Omniknight has been on the sidelines for a long time. But with the buffs in Dota 2 patch 7.37, he has the potential to be a strong meta hero.
Image:Valve Software
More often than not, a new Dota 2 patch shakes up the strong and weak heroes. The most recent patch to brace the game was Dota 2 patch 7.37, which was necessary after seeing a concentrated set of heroes dominate the professional scene for the few weeks before its release. As expected, the patch has stirred up things a little, bringing with it 21 new innate abilities and 10 new facets.
Other than introducing new innate abilities and facets and fine tuning the old ones, there were a lot of hero changes in patch 7.37, leading to a list of winners and losers amongst the heroes. One of the biggest winners is the forgotten Omniknight, who possibly had the longest changelog that included majority buffs. According to Dotabuff, ever since the patch dropped, his win rate has increased from 48% to 51% and stayed there. And these are just the early days of the patch. As more players become aware of his strengths, the pick rates and win rates are bound to increase a bit more. The hero is already being utilized to his best potential in the top tier of Dota 2 pubs, with Stratz showing a 55.5% win rate for Omniknight in the Divine and Immortal brackets.
(taken from Dotabuff)
So what has made Purist Thunderwrath a strong hero again in Dota 2 patch 7.37? The buffs to three of his skills – Purification (which is through Omni’s reworked Aghanim’s Shard), Repel and Guarding Angel. Let’s take a look at how each buff will impact his gameplay, with an emphasis on the healing potential.
Purification
- Now upgraded with Aghanim's Shard. After a 3s delay, the target is Purified again with 75% effectiveness
The switching of the Aghanim’s Shard from Repel to Purification is a twofold buff – first because of the increased healing, which is the obvious one, but second because Repel now has the previous Shard effect innately included in it.
But coming to the healing, this is almost two Purifications in a 3 second period, which makes it very hard to bring down a target, especially being close to the hero receiving the Purification heal, as it also does an equal amount of pure damage to anyone in the vicinity.
Omniknight’s new Shard can have the highest impact in the mid game, so buying the Shard at 15 minutes or ensuring the team takes the Tormentor right at the 20 minute mark is the way to go. It increases the level 4 Purification base heal without any heal amplification from 300 to 525. There is a caveat, which is this comes in two heal packages – the first one a 300 HP heal and the second one a 225 HP heal 3 seconds later.
Repel
- Now provides 60% magic resistance
- Cooldown increased from 45/40/35/30s to 55/50/45/40s
- Aghanim's Shard upgrade removed
When Repel was brought back in place of Heavenly Grace, it was a big nerf to Omniknight, as Heavenly Grace was his best ability for a while paired with the fact that Repel was weak. The old Repel (many years ago, before Heavenly Grace) emulated the old BKB, where it would totally prevent any magic damage to the hero on whom it was used. But with debuff immunity separated from magic damage, the new Repel provided no protection against magic damage unless you spent 1400 gold and got the Aghanim’s Shard to get 60% magic resistance. Now that it has been included in the base ability, it should help a lot in the early game, especially during the laning stage.
Guardian Angel
- Changed from Unit Target ability to Point Target ability. Now applies Guardian Angel to all allied units in a 400 radius
- No longer has 2 charges
- Cast Range decreased from 900 to 600
- Cooldown increased from 70/60/50s to 110/100/90s
- Mana Cost increased from 100/150/200 to 125/175/225
- Aghanim's Scepter upgrade reworked. Now provides a global cast range, increased radius, and allows it to affects buildings. Also amplifies health regeneration and incoming heals by 100% for the duration. Scepter Radius: 700
Is the new Guardian Angel as good as the old AoE one? No. Mostly because that one literally had a global effect with Aghanim’s Scepter. However, this is better than the single target Guardian Angel which didn’t last too long.
But the new addition to the skill which makes it better than any of the previous iterations in one aspect is the 100% amplification on health regeneration and healing. This aspect increases the survival potential of the Guardian Angel receiving hero significantly, especially if the hero already has a high HP regen.
Healing Potential
Finally, we come to the best part of the resurgent Omniknight – the healing numbers! The table below shows the healing numbers for a number of scenarios, and they are absolutely insane! With just an Aghanim’s Shard and Holy Locket, the hero can provide a 682.5 HP heal every 12 seconds (9 seconds with the level 20 talent). This by itself is an immense amount of healing, especially if it is around the 20 minute mark.
While playing the hero as a support, it isn’t easy to get to an Aghanim’s Scepter. But if you are able to do that, the heal with the Guardian Angel buff can shoot all the way up to 1050. But we’re not done yet! At level 25, Omniknight has a +160 Purification Damage/Heal talent, with which you can peak at 1610 heal! In the late game, even a fully farmed Centaur Warrunner or Primal Beast have around 5000-5500 HP. A 1610 HP heal is like 30% more effective HP (EHP), and the impact is even more profound for agility and intelligence heroes.
A thing to keep in mind is that heal amplification does not increase over 100%, so when Guardian Angel is cast on a hero, the heal will be amplified by 100% (twice the heal), but Holy Locket will have no impact on the heal. For that matter, no other heal amplification will have an impact on the heal value. But Guardian Angel is available for only a small part of the game, and when it is not in use, Holy Locket and even the tier 3 neutral item Paladin’s Sword will come in handy to amp up those heals.
The natural enemy of all this healing is of course, Spirit Vessel. The good thing about Omniknight is that he has a built in counter to that in the form of Repel. Repel will dispel Soul Release (Spirit Vessel’s active) as well as prevent it from being cast on the ally hero, which should ensure the heals are as potent as possible.
Role
The heal dominated Omniknight is better in the position 4 or position 5 support role, but he can’t be ruled out as an offlaner. In the position 3 role, Omni can have more farm priority which will help him get items like Aghanim’s Shard and Aghanim’s Scepter much earlier in the game. Of course, in a core role, the hero is also expected to deal some damage with the only skill that got nerfed in patch 7.37, Hammer of Purity. But that can be done while keeping allies healthy.
The meta around Dota 2 patch 7.37 is still changing and open to interpretation. Players are still learning the ins and outs of the patch and experimenting with a lot of different heroes, so nothing is set in concrete. But the early signs indicate that Omniknight should see a decent amount of play this patch after being ignored for the last few patches. Hopefully, we get to see some amazing save plays from Purist Thunderwrath in Copenhagen at The International 2024 (TI13).
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