We take a look at what mid heroes are making waves in the meta evolving around Dota 2 patch 7.34.
Image: xJIANSENGx on DeviantArt
Dota 2 patch 7.34 was released a little over a month ago, and after a quick balance patch in the form of patch 7.34b, the meta has settled to show which heroes are strong and which ones aren’t. We looked at the heroes that are grabbing the headlines in the professional meta, but the pub meta doesn’t always go hand in hand with it. Here, we take a look at which mid heroes have surged to the top in pubs after a month of Dota 2 patch 7.34.
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, so it well and truly reflects the games from patch 7.34 only. The choice of heroes has been made from a combination of high pick rate and high win rate heroes.
Invoker (Pick rate: 16.15%, Win rate: 56.31%)
Invoker is one of the biggest winners of patch 7.34, and even after some nerfs in balance patch 7.34b remains one of the go to mids in pubs and professional games. He was the third most contested hero in the TI12 qualifiers, and is the highest pick rate and win rate hero in top tier pubs by a mile.
The nerfs to Invoker were mostly to the Quas-Wex build, but according to Dotabuff, the two most popular pub builds for the hero are still for the Quas-Wex path. The third most popular is an Exort build, but it has an abysmal win rate. So at least as things stand, Quas-Wex is probably the way to go while playing Invoker.
(taken from Dotabuff)
Queen of Pain (Pick rate: 10.71%, Win rate: 51.32%)
Queen of Pain’s buffs have been adding up since the release of Dota 2 patch 7.33, and her popularity has built up along with it. One of the biggest buffs was the one to her Scepter. According to Dotabuff, Aghanim’s Scepter is Queen of Pain’s second most used item of the last month and it has a win rate of 58.02%, which shows how good it is. It gives Akasha a different way to play the hero by going for an early Scepter, especially against illusion heroes. Also a small benefit QoP has over other mids is that she can teleport to the tier 2 tower at minute 7, get the Wisdom Rune and refill her bottle and be back in lane quicker than most heroes using Blink, or she can sneak her way through trees and gank the opposition safe lane.
(taken from Dotabuff)
Tinker (Pick rate: 7.56%, Win rate: 52.34%)
Tinker is a hero to be looked at with a bit of skepticism, because even though he might work well in the highest rung of pubs, it isn’t necessarily the case for the other ranks on the ladder. It is a hero that takes a lot of practice. Even though there haven’t been any sizable buffs thrown Tinker’s way, global heroes like Nature’s Prophet and Spectre doing well in the meta is an invitation for him to be picked, as he can always join the party anywhere on the map.
Primal Beast (Pick rate: 4.36%, Win rate: 53.69%)
Primal Beast rose to popularity after the release of patch 7.33, with one of the main reasons being Pulverize was changed to pierce debuff immunity. At level 3 of the skill, it is a 28 second cooldown on a skill that makes BKB look useless.
In patch 7.34, he hasn’t received anything more than a slap on the wrist as a nerf. The hero continues to be a strong position 2 or position 3 candidate. And he tends to do well against meta heroes like Nature’s Prophet, who’s Sprout trees get Trampled upon, and carries like Phantom Assassin who absolutely need to build a BKB and cannot burst down the behemoth.
Earthshaker (Pick rate: 5.37%, Win rate: 52.88%)
For the last few years, it has been an open secret that in the patch that leads to The International, Earthshaker gets buffed. The crowd loves the Earthshaker hologram on stage thumping his totem, and it also makes for some insane plays in clutch games. Earthshaker has made his presence felt at TI through many positions, and this time around, it is the position 2 role that seems to be calling Raigor Stonehoof.
The reduced cast point and increased attack range for Enchant Totem and the increased Aftershock radius make core Earthshaker extremely lucrative. The skill build is to max out those two skills while having one point in Fissure for the stun and block potential. The item build while playing through the mid lane is Bottle or Soul Ring into Power Treads followed by Blink Dagger and Aghanim’s Scepter. After that, the item build is flexible based on how the game is going.
(taken from Dotabuff)
Honorable Mentions
Outworld Destroyer (Pick rate: 7.47%, Win rate: 51.02%)
Pangolier (Pick rate: 6.89%, Win rate: 51.76%)
A big thing to note here is that the stronghold Universal heroes had on the mid lane in the previous patch seems to have disappeared. It is a much more level playing field now.
In the days to come, GosuGamers will take a look at the strong pub heroes in the remaining positions as well, starting with which carry heroes currently look good.
