New Meta: Offlane Abaddon
Image by WEi-Zi
Abaddon has been a top tier pick in pub games since his release—his winrate has always been well above 50%. There were many explanations for this trend, most of which did not involve the incompetence of lower MMR players trying to deal with a tanky target, yet the hero remained largely ignored by the professionals for the longest of times.
The hero was deemed too greedy and level dependent to be a support; he doesn’t offer any disables and his strong dispel from Aphotic Shield is mostly situational. Despite all of that, the hero has finally found a place for himself in the meta.
Offlane Abaddon
Heroes in Dota do not exist in a vacuum—the popularity of certain heroes influences the popularity of others and so on. When the initiator or, more specifically, the “catch” role has moved from offlane to the fourth position, offlane suddenly became vacant. Naturally, the void had to be filled and many teams were faced with a question of whether they truly need another AoE disabler, if they already had position four Monkey King, Sand King or Slardar on their team.
The definitive answer to this question was given by the Chinese teams during the DAC playoffs, who instead of going for extra offensive utility in their offlane, frequently went for a defensive one. After an abysmal group stage, the hero recovered and went on to win 6 games out of 9 during the main stage part of the tournament. Core Abaddon is not meant to be a carry or a damage dealer—he is still a utility hero, but his utility was much harder to calculate and analyze and it might have been part of the reason he was under the radar for so long.
The 7.xx Era
Talents made previously unviable heroes playable and made new builds possible. In case of Abaddon, it is a little bit of both. His talent tree offers one of the most game-changing level 25 talents in the form of +300 Aphotic Shield capacity/damage and a level 10 XP acceleration talent. Both these talents were buffed in the mini-patches leading up to the DAC, pushing the hero over the edge.
The accompanying nerfs were not nearly as strong—the 0.2 reduction in strength growth results in 100 HP lost at level 25, which is made up for with the increased damage absorption of the Aphotic Shield, while the mana cost increase on the Shield was small enough to be almost inconsequential.
This transition of 100 HP from the hero to the Shield benefits from greater flexibility and damage output, while the 15% cooldown reduction at level 20 is the icing on the cake. A 5-second cooldown 500 Heal/Damage ability that has strong dispel properties is sound both on paper and in practice.
Getting There
It should be clear by now that a level 25 Abaddon is an absolute powerhouse, both in terms of utility and even residual damage. The question is, how does one get there on a melee hero with no flash-farming abilities in the offlane position?
The answer is surprisingly simple: 
Hand of Midas and teamfights are your friends. Hand of Midas was built on the hero in almost every game of the DAC and for a good reason. +20% XP talent at level 10 affects the 2.5x XP multiplier of the Midas transmute, making for a powerful combo.
The Midas cooldown is similarly affected by the Cooldown Reduction talent at level 20, making the final push that much easier. This passive XP gain increase doesn’t come at a huge cost, since Abaddon is extremely greedy XP-wise, but not gold-wise and can be very effective with the simple "brown boots".
His teamfight effectiveness comes from the very strong Aphotic Shield as well as 
Curse of Avernus. Enemies are generally really unwilling to come close to you because of it and since you are the frontliner of the team, it is hard for them to get to your team’s backline as well. And they generally don’t want to initiate on you either—most of their initiation will be quickly wasted, once you turn on the ultimate.
This allows your team to push objectives in relative safety and with the added benefit of extra AS from Curse of Avernus. As long as you keep your backlines safe and secure and position well, enemy initiation should not be a massive problem.
Utility vs. Utility
In the professional matches of the DAC there were two sufficiently different Abaddon builds, however both of them concentrated on utility first and foremost. The more popular one involved Midas into Radiance rush. While it may seem like a DPS build, it is not.
Radiance is primarily used as a split-pushing tool and, perhaps more importantly, area denial tool against the enemy initiators, as if their life wasn’t miserable enough. It was occasionally followed up with Manta Style and Octarine Core for poor man’s Naga style of play, but if dealing with constant split-push is not an issue for your team, going for more regular Aghanim’s Scepter is a preferable option.
Another utility build concentrates on, well, utility, but in a more conservative way. The items in this build include Vladmir’s Offering, Force Staff, Lotus Orb and other items of the sorts. It should be noted, that this build was only utilised when the team with Abaddon already had a better Radiance core, be it Alchemist, Naga or Spectre. Otherwise, nothing is stopping the hero from going these support utility items after getting the Radiance. Octarine Core and Aghanim’s Scepter are, as always, an option.
Future of the Hero
We’ve discussed previously that it is rather likely we'll receive another balance patch before the Kiev Major, but it is unlikely Abaddon will be nerfed severely, if at all. He wasn’t the most successful hero of the tournament or the most popular one. But he confidently left the “niche” realm and is likely to be mainstream in the following months.
Initiation and low-cost/cooldown “catch” are essential in a good draft, but they do have diminishing returns and sometimes, a nigh unkillable and extremely annoying tanky frontliner is what your team will need the most.
First! Holy Shit!!!
Secong PogChamp
why the first one is always a 2k? :v
4th ??? :-)
NEW?^^
Oh no.. Retarded midas Abaddons incoming. Too bad cause that's not how you play the hero.
really dude
Abaddon becoming meta. Poor 3k and lower brackets.
It's hard to get the farming space on him in pubs, so the Midas + exp strat seems really good. And since the pros are doing it ... depends on the game of course, but if its looking like it will go mid-late, totally worth.
good to be offlane, but poor as carry. presented by aui2000.
Surprised it took so long to figure out.
Abaddon has always been considered best in the offlane. I can't remember a time when his win rate was higher anywhere else.
abbadon is a super tanky i think
KPII,aui2000,ICEICEICE
i have had ridiculous success with the midas radi build
"Naturally, the void had to be filled"
Pun intended? :)
abaddon excels in prolonged team fights and enemy teams with long duration stuns/ Debuffs once he gets his aghs in a timely manner your team is diffucult to kill.
Broken op Hero f*ck that s*it (Pick it more, I am Slark abuser Kappa123)
"New Meta"
AT LAST, FROST MORNE HUNGER
> A detailed and well-argumented look on the efficiency of a new hero build, used successfully by high-tier teams
> 3k mastermind Mr.Grieves: 'retarded, that's not how you play'
Sorry Kawaii, you got rekt
New meta? Like 3 years old
i mean np was like drafting this at boston. I'm pretty sure theres very little new about it.
i have been doing core aba for some time in pubs and have high win rate glad to see him picked in pro games now
new?thats been around since the hero released :P
"New meta: offlane Abaddon".
....
Abaddon IS and HAS ALWAYS BEEN an offlaner. *facepalm*
Abbadon is and always was an offlane hero, I am glad however Kawai gave Abbadon the spotlight with this article though! Been playing him offlane with 67% winrate for a long time.
when I see offlane aba get midas and radiance without attending team fight and bad score, i realy want to report that ass
I like abaddon because he is flexible and dynamic enough to evolve with each match. This is important because people in pubs don't always play their hero competently. Tank is afk jungle all game, Abby can tank. Support not buying wards, Abby isn't reliant on expensive items and can pitch in. Lanes not getting pushed, shield the creeps and push the lanes. If you can read what's happening, you can respond with abbadon. Buy aura items, get items that slow targets, and bash the hell out of the enemy = win
abba is so good in pubs man, winning most games. Love to play him and just play aggressive :)
on 25 lvl with octarine - its a absolutly different hero now. And he deals tons of dmg\heal
Wish: I can like comments
YEAH. SO GOOD IN PUB
Retards need to stop building Midas Radiance on Abaddon. NA players obviously have no idea that Phase ---> Vlads ---> Echo Sabre is the easiest win ever.
I think the 'new meta' tag is not saying that offlane is new for aba, but instead that aba is a new addition to the meta.
Looking at the counter list on Dota2 Wiki is pretty revealing for the popularity of the hero as well. High burst heroes like Lion, OD, Axe are all unpopular at the moment, and if you plan to run Aba you can ban out any potential burst heroes that might be strong enough to run like Lina. A lot of high attack speed heroes are popluar like LS, Alch, and Jugg (although shotgun LD is faded) which is glorious for him because the low/medium damage of each hit won't be enough to kill before an ult trigger.
I do think the radiance is a bit expensive for him to farm up as he is trying to rush xp to 25 to close the game out early and he isn't the world's best wave clearer, but the amount of time he will be on the battlefield means it's going to be effective if the tide turns against you should you purchase it.
^Wise words from a bot match pro. Lol!
What part didn't you like?
People already played aba offlane a long time ago, i still remembered the super slow build as well as the aura carrier build. But saying that aba offlane is the new meta is wrong because it actually an old meta
I approve of this.
LUL! I KNEW IT! Check my profile xDD Abaddon gaming from 3.1 to 4.2
retard abaddon picks hand of midas without picking +20% exp gain
puro puro chantaje puro puro chantaje!
I don't see how hand of midas is valuable on Abaddon since hand of midas got nerfted in 7.05 and the 25 damage talent has a higher win rate, maybe situationally but I don't see it as a regular build.
@HC.Hec
This was written just before the nerf, but the nerf is a situational nerf. Unfortunately it probably ends up being a nerf to the situation Aba is in.
I did 175k damage as abbadon yesterday lol, the midas + radiance build is fucking insane with the octarine core, dem lifesteal
Is op, with lotus orb tinker is killing himself xd.
Wtf it took you 3 years to figure out abadon can oflane
Hand of Midas has been nerfed
Tnx 4 info man ^^
offlane abaddon for posers, abaddon support for truly saint people
though this radiance/octarine build is really funny