decrepify, etc.

This is by far one of the most important features and we're going to use it for everything.

Control Groups

No change to control groups.

Select Group 1: 1
Select Group 2: 2
Select Group 3: 3
Select Group 4: 4

Do not be intimidated by this many control groups — just have them available to you.

97% of the hero pool will do perfectly fine with just 2-3 groups.
(In fact, in Dota 2 you can get away with exactly 0 control groups, more on it later).

It's not going to hurt to have specific binds for things like
Warlock Chaotic Offering,
Lone Druid Spirit Bear,
Juggernaut Healing Ward

Use Manta Style and Book of the Dead to their potential.

Dominate and control neutral creeps like Centaur Conqueror, Harpy Stormcrafter or Satyr Tormenter to play Chen, Enchantress or Beastmaster.

Juke, scout and bait with individual Doppelganger illusions, and even Illusion Rune illusions.

Control groups are your friend.

Abilities

No change, abilities use the intuitive QWER layout:

Abilities: Q W E R
Abilities (Self): Q W E R + Alt
Abilities (Learn): Q W E R + Ctrl

Just in case you didn't know: Ctrl + Ability # instantly levels up the ability.
It's a great feature, I recommend getting used to it.

Abilities — Quick Cast

Quick Casts allow us to cast instantly with a key press, eliminating the need for a mouse click.
Put everything on Quick Casts, with one exception — Point Target Area of Effect spells.

Notable examples: Black Hole, Nether Blast, Chronosphere, etc.

Because we need to aim these very carefully — it's better to keep them on Normal Cast.

Don't forget to rebind abilities onto Quick Casts for Neutrals.
Most neutrals have an ability to cast.

This is also useful for Book of the DeadPurge

Abilities — Toggle Auto Cast

Go to Default → Autocast and clear these binds.
They sometimes get in the way.

Then, switch to Heroes → Select Hero → Autocast and manually bind your toggles to Alt+Your Key

Abilities — Ability 5 & 6

Extending our 'Ability row' to the right is not ideal.
While T is somewhat ok — Y is just terrible.

Also we want to keep in mind that not every hero even has Ability 5 & Ability 6.
And when they do, sometimes they are important and something not at all.

And sometimes one of the 'Core 4' abilities is a passive.

I'm going to start with a simple example:

Considering the fact that Phantom Assassin has no summons, doesn't really buy Manta Style, AND unlikely to choose Book of the Dead — she's probably the simplest hero in the game in terms of unit control.

Ogre Magi has technically 6 Abilities.

But it's crucial to note, that Multicast is a passive.
It doesn't need a hotkey.

So, let's use R for one of the other abilities:

Leave Bloodlust on E and move Fire Shield to R.

This is much better, because both 'buff abilities' are next to each other and use great keys.

I hope one day we'll be able to rearrange abilities on the HUD to make it visually coherent as well.

Let's try something with 6 active abilities:

This is really clunky and looks awful.

But I want to highlight something — it is possible to bind abilities to control group keys.

Despite the fact that we have Control Group 4 bound to 4, it's still possible to use 4 as an ability key!

That's great news, because Hoodwink has no use for this many control groups, so keys like 3, 4 and 5 are essentially free real estate.

Realistically, the only other units you might have when playing Hoodwink is Book of the Dead, for which you don't even need a dedicated control group because you can just use Select All Other Units (more on that later).

This means, Hoodwink — among many — can get away with 0 control groups and easily have a set up like this:

or even like this:

That's pretty comfortable for a hero with 6 active buttons, don't you think?

Here's Invoker, and he's no more difficult:

Alternatively, if you don't care about control groups — just bind them.
Leave 2 for Forge Spirit and use something like this:

Ideally, to next-level your Invoker you'd want to cast Invoke with your thumb — so that you use all the fingers. It's more efficient this way, and faster.
But that's a story for another day.

Now let me show you something interesting.

Abilities - No Target Abilities

One last tip on how to bind No Target abilities like these:

Mirror Image, Rip Tide, Song of the Siren

or

Quas, Wex, Exort, Invoke

You want to bind these abilities to Normal Cast, and also bind these abilities to Quickcast hotkeys with Alt, like so:

(please be careful, because Ensnare is a targerable ability)

The reason is because we're going to use Alt a lot.

And if a No Target ability is bound to Q, then Alt + Q will not fire it.
You have to release Alt to cast.

Spend a few minutes and bind both — you don't have a heropool of 100.
It might come into play in a hectic fight.

The HUD shows Cast key binds over Quickcast, so in-game it'll look good.

Items

Arguably, instant access to items is even more important than instant access to abilities.
That's why we bind items to Quick Cast.

And just like with abilities — we must have instant access to self-cast.
That's why we don't bind items to Alt a.k.a. the HoN item binds.

We also want it to be intuitive and easily accessible.
That's why we bind items right below the ability row.

Items: A S D Z X C
Items (Self): A S D Z X C + Alt

This way all the 6 items are easily accessible, self-cast is easily accessible and the layout is visually coherent with the in-game interface.

You will never misclick, forget about or misuse anything this way.

Per-Item Quickcast

This option used to be much more obscure — Valve made it more visible in the 7.39 patch.
(May 23rd, 2025)

Very few people even aware of this option, but it's the best.

This menu allows us to set Normal Cast per item, overriding Quick Cast slot binds.

Uncheck the following:

Observer and Sentry Wards

Gleipnir

Meteor Hammer

Fallen Sky

Regardless of the inventory slot, these items will use Normal Cast.

This is critical because we need to see the Area Of Effect visual indicator in order to use these items to their potential.

Same Problem: Alt + No Target

Holding down ALT blocks user input for No Target items.
This is because you can't "target" a No Target item/ability, so it gets ignored.

Here's an example.

Let's say, we have Glimmer Cape, Gale Guard, Eul's Scepter of Divinity and Magic Stick
This is not uncommon.

To use these items on ourselves we have to juggle the ALT key.

Here's what I'm talking about:
1. I press ALT to Glimmer Cape myself, then
2. I release ALT to apply Gale Guard to myself (it can't be targeted), then
3. I have to press ALT again to Eul's Scepter of Divinity myself, and then
4. I have to release ALT to use Magic Stick (it can't be targeted)

Hopefully it'll get changed.

Here's a post on Reddit.
Here's a suggestion on github, which you can bump.

Neutral Item

Neutral Item is the 7th item, so it follows the C to the right.

Neutral: V
Neutral (Self): V + Alt

Easily accessible and almost visually coherent.

Teleport Scroll

Teleport Scroll: G
Teleport to Base: G + Alt

Think of G as "Go Ground".
Alt + G follows naturally as the "Go to my base" key.

Use Normal Cast, not Quick Cast.

G Teleport Scrollis intentionally separated from the action keys to prevent accidental activation.

Attack, Stop

I've been using Spacebar for Attack and F for Stop with great success for more than 10 years in many games.

Attack: Spacebar
Stop or Hold: F

Attack on Spacebar is a fantastic bind.
The thumb is often a very underused finger — it's ideal for Attack.

And I promise, it's much easier (and faster) to cycle through...

1Spacebar2Spacebar3Spacebar than 1A2A3A

Stop is now F
If S is for Stop — then F is for Freeze, Forfeit or F*ck it.

F is in the very middle of everything: below abilities, to the right of items, to the left of teleport scroll and above the neutral item slot.

Now our left hand rests on this block of keys with instant reach to everything.

It is extremely comfortable.

Directional Move

Directional Move is used on heroes like Shadow Fiend and Slark.
Most people don't bother with it.

CapsLock is a great key for Directional Move, because it's pressed with the pinky finger, which allows you to press all the abilities and items as usual.

Directional Move: CapsLock

Upgrade Talents

This hotkey is not something that you use very often.
Literally up to 8 times in a very long game.

But there was a period of my life when I was a Turbo enjoyer, where it's not rare to get a big level up in the middle of a fight.

That's how I found out that having a hotkey for Upgrade Talent is more comfortable than not having it. I felt annoyed I had to press the "plus sign" with the cursor. This sounds ridiculous as I write this but it's true.

Upgrade Talent is fantastic on ` (grave), because you then select the left-or-right talent with 1 or 2 which are right next to it. It's instant and makes perfect sense.

Upgrade Talents: `
Upgrade Left Talent: 1
Upgrade Right Talent: 2
Upgrade Attributes: 3<- or ->none

Oversight?

Alt + 1 and Alt + 2 can't be used for talent upgrades.
When you try to use Alt for Upgrade Talent — the game just alerts the talent status in chat.

You may also want to unbind Upgrade Attributes to prevent accidentally selecting it.

Select Unit (advanced)

Here's another way to select and control units in Dota 2.

Dota 2 has these fantastic features:
Select Hero, Select All Other Units, Select All Units and Unified Orders.

1. Select Hero — self-explanatory.

2. Select All Other Units selects all units under your control except your hero.

3. Select All Units selects all units under your control.
In other words, Select Hero + Select All Other Units.

4. Unified Orders is a modifier key — Ctrl, that allows us to issue commands to all units without selecting them. This is very convenient when used occasionally, but otherwise it's really annoying to hold Ctrl all the time if you need to control all units all the time.

These should supplement your control groups — not replace them completely.

Select Hero: WheelUp
Select All Other Units: WheelDown
Select All Units: WheelDown + Alt
Unified Orders: Ctrl

Do not bind: WheelUp + Alt

Select Hero and Select All Other Units fit great together as "opposite polarities".
This is very intuitive.

Select All Units is Select All Other Units + Alt, which is "to me" modifier.
This is also very intuitive.

Ctrl allows us to command all units without selecting them, and when we want to select them —WheelDown + Alt is unbelievably easy to press.
Even when holding down Ctrl.

Do not bind WheelUp + Alt to anything,
because you want to be able to Select Hero with WheelUp and WheelUp + Alt.

These binds works together in a way I can't really explain — you have to experience it.

WheelUp and WheelDown are faster than double-tapping, and don't break your hand position at all. Effortless to "click".

I encourage you — the reader — to go into a Demo and play around with Naga Siren or Terrorblade. You won't be able to go back.

Inconsistent behavior (bug?):

Shift + Select Hero adds the hero to your current selection,
Shift + Select All Other Units does not add the units — acts like Select.

Here's a ticket on github.

Shop & Courier

Limitation?

A lot of keys don't work for Courier Deliver and Courier Boost while the 'Search' input element of Shop is in focus. Things like numbers 123 go into the 'Search' bar as text:

I have no idea why "7" filters out Hurricane Pike and Dragon Lance

However, there is no reason for keys like F1F2F3 or their Alt counterparts to behave this way. But they do.

This matters because we have to close the shop window before we can use these hotkeys.
Alternatively, we can disable Shop Search Gets Focus On Open.
I personally did the latter:

Now, there are many different configurations for all-things-shop.
This is what I'm currently using.

Select Courier: F1
Open Shop: Alt+1
Quickbuy: Alt+2
Courier Deliver: Alt+3
Courier Burst: Alt+4
Buy Sticky: Y

In any case, you want the following pattern to be easy:
QuickBuy → Courier Deliver → Courier Boost

F1Select Courier is near control groups — makes sense as a "Select" key.
In reality, it's pretty rare we need to control the courier.

YBuy Sticky is not used very often, but I like having hotkeys for everything.
It used to be a much more frequent key when we weren't getting free Teleport Scrolls on death.

I bind Courier Shield to R as courier's "Ultimate" ability.

It's easier to reach in a pickle.

Chances are you'll be manually controlling the courier anyway when you want to use it, so I don't feel like I need a global bind.

Chat Wheel

This is not for flavor — this is a mandatory bind, and it has to be easily accessible.
Emotional Damage is a real thing, as is Emotional Support.

The Chat Wheel is something that I use all the time, so the hotkey has to be good.

After trying out 10+ different variations — I decided F2 is the best.

Chat Wheel 1: F2
Chat Wheel 2: F2+Alt

Chat Wheel 1 Setup

Over a decade I figured this is the required setup to play.
I really want these call-outs on hand.

Towards the top I have progressively "aggressive" call-outs.
Towards the bottom I have progressively "defensive" call-outs.

On the left I have "suggestions what to do".
On the right I have "be aware of my perspective".

It's actually crazy how much it makes sense.

Go and Get Back are obvious. Required for any coordination.

Fight Under Tower probably contributes to half of my MMR.
Synergizes perfectly well with every other call-out.

Fight Under Tower is the ultimate "DO NOT DO ANYTHING STUPID".

Prepares the team for action.
Reminds them not to dive.
Reminds them not to chase off your own high-ground.

It's the best.
Treat everyone like they have a 3 second memory.

Spread Out is important for any pre-teamfight action, especially when facing big ultimates such as Black Hole, Reverse Polarity, Chronosphere, etc.

Generally useful around objectives, especially high-ground.

When used with Get Back or I'm retreating works as the "Please Disperse" call-out to forfeit an objective, so that everyone is free to push out lanes or get extra farm.

Group Up serves as the "Get Ready" and "Let's Go" call-outs.
It's also useful when you actually want to group up, i.e. for Greaves or Smokes

On my way indicates our intent to join.
It serves as "Wait for me" and "I'm not there yet" at the same time.

I'm retreating indicates our intent not to join.

These are great call-outs, because they lower the chance of our team overextending.
The team needs to know whether they can rely on us to make better decisions.

All miss is a great call-out for "They are smoked", "They are ganking", "Watch the minimap" and "Careful."

Use with Fight under tower, Get back and Group Up to bring your team into safety.

Chat Wheel 2 Setup

Exclusively flavor and emotions sink.
Use whatever you like.

Camera Grip & Edge Pan

Camera Grip is generally much better.
Especially so, if your mouse sensitivity is low (<1000).

I have Edge Pan disabled for years.

The main reason to keep Edge Pan disabled is for easier portrait clicks.

In a chaotic fight it's not easy to target your important ally with Glimmer Cape, Decrepify or False Promise, which is often a matter of life and death.

Having Edge Pan disabled makes it easier to swing your cursor to the top edge of your screen without your camera moving in a disorienting way.

Now, I'm not against Edge Pan.
I just don't use it.

Portrait Clicking

Here's something very interesting.

You can use spells and items on allies via portrait clicks.
You can't use spells or items on enemies. That would be ridiculous.

What you can also do — is issue Attack commands.

Oversight?
Not sure if intended: you can issue attack commands, but you can't right-click top bar portraits (it selects).

This is relevant, because attacking an enemy hero draws creep aggro.
And you can draw creep aggro by issuing an attack on any hero — on any lane.

This is obviously extremely useful on heroes that benefit from creeps attacking them:
Axe because of Counter Helix,
Timbersaw because of Reactive Armor and
Legion Commander because of Moment of Courage.

But even outside of these 3, aggro manipulation is a very important mechanic in this game.

Auto attack

Use Auto Attack: Never for Tinker and Earth Spirit

Use Auto Attack: Standard for everything else.

You might want to use Auto Attack: Always in the early game for 'Cancel Spam' last hitting. I personally don't bother with it.

You definitely want to enable auto attack for illusion based heroes such as Phantom Lancer, Terrorblade and Naga Siren, so that you and the illusions auto attack creeps.

And don't forget to enable Quick Attack and Quick Move.

Abilities Require Cancel

Generally, you want this Enabled to prevent wasting your channeled spells such as Black Hole, Freezing Field or Fiend's Grip

However, you really want this Disabled on Puck
You want to jump Ethereal Jaunt while channeling Phase Shift

If you have Abilities Require Cancel Enabled then you have to manually Stop Phase Shift every time. You need to manually cancel the channeling and then jump.

It's unreasonably clunky and you will die a lot because of it.

Minimap

Hero with Arrow is objectively the best option at all times.
Alt should not affect it.

I use 115% and Extra Large Minimap because my eye-sight is no longer perfect.
Turns out, life is — indeed — very short. I remember playing Dota 1 on dial-up connection on Battle.net in 3rd grade. It's been, what, 23 years since? It's mind boggling how much life that is and how sometimes random and inevitable death is. I feel lucky I even get to write about hotkeys in a video game.

Map Background: Simple has less visual noise and is neutral-gray.
Icons stand out more. I'm also color blind so that might be a factor here.

Dynamically scale icons makes them lose their consistency.
I find it distracting, so I don't use it.

Minimap Misclick Protection Time

This one is interesting, because it depends on your skill level.

Newbie players often misclick on the minimap in panic.

This notably happens to Radiant players intending to walk their back to base, but they overshoot the mouse movement and accidentally click on the minimap, making them walk in whatever direction (and feed).

That's exactly what this option is for: it ignores all minimap inputs for a split second to stop this from happening.

Unfortunately, for slightly more experienced players this setting makes it worse, because the game literally doesn't register our clicks. That's bad.

Set it to 0.

Healthbars

I see no reason to use anything else but this.

Why would I need everyone's nicknames cluttering my screen?
Especially considering the kind of nicknames Dota 2 players have.

It's an art form, and I will appreciate it in a lobby.

Audio

A couple of years ago I disabled Unit Speech and now I prefer it.
It's a peaceful life.

I disable Chat Message Sound.

I used Captions for years — it helped me with learning English.

I like this option actually, but it's a bit distracting.

Labs

These are some next-level gameplay options.

Interact only with Allied Units can be a lifesaver in a clusterfuck of a fight to use Glimmer Cape, Decrepify, False Promise, etc.

Interact only with Hero Units might prevent you from wasting Doom on a creep.

Interact only with Non-Hero Units is a cheat code for snatching Bounty Runes or, previously, Wisdom Runes.

Another thing you might snatch is the Aegis.

The problem is finding dedicated buttons for these modifiers.
I feel like you need actual extra keys on your keyboard to use these, for example the macro keys on Razer Blackwidow or Logitech G915 (this is not an advertisement, just an example).

p.s. in fact, I have used the Blackwidow (two actually) for like 7 years, but as for today it's no longer my choice.

On mouse buttons...

I highly recommend NOT binding any actions to mouse side buttons.
Use the mouse for aiming.

3 reasons NOT to bind any actions to mouse:
1. Your grip is worse, because you have to account for the buttons in your grip.
2. Your aim is worse, because your grip is worse.
3. Your hand is more strained, because of the bad grip.

Honestly, it's very hard to explain the true effect, and I encourage you to experiment. Listen to your body.

I've used Mouse side button 1 for my Blink Dagger for about 15 years (!).
I felt like I needed that extra button — but I just had a bad keyboard layout, so I had to compensate with putting buttons on the mouse.

So one day (after playing years of Starcraft 2), I decided to fix my hotkeys.
And everything started to feel lighter. Quicker.
Every part of your gameplay will benefit from having a better interface between your brain and your fingers.

I highly recommend against binding actions to mouse side buttons whenever possible.

p.s. As a side note, I found Enter & Backspace truly the BEST buttons as mouse side buttons in general.