Dota 2 is a game that changes quite often, which is why people play the game for so long and still have fun and enjoy playing it. Here are our picks for the top 5 offlaners as of Dota 2 patch 7.27c.
Compared to League of Legends, where most of the players and pros have their “Main champion”, Dota players are much more diverse, most of the League of Legends Players primarily play 3 to 4 champions at most (at a high level), Dota players play have a hero pool of over 10 of them on a consistent basis.
Every patch gives us new exciting things that make us eager to try and play, every patch has its own buffs and nerfs that players carefully read and adapt to.
The new patch was welcomed pretty well from the players since most of the hero’s being relevant got changed and the meta became a bit slower, which enabled for some hero’s to come back to the “High tier heroes” and get picked more often.
In this article, we will be talking about the best five offlaners in the current meta that you could and SHOULD pick to win more MMR and be up to date with the current patch.
Dark Seer
The first hero that we will be talking about is Dark Seer.
Dark seer is one of the oldest “entry exam” heroes for the offlane, and is the hero that’s present in almost any of the hero pools of the pro players on the offlane.
The hero is built around auras and can be flexible in terms of the laning stage, can be played passively to farm the auras for the midgame, or aggressively with a good lane companion.
There weren’t any minor changes with the hero, except for the vacuum buff and some talent buffs, but the meta got slower in terms of the pace of the game, and this hero has a very steady laning stage and a good farming tool.
In terms of skill cap, the hero doesn’t require anything complicated, except for some minor illusion micro from the wall of replica (and Helm creep if you decide to buy it, but most of the people just skip this item since the helm got changed) only thing u need is a good farming pattern, and good teamfight positioning and knowing what you need to do in it.
His current stats are insane since the changes his winrate rose to 55.2% (+4.7%), which is pretty big and is currently the second-best hero in terms of winrate in very high MMR matches, just below Broodmother.
- RELATED: The best Dota 2 Heroes for Beginners
DOOM
The second hero is my personal favorite: DOOM.
Compared to Dark Seer, Doom actually received some really important buffs in the last patch, and if you are following the famous Dota players streams or competitive games, there's rarely a game where Doom isn’t picked or banned.
The main reason for his big return is the buff to his laning stage, his armor increased by 1, his attack range received +25 attack range, and his devour got buffed by 30 gold for level 1 and 20 gold at level 2.
Also you can devour a Centaur stomp creep at level 2 which is really important.
His W is now almost instant and you can take (and you should) the +2 seconds Doom duration talent at level 10.
The buildup on the skills should be: Q+W+Q+E+W+R, where you can 2 levels in Devour, 2 levels in scorched earth, the value skill point in Infernal blade to help you chase down your lane matchup when you doom him, and also pretty good harass in laning stage, around 100HP (depending on max HP) harass on 40 mana and 16 seconds cooldown.
This hero farms really fast, and it's not so uncommon to have over 5k Net worth after laning stage, which is not something other heroes can brag about.
The item builds vary from game to game, but it's usually Phase, Wand, Drums, after laning stage, and you can choose afterward whether you wanna initiate with a Blink Dagger, or go for an aura item like Vladimirs Offering to help your carry.
The hero excels at disabling the most important hero in the enemy team and having the upper hand at the start of the teamfight, also when you are not showing at any lane in the mid-game, rarely any core will be alone at a lane farming from the fear of a Doom jumping onto him and solo killing him.
This should be enough about Doom, we will be making an individual video about perfecting your playstyle as Doom.
- READ MORE: Aghanim’s Labyrinth Tips and Tricks
Centaur Warrunner
The third hero is a hero that was popular before, and now is a standard pick not because of the buffs (primarily) but because of the current meta carries, and that is Centaur Warrunner.
When you open the watch tab and see what the pro players are picking lately, you will find these carries:
Antimage, Sven, Terrorblade, Faceless Void and maybe an occasional Juggernaut.
Centaur as an offlaner, is a really comfort pick versus the above, as his passive got a bit changed, and these heroes do not want to harass you so much early on, since Retaliate now doesn’t give you bonus damage on your right clicks, but return more damage back whenever you get hit (about 20 damage per hit on level 1) which brings to a conclusion that it's not so easy to trade with him.
The Items that Centaur builds are naturally good versus these heroes (Crimson Guard / Heavens Halberd).
Also, his first two spells received significant buffs.
The Laning stage depends on your lane partner, if it’s a Grimstroke/Lina/Phoenix (current popular heroes that high MMR players pick with Centaur) you can stomp almost any lane versus these carries.
There's no static skill buildup, it usually depends on your lane, W and E are good for farming, Q got buffed, and is good for initiating, but you rarely max it early, so whatever you do, it won't matter much, as long as you sync It with the way that you play.
The items that people buy are different, you can see Phase boots and two bracers, you can see Phase Boots and vanguard ( with a wand ), you can see people rushing blink with Phase Boots, wand and a casual Ring of Health.
The main items you farm for are Crimson/Pipe/Heavens Halberd/Blink Dagger.
Underlord
The fourth hero that’s really effective and popular, is the lane bully from the last patch (and this one) Underlord.
People are familiar with what this hero does, his passive makes him a lane bully that’s really hard to last hit against (even after the changes which don’t change much to what he does), his Q is a really good farming tool that makes you flash farm camps and lanes.
His win rate dropped a bit, by approx. 1.5%, and is currently sitting at the still very high 53.7%, while his pick rate is also dropping by about 1.3% to 9.38% now.
There's no real change in the item builds from the last patch, except that build, sometimes buy Drums of Endurance now, and skip greaves and go Phase + Crimson/Pipe.
The meta changing doesn’t affect the hero much, since he benefits from more time to farm since he does have a really good farming tool, and can scale good with aura items, and is a really a good frontline tank being there to enable his other cores.
Despite the nerfs to three of his spells in Dota Patch 7.27c, he’ll still be a viable pick in a lot of situations. You can read more about his recent nefs below.
- READ MORE: Dota 2 Patch 7.27c Nerfs Underlord
P.S. Carries hate laning against Underlord plus Rubick!
TRY IT!
Venomancer
Last but not least, our last pick of today's top 5 for offlaners is Venomancer.
This hero had no place in the previous patch and meta, because people couldn't figure out where to put him, some teams were trying some cheese starts by putting him mid versus certain heroes, some tried on both roles of the offlane, but it was never certain whether it was the good decision.
The recent buffs to his snakes, and a small rework on his Poison Sting, made people rethink if this hero is still viable or not.
One week after the patch got released people started picking Venomancer after figuring out that these new, tankier Plague Wards are really good in the lane, and this hero excels at drawing out long teamfights and eventually winning them.
Things to remember when picking Venomancer:
- The hero loves long teamfights, and items to kite the enemies with,
- Don't be forced into aggressive moves early on, harassing and farming is what you should be doing.
- Don't max your Q, it is tempting with the amount of damage it does, but Poison Sting level 3, makes carries go to the jungle eventually after spending a lot of regen.
- This hero is very flexible, so don't be afraid to pick it into counters.
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