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The Worst Aghanim’s Shard Upgrades in Dota 2

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Spend that 1400 gold elsewhere!

Dota 2 - February 8th 2021, 21:14 GMT+1

IO dota 2 — Io - Io's upgrade causes breaking Tether to stun enemies for 1.75 and deal 150 damage while also increasing movement by 5%. The bad part about this is you'll have to break Tether in order to apply the stun. Breaking Tether isn't something you'd really want to do, as you'll usually only do it in order to escape. By using it for the stun you lose the only escape tool Io has. Not good. (Credit: Valve Corporation)

Ancient apparition dota 2 — Ancient Apparition: AA's upgrade causes Ice Vortex to deal damage to enemies standing on it (and slow attack speed by 20, wow). Sure you can make the argument that interrupts Blink Dagger but is that something you want on your hard support? But wait, AA already has an ability that interrupts blinks with Cold Feet. So why would a poor support ever get this shard? We don't know. (Credit: Valve Corporation)

Ember spirit dota 2 — Ember Spirit: Unlike the previous two, Ember isn't a support, he's all about landing wild crits with Sleight of Fist or burning enemies down with magic damage. The upgrade gives him 45 damage per second around his remnant. That's a washed-down version of Radiance but the thing is, you'll have to waste a remnant and enemies have to stay around it. You don't want to use remnants early on and the damage is just unnoticeable in the late game. On the plus side, it also sends a remnant when you kill a hero. It's still terrible. (Credit: Valve Corporation)

Arc warden dota 2 — Arc Warden: Warden's upgrade causes Magnetic Field to knock enemies out of it on the initial cast and it provides magic resistance. We're sure there will be some amazing plays with the knockback mechanic but the shard is just horrible for the hero. It's not a decent purchase except for the magic resistance part but that'll usually be covered by the offlaner with a Pipe of Insight. (Credit: Valve Corporation)

Winter wyvern dota 2 — Winter Wyvern: Wyvern is almost always a support and her upgrade improves her worst skill - Cold Embrace. Losing the buff will cause Splinter Blast secondary projectiles to be released. Isn't it nice knowing that your support won't be able to save you but at least the enemy team is going to take some extra damage? (Credit: Valve Corporation)

Od2 dota 2 — Outworld Destroyer: OD was the meme of 7.28 but after some buffs, the hero turned into a viable support and that's his usual role now. The shard upgrade turns Essence Flux into an active ability that swaps your HP and mana pools after 1.75 seconds of channeling. So why's that bad? Well, mana is OD's main thing and due to the high cost of the orb you might not end up with a whole lot of mana. Swapping it might mean you'll die either way but sometimes it'll save you. The main negative is the 1.5 sec channel which is quite a lot in a fight. (Credit: Valve Corporation)

Sand king dota 2 — Sand King: SK's upgrade causes the hero to release an Epicenter pulse around him after travelling 700 units. That might sound great at first but it's probably the worst Shard upgrade in the game right now. It makes you visible in Smoke of Deceit and in the fog of war so more experienced players will always be able to spot you once you get the upgrade. It literally kills the element of surprise for the hero and that's something Sand King relies on. (Credit: Valve Corporation)

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All heroes except Hoodwink received new abilities with patch 7.28 thanks to the freshly added Aghanim's Shards. A huge part of the roster will get an upgrade on an existing ability, a brand-new one, or see the return of an old ability. While for some heroes it's quite a good deal to get a shard upgrade, others are not so lucky. Today we'll take a look at some of the worst Aghanim's Shard upgrades (according to us).

READ MORE:

For more Dota 2 and gaming news, stick to EarlyGame. Check out our Twitter and Facebook, and ring that bell on our YouTube channel!

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All heroes except Hoodwink received new abilities with patch 7.28 thanks to the freshly added Aghanim's Shards. A huge part of the roster will get an upgrade on an existing ability, a brand-new one, or see the return of an old ability. While for some heroes it's quite a good deal to get a shard upgrade, others are not so lucky. Today we'll take a look at some of the worst Aghanim's Shard upgrades (according to us).

READ MORE:

For more Dota 2 and gaming news, stick to EarlyGame. Check out our Twitter and Facebook, and ring that bell on our YouTube channel!