First Picking in Ranked

When I play ranked, because none of the meta heroes are too overpowered in solo ranked anymore because they're all easily counterdraftable, my allies always wait before picking, so that leaves players like me to pick first.

So, when you play ranked, if you're forced to pick first (or sometimes second), who do you pick?

I usually pick a hero with flexible laning and roles who is not super easy to counter. Supports more often because everyone thinks they're a badass core player at this level, and I let them have their ego trips.

Lich is one of my first picks because he's one of the least greedy heroes, and his lane winning skills make him insane in ranked this patch. You can lane him both as a safelane support or as solo offlane.

Abaddon is another one of my favorite first picks. I am only at risk against a AA counterpick, and getting Vlads-Aghs is usually checkmate in terms of teamfights. Plus, he can lane either as a support or a solo offlaner.

Necrophos is another first pick hero I like, his ability to instantly control lanes is nice, and the KS-y nature of the hero means I can play him as support and still get a lot of money. and no one has a right to complain because Scythe kills people for 30 more seconds. I do miss when I was able to play him offlane though, back when I could run to the ancients and stack them while being in lane and farm them to get insanely ahead. Good times.

I've been thinking of picking up Leshrac as a first pick hero, since he's one of the only heroes that can play positions 1-5, with all laning arrangements except jungle being viable. However, I find he's quite a bit easier to counter than those other guys, so I'm not sure about that.

My friend has this kind of relationship with Pudge as well, since he can play Pudge in positions 2-5 because he practices the hell out of that hook.

What about you? Do you pick a flexible hero if first pick? Do you pick a core and force everyone to pick around you because you're awesome?

It's meta dependent and OSFrog dependent. So what you can say about that right now will probably change in the next patch.

Doom. Does that even need an explanation? Counters 98% of the heroes in the game, and the only thing the enemy team can do against a first pick Doom is pick *one* hero that doesn't care about Doom...which is not even a problem since you'll just doom the 4 others. Nice Wraith King pick I'll just doom your Enigma which is what I wanted to do in the first place :)

Earthshaker, Dazzle, Winter Wyvern : they counter every hero in the game. Replace by "broken supports of current patch".

Shadow Fiend : Wins every single 1 v 1 mid matchup.

Night Stalker : Can fill any role except main carry, good against everything, and every team needs the vision hack.

Nature's Prophet : I absolutely love first picking him because then the enemy team is going to pick 5 gankers and think they counterpicked me. And then I'll just go Mek first or orchid and 5-man roam all game, or aghs/refresher/necrobook against a team with no counterpush. Idiots :)

Disruptor, Lion : Has an AOE silence and stuns ever been bad? They fit every lane setup.

Abaddon and Necrophos can definitely be good first picks I agree. You can just stack jungle as a support necro btw so no reason to ever miss the ancient cheese.

Generally if you want to play safe it's best to first pick supports or offlaners (or heroes who can be).

I just pick a hero that I am very comfortable with - if that's midlane, I go for Kunkka or Lina and if that's safelane, I go for Luna or Ember Spirit. If I feel like playing a particular hero who can't be countered to oblivion unless you wrap your lineup around this, I can also go for him(i.e Brewmaster, Queen of Pain, Razor).

Your inspiration and will to play a hero > his objective viability in that matchup. I've been picking Luna into peeps like Tusk, Templar Assassin and Juggernaut and still managed to win those games just because I felt very inspired when I played this hero.

I wouldn't pick SF first tho, despite of his popularity and thus high chance of him being picked up by a enemy mid. Not only he doesn't win any 1 v 1 matchup( Templar Assassin, Lina, QE Invoker), but he basically never lanes 1 vs 1 even if he is lastpicked. Got SF in the enemy team? Gotta gank him with my roaming support Silencer!

I always tell my team "supports first," so usually it's going to be along the lines of Crystal Maiden, Lich, Shadow Shaman, etc.

I am usually supporting and in 95% of the cases I am picking first.
My usual thought process goes along those lines.

1. does someone answer me?
2. does someone show a positive reaction? Do they even care?
   If one of those question is to be answered with a no then I am going for something that I like and that can be a supportive role: Axe, Necrophos...
   If someone shows positive reactions or I do have a good feeling about it then I am going for Lion, Crystal Maiden, Earthshaker.
   If I get a positive response but my team is showing signs that they have no idea what they are doing then I am usually going for Lich

I like to pick a roamer when i have to first pick because roaming is mostly a realy good reason to win a pub. So heroes like Night Stalker, Vengeful Spirit, Bounty Hunter, etc.

If you have practiced roaming a bit you will see it is really easy to win pubs with it. Getting those early kills make a big difference and allows your team to snowball. In pubs you can even roam with a Necrophos (mostly at level 3) or with a Phantom Assassin.

I almost never pick first. If I do, its either vengeful spirit or lich or lion or earthshaker or earth spirit. Any one of those 5 heroes.

In my potato bracket, I pick Night Stalker, Abaddon, Spectre, and Ember Spirit.

If you can gank well, solo offlane Night Stalker is scary. You end up having a large game impact even if you don't net any kills because you put pressure on the map by being missing, as well as because of Agh's Darkness plus Gem.

Abaddon just really strong. He has basically as big a heal bomb as Omniknight, and can play basically any position. Most importantly, however, is that he can save the idiots on your team that get caught a little out of position, and turn a fight. This is really stron in pubs, because you will 100% of the time be playing with at least one idiot.

Spectre also has a really high winrate, and that's because pub players don't know when to push and end the game. If the game goes on long enough, you win, and chances are that it's going to go on longer than it should. Bad people also don't know how to pressure a carry.

Ember Spirit is good not because of winrate, not because he is imbalanced, but because nobody at 1.5K knows what the **** he does. I'm a decent ember, so I have an advantage. Also, I rush BoTs as first item now, (instead of my famous Arcane Boots build) and split push two lanes with remnants, not die, come out way ahead in farm because of it, and win in the late game because Ember + gold = won teamfight.

I'll play like 1 or 2 ranked games a month, sometimes less, sometimes more but it averages out. I used to first pick Troll in 6.83, because I'd been playing the hero since before he was meta like the world's most up-himself hipster, and I think I did that a couple of times in 6.84. When 6.85 came out, had two quick games of fastpicking Spectre on the basis of how broken Dispersion was - but despite winning those games, it's conclusive that she still isn't a good first pick. Since then, I've shied away from first picking, and as a result I've mainly played Necrolyte or Abaddon.

I almost never pick first, always try to pick last but Abaddon is one of my favorites for obvious reasons, or if I really must, an initiator that isnt as easily countered as other heroes, like Huskar or Tidehunter.

And Doom is an obvious choice.