We look at the top 5 performing facets for support heroes from the last week of pub games on Dota 2 patch 7.37d.
The International 2024 (TI13) ended a while ago, and we got a balance patch in the form of Dota 2 patch 7.37d after the tournament to stir things up a little. PGL Wallachia Season 2 was played on patch 7.37d, which is now more than a couple of weeks old.
The 2024-2025 Dota 2 season is already on a roll, with two premier tournaments – BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 and DreamLeague Season 24 – lined up for the next few weeks. There seems to be no indication that Dota 2 patch 7.38 is anywhere on the horizon, and patch 7.37d is here to stay for a while. With that in mind, let’s take a look at which support facets have been performing the best in the last week of Dota 2 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 5000 games played in the last week. While the win rate of a facet is based on games from the Immortal bracket, the pick rate is based on all pub games. 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.
Tinker – Repair Bots (Games: 18346, Win rate: 55.49%)
Facet pick rate in pubs for the past week – 66%
Repair Bots is possibly the most nerfed facet of the last few patches, and yet, it continues to be one of the best support facets in pubs. Repair Bots is what gave Tinker his new identity as healing support, and support Tinker continues to be a strong pick in the highest tier of Dota 2 pubs.
However, with the recent nerfs, the hero has become a lot more dependent on farm to hit his most impactful level. At TI13, a lot of teams faltered with Tinker. But the one team that dominated with the hero was Cloud9. Vladislav “Kataomi`” Semenov played the hero perfectly, and the team knew how to play around Tinker, which made the hero a first phase ban against them. The farm distribution for the top 8 teams at TI13 (excluding the final 3 days of games played in the Royal Arena) shows that it required him to take a lot of farm from his teammates. His carry, Alimzhan “Watson” Islambekov , was the least farmed amongst all carries in the top 8 teams.
This shows that Tinker’s benefits come at a compromise. As long as everyone in the team is on the same page that the current Tinker requires a good amount of farm to have the highest impact, Tinker with Repair Bots is one of the best support facets in Dota 2.
Bounty Hunter – Through and Through (Games: 449 46, Win rate: 54.55%)
Facet pick rate in pubs for the past week – 63.68%
Not all of Bounty Hunter’s games are support games, but in the majority of pub games in the Immortal bracket, Gondar is picked as a support. As a support, you would think Cutpurse, which lets BH steal from his enemies when targeting them, would be more popular. But Through and Through is the winner here because it plays a massive role in team fights. When multiple heroes are Tracked and Bounty Hunter sends a Shuriken at them, it ends up doing a lot of damage pinballing around the team, while also slowing them. According to Dotabuff, in all of BH’s builds, Shuriken Toss is maxed out at level 7 in 73% of the games. Through and Through also provides a way to secure the last hit on a lane creep while harassing an opposition hero at the same time.
(taken from Dotabuff)
Lich – Growing Cold (Games: 12659, Win rate: 54.42%)
Facet pick rate in pubs for the past week – 21.26%
Lich received a substantial buff to the early levels of Frost Shield in Dota 2 patch 7.37d, which is possibly why his win rate is high for both facets. But Frost Shield directly benefits from Growing Cold, which has made this facet more popular as compared to before the release of patch 7.37d. The first level of Frost Shield, which now gives 45% damage reduction as compared to 30% before patch 7.37d, is most often skilled at level 2 according to Dotabuff. This works in two ways – it either acts as a strong barrier to damage if your core is being bullied in lane or it can be used to play more aggressively knowing that the damage reduction is higher. The latter case, in which Lich and his lane partner are likelier to get a kill, benefit a lot from Growing Cold.
Lich – Frostbound (Games: 43583, Win rate: 54.35%)
Facet pick rate in pubs for the past week – 78.74%
Frostbound has been one of the stronger facets in the game for a while now, and it was even nerfed in Dota 2 patch 7.36c. With the recent changes, the pick rate for Growing Cold has gone up slightly, but Froundbound continues to be the favoured facet for Lich.
The big takeaway is that Lich is a strong support in Dota 2 patch 7.37d, and the facet choice can be made based on the lane matchup and the opposition heroes in general. This is exactly how it should be, as opposed to how it is for a lot of heroes where one facet makes the hero playable while the other is so weak in comparison that it is barely picked.
Abaddon – Mephitic Shroud (Games: 27584, Win rate: 54.03%)
Facet pick rate in pubs for the past week – 60.03%
Like Bounty Hunter, Abaddon is also a hero that is played as a core as well as a support. But in both cases, Mephitic Shroud is the facet with the higher preference as it not only increases the damage absorbed, but also basically makes Aphotic Shield into Blade Mail. Even with the 2 seconds increased cooldown, Aphotic Shield with Mephitic Shroud is a 290 damage barrier with a cooldown of 8 seconds. Abaddon also has talents at level 10 and level 20 that bolster Aphotic Shield, which are significantly more popular than their counterparts according to Dotabuff.
Honorable Mentions
Bane – Dream Stalker (Games: 6823, Win rate: 54.24%)
Facet pick rate in pubs for the past week – 69.19%
Elder Titan – Momentum (Games: 5887, Win rate: 53.80%)
Facet pick rate in pubs for the past week – 45.43%
In the next few days, we will take a look at which core facets are performing the best in Dota 2 pubs.
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