Jakiro Rises in Push Meta

With turret push tactics dominating the current meta, it’s obvious that Jakiro is also involved, especially on Chinese teams. Multiple teams picked the hero at SL i-League Season 9, while VGJ.Thunder favored Jakiro in EPICENTER XL’s China qualifiers. In the turret push meta, the Chinese teams have refined their strategy to the point where – all heroes are ripe at the same time to start pushing lanes and secure victory.

The current meta doesn’t cause an imbalance even if the team can take the turrets early. You can’t ‘jump in right’ like before. But all-too-familiar faces like Death Prophet and Razor were always in the plan. Then there’s Jakiro, since the hero was buffed from patch 6.84 – now it’s time to shine. In the past, being a strong offlane, was always a menace for turrets, but now, this hero is a strong support.

iG.Q’s Liquid Fire build line against Keen in the SL i-League

Crafting something quite luxurious with “dragon close-up ice fire” while playing offlane. Getting on Eul’s Scepter early will help Ice Path capture the enemy. Along with Jakiro’s potential farming ability, getting to Blink Dagger is not too difficult after that. But that role of Jakiro no longer fits into the current meta. Naga’s popularity and ability to synergize with Jakiro play an important role in this meta. In the turret push formation, farming should be for core heroes so that they are strong in the late game. Although Jakiro has an item that will create more space, he needs to be with the team to continue to put pressure on the turret.

HISTORY OF BUFF

Jakiro is quite strong in the offlane thanks to his buff. As a support, this hero is one of the toughest heroes. Patch 7.06 increased Strength gain (from 2.3 to 2.6), and 7.07 increased base health regeneration (0 to 1.5).

Dual Breath at level 1 is Jakiro’s must-have harass skill, and only a few offlane heroes can win 1v1 against Jakiro. Dual Breath has been almost always buffed since then. 6.81 increases its attack range (500 to 550) and attack range (700 to 750). 6.82 movement speed slow increased. 6.85 Increases ability’s flight speed and damage per second. 7.06 increases its range. And 7.07 reduces the Dual Breath cast time and the level 15 talent increases damage to +40 per second (up from 25 at 7.02).

Except for Liquid Fire, other moves are also buffed but not too much. Ice Path is increased by almost 10% stun duration at higher levels. Macropyre gets Aghanim’s Scepter (but not a big deal) upgrade, increasing its range. Liquid Fire gets nerfed at 6.83. But it still has potential to this day and that’s why Jakiro is still used in the meta.

JAKIRO IN PUB

Leaving lane without anyone watching Jakiro is like giving Jakiro the turrets in that lane for free. Jakiro has a decent win rate in pubs, close to 52%, especially when this is a support with hard to hit moves (perhaps this is why Liquid Fire is raised at level one more than Breath Fire).

While the cast time makes the hero difficult to use, Jakiro makes up for it with his Liquid Fire and his buff in lane. Jakiro now relies less on items related to mana, survival, and influence in battle.

The buffalo as well as the usefulness is the reason why this hero is favored in pubs as well as in the professional arena. Jakiro can push turrets, counter push, contribute to the team without too many teams and can knock enemy heroes out of lane. While Jakiro is no longer an easy hero to take early turrets, everything else this support does has gotten better.