We take a closer look at Dota 2's latest hero, Primal Beast, and what possible roles he could fulfill in the battle to bring down the enemy's Ancient.
Dota 2 patch 7.31 was recently released and of all the changes that it brought with it, the biggest one perhaps was the advent of a new hero in the game. After terrorizing the Continuum Vault for a few weeks, Primal Beast has now decided to try out his luck in the game of defending the Ancients, Dota 2. In the increasing frequency of new hero releases, Primal Beast is the fourth hero to arrive in 14 months after Hoodwink (December 2020), Dawnbreaker (April 2021) and Marci (November 2021).
But unlike most of the heroes that have been recently released, Primal Beast isn’t soft on the eyes and is a hero that wants to get into the thick of it. The first part of lore is more than enough to portray a picture of what kind of monster the new Dota 2 hero is.
Though the deterioration of the Mistwood and its evolution from idyllic expanse to death-filled tanglewild was a slow, wizard-fueled process, most scholars agree the true beginning of the end was marked by the interdimensional arrival of the Primal Beast.
A creature hatched into an existence devoid of all feeling but hunger and pain, aeons of carnage shaped the Primal Beast into the apex predator on a planet filled with violent terrors. Desperately banished by would-be masters with failed hopes to control him, the Beast was cast into a new world — one where he could ascend from mere hungry predator into an invasive killing machine with nothing able to stand in his way.
Let’s take a deep dive into what this terrifying beast is capable of and how he can be used to his fullest potential in games.
Stats
Primal Beast is a strength hero, who is meant to be a durable initiator and disabler. His stats gains are-
Strength: 4.3
Agility: 1
Intelligence: 1.4
While it appears that he may not be the most intelligent or agile hero on the map, he is bound to be one of the hardest to bring down. With a strength gain of 4.3, Primal Beast has the highest strength gain in the game! A patch ago, it was Centaur with a strength gain of 4.6. But that was nerfed to 4.0 in patch 7.31, which gives Primal Beast the top spot. His total attribute gain per level though, falls towards the lower end of the spectrum at 6.7.
Not only is he top of the class when it comes to strength gain, but Primal Beast also has the fourth highest starting armor of all heroes at 4.5, only lower than Ogre Magi, Techies and Terrorblade. The high strength gain and starting armor make him a force to reckon with in the laning stage.
1) Onslaught
Onslaught is skill that can be used for multiple purposes, although the best one seems to be initiating into a bunch of enemy heroes. The skill does physical damage and also stuns all those hit by it for 1.6 seconds. Magic immune enemies don’t get stunned and don’t take any damage either, because Primal Beast just passes through them without any impact.
Even though the Onslaught direction cannot be changed once selected, the distance up to which Primal Beast charges can be controlled. Onslaught takes Primal Beast across unpathable terrain, so it is a great way to chase enemies on or off cliffs, escape from enemies and even get out of skills like Clockwerk’s Power Cogs. That of course, won’t work if Clockwerk has the ‘Power Cogs Leash Units Inside’ talent, but early game, the grasp of Cogs can be evaded.
One of the best potential uses of Onslaught is possibly in the Roshan pit. The skill acts as a great tool to initiate onto unsuspecting enemies out of the fog of war from an unexpected angle. A decently farmed Primal Beast can charge into the Roshan pit and unleash his arsenal of skills to create enough chaos until his team comes to back him up.
2) Trample
Trample is an interesting skill. It has a base damage, makes use of Primal Beasts attack damage, but the damage output is physical and the hero is disarmed for the duration it is active. In a sense, it is attack damage that cannot be reduced by armor. Trample lasts for 5.5 seconds and it cannot be stopped beforehand to perform a right click attack on an enemy.
Trample is not only good for following up after Onslaught, but also a useful skill for farming stacks. While the skill won’t do too much damage to Ancients due to their magic damage mitigation, other neutral creeps are quite susceptible to the Trample damage. The tricky part about Trample is that the hero needs to keep moving, because each damage instance is triggered only by travelling 140 units. Turning it on and standing in one place in a neutral camp can only cause hurt to the beast.
3) Uproar
Uproar is a great skill to combo with Trample. Uproar increases Primal Beast’s damage, both, passively and actively. For a full five stacks, Primal Beast slows down enemies by 50% and increases his Trample damage by 28 (from both, the passive and active). It also increases his armor by 20 (for five stacks), which makes it harder to bring him down.
4) Pulverize
For those who played a lot of Aghanim’s Labyrinth: The Continuum Conundrum, this skill is probably etched into the brain. Pulverize is a great way to take a hero out of the game, while also ensuring others around him have a limited chance of escaping. Keep in mind though, that Primal Beast can take damage while slamming a hero to the ground, and Pulverize can be stopped mid animation by a stun. The skill will also stop mid channeling if Primal Beast activates an item like BKB or Ghost Scepter after picking up the unit.
Pulverize can be a follow up to Onslaught, but the best way to initiate on heroes with Pulverize is to buy a Blink Dagger. A BKB wouldn’t be bad either, but does anyone buy those these days?! A magic immune Primal Beast blinking into the middle of multiple enemy heroes and stunning and damaging all of them is terrifying thought..or a beautiful one. Depends on which team you are on!
5) Rock Throw
Primal Beast is the first hero to get an Aghanim’s Shard upgrade in the same patch it is released. The Shard upgrade gives Primal Beast a new skill – Rock Throw – which is another skill straight out of Aghanim’s Labyrinth. The rock he throws can only be targeted beyond a certain radius, so it isn’t really the best follow up to Onslaught or Pulverize. On the whole, it is an underwhelming Aghanim’s Shard upgrade.
Skill Build
According to Dotabuff, of the most popular builds in pubs, the one with the highest win rate is 2-1-2 till level five, then taking the ultimate, going 2-2-2 followed by maxing out Uproar. The hero is still quite new though, so that is bound to change.
Talents
Primal Beast has some interesting talents, with the most intriguing ones being +30% Trample Attack Multiplier at level 20, which gives Trample attacks 70% of his attack damage and the 100% Pulverize Duration at level 25, which takes it from 2.3 seconds to 4.6 seconds. In the late game, a 4.6 second disable on a hero which also damages and stuns nearby enemies can be game breaking. Other than that, there isn’t anything to write home about. The 50% Spell Lifesteal talent can be clubbed with some fun builds which are bound to irritate teammates and opponents alike.
Initial Reception
According to Dotabuff, over 76% of Primal Beast’s presence in pubs has been in the offlane, which does not really come as a surprise. The hero has all the markings of an offlaner – strong lane presence to disrupt the enemy carry, initiation, multiple stuns and bulkiness. An offlane build would involve taking up, getting items like Blademail to soak up and return the damage, and Blink and BKB to initiate.
Although majority of his presence in pubs is in the offlane, but he is being looked at as a mid and carry hero as well. Trample and Uproar make a case for him to go for a right click build, and there are multiple ways to go down that path. Radiance could be a useful item for Primal Beast, especially when going for a right click build.
While the concept of Primal Beast is intriguing, he is a weak hero and requires buffs. A first set of buffs was provided to him on the day after patch 7.31 was released, but even with that, his win rate languishes at a lowly 44.45%. According to Dotabuff, Primal Beast has one of the lowest pub win rates, which goes against what we’ve seen for most hero releases. There are bound to be more buffs on the way for the rampaging monster.
But even with the bad win rate, prominent Dota 2 personalities like Clinton “Fear” Loomis and Tal “Fly” Aizak have expressed their appreciation for the hero.
It is still early days and as players discover more about Primal Beast and there are (hopefully) some buffs thrown his way, the win rate is bound to improve. For now, the game calls for experimentation with the newest hero.
On an ending note, here is a Primal Beast game by the popular streamer WagaMama, in which he played it in the safe lane.
