Dota 2 Aegis timing: plan both lives before the window closes

The carrier does not become unkillable. A death can still occur in an unsupported square, after every useful spell is spent, without a safe second entry, while lanes collapse, or beside enemies prepared to control the reincarnation. The threat can also create value without a death at all.

Two-life rule: name what the first life spends, where it may end, who protects the square, what the second life does, and which map result survives afterward.

1. Verify the reward and pickup. Read the live Aegis state, note carrier and pickup evidence, and confirm current expiration and reincarnation behavior.
2. Choose a two-life job. Define the first-life resource spend, likely death square, team support, second-life action, and value if no death occurs.
3. Prepare the square. Set lanes, vision, formation, routes, saves, control, damage, teleports, resources, enemy spell layers, and exit.
4. Name one conversion. Choose information, map access, waves, structures, another objective, high ground, a favorable trade, or safe farm the window can finish.
5. Leave on evidence. Reset when time, lanes, resources, support, carrier position, enemy response, objective finish, or exit no longer supports the attempt.

Many standard matches have used a five-minute Aegis duration since Rekindling Soul. DotaSense does not detect Roshan’s death, identify the carrier, read the inventory, start the timer, know whether Aegis triggered, or correct expiration automatically.

1. Read the current item. Check duration, expiration, death trigger, reincarnation delay, returned health and mana, cooldown state, vision, inventory behavior, and exceptions.
2. Test the exact hero state. Include facets, innates, talents, other death or reincarnation effects, transformations, summons, buyback, and current upgrades.
3. Test the death square. Record where the body, vision, enemies, allies, projectiles, area control, traps, summons, and objective remain during the delay.
4. Test the second entry. Check which spells, items, movement, targets, saves, immunity, damage, and exit remain when control returns.

Valve’s 6.85 update changed Aegis vision near the death area while reincarnating. Even small mechanical changes can alter whether the square is supportable, so old “instant full reset” descriptions are unsafe.

Also price inventory constraints, current hero mechanics, player comfort, lineup farm, siege access, and whether another candidate needs the second life for a more important repeated job. “Carry by default” and “never support” are not decision frameworks.

• Vision: establish who sees the square, which wards or units can be removed, what remains hidden, and how current reincarnation vision behaves.
• Formation: place allies where they can protect without all being disabled by the same spell, area, route, or high-ground disadvantage.
• Enemy layers: count control, damage, summons, traps, displacement, saves, immunity, vision denial, and delayed spells that can wait for the second life.
• Allied resources: preserve the save, control, damage, dispel, immunity, heal, reposition, vision, or body position needed after reincarnation.
• Exit: define the route or action available if the second life returns into a lost fight instead of the expected winning state.

Aegis protects against one death under current rules; it does not guarantee that the next controllable state is useful. The team must protect the interval and the square, not only the carrier’s first health bar.

The best result is not always the largest visible objective. Choose what finishes before the enemy can answer and what still matters after the temporary reward disappears.

1. Estimate finish time. Include lanes, building access, damage, miss or elevation interactions, Glyph, backdoor protection, wave clear, saves, control, repair or healing, and current objective rules.
2. Find the earliest response. Include visible defenders, teleports, buybacks, smoke, flanks, vision, cooldowns, item completions, split pressure, and the carrier’s likely death square.
3. Price both lives. Decide what the first life can force, whether the square is supportable, what the second life does, and how the team leaves after that action.
4. Choose an exit trigger. Stop when lanes break, a defender returns, key resources are spent, vision dies, the carrier becomes isolated, finish time exceeds response, or Aegis value closes.

Use the Objectives guide for the full finish-before-response model and the Barracks and Mega Creeps guide for current high-ground conversion. Aegis improves some failure states; it does not make a bad siege mandatory.

Delaying can be useful, but time alone does not win the map. Protect the state that matters when Aegis ends and avoid surrendering every lane, structure, ward, and resource merely to let a clock run.

• Read the live drop. Reward order, side, day/night relationship, Roshan count, item behavior, and availability have changed across patches.
• Name the reward job. Second life, sustain, cooldown reset, upgrade, team movement, siege support, or another current effect should answer a specific lineup need.
• Choose the user by execution. Price inventory, target access, cooldowns, spell sequence, survival, positioning, communication, and value if the ideal fight never happens.
• Coordinate interactions. Decide who carries, who consumes, who protects, when the reward is used, and which other resource should be preserved.

Valve’s 7.06 update changed when Cheese dropped, and Dueling Fates added a third-Roshan refresher reward. Those historical changes make permanent first/second/third-kill tables unreliable.

Deliberately dying before expiration can destroy value. Review the map state created across the whole window, not a binary “proc or waste” score.

1. Record the pickup state. Note evidence, carrier, current tooltip, lanes, vision, resources, enemy buybacks, Roshan rewards, and the best available conversion.
2. Write the two-life job. Name first-life spend, likely death square, allied support, enemy layers, second-life action, no-death value, and exit.
3. Review the first conversion attempt. Compare finish time, enemy response, carrier access, square support, resource use, and the durable result.
4. Review the ending. If Aegis triggered, inspect the square and second entry. If it expired, inspect map value and the last genuinely favorable action.
5. Write one narrower rule. Tie the next carrier or objective choice to observable lineup, map, timing, support, response, and exit conditions.