January 07, 2014

Different Hero Options for Competitive Games

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This is a part of what I hope could be a series of speculations about the Dota 2 competitive scene: I won't probably post them regularly (actually, posting this is already a thing I didn't think I would have done) but I'll try to keep up the series as much as possible, if you like it.

So, let's start. After watching different competitive games and seeing how the meta has changed in the past month or two (especially after the 6.79 patch), I'm wondering why some Heroes didn't get considered at all: we saw Hand of Midas on supports, a huge amount of Elder Titan picks for a (relatively) small amount of time, the fall of Batrider and Io and, also, the rebirth of Luna. Many Heroes including Bristleback, Mirana and Slark became the trend of this period, but some others with (in my opinion) big potential just passed through the patch - some of them even untouched - without seeing any increase in their pick ratio.




The first Hero I want to talk about is Centaur Warrunner . I'm pretty sure you all got pubstomped by him in the past, probably more than once, and after all this time wondering about the role he could fit in a match an idea popped out in my head: he can effectively solo the off-lane. Think about it: he's like a mix between Clockwerk and Bristleback, in some ways. Like Rattletrap he can't get out alive from a chainstun but, if used at the right moment, his defensive mechanism ( Power Cogs, its counterpart being Hoof Stomp) lets him run away safely from the enemy trilane. And, like Bristleback, he has a built-in ability that discourage the enemies from attacking him ( Bristleback and Return, respectively); he also shares with both of them the STR attribute and is probably even more survivable than the two. His ultimate, Stampede, is also a key ability for initiating fights and escaping smoke ganks, even more than Mirana's Moonlight Shadow! I'll draft him in my next CM matches no doubt.



The next one, as I've already talked/complained about in a forum thread, is Ogre Magi: his potential is huge, he also has the second highest stat growth (after Sniper) and, being a tanky INT support, neither has problems with mana after his Arcane Boots nor has to adjust his item build for survivability purposes. Let's take a look at his skills: Fireblast is an average stun that, unlike many others, has a huge range and a fixed stun duration (1.5, pretty good at level 1!); Ignite is a damage-over-time AoE spell (if you got at least one point in the ultimate) that doesn't look so useful but, as it slows for a decent amount of time (26% at level 4 makes the difference in fights), can discourage pushes/ganks and also ensure your team's ganks. Lastly, Bloodlust looks like a really good spell to me: in this meta where racecar builds are common, being able to outrun your chasers (or reach max movement speed with them in your team) and give a damage steroid to non-AGI carries like Outworld Devourer, Lifestealer and Doom is priceless. His ultmate is what makes him kind of a bad pick: the concept of Heroes that rely on luck is really a bad one in my opinion, especially if some extra luck can change the fate of a teamfight that hard (a multicast does win teamfights, conversely to an extra second of the Chaos Bolt or a lucky Critical Strike); the fact that he's melee doesn't simplify things either. Nonetheless, I think Ogre Magi still has a lot of potential.



Lastly, believe it or not, there's one of the most underrated supports (no, it's not Witch Doctor): Dazzle. I say "underrated" while looking at the competitive scene, because "healers" like Dazzle and WD are pretty common in pubs; the main difference with the other supports of this kind, though, is that Dazzle actually manipulates armor. This is so key for two things: winning fights versus 2/3 core lineups and killing Roshan; the latter can also lead to early attempts of what is called "rat Dota" which, even though is not fun to watch, is an easy way to win. About teamfights, casting Weave on the enemies right before pushing a tower is really scary; if they decide to go in anyway they're gonna need more luck than that Ogre Magi above. Combining Dazzle's Poison Touch with common abilities reliant on physical damage like Unstable Concoction or Vendetta make this Hero have a relevant impact in the ganking phase, too. Shallow Grave is also a really good spell if used correctly, especially with a multi-core lineup: while the #1 carry always has enough time to afford a Black King Bar, a Nature's Prophet or Bristleback might not; that's when this spell comes in action and (hopefully) saves them.




Those are well-rounded Heroes that for some reason are overlooked by people (well, I can understand Ogre Magi at the very least), but I don't think they have to share the same fate of objectively "useless" Heroes like Sniper or Witch Doctor: I can already picture someone using Dazzle as a signature Hero like Aui_2000's Visage or KuroKy's Rubick and having good results.
Sorry for the "bad" formatting but I didn't really have time to plan this as it came out of my mind just recently. D: