We take a look at what hard supports are making waves in the meta evolving around Dota 2 patch 7.34.
In our exploration of the strong pub heroes of the current Dota 2 meta, we looked at the best mid lane heroes, the best carries, offlaners and position 4 supports. Finally, we arrive at the hard supports, or the position 5 heroes.
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. Dota 2 patch 7.34d was released recently, which will affect the strength of these heroes.
Treant Protector (Pick rate: 16.95%, Win rate: 56.40%)
Treant Protector blows everyone else out of the water when it comes to both, pick rate and win rate. Rooftrellen has been a strong support in the position 5 role, and the reasons are similar to his popularity in the position 4 role. He can be aggressive or defensive in lane, depending on who he is playing with and what the opposition heroes in lane are. The difference in potion 4 and position 5 is the farm priority, which will affect when Treat gets his Blink Dagger. While playing hard support, Treant may forgo items like Solar Crest to get a relatively early Blink Dagger.
Io (Pick rate: 4.73%, Win rate: 53.80%)
Slow resistance was introduced as a concept in Dota 2 patch 7.34, and Io’s tether was changed to provide 30% slow resistance instead of spell amplification. Now this may be bad for heroes like Leshrac, but for a lot of carries who get kited without BKB, this is a great buff! Carries that pair well with Io and are strong in the meta include Chaos Knight, Gyrocopter, Sven and Troll Warlord. Sven gets 30% slow resistance with God’s Strength, so with his ultimate active and Io tethered to him, that’s a 51% slow resistance! This is all on top of the 12% movement speed buff Io provides (18% with the level 15 talent). The Wisp is bound to be a popular hero at The International 2023 (TI12).
Shadow Shaman (Pick rate: 4.00 %, Win rate: 52.88%)
Shadow Shaman has been out of the meta for a while, and IceFrog has been trying to bring him back with the last few patches. Shaman received a lot of buffs in patch 7.33 and patch 7.34, one of the most significant ones being the 20% damage amplification that comes with Hex. Also, the Hex cast range was increased from 500 to 550 in patch 7.34c, which is a massive boost for Shaman to disable enemy heroes. Shackles has a cast range of 450, and while pursuing an enemy hero, the sequence of skill usage is always Hex followed by Shackles as the Hex is about to end. That now has a major boost.
In addition to all this, Shadow Shaman has an amazing Shard, which has been a big part of the popularity for supports ever since patch 7.33 arrived and a free Shard has become available for one of the supports at 20 minutes from the Tormentor.
Oracle (Pick rate: 5.59%, Win rate: 53.23%)
The only buff to Oracle in patch 7.34 was the increased Purifying Flames heal. But his allure comes from the change in patch 7.33, in which Rain of Destiny was moved from his Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade to his Aghanim’s Shard upgrade. According to Dotabuff, Aghanim’s Shard is Oracle’s second most used item from the past month of pub games, which isn’t a surprise as it increases his team fight output significantly.
Vengeful Spirit (Pick rate: 13.94%, Win rate: 51.39%)
Vengeful’s popularity as a position 5 support, like Treat, is for all the same reasons as her popularity as a potion 4 support. In both cases, Aghanim’s Shard and Aghanim’s Scepter are the two major items to get. The difference in the two positions will be the farm priority and the average time at which an item is purchased by the hero.
Honorable Mentions
Warlock (Pick rate: 16.41%, Win rate: 48.04%)
Nature’s Prophet (Pick rate: 6.39%, Win rate: 51.87%)
Jakiro (Pick rate: 7.56%, Win rate: 51.38%)
That brings us to the end of the top 5 heroes in pubs series. A lot of the heroes that are popular in pubs right now will be ones that we will see when the best in the business battle for the Aegis in Seattle in less than a week.
