Dota 2: How to play Riki as a carry in 7.24

Patch 7.23 brought many changes to the heroes, including Riki. Before 7.23, Riki was a hero in a difficult position. Riki was then support and carry depending on the match. But with the new rework, it seems that Iceforg has decided to bring Riki back to core. This article will guide you how to play and effectively use this hero.

Since this change, we have seen more and more picks for Riki in both the pro and pub arenas. Previously, Riki was considered too greedy when picking support, now the hero is the core in team fight.

In this article, we will analyze Riki’s strengths in the new core role.

PATCH 7.23 HOW RIKI CHANGES

The biggest change is obviously the ultimate Cloak and Dagger. This pushes Riki out of the support position. Previously, the hero could roam in position 4 and help the team around the map as well as hunt couriers instantly.

With this change, the hero must stay in the lane because there is no reason to leave when your Riki is not invisible. Riki is also not an effective lane harasser without stealth, so his playstyle is forced to change to cores.

Another big change lies in the charges for Blink Strike. It helps the hero to effectively escape and initiate teamfights. Riki is a low health hero, so if caught and disabled, you will most likely die. Charge allows you to link into combat, and if things don’t go as planned, you still have a charge to blink away. Or you can use two charges to blink further.

Tricks of the Trade is now the base move. It makes Riki uncapable while continuing to deal damage to units in range. This is a welcome change as it is a useful skill for Riki to hide, initiate combat, and survive.

RIKI IN PRO GAMES

Recent major tournaments are DreamLeague 13 and Tug of War: Mad Moon.

In DreamLeague, Riki scored 1-2, and in Tug of War it was 3-1.

In all of these games, Riki is played in the safe lane carry.

In Tug of War, all three games Riki won were used by Gambit Esports at the hands of dream` and he had a total of 40 kills, 8 deaths, 22 assists in 3 games.

In DreamLeague, Riki was played by TNC.gabbi in one game, losing even though statistically 6-4-2. In the other two games, EG.Arteezy lost 1 with statistics of 3-8-4 and won 1 with statistics of 6-1-10.

Riki is not a meta hero yet, but is slowly gaining popularity. Riki has barely been picked up in the pro scene for years. Now, in just two tournaments, the hero has been picked 7 times in the new meta. Riki is also only picked to play carry and maybe this will be the new role of the hero.

RIKI IN PUB

According to Dotabuff’s meta page when ranked by the win rate of safe lane heroes in Divine/Immortal rank, Riki ranks 11th. When you remove supports from the list, Riki ranks 6. Hero win rate is 53.28% with pick rate is 7.02%.

These are welcome numbers if you are a fan of Riki. Hero is now a popular safe lane carry and is in the top 6 with the highest win rate.

HOW TO UP ITEM

The most popular item for Riki is still the Diffusal Blade. After that, players usually go to Skull Basher, but that’s a thing of the past. Battlefury, Manta Style, and Sange and Yasha are growing in popularity.

In Riki’s item section, the item with the highest win rate appearing in over 50,000 matches is Manta Style, with a win rate of 67.31%. This is an item that helps dispell and escape so that Riki can survive longer in team fights. This means more Smoke Cloud, higher damage and allows teammates more time to work.

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR RIKIK GAMES

Here are some tips for playing Riki:

1. If you are surrounded by an opponent while using Tricks of the Trade, don’t wait until the skill duration ends. Enemies will try to time when your ability’s duration runs out to cast their skills. Therefore, you need to take the initiative first and use Tricks of the Trade unexpectedly to make your opponent react instead of letting it happen as they planned. You can go out or Blink Strike when the opponent has an opening.
2. Blink Dagger is also not a bad item. It allows you to blink away during Tricks of the Trade, similarly the Outworld Devourer can blink away after Astral ends. It also allows you to choose the +0.8 Backstab Multiplier talent (which has a 0.5% higher win rate) instead of +600 Blink Strike Cast Range, to not lose synchronicity and get more damage. Players can shorten the distance to reach the opponent’s support with Blink Dagger.
3. Place Smoke Cloud at the edge of the direction the opponent will have to go through to maximize it. If the opponent goes south, place the Smoke Cloud on the south side of the opponent. This forces them to travel the furthest distance to exit the Cloud or go in a direction they don’t want to go.
4. Always hunting! Riki snowball thanks to ganking. Try to find some easy gank supports at all times. If correct, you will get Diffusal Blade before the supports can get items to sustain. Until that happens, you will probably get yourself some free ganks.
5. You “don’t have to” buy a Sentry. Please avoid that area.

EPILOGUE

Riki has now been assigned a role. Hero is now core. The recent changes made Riki’s support play weaker, compared to core.

Not to mention, carry Riki is appearing more and more in the professional arena. Pub stats in the carry role are also at the top of the meta. Hopefully we’ll see more of Riki in the pro scene, as the familiar carry heroes are already boring.