At the time of writing, Necrophos is the worst hero in Dota, at least when it comes to higher-level pubs. In Divine+ games he is considerably less useful than Pudge and Techies, so the natural question arises: what the hell happened? Today, we would like to have a look at why the hero is that bad and is there a way to make him work or at least a modicum of reason to try.

Hey guys, have you heard about the stock market?! Want to take some wild risks by investing in meme stocks that could either quadruple in value this week or be worth absolutely nothing tomorrow? Yeah, I bet you do since so many of you are literally gambling away your MMR by picking hot garbage like Phantom Assassin and praying for Coup de Grâce procs to bail you out. We here at DOTABUFF appreciate a savvy investment approach when deciding what heroes are worth picking. With so many options and only limited time before the meta shifts, here are some hero trends worth watching while the opportunity lasts.

Bounty Hunter is absolutely worth talking about. The hero is among the most popular and successful heroes in the game right now, even in the highest level games. While initially it looked like his new Shard is to credit for Bounty Hunter’s sudden resurgence, the case might not be as simple. Perhaps the hero was pretty good all along, and the Shard merely presented an opportunity for players to notice BH.

After giving a shout out to our favorite Aghanim’s Shards last time around, it is time to call out the ones we feel are sub-par. There can be many reasons for why we think a specific Shard can be a bad investment: it might simply be weak, it might have too high of an opportunity cost, it might be too specific to be purchased in most games or it might not fit the hero at all, at least in the hero’s most viable playstyle. Today we are going to look at five such shards that will need either significant direct buffs or the meta to change to become viable.

Any time Icefrog introduces a sweeping change like new or tweaked abilities for every hero my theory crafting juices get flowing in earnest. Here are some of my favorite additions to the game since the Aghanim’s Shard patch of 7.28.

No hero in the history of Dota has received as many major reworks or as many name changes as OD. The constant struggle to find their identity has sometimes left the hero completely busted. Other times the hero has been close to useless, even in their most favorable matchups. Right now, it feels like OD is in the former state, and today we would like to discuss why and how this hero works in higher level pubs.

Today's the last part of our series, and we are going to concentrate on mid heroes. Ever since the drafting rework in All Pick, we’ve seen a steady increase in popularity of versatile and reliable picks, and this trend continues in the new patch as well.

When 7.28 and the subsequent patches hit Dota, a lot of the uber powerful carry heroes faded from the meta. With heroes like Sven, Faceless Void, Spectre and Lifestealler getting nerfs the path has opened up for several new carries to enter the meta. Perhaps more importantly than the nerfs is the acceleration of the game. A lot of cheesy heroes have become more popular and Necronomicon and Helm of Dominator have been buffed again. This means it is a lot more important for the carry to be able to fight earlier and to be more self sufficient to allow for the rest of its team to run around the map making plays.

Perhaps it is premature to call the current meta settled, and perhaps there will be more balance patches in the nearest future, but today we would like to discuss the best offlaners in the game right now. As previously, we will concentrate on pub meta statistics and what works in the higher-level skill brackets.