Facets that Could Use a Buff

The facet system is definitely starting to mature and is becoming more and more of what was originally envisioned. It is a way to adapt heroes after they have been already selected, to squeeze out higher potential or answer a potential counterpick. While we believe there is still a lot to be improved on in this system, there are some facets that need attention a bit more desperately than the others. Today we are going to talk about those.

Spectre — Forsaken

There is a ~8.5% difference between Spectre’s Twist the Knife and Forsaken, but it is not necessarily because the 2xDesolate damage from the hero is a bad bonus. It is because the added Spectral Dagger damage is so integral to the Spectre’s playstyle.

The hero simply doesn’t work without it. Spectre is currently a tempo hero who can’t farm creeps, but can farm supports. Extra 220 damage is what makes the big difference in her early ganks — the most important ones. Without this damage she needs a lot of extra time to finish off her target, meaning that she doesn’t get to Reality away.

That is more or less the extent of it and we strongly believe that it is not the Forsaken facet that needs to change. We think that the current Twist the Knife should simply become the default behaviour for the hero, with facets adding other bonuses or introducing interesting tradeoffs.

Personally, I would love to see a “farming” aspect for the hero, so that she could potentially keep up with the other carry heroes. Her Radiance playstyle is currently very underwhelming and is not particularly viable at the higher levels of play. While her “assassin” playstyle is very unreliable, but it can make games extremely annoying.

Morphling — Flow

After the recent change, where Flow stopped giving Cooldown Reduction and started providing Spell Amplification instead, the facet became both a lot less fun and a lot less viable.

Mid Strength Morphling wasn’t necessarily the worst idea before. Depending on the matchups, it could provide a ridiculous amount of Crowd Control and make for an elusive, annoying and potentially tanky target.

Right now it can kind of provide some burst. And even then, it is very matchup dependent. Sitting at -10% win rate, compared to the default carry facet, Flow is undeniably weak.

The interesting thing is that it was very situational and specialized before as well, and we don’t think it was in any way overpowered, just good in some very limited subset of games. We don’t truly understand the reason for this change and fixing it is probably as simple as reverting it back to what it was previously.

Sand King — Dust Devil

A ~6.5% difference compared to Sandshroud is understandable, considering the current Sand King playstyle. The hero is mostly about surviving the lane for the first couple of levels and then going to the jungle for a ~10 minute Blink Dagger through neutral farming. Kind of formulaic, but it is the only option to enable this hero and get him into shape before the midgame.

Dust Devil doesn’t help with that. Due to the reduced AoE, it doesn’t allow for multiple camp farming and the lack of invisibility factor also makes farming neutrals a lot more punishing. Dust Devil is, technically, stronger in lane, as it can apply a decent amount of pressure on the enemy, but there are very few matchups Sand King can win, even with this facet.

Truthfully, we don’t know how this facet could be changed to make it more viable. Perhaps there is an alternative playstyle on Sand King, where he tanks up through items and follows enemies around in a teamfight, dealing damage with the Sand Storm.

But we don’t believe it to be viable without some increases to the hero’s built-in survivability and stats. That would make both of his facets stronger, though, and the end result would probably be a simply stronger Sandshroud Sand King.

Perhaps getting the Blind effect on Dust Devil’s Sand Storm could make it more appealing, however that would require some talent reworks and a lot of number tweaks, as it can be pretty powerful for early game teamfights.

Closing thoughts

We are slowly starting to get the new patch cravings. Not that the current one is figured out or stale — we strongly believe there is a lot to explore here still. It’s just some of the things in the game are obviously quite underpowered and could use a buff or two.

What are your thoughts on the current meta and how are you enjoying the facet system, a year after the release? Do you have any other underpowered facets in mind that are interesting conceptually, but don’t really work in an actual game? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.