Heroes that need buffs/changes

Right now in 6.79, we're starting to see what naturally happens in competitive games, a flavor of the month kind of system where popular heroes remain popular until another team starts doing something else (successfully). However, some heroes were just left in the dirt, and though they had a time when they might have shined, they are now pretty much hard to play in a competitive game.

Brew had a time where he was a great pick since he was pretty much the king of counter-teamfight. You got initiated on, and now you have almost no HP? No worries, I can ult and proceed to ruin your near-perfect setup with my three spirits. So what changed? First of all, he fell out of the meta. Not so much because he was weak, but because teamfight wasn't a huge thing, so why put a melee mid with limited mobility and ganking potential there when we could have a QoP who can gank the **** out of the enemy carry and have almost absolute rune control? So because of that, he wasn't picked quite as frequently. Then the changes came. His ult was firstly reworked so that his spirits gained his Drunken Brawler passive, and then it was changed again so that the spirits didn't get stronger with each level of Primal Split, but with aghs you gained the ability to use each of Brew's spells on each respective spirit.

What went wrong? The fact that the duration/strength of the spirits is no longer improved with aghs was a huge problem. Why even get aghs? Yes you gain some nice skills, but lets face it, besides a double thunder-clap, the benefit of the aghs really dropped. Drunken Haze was already an iffy skill, even if it is AoE now. It's useful in 1v1 skirmishes and perhaps for getting a carry to back off, but really? Late game chances are there aren't going to be more than 2 right click dependent heroes, and the chances that they are right next to each other for your Haze to hit both of them? Miniscule. As well, the duration of it is, well, underwhelming. By late game if it's even a problem, the enemy carry would most likely have an MKB anyway, which is why evasion based heroes typically aren't big on the scene. It's a nice little trick, but tends to be less effective later on in the game. And now, your spirits are squishy. So squishy in fact, most carries easily deal with them in seconds by the time you have your aghs, unless you got it quick. The doublethunderclap is nice, but besides that, I feel aghs isn't even worth it. If you've got a quick start, a radiance can be a bigger game-changer since you'd essentially have a double radiance with your fire-spirit running about, doing ridiculous AOE damage over the time of the fight. But the chances you can farm a radiance in a decent amount of time are very small unless you've got a great start, and in which case, you've probably already won the game.

Silencer used to be a niche pick against combo/spam heroes like Earthshaker, Zeus or Storm Spirit. Now that usefulness is gone, but the change wasn't necessarily bad. Instead, he got a pretty strong nuke that can be very useful against pretty much any hero, be they a carry or a spam/combo hero. His ultimate is still great, especially since it goes through BKB, so he can essentially be the bane of bane's existence while he's channeling Fiend's Grip, or he can stop a 4-man enigma black hole, or a wicked Witch Doctor ult. He isn't bad in those aspects, so what is lacking? General utility. As a support, he doesn't bring near enough lockdown to the table to make a difference. And then as a support, you have one pretty much useless skill that has little purpose besides orb-walking, and then another that falls off heavily late game since enemies losing a little mana is pretty much a non-issue late game. Now how about mid? He can do well there, infact he can carry pretty darned hard given a good start. Pure damage right clicks that will only grow with each enemy's death. Nice! Basically a counter-part to OD but with permanent int-steal and nukes and silences. But OD tends to stomp the lane much harder than a silencer could ever dream, unless Silencer is laned against a Tiny or a anyone that is spell reliant but has a tiny mana pool. Against many enemies, they simply don't care about silencer. He doesn't have enough mobility to really avoid ganks easily or get runes, and his nuke takes time to do damage, so the enemy has time to react to your ganks. Again, he has no lockdown. Can he be used in a niche setting to make Enigma's life hell? Yes. But he is still one of the more rare picks that you're going to see.

There's plenty more, would like to see more analysis on heroes.

Yea. I think brew actually got a nerf last patch. Since his aghs upgrade really falls off.

I think silencer is a pretty good hero, and he is always a pain to play against. For one pro's always use a really weird skillbuild where they dont max their 2 nukes. He has the potential to be a massive nuisance in lane and in the midgame, but they tend to put atleast 2 early points into glaives which is strange.
He could use some changes, maybe to make him a bit more legit as a semi carry.

Brewmaster...yeah he's got a lot of strengths, but it's always a little difficult to see where he fits in. Not a carry, not a support, not quite a mid or offlaner. Yes, he has a lot of positives with his team fight and survivability, but there are better heroes for both those things. He's too strong to never feature again, but at the moment it's difficult to see quite what he does.

Silencer...situational. Can be a real issue for some teams with his curse and ultimate, but slow, squishy, with no stun or slow makes him kind of a lacklustre support. Again the problem is where he fits into the team...yes he can win lanes, but can he win games? Situational mid, awful offlaner, situational lane support.

Thread needs more love for Ancient Apparition, Beastmaster, Disruptor, Medusa and Spectre.

AA could use some buff fore sure. beastmaster is not a bad hero but there are just so much heroes that do a similar job but better.
disruptor could use a minor buff, since he already has a lot of potential.
i dont really see the need for specre, atleast not as much as some other heroes. a lot of people just play her wrong, vanguard is a bad choice, and you should always get drums if you want early influence. she also isnt an AFK farmer. she needs to be in a team that can force and win early fights, becouse she conrtibutes a lot with her ult and gets farm that way, if you want to secure the late game, becouse she is the herdest carry IMO you can get a radiance after drums.


id also like to see more ommniknight and lycan.
ommni got experimented with a while ago in the mid position and it worked pretty good, but ofcourse you run into the problem that he doesnt have any semi carry potential. he could get some changes that would make him more viable as a support.

lycan is a bit underplayed i feel right now, since he does have potential, especially with the increasing necrobook popularity. he could use some buffs though, since he doesnt have any lane presence and isnt a great jungler either, you even HAVE to spawn you wolves in base now.

lycan is pretty weak IMHO.
AA could use some love.
so could omni.
and dont forget about our good friend disrupter.

Dunno that AA needs buffing, he's situational, but still quite strong imo, maybe a small Buff to one of his Skills.

Beastmaster could use a Buff, perhaps to Wild Axes as he isn't the best Mid, isn't survivable enough to stay in the Offlane, and lacks the Utility to Support.

I feel the same way about Disruptor that I do about AA, he's Situational, but he still works, so perhaps a small Buff.

Medsa doesn't need a Buff either, she's Strong enough in the Late Game, Buffing her Early of Mid Game would make her OP, and Buffing her Late Game would be overkill.


This ^

Spectre is still strong, you just need a line-up that takes advantage of her Global Ganking.

There are 3 Heroes who desperately need reworking though imo, Drow Ranger, Sniper and Spirit Breaker. They're Kings and Queen of the Lower Tiers but when it comes to Competetive Lineups, they're a joke.

AA - I think a bigger radius on Ice Vortex would do it, he'd have a much more useful slow then. Maybe give a slightly longer stun time on low levels of Cold Feet - it's hard to land, should do a bit more.

Beastmaster, not weak, more of a square peg on a round board. Don't really know how you'd rework him much without making him OP. Maybe reduce the mana cost of Wild Axes and/or give Call of the Wild a bit more at lower levels?

Disruptor isn't far off being a very capable support, but does lack just a touch compared to the usual pickups. One or two of the following changes?

- Slightly longer duration on Kinetic Field
- More damage from Static Storm
- Reduced mana cost on lower levels of Storm Strike and have it able to damage invisible heroes

Lycanthrope don't think he's really that underpowered. His ultimate and passive are fantastic. Wolves a bit meh now, but still useful for pulling/pushing/later jungling/lane control. Almost unkillable with a BKB without specific counters. I remember when level 4 wolves used to chomp on squishy supports, was ridiculous.

Omniknight fantastic spells balanced by mana shortage. Maybe a small boost to level 1 heal/nuke, slightly more intelligence. Would have to be careful not to leave him OP though.

Medusa and Spectre - both very good at what they do, just takes them a long time to get there. Then again, most hard carries are currently out of the higher level meta. Medusa actually has good lane control and ultimate, but sucky stat growth means she needs a lot of farming time. Also vulnerable as hell to decent gankers. Spectre just so little lane presence, very farm reliant too. Not sure they're underpowered, so much as out of fashion with the current meta.

Beastmaster is actually pretty strong: I've seen him a lot of times recently, more than Queen of Pain, and he always did a good job. A good Mekansm carrier and an awesome initiator on Weaver and Lifestealer; that's all, but it's more than ehough. Oh, he can also grant free vision everywhere.

Ancient Apparition and Disruptor: Disruptor is okay, it's more of a situational pick; AA is strong but just doesn't fit in the current meta. I'd say they could buff AA a bit, but that wouldn't change things.

Medusa, Spectre, Faceless Void, Sven: they don't fit in the current meta either as they need too much time to be strong. Spectre and Void are actually good with global lineups (Zeus, Prophet, AA, SB, Invoker etc.) or AoE spells (Jakiro, Gyro, Tide, Disruptor, SK etc.), but the other two - especially Medusa - are just too much of a nuisance for the first ~30 minutes.

Not entirely: she is actually one of the best (if not the best) AFK farmer, simply because she can stay far from the fight and farm, pop her ulti, jump in and get some kills (or escape from ganks); a lineup that focuses on early pressure is beneficial for Spectre but remember she's also one of the storngest late game carries.

Brewmaster: one of the weakest initiators (can only target one or two enemies) and with minimal snowball possibilities. He can have an easy time in lane thanks to his passive, but by level 6 he doesn't bring much aside from chasing capabilities, for which you have afast Hero like Weaver or a racecar Lifestealer anyway. He's a nuisance after he activates Primal Split, but since Agh's no longer gives extra duration I think IceFrog did the opposite thing he wanted to do.

Silencer: while he's good in the laning phase, he's squishy and would always be the main target of teamfights; his ultimate is really nice and the extra damage and silence from his skills make him scale well, but he needs to snowball pretty hard to be a good core Hero. I personally don't like him, but I still think he has some potential when good players are familiar with him and are coordinated with teammates.

Lycanthrope: I actually think he's pretty strong, but I guess he has the same problem of the other hard carries mentioned above. I think he's good, but not as much as those carries with teamfight spells; still, I would chose him instead of a Lifestealer if I needed a durable carry.

Drow Ranger and Sniper: I think they could do well with the Drums + Yasha build, but not so much to get the #1 position. I would only play them in the safe lane while running an aggressive trilane with a better carry, but even then you have to be really careful when supports are missing. Sniper has some carry potential, while I see Drow more of a "utility" Hero since her ulti gives her so much damage she can potentially go Mekansm and Black King Bar and still carry her team. I still like getting mobility items on her since her movement speed is pitful; that's probably why she's overlooked in competitive games, too.

Spirit Breaker: SB + Prophet = global ganking; you can also add Lifestealer if you want. I see him as a good N'aix bomb option when Storm and Puck get banned, but he can't be more than a support in competitive games. His autoattacks can stun for a lot of time(s), but since he's luck-reliant like Ogre Magi he can be either super strong or super weak depending on your luck. He would also be a melee support, and that has its downsides.

Omniknight: too mana-dependent and all his abilities can be Purged with a Diffusal Blade; he's a "decent" off-laner though. I think people would use him as an off-laner if both Bristleback and Timbersaw (and maybe even Clockwerk) got nerfed, but I just can't see him as a viable support.

Abaddon needs buff. His armor has been decreased to much from 4.4 to 1.38 on start. His 1 spell needs to be changed it doesn't do to much damage and plus the spell is based on the WC3 Death Coil. Aghanim's Scepter should be removed and Borrowed Time reworked from 3, 4 , 5 seconds on level 6, 11, 16 to 5, 6, 7 seconds duration. Aphotic Shield is not that useful late game. The spell needs to be reworked from 110/140/170/200 damage to 100/150/200/250 or 120/170/220/280. Biggest problem is that most don't know how to counter Abaddon and that was from the start when he was released even now. Back then they thought he was "OP" so wrong.

Terrorblade also needs to be reworked. His old spell Zeal needs to be replaced again with Conjure Image, Metamorphosis needs to spawn illusions just like it did. Reflection cast range need to be increased from 200 to 650 and AoE from N/A to 350 just like it was. He was nerfed or I don't know what actually they did to him buts it's stupid now cause of cry babies who didn't knew how to counter him and wanted nerf.

Huskar 3rd spell Berserker's Blood gives him magic resistance instead of dmg cause they thought he was "OP". Now with the magic resistance and the damage items you will get is even harder to kill him. They wanted nerf or chage call it what u want they got it now and it's worse.



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