Centaur Warrunner Still Stomping Pubs
Despite nerfs to Centaur Warrunner’s Return interacting with Illusion in 6.88f and his Agility gain in 7.00, where he was the #1 hero in win rate at 57.55%, he still continues to dominate pubs in 7.01. His current win rate places in him 5th in our charts, among the usual suspects like Spectre and Omniknight.
Where Centaur is unique is that he’s at the top of the pub win rate charts as an offlane hero. His only competition is Underlord, who exceeds his success in higher skilled games. In fact, offlaners in general are scarce at the top of the win rate charts. Axe comes it at #11, where he’s played almost equally in the jungle in pubs, and further down the list is Slardar at #23.
Press R To Win
Easier heroes to play are usually what tops our win rate charts. The average player benefits more from playing a basic hero well than a meta hero inadequately. It’s why one button-Wraith King is a perennial pub stomper. It’s why Underlord is a top ban in the competitive meta, the #1 hero in the very high bracket, the # 4 hero in high, but #7 when averaged with the rest of the Dota playing population. It’s why Dark Seer loses more than 50% of his games in pubs, while being the 2nd most picked and banned hero at the ongoing DAC qualifiers.
Centaur Warrunner lies within the category of “heroes who can help the team if you only press 0-1 buttons.” That includes Crystal Maiden (global aura), Spectre (press R), and Zeus (press R). Stampede is a get out of jail free card for his team. It saves teammates from themselves, and those opportunities are a dime a dozen in pubs.
A Path Of Buffs To Nowhere
Before the nerf to Return no longer working on illusions in 6.88f, Centaur received a series of consecutive buffs across 7 patches. It started with the introduction of an Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade, where Stampede reduced damage to teammates and granted them unobstructed movement over cliffs and through trees. It gave Centaur another utility option versus the usual, aura-carrying offlaner.
He received buffs to the bonus damage of Return over two patches, increased duration of Stampede, a reduction of Double Edge over two patches, and finally a small boost to his strength gain in 6.88. All of this amounted to practically nothing as to his viability in the meta. He was picked only once through the entirety of TI6’s main event and qualifiers (625 recorded games).
Picking The Right (Correct) Talents
That extra +30 damage may not be that useful after all
Centaur has one of the lowest base INT and INT gain stats in the game. It stands to reason that the extra +2 mana regen is more valuable for him, but pubs overwhelmingly pick +30 damage by over twice as much. Centaur doesn’t need the damage to farm, and so the extra damage becomes fairly trivial in team fights. This choice is also favored by the recent Centaur games played at DAC, by NP’s MSS and Secret’s Khezzu.
Resistance vs. Evasion can be a tricker choice, and it’s more than likely a situational one. Even if Hood of Defiance or Pipe is part of the standard build, more magical damage reduction can still be a useful pick, considering burst damage is what will take Centaur down before he can pop Stampede.
An extra second to Hoof Stomp’s stun is nice, but it’s nothing new. The Return Aura is a fun and strong interaction that lets Centaur provide some scalable, extra damage for his team. It also has the benefit that most pub players probably haven’t caught on yet of the passive being on other heroes.
The Return of Centaur?
Centaur had a brief flash at ESL One Genting, where he had a 83% win rate across 8 games. Currently, he is getting some play during the DAC qualifiers, with a meager win rate of 48% across 42 games. For now, Slardar, the most picked and banned hero at DAC, is the better choice in a similar role. He’s safer in the lane, and his weakness in the jungle isn’t as important anymore in today’s meta.
Centaur certainly is trending just slightly, but it’s from the low bar of TI6. If he can’t find a place in the competitive meta, he’ll always have one in pubs.
1 сука да!!!!!!!!
2 нах!!!!!!!
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Offlane role in general needs some nerf, there were too many new features that buffed it tremendously (talon, shrines etc.)
5th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@speedy speed boy
Offlane needs a nerf because I'm a core that wants to sit in lane 20 min free farm.
7 Kappa
I wanna die
9 lul ez for random chelik
10th I love Nadya
The 10% evasion works a little against his skillset because, and correct me if i'm wrong on this, return only procs when an attack lands. I mean, I'd rather the attack miss, but it does mean people might be misjudging the damage output they expect to put out.
Probably not that big of a deal though.
Dotabuff please remove 1st, 2nd and 3rd comments. All the people who actually care about reading the articles are pissed off bad by this childish behavior.
русские дауные пишут , что они первые
I'm just a scrubs, keep scrolling guys.
I do beleive that it's his agha upgrade why pros picks him. It usually built as 3rd or 4th item, after dagger. That damage reduction is very helpful in team fights. Look how secret used it during clashes.
I choose Dodge, 10% of them can be crit or bash. Magic resistance can be increased by Raindrop
play naix
83% WR across 6 games, not 8
7/8=87.5%
5/6=83.3~%
@Brock Hall..I think return is dealt even before the atk animation ends.so evasion is safe to have on him.
With centaur I feel the winrate is not as much affected by hero power. The ult basically only gives movementspeed and none of his skills are directly that amazing.
He often saves people from bad positioning, leading to them to not throw games = higher winrate, its more of a natural dynamic
Maybe his Aghs is a too good however, 60% damage reduction can negate basically anything that comes in bursts, 40% would suffice or make it more of a direct counter to either physical or magical damage and less of the other to make it more situational
7.02 just landed and the changes to cent are negligible if anyone is wondering.
Lvl 10 talent went from 30 dmg to 35 dmg. So, despite getting a decent amount of play in pubs and pros, it seems like he is going relatively untouched. I'm fine with this though.
ayyy lmao
@ EnOc}{...Fog
"Return only procs when a unit lands an attack, regardless of distance. This means it cannot proc on missed attacks." - Dota 2 Gamepedia.
Axe's Counter Helix, Centaur's Return and similar skills were changed a few patches ago to proc after the attack lands instead of before.
@EnOc}{...Fog
The change was made because it was basically free damage for people that would fake attacks and probably for attacks that miss. Back then it was more of a minor change that made logical sense, but now it means you can't exploit the evasion.
WR 83%, 42 games
3k article seems good kappa