In the third of this five part series, we take a look at the top 5 offlaners in pubs from the first month Dota 2 patch 7.33.
Image: biggreenpepper on DeviantArt
Dota 2 patch 7.33 is well and truly here. Unless you’ve been living under a rock or are one of those adults who “don’t have time for games”, you know what Tormentors, Watchers and Lotus Pools are. You also know what Universal heroes are, and how they have been dominating the game in recent weeks.
We took a look at the top 5 mids and carries in pubs for patch 7.33 a few days ago. Now, we take a look at the best offlaners the game has to offer. However, we need to take one thing into consideration – the data here is based on games that took place before Dota 2 patch 7.33d was released. Two massive things were nerfed in patch 7.33d – the ability to dissassemble an early game Vanguard to make Octarine Core, and Universal heroes across the board. So a few of the heroes mentioned here might not be as strong as the stats say. Although weirdly enough, offlaners like Beastmaster, Doom, Magnus and Timbersaw, who were killing it in professional games before patch 7.33d, don’t make the list due to very poor win rates in pubs.
Read: Most powerful Universal heroes receive nerfs in 7.33d Dota 2 patch
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.
Legion Commander (Pick rate: 21.39%; Win rate 54.67%)
Legion Commander has an insanely high pick rate and win rate in pubs, and she isn’t even a hero that abused the Vanguard into Octarine trick, nor is she Universal! The change to Overwhelming Odds in patch 7.33 made her strong, and since then, she has been nerfed in each of the three balance patches. Even though this hero isn’t popular in professional games right now, she continues to be strong in pubs and while the nerfs from patch 7.33d will pull her back slightly, they aren’t debilitating enough to make her unpickable. The increased Overwhelming Odds radius really helps when playing against heroes like Beastmaster, Chen, Clinkz and Phantom Lancer, who are all meta heroes.
(taken from Dota 2 Wiki)
Dark Seer (Pick rate: 7.38%; Win rate 54.99%)
Dark Seer is a strong meta hero because of the carries in the meta. Medusa, Phantom Lancer and Terrorblade have been terrorizing teams through the safe lane for a while now, and the Dark Seer illusions, both from the Wall of Replica and from Normal Punch, wreak havoc against the rest of the opposition when you get an illusion of the carry. A lot of these heroes also take up a disproportionate amount of farm from their teams, meaning the remaining heroes tend to have slightly lesser farm, making them more vulnerable to illusions. With the 20% additional illusion damage attained from the level 10 talent, the illusions deal 120% damage, which is a nightmare for enemy supports. According to Dotabuff, that talent has a 72.2% pick rate in pubs, and their ‘Best Versus’ callculator also shows all the carries Dark Seer has an advantage against.
(taken from Dotabuff)
The cherry on top of the cake for Ish’Kafel is that he was one of the few Universal heroes not to get hit by the nerf hammer in Dota 2 patch 7.33d.
Axe (Pick rate: 14.49%; Win rate 50.32%)
Axe might seem like one of the offlaners that will be affected by the Octarine Core nerf, but even though early Vanguard is a popular item on Axe, unlike Doom or Spirit Breaker, Axe wasn’t a hero that wanted to convert that into Octarine Core. And he hasn’t been changed at all since the changes in patch 7.33, the biggest one of which was Counter Helix now triggers based on the number of attacks and doesn’t have a random chance. Add to that the fact that other offlaners are going to feel the heat from nerfs, Mogul Khan will feel like he will have a say as one of the stronger offlaners in the meta. He is a natural counter to Phantom Lancer, and until Medusa gets some strength from items, she is always vulnerable against Culling Blade. One of the most impactful professional games on Axe in recent times was on display in the second group stage of DreamLeague 20, when PSG.LGD’s Li "niu" Kongbo played a pivotal role on Axe in their comeback agaisnt Gaimin Gladiators in game 2 of their 2-0 win against the defenging champions.
Spirit Breaker (Pick rate: 11.46%; Win rate 52.98%)
Spirit Breaker will be the hero on this list most affected most by Dota 2 patch 7.33d. Not only was he a Vanguard into Octarine type of hero, but he was he was also one who got nerfed in patch 7.33d. A one second cooldown on Charge of Darkness might not seem like a lot, but in clutch team fights, that’s all it takes to determine the team whom the fight favors. The reduced armor is a hit to his laning stage, especially while laning against ranged heroes. These changes won’t break Barathrum’s spirit enough to push him out of the meta, but it will reduce his pick rate and win rate.
The reason Spirit Breaker has been so strong since the release of patch 7.33 is that this is snowballing meta, and Spirit Breaker is great at snowballing out of control. With a decent early game, the Space Cow can make moves all over the map till the position 1 hero is strong enough to take over. And in this meta, teams who gain a lead early don’t relinquish it too easily, because of all the objectives they get under their control once they have map control. As long as that role can be executed successfully, Spirit Breaker can be a good position 3 hero, mostly from the offlane and in some cases, from the mid lane.
(taken from Dota 2 Wiki)
Winter Wyvern (Pick rate: 5.04%; Win rate 56.29%)
Winter Wyvern was one of the heroes that was changed to a Universal hero, and since then, she is looked at more as a core than a support. The hero has a built in farming tool with Splinter Blast which helps her farm Witch Blade and Aghanim’s Scepter, after which she can just sit in the back and annoy the hell out of heroes with Arctic Burn. Now her base damage has been massively nerfed in the last two balance patches, where it now goes from -3 to 2. This is, of course, to balance the fact that Universal heroes get damage from all three attributes. But that can make the early levels difficult in lane. However, Winter Wyvern’s main damage comes from the fact that Arctic Burn deals 10% current HP as damage per second, which makes her a very strong right clicker against tanky heroes. And Winter’s Curse makes her good against any of the zoo heroes, of whom some are commonly picked in this meta. So while not a first pick in every game, Winter Wyvern will continue seeing some play as a core this patch.
(taken from Dota 2 Wiki)
Honorable Mentions
Underlord (Pick rate: 12.81%; Win rate 50.00%)
Death Prophet (Pick rate: 2.24%; Win rate 51.83%)
As mentioned before, there will be a slight shift in the status quo in all lanes due to the release of Dota 2 patch 7.33d. But the patch hit the heroes most popular in professional games, which didn’t seem to be doing too well in pub games anyways. So there’s a good chance that these heroes that have made the list for the best offlane pub heroes may continue to stake their claim as the best ones moving ahead.
