We look at the top 5 performing facets in the mid lane from the last week of games on Dota 2 patch 7.36.

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Innate abilities and facets may have seemed overwhelming when they first arrived with Dota 2 patch 7.36, but by and large, most players seemed to have adapted well to them in the short time.

A few days ago, the third balance patch following the release of the main patch – Dota 2 patch 7.36c – was released, which brought in a few nerfs before the Riyadh Masters. Here, we take a look at five facets which have been performing the best in the mid lane for the last seven days of games in pubs.

The facets have been picked as the best performing ones from the Immortal bracket. This data is as per Dotabuff. The choice of facets has been made from a combination of facets with high win rates with at least 1000 games played in the last week. Analyzing facets is a bit tricky, as a facet having a high win rate does not necessarily translate to it being one of the best in the game. It could always be a case of a strong hero with the preferred facet.

Visage – Sepulchre (Games: 2131, Win rate: 57.28%)
Facet pick rate in pubs for the past week: 86.06%

Visage is not the easiest hero to play, but once you gain a bit of mastery with him, can be a force to reckon with from the mid lane. Sepulchre is popular because it improves two abilities – Grave Chill and Summon Familiars. Grave Chill gets a small 250 AoE to it, which is nice, especially in clustered team fights. But the major allure of this facet is that Visage can recall his Familiars from anywhere with a 4 second delay, and it has no cooldown. So if Summon Familiars is on cooldown, Visage now has another way to save his Familiars besides Stone Form. That prevents additional gold going into the coffers of the enemy, as well as the hero having his summons for more of the game.

Broodmother – Necrotic Webs (Games 2201: , Win rate: 55.11%)
Facet pick rate in pubs for the past week: 56.25%

Necrotic Webs reduces the health regeneration of enemies, and that includes regen from a Tango, Healing Salve, Bottle as well as Water Rune! Playing against an aggressive hero in the mid lane, having your HP regen stunted can be a major handicap.

Tiny – Crash Landing (Games : 11635, Win rate: 54.72%)
Facet pick rate in pubs for the past week: 60.54%

Mid Tiny picks usually play the tempo controlling role, making moves early game to make space for the carry. This role usually aims at bursting down the target with the Avalanche-Toss combo, followed by Tree Throw if necessary. The additional Toss damage from Crash Landing can be the deciding factor on whether a Tiny gank to the side lanes is successful or not, and can alter the direction in which the game is going.

Ember Spirit – Double Impact (Games: 11380 , Win rate: 53.73%)
Facet pick rate in pubs for the past week: 81.08%

This is straight up more last hitting potential and more damage in team fights. Double Impact always hits the closest target with the second sleight shot with reduced damage, so you can position yourself accordingly, especially during the laning stage.

Phoenix – Dying Light (Games: 1844, Win rate: 53.57%)
Facet pick rate in pubs for the past week: 79.94%

Phoenix isn’t really a popular mid hero, but Dying Light makes him a viable one. Dying Light combined with Radiance does a heck of a lot of AoE damage, and with Phoenix sacrificing health for using his spells, he’s never really at full HP. Also, Radiance continues to deal burn damage when Supernova is activated, which is an added bonus of the mid Radiance build on Phoenix with Dying Light as the facet.

Honorable Mentions

Arc Warden – Disorder (Games: 3329, Win rate: 57.28%)
Lone Druid – Bear with Me (Games: 1959, Win rate: 56%)
Earth Spirit – Resonance (Games: 1357, Win rate: 53.21%)

Arc Warden has the highest win rate, but only makes the honourable mentions as he is not really a hero that does well in the lower tiers of Dota 2 pubs.

As the meta settles down after the shakeup from the release of Dota 2 patch 7.36c, GosuGamers will take a look at which heroes are performing the best in each of the five roles.

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Top 5 mid lane facets from the last week of Dota 2 pubs