In many ways, the professional meta for damage hasn't really changed any more than that of tanking has. There are still a few heroes that are predominant, whether in picks or bans or both. The difference for this class is that a couple heroes whose time was thought to be fading are still very prominent and a couple others had results that changed radically over the two rounds. To wit:
| Hero | Picks | Wins | Bans |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alarak | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Falstad | 15 | 10 | 2 |
| Greymane | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Gul'dan | 5 | 3 | 0 |
| Illidan | 8 | 2 | 14 |
| Jaina | 9 | 5 | 1 |
| Kael'thas | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Kerrigan | 6 | 3 | 7 |
| Li Ming | 19 | 11 | 8 |
| Lunara | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Nova | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Thrall | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Tracer | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Tychus | 24 | 8 | 7 |
| Valla | 18 | 8 | 6 |
| Zeratul | 9 | 5 | 12 |
(Not selected: Chromie, Raynor, The Butcher (and Gall, technically.))
Right away, 4 heroes pop out at you: Falstad, Li Ming, Tychus, and Valla. Between them, they had 76 of the 128 total Assassin picks. In contrast, as you might expect, they had only 23 of the 60 total bans. Clearly, those 4 were the devil that people were willing to live with, as opposed to Jack the Ripper's long lost mutant brothers: Illidan and Zeratul. The latter pair were banned in the same games by opposing teams four times and twice together by Burning Rage. Their superlative win rates when they did make it into games perhaps demonstrate why teams preferred to avoid them.
But the interesting part is the regulars that actually played in the majority of the games. Falstad, for example. It was frequently said that the Wildhammer Thane's time had passed; that the steady diet of nerfs had made him no longer top pick material. And yet he had the highest win rate of any Assassin in the tournament at 66%, with a 100% win rate in 5 games on Sky Temple, and was first pick once and second pick 6 times. Unfortunately, his talent diversity is non-existent, with 5 of 7 tiers having default picks, but we'll talk about that some other time.
The other "old timer" was Li Ming who continues to be top tier material even as the growing trend in Hero League is to ignore her in favor of banning Samuro, Malfurion, and Zarya (all understandable, to one degree or another.) With a 57% win rate, the time of the prodigy is showing no sign of fading anytime soon. Her pro level talent diversity is probably below what the devs would like, but still has some variation, including what has finally been the rise of Wave of Force over the last few months.
The popular kids
But Valla and Tychus provide the really disparate picture of ranged assassins at the pro level. Valla was redesigned to be a "high skill floor" hero and many pros raved about her since the mid-September patch that brought the changes. However, as I noted yesterday, her win rate overall tanked, as the floor was clearly set too high for the vast majority of the Heroes playerbase. Furthermore, her most prominent old talent path, focusing on Multishot, was still the dominant one. Two subsequent patches of general buffs and slight nerfs to Multishot talents have changed things marginally, but she still has default picks in 4 of 7 tiers and still mostly Multishot. Her 44% win rate in the tournament stayed pretty consistent throughout both rounds.
Tychus, OTOH, had an even more interesting path. Most of his bans came in the early rounds, but when he did manage to hit the field, he was losing. As Fenix noted a few days ago, for a character picked more times than any other Assassin so far (91% involvement), his win rate is abysmal. That win rate improved only slightly in the later matches, as opposing teams were no longer concerned about his presence and instead used him as an easy target to frequently obtain a 5v4.
The new fringes
A few other notes of interest were the presence of Gul'dan and his solid win rate. He seems to have found his niche, with some prominent casters even considering him a Tier 1 or 2 hero. In direct contrast, we are apparently truly past the age of the Sun King, as KT had exactly one appearance; the same number as Greymane, Lunara, and Nova. The latter was more of a "Let's try anything" selection by Please Buff Arthas against MVP Black and was Nova's first appearance in professional competitive play in well over a year. But the lack of Greymane might be an indicator that some adjustments need to be made to the Lord of the Worgen (again.) Seeing the continued willingness to test Alarak was encouraging and all three of his bans were clearly respect bans against MVP Black's Rich, who is positively devastating with the hero.
And, as before, we end up with the heroes who didn't appear. In this case, the ratio is much better than among the Warriors, as only 3 of 19 heroes weren't picked. Chromie and Butcher are the ranged and melee side of the same coin: they don't do anything that others don't do better or just as well and with more durability/escapability. And Raynor is kind of the middle of that coin: dependable, but not outstanding. We can only hope for that to change.
Previously: HGC Warrior play and compositions.
Next: The healers (aka Supports... but still really healers.)
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