6.84 Drafting Thread.

OK so with the upcoming patch CM is going to change drastically.

More Aghs

More Strategies

More Plays

More Heroes ...*AHEM* ok so ONE new hero but... its a very good one.

Winter Wyvern is INCREDIBLY strong against current meta heroes. cause **** yo troll.


BUT i want to discuss the new Drafts and Strategies that will emerge.

Now there are a lot of gimmicky things in the current patch BUT here are my core things that CM will have coming to it.

1. Alche will be core in a lot of drafts purely for the stupidity surrounding his Aghs.
*even though he is still kinda *****
2. Storm is still going to be strong.
3. Razor will return to Meta due to indirect buffs
4. Dual laning will become a strong thing.
5. roaming duo's are even stronger now.
6. mid heroes wont be farming heroes anymore like SF or Medusa. expect ganky ganky ganky heroes
7. Drafts will revolve around early mid game
8. Timing windows are now earlier and smaller to hit for carries so expect a LOT OF STACKING
9. Runes even more contested.
10. Greaves is stupidly strong. like broken strong. best item now IMO
11. DK SAYS HELLO *****ES HES BAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCCCCK
12. Lesh pos #1
13. first pick/ban - alche lesh storm OD
14. expect to see more tinker and Techies. THE KEEN COMETH
15. Aggro trilanes might become stronger.
16. expect a lot of early game fights and tower dives.
17. Abbaddon will be picked consistently or at least enough to warrant a thought/ban
18. expect INT pos #1's
19. silencer is now very very strong. due to buffs indirect and direct.
20. i will be drafting more teamfight/push then late game carries.
21. LONE DRUID INSTA BAN CAUSE **** THAT GUY
22. beware of the Pheonix.
23. Cent pos #1 possibility.
24. AGI carries are still strong so dont rule them out.
25. Tier 1 towers will be fought over like hot cakes.

and finally.

26. watch out for tiny. he is scary now with IO ... more so then ever before.

Terrorblade got left in the dust. Morphling got an insanely powerful Aghs that makes an illusions with abilities except ults. If we draft them together... hmmmmm. Maybe get like UD for midgame fights so you can double tombstone or Techies so you can free suicide.

SD's Aghs is really good now, I think he can viably be run mid as a space creator type hero.

Abaddon can now only be countered by silences. Get Lotus Orb, and now he's uncounterable, only Doomable. I guess you can draft mass AOE CC to counter one dude.... if you're stupid.

Aghs dependent carries look like they'd be great with "Farming Peasant" Alchemist, Comrade Meepo and Comrade Tiny appreciates Razzil's dedication to the state. Others would love him too to be able to clear out a space later in the game, like if Lina needs a Refresher.

Throwing Greaves on Huskar, with his recent buff to semi support seems like it might gain traction. Greaves also looks good on Tidehunter, Jakiro, and Venomancer, fulfilling a useful function for them.

LICH IS GONNA BE HERE, with his MINOR BUFFS, he will TERRORIZE everyone....

Broodmommy now scales in late game.

Caustic Finale is no longer the sad, unimpressive weird uncle of the UAM family.

Silencer and OD will finally get to be real carries, but still snowbally in nature.

Techies will make pub games even more annoying. "Have fun, ****heads."

As for DK, with all your conditions, since he's a fairly defining Farming Mid for me, maybe we might see him in the Safe Lane, now that his late game is actually pretty great now, except for the whole "Break disables Dragon Blood" ****. Maybe DK Drow Visage will become a draft, since Visage also got his biggest weakness patched.

Wasnt silencer nerfed?
His ulti now doesn't reveal Invis neither does last word disarm anymore......


And arent techies goblins?
How is tinyop?
Wasnt just his toss fixed or am i missing something?

Silencer was buffed. his main problem was he had damage but no kill potential. he was very very slow. his nuke took time and he was squishy. with the new items and the buff to his last word he can now go pos 1 or 2 and actually do what needs to be done. in fact he is insanely strong i feel in this new patch.

techies are "technically " goblins but they are like ... Keen Goblins. i lump keen folk in the ol' small smart and crazy group. you tick those three.... your keen folk.

with the buffs to his toss your guaranteed spirit damage from IO toss. plus indirect buffs make him very strong. items, other hero's nerfs, gameplay and mechanic buffs/nerfs all conspire to make him a ban/pick.

i actually think the ole 2-2-1 is coming back. in fact i think the 1-1-2-1 is going to see play.

enigma tiny-io cent QoP

1. Necro. Is going to be insane. Octarine Core is actually insane on him. And idk if you'd get treads, or the new boots... both are ridiculous.
2. Slark. So many indirect buffs.
3. Shadow Demon. Is core SD a thing now, given how amazing his Aghs is?
4. Spectre. A huge series of indirect buffs and one direct buff that makes her teamfight even better, I think we'll see a lot of her.
5. Phoenix. Oh that vision buff. And everything else.
6. As you said, aggro trilanes.
7. As a result of #6 and other things, poor Terrorblade :((((
8. WTF IS WITH ALCHEMIST NOW
9. Think Luna will make an appearance as a situational pick?
10. Legion Commander w. Aghs + Bane duels the enemy carry. The duel never finishes, leaving the other team without a carry.
11. INVOKER ERRYWHERE
12. Now's a good time for them to add some properly scaling Int carries.
13. Visage question mark
14. Bounty Hunter's going to be flat-out awesome.
15. Night Stalker may suddenly become god-tier without anybody realising it.
16. With the new Mango, roaming may become much more common.

So that's my thoughts, agreeing with Smuggles on a lot of things though so tried not to repeat them. I still think lategame will be a thing as they haven't really buffed pushing, just made it easier to snowball and harder to come back.

See I don't think you'll draft Alchemist to go for Ag's on heroes that want it as like a first or second core item.

I think you'll draft him to give it to hroes like Luna or Gyrocopter who don't want to devote gold on an Ag's.

Pick him as like a greedy 4 position (Since has alright depush, and good ability to get gold unlike most supports), rush some kind of mobility or initial utility item. ( Blink Dagger or Force Staff, maybe the Cloak/Shadow Amulet hybird), and then rush into an Ag's for something.

Since, heroes like Meepo and Tiny (Well more Tiny) want Ag's really early, because they get a lot out of early pick-ups on it. Like every minute these guys have Ag's is an extra few hundred gold they wouldn't have without it. And a high farming position Alch doesn't sound like the best way to do it given he'll bring lttle else to a fight that a support wouldn't.

Oh and we will see a lot of Zeus first stage pick/ban I think. The hero is already really good, and he's now got much better scaling. On a hero who already scales really well.

prepare to be corrected! Muwahahaha lol jks

no but seriously.

he didnt receive any real "nerfs"

his carry potential was limited by four things.

1. no lifesteal.
2. no control, i.e. slow, stun, disable.
3. snowball dependent.
4. squishy/intel

they addressed all four.

1. you can now get lifesteal *AHEM* spell vamp on his orb with octarine core. this allows him to go toe to toe and has greater sustain in fights.

2. he now has a slow meaning more hits meaning more damage meaning more kills.

3. he is still "somewhat" snowball dependent but with the new items and builds he has a greater timing window.

4. some of the new items become core on him now make him tankier and harder to kill. plus give him damage where before you had to choose between either mobility/tank/int/control.

now he can build right and win fights.

I think most of the heroes are in the meta now. The thing is: Icefrog didn't nerfed much the broken heroes (except Sniper, that I believe he's back to trash tier now), but buffed most of them - with the new items and Aghs, most of the heroes can try something new.

GGs on Silencer are pretty good when you play him pos4 support. Ganking is also easier with the slow.