Omniknight Underused and Overpowered?

Some really good posts there guys, nice to see such quality discussion.

Omni has so much potential, but as stated he needs very particular matchups to really be effective. Purification is very strong (due to the pure damage) IF you or more likely your allies can get in the right position for it to be used - it's a bit like Brain Sap in it's ability to turn a "I lose" into a "I win" early game.

Obviously Repel is very handy and Guardian Angel can be game changing, but yeah his passive is pretty Meh. But almost everything he does is very defensive, and as Angelo pointed out, in most games you want supports who are capable of slowing, disabling and otherwise helping or setting up ganks.

The other thing to note is that Guardian Angel does have particular weaknesses - purge obviously, and also pure damage. I randomed Outworld Devourer the other day in a team against Omniknight, and his orbs go through that 9999 armour with no issue at all - imagine the same goes for Enchantress.

Finally, I'd say Omniknight is tricky to pick as he isn't strictly a pure support - sure he can get by on minimal farm (mana mostly), but looking at his skills he kinda make sense as more of a tank. His aura is reasonably useful IF he can actually stay alive and be close to the enemy team. However on most teams it's kinda hard to argue for him to get that much farm.

You might say that Omniknight is not that good,but with me,being an avid Omniknight player,I will disagree.

Now,as the point has been stated in the discution,everyone goes and comments about his insane cooldowns.This is a true fact,but his spells have more of an impact over fights than the others.

While a 360 heal/damage can win an early fight,and I think everyone knows the top 10 episode with the Omniknight and Slardar,when they fought an 2v4 and totally won the fight,neither being dead.

The question with Omniknight's skills is not the spamability,but the correct time to use them.You have aproximatively one/two casts with each in every teamfight(except the ultimate-unless you have a Refresher Orb).You need to make those casts count.Always remember to cast Repel first on your carry,then Guardian Angel,and he will be invicible for 6 seconds.6 SECONDS in late game is just more than enough to end prematurely a teamfight.

Then again,someone mentionned OD and Enchantress.You can use Repel to counter those two,so I don't know what the problem is.

Omni can semi-carry effectively,given the right amount of farm in the early game.Going mid as Omniknight would seem like a rather ******ed idea,but when you look at it again,all the potential mid heroes have absolutely no self sustain,except Invoker and necrolyte,and they all rely on magic damage(Especially Queen of Pain).

I've won a handful of games going mid with Omniknight,getting a Radiance ~15 minutes,then just chasing them into the base,because they cannot fight it so early.You have Repel, Purification and Guardian Angel,and they have a great impact on the game at all the stages( Purification falls off but not that much).

Then there is the oldie but goldie Eye of Skadi build.People were actually using this build in the older era,as I can remember the only reason to it was that EoS used to be cheaper(?).You can always go for a Sange and Yasha too,the maim + the Degen Aura just work so well,you cannot overlook all the combinations in the game.

Also,Atlas, Guardian Angel is not an initiating ultimate.You do not pop the ultimate and wait for the enemy team to just run away until it runs out.Same goes for Dazzle.I see countless teamfights lost because they have a premature cast of their ultimate.They are made to be cast when the teamfight is on-going,especially Guardian Angel.Sure that weave can be cast before,but enemies will just run away,and you achieved nothing with it.

Concluding my wall of text here,think outside the box always,never follow the same build every time,adjust it to your enemies.You can get Mekansm or Pipe of Insight,as he always has a surplus of mana that he needs to burn during teamfights if you have Arcane Boots.You can also go rambo and just run into teamfights with Phase Boots,literaly initiating a fight by just running into them,then waiting the big AoE that is going to come from both teams.

I'm not familiar with the 2v4 video. Feel free to link though. I'd like to see it.

As far as using repel on a carry, then ulting, what if they have SD? Or diffusal? Diffusal on PL vs Omni is very rough. Omni is countered a bit too easily imo. Usually in a 5v5 situation, you have one or two main DPS heroes. If you have two, and ult in mid fight, then SD ults the one with repel on him/her, then disrupts the other one, I would personally just fight through the omni ult. It's very situational. You say that you have to ult in mid fight, which is correct, but it's easier said than done. It's pretty easy to see an omni trying to get into a good position to ult in a team fight, in which you can silence, or just disable.

His laning phase, as I said, is really bad. It's easy for it to snowball out of control to the point in which he gets no farm, and gives the opponents free farm. Healing a single target is not very useful, in my opinion. It needs to be an AoE heal, or nothing. Even when you have an AoE heal, and this is a pretty important aspect: Carries can always (And at a relatively early stage in the game), damage significantly faster than you can heal. A 360 damage heal is less than one drow crit mid game.

Also, you say that heroes don't have any sustainability? What about infinite bottle charges? Omni cannot fight for the rune, nor can he really have an impact middle. What about vs QoP, Puck, or especially an SS? Infinite runes, too much regen for an Omni to handle, and if the SS gets silence stick, it's GG. He can't gank either lane, meaning that he has to farm mid until you're ready to push. For some heroes, that's not a bad thing. Invokers typically don't leave lane too often, and he is unbelievably powerful late game. The thing is that Invoker has global presence with sunstrike, where Omni does not. Invoker is also difficult to lane against, where Omni is not. Invoker can fight for runes with disables, and if he goes Q/W he has some silly movespeed, where Omni does not (305 isn't bad, but... It's no Invoker). So basically in that situation, let's say he went QE. He has slightly less damage than omni (For a bit at least). He has better lane staying power than omni (And omni loses the ability to "swing" health bars by healing himself to bomb invoker. One of the few things that make his laning presence above that of a creep). Invoker can push better than Omni, and gank better. Invoker can gank without leaving lane, where Omni cannot. Invoker can fight for runes more efficiently (I know most Invokers don't even bother with runes, but if it's a DD/regen it's always possible).

If you're getting a 15 minute radiance as Omni in middle lane, or able to farm a Skadi, your opponents are doing something wrong.

Also to touch on Omni vs OD... OD ruins Omni. 100%. Talk about Omni going mid and getting a 15 minute radiance? Try vs OD, it's pretty hysterical. I know you're just saying "Well, repel stops him from doing damage!" Maybe to one hero. There are still 4 other heroes in the game. Also if OD presses R, and clicks on your team, your ult is pretty worthless. It's not uncommon for an OD to take 2/3 or 3/4 of your teams health with an ult. You just can't heal faster than people get killed. Very sad times. :(

The main reason I think he is never used is because he is a melee support, who could really use a lot of farm compared to other supports to get running. He also can't turtle astonishingly well, and trilane capabilities are minimal.

But mainly that he is a melee support.

Then What about Nyx Assassin? He's always the first ban/pick (I'm not exaggerating) in competitive games and he's played as a trilane support most of the time. Maybe it's the fact that you can play even in mid lane with him, but it's still a solid choice.

Same for Undying: some weeks ago he was picked a lot of times, because as long as you have at least one ranged Hero in your trilane (nowadays Gyrocopter and Luna are pretty popular, so you might end up with a ranged-ranged-melee trilane too) there's nothing wrong with it.


On topic - In my opinion Shadow Demon is the most important reason why people often stay away from Omniknight: you could use Purification in aggressive trilane as an AoE nuke and heal, use Repel as a pseudo- Rage, but if you don't ban SD first the enemies will surely shut Omni down with him.

@Angelo Bangelo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N75WKSq_4k

8:58