Dota 2: Let’s take a look at some meta in the Kuala Lumpur Major qualifiers

The changes of 7.19b and 7.19c allowed several new metas to appear. Although the pub side still takes a long time to get used to, the pro players have adapted very quickly. This can hardly be called innovative, as the vast majority of teams picked the “next good hero” after the post-TI update, which is likely to appear in the upcoming Kuala Lumpur Major.

POPULAR HEROES

Tiny, Io, Weaver, Silencer and Necrophos was the most competitive hero in the qualifiers, achieving a competitive rate of over 80%. More interestingly, no hero has a competitive rate above 85%, compared to the 5 heroes at TI. Perhaps this patch is more balanced, or the teams are still adapting and experimenting, but in general this is a good sign.

All five of the most competitive heroes get ban priority – they get banned more than they get picked. This is true for the top 20 most competitive heroes, except Earthshaker, Mirana and Phoenix – heroes that are played very often.

Earthshaker, Tiny and Weaver is the most popular pick, although both heroes get banned a lot. Earthshaker was one of the most popular and successful heroes at TI8 that didn’t get nerfed after: Aghanim’s Scepter Enchant Totem cannot be used while rooted, other than that everything remains the same, more and more people are discovering the strengths of ES.

Io, Weaver and Necrophos was the most banned hero in the qualifiers. While Io seems to be banned by default in the vast majority of games in the international arena, especially when the meta is still unstable, Weaver and Necrophos have some interesting points as they have been nerfed quite heavily in the last two patches. , but is still selected. Also, these are the strongest heroes in the laning phase.

Controlling the laning phase doesn’t equate to victory, but it’s frustrating when you’re constantly harassed by heroes with good turrets and easy escapes. Again, there are no major changes to the meta, pro players often ban heroes that are annoying and difficult to deal with.

THE SUCCESS OF THE HERO

Now, we come to the most interesting part of the debate – how often are the heroes chosen by pro players succeed. It should be noted that the game size is quite small and does not cover everything that happens in the professional arena, nor use it to apply to pubs – there is a clear difference in how the match plays out between a pub game highest level and a professional competitive game.

HERO IS POPULAR BUT LOTS A LOT

First of all, the pros still value Specter, even though the hero has a win rate of only 35% in 60 games. Desolate is no longer effective every now and then, due to range increased which means Specter to lose 50, 100 (Haunt illusion) or 200 (Haunt + ball from Manta Style) pure damage from every arm attack this hero can cut.

Specter is now a pick that makes teammates worry more than hope, especially in the professional arena, when all combinations are at a higher level.

Enchantress is in a similar situation – the hero has only won 37.14% of the 35 games and given the amount of nerfs the hero has received, we are quite surprised that Enchantress has been picked so much. The article predicts that these two heroes will become less popular from here on, as long as there are no new changes in the game.

The third most popular hero with a low win rate is Dark Willow, but the hero performed well and was still profitable: she won almost 40% of the 53 games. Dark Willow’s popularity will gradually decrease, but one or two talented players will sometimes help the hero shine and that will cause the hero to be nerfed again. And then, perhaps only those who are loyal to Dark Willow will really pick in Pub. It’s all up to you if you feel you should invest the time to learn this hero.

HERO STABLE

Drow Rangers, Terrorblade and Io has been picked more than 35 times and is very successful in his game. Drow Ranger is one of the best heroes at TI, is used extremely well by North American teams and it looks like Drow will be nerfed in the future – a win rate of close to 70% in 35 games is a good number . Drow Ranger used to be at the top with Specter and Wraith King at TI.

Terrorblade is very strong right now – when Specter was heavily nerfed, TB became king of the late game. The 62.79% win rate in 43 games is an impressive number, but probably won’t be nerfed unless the trend continues.

Finally, we have Io, the hero that doesn’t need much discussion. This hero is a condition to help the team win in the support position and can make the already strong carry or hero that dominate the game even stronger.

HERO DEPENDS ON MATCH SITUATION

Ax, Tinker and Faceless Void are new faces in the meta and all three of these heroes have won over 65% of their games, with at least 15 uses.

We already saw how strong Ax was at The International, but both Tinker and Faceless Void are returning to the pro scene as strong late game cores. Tinker is currently quite happy with Specter’s disappearance and weakness, as Specter is one of the best heroes against Tinker, while Faceless Void is fairly balanced: when playing a carry safelane or a useful offlane core.

We need to mention that the current laning meta makes Faceless Void stand out much more, because 2v2 is actually better. Because in the offlane, there is a high probability that Void will face a weaker opponent, focusing on farming more, so Void will have less difficulty in farming.

EPILOGUE

Both Wraith King and Specter were nerfed leaving huge holes and we’ve already seen new heroes vying for the title of strongest hero in the game. That makes the hero pool much more diverse, especially in pubs, since there are no heroes that are now classified as “must be picked” in the game.

From here, we expect heroes to become more diverse, with more support heroes: core players now have more options, and with the meta shaping up to accept more carries. Meanwhile, support is still limited to the dominant heroes in the lane – heroes who can do something in the early minutes and take control of the lane.

According to Dotabuff