Patch 7.24 has been out for a couple of weeks now and the meta is somewhat clear. Putting the focus on physical damage since the last update, some of the picks you'll see will come as no surprise.
Slardar
We're starting with what's perhaps the most popular hero at the moment. According to Dota Plus, Dota 2's in-game assistant, over the last 8 weeks, Slardar's pick rate has increased from 6% to 35% in the Divine and higher brackets. That's quite the jump and it'll all be fine if it wasn't also the hero's win rate standing over 56% in all brackets.
Slardar was already a popular pick before patch 7.24, but in the current patch, he's probably the safest choice for the offlane. What makes him especially good is the fact that he can win trades with almost anyone thanks to Bash of the Deep. His Slithereen Crush provides good crowd control during team fights and the Aghanim's Upgrade makes him really hard to take down. Guardian Sprint is a two for one making initiation and escapes very easily. Corrosive Haze is just the cherry on top, reducing almost every hero's armor to 0 or lower at max level and any carry paired with Slardar will have an easy time melting down foes.
Whether we'll see changes directly to Slardar and his kit or how the armor system works will become clear pretty soon.
Meepo
Now there's a hero you'd rarely expect to see in the highest win rate. Due to his complexity and rather high skill cap, players struggled to find success with Meepo, but it seems that changed in patch 7.24. While the latest patch included no direct changes to the hero, Meepo already received numerous buffs throughout the last few updates, making him better than before. His pick rate is still very low when compared to Slardar, standing at around 7% in the Divine bracket.
Meepo clears a lot of jungle camps which pretty much guarantees that all of the neutral items will be available to his team. Pair that with the fact that the hero likes to take early action when compared to most midlaners and you can see why he goes out of control easily. He can also do a solo Roshan fairly easy and enemy buildings can be taken out in a matter of seconds.
Huskar
Huskar's last buff came in 7.23b when his Strength gain per level was increased from 3.1 to 3.4. No other changes were made in 7.24, but the reason for his win rate exceeding 55% in the Divine bracket is different.
One item, in particular, is extremely good on Huskar and that's Heaven's Halberd. Patch 7.23 removed the attack damage bonus it provided but added 30% health regen amplification, 30% lifesteal amplification and increased the status resistance from 14% to 20%. In other words, everything Huskar needs in one place. For the measly price of 3450 it's an absolute steal and considering the most expensive component is Talisman of Evasion (1400 gold) it's fairly easy to combine it. On top of that, there's the neutral Paladin Sword which further increases lifesteal and healing, while also providing lifesteal and damage.
Addressing the Huskar problem will probably have more to do with Heaven's Halberd than the hero itself, but we shall see.
Honourable mention - Visage
Another hero standing in the top four win rates is Visage. Patch 7.23 gave him a -3 armor corruption talent, while patch 7.24 reduced the threshold on Soul Assumption from 110 to 100. Needless to say, both buffs resulted in an increase in damage and win rate.
Visage will usually be a problem, but his extremely low pick rate (<1%) makes him more of a surprise that you have to deal with than something common.
Closing thoughts
If there's anything in common between the three heroes we've listed it's that they're usually hard to kill and can secure a quick kill on Roshan. The next major patch will probably come after the end of the ESL One Los Angeles Major which means the end of March. Until then we'll basically have two choices, ban them or pick them.
