7.00's First LAN Brings Back Iconic Mids
6.88 may have entered the history books as one of the most diverse patches in Dota yet, but it still wasn't without its faults. For all the records it broke in regards to heroes picked and banned, a few iconic heroes of the game have been on the sidelines, demoted to niche picks at best.
7.00 changed the game and as a result also the meta. The recent ESL One Genting was a first glimpse at what 7.00 (or 7.01 if you will) has in store for us and the return of two iconic heroes gives hope that this patch could out-class its predecessor.
Shadow Fiend returns
Shadow Fiend is one of the most iconic Dota heroes. Known as the ultimate 1v1 mid hero, Shadow Fiend has been around for ages and his skillset has pretty much stayed the same. His Razes allow for highlight worthy clips and the hero is a classic “playmaker”. A midplayer can dominate and decide the game with Shadow Fiend alone, as his strong laning stage smoothly transitions into the midgame with his magic damage output, as well as a natural transition into the lategame with his physical damage.
Unfortunately for him, the neutral creeps received quite the buff in 6.85 with a significant boost in magic damage resistance. It made Shadow Fiend close to unplayable in pro games.
He’s been a niche pick throughout 2016, but for the most part, the mid carry had been absent. Now, at ESL One Genting, pro teams have recognized his strengths and brought him back--a 63% winrate across 8 games and 6 bans is quite respectable.
As the 7.00 meta still develops, early trends indicate that Shadow Fiend is here to stay. Dota has gained more tempo and teams enjoy fighting early, something Shadow Fiend excels at. And he’s not alone.
Queen of Pain is viable
Much like any midgame aggressor that relies on magic damage, 
Queen of Pain did not have a good year in 2016. Regarded as one of the worse heroes in pro games, she also didn’t do well in pub games. Our pub tier list in 6.86 categorized her as “repick” material with a below 44% winrate in high skill games.
At ESL One Genting, she won 4 out of 5 games and Newbee’s Sccc perfectly showcased why: not only did he incorporate the new Blademail oriented build, he changed between builds from game to game, proving that the hero is strongest when allowed to build accordingly from game to game.
Previously, Queen of Pain had found herself in a pinch where she either could only build nuke and gank heavy, or teamfight and dps heavy. Sccc built her multiple ways, making sure to maximize the heroes strengths at all times.
Centaur is here - just for how long?
Another hero that made a splash at ESL One Genting was 
Centaur Warrunner. The offlaner has never really found a place in the meta, and when he did, Icefrog nerfed the one interaction that made him relevant.
Teams have still found ways to include him however and in Genting he proved to be a winning pick. A 100% winrate across 5 games is quite impressive, especially considering that he hasn’t always been a lastpick--Newbee third picked him on the very first day.
Centaur fulfills the role of a utility core quite perfectly. He can pick up items such as 
Pipe of Insight or 
Shiva's Guard that others wouldn’t purchase and he doesn’t need as much farm as other cores to be effective. He’s a strong laner, especially now with the sustain of the offlane shrine, and can contest farm with the opposing safelaner, without being reliant on it. Together with a reliable disable, Centaur has a lot of killing potential early on and his ultimate is a great tool in the midgame to (dis-)engage.
While this all sounds nice and good, this wouldn’t be the first time a hero has entered the meta, only to disappear for seemingly no reason in just a few week’s time or where a small nerf makes the hero “unplayable” in pro games again. Phoenix can chirp a few songs in that regard.
The new kid on the block
Two new heroes have been enabled in Captain’s Mode with the introduction of 7.00. While Arc Warden has mostly been invisible in pro play, 
Underlord has already proven to be a worthy pick in last year’s Elimination Mode tournament, where he mustered a 100% winrate across 4 games.
At ESL One Genting, his winrate wasn’t quite that high, but 4 won games out of 6 is still impressive for a relatively new hero, especially considering he was the most banned hero alongside Shadow Demon.
Underlord fits perfectly into the current meta. He provides a lot of teamfight power early on with his large AoE spells that can punish aggression and bad positioning. Much like Centaur, Underlord also has killing potential in the laning stage, granted he has support from a teammate or two. Similarly, Underlord too can purchase a variety of utility items, like 
Mekansm, 
Crimson Guard or even 
Solar Crest. He has also proven to be a very flexible pick, as Wings' iceice ran him as a support, as opposed to as an offlaner like many other teams.
7.xx Era is just beginning
ESL One Genting was the first LAN event on 7.00 and it already showcased well what this patch is capable of. A lot of old ideas and picks are still very much relevant, but there’s a lot more tempo and aggression in the game.
It was an exciting tournament to watch and for hardcore fans it felt like a fresh breeze to see a variety of new and old faces that 6.88 has not really had. Heading into more LAN events, such as WESG, DAC and of course the Kiev Major, it remains to be seen if these heroes are here to stay, though most of them have made a strong case for themselves.
First
1st?
Arc warden is so shit we won't see him in pro scene for quite long. His winrate already dropped compared to the end of 6.88. He either needs a good aghanim or a series of buffs to come back and do something..
SF gets a perma-DD at lvl 20(who gets the evasion tbh. It's good but compared to +2 dmg per soul it's always unfavorable). Of course people will pick him up. And Agh's is no longer just a pub level purchase, he could get it and buff his damage by 40, on top of the extra effects.
This "ban win %" and "combined win %" is still the biggest stupid stat to ever have been counted in any kind of chart, ever.
Please just remove it and mention how many times it have been banned instead of showing the win rate for the games where they've been banned.
"The offlaner [Centaur] has never really found a place in the meta, and when he did, Icefrog nerfed the one interaction that made him relevant."
What interaction are you talking about?
@Szarlej
Most recently Return working on illusions, making sieging with Cent really easy, and a long time ago, IIRC, his ult didn't have a global sound for enemies and stunned on impact, instead of slowing.
BUFF ARC WARDEN
PLS VALVE
переведите плииииз
Arc Warden? What is that? :o
@El Flashbango
Return also used to proc at the start of an attack instead of on impact, so it would damage someone even if they cancelled the animation. Don't think it was the reason cent lost popularity though.
Thanks
@Brock Hall
You spam right-click and stop on centaur and you die?
Totally a bug. Good thing it's fixed
buff arc warden u fuckin crazy ? he's op already, volvo did good in nerf(balancing), kuddos
"63% winrate across 8 games"
8 games... nice stats. Who cares about that games if they dont bring money.
ayyyyyyyyyyy sf is back
Typical shit article lul
BUFF BROODMOTHER AND NP VOLVO
RAT DOTO IS SLOWLY DYING
Just wanted to ask, will you make Pub Tier List 7.0.1?
I understand Arc Warden is dead. Nice VALVE.
@Cheaplaughguy
It wasn't a bug, it was just the way they had set the mechanic up to work. By that I mean it was an intentional interaction. I think the main reason they did it was because they were not imagining people would spam right click and stop on someone, that's something you really only should be doing on creeps. So in the end it was creating extra damage than they were intending for it to do in very specific situations. There are a ton of other things that are 'bugs' that make the game what it is today. They leave blink dagger's bonus distance alone, and the mother of all 'bugs', creep stacking, is now just considered a mechanic.
There were a bunch of interactions that used that mechanic that they changed in that patch. I want to say spiked carapace used it as well, but I know for sure there were others.
As a viewer I totally like to see epic long games and I could assure you that in this patch it's very unlikely to happen.
Arc warden is a garbage hero that when my enemy picks it i just consider the match an ez win
@Fight Machine
Balance has almost never had an impact on the excitement of a game. The least exciting patches I remember were 6.79 (lifestealer reigned) which was still often really awesome (xboct rocked on lifestealer), and the TI4 patch (deathball gg at 15 min, all tier 2 towers still up). What often happens is the stakes of a match are what make it exciting. Awesome stuff happens all the time but the stakes make the plays amazing. No, not every play is 'the play' but people pull off risky stuff in low risk games and nobody cares.
That being said, I seriously agree that Dota has crept away from the afk farming mentality of the first 3 Internationals. It would be nice to see more low kill count games, as it would put a larger stress on the importance of staying alive. Kills become exciting again when there is tension built up. And I love me a good naga game.
такое себе
No Sumail did the blade mail build first. Not sccc
@BrockHall
I believe the interactions change didn't include nyx. If I remember correctly it was Axe, Centaur and Spectre. I might be wrong about spectre though.
any thoughts on my abba guide
https://dotasmota.wordpress.com/2017/02/03/abba/