TI7 Meta Recap
The International 2017 was a blast. Throughout the tournament we had it all: megacreep comebacks, ultra-aggressive fast-paced games and some extremely close prolonged standoffs that kept us on our heels, all courtesy of a well balanced TI patch. There is absolutely no denying that we got a lot of very varied and exciting Dota that deserves a closer look.
General Stats
A total of 107 heroes were picked throughout the tournament — 95.5% of the hero pool. The most popular pick, Earthshaker, appeared in less than half of the games, with a pick rate of 36.98%. For comparison, the most picked hero of TI6, Mirana, was picked in 51% of the games, while Lina was picked in 61% of the games in TI5. This signifies how the game now supports more viable strategies than ever. The trends towards a more diverse meta is definitely there.
No hero had a contest rate of over 81%, except for Night Stalker, who was featured as either pick or ban in 81% of the games. When actually played, his win rate is not too impressive: 49% across 51 games. Perhaps the hero is not inherently overpowered, but rather is extremely annoying to play against, with vision being incredibly important in the professional matches. He was also the most popular ban, further supporting this idea.
Tiny, Lion, Bane, Wraith King and Spectre remained unpicked, with the first two deemed worthy of a ban. It doesn’t mean that the heroes are inherently underpowered. In fact, some global changes or the changes to some faster-paced heroes could very well bring them back into the meta.
In need of a nerf
Let’s get one thing out of the way immediately: despite being incredibly balanced, the patch still offered several heroes who were a little bit too strong overall. They were both very good in many situations and borderline overpowered in others.
Nyx Assassin appeared in 45 games with a massive win rate of 71.11%, making him the most successful hero of the tournament. A 4th position support with two good stuns, scouting abilities and very powerful nuke on a 4 second cooldown make for a rather scary hero both in theory and in practice. He can be useful regardless of the game and can be an absolute nightmare to play against with the majority of intelligence cores.
Sven and Earthshaker are in a similar position, albeit to a smaller extent, with win rates of 64.10% and 60.56% respectively. Sven is reliable burst damage who is tough to kill and who farms incredibly fast. The hero is good at all stages of the game, is a highground threat and is not easily countered with some surprise pick. Earthshaker is simply a hero with three reliable stuns, one with no cast point at all and one with incredible range. Many think of Echo Slam as a teamfight-oriented spell and they are absolutely correct, however more frequently throughout the tournament it was used as an initiation tool on a single, elusive target. It is impossible to counter play, given how both Blink Dagger and Echo slam have no cast points, hence it makes for a great, 100% reliable catch on your typical Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit and Ember Spirit, as well as variety of other heroes.
In need of a buff?
Several heroes are equally as deserving of a buff, at least it looks so from the stats. Clockwerk, Sand King and Faceless void all had sub-40% win rate with at least 30 games played. Clockwerk is understandable — he is easy to play around with currently popular Hurricane Pike and Force Staff, he doesn’t offer too much in the laning stage and his ultimate has too long of a cooldown for the effect it provides. Very rarely do you need a 3000 range initiation tool.
Sand King simply has better alternatives. The hero is not inherently weak, with good laning, strong teamfight and a decent catch-up mechanism. But his single stun on a rather long cooldown and low gank potential until later levels make him inferior to the likes of Earthshaker and even Slardar. He needs a little more to be as effective as aforementioned heroes, resulting in a lower win rate.
Finally, Faceless Void is suffering from an identity crisis: when played as either a mid or safelane carry, the hero is at 46% win rate, perhaps not making him the most successful hero of the tournament, but definitely showing that he is not too weak. In the offlane, however, the hero only managed to win 27% of his games. The hero really needs some farm and early levels to not become irrelevant in the game. Alternatively, the team really needs an effective offlaner who comes online early, to not get set back behind by too much.
The unsung heroes
There were also several heroes throughout the tournament who got little attention, despite being incredibly powerful. Dazzle definitely stands out in this sense with a massive 81.48% win rate across 27 games. The hero is worth playing and exploring and it is surprising how his popularity didn’t increase throughout the tournament, especially given how Axe is currently on the weaker side of the offlane roster. Dazzle is decent lane sustain coupled with some minor offensive capabilities, but his teamfight presence once he reaches level 6 is often underestimated. At his worst, he works as a fight deterrent, at his best he either makes your team close to unkillable or makes even the tankiest of enemy cores feel like warm butter.
Less impressive, but equally good are Magnus and Naga Siren. Magnus managed to win 10 out of 15 games he was played in, accelerating the farm rate of his cores tremendously, while offering one of the strongest teamfight lockdowns.
Naga Siren, when played as a support, managed to win 78% of her games, making her only slightly behind Dazzle. In core position, however, her win rate is 43%. Given how her main strength in the core position is in the late game, this is understandable, since rarely do teams allow such a hero to come online. However her ability to scout, provide a very strong lockdown against mobile heroes and reset fights remains unquestioned, and you don’t need to dedicate a core spot to have access to the best the hero has to offer.
What’s Next?
The next update probably won’t come soon. It is already a tradition, that post-TI we have a bit of a holiday when it comes to patches and new content. This time around, Valve decided to not even have a release date for the Dueling Fates update.
For now, we can enjoy playing our favorite game in the best state it has ever been, with both pub and pro meta being as diverse and as interesting as they are.
finally the meta post, lets read it
invoker
next patch waiting room ResidentSleeper
Void as a position 1-2 has a very lackluster DPS. As a position 3 Chrono synergies with very few heroes.
This TI affecting pub so hard, especially the appearance of earthshaker.
next patch plssssssss plsssssss
they need to buff arc warden- for example his ult color should be the same as main hero. Small change but i will do a lot. Now you know which to attack.
Don't nerf Earthshaker.
"The next update probably won’t come soon"
You broke my heart.
don't nerf my nyx :(
re-design to cement him as an offlaner, but don't just nerf him...
The author should really work on his vocabulary. Right now, it's way too limited.
worth to read, but please don't nerf earthshaker. :(
I also wonder how Clockwerk becomes less popular than the earlier TI.
next patch BabyRage
What PPD said: Stats are not everything. The low winrate heroes could be because bad teams bring the numbers down, the high winrate heroes can be bad with good drafting. Its all about how well you play your heroes (Nahaz pointed out that Liquid played a variety of heroes, of which most were not considered meta compared to the whole tournament) and not which heroes are OP this patch.
The next nerf list
I think what is op in team fight it's Def not earthshaker.. Venomancer and AA is pretty lethal...
i also hope nyx doesnt get nerfed, i agree if his agham would be reworked, but justs pls no nerf to his skills :(
bring back track back
Really looking forward to a few Meepo buffs
Offlane void has such a low winrate because:
Slippers of agility no longer available in side shop.(most important)
He's weak on lane because armor and damage nerfs.
And especially diffusal blade nerfs... just killed him.
^ agreed.
As a offlane player, clockwerk and void may need a change to its talent tree.
^
or just make him hard carry like he was used to.
C'mon after new hero released there will be no balance at all just like past patchs
how long did it take to balance mk? 2 motnhs? thats not a big deal imo. if TI is as diverse as ever, why not release new heroes before? yea it might give you cancer in pubs but who the fuck cares when the game is not about pubs
Yes please buff my sandking.....giff old caustic /longer range on lvl 1 stun
@SesameChicken
PPD is right, but to believe only that part of the equation is also misguided. Good teams can bring to light the OP parts of a hero, i.e. kotl aghs + buyback this year, fountain hooking during Ti3, Vacuum working during Naga sleep in TI2, the list goes on. Bad teams can prove that the hero brings too much value to a team for too little effort (Bristleback quill spray having a larger distance than Lina can attack from, Undying tombstone before nerf, I'd argue Necro + Magic Stick). In theory if you put those two together, you get winrate.
I personally like to cross reference the winrate with the percentage of games played. A classic case of high pro winrate and low number of games played is Broodmother, because she is so easily countered and only played in games she is extremely likely to succeed. A hero that has both a high winrate and a high pickrate is probably providing too much bankable value, while a low winrate with a low pickrate means no matter how well you play the hero, you're fighting an uphill battle.
Again, PPD is right. Stats are certainly a suggestion of overall strength instead of complete proof. You pick what you think will work. But to ignore stats altogether is throwing away a wealth of information.
really? nerf sven?
don't dare to do this
sven was a underrate hero after patch 7.00 then after several patches they buff him with str and then again they start to nerf him. first they reduce his ulti strng and damage , then they changed base attack time , then they increase warcry coldown, and still you want nerf? maybe he should go 40th popularity and 48% win rate again?
I really don't know how Bane did not see any sort of attention. WK, I can understand, because of the prevalence of mana-burners and relatively high amounts of illusion heroes. Spectre as well, just isn't fast enough for the meta. But Bane? 2 single target disables that last pretty long, one of which is BKB piercing, a servicable pure damage nuke, and a damage reduction spell that cripples right click carries pre-manta or bkb.
Lion and Tiny were banned but never picked. Lion is slightly understandable; he's a weaker Rasta. Tony is also weak, but still surprising, nobody dared to go Io-Tiny?
We need to talk about the new mask of madness, it has been a frequent pick up for carries, sven, ursa, sniper, lycan, faceless. Some of the heroes would not even be in this meta without this item being changed. A silence and armor reduction is nothing when these heroes combo, such as sven giving gods strength and warcy or ursa with his enrage or faceless in the safety of his chrono. Maybe you don't need to nerf the heroes maybe the nerf this item. Maybe highten the cost? 1975 seems cheap for a hero that can flash farm all jungles.
Does anyone felt Ti 6 was better than Ti 7 ? with EG vs Ehome or final games ?
Wow!!! ^^^ Actual discussion instead of 30+ numbered comments and something about mango win rates :)
Nice write up, I don't read these much any more but keep up the good work Mr. Kawaiisocks.
@KeepAwake
It happens more often than you think, often kept alive by a select few names (ETd and Nixon come to mind) but you can't expect every comment to be mind blowing.
What about tusk ????
they r gonna nerf bs arent they
спасибо за перевод
night stalker is sick
I don't know if you can quote here so let's just do this
"But Bane? 2 single target disables that last pretty long, one of which is BKB piercing, a servicable pure damage nuke, and a damage reduction spell that cripples right click carries <pre-manta or bkb>."
Enfeeble cannot be purged. So if you get enfeebled you're going to deal up to 120 less damage for the next 20 seconds, and probably more considering the cooldown is 8.
FIRST XDXDXDXD
dont believe this game.. so nice