Every once in a while we stumble upon an idea, a concept, that looks too good on paper to be true. Most of the time, when tested in a real game or scrutinized in a test lobby these concepts either fall apart or prove to be a lot less exciting. It is not the case with Morphling’s Aghanim’s Scepter and in our opinion it might be one of the most underrated items in the game.

It is no secret that Zeus has been trending up in high level games. The addition and buffs to his mobility on top of the previous solution of simply increasing his attack damage made for a very powerful and borderline overpowered mid hero who can trade in lane, avoid ganks, farm up and help his team from the comfort of his lane.

With the DPC Tour over and, unfortunately, still no news on the upcoming patch, it is a good time to have a look at the current state of the professional meta and figure out what heroes and why are being picked at the highest level of play. Professional meta usually doesn’t translate into pub meta in a straightforward fashion, but knowing what to strive for and what heroes can theoretically dominate if you play them well is still incredibly important.

Aghanim’s Shards are not created equal. Some of them are so niche, they can be safely ignored, while others now define the hero they are built on. Today we want to have a look at the most popular Shards in the pub scene and discuss whether they are really worth it.

Arc Warden is a 53%+ win rate hero in all skill brackets this week, maintaining a relatively high popularity. In brackets below Divine his win rate is actually closer to 57% and while it is no secret that Arc Warden is one of the most popular smurf heroes, we believe that he might actually be overpowered. Today we want to discuss why exactly.

Looking at high level pub trends this week, we noticed how Spectre is slowly creeping into the meta. It doesn’t look like an easy process and neither does it feel like a good idea to recommend the hero for regular pub players right now, but we are certain the hero is one minor buff away from being very powerful. Today, we will attempt to prepare our readers for this potential development.

For a very long time the meta was dominated by ganking and aggressive supports. Position five Rubick was normal, Lion was the most popular support hero in the game and sometimes even Tidehunter was played as a five. With the last patch things changed a bit, though, and right now a completely different type of hero is statistically on top.

There is a common misconception about Viper being weak past the laning stage. He is seen as a lane dominating hero that falls off a cliff as early as midgame. That is not necessarily true anymore. Today we want to share how professional players squeeze the maximum out of this both venomous and poisonous menace.

The introduction of Marci to CM gave us a very good idea of how to play the hero most effectively and how powerful she can be if played well. Strong repositioning tools and excellent mobility make for a very powerful support in the current meta of independent cores and today we want to discuss how to tap into this potential.