Shifting Tides—Meta Changes
Over the course of the last couple of weeks, there were some interesting changes to the metagame. These changes were not the result of an external factor, but rather a natural progression within the patch—something only possible when almost every hero is a viable choice. While minor, these changes can be indicative of a larger trend: it is not uncommon for small ripples in the high-tier pubs to grow into what is considered to be the actual meta.
There are three heroes who lately experienced a steady growth in both their pick and win rate: 
Luna, [missing hero: outworld-devourer] and 
Sniper were getting a lot of attention, and understanding the reasons behind their resurgence is crucial.
Luna
Luna has been under the radar for a very long time, despite receiving nothing but buffs for six patches in a row. She was often thought of as a worse alternative for 
Gyrocopter and 
Medusa and for good reasons—the former comes online and peaks earlier, while the latter is among the strongest late-game heroes in the game.
With several nerfs to Gyrocopter and the risks associated with a Medusa pick, it is understandable why Luna returned to the game. She is an excellently scaling, agility carry with the highest starting MS in the game and decent early-game presence. Her flash-farming abilities are also worth noting—she can clear stacks earlier and more efficiently than Medusa, before the latter gets several items.
Yet all of this was true even before the buffs and nerfs of the last couple of patches. The big boom came when people started realising how good the hero is against illusions and how good her own illusions are.
While the same can be said about a late-game Medusa, she does not come online faster than a typical illusion hero, frequently forcing her to play defensively earlier than she would like to. Moreover, Medusa in the late-game will suffer a great deal from mana-burning heroes, and many illusion heroes fall into that category.
Dragon Lance was another massive boost to Luna. It’s a very cost efficient early-game stat item that almost completely replaced the usual first item 
Yasha on the majority of ranged carries, but its benefits are especially significant on Luna, who can struggle in the early game with her below average starting HP and attack range.
Her build remained the same throughout all the changes—most people still go for an extra point into 
Lunar Blessing since it can greatly benefit in the early-game pushes. 
Lucent Beam is always maxed out by level seven, with [missing skill: luna-moon-glaive-5223] maxed out by level twelve. The only outlier on the first page of the guides is unsurprisingly a 
the wings gaming member, who went for a greedier earlier glaives build with an 
Aghanim's Scepter as one of the items.
Sniper
The hero was overnerfed in the aftermath of the 6.83, yet slowly but surely he climbs his way back into the meta. Unlike other heroes discussed today, he does not stand out in the 5k+ bracket, maintaining a “perfectly balanced” 50% win rate, but it is a major improvement over his previous state.
Once again, the return of Sniper can be attributed to the rising popularity of the Dragon Lance. While percentage-wise the hero benefits from the item the least, the extra 140 puts him at 1090 attack range, which is ridiculous no matter how one looks at it. The added night vision increase of the previous patch also allows the hero to fully utilise this range regardless of the time of day.
There are also several noteworthy changes to the way the hero is built. Most higher tier players currently opt for a first-level 
Take Aim, which usually puts them at a higher range, compared to the opponent. This allows Sniper to stay relatively safe from harassment and harass himself, even with his miniscule starting damage. In most cases 
Shrapnel is maxed by level seven, with a value point in 
Headshot.
The release of 
Underlord is also worth mentioning. The Atrophy Aura of the hero is among the strongest late-game damage-mitigating tools, especially against stats-based carries. This frequently forces agility heroes to go for suboptimal item choices, going for bonus damage, rather than base damage from stats. Sniper is currently one of the two heroes in the game who can attack into Underlord without suffering the consequences of the aura, potentially allowing him to go for more DPS-efficient agility builds.
In his current state, Sniper is still ill-advised as an mmr-grinding hero, partly due to his inconsistency, partly due to the fact that any hero with a gap closer can be effectively considered a counter to him. Unlike 
Drow Ranger Sniper does not make up for it with an extremely strong global DPS aura and he does not come online as fast. But the hero is definitely worth consideration as a last or second-to-last pick.
[missing hero: outworld-devourer]
Outworld Devourer is almost certainly back—53% win rate in 5k+ speak for themselves. After the nerfs in 6.87, it seemed like the hero would remain irrelevant for a longer period, but new item and ability builds, as well as changes in the meta, have put him back on the map.
The first interesting observation once again comes from the guides page. The majority of the high-level players currently tend to max out [missing skill: outworld-devourer-astral-imprisonment-5392] first, as opposed to the previous “new” build which heavily focused on [missing skill: outworld-devourer-arcane-orb-5391]. Having a reliable nuke and makeshift disable on a lower cooldown is valued higher than the ability to steal intelligence early in the game.
Second interesting observation is that the hero almost always goes for 
Hurricane Pike. With 
Force Staff being a great pick-up for the hero, its natural progression was bound to be successful. The item provided this intelligence heavy-hitter with a much needed safety net, both in terms of the passive attack range increase and a very handy active ability. Moreover, unlike most other heroes with Hurricane Pike, Outworld Devourer can actually kill a target in four hits of unlimited range.
An often underlooked component of the Arcane Orb is that it deals extra damage to illusions. In a meta where illusion-based strategies are relevant, OD truly shines. Given his already massive attack damage, the hero will typically one-shot any illusions until the very late game. With that in mind, it is understandable why 
Moon Shard became such a popular pick-up. With decent attack range provided by Dragon Lance and attack speed of Moon Shard the hero can steal massive amount of intelligence not only making him a stronger right-clicker, but also increasing the potency of his [missing skill: outworld-devourer-sanitys-eclipse-5394] a great deal.
Looking at the popularity of the heroes in all brackets, the only consistently picked core intelligence hero is 
Invoker. The resurgence of OD hence makes a lot of sense—with many previous staples such as 
Lina, 
Queen of Pain, 
Leshrac out of the picture, OD can reign supreme over the lesser beings.
Closing Thoughts
The ever-evolving meta is not a new concept to Dota. Even in comparatively less successful patches, it was not uncommon for new trends to emerge. This time around, however, the process does not seem to stop. The previous staples are slowly becoming less popular with new heroes entering the scene of high-level public games.
This list could potentially include many more heroes—there is a new fighting build for 
Morphling, once again enabled by the Dragon Lance. There is an uprise in the 
Meepo popularity and even 
Visage is starting to make an appearance once in awhile. But the three heroes discussed today have only just started making some noise after being almost completely ignored at the International. Show them some carefully calculated love, and they will definitely pay you back in full.
first ?
ok im 1st
i dont want to see more sniper or od in my games but i cant stop it can i
hate opponent → od lol
HO HO HA HA
Riki is also rising ,
Great read, thanks.
Looks like it's time to dust off my OD game ... and astral prison some fools, those buffs to it were apparently better than they looked.
One question for the better players re sniper: why go first point in the passive? Seems like for early fight/runes, shrapnel is much better. I would guess better players delay the decision until they can determine whether there will be an early fight.
ETA: Riki and Huskar are terrifying right now.
Riki is strong but not OP
Huskar is basically the same shit for the last 3 patches,annoying if not handled well
^Riki has already rised
Great read as always!
It's no surprise that these heroes are on the way up for now. With a 21.5% pick rate on Drow Ranger and her big impact in the meta, ranged carries were always going to be picked more, winning more games and posing more of a difficult opposition to us all.
Lets wait until Drow aura is nerfed at the next patch and watch these heroes fade away in to irrelivance once again!
too late to say first
I disagree that sniper does not come online as fast because sniper can easily have decent crowd control slow enemy at lv 2-3 around 2:30+ which helps supports to initiate the enemy successfully at this early stage and his range allows him to fight safely through out the early game if sniper stays in right position furthermore sniper's ult is nearly half of lina's ult with insane range compared to lina's ult which allows sniper to secure the leaving enemies or start to deal more damage with his ult and with decent cd sniper can gank every 1-2 min without losing many farm.
froggo pls buf qop
dragon lance "It’s a very cost efficient early-game stat item" compared to S&Y or even skadi, no surprise on looking heroes like meepo building it..
About that Luna skill build, why not keep lunar blessing at level 1 and max moon glaive at 10? I'm not saying damage aura is bad, but level 4 glaive is so much better than level 3, and it also has some pushing power.
I can outplay OD with Sniper easily.
For a long time now I've been a proponent of the Agh's on Luna; I'd go as far as to say it's far superior to BKB and should be used as an alternative. Luna, as I see her, isn't a great frontliner due to her low health and range but if you're starting the fight off with an Agh's Eclipse, it provides massive burst and allows her to pick off after pick off.
It can, unlike her regular ult in lategame, completely turn the tide of a fight and it's unbelievably good for stopping a Rosh attempt. The massive range also allows it to easily pick off an enemy team's backline supports before they know what's hit them.
What it gives Luna in terms of stats and damage aren't great compared to other four-thousand gold items but I honestly think it's a superb pickup.
Luna aghs is just an alternative playstyle of her
You can have your usual outfarm and push to death luna or a caster luna which is relatively more scary in teamfights (well heroes don't stick around to get shred by the glaive, right) but tied to high cooldowns
I'd rather go for the first one since you'd pick luna as a flash farming pusher anyway
Luna agh is like jugg agh, i think, very situational, beware of eul holder, bkb(ghost staff for jug), or even force staff holder(luna might be able to chase up though)
Slightly better than jug after a sec of thought, the beam rate aint no joke
So does OD's Arcane Orb absolutely ruin Warlock golems?
Tl ; dr
Dragon Lance.
Shrapnel as first ability is not too smart as you will just push the lane which you don't want to do, I normally put 1 point in his passive first before I put a point in shrapnel, at lvl 3 you should be ready for a gank if your team has a stun or slow. I normally play him safe lane so I play a bit passively at first just to farm and after abou 7 mins I would push the lane and take towers. Oh and I never get a shadowblade on sniper if I'm looking for mobility I would go sange and yasha or blink.
Shadow blade is trash on sniper
Why the fuck would you initiate with a goddamn sniper who is supposed to stay behind and shoot people do death and get out as quickly as he can when threats are nearing
YES YES YES
@Egoist, jugg's agahs is garbage. (it still remain as one of the best agahs alchemist can give, its garbage cause this agahs doesn't bring more to his ultimate than a random dps item, and ofc agahs bring nothing in between ult; however the effect is indeed super strong)
Luna's agahs is situational. If you are pos1, it's utterly bad, but if you are pos2 or pos3, you can definitly go for it.
Filthy SD picker with drow/luna FeelsGoodMan
thanks
Sniper is too annoying of a hero
Дотабафф перевели !
there is nothin more annoying than a sniper being near his tower and harasing you from there and you can do nothing about it
My boner is rising
Ура на русском!
od with hurricane + octarine = 7.5 astral cd with 4 sec duration and 10 sec hurricane pike, good stuff
Кул статья!
thanks for the translation into Russian developers
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