Instructions for playing Omniknight patch 7.27 Dota 2

Just two months ago, we analyzed why Omniknight is one of the weakest heroes in the game. But after a series of buffs and general meta changes, Omniknight has now risen again.

SURPRISE WIN RATE

At the time of writing, Omniknight has a win rate of over 50% at all ranks and is most successful at Divine rank and above. While not being picked a lot (which leads to not enough matches to analyze further), it still shows us that if we know how to play: in the right matches, Omniknight can still be useful.

The more surprising news is that in the first few weeks after patch 7.27b, Omniknight had a win rate of close to 65% at Divine rank and above: absolutely stunning results. Although the number of games is not much, but the article believes that if played the right hero, Omniknight can be a very good fit for the current meta. Guide to playing Omniknight properly will be the main focus of this post.

HOW TO PLAY

The guide page from dotabuff has tons of useful information, and it seems that Omniknight at high ranks is the most successful when played as a position 3 offlaner. While playing a hero as a support in certain games may be a good idea, for the most part, Omniknight has to be a bit greedy and item-dependent to be an effective support.

Although the Purification cast range is heavily buffed, Omniknight is often at the forefront of teamfight: the hero can’t stay too far behind until he gets the green stick. And this item is not something the hero needs to prioritize first.

You want to time your healing properly, you want to dispel some nasty stuns for your teammates, and you want to cover the entire team. That means Omniknight needs to be near the center of the fight and of course the hero will often be the target.

Heroes need to be buffalo or have good survivability to be effective, so Omniknight should be prioritized for a little farming. In theory, you could play the sacrificial role for Omniknight, but as such, we should choose a support that is flexible and less dependent on items to make the match easier.

UP SKILL CLEARLY

The two basic activation skills are what make Omniknight so effective. Specifically, in many games, high-level gamers even ignore Guardian Angel until they reach a higher level, to be stronger in small-scale combat.

Usually Purification is maxed out first: it’s a pretty strong healer and a great nuke tool. Other skills have different priorities, depending on the game.

When dealing with core melees, you have to consider movement speed and mobility, as well as understand how much points you need to put into Degen Aura. Omniknight is usually required to give 1 point to this skill, no matter how the game plays out, but Degen Aura’s effectiveness nearly doubles when raised from level 1 to 2. So when facing easy heroes get kite, getting two early can greatly increase your survivability. Otherwise, max out Heavenly Grace as soon as possible.

The timing to boost Guardian Angel also depends on the game: if you expect your opponent to start looking for 5v5 teamfights, or the team wants to play more aggressively, then you should probably get it at level 8 or 9. In more passive games, depending on gank tempo, ultimate may not increase until you reach level 11 and 12.

TALENT

Regarding talent, there is no absolute choice at level 10: both talents have their own strengths. Note, upgrading Heavenly Grace increases the effectiveness of the healing skill by 50%, quite good, isn’t it. Choose the movement speed talent if you think you’ll take a hit to the team when your core is dead, and choose the heal if your team has Sven or Ursa as core.

Picking +70 damage at level 15 is usually a bad idea. In theory, we could build Omniknight into a hand-to-hand core, but according to that logic, you can also build Crystal Maiden into a hand-to-hand core. This logic is not flawed, but it requires the game to happen in a specific sequence to be effective, so the cooldown for Purification is of course better in most games.

Level 20 is a time when many people have to make difficult decisions. Both talents are great: sometimes you don’t really need the extra slow from Degen Aura if the most annoying DPS hero on the other side is range. Heavenly Grace is always 100% available which can be very popular in some games, especially against strong dispels.

In the end, we have level 25 and at this point the opponent has a way to dispel your Guardian Angel, so healing is probably the more reliable option.

EPILOGUE

Omniknight is really back: the hero was back for a variety of reasons, but now it’s totally worth your while to find out. There will be matches for Omniknight where the enemy core is only dealing physical damage, the carry is a melee champion and is not suitable for continuous teamfight as well as ganking early game.

Omniknight is probably not really suitable for all games. However, when playing paper cores, high damage, and supports with good disables, Omniknight will bring a lot of benefits. Also, heroes are ideal in pubs, as supports often don’t have any lifesaving items, refuse to pick early turns in the draft, and often don’t do their job well in pubs either.

According to dotabuff

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