Sunday, September 28, 2014

My Early Predictions for 6.82

When patch 6.81 dropped I had a plethora of potential heroes/ideas that I thought would explode into the pro scene, and when they did and I was right, I had nothing to refer to to prove that I had seen them coming. So here I am on September 28th, three days after patch 6.82 has dropped, and I am here to lay down my predictions for the patch. I haven't had the chance to watch too much pro dota on the new patch.


Competitive Dota:

Dual Lanes mid will become more popular: With the rise of the bounty rune combined with the ever increasing importance of denies in the lane, I think we will see Dota swing more towards the HoN style of play where you have a dual mid. We have already seen the EG style where Arteezy essentially play the 1 position farmer in the mid, I think you will see this far more often across the board+ a support mid. WISP META WISP META WISP META WISP META

Bounty Hunter:  Assuming the first change happens and dual mids become more popular, I think this might be enough to bring BH back into the offlane. He got a neat little buff with shuriken toss but more importantly he can lane easier in the offlane with just one support rather than two. Granted this is true for ALL offlaners but BH has been in the meta before and just needed something else. I think this will only happen if dual mids become a thing, otherwise we are just stuck with seeing pieliedie playing 6 position bounty.

Omniknight/Elder Titan offlane: Same reasons as Bounty, more viability in the offlane with less pressure. Combined with the minor buffs they got, stronk heroes.

Chen will fail: Initially I was excited about the Chen aghs ancient domination, but after thinking about it more it really isn't that strong. Ancient creeps are slow and poky and don't do a ton of damage, I don't think it's that much stronger than having the auras/skills of other creeps, and you still need to farm an aghs. I expect a rise in people picking Chen to try it out, but I don't see it ever being strong at all.

Lion: With the introduction of terrorblade to CM, along comes lion. Lion is  a built counter to TB, he has burst/lockdown to bring him down for his ults, as well as having two instant illusion killers in hex/mana drain. Furthermore with the gold changes leading to more of a gank/pick-off meta, expect more Lion.

Ogre Magi: What can I say, this hero got sick buffs and I already thought he was a situationally strong support hero. I think he could potentially see some solo play both offlane and mid(Hi H4nn1). But I expect to see a ton of 4 position ogres.
Lone Druid: With mana on the bear, that means Mask of Madness Lone Druid is totally a thing now. Not to mention you can now use the mjollnir buff on bear without transferring to hero. Combine these with the fact that LD's favorite support(Ogre) got buffs, expect to see the rise of AdmiralBulldong's Syllabear.

Timbersaw: Double chakram is insane. mana boots/soul ring---->brown boots/bloodstone---->aghs

Treant:  People will find a way to farm this hero an aghs, it is game changing and insane. I don't know if it will be PPD, or if it will be core treant. My first thought was that it won't happen because he has no farming mechanism, but then I realized that Ancient Appartions get aghs all the time. Get ready for tree to watch you in the woods.
Phantom Assassin: I already mentioned that wisp/dual lanes will make a comeback and that means the rise of PA(Arteezy is happy) PA already was a nice mid/dual mid but she didn't quite fit the deathball meta. She's comin' back soon.

Tusk: Tusk is going to see so much play holy shit, you will see offlane tusks and you will see support tusks, it literally doesn't matter. This hero is good as fuck now. 

Now I'm just gonna rattle off tons of shit.

EternalEnvy diffusal blade clinkz.
Arteezy/Ferrari solo mid LC.
Magnus/Sven lineups will finally fucking happen.
Increase in warlock play, less emphasis on upheaval and more on fatal bonds. This might mean back to core warlock like MVP.March plays it.
Venomancer Mid

That's all I have, good night, see you in 6 months when I'm right about everything.






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