Dota 2: Does Lone Druid Mother Bear need to be buffed?

With patch 7.18 before TI8, we are losing more and more hope for Lone Druid – the champion is among the least picked in pubs, (last is Chen), and this hero has the lowest win rate. What happened to the Lone Druid?

The meta stats show that pub players don’t know how to use Long Druid. With win rate difference of nearly 10% between the Crusader and Divine groups. This often happens with heroes that require a high level of skill to reach their full potential. That’s why Specter and Zeus are quite successful at low ranks, and why Puck and Earth Spirit often perform better in high ranks.

But the difference in win rate of Lone Druid is completely different than other heroes between high and low rank. When compared to Chen (least picked hero), there is a win rate difference of only 4% between the Crusader and Divine groups. Chen could get even stronger in patch 7.18, and his full-map healing can be used by anyone. For those willing to control multiple creeps and heroes at the same time, Chen will definitely come into play.

Lone Druid hasn’t changed much since patch 7.07 – the reworked talent set has almost eliminated ranged play. Spirit Bear was slightly buffed in 7.07 and 7.10, nearly doubling healing from 2/3/4/5 to 5/6/7/8. The meta change has affected the presence of Lone Druid.

Despite his excellent laning, Lone Druid didn’t contribute much in teamfight. While LD’s strength is pushing turrets – while still being playable late game backdoor with Aghanim’s Scepter. But now, that doesn’t matter in the current meta.

The turrets become stronger. In 7.07, “backdoor protection” increased from 25% to 40%, and all turrets get armor buffs. After that, 7.13 buffs Glyph from 5 to 6 seconds and rewards less gold from turret destruction. Barracks and ranged turrets are also buffed – more health, less gold bonus.

Also, we have other changes in the meta, like bounty runes and Roshan becoming an important early and mid game objective, where the focus shifts from turret push to map control. This does not mean that Lone Druid is useless, this hero can be fully developed depending on the lineup. Lone Druid is especially strong when on Helm of the Dominator, allowing the use of Battle Cry and siege creeps.

But it is only too effective for some Dota gamers and depends on certain cases. Valve’s fortnightly patches quickly focus on strong and weak heroes in the meta, often occurring after the Major is over. As a result, the pub suffered heavy damage. This month, Lone Druid has a 1.26% pick rate and a 37.6% win rate, but the hero is still not enough to capture Valve’s attention. Wonder what more tragedy Lone Druid will need to endure before coming back here?

According to Dotabuff