New Meta: 6.85 and MLG World Finals
Patches and major tournaments, such as the recent MLG World Finals in New Orleans, are the trendsetters for how Dota is played. We’ve examined the winners and losers of 6.85, where the patch had sent a ripple effect through our pubs. Leshrac and Storm Spirit vanished, whereas Doom had one of the highest win rate bumps. With the recent high level play in the Frankfurt Qualifiers and the MLG World Finals, we’re first seeing how professional players are adjusting to the new changes in 6.85.
Most Contested Heroes
Most picked and banned heroes at MLG World’s Final
It’s no surprise that 
Tusk was the most banned hero at MLG. He was picked or banned in 92% of games. Despite the recent changes to the hero, he still remains a potent offlaner, and in the hands of CDEC.Garder, he was an automatic first phase ban. We saw a similar trend back at the China and Europe qualifiers for the Frankfurt Qualifiers. Though he did receive a mana cost nerf to Ice Shards and a duration one on Snowball, it did not interfere with his utility as a core or support.
The surprise hero of the tournament was 
Ember Spirit. Seen as well in TI5, he was never featured as prominently as in MLG, where in the Grand Finals, Evil Geniuses picked him three consecutive times in the first phase. Whether or not it was part deny pick against Team Secret, Ember Spirit has risen in popularity since TI5. The hero has more or less remained the same, but his builds and the meta has changed around him. Ember Spirit has frequently been placed in the safe lane, but with the fall of Leshrac and Storm Spirit, it has also opened up viable matchups for him in the mid role.
Team Secret is among the best teams at using the entirety of the map. This was the case before the new roster, when the team was known for its ability to maximize net worth, distributing it appropriately according to its lineup, and leverage their advantages to suffocate opponents. It’s no surprise that they favor mobility in their lineup. Boots of Travel was once a luxury item for Ember Spirit, but it's become a core item for safe lane Ember Spirit players, such as EternalEnvy. Only few heroes have the kind of mobility that Boots of Travel opens for Ember Spirit.
Meepo: The New Techies
w33ha with Hex, Blink, Aghs, and Boots of Travel by 27 minutes against EG
Meepo, like Techies, has long been one of those heroes who fundamentally breaks the game, but no team had yet to capitalize these strengths. It wasn’t until EG, Secret, and Complexity pushed Techies to his limits—the no risk, vacuum of space he created in whatever lane he was in—that the hero became a respect ban. Secret, at MLG Worlds, has escalated Meepo to the same heights. It gave Secret the kind of advantage EG had during the final rounds of TI5. Opponents had two options: deal with the hero, or expend one of the first bans on him. It's not uncommon for teams to give opponents their comfort heroes. The case of Meepo, however, was similar to that of Techies-no one had much experience playing against it.
Sleeper Hits
There were three heroes this tournament that were rarely contested, picked at least 7 times, and held over a 70% win rate: 
Slardar, 
Lich, and 
Bane. Keep in mind that the win rate is also influenced by the fact that most of the Bane and Lich games were played by Team Secret. Slardar used to be criticized as a weak carry hero with little capacity to farm, but at times was a decent situational pick. The recent buffs to his Sprint's cooldown strengthened his utility in other roles, whether it is as support or offlane. All three of these heroes, however, have benefited from the advent of dual lanes. Lich received a buff to his ultimate, but most importantly, his Sacrifice no longer gives experience to enemies. And with Bane, his 70 mana Brain Sap may have vaulted him to one of the strongest early laners.
The Return of Doom
Doom's pick rate continues to rise in pubs. He was the 3rd most banned hero at MLG World Finals
Doom was primed for a comeback to the competitive meta, when he had a 96-100% pick+ban rate across the Frankfurt qualifiers for America, China, and Europe. SEA’s Doom was the outlier, with a 72% Pick and Ban rate. Prior to 6.85, Doom had been patched into obscurity. Aghanim Scepter was required to apply Break, disabling passives of previous cores of the meta such as Bristleback and Faceless Void. Silver Edge and Glimmer Cape were introduced; one a substitute for Doom’s Ultimate and the other a counter. The final blow was another nerf to his ultimate, an increase of its cast point from 0.3 to 0.5.
6.85 didn’t revert the nerfs to his ultimate, but buffed all his other skills— the most significant being an increase in damage to Scorched Earth. The total health and damage increased from 120/216/336/480 to 120/288/504/768. He functions more or less the same, as a utility hero. Now his laning is buffed to a point to negate how hamstrung his ultimate was before. Doom is back, and his return will either be met with delight or dismay when he deletes a hero from the game.
Pub Impact
MLG may not have the same spotlight as TI5, but it’s another high profile, international event that continues to change the landscape of the meta. Already in this past week we’re seeing rising trends in the pick rates of Doom, Slardar, and Meepo. Heroes like Leshrac, Bloodseeker, and Storm Spirit continue to wither away from the meta, and though the ones that replace them may be familiar, at least finally it’s something new.
first!
who the heck cares
meepo op. plz dont kill my meepo.
meeepo
pick Alch=ez pts
Meepo is my favorite hero. Best hero in the game if played correctly IMO.
Doom is ma boy. He deserves a place in the meta, though he should still be a more situational pick. Icefrog let us have the dual- and tri-core line-up!
well I enjoyed playing meepo too :)
9th!!!
Meepo isn't OP or unhealthy at all... It's just another snowballing carry with strengths and weakenesses. Also, unlike techies it doesn't change the game completely.
The thing is: It fits Team Secret strategy and w33 is insane with the hero. Also, Secret's enemies simply didn't counter the hero properly. But removing w33's games and rechecking the winrate, we'll nothing special.
Doom, on the other hand, is a bit obnoxious.
w33 meepo = op
not w33 meepo = not op
finally its' something new??
lol wait for 6 months before the same article repeats itself with another plea for change and then after the next patch after io becomes a mid hero you guys will be like 'finally something new' yay
this trend of making or breaking heroes every patch is utter bull shit....no hero should be so buffed that next patch they're so nerfed they no longer function in the meta
every hero should be balanced all round i know its easier said than done but that should be the goal instead of this repeat cycle of every meta making the past meta heroes redundant and just replacing them with new ones only to be repeated again
i mean seriously wtf is the plan here?
is this how valve wants to keep the game exciting and relevant?.....keep buffing previously obscure heroes and then nerf them to oblivion...keep the cycle repeating?
next update elder titan becomes hard carry? doom becomes shit again?
bring back storm?
troll? sniper?
why should there be 'meta' heroes instead of all heroes being made for the meta?
valve creates high magic nuking heroes declares new meta....next meta it says fuck that lets nerf them to shit and bring back some previous heroes
i mean cmon all heroes should be designed so that they have some relevance in the game no that one time they're like OP next time they nerfed to shit and their core items are shit
whats the point of having heroes like oracle, earth, titan, lycan in the game if they're not fucking relevant?
Meepo isn't OP. Meepo is perfectly balanced. He has many many counters and he can be picked in certain lineups. Stop complaining. It's like the guy who wrote the article is a 1k mmr noob.
Forgot mid alchemist
@Dont Go Full Retard, Team
Idk if you're even paying attention, but with every patch the outliers are far less away in terms of balance of the rest of the heroes.
For example, while doom is the new leshrac, sniper,void, etc.
He's not quite as strong as those previous meta heroes, yes he's for sure extremely good but far less of an outlier than certain heroes have been in the past.
@Dont Go Full Retard, Team. All heroes are as relevant as you make them out to be. META in all its essence, is basically what people THINK is going to work more consistently ( risk vs reward ). well i do agree that trends leaves certain heroes untouched, the fact remains that they are still available. the heroes you mention all have brilliant skill sets, they just require a level of co-ordination that doesn't exist in pubs. shadow demon is maybe the best example in this regard. the POINT the meta exists is to reshape your learning curve of the game, as we get used to playing against a certain hero/line-up/strategy, thus keeping it interesting (new).
how could meepo like techies? the skillcap on playing meepo is way higher than techies.
alot of co ordination that doesnt exist in pubs.....got it....does it exist in pro matches? then why arent they picked on there?
and you the chinese guy i think with the girl red eyes avatar....that wasnt my point at all who's talking bout outliers?
im talking bout putting heroes into the game and then next patch basically removing them from it
why make troll sniper lesh so OP when you know you're going to have to nerf them?.....and then when the nerf comes its basically a break....sniper isnt used anymore...troll isnt used anymore...ss and lesh are dead
so what was the point exactly? as i said it might be something to keep the game new and i get that but overall why the huge nerfs?
why cant they be reworked so that they can still be viable to an extent instead of basically being taken out of the 'meta' all together?
i really loved playing storm :(
Consider this - the game gets perfectly balanced with each hero being viable in the pro scene and public matchmaking. The glorious times start in Dota 2 and the competitive scene has never been this exciting and drafts have never been that versatile. There is not a single hero which is strictly better or worse than the other. They are all equals. In the drafting stage you now ban not the Flavor of the Month hero, but try to ban what the enemy team is good at playing. Now each team is forced to learn to play all heroes at a competitive level and drafters have never been more important since synergies and counters are the name of the game. Truly a masterpiece of a game.
It goes on. A week. A month... half a year. Suddenly you realise that teams are now all the same - they all focus on this versatility and no man stands out on a particular hero since every time anyone gets good at a hero it becomes a permaban against the team.
Even worse, with no outliers there is no need for change. We don't see a patch every 4 or so months - we get it every year and it is just hats.
Now you need to push out new heroes to make the game more exciting and feel fresh. You push out a new hero every several months and balance them before each major. But with each hero there are less and less unique ideas. Suddenly all new heroes start feeling generic - mobility spells, disables, steroids etc. They are all just different iterations of existing mechanics. They fit in the whole idea, but they certainly don't feel new or exciting.
Congratulations. You are now playing HoN.
just because troll sniper lesh ss got nerfed hard doesn't mean they're bad. it just means they cant 1v5 a team at any point of the game like they were able to before, which was goddamn stupid.
Bring back Pudge fountain hook. Case closed
@KawaiiSocks Diversity is something which makes the game interesting. I would love to see different heroes every game instead of every 4 months. It is good that no one will spam one hero in competitive Dota because it will force players to be flexible and learn different heroes. How teams can be the same if there are different players who are good at different set of heroes?
Also I don't see a problem with getting new patch every year instead of every 4 months. If the game would be balanced then why force changes every 4 months. Moreover Icefrog could finally focus on adding new heroes or items not only on balancing the game.
I really don't see a problem with perfectly balanced Dota, but still it is almost impossible to do.
WE ALL ARE DOOMED IN THIS META, with all these doom picks XD
w33 meepo Kreygasm
Refresher linkens new meta against doom
Perfect imbalance is necesary in every game to keep it interesting. This was invented more than 20 years ago in Magic the Gathering and have been reused by every succesful game out there.
COMEON YOU CANT KILL MEEPO MAN, its very hard to play how the heck you gonna nerf he!?!
Misery's slardar is :D
I like boobs ( WR mid is so fucking popular)