The Heroes We Never Play
From my Dotabuff profile, my oldest game was one played nearly 2 and a half years ago. It was a 35 minute long bot match where I played Enchantress, and I bought Urn, then Scythe. We didn’t have Truesight data then, but I’m sure I was in the jungle until I noticed the match was over (I had zero tower damage). 1865 games later and counting, I’m left with 5 heroes I have never played: Earth Spirit, IO, Lion, Winter Wyvern, and Chen. I never gave them a chance. How could I have dismissed them without even trying it (also: how can Snith play over 2,600 games of Chen)?
It’s not like I made a deliberate choice to never play those heroes. I don’t queue games thinking, "this will be another game I refuse to accept IO as a hero." Face it: who really picks heroes based on draft over ones that you just feel like playing? I can't help if feel like playing 100 games of Storm Spirit.
Why do we ignore certain heroes and obsessively pick others?
One of the biggest reasons is the meta. The spot light on strong heroes leaves others in the shadows. How do I have time to play Enchantress when in the picking screen I’m busy hovering over Juggernaut, Axe, Troll, or Sniper? It’s a consequence of the All Pick mode. If I’m playing ranked and I’m playing to win, I’m going to pick the strongest heroes. And if doing so I lose a piece of my soul, so be it. +25 MMR.
By consequence, the least picked heroes are weak (in pubs). This isn’t always the case—Chen, Batrider, Broodmother, and Enigma are some of the most neglected heroes—but if pub players drift towards the strongest heroes, they’ll flee from the weakest ones. Sometimes, the heroes are weak because they require a certain level of micro, such as Beastmaster and Brewmaster, that becomes a barrier for players. Other times, they are heroes that require a level of coordination that’s a high order for a randomly assembled team of players. How often will you get a good IO dual lane to work?
Aesthetics. I am tempted to also say cosmetics. We're currently in a feedback loop where the most popular heroes are the ones that get more cosmetics, which in turn makes them more popular. Believe it or not, Crystal Maiden was still a fairly popular support pick before her arcana. Sometimes we choose based on how the hero looks more than how it feels, which explains her spike in popularity before people realized a swimming dog didn't change that your movement speed is slower than dirt. It made me think: what would happen if we took the skill set of a popular hero and put it in another hero's body? Like a Dota Freaky Friday or Trading Places. Switch Queen of Pain and IO for a day. IO is now a mid lane staple with poor late game scaling, and most importantly: no cosmetics. QoP has a global teleport and a tether dynamic that requires a close buddy. Wouldn't you want to sidle up to that hero now?
We have comfort heroes. This is like me growing up on McDonalds and Little Caesars and being unable to refuse their pull whenever I drive by them. Dota asks us for a time commitment that can last over an hour, and it can be a taxing experience. Do we want to go through that experience with some new hero we’ve never played, or do we go back to the ones we know? Winning certainly is fun, but it can't be the only reward since in my case it's only happened about 53% of the time--60% if I played Storm Spirit. I don't care if I win or lose. Sometimes I just want to be a jovial, pot-belied, old man for an hour.
Take a look at your heroes page. What are some of the heroes you never played and was it a deliberate choice? By the way, congratulations if you've played all the heroes. I don't think I'll ever bring myself to picking Earth Spirit, unless I random him twice in a row.
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/63315067/heroes
:s
i have a smurf account to play my weaker heroes
Indeed, and what makes it more annoying is that some people actually think that the heroes they don't play, are bad heroes..
Io and Winter Wyvern BibleThump
Meepwn lol^
I am really suprised that I haven't played brew and ench in dota2. I could have sworn I have.
Dota 1 and 2 seems to be just mixed in my brain.
Techies and winter vivern, the last two released heroes. In post released they were always instalocked and I have not found the time to learn them yet.
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/101190064/heroes
So many hero's that I have no intention to ever play, so not surprised to see them there. Been meaning to play Dork Seer, Phoenix, Tree Prophet and maybe Bristleback. Cute Storm Spirit stats btw dude :3
batrider, chen, ember, leshard, skywraith, storm, wd
I am surprised that I tried Earth Spirit
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/131272452/heroes
Leshrac, this is a legitimate choice on my part because he just doesnt seem 'fun'
I went out of my way to play every hero before I even hit 200 hours game time. I don't see why you should neglect some heroes completely.
I've never played phoenix, techies and winter wyvern. WW i will play eventually and i have from my smurfs, techies i don't think i will ever want to play from my main and phoenix is in a weird place for me, i love him and hate him at the same time. Love him that he can do much, hate him that he could do so much more and felt so much better to me in Dota 1 before he got a ton of reworks
I think there's no hero that I haven't played, I just don't really like the idea of playing 1-2 hero over and over again for every match.
I only played around 2000ish match on Dota 2 and I have Batrider and Nyx as my 2 most played heroes, every other heroes were spread quite evenly and there are heroes that I only played few times. I think it also has to do on what kind of "role" people are playing, so some people might never even touch support/cores heroes
Healing !? Zuaapppp !!
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/7329695/heroes
LOLz
i know for sure i'll never play all heroes because i refuse to play skywrtah mage,riki and pa.those heroes make me wanna cry sometimes espeacially beacuse you'r team doesn't know how to control them.i'll just stick to mid and ganking heroes
I'm only at 300 games so far so I haven't played all heroes yet. (59 actually)
I don't know, I like to try a hero and play him a couple of times to get better at them. I don't like trying a hero for one match (unless Single Draft forces me). When I play a hero I like to find out what the best items/builds are in what situations. I can certainly say I have a couple of heroes I know very well to play in different situations.
Oh well, I'l probably never play Io/Chen. Invoker perhaps when I have time to learn the spells. I tried Earth Spirit tho, fun hero only slightly OP (altho his uselessness end-game fixes that a bit)
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/72586160/heroes
Brew Beast Enchant Jakiro and Winter.
Bleh to micro
i've tried all heroes, even played 32 games of Earth Spirit, he seems fun at start, but with overpower comes hard control. Now im maxing my Storm Spirit and Shadow Fiend and try to play less as fat guy :D
There are heroes who are popular in pub-matches and heroes who are popular in Tournaments, but to my mind there is currently no hero who is as unpopular in BOTH as Elder-Titan, and it's a damn shame.
He looks so cool, but his abilities are just so "meh", IMO.
i've played 4k games and ofc played all heroes, but like 20 of them were played only few times.
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/113947199/heroes
and i have in top heroes unpopular ones. that is one of the reasons i play them, cause it looks cool when u play good on hero which is hard to master.
puck, brewmaster (i played him before popularity raise), earth spirit, morphling, tusk(!), techies... i love them so much and don't understand why they are underpicked.
Haven't played Troll lmao
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/90804632/heroes
Experience True healing
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/48827737/records
i get bored playing one hero, but there is also a lot of heroes i would like to learn how to play them (meepo specially), btw this is my smurf :D
I dont know why I never wanted to play Meepo
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/17256972/heroes
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/42850321/heroes
I managed to find the courage to pick Chen in a SD game recently, so I rest assured Meepo will be drafted soon by me.
Spirits and Visage surprises me, though. Especially Ember.
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/80812934/heroes
Welllllllllllll..... Visage is my most played hero, since he actually kicks ass in lower mmr assuming you don't get countered (unlikely) and know how to use your birds. I don't play him that often now though, mostly because there are few lineups that he fits in. And he's not very popular in the E-Sports scene either, or at least not as popular as he used to be.
That said, I'm really surprised to see that there are so many heroes that i haven't even touched yet. Most of them are just heroes that I don't like or don't fit into the current meta. Exceptions would be micro-heavy heroes (Meepo, Beast, etc), as well as techies, for some very, very, very, strange reason ......
Only hero I haven't played is Winter Wyvern because it's new, sadly I can play every hero but none to the point where I can reliably win in pubs lol. The whole 'jack of all trades, master of none' fits me pretty well.
I main Io.
Okay, I'll just leave, no one lies omnipresent balls of light these days
I've never played Brew, QoP, Mirana, Shadow Fiend and Weaver. I have a weirder set of mid heroes though I like Mirana and QoP in -wtf mode.
yeah haha i remember in my early days of playing dota 2 in june 2013 (never played dota 1) i used to main visage without levelling ult and enchantress without levelling enchant but i wouldnt be caught dead playing them now
Never played invoker. Don't know what the hype is about.
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/123562416/heroes
best support ever, lel. all supports are in the end of list
Actually, my least play is PA :> I think she isn't first choice carry for me :>
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/153121905/heroes
seems like i stopped playing new heros after Diretide 2013 (except Earth Spirit random)
Meepo is the only one remaining for me.
unplayed winter and techies :d
about 400 games in, trying the all hero challenge now. Stuck on invoker BibleThump
I only play tinker and sf, coz I wanna get in the leaderboards someday. While tinker does not look appealing with the lack of cosmetics (aside from booties) he has a funny laugh.
The reason I never picked qop on this account is because I despise that hero with my life, as she's a strong matchup vs tinker.
I decided that I will limit myself to playing flying heroes with big wings for now. I noticed it the last time when I played Windranger that I am having difficulties finding my hero in a clash when it doesn't have big wings.
You should really give Earth Spirit a try, he's tons of fun! Anyway, the only hero I've never played so far is Tusk. God I hate everything about that hero
3000 match and i played all hero , cause i randomed every game :D
I rly suprise that my winrate still 50% lol xD
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/86754378/heroes
earth spirit best hero in the game
most of the ones I have never played are the popular ones. I guess I just gravitate toward the underdog. Plus it's kinda cool when your opponents obviously have no idea what your hero does.
never played winter wyvern,
Never played Tuskar. On dota 1, i used to feed with him. Ah, and i hate him
winter wyvern.
cause i start to play certain hero, when i see someone really good playing him
but i still didn't see good ww
Am's a good hero it's just that people played it the noob/wrong way getting skills before stats
Used to hate Am until I realised that I'm in top 100
http://www.dotabuff.com/heroes/anti-mage/players
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/106352185/heroes he played on the tinker, when it was not mainstream xD
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/90550957
Still a visage spammer.
Used to be a Veno one, but Visage is more fun
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/10899412/heroes
IO is OP. Pubbers need to learn this hero becouse it is sooo good when played right. Favorite and most successful hero of mine.