After the first "Keep calm and carry on" piece our strategy team wanted to follow up with a second look at the hero pool to pinpoint the group of heroes with carry potential.
- "Will Storm Spirit come into his own as a counter to Tinker and Nature's Prophet? Will Shadow Fiend rise from his current obscurity? Will we see the pure damage monster that is Outworld Destroyer?"
An excerpt from "Keep calm and carry on"
![bc5ae56359dd5180c6df79e2db57a880b2198e0dc02eb4953e95c0885a.png]()
Viper
Giving "spitting mad" a new meaning.
Viper is a fun hero. A headache to lane against, he's almost unmatched in 1-on-1 fights and can even turn a 2-on-1 gank around due to his huge damage potential, especially against low-HP tower divers. Add in his natural tankiness due to his passive and his carry-devastating ultimate, and you have a neat little package. Then why is he picked so rarely?
Aside from a brief stint in the Asian scene a few years back, Viper has never been particularly popular. The reason is potentially due to his lack of stuns and his lack of area-of-effect damage, which forces him to focus his DPS. Frankly, there are some heroes who do focusing better, such as Clinkz. What Viper really relies on his ability to force a confrontation: if he decides to focus on a hero who is even slightly out of position, the enemies have to choose between saving them or cutting them loose. If they choose the first, counter-initiation is easy, and if they choose the second they suffer from the 4-against-5 disadvantage.
Most recently seen in The Defense finals with coL vs. mouz, Viper was played as a semi-carry by mousesports, using his orb and his Viper Strike to chase like the devil. In theory. Unfortunately, Viper got repeatedly chain disabled and--possibly due to his odd pickup of Mekansm over Pipe--often died without contributing significant damage. Will we see him in The International? Maybe, but don't hold your breath.![115c2f9cf96fe8a9d205c3b32a10c9fa500a47109f75de1572e1eb310b.png]()
Clinkz
Barbeque, anyone?
A hero who almost always provides interesting games, Clinkz has appeared recently as a single-target DPS carry, tower killer and support hunter. Clinkz provides an unparalleled ability to hunt down heroes all over the map with his blinding movement speed and jaw-dropping burst damage. Unless the opponents have warded every square inch of the map--and trust me when I say that Clinkz's supports will be frantically dewarding--Clinkz can break from Skeleton Walk almost anywhere and annihilate low-HP heroes without taking so much as a retaliatory attack. Pair this damage with some brave supports and you can apply him to towers with ferocity during the mid- and late-game stages, even being able to overcome tower backdoor regeneration once he has his core and Death Pact up.
I'm almost certain this hero will be seen in The Interational. Against pushing strategies, he can single out key heroes and wreck the lineup; Chen is countered particularly hard by his Death Pact. Against ganking strategies, he can simply out-run opponents in case of truesight and return a few minutes later to devour any stragglers. When fighting a turtle game, Clinkz can hunt carries with impunity or assist in pushes to end the game early. As a fast, mobile hero who brings so much to the table, I expect to see this fiery chap fairly regularly.
Viper
Giving "spitting mad" a new meaning.
Viper is a fun hero. A headache to lane against, he's almost unmatched in 1-on-1 fights and can even turn a 2-on-1 gank around due to his huge damage potential, especially against low-HP tower divers. Add in his natural tankiness due to his passive and his carry-devastating ultimate, and you have a neat little package. Then why is he picked so rarely?
Aside from a brief stint in the Asian scene a few years back, Viper has never been particularly popular. The reason is potentially due to his lack of stuns and his lack of area-of-effect damage, which forces him to focus his DPS. Frankly, there are some heroes who do focusing better, such as Clinkz. What Viper really relies on his ability to force a confrontation: if he decides to focus on a hero who is even slightly out of position, the enemies have to choose between saving them or cutting them loose. If they choose the first, counter-initiation is easy, and if they choose the second they suffer from the 4-against-5 disadvantage.
"What Viper really relies on his ability to force a confrontation: if he decides to focus on a hero who is even slightly out of position, the enemies have to choose between saving them or cutting them loose."
Most recently seen in The Defense finals with coL vs. mouz, Viper was played as a semi-carry by mousesports, using his orb and his Viper Strike to chase like the devil. In theory. Unfortunately, Viper got repeatedly chain disabled and--possibly due to his odd pickup of Mekansm over Pipe--often died without contributing significant damage. Will we see him in The International? Maybe, but don't hold your breath.
Clinkz
Barbeque, anyone?
A hero who almost always provides interesting games, Clinkz has appeared recently as a single-target DPS carry, tower killer and support hunter. Clinkz provides an unparalleled ability to hunt down heroes all over the map with his blinding movement speed and jaw-dropping burst damage. Unless the opponents have warded every square inch of the map--and trust me when I say that Clinkz's supports will be frantically dewarding--Clinkz can break from Skeleton Walk almost anywhere and annihilate low-HP heroes without taking so much as a retaliatory attack. Pair this damage with some brave supports and you can apply him to towers with ferocity during the mid- and late-game stages, even being able to overcome tower backdoor regeneration once he has his core and Death Pact up.
"Clinkz can break from Skeleton Walk almost anywhere and annihilate low-HP heroes without taking so much as a retaliatory attack."
I'm almost certain this hero will be seen in The Interational. Against pushing strategies, he can single out key heroes and wreck the lineup; Chen is countered particularly hard by his Death Pact. Against ganking strategies, he can simply out-run opponents in case of truesight and return a few minutes later to devour any stragglers. When fighting a turtle game, Clinkz can hunt carries with impunity or assist in pushes to end the game early. As a fast, mobile hero who brings so much to the table, I expect to see this fiery chap fairly regularly.
