We take a look at what offlane heroes are making waves in the meta evolving around Dota 2 patch 7.34.
The offlane position is a very interesting one in Dota 2, as it changes not just heroes, but also the type of heroes, with the meta. It can be aura carries like Doom and Underlord, it can be zoo heroes like Beastmaster and Visage and in some metas, like the one on which TI8 was played, you can have a secondary carry playing through the offlane.
Dota 2 patch 7.34 is no different, with the patch bringing in big changes in the position 3 role. A lot of the heroes seen in recent previous patches, like Doom and Beastmaster, have lost popularity in pubs while others like Dawnbreaker and Earthshaker are making waves. We looked at which mid and carry heroes have been dominating top tier pubs in the first month of Dota 2 patch 7.34. Here, we look at the best offlane heroes to play to gain some MMR.
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 7.34 only. The choice of heroes has been made from a combination of high pick rate and high win rate heroes.
Dawnbreaker (Pick rate: 21.34%, Win rate: 52.23%)
The one change in Dota 2 patch 7.34 that has made Dawnbreaker a strong hero again is the Solar Guardian landing stun going through debuff immunity. One of the best uses of that in the professional scene was in nouns’ North American TI12 qualifier game against B8, in which Luke “YamSun” Wang’s Dawnbreaker disrupted Danil “Dendi” Ishutin’s mid Witch Doctor multiple times when he was channeling Death Ward with BKB active. Now, that doesn’t mean it is just strong against channeling heroes. A 1.8 second stun against any opposition core who is wanting to maximize their damage output while having used BKB is an advantage. To add to that, the small buffs to her armor and Starbreaker cast point have made her laning stage stronger.
Earthshaker (Pick rate: 14.45%, Win rate: 52.86%)
Earthshaker’s popularity in the offlane is for the same reasons as the mid lane. Maxing out Enchant Totem makes him an extremely strong laner. The skill builds and item builds are similar for the most part, except an offlaner Earthshaker won’t go for a Bottle into Power Treads. Arcane Boots are the choice of boots in the position 3 role, after which it is the standard Blink Dagger into Aghanim’s Scepter path. There is also an option to go either Soul Ring or Falcon Blade into Power Treads, but Bottle is definitely not something that is favored for an offlane Earthshaker.
Slardar (Pick rate: 7.70%, Win rate: 52.16%)
Slardar has been sidelined for a long time, and patch 7.34 was one in which he finally got some love from IceFrog with major buffs to his laning stage. The additional puddle duration at early levels of Slithereen Crush and the Bash of the Deep attack damage in water makes it really difficult to trade against him in the lane, especially if the position 4 hero has a stun as well.
The current meta also has Phantom Assassin, who almost always builds Desolator and Dazzle, who reduces armor, as popular heroes. Slardar works well with them in an armor reduction strategy, which works great against tanky strength meta heroes like Primal Beast and Sven. The Slithereen Guard is also a great hero to snatch an early Roshan with Corrosive Haze, but to be fair, that isn’t new – he’s always been good at that!
(taken from Dota 2 Wiki)
Brewmaster (Pick rate: 10.33%, Win rate: 51.64%)
Brewmaster has actually had more nerfs thrown his way than buffs in patch 7.34, bringing him down to Earth after getting the Universal attribute buff in patch 7.33. But Dotabuff shows that Brewmaster is a great counter against meta carries like Muerta, Terrorblade, Troll Warlord and Ursa. Using Cyclone against a Muerta with Pierce the Veil active or Troll Warlord when he pops Battle Trance can be massively turn the tides in a team fight. But Brew is one of the heroes that has a high skill cap, and his win rate is below average for the lower ranks. You need to have a good idea of all the abilities of the brewlings and how and when to use them to have a good impact with Brewmaster.
Kunkka (Pick rate: 2.68%, Win rate: 54.72%)
There are two major changes to Kunkka that have made him popular – Torrent Storm becoming a targeted ability and Torrent slowing down enemies when they walk on the AoE after the Torrent has triggered. The slow duration is 4 seconds when the ability is maxed out, so anyone walking on the AoE for 4 seconds after the Torrent triggers gets slowed by 40%. Now imagine that with Torrent Storm! It’s like walking in a patch of quicksand.
(taken from Dota 2 Wiki)
Because of these two buffs, Aghanim’s Scepter has become Kunkka’s used item in pubs for the last month, according to Dotabuff. The first two are Phase Boots and Bracer, for as far as major item goes, it is the most popular item for Kunkka. Torrent also gets additional stun and AoE with the level 15 and level 20 talents respectively, which is all the better.
(taken from Dotabuff)
Dota 2 analyst Bowie definitely seems to think the Admiral is a great way to earn MMR right now!
Honorable Mentions
Legion Commander (Pick rate: 18.11%, Win rate: 50.04%)
Primal Beast (Pick rate: 8.55%, Win rate: 50.02%)
Lycan (Pick rate: 1.83%, Win rate: 53.30%)
That wraps up all the core positions! In the next few days, GosuGamers will take a look at the best supports in pubs for both, the position 4 and position 5 roles.
