January 29, 2013

Overpowered or overrated?

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There been a lot of talk lately about overpowered heroes - new ones are coming in, existing heroes reworked and rebalanced.

DOTA is an incredibly difficult ecosystem to balance - there are so many heroes, powers and items - any hero can be overpowered in the right situation...the real key to whether something is OP or not is HOW MANY situations they're very strong in, and how easily/effectively you can counter them.

The other difficulty is the wide range of skills that the game has to fit across - some heroes with ridiculous micro or skill-shots might be overpowered in Pro games...but very ineffective amongst beginners. Some heroes only work well with good team-work and co-ordination from other players. At the end of the day the rules have to be the same for everyone though...

X Hard Carry is overpowered

We've all had those games where Faceless Void or Anti-Mage gets fed, or your team spends the whole time trying to outfarm him and fail massively. It can seem unfair where the likes of Void pops a Chronosphere on your head and bashes you to death while you're powerless to defend yourself.

This is understandably frustrating...but the real fault lies with your team in allowing him to get enough farm to do that much damage...he's next to useless without it. Same with Anti-Mage - he can seem OP when you just can't gank him and he ends up dominating the game - again though, you probably didn't pick or make the right counters, or have the right tactics.

Is Nyx OP? (54% win rate, 22nd most popular)

Nyx Assassin has been getting a lot of playtime recently as people have cottoned on to how to play him successfully. He's got a lot of ganking potential, and while lacking the right click damage of say Clinkz or Riki, he has a lot more survivability, plus a lot of burst damage.

Personally my issue with Nyx isn't so much with Spiked Carapace (although it is VERY strong), but with Mana Burn. It's just devastating in lane if you're using an Intelligence hero. At 90 mana it's cheap and there's no way of avoiding it other than to the leave the lane or hide.

So is Nyx OP? Well, I don't like to rush to judgement on these things...certainly it can be argued that he's a strong hero at the moment, and that you maybe need to consider your lanes very carefully when he's playing - strength heroes won't have the same issues with him at all.

Is Drow OP? (Win Rate this month 57%, 1st most popular)

There's been even more people complaining Drow Ranger is OP since her recent makeover. She used to be a devastating late game carry, but now she seems much more dangerous while laning, and doesn't disappear mid-game. Is this a case of she was already pretty strong and the remake just made people notice? Or was the remake fundamental?

I think part of the issue is that she's got a very straight forward playstyle - this means it requires less teamwork and skill to use her effectively than it would for other heroes. This can allow her to be very effective in lower end pub games especially.

Troll Warlord (Win Rate 51%, 97th most popular - early days thou)

As a non-DOTA 1 player I don't know much about new heroes when they appear other than what I get the chance to read up on them. Troll certainly is an interesting new addition, and it takes some time to figure out how best to counter or help him. The big discussion at the moment seems to be around his ultimate Battle Trance. Being able to blast out that much extra attack speed, for your whole team, for approx half the time in the late game is very much up for debate...

Interested to hear people's thoughts below the line!