Dota 2: Why Necrophos is the weakest hero 7.28 right now

At the time of this writing, Necrophos is the weakest hero in Dota, at least at high pub ranks. From Divine rank and above, this hero is considered more useless than Pudge and Techies. This raises the question: what happened? Today, we will find out why Necrophos is weak and if there is a way to revive this hero.

FINDED

The reason Necrophos is considered weak is because he is one of the heroes that are almost forgotten in DPC matches in all regions. Pro players don’t want to use Necrophos and of course they have a perfectly good reason.

Let’s take a look at this hero’s win rate stats. It decreased unbelievably: Necrophos in Legend reached 52.5%, temporarily held 50% until the Divine rank, then dropped miserably to 37% in games ranked 5k and above.

The conclusion shows that Necrophos is difficult to implement, but is greatly countered. This is the reason why Necrophos has difficulty with good gamers and is almost ignored by the highest ranked group of gamers. So what do good players know to make Necrophos so weak?

REASON 1: LANE STAGE

Let’s start with the most obvious points: base stats, especially base damage matter a lot at high ranks. +1 armor or +3 base damage in the patch note may seem ‘extra for fun’, but for pro players and high ranked pub players, it has a huge impact on the game.

With two Crusaders, when they can miss more than 30% of their last hits and deny, base damage of course rarely has a big impact on them. As for Necrophos players at rank 5+ and above, having base damage as low as 49 is a big deal. Not to mention the attack animation and slow bullet speed.

And yet, if Necrophos wants to “clean up the wavecreep” he has to go further, which inadvertently makes the hero vulnerable to the opponent’s punishment. Whether Necrophos plays in the mid or offlane: the hero cannot put constant pressure on the opponent.

REASON 2: META CHANGED

Looking at the top 15 most popular heroes at Divine rank and above, we can easily see that about 75% of them don’t really care or counter Necrophos directly. It is difficult to see a game with Necro because the two most popular heroes picked are Puck and Nyx, while the most popular carry is Wraith King “revival king”.

REASON 3: POWER CREEP?

Power creep (read more about Dota 2: The Evolution of Game Economy to understand what power creep is) can be a problem in any game, but with Dota 2, we’ve mostly avoided it. Over the years, heroes have gradually become more defined: the strengths and weaknesses of each hero become more obvious, helping to make the game more balanced. Meanwhile, heroes are guaranteed to be usable and have their own purposes.

The current Necrophos does not seem to have a clear purpose. This hero is not necessarily weaker than other heroes, just does not have a clear identity, so it does not look strong compared to the rest of the heroes. Reaper’s Scythe is not as strong as before. This skill no longer has a “forbidden buyback” mechanism because it is a bit too strong. Meanwhile, Reaper’s Scythe is now unable to disrupt the opponent’s play plan.

In the past, especially in the late game, Scythe was not only haunted by damage potential but also made you sit and count the clock longer. The green stick can do great damage to the opponent, constantly putting pressure on and making it impossible for the opposing team to have 5vs5. Now, the fixed 120 second cooldown, while still affecting the game, can only happen in the super late game phase.

EPILOGUE

Necrophos is generally not strong and no game is considered forced pick, so the hero has no specific identity. In Necrophos games that are strong thanks to Heartstopper Aura, the ability to withstand hits and reduce physical damage is almost non-existent, especially at high ranks.

At the beginning of this topic, the author tried to think if there was a way to play Necrophos currently. Unfortunately, the answer is no. There is no way for the player to use his playing skills to help Necrophos overcome this barrier. Heroes can’t “learn to play” to the extreme (like Invoker or Meepo), there’s no way to build skills/items that can change the way Necrophos is played. Necrophos is simply not meta.

According to dotabuff

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