Hotkeys

The hotkeys settings can be accessed by clicking on the little gear icon in the most top left corner in the main menu. Here, the player can customize many hotkeys, or select one of the many pre-set hotkey templates. Almost every key on the keyboard can be bound to something, with a very few exceptions. The exceptions usually have a set purpose in the game and thus are un-rebindable.

Set keys
These hotkeys have set functions and cannot be unbound or bound to anything else.


 * ESC:


 * Closes the Steam Overlay.
 * ALT + ESC minimizes the game. This key combination cannot be unbound or bound to something else.
 * While ingame, closes the following windows: Chat, shop, guides, shared content, main menu
 * Deselects currently selected spell or item. Closes the learn ability overlay.
 * When a unit is selected which the player has no control over, selects the last unit under the player's control the player had selected.


 * SHIFT:


 * Can be bound when combined with ALT.
 * When combined with TAB, opens/closes the Steam Overlay. This key combination cannot be unbound or bound to something else.
 * If any order is issued while SHIFT is held, the orders get queued.
 * While holding SHIFT, any unit owned by the player which the player selects gets added to the player's current selection.
 * Vice Versa, clicking on a unit while holding SHIFT removes the unit from the current selection.


 * CTRL:


 * Can be bound when combined with ALT.
 * Changes targeting rules of some items when combining the hotkeys:, , and.
 * CTRL + Control Groub Tab hotkey causes it to cycle into the other direction.
 * When having multiple units selected, holding CTRL and issuing orders sends the order only to the currently highlighted unit.
 * Vice versa, when the Unified Unit Orders option is turned on, issuing any order with CTRL sends it to all units the player controls, even when not selected, except to couriers.
 * CTRL + ALT + Mouse Left Click causes some messages to alter:
 * Turns the regular ping into a warning ping.
 * When used on the Glyph of Fortification, changes message from cd status to "don't use yet" message.
 * When used on enemy hero icons, changes message from "*hero* is missing" to "*hero* has returned".


 * ALT:


 * Allows binding with otherwise unbindable keys when combined: CTRL, SHIFT, Left Mouse Click, Middle Mouse Click and Mouse Wheel.
 * ALT + TAB or ALT + ESC minimizes the game. These key combinations cannot be unbound or bound to something else.
 * When held, changes the minimap player icons from X and O to hero names or icons, or vice versa, depending on what the player set.
 * ALT + Mouse Left Click sends a varity of messages to the team, depending on what is clicked.
 * When dota_unit_allow_moveto_direction is enabled, ALT + move commands moves with pathfinding disabled.


 * Mouse Keys:


 * Left Mouse Key
 * Selects units, items, abilities and opens/closes windows.
 * When held and dragged, creates a selection box, which selects every unit under the player's control inside the box.
 * Can be bound when combined with ALT.
 * Right Mouse Key
 * Deselects items and spells.
 * Clicking on the ground with units issues a move order.
 * Targeting enemy units issues an attack order.
 * Middle Mouse Key
 * When held, grips the camera to the mouse and drags it upon moving the mouse.
 * Can be bound when combined with ALT
 * Mouse Wheel
 * Moves the camera closer/further away. By default, the camera is at maximum distance when playing, at minimum distance when spectating.
 * Can be bound when combined with ALT


 * Other Keys:


 * ALTGR has no direct use in Dota2 and cannot be bound either. It mostly has the same functions as the regular ALT key. ALTGR + Left Mouse Key on the ground gives the warning ping, instead of the regular ping.
 * WINDOWS KEY has no use in Dota2 and cannot be bound. Uses its default Windows function, which may minimize the game when playing in fullscreen or borderless window mode.
 * PRINT has no use in Dota2 and cannot be bound. Takes a screenshot as usual, without saving it on Steam.

Game hotkeys
Game hotkeys are active while playing a match. The player can change the hotkeys at any time, even during a match. There are hotkeys for abilities, items, unit actions, camera actions, player actions, chat and control groups.

By default, the game uses the "normal" hotkey layout. The player can choose of a varity of pre-set hotkey templates, which can be found by clicking on "Reset hotkeys..." at the bottom left of the settings menu. Available templates are:
 * Normal: Dota 2's own default hotkeys.
 * WASD: Keys adapted so that the W, A, S and D are for camera movement.
 * Legacy: Different ability hotkeys for each hero and unit.
 * MMO: Mass Multipler Online games oriented key bindings.
 * League of Legends (LoL): Key bindings oriented to that of League of Legends.
 * Heroes of Newerth (HoN): Key bindings oriented to that of Heroes of Newerth
 * Smite: Key bindings oriented to that of Smite.

Abilities


Ability hotkeys are displayed in the same order as they are in the HUD when selecting a unit. From left to right, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th/ultimate ability.

Note: The ability slot in the most right side of the hud is always the 6th/ultimate ability slot, even when the unit or hero does not have 6 abilities.

Ability hotkey settings are divided into 3 groups:
 * Hero hotkeys, applied to every hero the player controls. When ingame, a silhouette of the hero's ability icons are visible in the settings.
 * Neutrals hotkeys, applied to every non-hero the player controls (not only to controlled neutral units).
 * Courier hotkeys, applied to every courier the player controls. A silhouette of the courier's ability icons are always visible in the settings.

Notes:
 * Despite being only available for heroes in the settings menu, autocast and quickcast are always applied to every unit the player controls, not just to the hero.
 * When using legacy keys, it is not possible to set only one key for quickast. In order to use quickcast, 2 keys must be combined.
 * It is possible to apply legacy keys to abilities only, by ticking the "Use Legacy Keys" box in the hero hotkey settings.
 * WARNING: Doing so will unbind Q W E and R if they were bound somewhere else.
 * Ticking the "Mirror hotkeys from hero panel" box in the neutrals or courier panel causes all units the player controls to use the hotkeys set in the hero panel.
 * This option is not available when having legacy keys on.

Beside the ability hotkeys, there are a couple of other settings and hotkeys for abilities:

Items
Just like ability hotkeys, the item hotkeys are displayed in the same order as the item slots in the HUD.

Item hotkeys are divided into cast and quickcast. This hotkeys are shared by every unit under the control of the player.

Besides the item hotkeys, there are also some other generic, items related hotkeys.

Unit actions
These hotkeys are for generic unit commands like attacking, moving, stopping, etc.

Unit groups
These keys are the assigment for unit groups. In order to bind units to a group, select the units and then press CTRL + group key. The group assigment will get saved on the Steam Cloud, so the player does not have to re-bind the same units always to the same group for each game over and over again. However, only the unit type gets saved, not the amount of unit.

Camera actions
These keys are for controlling the game camera.

Player actions
These hotkeys are for other things player can do ingame, like option scoreboard, pause the game etc.

Chat
These are the hotkeys for the ingame chat. Besides hotkeys, there also is a chat wheel function and pre-listed common phrases which the player can assign keys to as well. The chat wheel and this phrases are displayed in the ingame chat upon using.

Chat phrases & Chat wheel
The chat phrases menu allows player to bind certain set phrases to hotkeys. Upon pressing the hotkey, a phrase will be put in the chat for your team or for everyone, depending on what phrase it is.

By default, none of the phrases are bound to any key. The chat wheel is by default empty. The player has to select the phrases manually if the use of chat wheel is desired.

The set phrases are (these are unchangable):

Spectator settings
The spectator hotkeys settings can be found by clicking on SPECTATOR >> at the bottom right corner of the game hotkey setting window. While spectating a game or watching a replay, the game hotkey settings are disabled and the spectator hotkeys settings are enabled.

Spectator & Replay
This section covers camera movement, spectator menus and replay speed. When ticking the Mirror Hotkeys from Hero Panel box, the hotkeys for camera movement, pause, spectator chat and scoreboard will use the same hotkeys as their equivalents from the game hotkeys settings.

Stats dropdown
These hotkeys are for the stats (hero level, last hits, networth, etc) dropdown and their sorting. These stat windows are all sortable after the following things:
 * From highest to lowest numbers
 * From highest to lowest numbers, but sorting in the teams
 * Sorted after player order: Blue->Teal->Purple->Yellow->Orange->Pink->Ocre->Light Blue->Green->Brown

Coaching
These are extra hotkeys enabled for coaches.