OD ... Why you no picked??/

http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/972449150


23-3-7

4 x ultra kill

1x rampage


why is he not picked up in pro games?

is it because he is countered by BKB so hard?

with the change of BKB being hero centric now i would think he could make a come back, no?

thoughts?

I've ALWAYS been a diehard fan of OD, the amount of damage he pumps out is just insane. With games going longer and existing BKBs probably consistently at a 5 sec charge, he has a pretty large window in the teamfight to deal damage now I believe. I think he should be picked, as in the hands of a good player he will be able to outmaneuver the BKBs and get the job done.

Being countered hard by Black King Bar has never really been a sole reason for a hero to not be picked, so while it's part of why Outworld Devourer is not strong enough right now, it's not the main reason.

I think other mids just offer much more now. Outworld Devourer is picked because he can dominate his lane and shut his opponent down, but when Razor and Viper who serve similar purposes and also counter OD in lane are great picks regardless of him being picked up or not, OD just has problems staying in the mid lane he is supposed to be dominating. Death Prophet just flat outranges and outspeeds him, too.

tl;dr meta favors mid heroes that he is especially bad against, nullifying his supposed strength in the laning phase. Pretty good against certain lineups as a niche 5th pick, but I doubt we OD players will be seeing the dominance he had back in our Tranquil Boots Buckler heyday.

It's basically because a silence and/or BKB majorly screws him over. You just can't pick him up in a game where people actually get BKBs.

To the BKB counter:
Actually I think OD is one of the heroes that can waste a lot of BKB time by imprisoning himself. Because he is a priority target with the high dmg of his ult he almost always gets focused first.
All you have to do is prison yourself, force staff into a better position and drop your ult.

I think he's best suited for a lineup with a lot of sustain, because he needs to survive untill he drops his ult which will basically one shot anything.

With the current surge in Necrophos and WD picks I think he would be a viable mid in the current meta.

I have to agree with this statement. The issue is Prophet's ult makes her a walking juggernaut almost. If you could use BKB on it, you'd be fine as OD. But yeah, Prophet gets a good silence, and a killer ult. I hate Death Prophet on me. At least with Razor, you get some range on her with your Q move.

Guys -__-

You don't see much of OD is because of what was popular at the time of his decline. Deathball push strats kicked OD out of the "meta" not because OD was weak statistically (because he's not). OD always had some problems against BKB targets but he can always astral himself for protection or just wait it out since it wouldn't matter that much late game. It's just the "new trend" around his decline were deathball push strats and it was more effective than whatever "old trend" that was being played at the time. OD couldn't stop a push even if he "won" his lane, one reason was how strong Death Prophet pushed and how effective Razor was at pushing lanes mid game and how he dealt with OD too. Another reason was that if OD was shut down similar to how you taken down SF, he can't farm back up as fast as someone like SF.

We'll probably see a small resurgence in this patch since the games are longer than the previous patch, small ganks and winning lanes are more effective in terms of gold/exp.

I'm a huge fan of OD, though i am fairly terrible Mid-lane so i do not do him justice.

But, one game i had recently someone on the other team late picked Doom and when it got a bit later i could do NOTHING! I joined the teamfight's a bit late, but the git saved his Doom for me every fight. I couldn't farm a BKB before we managed to end it. I had to sit at the back and just try to pick people off if they over extended.

Very frustrating. But looking back at the game i really should have built one up straight after i got a Force Staff...

Though the other times i have played him i do get some joy out of him. DP is obviously a problem, but if you pick late and carefully you can have a lot of fun with him.

Romark

OD is no longer popular because of the rise of viper and razor. I think he is still viable against some heroes, but all. Panda is a great example. Not only does OD crush him in lane, but he can imprison targets that are hit by boulder and kill brewmasters spirits during his ult very very quickly (minus earth obviously). I think he's still okay, but very situational. If they draft something like a zues, and you grab OD, they can still zues support which is actually very strong. OD has one role, and no flexibility in a draft. He's risky to pick.

If you want to pick OD you should make sure the enemy team doesnt have core intelligence heroes, because they would have the potential to avoid the dmg from his ult.
So yes OD makes sense mostly as last pick to ensure an acceptable matchup and overall lineup advantage.