Why is Treant a hot pick now?

I've always loved playing Treant Protector, but until a month ago I had never seen him in the pro scene. What changed? Was there a significant buff in the last patch that I missed, or is his potential just finally being realized?

Living Armor. Really, that's all. There was a patch that changed living armor about 3 months ago from a global aura to what it is now.

Yeah, even after the recent nerf it's a really strong early game skill (can prevent successful ganks anywhere on the map), plus he has some good team fight skills and is very flexible in role.

Wasn't it because Goblak used to auto pick him every match, which led to Quantic Gaming easily winning the laning stage? Tree to stronk anws.

I think it's due to the changes and balances Living Armor received. LA doesn't act exactly like Templar Assassin's Refraction anymore but similar where you'll need to cross a threshold to break the shield charges. That threshold is actually very strong, imagine TA's refraction needing at least 100 damage received to be taken off but still blocks everything that exceeds the limit.

LA is almost one Ring of Health at rank 1, holy cow! At rank 4, Living Armor is two RoH and one Ring of Regen so it's insanely strong. So you pretty much get a shield that's stronger than TA's Refraction for certain situations/spells and it can also be casted on towers.

All of his skills are OP, from never ending invis ganks, through unbreakable damage block/heal to "huge" aoe disable that can be very good counter initiation.
He have global presence from lvl 1 thanks to Living Armor, also Nature's Guise makes him second Riki. When I'm playing Treant I'm never leaving my invis ^^.

This^