DotA 2 6.86 Discussion

Just played Bristleback with the new aghs, and it was SICK!

Here's the game: http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/2009525049 (I know, I know, just normal game, but hey! 18-4-21!)

How the game went was quite simple, I bought Hood of Defiance to mitigate Zeus, Lion, and Rocket Barrage (the active is REALLY strong, it basically nullify level 1 Finger of Death), then went straight Octarine Core + Aghanim's Scepter after thread.

Basically, I was unkillable afterwards (4 deaths came before I got [[aghanim's scepter).

Although the point is true that BKB actually reduce the effectiveness, changing goo into no target is really, really strong. It allows Warpath to stack much more efficiently even without enemy unit (for instance for the movespeed / tower destroy prowess), and it basically forces the BKB if the enemy doesn't want to die. Don't forget the fact that you're Bristleback, you can outlast their BKB. The slow and armor reduction was just crazy, especially combined with Assault Cuirass later in game.

Oh, and btw, after getting aghs, Blink Dagger is crazy good on him, new meta?

Arcwarden is not a good fight hero in the 6.85 meta mentality, because he is only good in long sustained fights. Fights from 6.85 are mostly short or very passive with lots of distance and Arcwarden's skillset is too inflexible to adapt to short brawls and passive fights alike. He only thrives when the fights are somewhat active, but not full on fistfights. Currently this kind of Necro/Dusa era fight will most likely never appear.
If you really wanted to force things you could buy Dagon and Shivas on him, but even when going for fights I believe Necro3 + Manta + some damage item is the best option. Necro3, Manta, Radiance being the best among those imo, because it accelerates your farm while allowing you to also contribute to fights with the Radiance burn and double Necro3 mana burn. BKBs make him pretty useless though aside from his Magnetic Field which will at some point also be countered by MKBs.

In the end pushing towers with 5 illusions plus 4 necro units in Magnetic Field for ridiculously fast pushes is the better option compared to building teamfight I think. Throw in an AC and watch the MMR roll.

Why didn't you get a rapier dimo? Its completely foolproof, just look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwSgFvbJATs&t=31m10s
This item has over 80% winrate according to dotabuff, yet it was purchased in less than 10% the rate of Hand of Midas bought.

Rapier always has a very high winrate because you have to end up with it in an endgame inventory and losses are either guys who picked it up from the enemy but died to megacreeps or greedy boys who want to keep Divine in their inventory for bragging *shamelessly pushes a finger pointing at him away*.

So Dotabuff is a pretty unreliable source. The main problem with Divine is that you are only a hero every 20 seconds since you won't be walking around with it if you don't know enemy positions. And it gives no survivability so you have a 1500 HP low armor clone who can still be easily disabled and focused down with Divine.

When you have Vyse or Skadi to kill lone defenders and basically force your enemies to defend as 5, then it's great ofc, but otherwise... I'd rather get Butterfly or Skadi or Vyse.

Edit: forget what I said about him being weak early game, if he gets Necros before 20 minutes(and he will) it's GG you can't find 4 necros III that early in the game.

Shadow Demon seems super strong in this patch. Probably the best Aether Lens user I can think of in the game. Disruption 800 cast range here we go, it's almost Dazzle level of stupid. Counter-initiates or initiates from a huge range, and huge illusion duration now. Oh and lens works on his ult too. So he can stay safe and do his stuff with lens + forcestaff.
So much more practical spells to use because now he's always in range, massive damage boost with the illusion duration, and can even turn into a Furion-like hero in the late game because waveclear, 60% illusions for tower damage, and insane solo kill potential.

I think playing support in 6.86 can actually (gasp) be *fun*. Like actually initiate and counter-initiate fights, not just sit back and spam raidboss items/spells on your carry and die of boredom. And play aggressive. Because that's the whole point of playing freaking support.

Yeah, I thought the same thing - vanguard -> agh's -> blink or blink -> agh's

Shadow Shaman is probably a little better then; He lacks the counter initation, but brings much more damage to the table. Like he's got what 600 spell damage from Shackles and Ether Shock now? And 7s of disable, and Mass Serpent Wards which bring stupid amounts of damage to the table and help with high ground fights, which is huge.

Aether Lens helps fix his awful awful cast ranges, and his sustain issues.

More game observations from games I've played:

Sand King's jungling is killed as he cannot easily or efficiently farm creep stacks anymore, and now his lane domination is crazy good. He is now definitively a Pos 3 hero and not a Pos 4 anymore, and went from being a passive hero with a short timing window after Blink to being a all-in aggressive hero akin to Axe due to caustic buffs, base str buff, and OoV stacking with Caustic.

Drow Ranger's Aghs is core, like a Tiny's, because it lets her farm fast. It pairs very well with Dragon Lance and Mjollnir too, it's won my friend several games. as the aoe damage and slow from long range has essentially made Drow into a hoho haha. He expects it will be nerfed. I don't.

What boots are best on AW. At the moment arcanes seems by far the best for all that mana, but has Tranqs + soul Ring been considered? Ive noticed that im nearly never above 75% HP bc of ult. Boots of Travel definitely an option if you want to have your clone fill in for you for like 10 seconds somewhere.

Midas and Necro are definitely set in stone for now because they are just broken. Dagon AW players need to uninstall. So much potential with the hero and you are going the most boring item in the game. Maybe as like a late game item when u got a **** ton of gold and jus want to rek them even more.

As for other items:

• Bottle
• Arcane Boots
• Mjollnir
• Diffusal? More charges? More damage?
• EBlade - I odnt know maybe it could work but Double Eblade seems really good to me if you have decent stats
• Aether Lens - Seems pretty good sicne you extend the range of all of your broken range abilities and gives you mana. Maybe get this with Tranqs?
  
  Despite the whole double cast thing, I think the most broken part about the hero is the Double Midas. If a regular Midas pays off in 17, that means on AW it pays itself off in 8.5 minutes and then that is reduced because the cooldown for Clone is shorter than Midas, which means you use it more often. I'll have to do the math, but I'd say it pays itself off in 7 minutes flat. That means he comes online WAY faster than other heroes, which puts him far ahead for a fast Necro3. Not to mention the extra XP.
  
  6.86 patch they'll probably nerf the Midas on him, hopefully not altogether remove it from the items he can use. Maybe the'll give it half gold output with clone's midas? I can also envision a Necrobook cosmetic for AW in the future.
  
  EDIT:L Forget Necrobook rush, rush Shivas. Get Necro late agme for sustained fights.

Midas on Arc Warden is balanced out by the fact that AW has no ability to farm whatsoever. No waveclear, no AOE, nothing. And he needs tons of farm to come online. Think Doom's Q skill for example, some heroes just need free gold. Even with that he's far, far behind the top farmers in the game in terms of farm speed.

Besides, he has the Tinker problem. What do you do when you know that the enemy mid is rushing midas into travels into radiance? You gank the hell out of him, and if you succeed he's completely shut down.

Before saying that he's OP, try to actually win games with that hero. If you manage to have a 70% winrate with him, it'll be twice as good as the current average XD