In the second of this five part series, we take a look at the top 5 carry heroes in pubs from the first month of Dota 2 patch 7.33.
Image: biggreenpepper on DeviantArt
Dota 2 patch 7.33 is now over a month old, and the Dota 2 community has gotten well adjusted to the plethora of changes that have come along with it. The meta, though evolving, has become quite familiar.
A few days ago, we saw which mid heroes were having a great time in pubs on patch 7.33. Here, we take a look at which carries have been dominating games and, well, carrying their teams to victories.
The heroes have been picked as the best performing ones from the Divine and Immortal brackets. This data is as per Dotabuff and has been analyzed for the past one month, so it well and truly reflects the games from patch 7.33 only. The choice of heroes has been made from a combination of high pick rate and high win rate heroes.
Slark (Pick rate: 20.34%; Win rate 52.23%)
Slark’s case is a curious one, as the hero was nerfed in both, patch 7.33 and patch 7.33c. But the nature of the patch and certain item additions are what is keeping the Murlock Nightcrawler at the top of pick priority in carries. The current meta, even with the bigger map, has shorter games than the previous one on an average, because the more you constrict the map from the enemy, the more the advantage you can get for your team. So any hero that fights early and can build an advantage is favorable, which makes Slark a strong candidate.
In terms of items, Slark is probably the best carrier of Echo Sabre and Diffusal Blade. There are many who are good with one of the two items, but when thinking of a carry on whom both items make sense, Slark is possibly the only one that comes to mind. Why are these two items important in making Slark strong? Because both of them got upgrades – Echo Sabre to Harpoon and Diffusal Blade to Dispenser. This is big deal for a hero that can max out relatively early as compared to late game carries, as the limits on his scaling have now been moved further ahead. Additionally, Dispenser provides a dispel. Slark already has one of the best strong dispels in the game with Dark Pact, but can get in a murky situation if silenced. In that case, the Dispenser dispel can come in handy and Slark can either forgo the BKB or save it for a more dire situation.
(taken from Dota 2 Wiki)
Windranger (Pick rate: 5.37%; Win rate 56.89%)
Windranger is popular as a carry now for similar reasons as to why she is doing well as a mid. The change from Intelligence hero to Universal hero has helped her become more diverse, and for the first time, made her a viable position 1 hero.
Windranger’s win rate in professional games is quite abysmal – just over a lowly 43%. But in pubs, she seems to be doing well in either the carry or the mid role.
Medusa (Pick rate: 16.06%; Win rate 50.29%)
Propably the most controvertial hero of the new patch, Medusa now completely operates on mana (except for the part where she dies when her HP goes to 0). But on her initial release, she was so weak that the Gorgon had to be buffed significantly in Dota 2 patch 7.33b, which tipped the scales in the other direction! She is one of the highest picked heroes in top ranked pubs, but her pub win rate does not seem to be too high. In professional games on Dota 2 patch 7.33, she has a win rate of over 61%, and is the sixth most contested hero with a contest rate of over 65%! She was slightly nerfed in patch 7.33c, but still continues to be a strong hero. However, she isn’t played in the same was she was pre 7.33. In case you haven’t played the hero since her rework, it would be prudent to read her changelog carefully, or you might be in for a nasty surprise.
Naga Siren (Pick rate: 6.18%; Win rate 54.99%)
A major buff Naga Siren received in patch 7.33 was Ensnare being able to target invulnerable targets without requireing an Aghanim’s Scepter. This means she can use Ensare on enemy heroes caught in Song of the Siren without first having to get them out of their sleep. This is a massive boost against heroes like Ember Spirit or Void Spirit, who can get away in the blink of an eye as soon as they wake up.
Dota 2 patch 7.33 also added 12 new neutral camps, and one of the best heroes to take full advantage of that is Naga Siren. She can send her illusions to all the camps at the edge of the map and clear them out. This helps especially when playing from behind, when the enemy team has control over majority of the map.
Phantom Lancer (Pick rate: 13.87%; Win rate 51.68%)
The two changes for Phantom Lancer in Dota 2 patch 7.33 were his reworked Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade and Aghanim’s Shard upgrade. His new Scepter is one of the best rewroked core Scepters from patch 7.33, and the new Shard isn’t bad either to gain more elusivity. Aghanim’s Scepter is perfect for a hero like PL, because besides the upgrade to Phantom Lance, it also gives him all three attributes, which makes his illusions stronger.
Phantom Lancer builds Diffusal Blade in pretty much every game. In the late game, most PLs used to end up selling Diffusal for higher impact items. But now with Diffusal upgrading to Dispenser, PL has a surefire way of burning mana throughout the game and increasing his damage, on top of having another dispel besides the Manta Style dispel.
Honorable Mentions
Alchemist (Pick rate: 12.68%; Win rate: 50.67%)
Abaddon (Pick rate: 2.46%; Win rate: 52.36%)
Bloodseeker (Pick rate: 9.65%; Win rate: 51.22%)
In the next piece of this series, we will see which offlaners are taking the current meta by storm.
