• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 19:56
CET 00:56
KST 08:56
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Finals Preview: Sweet Victory!12[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror6[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5
Community News
Weekly Cups (October 19-25): Clem triples first in 5.0.175Evil Geniuses - shutting down20ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier6Weekly Cups (October 12-18): 5.0.17 era begins1[$1250] International ShieldBattery League92
StarCraft 2
General
SC2 Power Rank: epic29 No more SC2 streamers on team liquid? Weekly Cups (October 19-25): Clem triples first in 5.0.17 How do you feel about the mass reverts in the 5.0.17 PTR? Evil Geniuses - shutting down
Tourneys
RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) RSL 2026 Offline Finals LCQ Sign-Ups Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
Simple Questions/Answers [G] How to playtest arcade maps [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
Mutation # 549 Endless Sparkles The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 548 Shining Bright Mutation # 547 Temple Of Terror
Brood War
General
Bot on ladder SCHNAIL now supports Remastered Rollback Netcode in Brood War BW General Discussion [Megathread] Daily Funny Videos
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [Women's StarCraft] MonstarZ vs BA 2026-10-30 Star Con San Diego 2026 Small VOD Thread 2.0
Strategy
50,000-Word Terran Builds Memo 2026-10-22 Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Armies of Exigo - YesYes? General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25!
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread US Politics Mega-thread R I P Patrick Stewart Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine
Fan Clubs
Reynor Fan Club The Flash Fan Club Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece
Sports
TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Football (Soccer) Thread MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Why I built Repalyzer (1.1.…
BlueStar
Innovate or Game Over?
TrAiDoS
ShieldBattery on Mac
Kraekkling
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8480 users

On Terminology

Blogs > aboxcar
Post a Reply
aboxcar
Profile Blog Joined May 2013
United States447 Posts
July 06 2015 23:56 GMT
#1
In the real world, oftentimes many wrongs do make a right.

If an untruth is repeated, it becomes history. If a mispronunciation is voiced enough, it becomes accepted. If a term that once meant something else is borrowed enough, it becomes appropriated. Perception becomes reality.

I have a few questions for those who believe words have meaning. How would you define core in Dota? What is the difference between core and carry?

Is Tidehunter considered a core?

If a lineup consists of Lifestealer, Shadow Demon, Dazzle, Puck, and Batrider, how many cores is this lineup and which heroes are they?

What about a lineup consisting of Shadow Shaman (farming safelane), Dazzle, Chen, Puck, and Tidehunter. How many cores is this lineup?

Naga Siren, Rubick, Dazzle, Templar Assassin, Furion. How many cores?
everything that rises must converge
Tephus
Profile Joined May 2011
Cascadia1754 Posts
July 07 2015 01:01 GMT
#2
I think the word core has less to do with heroes, and more to do with how the team uses them.

Generally, any hero given farm priority in a lane that can maintain a decent gpm the rest of the game is a core. 4s that can farm really well can become cores (enigma, midas on some other junglers/supports).

Carries are heroes who's game impact heavily scale with items.
AdministratorTeam Liquid VP of Esports
Fleetfeet
Profile Blog Joined May 2014
Canada2845 Posts
July 07 2015 01:22 GMT
#3
I don't find the terms to be that muddy.

A core is a hero that's looking for farm towards a specific timing or series of timings and is allocated farm priority and space suited to that. An example is Puck or Zeus, who will get items and more or less immediately try leverage that advantage to secure a further advantage via ganking or pushing or fighting or whatever. While they won't necessarily farm at the exception of teamfighting or ganking, they won't stop farming either, because they still benefit from further items and there is no carry that can farm the whole map at once, so there's farm to spare.

A carry is a hero that gets a farm accelerator early and uses that plus a natural skillset to secure yet more farm in the pressing quest to get gigantic and steamroll the other team.

A support is a hero that puts their own farm as secondary to the rest of the team's, and is looking to pick up items to help cores and carries achieve their goals faster.

"Is Tidehunter considered a core?" - He can be. If you stick him offlane solo against another melee he's a core, but if he's offlane against a trilane he's a watermelon that explodes into tentacles without blinking in first.

"lineup of Lifestealer (Carry), Shadow Demon (Support), Dazzle (Support), Puck (Core), Batrider (Core)"

"Lineup of Shadow Shaman (if farming safelane, core), Dazzle (supp), Chen (supp), Puck (Core), Tidehunter (depends)"

"Naga siren (Core/carry), Rubick (supp), Dazzle (supp), Templar Assassin (Core/carry), Furion (Core/carry)"

The last one depends how the game goes and how the enemy team plays against you. You've got three heroes capable of carrying but they're obviously not all going to carry. It could end up that TA/Furi/dazzle/rubick end up making space for the naga to get huge, but it could also be that the TA and supports get enough of an advantage early that naga just joins in on the push and ends up more as a support to TA's early/midgame potential than the lategame carry she otherwise would be.

I guess part of what would make the terms seem muddy is that there are a ton of heroes that can really be anything, like Lesh or Drow and stuff, but for the most part I find carry / core / support to be relatively clear guidelines.
Verniy
Profile Joined May 2015
Canada3360 Posts
July 07 2015 04:54 GMT
#4
Pretty much what's been stated above. A carry is any hero that scales well with items and looks to be their team's overwhelming lategame presence. A core is any hero that's given space to farm.
Offlaners like Tidehunter or Clockwerk are usually cores, but rarely have the potential to truly carry.
Heaven's Halberd is the most criminally underbought item in Dota. Together we can stop this.
DucK-
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Singapore11449 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-07-07 05:28:51
July 07 2015 05:19 GMT
#5
I would say to view the terms in context. Sometimes core would refer to heroes that will take up farm, regardless of their ability to carry. For example, Yoky pioneered the offlane core Shaker. Or core veno/silencer. It means these heroes are not played as supports. Also important that in this context, we put the term core because the hero can be and would most likely be played as a support role. Hence we don't bother saying 'oh Dendi is playing a core puck'.

You can't really put an absolute meaning to the term because otherwise by default there will be always 3 cores on each team.

That's why sometimes core and carry are interchangeably used. For example, we could say that alliance 2013 often ran dual core lineups, with prophet and loda hero as the core, and s4 on the playmaking solo mid. Or a 4 position WK/mirana has become a core. In these case, we are referring to the carrying ability.

So for the scenarios you have given, I would say 1) this is a single core lineup, 2) the lineup is running a core rhasta, but this is a zero core lineup, 3) this is a tri core lineup.

For carry though, I personally would exclusively use it to refer to heroes that need farm to function, and will likely be farming throughout the game.
ChunderBoy
Profile Joined August 2011
3242 Posts
July 07 2015 09:00 GMT
#6
core is someone u put in a lane to get gold//xp
"mmr is a social construct" - tumblr
Ler
Profile Blog Joined August 2012
Germany543 Posts
July 07 2015 11:54 GMT
#7
Cores = Heroes that get a lot of exp and farm distributed by their team.
Carry = The Position 1 of every team (the hero that gets the most Gold/Exp distributed by his team)
Twitter: @Ler_GG | Facebook: lergg | youtube: lerlolgg | Twitch.tv/gg_nore | #ArtOfSupport
aboxcar
Profile Blog Joined May 2013
United States447 Posts
July 07 2015 16:12 GMT
#8
On July 07 2015 20:54 Ler wrote:
Cores = Heroes that get a lot of exp and farm distributed by their team.
Carry = The Position 1 of every team (the hero that gets the most Gold/Exp distributed by his team)


By this popular definition, basically every lineup is at least a "tri-core" lineup.

Lifestealer Puck Tidehunter + Supports
Juggernaut Shadowfiend Bristleback + Supports

Are you going to call both of these lineups tri-core?

DucK- (I assume you're Chinese?) realizes that this cannot be right, and explains that core has two definitions, one meaning farmer and the other meaning carry:

2) the lineup is running a core rhasta, but this is a zero core lineup


Don't you see that this is silly?
everything that rises must converge
DucK-
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Singapore11449 Posts
July 07 2015 16:30 GMT
#9
On July 08 2015 01:12 aboxcar wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 07 2015 20:54 Ler wrote:
Cores = Heroes that get a lot of exp and farm distributed by their team.
Carry = The Position 1 of every team (the hero that gets the most Gold/Exp distributed by his team)


By this popular definition, basically every lineup is at least a "tri-core" lineup.

Lifestealer Puck Tidehunter + Supports
Juggernaut Shadowfiend Bristleback + Supports

Are you going to call both of these lineups tri-core?

DucK- (I assume you're Chinese?) realizes that this cannot be right, and explains that core has two definitions, one meaning farmer and the other meaning carry:

Show nested quote +
2) the lineup is running a core rhasta, but this is a zero core lineup


Don't you see that this is silly?


Yep I'm ethnically Chinese.

I do agree it is silly. Maybe you could view them as adjectives and nouns.
makmeatt
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
2024 Posts
July 07 2015 17:14 GMT
#10
I don't think I'm watching enough competitive Dota to pick up on the issue you are trying to present here, for me personally it's rarely a head-scratcher to look at a lineup and have multiple possible role assignments (that is without looking at players who play them). I'd go as far as to call the one/two heroes who will scale well into late game while the others' ability to fight (without items) will falter, and call a core everyone whose farm is prioritized. If a strategy revolves around a Sand King wrecking everyone with an early dagger+epi, then even if he's not farming much after getting a dagger, but still plays a major role in fights, then calling him a core hero makes sense.

In either case, and this is taking a stab at a reason this popped up, whatever you hear from casters has to be understandable by most people and so, commonly used. In this age, when Reddit supposedly influences the dev process, it's hard not to expect things to be tailored for the lowest common denominator.
"Silver Edge can't break my hope" - Kryptt 2016 || "Chrono is not a debuff, you just get rekt" - Guru 2016
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Replay Cast
08:00
GSL CK 6
CranKy Ducklings34
Liquipedia
OSC
07:00
Masters Cup #151: Group D
davetesta36
Liquipedia
The PiG Daily
05:30
Best Games of SC
herO vs Rogue
GuMiho vs ShoWTimE
Clem vs herO
PiGStarcraft377
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
PiGStarcraft377
SpeCial 56
EmSc Tv 19
StarCraft: Brood War
ProTech183
910 48
LancerX 14
Dota 2
syndereN799
PGG 209
monkeys_forever45
LuMiX1
League of Legends
JimRising 676
Counter-Strike
Fnx 1316
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox281
Other Games
summit1g9098
FrodaN1663
XaKoH 255
Maynarde108
Trikslyr46
JuggernautJason35
Organizations
StarCraft 2
WardiTV551
Other Games
gamesdonequick466
BasetradeTV25
StarCraft 2
EmSc Tv 19
EmSc2Tv 19
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 125
• musti20045 35
• RyuSc2 11
• EnkiAlexander 5
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Jankos4130
• Nemesis2853
• Scarra1177
Other Games
• imaqtpie475
Upcoming Events
Sparkling Tuna Cup
10h 4m
WardiTV Invitational
12h 4m
Epic.LAN
13h 4m
IPSL
16h 4m
eOnzErG vs McRibbed
LancerX vs StRyKeR
AI Arena Tournament
17h 4m
OSC
1d 14h
Yamato Cup
1d 15h
IPSL
1d 17h
Artosis vs RiceHat
Kyrie vs Sony
Map Test Tournament
1d 23h
WardiTV Weekly
2 days
[ Show More ]
Ultimate Battle
2 days
Rush vs BeSt
Replay Cast
2 days
Rogue vs Classic
Patches Events
3 days
PiGosaur Cup
4 days
Kung Fu Cup
4 days
The PondCast
5 days
KCM Race Survival
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-10-28
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
HCC Season 3

Ongoing

Acropolis #5
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
International ShieldBattery League
BSL Season 23
Proleague 2026-10-30
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026

Upcoming

IPSL Winter 2026-27
1xBet Invitational
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
eXTREMESLAND 2026
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.