About Dota Recommender

What is Dota Recommender?

Dota Recommender is a Hero recommendation tool I built to help players discover Heroes that match how they like to play in Dota 2.

Recommendations are based on playstyle traits, roles, and gameplay patterns.

You can explore recommendations by browsing Heroes you enjoy, selecting gameplay tags, or comparing shared traits across the roster.

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Why I Built This

I built this recommender because I kept running into the same question across different games:

“I like playing this character...who else actually plays similar?”

The goal is to help new and returning players find Heroes that feel right, without needing to already know the meta or memorize the entire roster.

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Hero Data & Tagging

Each Hero is described using a set of custom gameplay tags.

These tags represent playstyle tendencies, strengths and weaknesses, pacing, mobility, and common responsibilities. Some tags matter more than others, so they’re weighted to reflect their importance.

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How the Recommendation System Works

Under the hood, the recommender compares Heroes using weighted gameplay tags and role awareness.

The goal is to recommend Heroes that play similarly not just ones that share a class, archetype, or damage type.

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Types of Recommendations

Single Hero Recommendations

Start with one Hero you enjoy. The system compares it against the full roster and returns only meaningful matches.

Tag-Based Discovery

You can browse by gameplay tags to explore the roster, understand playstyles, and find alternatives to Heroes you already enjoy. This is especially useful for newer players.

Cross-Game "Similar Characters"

If you’re coming from another game, you can pick a game and a Hero you already play, and Dota will recommend heroes in Dota 2 that match the same playstyle traits.

Recommendations are based on playstyle similarities, not direct ability matches.