When Marci was first announced and then released by Valve into gameplay fans were thrilled, so it is no surprise to see her flooding the pubs.
It’s been a week since Dota 2’s latest hero was released in the game. Starting from Dragon’s Blood, Marci made her way to Dota 2 and like every new hero does, took the game by storm. The question with new heroes always is – what is their best role and what are the best item choices? Let’s take a look at what the data from Dotabuff says about how to play Marci.
When Marci was released, it was inevitable she would be either picked or banned every game (could not be banned on the first day, still doesn’t get banned if multiple players pick her). So it isn’t a surprise that her pick rate was higher than 70% for the first few days. In terms of win rate, she wasn’t doing too bad either. Her win rate fluctuated between 52%-54% in the first few days, even after the first set of nerfs right after the day she was released.
All images taken from Dotabuff.
First set of nerfs
General
Base mana regen reduced from 0.5 to 0
Dispose
Damage reduced from 70/140/210/280 to 70/130/190/250
Rebound
Cast/Jump range reduced from 850 to 800
Unleash
Duration reduced from 18 to 16
Pulse damage reduced from 80/150/220 to 60/130/200
Talents
Level 15: Reduced from plus 250 Rebound Cast/Jump Range to plus 200
Level 20: Reduced from 1.75-second Sidekick Spell Immunity to 1.5 seconds
But IceFrog and Valve deemed that wasn’t enough, and another set of nerfs hit Marci, causing her win rate to plummet below 50%.
Second set of nerfs
It will take a few days to figure out the right formula for her in order to make sure she is well balanced in pubs. And it becomes harder for a hero like Marci, because she can literally be played in every role! While position 5 might not be the best fit for her (although it can be played to good effect depending on the heroes in lane).
Skill build
In majority of Marci’s games, she is played as a core. Core can either be position 1, position 2 or position 3. When playing her as a core, a number of different skill builds can be adapted. One of the common ones is the one shown below, where Sidekick is maxed out first. It helps Marci and her laning buddy to sustain and harass in lane and helps Marci farm later on when the laning stage breaks out. If the hero with Marci is a potent right clicker, taking the skill earlier than level 4 might not be the worst idea either.
While playing mid Marci though, it might make sense to get just one point in Sidekick and max out Dispose and Rebound, because she doesn’t get to make the most efficient use of sidekick while being alone in lane. In that case, it could be more beneficial to max out the burst damage for farming and harassing the opposition mid.
While playing support, it is natural to max out Dispose and Rebound. The idea is to ramp up the damage on the opposition heroes, try and throw them back into your tower and in general, make life miserable for them while your core has an easy lane. But even while playing as a support, a case can be made for leveling up Sidekick early. If it is a difficult lane where you know there isn’t too much chance of getting kills, then it will be beneficial for your core to have Sidekick to get last hits and stay in the lane with a good amount of HP. That’s the beautiful thing about Marci – she can be played in multiple roles with multiple skill builds in each role!
Item build
While skill builds are quite interchangeable, item builds aren’t so much based on role. The common skill build for her as a core is:
Phase Boots
Soul Ring
Armlet of Mordiggian
Black King Bar
Skull Basher (into Abyssal Blade)
Daedalus
While these are the most popular ones, others can be viable as well based on the situation.
For core Marci, the game is all about Unleash, because that’s where her damage comes from. When she binds onto a target with Unlease activated, she can literally unleash a ton of damage in a very short duration. In that scenario, Basher is the best item she can have as it keeps the hero stunned in between Flurry combos and makes it possible to keep going on the target if the hero doesn’t die in one combo. Like Sven, Marci is a hero that cannot play without BKB. If you are a core and get kited while your ultimate is activated, a good deal of your effectiveness evaporates. Instead, if you are able to pop BKB and get on the backlines, opposition supports vanish within a matter of seconds.
For support Marci, the items that make sense would be:
Spirit Vessel
Aether Lens
Solar Crest
Blink Dagger
Support Marci is a bit more open ended in terms of what her main duty in a team fight is. It could be blinking or Rebounding in and throwing an enemy hero out of position with Dispose. For all those actions, Aether Lens comes in handy. With Aether Lens, she can literally pick up allies from Chronosphere or Black Hole and throw them out to safety (it can be done without Aether Lens as well, but better chance of success with one).
The other way is buffing up a siege engine like Alchemist or Medusa with Sidekick and Solar Crest, and jumping in to throw them to safety when they get ganked. While support Marci does not value Unleash as much as core Marci, it is still a useful tool for the Pulse damage and slow in between the Flurry combos.
The hero provides a lot of versatility, and it will only get better once her Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade and Aghanim’s Shard upgrade are introduced in the next big patch. Popular streamer Niklas “Wagamama” Högström and professional player Darly Koh “iceiceice” Pei Xiang have been paying a LOT of Marci in their pubs (core Marci). A good way to learn the hero would be to check out how they player Marci in different scenarios.
