Underpowered Heroes

exactly what captain planet said. the term "underpowered" only applies to heroes, that have a certain (in most cases only 1) role, which can be fulfilled by any other hero of the same role in exactly the same way, or even better....then ofc there also is the "team-compatibility" issue with every hero (heroes with aoe dmg or heavy cc usually fit better in a lineup than heroes with no cc and/or "only" single target dps).

as for specific heroes i can only agree, with those who already mentioned Morphling. There is exactly one build that works for him, in order to be effective in teamfights (not getting insta-nuked or dealing laughable damage)

I face palm every time someone on my team randoms Ancient Apparition or Lershac. I've at least seen AA played well and matches won with him. But Lershac is just instant food for the other team. Lershac worst hero.

WHAT.

I honestly wanted to end my post there, but I should explain myself.

There are some reasons Leshrac is being picked quite often in the competitive scene. He has an AOE stun that does have a delay, yes. But it's an AOE stun nevertheless, and the synergy between this and Disruption is very good, which makes him a good combination with another hero competitively picked often, Shadow Demon. If you've never seen a game with 1 top, 1 mid, 1 bot and these 2 roaming, you should.

Diabolic Edict can burn most of a tier 3 tower's health and that's only at level 7. So he is a very potent pusher. Also, this is very strong in a 1v1 situation, which rarely happens with Lesh, yes, but is still a good thing.

Lightning Storm is dubbed useless by some people, but it is a very good spell that when given early levels alongside Split Earth can let Lesh control teamfight and ganks/counterganks early.

His ult isn't that impressive, but is still a very viable teamfight spell given the mana capacity.

That's only his skills - just look at him competitively for a better idea.

OK I don't watch competitive matches very often. So perhaps he's just the most badly played hero? In the matches I play I can't remember a team ever winning with Lershac on their team.

Leshrac is one of my favourite Heroes for trilaning: having a Lion, Nyx Assassin or Shadow Demon to assist you always means easy ganks while rotating mid and ridiculous kills in lane; he doesn't even have mana problems as long as you purchase an Urn of Shadows/ Arcane Boots in ~15 minutes. His Diabolic Edict is also overpowered for pushing towers.

The "worst" Heroes nowadays are actually the ones that can't fill any slot in the lane setup of the current meta: Razor has always been played mid but, in fact, he would get destroyed against any mid Hero competitive players use; Heroes like Sniper and Drow Ranger are obviously bad for laning mid but are pretty useless for trilaning too since they can't dish out quick damage as Gyrocopter, Luna or Lifestealer; Lich, Dazzle and Ancient Apparition don't have any stuns for trilaning/ganking so they aren't picked if not in rare circumstances.

I could be completely wrong here, but I always feel like Undying is a bit underpowered. He has a few good spells but can't seem to do anything exceptionally well.

Hmmm, I would like to rephrase a little from my last post... Most of the heroes that have been mentioned are truly not underpowered... Most hereos work well when comboed, ESPECIALLY lich dazzle and aa. Any of these heroes comboed with a slow or a stun is a devasting early game combo. for example... AA and any hero with a slow or astun can equal First blood ez. And liches frost armor is so USEFUL its broken... lvl 3 frost armor for tower dives for FB? crazy.

Bottom line is, if you play this game with the mindset that its not about FARMING 15k gold in one match and doing LONG 45 min to an hour matches... ALmost EVERY hero besides Morphling and Medusa are usefull, ALBEIT they are in proper synergy with eachother...

Obviously with that meta in mind, 5 carries will usually lose to a balanced team as well as 5 supports,

The heroes in this game are fairly balanced when you break them down stat for stat on the role they are meant to be played.... all except 2 which seriously do not scale well with anyone or anything and thats dusa and Morph... they dont need buffs... they need serious reworks.

First off, remember that I'm talking about tournament games in which only the "best" Heroes play: the ones I listed are actually not underpowered, but the do need some buffs in order to appear in the current meta.

For example, would you pick an Ancient Apparition instead of a Nyx Assassin, Shadow Demon or even Lion? Your can get a first blood even more easily with those Heroes. Chilling Touch has had a significant buff and I like it, but it's not enough for bringing this Hero without disables in competitive matches.

About Dazzle, he has a lot of useful spells but different Heroes can do his job better. Does your team need healing? Then Treant Protector is a better choice; does your team need a stun/slow? There are a lot of supports that can disable in a better way according to your trilane; what about the ultimate? Many supports have "better" ultimates than him, Weave can scare off enemies but can't drastically change a fight if your team is underlevelled (on the contrary Blinding Light, Fiend's Grip or Spell Steal might). Shallow Grave is an interesting skill, but most of the time something like Chackra Magic, Hex, Enfeeble or Soul Assumption are more useful for gaining early advantage and prevent your carry from needing that buff.

Lich is an interesting one: I would like to see him played in competitive games but unfortunately his lack of stun, small mana pool and weak slow make him a bad trilane partner; I still think he could be played in aggressive ones since Sacrifice and an early point in Frost Armor can be very annoying for the enemy carry (and he also has a devastating ultimate if placed correctly), but his squishyness and lack of escape mechanisms are probably too disadvantageous not to be taken into account.

Dazzle is just a bit hard to fit in currently since he does need levels to get good. Dazzle needs to be at least level 5 to start becoming more effective because he needs at least 3 levels in Poison Touch, the heal is mediocre at least in the earlier levels and Shallow Grave is for someone who's about to die. His ultimate is actually pretty good but there are better options. Everything Dazzle does is outshone by Shadow Demon.

The reason Lich isn't picked is mainly because he's too easily countered in lane, he has an unreliable ultimate and all you have to do is run an aggressive tri-lane and you'll win the lane. Lich has nothing but a weak slow to fight off enemies while needing levels to become more effective and he's easily pushed against. Then again why would you run him as position four when there are better alternatives, that's why Lich hasn't been picked much even after the first International. Think about it if Lich was played as position 5, he'll be level 1 for awhile so the only thing he has is either Sacrifice or Frost Blast and both don't do much against an aggressive tri-lane.

Some excellent points Peppo, all of these heroes have their place, but have question marks over their top level effectiveness:

- AA does have a disable which deals good damage, but requires a lot of setup (4 seconds of slow/stun). He also has really bad strength gain which makes him somewhat vulnerable.

- Dazzle I think is a bit underrated, he doesn't actually heal that much, but it's a great push/anti-push spell. Weave can also be very effective, but it's optimal casting point is on as many heroes from both teams as possible - by then it doesn't have enough time to really take effect. A 60% +/- on physical damage could be seriously OP, but it takes too long - maybe if it had a burst element? His slow/stun is also weak until well levelled (hard to do in a tri-lane).

- Lich used to picked up a lot, but I think the meta has left him behind rather than him being bad. The problem is he weakens your push/anti-push, making him a bad pick if the enemy want to take your tower quickly rather than have a long lane control contest.