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Dota 2, pubs, supports, patch 7.32

Top 5 hard supports in pubs from the past month for Dota 2 patch 7.32

Image: biggreenpepper on DeviantArt

In the fourth of the five part series, we take a look at the top 5 hard supports in pubs from the past month for Dota 2 patch 7.32.

In our journey of the strong pub heroes of the current Dota 2 meta, we have looked at the top 5 pub heroes from the top tier of pubs for the mid, carry and offlane roles. We now arrive at the most under appreciated and probably most under queued role in ranked match making – hard support. It might not be the fanciest job in the fame, but someone has to do it. And here, we take a look at the best means to do it.

The heroes have been picked as the best performing ones from the Divine and Immortal brackets. This data is as per Dotabuff and has been analyzed for the past one month, which has all been on patch 7.32. The choice of heroes has been made from a combination of high pick rate and high win rate heroes.

 

1) Silencer (Pick rate: 9.95%, Win rate: 54.76%)

Silencer saw a lot of changes made to him in Dota 2 patch 7.32, and a few more in the balance patches that followed (7.32b and 7.32c). The hero could have gained traction as either a core or a support, but the prominent role that he naturally deviated to was one as a support. The changes helped with that, but one of the biggest factors in Silencer being popular is his archrival, Enigma! Enigma is a strong meta hero, and Silencer is his best counter. While Enigma makes the opposition dance around Black Hole, Silencer makes the Consumer of Worlds dance around Global Silence.

In patch 7.32, Silencer got a new talent at level 15, which can reduce the Global Silence cooldown from 100 seconds to 75 seconds. Enigma has a 160 second cooldown on Blackhole, so with the new talent, Silencer can be ready to fight with Global Silence (translation – ready to press one button as his team goes in) while Enigma has to wait for the Black Hole to come back. Silencer can push out lanes with Arcane Curse (which got buffed), which also helps him farm a Refresher Orb, to counter a Refresher Orb Enigma.

At TI11, teams were initially picking Silencer as a counter to Enigma. But when players began to realize that Silencer is a strong support irrespective of whether there is an Enigma in the enemy team or not, teams started first phasing him. It would give them a strong hero, which could be flexible as a core or support, and would also deter the opposition from picking Enigma.

 

2) Undying (Pick rate: 12.68%, Win rate: 52.35%)

Undying was one of the most nerfed heroes of Dota 2 patch 7.32, but that didn’t affect his popularity at TI11, and it hasn’t affected it in top tier pubs either. The Dirge is also a pain to play against in Diretide. Even with the nerfs, what Undying offers in lane control with Decay and in team fights with Tombstone keeps him a strong support. The high Decay mana cost can be taken care of by Mangos in lane. But considering how popular he has been for the longest time, there might be some major nerfs coming Undying’s way.

(taken from dota2.fandom.com)

 

3) Crystal Maiden (Pick rate: 12.31%, Win rate: 51.09%)

Crystal Maiden only had a couple of significant buffs to her  in the recent patch – a level 15 talent that increased her Cold Embrace cast rage by 125, and allies getting additional mana in a 1200 radius passively, instead of only when she used a skill. The new talent has a 79.5% pick rate and 57.7% win rate, according to Dotabuff. But that isn’t the reason for her popularity. Her popularity and strength comes from the fact that she pairs extremely well with a lot of the strong cores this meta, and can go either in the safe lane or the offlane. In professional games played on Dota 2 patch 7.32, CM has a win rate of over 58% with six heroes (at least 20 games), including her fire loving sister Lina.

Tundra Esports, the winners of Aegis at TI11 in Singapore, were the team that made CM popular. One of the things that Tundra did was picking up a lot of heroes with wave clear, and Rylai has that with Crystal Nova. The slightly realistic meme has always been that the moment Crystal Maiden starts to do well, she is nerfed to the ground. Hopefully, IceFrog sees that her partners in crime are more deserving of nerfs and lets her stay prominent for a while.

(taken from datdota.com)

 

4) Omniknight (Pick rate: 5.87%, Win rate: 54.66%)

According to Dotabuff, all of Omniknight’s most popular builds in pubs start with one level in Hammer of Purity and then maxing out Heavenly Grace. Hammer of Purity gives Omni an offensive impact in lane, something which he previously didn’t have.

Heavenly Grace has been one of the strongest skills in the game for a while now. Even at his worst times, if there was anything that could justify an Omni pick, it was Heavenly Grace. And with the skill now affecting the caster when cast on an ally, it just makes it an amazing tool to have in the laning stage and in team fights. It can be used offensively with the base strength bonus in mind for heroes like Lifestealer and Sven, or defensively for the double strong dispel and health regen. Granted, that it does not provide Status Resistance anymore, but the self cast and the bonus HP regen per dispelled debuff make up for that.

Dota 2 patch 7.32c did nerf Heavenly Grace and Hammer of Purity, but that was needed as Omni was getting a bit too strong. What would be nice to see players make a core Omni work, who could fight early with maxed out Hammer of Purity!

(taken from dota2.fandom.com)

 

5) Lich (Pick rate: 8.12%, Win rate: 51.09%)

Lich is a great babysitter, who makes life in the laning stage easier for his carry, but he has benefitted from some recent buffs that has made him a strong position 5 contender for the current meta. When Ice Spire was introduced to the game as Lich’s Aghanim’s Shard upgrade in Dota 2 patch 7.28, it didn’t seem too strong. But with small buffs through multiple patches, Lich’s Aghanim’s Shard has become significantly better, and worth getting every game. In the past week, according to Dotabuff, Aghanim’s Shard was the highest picked item on Lich, and it has a 55.91% win rate.

Lich was first phased in many TI11 games, a lot of times in pairing with heroes like Leshrac, who like to play in the enemy’s face. Having Frost Shield on a raid boss is extremely irritating to deal with for the opposition, and it now lasts for 2 seconds (6 to 8 seconds increase in patch 7.32b, which is a 33.33% increase in duration).

(taken from dota2.fandom.com)

 

Honorable Mentions

Disruptor (Pick rate: 10.65%, Win rate: 49.92%)
Io (Pick rate: 3.12%, Win rate: 53.44%)
Dazzle (Pick rate: 6.17%, Win rate: 50.91%)

 

A special mention goes out to Mirana, who was a really good position 5 for Tundra at TI11. No one else used her as a position 5, but Tundra with her unique ideas made her look quite strong in the hard support role.

Author
gopya-avatar
Siddharth "Gopya" GopujkarA Mechanical Engineer who is as interested in the mechanics of DotA 2 as every machine he studies. Pursuing his Master's at the Michigan Technological University.

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