Death Prophet is slowly reviving the turret push meta

Death Prophet is dominating the meta in recent tournaments, including the GESC Minor, where the hero is the second most picked and the most picked during the initial pick phase. In the previous Bucharest Major, DP was the second most competitive hero after Razor, who was nerfed in patch 7.10. Death Prophet rose to prominence in the meta thanks to a series of buffs since patch 7.00 and general changes in the meta.

PASSING PAST BUFFs and NERFs

Exorcism had a 100 second cooldown in patch 6.80, and then TI4 hit. Then 6.82c increased this ultimate by 45%, making it 145 seconds. This is just one of the changes in the meta to keep the power of Death Prophet down. T1 turrets add the Fortification ability to be reset every time they break. Turrets not only increase hero armor aura, Fortification now also protects lane creeps. Everything that isn’t heroic becomes stronger. while Death Prophet takes almost 2 and a half minutes of cooldown on his ultimate, so the hero becomes less impactful.

While Exorcism can’t be used as often to push turrets, it has become more powerful – ghost deals more damage and duration increased from 30 to 35 seconds – along with stats and Death Prophet’s other move. DP to lose Witchcraft but gain Spirit Siphone. Although Death Prophet is no longer as powerful with just a few simple items, this hero has a higher lane value. With skill sets becoming more important in patch 7.07 when the amount of XP the enemy gets from denied creeps is reduced from 70% to 25%.

Changing the amount of XP gained on creeps saw a strong return of mid heroes. Death Prophet and Razor have the ability to repel the opponent thanks to the skill set (link) with that hero, thereby gaining an advantage in denying. DP can apply pressure on turrets without Exorcism. With Spirit Siphon, Death Prophet is a formidable threat while waiting for the ultimate to run out of cooldown. Spirit Siphon is so dangerous that Blink Dagger is sometimes on his build list.

Death Prophet becomes powerful over time. From 7.05 to 7.06, Hero’s Strength gain increased from 1.9 to 2.6. Then, in 7.07, base health increased from 0.5 to 2.0 and level 15 and 20 talents were reworked for +1% of max health drain per second with Spirit Siphone and +500 Health. Death Prophet doesn’t need a lot of buffoons, especially when he’s the hero leading the turret push.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDYxbovnBNM

POSITION OF DEATH PROPHET IN PUBS

The current competitive meta is lane-focused and pacing takes advantage of this. Death Prophet not only dominates in lane, he also appears in teamfight and is a bulldozer to push the highground. This skill build and item should be applied to the pub meta, but this month, DP only has a 48% win rate, which is quite low compared to GESC: Indonesia (66%) and Bucharest (62%).

The overwhelming meta in lane should show up in pubs and pros more, but getting the turret push meta early will become more difficult. Death Prophet no longer “presses R to win” in pubs. And the current game is hard to push the lane early and win in the first 10 minutes like in TI4, but this strategy is still applied somewhat. With what DreamLeague Minor just happened, it seems that Death Prophet will continue to be present.