Drafting Common Pubstomp Heroes

Pubstompers, these are the heroes that, uh, stomp... pubs. But how do these heroes fit into a competitive scenario? Since pubstompers can vary from patch to patch instead, this discussion will focus on the heroes that Hamstertamer covered in his guide that covers these pubstompers which are as follows:

- Riki
- Sniper
- Viper
- Drow Ranger
- Bloodseeker
- Huskar
- Zeus
- Pudge

So, how do these heroes fit into the meta and what sort of line-ups are they best to be drafted in?

Riki - the only thing he has going for him is his 6sec aoe silence/slow, and his ganking prowness from lvl 6 onwards. Still is very easy to counter.

Sniper - how effective he is depends on his team and the enemy team. If the enemy has a gap closer like storm or pa, sniper is not going to be very effective. However, if his team is built around him and the team protects sniper well, he has the potential to be a very strong hero.

Viper - very powerful in drafts aiming toend fast, he is a very powerful lane domimator. One of the more viable pubstompers in my opinion.

Drow Ranger - if you do draft her, use her as a no. 2 or 3, and make good use of her aura to buff your no. 1 carry. Combo her with a sniper or a windranger or something of the like and you will have a very powerful carry.

Bloodseeker - thirst vision is always useful, especially if they have a jungler. First skill can be used to combo with other heroes very effectively and rupture has its uses in a good team.

Huskar - forever a situational pick against magic heavy lineups

Zeus - one of the heaviest dps magic nukers and especually useful against teams with invis heroes. He really hurts. Sure riki isn't picked much in competetive but there are other heroes with invis like bounty hunter and weaver.

Pudge - Unless dendi is on your team, never pick pudge in competetive. Lol i'm joking. Pudge is a hero that can take over the map if he is left to his devices, but is extremely reliant on wards by both your team and the enemy team. Your team needs to constantly deward to make the enemy map as dark as possible, to give pudge the element of surprise he needs. If played well, he can easily make the enemy fear walking out alone even into their own jungle with wards up. A prime example was the TI3 NA VI vs TONG FU game one. Towards the end of the game tong fu was terrified of dendi

Hamstertamer's guide is for lowest skill brackets where meta heroes are rarely spammed and the most popular heroes are these. They don't play CM there anyway.

If you talk about real pubstombers, every now and then picking them(or just strong heroes overall) without any special synergy works better than picking some average or even weak heroes to try to form some form of synergy that has high chance to fail anyway. That's how Zaop beats Xyrus and Wulfstan.

You think that a good 30% of the Hero pool is utterly unplayable though.

Prove it.

- Riki

Smoke Screen is really really good.
It's one of the two only non- Doom silences in the game that can't be dispelled in any way ( Static Storm is the other one). So completely screws those manta/Euls heroes.
He's a good hero to set up pickoffs on high mobility heroes.
This hero can hardly carry in a competitive game since detection and BKB/MKB shut him down completely...but he still makes a really good position 2 or 3 hero.

- Viper

One of the best heroes in the game for winning his lane...and turn this advantage into a massive early push.
The fact that he wins almost every 1 vs 1 matchup unless he gets ganked means that he can get a fast Mekansm, group up and push towers in the early game with it.
A deathball hero who scales as a semi-carry.
Kind of an all-in pushing pick since the hero's comeback potential is zero.

- Drow Ranger

Almost exclusively picked for Precision Aura in teams with 4 or 5 ranged hereos.
The aura allows to win all your lanes since the enemy team can't compete for last hits.
And then she can turn this advantage into a massive push in the mid-game.
She can help take Roshan early and is a really good Aegis carrier.
Also an all-in pick with no comeback potential.


- Sniper

Pretty much the 6.83 version of Viper.
With the Shrapnel buff he became one of the best heroes in the game for early game dominance and pushing (like Viper, he's an AGI carry but his whole skillset is entirely early game oriented)
So he's a pushing carry. If you manage to prevent him from getting ganked in the early game (which can only work if you camp the mid lane constantly with supports like Earthshaker or Witch Doctor let's be honest)...he's one of the scariest heroes in the mid-game with a farm advantage.
If you manage to get a farm advantage on a Sniper...you can essentially secure Roshan, get Aegis on your Sniper (one of the best Aegis carriers in the game since with aegis he's no longer weak to gap closers), and deathball push the enemy base in the mid game and at that point there are very few ways to deal with him.

Also an all-in pick with pretty much no comeback potential, since he relies on being ahead, he relies on getting several Roshans to push, and if he gets ganked and shut down in the early game sure he can defend his base for 1 hour...but then he'll probably get outfarmed and still lose the late game anyways since the hero relies on having more farm than the enemy team to be effective and has no way to come back in terms of farm - at equal farm levels he'll likely just get outcarried since he always gets focused first by BKB carries, has bad manfight and lacks a proper steroid.

In 6.84...same thing, except that his late game got yet another nerf (as if removing his bash wasn't hard enough of a late game nerf already) : he has less AGI, no longer has a free MKB, and Headshot and Take Aim are disabled by break (in other words Silver Edge heroes make him unplayable since they can just manfight him without worrying about Headshot)


- Bloodseeker

Hardly ever picked in competitive. Still a pretty experimental hero that kind of feels like a troll pick to some casters :)
Almost exclusively played as a semi-support...sometimes as a safe lane carry in heavy pushing lineups.
Picked either for Rupture against those Queen of Pain-like mobile heroes, or to abuse Bloodrage on heroes like Ember Spirit.

- Huskar

An ultra-niche hero which only exists in this game to say "If you pick a team with only magic damage dealers I'm just going to pick Huskar and wreck your face".
This kind of balances out deathball lineups that rely purely on magic damage by giving a way to counterpick them.

- Zeus

Honestly...the hero is hardly ever picked these days.
He's one of the best mid-game teamfighters and can snowball his entire team...but his huge weakness is that he has no way to push whatsoever (generally a very bad thing in competitive), his lane presence is meh, and he's just so easy to counter with items like mek, pipe and glimmer.
Leshrac is just a better hero right now, since his kill potential is similar but at least he can turn his advantage into a push.
Still a niche pick in global / map control lineups, since Thundergod's Wrath is a really good scouting tool.


- Pudge

Picked by Dendi to please his fans...and that's almost it for the competitive viability of Pudge.
Same thing as Zeus...magic damage is nice and all but snowballing is useless if you can't push off of it.
The hero DOES work as a support but it is never done though.
His only redeeming factor is that he's one of the best heroes for winning mid against guys like Shadow Fiend who will always win the lane against any hero unless you can solo kill them.





It used to be...but we're not in 6.83 anymore.

A lot of the trash heroes got buffed, even the heroes that were a joke in 6.83 like Lifestealer, Tusk or Alchemist are now viable as niche picks, Enchantress is now playable, etc.
Honestly...name one unplayable hero in this patch that isn't Terrorblyat or Techies...I dare you all :)

Hell, I think the top kekkies are actually close to playable.

I can think of very, very rare situations you could play a TB, and want to be more aggressive than a Naga.

I don't think there are any completely unplayable Heroes. Was insinuating to Dimony's ever-pervasive negativity regarding a lot of the pool.

You still haven't linked a single post/game/whatever that would evidence this.

Two off the top of my head:





w/e

I can't remember the last time I saw a Riki pick in competitive, and I've watched more competitive than is healthy. He can't carry against an organised team (Especially since the changes to his skill build made him a worse Io partner.), so he's not really viable to draft competitively. Maybe he will eventually get picked up as a 3 position who spends later team-fights dealer with supports solely, but he's a really meh offlaner.

Sniper - He used to be crazy good in 6.83 because of the buff to Shrapnel making his laning stage godly with a nearby support. (Which was fine, because you'd pick something like Earthshaker, and have both defensive potential and kill potential). He also fit well into the meta, being a physical damage dealer who was amazing at high ground, both defense and offence. Like, he's in part the reason you got a 3 hour long game last patch. Then Shrapnel got nerfed to the ground, and the hero dropped back to being meh. Still usable, because people understand the hero when he gets a good start he's really strong, but meh because his laning is worse, and the meta shifted.

Viper - He's a pushing carry, who needs to be ahead to be useful. Since the hero is useless from behind, and has no realistic way to catch up. He's been viable for a long time, was huge in the period just after TI4, dropped off a little, and has been picked up a decent amount in the past couple of patches. So yeah, he either get picked to complete deathball line-ups, or because you need to crush a certain laning match-up.

Drow Ranger - Part of the Drow Visage pushing line-ups, which is one of these competitive combo's that always gets some love. Like, teams often bring it out when it's a big match, because it's a combo where if it's executed well, you are very unlikely to lose. You'll only really see it as a niche 5th pick in a mostly ranged line-up, or as part of the combo. (Or as a deny pick to prevent people getting both pieces). Has had more love this patch than the last few

Bloodseeker - Is in a weird space. Like, he's getting more love in this patch than the last few because his silence is really good this patch, and he can fight early enough to stay relevent in a more push orientated meta. Oh and Rupture being a soft counter to Leshrac. There's a lot of room for experimenting with him, like deciding whether he's a safe laner, or a really greedy jungling 4 who transition into a conventional core.

Huskar - An extremely niche hero. Like, he has to be picked into very specific line-ups that have next to no physical damage. Which sounds like it would be great this patch... Buuuut Queen of Pain and Lina are both really viable heroes this patch (QoP more so than Lina), and both have massive pure damage nukes, which are the bane of Huskar's existence. Little bit more viable than he was last patch, but without a rework, he will always be niche.

Zeus - The introduction of more magic resistance has hurt him. A lot. Like, competitively speaking the hero has been a support more often than a core in the last few patches, because come the late game, his damage come's from very similar sources (And is not reliant on his item progression), and the real reason he was competitively viable was because of the vision advantages he gave with Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath (Vision is extremely important in competitive play, and is the reason why heroes like Night Stalker and Beastmaster get competitive love more than any other part of the hero). But the introduction of more magic resist means that kills you used to get with Zeus on your team you can't get anymore, and it just hurt the hero a lot. I'm surprised he dropped off as heavily as he did however.

Pudge - Niche pick for certain players like Dendi and Jenkin's. I'm actually shocked he doesn't get more love as a support, because he seems really strong in that role. He can pull creep waves from mid and thus help crush lanes, and his skill set actually scales really well into the late game, because he has a repositioning tool, and a BKB piercing disable. Like, Batrider showed that being able to take a single enemy hero out of position in the late game is godly strong (Even if Icefrog has seemingly finally nerfed him enough for him to not be pickable/meta shifts hating him. Batrider was like the hero with the longest continued competitive love).

He'll never be that common a pick, because Pudge is like Mirana - The more he gets picked, the worse he gets because people learn where the arrows/hooks come from, and just play around it better. And for heroes that rely on getting **** done, that's the worst thing that can happen.