Dota 2: Five heroes should be nerfed before TI10

Dota 2 patch 7.29 has been with us for a long time. Starting with DPC Leagues Season 2, 7.29 was used at WePlay AniMajor (Kyiv Major), ESL One Summer and TI10 qualifiers. A total of 1741 pro games took place in update 7.29. While the meta hasn’t changed significantly during that time, the game has always had some heroes overpowered, especially as teams gradually get to grips with the meta.

With the hope that Dota 2 will get a new patch before TI10, let’s take a look at the five heroes that should have been nerfed before The International to hopefully stop sweeping the upcoming tournament.

The list is compiled from 569 games of WePlay AniMajor, ESL Onee Summer, TI10 qualifiers, because these are the most recent tournaments using patch 7.29. These tournaments roughly represent the current meta after the balance updates have been released.

1. Ancient Apparition

Competitive Rate: 70.30%, Pick: 143, Ban: 257, Win Rate: 55.24%

Ancient Apparition was the most competitive support in the later stages of patch 7.29. Traditionally, AA was seen as a counter-pick thanks to Ice Blast. Heroes like Alchemist, Huskar and Morphling are unplayable if hit by Ice Blast repeatedly. But in patch 7.29, AA became the first pick in the draft due to the power of Aghanim’s Shard.

Shard helps Ice Vortex deal 40 DPS and reduce attack speed by 20. With a skill that has a 4-second cooldown and a recent buff reducing manacost from 85 to 70, it allows AA to spam Ice Vortex around the area of ​​the fight. It can be used to cancel blinks from initiating heroes like Earthshaker or Sand King. And yet, Ice Vortex also reduces magic resistance and movement speed by 30% (36% with level 20 talent). AA does not require too many items to be effective, ie when playing in position 5, the hero can save gold to get to Aghanim’s Shard at 20 minutes. If you want AA to weaken a bit, then Ice Vortex damage and have Maybe even the cooldown should be nerfed.

2. Broodmother

Competitive Rate: 66.26%, Pick: 46, Ban: 331, Win Rate: 60.87%

Banned 331 times (including 242 in the first pick/ban), Broodmother is the most banned hero out of 569 games across the three tournaments, and teams have good reason to do so. Broodmother has completely changed since being remade in Dota 2 patch 7.29. With Spawn Spiderlings turned into ultimate, Brood is no longer a ‘win lane and snowball, or lose’ hero.

With the new Broodmother, the baby spider no longer exerts pressure in the laning phase, but the hero has a much better laning thanks to Spin Web and Insatiable Hunger. Hero can trade hits very well with carries, helping Broodmother return to the offlane position after years of vacancy. At level 6, Brood gains a ‘power spike’ due to the presence of a baby spider. Brood can build items like Greaves and Pipe to help the spiders survive. With the extra damage from Silken Bola, the baby spider will deal massive damage to enemy heroes. Even Solar Crest targeting enemies alone helps each baby spider perform better.

Even the balance patch nerfed Broodmother, the hero is still one of the most dangerous names in the game. Broodmother’s laning phase nerf will make the hero a more ‘situational’ pick (depending on the game’s draft), instead of being the first pick as it is now.

3. Invoker

Competitive Rate: 52.20%, PicK: 94, Ban: 203, Win Rate: 61.70%

Invoker’s biggest buff in patch 7.29 is the increase in stats for Quas (strength), Wex (agility) and Exort (intelligence), instead of +2 stats per level like other heroes. Most heroes +2 stats after maxing out skills, first point for stats starts at level 17. So even if the stats get almost the same (Invoker has two extra two). in each stat), Invoker has had the advantage right from level 1! This makes Inovker stronger in the early game, especially the laning phase. Be it Quax-Wex Inovker or Exort Invoker, the hero still has to get a few levels of Quas in the early game – this makes Invoker hard to kill in the laning phase.

Out of the 25 most competitive heroes in these 569 games, Invoker has the second highest win rate, losing only to Terrorblade. Starting to gain popularity after Nigma’s Miracle played well at the WePlay AniMajor, Invoker was then heavily used in the TI10 qualifiers (or was banned significantly for its apparent strength). The problem is that, in the past, if players followed the Exort route, it would take you a long time to ‘online’, and if you followed Quax-Wex, the hero would lag behind due to lack of farm. Miracle overcomes this problem by going to Hand of Midas via Quas-Wex after completing Spirit Vessel – this allows him to farm better. IceFrog will definitely come up with a way to reduce Invoker’s early game stat advantage. Is it possible to only +1 stats in the first three levels of Quas, Wex, Exort and +3 for the next three? This change will balance Invoker more.

4. Templar Assassin

Competitive Rate: 64.32%, Pick: 112, Ban: 254, Win Rate: 54.46%

Templar Assassin has always been one of the most dangerous heroes of patch 7.29. That’s probably the big reason why OG won the right to attend TI10. Sumail “SumaiL” Hassans’ TA made Tundra Esports salad in the last two games of the Western European Qualifier Finals.

Templar Assassin is a snowball hero, need to get Blink Dagger and Desolator at the right time, otherwise it will be very weak. However, teams like NoPing Esports and OG show that the new TA doesn’t necessarily play in the mid, and can be effective in the safe lane carry as well. With patch 7.29, the hero is buffed to Meld, in terms of mana cost and cooldown and increased damage. TA’s recently discovered weapon is Aghanim’s Scepter, which allows the hero to bypass the Blink Dagger. The green stick helps TA play like Specter – keep pushing lane or jungling, then appear in teamfights when it breaks out. What the team needs to do is fight near the placed Psionic Trap. It’s perfect for teamfights in Roshan, not to mention creating vision in the Roshan pit. The green cane can also be used like Ember Spirit’s Remant – place a trap in the lane or jungle, go home to heal or get an item, and then come back.

TA is not very hot at the beginning of the meta, despite being buffed in patch 7.29. That makes IceFrog buff this hero again in patch 7.29b! Templar Assassin is now one of the most competitive and feared heroes in the meta, so it will definitely be nerfed in the next patch.

5. Terrorblade

Competitive Rate: 63.44%, Pick: 125, Ban: 2236, Win Rate: 62.40%

The last hero on this list with the highest win rate out of the 25 most competitive heroes is Terrorblade!

Patch 7.29 both buffs and grants TB. And like TA, Terrorblade wasn’t on the original strong hero list, so IceFrog added TB buffs in 7.29b as well as 7.29c. Thanks to the small buffs that continued in many of those patches, plus the improved green stick and effective Aghanim’s Shard, it helped TB get into the initial pick. Usually, the teams that are picked first, who are also the last picked in the first ban/pick, will pick TB as the second hero and ban Phantom Lancer, Dark Seer, Naga Siren – the quintessence of TB.

Among the heroes picked more than 20 times, Terrorblade has the highest average GPM, at 750 GPM (gold per minute). Maybe this is the TB part that should be nerfed a bit.

Other names worth mentioning:

Puck (Competition rate: 73.11%, Pick: 132, Ban: 284, Win rate: 52.27%)
Nyx Assassin (Competition rate: 68.01%, Pick: 141, Ban: 198, Win rate: 58.16%)
Timbersaw (Competition rate: 73.46%, Pick: 118, Ban: 300, Win rate: 53.39%)

According to gosugamers

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