Update me please?

Hi. I just updated Dota (If you didn't know I haven't been playing dota for a half year, computer broke and then I didn't have internet to update) and was wondering what's new.
The last version I had was 6.84 or 6.85 (don't remember). The first thing I noticed on Dotabuff was that Chen is really unpopular (lowest pickrate). His winrate also seems to be very low (41,29%). Could someone explain why and tell me about the new items and best uses for them? And any tips on the new heroes (Underlord and Arc Warden)?

Hmm, so lemme see.

Chen isn't the most popular hero right now because push strats in general aren't as effective as they used to be. Things are very team-fight and scaling heavy now... often times you'll see pro teams pick up a support that can scale into a fourth core if the game goes late enough, something like a Beastmaster or a Warlock.

The new items are all awesome. Enchanted Raindrops is the item that no one in pubs buys and that everyone should: it's a mini pipe of insight that will save you from nukes in the early game and give you mana regen while doing so. Dragon Lance is great on pretty much any ranged core and is a go to on Drow Ranger, Terrorblade, and Sniper, as is the item Hurricane Pike which is a great mobility option.

Echo Sabre is an item that you should build on every melee core without exception.

That's not true

Yeah, it's not true. But it's a great item on physical burst damage cores like Sven, Wraith King, and Lifestealer. Sven is a decently popular pick up these days too.

Mid-lane is now less for ganking and more for farming: the nuking mids like SF and Lina are gone in favor of those that scale better into the late game. Outworld Devourer is big and got a lot of nerfs recently, Storm Spirit is decently strong again thanks to Bloodstone giving 12 charges on purchase now. Tinker isn't too bad.

As for the new heroes, Underlord is great, I have a guide out for him, you should totally follow it! Or not! Also Mirana is big right now thanks to her Aghanim's Scepter upgrade that gives her automatic starfall procs? Oh and... um...

There's a lot. Giff more specific questions to save me from rambles, thank.

Thanks! That explains why I'm losing so much with pushers. And is Tome of Knowledge worth it? It seems to just be a waste of money unless you're really behind and your team has been feeding.

Hey Sclipzer, welcome back to dotes!

Tome of Knowledge is really worth it but should mostly be bought on the supports, who are XP starved.

It comes in handy for key moments such as before you reach level 6, as you can keep it in your inventory and use it suddenly on a teamfight, where your enemies won't be expecting that big ultimate (think Lion, Witch Doctor, etc).

I wouldn't advise you getting it on cores generally speaking, although you can buy it also in very late games to give your team when you have extra gold lying around.

Well the thing with Tomes is that your carries can buy it for your supports - so if your supports are really starved and you're playing mid or something (especially midlaners that fall off after blink or something), you can buy it for your support.

Play some bot matches. That should do the trick.
Dota is ever evolving . Learn to love and explore by yourself!

Thanks. I tried the Tome of Knowledge in a match (5 minutes ago) as a #4 disruptor. It really gave me an advantage because I could get 1 more level in that skill that moves your enemy (forgot the name). That helped me defend our carry ( Alchemist).

Are there any heroes to avoid using in the new updates? Heroes that are really nerfed?

That would be Glimpse? :)

Some heroes that are not strong in pubs in general at the moment are: Queen of Pain and Lina (items like the Infused Raindrops Safecyn mentiond hurt nuking heroes), Phantom Lancer, Troll Warlord.

But it's subjective and kinda varies, specially between skill caps.

Here's where you can see by yourself, according to pick and win rates:
http://www.dotabuff.com/heroes/meta

PA seems to be VERY popular and good suddenly. What happened? Also why is Pudge so popular? Is it because of Infused Raindrops? (120 magical damage block + his awesome magic resistance.)

And has Slark been nerfed yet? His winrate still seems to be very high.

Truth is absolutely nothing happened to Phantom Assassin since the times when everyone complained she was dead - only thing that happen was even recent nerfs to her Dagger, because people started playing her as a roaming support (if you want more details on this I can give later) and OSfrog didn't want it. But core PA is definitelly a thing now.

I think the reason why she started to appear as good is both because people realised her peek is so early that Silver Edge/ Monkey King Bar isn't a counter at that point yet + they realised that to achieve this peek you need a proper early game build, which replaced the old Battlefury one. The changes to Vanguard were part of this too. I just laugh quietly remembering when months ago some of us predicted these changes and others said the hero was in the dumpster forever eheh


As for Pudge, he was always the most popular hero in Dota in pubs (true story). He was just not picked in pro games where players thought he didn't bring enough to the table, so he was buffed, and now he works quite allright as a support. It's not even because of the Infused Raindrops, but because of Aether Lens. It's a fundamental pick-up for him now. In pubs he's still always picked mid, safelane, offlane, jungle, roaming, whatever because... Because it's Pudge and people can't live without him XD


Slark is like Riki: at low level pubs he stomps, because low level players don't know how to deal with him, but at higher levels his win and pick rate are totally normal and the hero isn't stronger than, let's say, a Juggernaut or a Terrorblade. The patches have been more and more balanced around competitive instead of pubs, so he was left rather untouched (right choice in my opinion). He's still one of the strongest cores for you to play if you know the limits of the hero and you like the "escape" type of carry, but he's just easily dealt with if you play against him and you have a decent support.

Edit: Forgot to say, regarding the new heroes, if you want an amazing Underlord guide here, this one won the competition recently:

http://www.dotafire.com/dota-2/guide/you-will-never-find-the-bottom-25362