While Muerta's arrival was highly anticipated, her assimilation in the game hasn't been the best as Dota 2's latest hero struggles with her win rate.
There was a time when new Dota 2 heroes were absolutely overpowered, so that they would get picked ergularly and players would get used to the hero. Heroes like Monkey King, Hoodwink and Marci were destroying pubs in their first few days. But in recent times, the trend of having overpowered new heroes has reversed to an extent. Dawnbreaker was so weak on her release, that she needed an immediate set of buffs, as did Primal Beast. And it seems like Muerta, who was released in The Dead Reckoning Update along with Dota 2 patch 7.32e, will need the same boost to keep players interested in her.
Right after she was released, we took a closer look at her skills and talents and how they can be used. A little more than four days after her release, let’s look at how she is faring in pubs.
All data and images taken from Dotabuff.
Win Rate and Pick Rate
Muerta’s win rate has been below average for her short existence in Dota 2. It has increased from around 43% tow 45% in four days, but it seems to be flattening out. The hero is either quite weak, or the right way to play her is yet to be discovered. Her pick rate was extremely high on the first day, as is the case with any new hero. But it seems to be slowly tapering down, possibly due to the win rate numbers.
Lane Presence
Muerta is being played in all three lanes, with safe lane being the most preferred one with around 40% of her presence being there. Win rates in all three lanes are well below average, with the highest one being in the offlane where she is probably played as a position 4 hero. But one the whole, the picture looks quite bleak, irrespective of the lane and the role.
Skill Builds
Muerta’s most popular build in Dota 2 pubs has the first two skills, Dead Shot and The Calling maxed out first. This is slightly surprising, as she is a carry and Gunslinger does help her farm fast. But the position 4 role will see her max out the first two skills, and there is a possibility that the same build could feel lucrative for the position 2 role, as she will have a level advantage from the mid lane and maximum magic damage from the first two skills at level 9.
The second most popular skill build maxes out Dead Shot first and Gunslinger second with one point in The Calling. That is the typical build for carry Muerta.
Talents
Looking at Muerta’s talents, one talent at each level seems to outshine the other significantly. All the right sided talents on the talent tree have higher pick rates and to be fair, they have higher win rates as well. All three Dead Shot talents have high priority, while the +25 Damage at level 15 has pretty low priority. That is possibly because 25 damage at level 15 does not feel strong. Abaddon, who is gaining popularity as a carry in the 7.32e meta, has a +65 Damage talent at level 15. In comparison to that, Muerta’s damage talent feels extremely weak.
It has only been four days, but from the looks of things, it is evident that Muerta, is in dire need of some buffs. Dawnbreaker and Primal Beast had the initial buffs conferred upon them in within the first week. Hopefully that will be the case with Muerta as well. The Aghanim’s Scepter and Aghanim’s Shard upgrades are also missing from Muerta’s arsenal, but those probably won’t arrive till Dota 2 patch 7.33 is released. Till then, let’s hope Ice Frog and Valve do something to bring her back from the dead; not in terms of the lore, but in terms of the game!
