In part three of a five-part series, we examine the best five offlaners from the last month of Dota 2 pubs play on patch 7.32.
OFFLANERS
Depending on the meta, the offlane might change more than any other position. Offlaners are the ones who usually start things started. However, the offlane may also be a secondary carrier, as shown at TI8 and in the metas that have emerged around the previous few patches, where heroes like Razor and Doom have thrived. Nonetheless, with the release of Dota 2 patch 7.32, everything is once again different. The most talked about offlaners are the ones who can compete in the lane and farm for aura goods.
The 7.32 pub meta has already shown us the mid heroes and carriers that are becoming popular. In this article, we take a look at the top offlaners in the game.
Heroes have been chosen based on their stellar performance in either the Divine or Immortal categories. All of this information is based on Dotabuff’s analysis of the last 30 days, which covers the release of patch 7.32. Heroes with high pick rates and/or high victory rates were prioritized in making this roster.
1) Visage (5.43 percent pick rate, 56.4 percent win rate)
Since Visage has been a top-tier hero in Dota 2 for some time, he has received a number of modest nerfs over the course of the previous three patches in an effort to pull him down a notch. While versions 7.32, 7.32b, and 7.32c did provide a few Visage bonuses, the vast bulk of the adjustments were nerfs. Despite this, the hero still has the greatest victory percentage of any offlane hero in competitive pubs.
At TI11, Tundra Esports shown mastery of the hero role. Visage is a formidable opponent on the track. As a carry or a support, Grave Chill is a very frustrating ability to face up against. It has the ability to make last hitting very difficult and to provide lane kills. Dotabuff claims that the most common Visage builds all prioritize maxing up Grave Chill.
The hero’s Wraith Pact has been the most popular item for the last week, and it has helped him achieve a near-60% victory rate. Wraith Pact, along with Gravekeeper’s Cloak, makes Visage a highly durable hero, and he can grow it rapidly. The next major Dota 2 patch will almost certainly include a nerf to this hero.
However, Visage isn’t the most user-friendly hero. Although Necro’lic is a powerful hero, he needs much training before his gargoyle and his Familiars can be used to their full potential.
2) Broodmother (3.90 percent pick rate, 55.69% win rate).
The arrival of Dota 2 patch 7.32 did not improve Broodmother’s prospects, as despite the minor buffs, her movement speed benefit in webs fell down to 0 as her HP went down to 20%, making her a less appealing pick than she had been before. If Broodmother is unable to maximize the lane’s potential, then the hero will be unable to make an impact.
Since patch 7.32b, however, the loss in movement speed has been reduced by 50%, thus at level 4 of Spin Web, she now has 48% greater movement speed in the webs at 100% HP, and just 24% more at 20% HP (as compared to going down to 0 previously). That shift made a tremendous difference in her odds of survival. Patch 7.32c also improved her power and survivability in lane by increasing the HP regeneration in webs.
Brood has always been a hero that takes the early game by storm, securing a lane victory and a tower for his team before handing over to more support heroes. Similar to Visage, Brood may capture the safe lane tower, then build into aura items like Wraith Pact and Pipe of Insight to become a lane dominant force.
Of course, there are lane counters to Broodmother, particularly those that prevent her from capitalizing with her level 6 Spiderlings. But once she gets a snowball rolling, she’s really difficult to stop. In the post-7.32 meta, she may exert pressure on the tier 2 tower by charging down the lane if the Brood tower is the second tier 1 tower to fall. For this reason, many heroes in the current meta focus on tower pressure, since there isn’t always a Glyph to guard the tier 2 tower immediately after the tier 1 in the lane falls down.
3) Enigma (12.79 percent correct predictions, 53.08 percent correct outcomes)
There were several efforts to nerf Enigma before TI11, much like Visage, but to little avail; with a contest rate of 86.45% throughout 231 games, Enigma was the second most disputed hero behind Marci.
The hero has a number of useful features, including solid lane management, push out mechanisms, ministuns that repeat, high damage output in team battles, and the ominous Black Hole. The Black Hole itself isn’t the issue; the danger it poses is.
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Good teams will adjust their play when they detect an Enigma on the other side, knowing that the presence of even one competent Black Hole may drastically influence the outcome of a contest. It’s safe to say that this hero will take a serious blow from the nerf hammer at some point, but until then, they’ll be a formidable opponent.
4) Legion Commander (10.99% select rate, 52.14% win rate)
The Legion Commander is the only secondary carry who made the top five and not an aura builder. Dota 2 patch 7.32 improved upon her new Aghanim’s Shard, which she had received in patch 7.31. Without using a talent slot, her Duel range increased, and she gained access to a new skill that increased her Duel damage.
If LC gets out to a strong start, the +8 Duel damage may help them do a lot of damage. Having the ability to perform Press the attack on allies from her previous Shard elevated her from her position 5 hero status back to that of a core hero.
5 ) Beastmaster (4.84 percent pick rate, 52.15% win rate)
There has been a weakening of the zoo meta throughout the last several patches. It’s not exactly alive either, with Beastmaster serving as the organization’s standard bearer. Beastmaster’s strength is his ability to play in a number of different lanes. Beastmaster may choose to use the early Call of the Wild build, which is common against most opponents, or he can choose for a different strategy. A Wild Axes build is always a possibility if there is an opponent in lane that can easily deal with the Bore.
Dota 2 patch 7.31 increased the health of neutral creeps, which benefits Beastmaster due of how quickly he can harvest the Helm of the Overlord. If there are heroes like Chen, Enchantress, Lifestealer, or Nightstaker who can mitigate the effects of the dominated ancient creep, BM may forego the Helm of the Overlord in favor of a Wraith Pact instead.
BM’s brand new Aghanim’s Scepter, which gives him access to the Drums of Slom, is one item that hasn’t yet caught up. His new ability does AoE magic damage, which is not very useful for him in his current position. But maybe a Scepter-focused mid-Beastmaster build will become popular in the near future.
