Goodbye Roamers?
With the changes introduced in patch 7.06, the meta has shifted away from greedy, roaming position 4 heroes. There are numerous reasons for this meta shift, all of which are worth discussing Despite having a very similar feeling to the previous iterations of 7.xx, 7.06 plays very differently.
Welcome to the Jungle
When wepreviously discussed the return of the jungle, in the period of infancy of the patch, it was unclear whether the meta would go on to have a dedicated roaming hero or converge on strong laning stage and stacking supports. Currently the answer is clear—dedicated roaming supports are dead. At least in the professional scene.
It doesn’t mean supports no longer need to rotate through the map, applying pressure where needed. But the meta no longer allows for a support who begins the game hidden in the enemy jungle and starts being an unexpected nuisance from the get go.
There are still clear position 4 and 5 supports, with the former getting more farm priority and generally being able to allow more items, but these items are frequently saved for continuous pulls, occasional last hits, and kills on the enemy. Stacking also allows heroes to quickly catch up on XP, by leaching from the fruits of their labor when the carry is clearing the camps.
Laning Dominance
Another reason for lack of dedicated roamers is how important the initial laning is in the current patch. There is a lot more XP for either team in the laning stage, even if you are the one facing constant denies from the enemy. But contesting said creeps is still a priority, since a free-farming hero will generally be able to snowball very hard.
Because of it, dual-lanes is a thing in the patch. Strong dual offlanes can completely shut down greedy carries, who are incapable of fighting early on. They tie down enemy supports and don’t allow them to make stacks for later. They indirectly protect other lanes for the same reasons. And in a typical 2v3 scenario, they might even have some kill potential, depending on the greediness of the enemy lineup.
It is much harder for a trilane to zone out or starve out a dual lane from XP. And at some point, despite the changes, the dual lane will be at a level advantage. For some heroes it creates a massive power spike, increasing their harassment and kill potential.
Imagine facing a Jakiro + Axe dual lane as pretty much any melee core, regardless of how much support you have. Farming in such a lane after enemy dual lane gets level two will be a complete nightmare. This example just gives a general idea of what a strong dual lane is, but the combinations are vast and definitely worth exploring for your pubs, where greed is the name of the game and supports are lacking in quality and quantity.
Direct Nerfs
Apart from global changes, most of the roaming heroes have also received some serious direct nerfs, making them weak even regardless of the overall meta changes.
Monkey King
The hero was hit very hard when IceFrog decided to get rid of bashing Wukong’s Command. With Skull Basher and Abyssal Blade no longer working with the statues, the hero lost a lot of appeal, since his ultimate is no longer as reliable and consistent at both dealing damage and providing utility.
That said, buffed Sange and Yasha might be a good pick up right now, since the item was buffed considerably. It is still going to be a far cry from the days of the bashing glory, but it might be a solution if you accidentally randomed the hero. Let’s just hope that inevitable future buffs for the hero will come with performance updates and enjoy the game with a considerably lower amount of microstutters.
Riki
The pesky roamer received the smallest nerf in the patch—his base MS was reduced by 5. It is hard to attribute the lack of love for the hero to this change, and it is mostly the fact that he does nothing in the early skirmishes that made the hero step away from the meta. Playing him can be incredibly punishing, given how impactful laning stage and early game are on the outcome of the match.
Bounty Hunter
The hero was already forgotten before the 7.06 hit and despite receiving some small buffs, it doesn’t seem he is going to make a comeback. He lack the same teamfight potential as Riki. He might be slightly better in certain situations, since he has a reliable and rather strong nuke, but he is still a “win more” type of hero. For him to be effective, you have to be winning fights or at least trade even. And if you win or trade even with a Bounty Hunter, you would be winning or trading even with pretty much any other hero, except for jungling Legion Commander.
Treant Protector
The hero received some very serious nerfs, where his disable from Nature’s Guise got demoted to Root/Disarm combo from a full Bash. On top of it, he lost 10 base MS, and this change might even be a bigger deal for the hero.
Roaming in the current meta is already hard, as discussed previously, but it got even harder for Treant Protector. Losing 10 MS would already be a problem for most heroes, regardless of position, but for Treant Protector it means that some of the gaps between trees can no longer be crossed without breaking invisibility. It effectively closed off many pathways for the hero, making it impossible for him to roam certain parts of the map undetected without his boots. It also severely restricted his initiation range in the early game. That said, global healing support Treant is still a relatively strong hero and might be worth playing.
Earth Spirit
The hero received nerf after nerf, yet he still appears in the professional scene. The latest change, disallowing the hero to use Geomagnetic Grip on allies, made his Aghanim’s Scepter slightly less impactful. This once game-breaking ability is now hidden behind a level 25 talent, and depending on the game it can come up earlier or later.
Regardless of the nerfs the hero persists in the meta. He falls into the category of “strong by design” heroes, similar to Batrider, where the tweaks to the numbers have to be absolutely massive for them to have an impact on the popularity of the hero. And even in the meta where roamers seem to be gone, Earth Spirit stands firm.
1st yay
2nd :)
i dunno, this is largely theorycrafting imo--i've watched numerous 7k+ roamers have huge impact
Fuc#
I love playing with roamers, but dual lanes seems good though
back in the day when ppl played dual lanes every game (GARENA)
Yeah! That's professional scene. Even I spam pudge nowadays and keep roaming. The only problem I have that I'm underleveled in most of the games. Like I'm behind 3-4 lvls of carry and mid 1-2 lvls of supp.
Strong by design... nice description
7th kikkkk
Treant is still fav as seen on epicenter
OP didn't watch og vs liquid game 2. jerax was boss. even in game 3 with kunkka
I think the game is not ready for TI. It's not balanced at all. Often good laners/early gamers are picked. I guess 6.88 which was TI6 patch had more diverse strats and picks compared to now.
^^ ti6 was all about illusion heroes...what you mean more diverse?
Luna sd mirana where in everygame
You're referring to Boston major I guess. At that point the meta was quite established and it was clear that illusion siegeing was the most rewarding one. Even then there was an array of different heroes and strats and time focuses by banning Ebola Demon. It's very one dimensional now.
@Fight Machine , 6.88 (TI6 patch) had his raid boss wich was Timbersaw...
Valve seem to have taken a step back from making all heroes viable. There are "patch heroes" beginning to emerge again, heroes that are getting more picked and winning a bit more than their 50%, not because they are necessarily strong, but because the alternatives are weak.
This meta is so good for EG!
Still wondering what has to happen to earth spirit for him to be gone.
@Se vende items.Quinkerros
Timber was less of a raid boss and more of a safety pick that Moo went for every chance he could, which incidentally had a large hand in their defeat in the finals. I understand that others picked the hero, but Wings clearly showed that the hero was counterable and if I remember correctly timber fell off popularity quickly after.
So basically this patch theme is NERF JERAX? okay IceFrog...
mama always cums first :D LOL
Aha!
I even told people solo offlane is not really a thing anymore.
2, 1, 2 is where it is at!
Plus denies are so important, they give XP to the denying team! That is huge!
Разве патч не баффнул роумеров вить их винрейт повысился
Maybe those classic roaming heroes, but we're seeing ns, clock, earthshaker or tusk every game. In every pro game each team gets a heroe that can roam. This article is misleading and plain false in many conclusions.
Good Idea
dont worry this post is 1k as usual...nothing is ever out of the meta and if it is well then just wait for the next patch because that's how dota apparently works now
1 patch something, next patch something else. ez every patch within 2 weeks, everyone is pro gg
Where do you get these ideas from? Absolutely, completely untrue and baseless. Roamers are still quite common. Monkey King was nerfed, but we're seeing more and more night stalker. And Spirit Breaker continues to be an effective roamer even at higher MMR pubs.
men you allways spamm this shit. 7k gamers stump it all with roamers.......
Roamers seem still pretty powerful imo
Game changing..Had to make a new id for training purpose now LOL
bring back the OP monkey king he's a too shitty of a carry rn and shitty roamer as well
and pls doto don't make to many updates.. I don't wanna play if everytime i open doto theres a fucking update, i feel like the game was pretty balanced at some point but then u kept making stupid updatyes
Еще одна причина отсутствия роумеров это важность ранней игры. На линии стало гораздо больше опыта, даже если противник добивает большую часть своих крипов. Борьба за этих крипов становится главным приоритетом ранней игры, поскольку свободно фармящий вражеский кор-герой может выйти из-под контроля за счёт огромного количества опытов
Надеюсь на авторе статьи буду ставить опыты
Логики зеро
я думал наоборот этот патч баффнул роумеров пикаются тускар земеля и баланар. А винрейт огр и БХ поднялись хотя нечего не меняли им.
Guys stop getting worked over by Dotabuff articles. It's basically the buzzfeed of dota.
^ULUS MAXIMUS
And here I am playing SEA 2k with PLs and PAs and jungling Legion Commanders. Sometimes they pick Skywrath or CM and go full carry asking for wards. Oh ya there's always FV and Drow......And regular Invokers that sunstrike hard. I love Southeast Asia. I love pinoy gaming.
Riki win me 500 MMR this patch <3.!!!!
The grammar in this was quite bad, but good content!
Gankers now not roamers, spending most of their time in lane until certain key points, get a kill or two then back to lane, not bouncing from all the lanes or staying in jungle. Ns waits for night, sb waits for a pushed lane. Es, tusk, pud, sk and a few others wait on a few levels gank then back to lane. But hafta but sure of a kill. Early game time spent out of lane can really hurt your teams gains/allow enemy to reach ahead
fuck sea doto