New meta Invoker?

Since the 6.72 patch which reduced the base damage of Invoker by 5, he's been used less and less often in competitive matches: in the last month I've seen more Alchemists than Invokers, and that looks weird.

What do you think about the Quas- Wex build nowadays? Too difficult to last hit with? Or maybe it doesn't scale well into lategame?
In my opinion it does work, especially in this meta with more and more mana-dependent Heroes and initiations: the early Ghost Walk helps too, and with one point in Exort you can use the other useful abilities ( Alacrity, Deafening Blast, or even the "paper Chaos Meteor" just to scare enemies) with little downsides.

And what about the Quas- Exort pushing/DPS build? Does it need too many items and levels (compared to the other Heroes) to be effective?
I've seen only 2 matches with Invoker recently, maybe 3: they were all with a Quas- Exort build; the players were using very different item builds, too (Dendi going for Arcane Boots and Force Staff and rmN from Mouz with Hand of Midas + Phase Boots + Force Staff). I think that, given enough levels, Invoker with this build can be as useful as other common mid laners (i.e. Queen of Pain or Templar Assassin) with the same level: the Forge Spirits even melt armor! The main (and the only noticeable) downside is that you need to get at level 11 before putting one point on Wex, so you delay Tornado, Chaos Meteor and especially Ghost Walk by a good amount of time.


So, what's your opinion? I'm curious to see what you think about this.

I see current meta heavily favoring global range heroes and because invoker can add a large amount of damage to ganks with his sunstrike from anywhere on the map i see an exort maxing build to be the most fitting right now. Ice wall is also very effective in shutting down melee carries in teamfights and can punish heroes like lifestealer after his rage ends. Forge spirits also add an element of split push as you can summon and leave the lane, split push being another very popular focus in games now.

Honestly, the Quas Wex build is MUCH more survivable. The reason I use Quas Exort personally is because of the global spell: Sunstrike. Being able to clean up kills when your team cannot is extremely big. It can change entire games. I see the viability of the opposing build but, I still prefer the global ability and push over the survivability.

Quas Wex build: team support

Quas Exort build: utility / semi-carry

Exort build: Hide your kids! Hide your wife!

If you're wondering, I didn't talk about the pure Exort build in the first post because I rarely see it: the huge damage from the Sun Strike is nice, especially if you have a big level advantage, but other than that and the Chaos Meteor it's almost useless. You don't have any other spells to effectively combo with (aside from Deafening Blast) and you lack the single target damage/armor reduction the Forge Spirits give, but it's still an alternative choice if your level is really high.

I found QW invoker to be more viable as he benefits from ghost walk, emp+tornado, and crazy movement speed.