There is a subset of heroes who are considered “The International Heroes”. It might be coincidence, or perhaps they are just comfortable for the players on the big stage, but huge teamfight heroes like Enigma, Earthshaker, Beastmaster, Batrider and Tidehunter always make their way back into the meta around TI seasons. Four out of five iconic TI heroes are already trending up, making waves in both professional and pub scenes, but Tidehunter is nowhere to be seen. What happened?
It might not be wise to over-rely on the professional statistics to draw conclusions for Pub play, but there is some information that can’t be ignored. Throughout ~250 games, across all six regions two heroes remained unpicked and unbanned. Silencer and Outworld Destroyer are currently considered unplayable by the professional players and today we would like to discuss whether this assessment is correct.
Dota has been quite carry-centric the last year or so, with the role feeling a little bit more important than the other core roles. That means knowing which carries work and which do not is incredibly important: with great power comes great responsibility. Today we are going to look at the three most successful and consistent carry heroes in the game right now and discuss why they work so well.
Batrider is currently one of those peculiar heroes, who are doing exceptionally well at higher MMRs, but are heavily misunderstood and misused in lower ratings. We will attempt to change that and give a brief explanation of why and how this hero is currently so good.
Every patch has its own selection of extremely popular, but objectively weak heroes. There might be a new, interesting mechanic to play with, or perhaps a recent buff to the hero. The end result, however, is almost always the same: players insist on playing the character in their pubs and unnecessarily lose MMR because of it. Today we are going to discuss such heroes and why they should be avoided.
The transition to 7.32 and the following transition from 7.32 to 7.32b was a wild ride for several heroes. Some of them are now significantly better off, some of them had a moment in the spotlight before once again becoming unviable and some had a week-long vacation before coming back fully recharged. Today we are going to have a look at the latter group and what changed for some of them.
The TI Qualifiers are just around the corner and the professional players have been playing a lot of pubs in preparation. Today we would like to discuss the unexpected heroes they were training and why they might make big waves in both the professional and the pub scenes.
The new patch changed quite a bit about the game with a multitude of hero changes on top of global economy reworks. This has sent ripples through the meta and while it will definitely take a while for it to settle down, some trends are starting to emerge. Today we are going to discuss the biggest winners of the patch and why they suddenly became so relevant.
The new patch was with us for a couple of days and it is time to look at the first gameplay trends we see emerging. We are going to leave statistical analysis of winners and losers of the patch for when the dust settles and we have more information to work with. For now we will concentrate on things you should be doing in your pubs in the new patch and why.
Last time we talked about supports who were for one reason or another completely absent from the meta. Today we are going to concentrate on position one heroes who, in our opinion, desperately need an upgrade to become viable.
When a problematically powerful hero arises in the meta, it is usually painfully obvious. The same cannot be said about problematically weak heroes and here is our list of support heroes who could use some buffs in the upcoming patch.
We know the patch is coming some time soon. It is still a question of whether it is going to be a big patch, fundamentally changing the game with new mechanics and maybe some map changes; or it is going to be a small patch, focusing on balance changes before the upcoming TI. We truly hope for the former, however given how close we are to the biggest tournament of the year, it might be the latter. Hence our wishlist is going to be a little bit reserved.
If you are paying attention to the Arlington Major, you probably understand how important Chen is for the current meta. However, unlike most other meta heroes, pubs are not suddenly overwhelmed by the influx of Chens and there is a reason for it: people tend to think that Chen is this extremely complicated hero that can’t be played by mere mortals. This is not the case and today we are going to discuss Chen, the easy way.
There were one hundred and twenty eight matches played during the group stage of the Arlington Major and somehow, despite seventeen teams being mostly in agreement about the current meta, there were a lot of unique and unconventional picks. Let’s have a look at heroes who stood out throughout the group stage.
Tiny is the most contested hero of the Major so far with a hundred percent pick and ban rate. Despite high popularity, or perhaps because of it, his winrate is very low, falling below 40%. Zeus is in a somewhat similar position: he was played in seven games, only winning one. Are the heroes actually overvalued or are there other reasons for their poor performance? Let’s take a look.
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| is 10 - 15min que is in smurf pool ? or there... 4 replies, |  |
| Tinker needs to be reworked completely, just ... 10 replies, |  |
| Giver-uppers 21 replies, |  |
| Any remaining Dotabuff Veterans here anymore? 26 replies, |  |
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| How can player get 7755 achievment points ? 3 replies, |  |
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| What is happenin to Nigma? 2 replies, |  |
| Hero | Win Rate | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Chen | 53.12% | 1.72% |
 | Batrider | 45.91% | 1.26% |
 | Dark Seer | 49.58% | 1.23% |
 | Terrorblade | 44.89% | 0.98% |
 | Storm Spirit | 45.58% | 1.06% |
 | Templar Assassin | 43.97% | 1.09% |
| Hero | Pick Rate | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Dark Willow | 9.03% | 3.21% |
 | Axe | 16.10% | 2.81% |
 | Magnus | 9.61% | 2.65% |
 | Warlock | 5.33% | 1.14% |
 | Wraith King | 8.61% | 1.47% |
 | Zeus | 16.25% | 1.78% |
