Meta Trends: New Heroes to Try

We’ve already expressed our opinion on the fact that while the patch notes might not be massive, their impact on the meta could be well pronounced. From the looks of it, we were correct and there are already multiple heroes who are breaking into the game, sometimes with a devastating effect. Today we are going to go over the most “broken” new heroes of the patch.

It doesn’t mean they are an auto-win pick, but they can be very powerful in general and are especially dangerous if you are caught unaware. Being prepared is half the battle.

Offlane Axe

The reduced survivability of heroes made Axe slightly more appealing and reliable, however we think that the biggest factor in the hero’s increased win rate is a Tier 4 Neutral Item that increases the AoE. Even after the nerf, it still makes Berserker’s Call a lot more reliable, with a much higher chance of catching multiple heroes.

Between better late game initiation and the obvious, much faster farming speed, courtesy of Chipped Vest, Axe is now a hero that can always recover from a bad lane and have an impact on the game. He also has one of the higher potential DPS outputs among most offlaners, with high solo kill potential on squishy enemy cores.

The hero can still suffer during the laning stage and unless you have a very strong support, it is going to be hard to win the lane outright. However, the buffed level one Battle Hunger can be incredibly helpful if an opportunity for a kill arises.

Otherwise, there is no trick to playing versus the hero. He still does more or less the same things he did for the last couple of decades. Make sure to prioritise Eul’s on at least one of the supports, to at least force him into BKB, as otherwise he can rush Aghanim’s Scepter or even Gleipnir, making him even stronger.

Legion Commander is another good option for the offlane and works in more or less the same way, with slightly less teamfight contribution, but much higher DPS potential and a stronger laning stage.

Omniknight has been deservedly nerfed, though, so for now we would advise against picking him early. He can still be good, but he no longer feels broken.

Carry Spectre

Spectre is back! At least in games where she gets Chipped Vest. In all other games she is still kind of decent, but not necessarily good. Depending on luck, she can once again become a global menace, picking off supports for free. Or she can be a slow-farming carry with respectable scaling, but poor laning stage.

It is kind of sad that the match can be more or less decided by a single RNG roll early in the game, but it is what it is. Still, there was an important buff to the hero that made Desolate considerably more reliable and powerful. At its best, the ability had a 325 Radius and the current version is only 25 units “better”. Meaning that Spectre is now once again a very strong teamfight hero in the late game, with much more reliable DPS.

Getting to that late game is still highly RNG-dependent, but for now she is probably one of the most powerful carries for pubs.

Mid Bondage Queen of Pain

Tanky QoP is no longer a meme. Truth be told, it wasn’t a meme even before the recent buffs, but it was kind of situational. In the current patch we feel like it is the default QoP facet.

20% of spell damage reflected and the ability to Spell Lifesteal from this damage make the hero incredibly tanky, despite all the survivability item nerfs. She can jump into the fray and eat some nukes, while staying alive and dealing a ton of damage. That makes her incredibly annoying and allows her teammates to engage with impunity.

The small buff the hero received also changed a couple of her midlane matchups. Surviving against Huskar is still impossible, most likely, but heroes like Storm, Puck and Leshrac can be manageable. Especially with proper itemisation in the mid game.

Make sure to not overcommit to Shadow Strike. It is a lane-winning ability in certain matchups, but with the “in your face” playstyle and without the extra Spell Amplification from Masochist, you need as many levels of Scream of Pain as you can get.

Support Lich

The amount of buffs this hero received made him incredibly scary as a teamfight and lane support. He still probably doesn’t reach the heights of devastation from a couple of patches ago, when he could solo-kill a lot of cores, but he is very much viable even at the highest level of play.

The hero also doesn’t lose relevance in longer matches, since a lot of currently popular carries are simple right-clickers. So Frost Shield is as viable as it was and a couple of patches ago its scaling was changed so that a value point is already very powerful.

With a 2-1-1 build by level four Lich becomes a relentless lane pressure hero, who can have seemingly infinite mana and potentially infinite HP with Tranquil Boots. Also, do not hesitate to purchase Aether Lens on the hero if necessary. While the mana regeneration part of the item is going to be wasted, the Cast Range bonus can be game-changing, especially if you don’t luck into one of the Cast Range items or Enchantments.

Finally, make sure that your team is aware that you will buy all the Mangoes and most Blood Grenades. With the Evil Eye facet they become essential for lane dominance.

Closing thoughts

There is still a lot that can change in the upcoming weeks and there is a lot of room for experimentation. Heroes we highlighted today are probably just the first wave of the meta changes — there are definitely going to be other characters who suddenly become more relevant, simply because players have started to figure them out, or because they counter what is currently “meta”.

We will try our best to keep you updated, so stay tuned for more meta posts. And do not hesitate to share your own findings! Personally, I am still trying to figure out whether Nothl Boon Dazzle is any good.