Dota 2: Top tier offlanes in meta 7.23

We are in the last days of the year. This was also a time when no one knew what was going on with the meta. Some people think Lone Druid is too strong or Void Spirit ‘broken’ but no one really understands what they are saying.

People are still experimenting and we haven’t had too many major tournaments since the Outlanders update to know exactly what the pro drafts are like. Some meta trends are slowly emerging, but in terms of heroes in general, we still don’t know who is the strongest hero in each position.

This article will look at the statistics to see who is the strongest today. In this list, the top 4 offlaners based on Divine/Immortal rank win rate are:

DOOM

Doom is the offlane hero with the highest win rate in the past month, reaching 53.58%. Before this patch, Doom had a terrible win rate, only around 45%. As soon as the new patch was released, this number jumped to more than 50%.

You won’t be able to guess why the win rate is up if you look at Doom’s changes in the patch, there are no major tweaks. Devourer, Scorched Earth, and Infernal Blade are all slightly buffed. Aghanim’s Scepter changed to Infernal Blade buff to stun 1.75 seconds, + 2 seconds extra DPS and give break ability.

Despite these small changes, Doom has a high win rate in high ranked games. This can be explained by other changes in the game affecting Doom’s gameplay. The jungle is considered the most important and Doom is one of the best junglers. The damage blocking buff for the melee hero also helps Doom stay healthy during the laning phase.

UNDERLORD

The second is Underlord, the hero has not changed much in the skill set and gameplay. Underlord has a 53.24% win rate in last month’s Divine/Immortal games.

Agility gain per level is slightly buffed, base armor is increased by 1, Atrophy Aura is nerfed by a few percent, and level 15 talent is buffed.

But unlike Doom, Underlord’s win rate was already high before the patch came out and only increased by a few percent after the patch. Looks like Underlord will continue to win and some minor buffs will only help me get into the early game.

Underlord farms well in the jungle and often builds team boosters like Crimson Guard, Guardian Greaves, and Pipe of Insight. This makes Underlord the hero you want on your team to enjoy these buffs. With the presence of Outpost, map control is more important now than ever and Underlord excels at this because the hero can clear the creep wave with nuke and leave without any effort. Teamfight happens more often because the map has more objectives to compete with and Underlord is also good at this. Underlord was a strong hero before the patch and continues to be strong in this patch.

SLARDAR

Almost nothing has changed, except for the one thing “Slithereen Crush Scepter AoE increased from 550 to 600.”

This 50 AoE brings the win rate from 50% before the update to 54% after. That could be one way to explain it. It’s hard to say what’s going on causing this hero to increase his win rate by 4% with such small tweaks. Most likely due to the changes around Slardar or simply the hero is just fine at the moment. The Passive Gold boost for all heroes allows Slardar to keep up with the other offlanes since the hero’s weakness has always been not keeping up with farming.

Hero is also strong against current meta heroes like Lone Druid and Lifestealer. Therefore, Slardar can be used as a counter pick with these popular picks. Slardar currently has a 53.20% win rate in Divine/Immortal games.

ABADDON

Abaddon is another popular hero these days playing as a position 3 or 5. Pro players love to pick this hero due to its strong skill set during laning and teamfight. Abaddon has a 53.07% win rate in Divine/Immortal games.

This is another hero that hasn’t changed much. In the Outlander patch, Mist Coil no longer allows self-denying, and Curse of Avernus’ slow is reduced in early levels.

Teamfight is where Abaddon shines. If you try to gank smoke and encounter Abaddon, Abaddon always benefits because he is one of the heroes that should not be ganked. As the teamfight lasts, Abaddon’s squad is debuffed, shielded, and healed. If you don’t have high level burst damage, it will be hard to take on Abaddon.

One of Abaddon’s weak points is the lack of damage. If Abaddon can be controlled or separated from his team, the hero can become useless. Abaddon’s laning phase is heavily nerfed thanks to Curse of Avernus being nerfed. Hero can’t harass as well as before.

EPILOGUE

It seems that Doom is the most changed on this list but the hero adjustments are quite small when compared to other heroes. So what conclusions can we draw? During the first month of the patch, the most successful offlane heroes were the ones that didn’t change much.

This means players haven’t experimented with these heroes since their playstyle hasn’t changed. And yet, when compared to the heroes being tested today, players already know how to play these heroes, so the win rate is higher than the heroes that were changed much in the Outlander update.

Maybe this list will change in the future as people get used to the patch and gamers know how every hero works.

According to dotabuff