Offlaners in 7.20
7.20 brought several new offlaners and solidified positions of some old ones as well, making for a rather diverse and interesting meta. It also seemingly got rid of the meta with carries in the offlane—current offlane heroes are predominantly utility cores.
The first reason for it is that the games are shorter—you can be greedy, but you can’t be too greedy in the current Dota. You need heroes who will create space, initiate and frontline, rather than deal damage, otherwise you can get quickly overrun.
The second reason is probably even more interesting—the 2-1-2, while still the most popular laning composition, is not ubiquitous. We’ve seen teams take extra care of their carries, we’ve seen roaming heroes and that means that sometimes you need heroes in the offlane who are capable of standing solo and work well with levels alone.
Magnus
We can’t start talking about offlaners in the patch without addressing the elephant, or rather the Magnoceros in the room. Magnus is easily the most iconic hero of the patch. Phantom Assassin might feel unfair and is undeniably strong in certain situations, but in half the games it is actually Magnus who makes her look that good.
This hero gives a massive damage boost to his carries, increasing their farming capabilities by a huge margin if they are melee. Farming and dealing damage are pretty much the two big things carries have to do in the game and Magnus bolsters them both.
He also has a waveclear and nuke that allows him to never be truly behind and an escape tool if things get hard in lane. The latter also doubles as a soft initiation tool, a slow, a save and pretty much whatever you want it to be—you can think of Skewer as Meat Hook in an AoE that can be also used to push the enemies away from your team.
Finally, there is Reverse Polarity. It is a good ability, but its long cooldown is preventing it from being great. Nonetheless, a BKB-piercing AoE hard disable for almost 4 seconds is potentially game-changing and also works incredibly well with the rest of the kit.
Sand King
One of the more popular heroes in the professional scene seems underlooked in pubs. New Sand King is a force to be reckoned with even after the nerfs. His damage output and good disable coupled with relative safety in lane and a resource drain on enemy supports make him an ideal candidate for the offlane.
More and more people are maxing out the new Sandstorm and it definitely limits the hero’s initiation potential in the early-mid game. But it also almost guarantees a timely purchase of Blink Dagger—at this point the low range on Burrow Strike becomes less of a factor.
Sand King is also exceptional against many melee carries in lane. Melee carries are quite popular in the game right now and it means SK generally gets a favorable matchup. Caustic Finale is unlikely to outright kill your enemy, but it will slow down their farm and will force them to get extra regeneration in lane.
Slowing down enemy carry while having a reliable way to get farm makes for a very powerful combination for a midgame hero. Sand King might not scale exceptionally well, but he is exceptionally strong in the 20-30 minute mark and the majority of games are approaching their end at this point.
Beastmaster
The new Hawk might have lost some versatility, but it still provides a lot of vision—something truly abusable only in the professional scene and in high-level pubs. Current Beastmaster build fully revolves around having access to pretty much two extra wards on the map at any given point in the game and that in itself is already enough to start considering the hero.
Top it off with a single target, BKB-piercing disable for 4 seconds and a pretty powerful aura and you get a hero who will always be useful, regardless of matchups.
Latest item build trends also show that more and more often Beastmasters opt for Vladmir's Offering aura over getting extra summons from either Necronomicon or Helm of the Dominator. We’ve talked about how armor is now more impactful and it is great to see players adjust to the new patch. Coupled with maxed Inner Beast aura mere presence of Beastmater already puts his team at a huge DPS and survivability advantage.
Centaur Warrunner
Centaur got a new ability that makes his right-clicks very powerful in the early game and potentially allow him to scale. It was the Chinese teams in the Chongqing Major qualifiers who were the first to try the 1-1-3 build for laning, often catching enemies off-guard with their 300+ damage autoattacks before the 10-minute mark.
The mid- and late-game viability of the hero comes primarily from his Stampede—a great tool that can either allow your team to safely disengage or will turn every single hero on your team into a decent initiator. The Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade is still very much worth it—40% damage reduction on all incoming damage is a massive boost to survivability.
Brewmaster
Reworked Brewmaster feels at home in the offlane, but generally as a greedy position four support. As an offlaner he does get access to more items, but we’ve seen his playstyle develop further from the Blink and more towards auras.
This development seems quite natural—Thunder Clap is a very powerful slow and nuke, but it is not a hard disable. Most mobile targets will have time to disengage, most carry heroes will have time to press their BKB and will generally have the ability to react. As such, building a relatively tanky Brewmaster with good auras who can frontline, draw attention and, if needed, use his ultimate in a fight where the enemy engaged themselves is what most professional teams do.
For that to be effective you don’t necessarily need Blink Dagger, hence the overall cost of the hero is slightly lower and his timings aren’t as crucial. This means that he can be played as a support and feel perfectly fine or, alternatively, stay solo in his lane after the first 5 minutes of the game, leeching XP and farming jungle when possible. That frees one of the sidelane supports and in the current meta it can be pretty powerful.
Axe
Axe is still great. Having a slightly weaker Reverse Polarity, but on a 10-second cooldown instead of a 130-second one is a very good trade-off. Moreover, Axe can be very strong in lane and jungles faster than most heroes in the game.
That makes Axe consistent. He can consistently get his Blink Dagger and levels. He can consistently initiate on spell immune targets. He can consistently deal considerable amounts of damage.
That doesn’t make the hero exceptional, however. Magnus can reposition enemies, Centaur provides disengagement tools, Brewmaster neutralizes a threat for a very long period of time, Beastmaster provides great auras and a massive vision advantage. Axe initiates or counter-initiates and that’s pretty much it. Especially in the later stages of the game where getting Culling Blade buff is harder.
As such, the hero is probably at his best when you have several high-risk, high-reward heroes who need space and are only very good in specific scenarios, like hitting enemies who can’t retaliate.
Closing Thoughts
Looking at stats from the recent qualifiers and smaller high-level tournaments one thing is certain—the meta is still evolving. There are still many things to explore and counters to think of. Of course, there is Magnus and PA—a seemingly unbeatable duo, but even without the nerfs we believe there are answer to these heroes.
Looking for these answers is one of the exciting parts of Dota and we strongly encourage players to keep on experimenting and sharing their ideas with the community.
First.....BOOYAAAH!
Sand King and Tide, my favorites offlane right now.
3st
what happened to mag mid? or veno offlane?
Bristleback ??
Надо добавить насколько акс с обраткой хорош против милишных керри, которых в нынешней мете большинство. Получив хороший фарм, мортра(наглый имбалансный персонаж, кмк), зачастую, будет бояться только его. А уж про тролля со встроенным грейвом дазла в ульту... Акс был силен впрошлых патчах и стал наиболее актуальным офлейнером в нынешней мете, крайне рекомендуется, когда в команде противника на первых пиках появляется магнус. Самому магнусу акс может не страшен, но вот милишным корам, под которых он берется, акс точно обеспечит нестабильную игру.
pogchamp blizzy
magnus elephant wtf??
Tidehunter, hello?!
Any views on Timbersaw, Tidehunter, Phoenix, Clock and the rest of the cast? Or are they generally unchanged?
RIP timbersaw and offlane undying
timber was,and will be either a good in 5% of times,or utter trash in other 95% .
clockwerk is obviously a bad hero for pos 3,but at least some-kind decent pos4.
tide is semi-good,he has more dmg,but ult still has 150 sec cd,if it was 90-120 sec,it would be a decent/great hero,dota became way too fast,and games are thrown easily,just one fight w/o tide's ulti(which is insanely real),and you lost rax + game.
phoenix is better as pos4 imo,cause jugger/pa are popular rn,and jugger/pa are obv a good heros vs phoenix.(jugg is good vs phoenix on lane,pa isnt much)
undying is just bad,its self-explainatory.
No Brewmaster SeemsGood
what about enigma? is he a good offlaner still? i played over 100 matches o with him and i think its not so bad
Dark seer is pretty good in this patch as well
@Lowkey how is that Undying bad? He is literally a stomp in early-mid games if you know who to lane with. If you are playing as core 3, he is extremely tanky and deadly in late game. Remember he does have health regen talent which allows him to combo with Holy Locket, that greatly amplifies his survivability and tankiness. New ultimate is good to have right now even in lv 6, in previous patch most of players skip lv 6 last time but now it provides health bonus, radiance effect and aoe slow effects. And btw do you know that he is literally stomper/counter to current meta carries such as PA and Slark? Even in 3/1/1 enemy lane against 3 supports there is no much problem since you have tomb, strength sap and heals, with barely 3 bracer(which is too good to have right now) he gains good amount of health, str, magic resistance and health regen. In mid game however you are benefit with summon tomb upon death talent, which allows you to have one of best CC in the game if you are able to land one tomb before you dies, still you are having greatest advantage despite on strength saps, and decent amount of health and mana. In late game you will be probably are having Guardian, Locket or even Heart, these 3 items are good for core undying and hardly dies in most situation. I dont think he is trash as pos 3, is just how are you going to lane with or against, that makes him difference and powerful as a core.
axe will always be relevant...
anyone remember when kawaiisocks made good articles
I'm upset but also relieved you didn't touch on Underlord. I like having him to myself.
underlord mine too. Hes been mine since Expulsion 3rd skill dota 1
>Axe до сих пор хорош. У него чуть более слабый Reverse Polarity
простите, што?
">Axe до сих пор хорош. У него чуть более слабый Reverse Polarity
простите, што?"
Ну РП у акса)
Eu acho que Tide é um bom herói deste meta também. :3