It just happened. VOD will be up soon. The Curse is one of the few chances teams will have to test new strats against the best before the International. It looks like its going to be interesting.
skill difference = irrelevant
singsing showing once more that he should stick to stomping pubs
Game 2, Dendi on Skywrath mid again. QPAD plays very defensive this time, nevertheless Dendi kills Magnus mid FB at 4:30. Skywrath out lanes Mag so badly he is 4 levels ahead at 6 min.
We also get to see how easy it is to evade tuskar ganks at the pro level. At 7:30 Skywrath kill Mag almost at his T2 tower after the skewer...meanwhile Skywrath is still csing in the river he is so far away. 8:30 Skywrath kills Mag again.
Overall Navi ganking is dramatically weaker using Tusk rather than Rubic. Kuroky missing near half of his iceshard casts on gank targets.
15 min Kuroky on Tusk misses both snowball and iceshards and dies. Then Dendi solo kills NA from full health again with Skywraths amazing silence. Its important to realize the Kuroky is missing his skills because they are easy for pros to dodge because they travel so slowly and are so visible.
Skywrath continues to dominate while Tusk continues to be a weak link that allows QPAD opportunities to fight back. 20-23 at 30 min.
43 min despite a 20k gold advantage and aegis Navi lose a fight because Tusk snowballs them into a double RP. That hero is such a liability.
Navi finally picks off tinker, twice (bb), and wins with megas at 48 min. QPAD does not quit but does one desperate mid push. Throne down at 50 min.
GG QPAD sucks so much. Wish Sing will find more reliable team. SelecT suck so much as well as jrx. =(
nyx missed the vendetta couple times, that sucked so bad for QPAD, becouse it was matter of time (sometimes a sure kill). Idk what the problem was, he was cancelling his animation all the time.
That was odd. I thought he was lagging...though at least twice he clearly stunned first on purpose because his vendetta time was going to run out that very second before he could get close enough.
Skywrath was also causing him a lot of problems. Sky's silence is nearly instant cast, 700 range, and Dendi is so fast to click it Nyx could never finish his combo if Skywrath was near.
He totally ruined Mag as well, hitting a good RP requires getting a BKB against a Skywrath with pro-level reflexes...unless tusk servers the whole team up on a snowball platter. LOL
Don't really think the hero was a factor in either game to be honest. I mean the hero can have its role in the game, but you are overhyping it so much. You are also taking a game between navi and qpad. Although navi are no quite at full strength, in my opinion their roster is better than their past two at the international (at which they placed 1st and 2nd), and Qpad are perhaps the weakest team in the qualifiers. If qpad beat navi off the back of a skywraith pick, with select beating Dendi mid, maybe there would be something to talk about.
I see you are going to refuse to give Puppey any respect for drafting and Dendi any respect for using a high skill hero to it potential just because you don't want to be wrong about Skywrath being a strong hero. I see you are going to choose to believe that Select is bad because he lost to a bad hero matchup. Continue to live in ignorance if you want. Pretend not to see it as Skywrath becomes more and more popular in pro games. Keep pretending not to understand that its the free orchid that makes him win.
Dendi was playing Skywrath non stop as well as other solo mid heroes past couple of days in pub. IIrc the game against OD mid his Skywrath cant do shit..
As u can see, the game didn't need to be won by Navi play, just by Select and Jrx poor performance is enough. One guy has high apm for nothing, one guy only has Leshrac as best hero. QPanda if they still want to stick with their current roster, then I think they need this whole one year to practice fully. Now its 1v5 most of the time with SingSing being the only good player who actually carried Qpanda many games wth his exceptional skill comparing to the other 4.
he plays 1v9, even his team mates r considered to be enemies in his POV
and Dendi practiced Sky like 10 games yesterday in a row, maybe there was a pudge game in between, and even his steam photo is that of skywrath
SKM is a very strong hero 1v1, too bad dota is not a 1v1 game.
OD is even stronger middle, and has a better chance of surviving a gank due to his lane opponent having no mana to cast spells and imprison means you need to gank him with two heroes.
After the laning phase how much does skywraith bring you?
I think an important thing in dota now is being a versatile hero, what does skywraith mage do after laning phase vs a coordinated team? He's right away on the clock as he is unable to farm, doesn't scale amazingly with farm (the nuke does somewhat) and he's utterly useless vs a bkb.
He's amazingly easy to gank, he has no armor, his team fight is weak compared to current popular mids such as mag, puck, etc.
He is also has heroes which completely destroy him, punga with ward, nyx with mana burn, blademail/bkb destroys him. Ta as well as outlaning him, with meld would absolutely murder this zero armor hero.
The hero has a his strong points, but I personally do not rate him very highly at all, and I have yet to see any evidence of him doing anything in a professional game.
Yes OD is stronger 1v1 at...lasthitting and lane control...but at lvl 6 all Skywrath has to do to kill him solo is go get a rune, let the int steal wear off and then!!! use his super long range silence to make OD into a creep. Seriously OD is only strong 1v1 because of astral imprison and he can't use it to save himself from Skywrath because the silence range 700. OD can't cast astral in time no matter how good he is. Its impossible because the range is only 550.
Again you mention that dota is not a 1v1 game and yet?...you don't seem to realize that OD has bad synergy with nearly every hero in the game while Skywrath has excellent synergy with nearly every hero in the game. Skywrath does the least in the laning phase, the most in ganks and is critical in teamfights.
Did you seriously just claim that Skywrath is weak against Mag after just seeing (ok of course you didnt really see game 2 did you) Dendi destroy Select on that exact matchup?
You have seen no evidence of him doing anything in a professional game...wrong you just saw (ok yes I know you didnt actually watch the games) it twice in a row, games domminated by Skywrath mage, a strategy totally based on Skywrath mage by TI3 direct invite team...whatever you didnt see it.
It does not matter you will see this happen more and more until Skywrath starts getting banned. Watch it happen.
The thing is, SWM's spells are so very slow to take effect (Except silence)
Take the slow for example, While 1600 range might seem OP, the missle is so damn slow that the hero can almost run 2000 units before it hits the target.
Now this brings some problems, Because it makes it very easy to dodge the spells.
All it takes is for the opposing team's support to build euls, Then what's gonna swm do? Ulti? ulti takes 2 seconds to hit full damage and a with a help of a simple euls/force one can dodge it completely
Unfortunately Silence doesn't effect on items.
You could argue that he can target multiple heroes in that small aoe of his ulti, but then the damage will be reduced significantly therefore they dont need to dodge it. 3 heroes taking ~200 damage each before they escape at level 16 (Assuming they will run away in 1 second, and any disabled hero will have supports forcing him out unless they have some kinda aoe disable like leshrac, but then why would they all hang out in such a small area?)
Ofcourse you can't expect this in pubs, but i don't think it would be much of a trouble for pro teams to handle and shutting him down properly. Therefore he won't do much besides just silencing a single target.
Just wait for more pro games with him in and we shall see..
@Viruser, as a Naix, I could easily run and eventually wear out the silence and avoid half of SWM's attacks.
Despite being godlike after 10 minutes, I could easily walk right up to him in fights and kill him while he could do nothing back, and he became a non-factor after that point.
Releentless, I think you have trouble understanding English, my point about OD was that a strong middle =/= good hero. Also I wasn't talking about a 1v1 matchup of SKM vs OD.
OD has bad synergy with every hero in the game? I'm not even going to go into that cause it's such a stupid thing to say.
Where did I claim that SKM was weak vs mag 1v1? Can you even read, I said he has weak team fight compared to the more popular mids, and you don't just pick heroes for the laning phase.
You know I didn't watch the games? You are quite an annoying cunt, you just say retarded assumptions thinking you are some sort of Nostradamus.
How many people said silencer was imba, and was going to be first pick? People picked him a few times and realized he's a situational pick. In my opinion silencer is much stronger than SKM and I would probably assume SKM will assume a similar role to silencer as a situational pick.
"SKW/orchid is the best counter to LS...(until)...he gets a bkb"
Mapzor nails it. Free Orchid with longer range. This is why SWM is going to change the metagame. Its not just naix that changes into a creep...its Nyx (proven directly by game 1 of the Curse Invitational), AM, Weaver...all the hard to gank heroes become easy to gank.
OD has terrible syngergy. It is almost always counter productive to cast astral imprison offensively or defensively, it can never be used as follow-up and you don't want your carry to initiate...OD is a hero with an almost totally wasted skill. At least pros are good enough they usually manage to refrain from casting imprison. Pubs sadly cast this skill often saving enemies from other disables, letting good players blink away, trapping allies to their doom...its extremely rare that an opportunity to use it correctly even exists outside the laneing phase to steal INT and deny xp. OD is a carry hero with a skill that should be on an initiator or a hard support. He can't use it correctly and play his role. He is always being counter productive.
Back to SWM
"his team fight is weak compared to current popular mids such as mag, puck, etc." If you watched the game, which I still doubt, you somehow failed to see Sky casting critical silences that made Mag unable to use his ult correctly even thought this single handedly decided several important fights.
Silencer is a situational pick. SWM is excellent against every hero prominent in the current meta. Silencers long range, near instant cast silence has an extremely long cd and doesn't arrive until level 6! its not comparable at all to a FREE ORCHID.
Some ppl mistakenly decided that Select is bad at Magnus. Do you think LightofHeaven sucks at Magnus also?
Liquid shows the power of SWM next. He makes a point of crushing LightofHeaven's Mag so badly that he gets boots at 13 min and no blink ...ever. He does not get blink in a 33 min game. LightofHeaven must be a nub feeder right? It can't be that Skywrath has changed the game...no that can't be it. As Ayesee says "I can't remember a Mag at the professional level ever not having blink at 30 min".
But no it can't be that Skywrath is changing the meta...no no he must be situational.
Team Liquid 5-0 wipes Empire 3 times in a row and gets a gg call with all T3 towers still up.
Also VODs are up for the Navi SWM games in Chinese now on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3gWa6MlAg8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CErDLMhdAU
LoH has been out of the scene for a long time. TC are a far better team than Empire. TC have literally the perfect tri-lane (I don't know if they did, but I am guessing they did) Naix + SD + Leshrac is ridiculous, and what the hell is with the veno pick? Trying to play 4v6?
Wait till we see a decent draft from both squads and relatively equal skill level.
Ok good, so now LightofHeaven is bad...yes, not playing in high level pro matches for 3 months must have drained away all his experience and skill. I bet he didn't even look at dota during that time, probably didn't even have a computer. Yes that guy who won TI1 and was 2nd at TI2 and dominated dota for years before that... he sucks now. I can't wait to see who the next pro player to get crushed by SWM will be. I'm sure they will magically become nub also.
His previous competitive match being 3 months ago has no relevance.
http://www.joindota.com/en/matches/54225-team-liquid-vs-team-empire/&comment_page=2#comments
I highly recommend for anyone who wants to understand what is really happening in dota games, whether pro games (buy the ticket!!! see POV!) or just your own pub replays...
What you need to do is watch the replay. Slow it down to 0.25 speed and check out different peoples POV. What you thought was going on when it was live is often wrong, especially in your own games.
If you want to understand the game you need to be able to tell the difference between skill and luck, between real feeds and deaths from focus...to understand what players were trying to do and why it worked or did not, to know what a hero really can do and what it cannot do.
Besides all this the artwork is just beautiful! And you can't fully enjoy that aspect of the game while playing it. Take some time and watch teamfights from a different perspective on 0.25 speed. Its worth doing just for the artwork alone.
Well considering he was picked as a final pick and was not banned in any of the stages, I think that would fall under what I said as a situational pick.
NOTE : QOP, PUCK, STORM all banned by empire (because they are better heroes in general, as well as being able to dominate magmus mid)
The game after that it wasn't banned or picked thus so neither team valuing the hero as a pick in the second game, despite the result of the first game.
However I would not claim to be 100% right based on one game unlike some people :)
Also orchid has a huge range and no cast time, so it really isn't better than orchid, considering orchid amplifies _all_ damage by 25%.
Please don't try to undersell how far out on a limb I went to say these things. I did it when he had never been picked. Not first picked, not last picked...a week before Dendi started practicing the hero. That is when I said SWM would change the meta. I did not base this on one game I based it on zero games, purely on my real and correct understanding of how dota actually works.
Ancient Seal is 700 range, Orchid is 900 range
Ancient Seal is +36% dmg, Orchid is +30% dmg
Ancient Seal is 6 sec silence, Orchid is 5 sec silence
Ancient Seal is 11 sec cd, Orchid is 18 sec cd
Both are effectively instant cast (orchid is technically about 0.1 sec faster)
But what really matters is Ancient Rune begins to be useful at level 2, could be used at level 1 in pre-game teamfights. Orchid costs 4150 gold!! Ancient Seal is FREE!
Pro-players rushing Orchid will be happy to start using it at 15 min. But the critical time to shut down all those hard to gank heroes is 5-15 min before anyone has items. FREE Orchid makes that happen.
The 11 sec cd is also vastly superior to orchid often allowing a gank to chain into multiple kills as support roles in. SWM is excellent at turning one kill into 2 and 3.
The story continues as Mouz fears that their Magnus can't function against SWM. And so in game 1 against Liquid they ban him.
I think you talk without thinking to be honest. You just say the first thing that pops into your head.
You said earlier "Mapzor nails it. Free Orchid with longer range."
Well firstly no its not longer range, secondly its not a free orchid. Orchid gives 25int 30dmg 30attackspeed. That's like saying shadow shaman gets a free hex, its not free you have to put points into it and you don't get the 35/10/10 stats which are a major part of the item.
How can you say its changing the meta?
Do you think this hero is even comparable to Nyx kotl bat naix wisp magnus? I personally don't think so.
When was the last time any of these heroes managed to finish a game without being picked or banned? I can't personally remember. However I can remember the last game SKM wasn't picked or banned, Empire vs TL game 2. I think it being a last pick in game 1 shows that its not a hero that you can just pick up and be fine with it.
I can pick naix and I'll be pretty happy for them to pick any hero vs it, as long as I'm not giving up two heroes like mag and nyx for it. Naix can do well in pretty much any game.
If you pick up SKM, there are so many heroes which can absolutely destroy him. In the same way I feel tinker is an amazing hero, but if the enemy already has nyx, there is no way in hell I would ever pick tinker. Even though I rate tinker highly as a hero.
You are right shuki I misstated that. I tried to correct it later, before you noticed, by doing a direct comparision of the two options. You misstated the bonus dmg on Orchid...such typos are irrelevant.
Game 2 Mouz vs Liquid at the Curse Invitational Skywrath is banned again. In case you still didn't understand let me say it again Skywrath will continue to rise in prominence...unless he is nerfed before the international he will be a key hero changing the meta game and pushing teams to try different strategies because you can no longer be certain that the popular heroes will be able to function correctly.
Specifically SWM is an excellent counter to Naix. Lifestealer really was the hero that could do well against anything (except PL) But now you can crush Naix with SWM. We will see this happen in a pro game soon enough. I would not be surprised to see Naix pick up manta against Skywrath late game, but the problem is he needs it early and can't get it.
Well considering you were making the point that his silence was longer range than orchid and it was in fact the other way around by quite a distance isn't the same as me saying the soul burn was 25% rather than 30% especially since my argument was that orchid was stronger anyway.
I'll just reiterate my point. I think SKM can do well in some matchups mid. However he is extremely easy to gank, and contributes much less to the later portions of the game, and absolutely nothing vs someone with a bkb.
SKM also has heroes which absolutely crush him, one of which being nyx assassin who is already a top pick if he isn't banned. In my opinion templar assassin also crushes him too, because of refraction in lane, and meld is quite good versus zero armor.
Personally I don't see him being anywhere close to Nyx kotl bat naix wisp magnus in terms of value, he's really a hero that you need to pick up in the second half of the draft and you have to have a good game plan to go with it. Rather than naix where you can first pick it and have so many options.
I didn't see the games where he was banned but I assume it was banned in the second stage to reduce the amount of heroes that korok could choose to go solo mid.
"he's really a hero that you need to pick up in the second half of the draft and you have to have a good game plan to go with it."
No, that's not actually what you think. That is simply what you saw happen in 2 of the 7 pro games SWM was picked or banned in the last two days.
"SWM has shadow fiend syndrome, he's just going to get ganked. He has low hp no armor and no escape. Although saying this, there are very few heroes that never see play, if someone can figure out how to fit him in a lineup, then I'm sure he can see play."
This is what you really think. You just see low hp, low armor, no escape. Its understandable that you think this. The comparison to SF is wrong, but not totally wrong, there was some parallel. And SWM can fit almost any lineup like the top pick and ban heroes.
But SF plays a completely different role. SF must get farm and levels to be what he is, a carry". SWM even if he does get ganked early will still be deadly. He does not need to get much farm. He does not need to continue farming throughout the game.
And of course most important SF has no slow, no silence, and his ult is far far more difficult to hit.
Now that you have seen the SWM is not just some hero that might somehow be picked somewhere, but regularly picked and banned by top teams you have retreated to try to claim that he won't be ranked with the very top picks in the game....but you are still wrong.
He will displace top picks and already has in Game 3 Liquid vs Mouz. The presence of Skywrath changed the order and priority of picks and bans such that Kotl was not banned and Magnus was not picked or banned for the first time in a huge number of pro games.
Liquid has expanded their pool of very dangerous heroes that require a ban again...it is so large now it is really impossible to stop them from getting a great set every game.
Demon is the newest pro player to become a stupid nub feeder...His puck dies to Dendi SWM, First Blood at 4:30 in game 1 of Navi vs EG. Dendi SWM reaches level 8 Puck is still level 5 Demon must suck at puck right? SWM kills puck again at 7 min. Again at 8:30. Demon is such a nub player right?
At 22 min Merlini says "Skywrath Mage might become a tier 1 pick" hmm really?
"He has low hp no armor and no escape, however if someone can figure out how to fit him in a lineup, then I'm sure he can see play."
That's what I said originally and it's what I still think.
He got ganked by Chen, how can you use that as an argument? Isn't the game 7/10 in favour as EG?
If you think skywraith means anything compared to wisp ck, you are quite deluded.
Lol its so funny the arguments you come up with shuki. Yes, yes must be CK-Io that are...oh wait not they are not doing well... in fact feeds by ck-wisp made this take longer than it should have.
Nevertheless 30 min GG with all 3 T2 towers still up. I wonder will EG ban SWM next game? hmm I wonder?
People are very excited about SWM. Ayesee just broke his personal all time high record for viewers.
Oh look SWM first ban by EG. Am I surprised? No. This is going to become the regular meta game. SWM will be an early ban or early pick in nearly every pro-game once everyone realizes the potential and practices it.
Props to Navi and Liquid for seeing it first and preparing to debut the new hero.
Ayesee broke his record for viewers cause of Skywraith mage?
I guess it has nothing to do with the fact that EG and Navi are probably the most popular two teams in the Western scene.
I think you are getting carried away just like you were at the start.
So QPAD (one of the weakest teams) loses to Navi (one of the strongest team) - conclusion Skywraith Mage won them the game.
EG (nowhere near at their best) loses to Navi - conclusion Skywraith won them the game
Liquid (the best western team recently) beat Empire (complete roster shift, Scandal only player left who has been active and consistent) - conclusion Skywraith won them the game
Show me a game where a weaker side picks SKM and wins off the back of that.
EG banning SKM is obviously because they have no experience playing versus it, you making these all in judgements just makes you look stupid.
Just to refer to the Liquid versus Empire game he was picked last by liquid
QOP, PUCK, STORM all banned by empire in the second ban phase.
The game after that it wasn't banned or picked thus so neither team valuing the hero as a pick in the second game, despite the result of the first game.
Dendi should have first blooded demon with Puck, even without an gank from an invis Chen. While I think demon is a great player, he certainly is far from his best at the moment.
is relentless secretly azarkon from gosugamers?
OD wins SKM pretty convincingly, somewhere u stated SKM can get a rune at level 6 can kill OD, but OD ulti alr cuts 75% of his mana if he has enough int, and tons of damage if he doesnt, OD is a very situational pick, but i predict he will be picked more as the metagame changes.
SKW is picked for his silence only, OD doesn't have anything to provide to the team
ofc they can get a bkb, but he is meant to be gd the first 25 minutes to dominate special heroes, like LS (LifeStealer), storm, any support, etc, I mentioned LS because u can silence him out of sight range, easiest gang of ur life
OD won't be able to cast anything...its the same with Naix, Puck, Nyx, Weaver, TA, AM...or whoever. Whatever spells they have just don't matter against the Free Orchid, they are never going to be able to cast them. The range on Ancient Seal is so long you can cast it before people know they need to make an escape move.
At some point the range will get nerfed, but until it does SWM will defeat absolutely any other hero mid...even Batrider and Nyx. Very strong mid soloes can lose slower and by smaller margins, but even spamming mana burn Nyx will still lose. Every hero in the entire game will need help to lane against an excellent SWM like Dendi or Kurok or they will get dramatically outleveled, out harrased and die. Even most of the pros don't know it yet. But that is what will happen.
Now some will say, "No problem, just gank Skywrath mid!" low armor low hp, no escape, we will just gank him. But this is not going to help. Skywrath can kill the opposing mid solo at level 1...of course pros will hide instead of dieing, but the lane is already lost. So much gank pressure will be required to balanced it out that your carry will be unprotected and die...this will be worse than losing mid. So ganking SWM a lot will not work. The cost is too high even if you get him.
And even if you do manage to keep SWM down mid with ganks he can still rape your carry with almost no items. He will still force your carry to get bkb before any farming or dmg items...hence you lose the game because the other teams carry can get a farming tool first and dmg item 2nd, just like normal. So we will see a lot of SD and eventually some Omniknight or dazzle to counter this and get the Free orchid countered with super-powerful defensive support spells...one other possibility, someone might try spamming tress living armor on their mid solo to negate the harass dmg. Strong solo mid heroes could compete if healed a lot or pooled a lot of regen.
Skywraith can do a lot of damage early on, single target over a short time he definitely does a significant amount of damage. A six second silence that reduces magic resistance is also a very strong spell.
Even though skywraith does very well in most matchups, I think with bottle crowing some of the matchups would allow for the other hero to get farm and then contribute more to the mid game and significantly more to the late game.
However until level 3 skywraith doesn't do that much damage, and you can trade harass with him quite easily due to his zero armor. As soon as he gets to lvl 3 and he has his bottle, its going to become harder in the lane to sustain. In general skywraith will dominate the denies and last hits, but dependent on how much he dominates will dictate the rest of the game. I believe at lvl 1 and 2 qop will outlane skywraith mid and this is important to doing well in the lane. If you aren't aggressive before level 3 on qop, you aren't even going to be able to set foot into the lane without dying, and people inexperienced with the matchup will get raped. It's just the same as not being aggressive on a Shadow Fiend as qop in the first 2 levels, if you let him have a decent time you are going to lose the lane past lvl 3 and perhaps die at lvl 5. However its a lot easier to die to skywraith than sf. I believe when the surprise factor of skywraith is less, he will be less effective. Barely any heroes can kill in mid with the current bottle crowing without their level 6 combo, however skywraith can and a lot of people underestimate this.
Although I think certain heroes can lane vs skywraith. Templar assassin will win the matchup, outworld devourer will win the matchup, lone druid might be able to win the match up but I'm not really sure.
Despite this, all these heroes need to fit into a team, rather than you can just pick it.
For example skywraith crushes magnus in lane, I don't think anyone will deny it. Looking at magnus's skillset though.
His ulti, reverse polarity, is an aoe stun which goes through BKB
He also has skewer which allows for him to escape many situations, as well as combo with his ulti bringing many heroes into a bad position while slowing them by 40%
He has empower which allows him to make his carry 50% stronger depending on his items, and provide 50% cleave to melee heroes (which is amazing really)
Shockwave is a long range nuke, which makes bottle crow on mag really strong and can allow him to farm even in a lane where he is the weaker hero.
The benefit of having a lvl 16 magnus in your team is far, far, far greater than a level 16 skywraith. He's not countered by BKB, hes durable, he has an escape, he makes you carry stronger.
Skywraith is countered by force staff, bkb, euls, orchid, blademail etc.
Yes he's extremely strong in the lane, however I personally don't believe he'll be a top tier pick due to these reasons.
Navi vs EG game 1. EG bans SWM first ban. This allows KotL and Nyx to be picked by Navi.
Evil Geniuses thinks SWM is scarier.
Meanwhile MUFC opens up SWM in the east against TNC in the Premier League. Despite a fumbling start they come back to win a 64 min game 58-29 proving over and over that linkens is not enough to protect weaver from SWM. 800 range 2 sec cd spell that gives flying true sight...yeah linkens is not going to be enough.
MUFC SWM was clearly not practiced enough for this game, making many mistakes, but he won anyway still providing enough space for a morphling to outcarry gyro, weaver, and magnus.
SWM advances to 7-0 in pro play.
We have seen SWM vs Lone Druid. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3gWa6MlAg8 It's not close.
SWM can easily solo kill TA. All he has to do is silence+slow and kill when refraction is down. OD is even easier to kill since there is no refraction to remove. If OD is close enough to lasthit, he can be killed. He won't be able to survive the first time his astral stack wears off. He can't restart it because he won't be able to cast it once...he will be dead before he is close enough to cast it.
But again the real problem is not the 1v1 situation. Its the Free orchid. When you send gankers mid to try to take out a very hard to gank hero...TA, Brew, Mag, QoP, post level 6 storm...you have to be very careful to smoke in perfectly and wait for them to be in a bad position and then chain stuns perfectly...its a real challenge. But with SWM in the lane its easy to kill the same heroes. He applies a 4 sec 50% slow and if he is even level 5 he has a 5 sec silence and tons of magic dmg and amp dmg. It is easy.
Again you could gank SWM mid, but you will have to change your strat to do it. You will not be able to protect your carry and gank mid at the same time. Against the best teams if your carry backs off and stops farming everyone knows the supports went to gank mid. There is no need to see them. And if you gank mid and the carry did not hide...well he is dead.
Please sign in to post comments.
Someone said this would happen nine days ago.
http://dotabuff.com/topics/2013-04-25-new-meta-discuss-here
Dendi is the first to show how dominating Skywrath is mid. With coordinated high level team play Skywrath makes all ganks go from easy to 100% sure, hard to easy, and impossible to possible. Navi starts the Curse Invitational 8-0 in the first 9 min against QPAD.
11-0 gg called at 11 min when Dendi rapes QPAD Red Pandas team with Skywrath, including killing Nyx Assassin before he could use spike carapace. Navi fastest win this entire year.