One of the Biggest Tournaments of the Year

One of the most highly anticipated tournaments of the year is set to begin tomorrow. This tournament comes on the heels of a recent balance patch that aimed to address the imbalance caused by several meta heroes. In light of these changes, let’s speculate on which heroes are likely to see a rise in popularity and success.

Lycan: The Next Big Thing

During the Major, Lycan’s popularity was overshadowed by the likes of Broodmother and Beastmaster. However, with the recent nerfs to Broodmother and the underwhelming performance of Beastmaster, Lycan is poised to emerge as a dominant force in the meta. Lycan excels in the laning phase, dealing significant damage and boasting high survivability with his high movement speed and Strength gain. Though his Agility gain is lacking, he can opt for the Harpoon ability to deliver powerful DPS spikes in teamfights. Additionally, he can choose to build traditional offlane items like Helm of the Overlord to apply pressure on the map. As a flexible and powerful hero, Lycan offers unique late-game options, particularly with his Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade, Wolf Bite, which can solve kiting issues for melee position one heroes. With these attributes, Lycan is expected to be a popular and successful pick in the upcoming tournament.

Drow Ranger: A Solution to the Double Melee Lane Problem

Drow Ranger’s popularity in the professional scene isn’t solely based on her strength in the current patch. In fact, she struggles in higher level pubs and boasts a below 50% win rate in most skill brackets. However, Drow Ranger offers a solution to the double melee lane problem that plagues many melee support heroes. Heroes like Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, and even post-nerf Undying are strong picks in the current patch, but their weakness lies in their requirement for an awkward double melee lane setup. Drow Ranger alleviates this issue by being capable of holding her own in lane without regen, thanks to her high damage output and powerful slow. She excels in killing enemy heroes with the right setup and scales incredibly well. While her farming speed has diminished due to changes in the patch, this can be mitigated by an early Hand of Midas pickup. Although it may seem a bit greedy, it allows Drow Ranger to maintain a solid Net Worth while providing early game Attack Speed, which can be advantageous in certain situations.

Invoker: A Hero on the Rise

Many players gave up on Invoker in the early days of patch 7.33. The removal of his powerful level 20 talent, which increased Meteor damage by 80%, seemed to weaken the hero significantly. However, patch 7.33c actually made Invoker even stronger than before. One crucial change to note is that magic damage now pierces Black King Bar, meaning it is still a relevant source of damage despite the mitigation. Thus, the previous +80% Meteor Damage talent would be overpowered in the current patch. Instead, Invoker received a roughly 20% buff to Chaos Meteor damage in 7.33c, resulting in higher DPS in the early game and the ability to deal damage to debuff immune enemies. Furthermore, Invoker can now group enemy heroes together with EMP, thanks to a buff that increases its pull strength. This makes disengaging from a Chaos Meteor landing significantly more challenging. Combine these changes with Invoker’s versatile toolkit, options against heroes like Medusa, and the strong Juggernaut buff, and you have a hero who has become around 20% stronger in terms of Chaos Meteor damage from level 13 to level 20. Invoker is an excellent pick for players seeking a reliable position one hero.

A New Hero Meta on the Horizon

As the iconic Dota heroes undergo adjustments in preparation for the upcoming International, it’s likely that the Riyadh Masters tournament will serve as a testing ground for many new heroes. Although there may still be balance issues with “universal heroes” in terms of late-game tankiness, the overall hero variety is expected to head in the right direction. What are your thoughts on the upcoming tournament? Do you believe there are other undiscovered gems that will shine brightly, or do you disagree with our selection? Share your thoughts in the comments below.