Pubseeker no more?

I've been watching TI5 today and the hero that surprised me the most was Bloodseeker. Never have I seen him get picked so much in a tournament. So, what's changed? Is it just that he now "fits" the meta or someone discover something else?

He's been popular for the last few weeks in the patch. He became a really strong hero when they changed how Thirst scaled, which meant he got silly high move-speed off of like 5 people missing a tiny amount of HP.

It was expected to him him a lot this tourney. I expected more tbh

The thing with BugattiSeeker is that Icefrog buffed the one skill that shouldn't get buffed. Namely Thirst.

By making the movement speed scale from 100% to 25% instead of 100% to 0%, he increased BS's movement speed buff by 4/3, so that's a *hard 33% movement speed buff*.

Besides, the meta change means that BS is now a viable safe lane carry. BS is a mid-game hero who's weak in the late game, I think it's pretty clear to everyone : no steroid, no AOE, weak teamfight, can't split push...his late game contribution is really bad. But since in this meta most games last from 15 to 35 minutes...he's a "carry" in this meta. And the hero really autowins his lane : infinite sustain, and insane ealry kill potential (just run ppl down with ******** passive).

So yeah :

- Overbuff of Thirst
- Lane domination is extremely important now, BS can't lose his lane and wrecks dual offlanes
- Now a viable "carry" since games no longer go late
- Good at snowballing and permanent fighting in general which is exactly the meta
- wrecks Anti-Mage and Queen of Pain

As always...when Icefrog gives major buffs to a hero (and Thirst WAS a major buff) and the hero fits the meta perfectly...you get to see a lot of that hero :)

He was trash tier for so, so long :)

He's very strong at the moment, but I'd say "auto-wins" his lane is overstated Hamster. He can sustain against harassment extremely well, but can still be burst down and/or be kept away from the creepline.

As you mention, Thirst is a lot more reliable now than it used to be. He has a good AOE nuke/silence. His ult now ignores magic immunity if you cast before them (the ultimate kiting mechanism). He's a slightly weird hero though now, pretty definitely a core, but not necessarily a carry in the traditional sense. But still kinda right clicky. Um.

And he definitely fits a constant fighting meta.

The old Blood bath healed him for 10/15/20/25% of the creep's HP
The new one heals him for 25% of the creep's HP at every level

And maxing blood bath on the old BS was a horrible build.

Essentially he has twice the sustain of the old BS. Yes you can still try to do it...but it's way way harder.

Burst down? Offlanes are not meant to get kills, they're actually really bad at it. And he's one of the tankiest level 1 heroes in the game. Besides...he'll just run away with 800 movement speed.

So yeah, I think it's really about him being viable in the safe lane. In 6.83, anything that wasn't a hard carry had no place in the safe lane. Now...you can play a lot of heroes there, and BS dominates this lane.

He also takes 25/30/35/40% more damage when it's active, and has ****py 285 movespeed if nobody on your team has lost much % health. He is vulnerable here if you have enough firepower to actually take him down (usually this would be a dual lane or a bursty hero at level 6). But yeah, there's no point trying to chip away at him with auto-attacks and harassment if he can keep LH/denying with impunity.

That's why you don't see him mid much. I'd say a 2v2 lane is also somewhat risky depending on the matchups.

But yeah, a trilane should be able to cover for him pretty well (long enough for him to be able to solo against most offlaners), even tri vs tri he's quite good thanks to his AOE nuke/silence.

Ultimately you're giving your #1 position to a hero who drops off late without a pretty big level/item advantage. In a brawling meta when you have a hero who can sustain well, does well when there's lots of action and has a powerful ultimate on a 60 second cooldown...that's not necessarily a bad choice.

All I'm saying is that there are drawbacks to picking him, and he can be countered effectively. Maybe a tickle with the nerf stick is in order, maybe not, it's just interesting to see such a formerly trashy pubstomp hero getting some action in the big time.

P.S - Fedorable, please refer to him as his proper name, PubCyka :)

All that needs to change is just to change the scaling on Thirst. Make it go back to scaling between 0 and 100%, not 25% and 100%. The current scaling means he spends much too much time at above average move-speed, because it doesn't take much missing HP to accelerate him, or make it non global, and have like a 3000 range instead.

It's also really hard to beat him in CS Sando in lane just to say, because with Blood Rage he will probably beat you for any denies you go for. He's a fine mid as a result, not top tier, but not like awful either. He can technically threaten to kill you as well with no warning thanks to the Thirst. He can just get a massive pump of damage and move speed in lane because of a skirmish somewhere across the map. It's less reliable kill potential, but it's still there.

I haven't played the new version enough to comment much on the Thirst thing, it probably just needs some tweaking.

Totally agree he can CS very well in lane thanks to that +25% damage, but it totally depends on the matchup - same as it did previously. He could completely destroy low-mid damage heroes who couldn't seriously threaten to kill him, but he's also extremely weak against a lot of common mids.

Never mind the obvious counters like Razor, he's always vulnerable to burst. If you can put his health in a dangerous zone, control the creep wave and maintain the threat of bursting him again while he's low...he's left reliant on those consumables he didn't buy much of, or hoping the lane momentum swings enough to let him get close, or running off to the jungle for a while and leaving you uncontested.

Oh I'm not saying he's overwhelmingly powerful, Thirst just happens to be a little too good right now. Like, 5 heroes missing like 10-20% HP and he's running at near max move-speed, and that's kinda wrong early on.

And yeah, as I said he's an alright mid. It is match-up dependant, you wouldn't lane him against like a Lesh, or an SF, but he can win match-ups against some of the good laners. Like he's pretty good vs TA for example.

Also falling back to the jungle to catch-up on CS, or to get more whilst the lanes pushed is common practice on mids now. It's not a bad thing, since BS jungles really fast.

Add a speed cap to thirst per level.

like 550/650/750/850.

Or just make the thirst movespeed and not attack damage. Or the other way around.