Offlane Vengeful Spirit—New Meta?
Vengeful Spirit has been impressively successful in the highest skill bracket. 57.35% win rate in the last month and 60%+ win rate over the last week make her the best hero in the current meta, at least according to stats.
Vengeful Spirit always looks unassuming—even when she was played as a core, she was primarily picked for her base stats and attribute growth. Combined, they made her one of the tankiest ranged heroes in the game, with high HP and armor values.
Her damage output was also decent, courtesy of agility growth and a rather powerful aura, but in the later stages of the game lack of meaningful AoE damage from either auto-attacks or abilities made her more of a liability, rather than a carry a team could rely on. She can’t play the farm game and fully relies on her ability to close the match before the ~40 minute mark.
The new patch, apart from directly buffing Vengeful Spirit herself, also made games considerably shorter. These two changes combined propelled the hero into relevance and while teams are still vary of trying to play her as a position one core, she found her place in the offlane.
What makes for a good offlaner?
New patch brought back many iconic offlaners—meta no longer allows for extra greedines during the draft, meaning that we get to see more and more utility heroes. Vengeful Spirit fits the description quite well, given the current most popular item and skill builds on the hero.
Vengeful Spirit really like to have access to more experience than what she can get as a support. It is not necessary for her to do well and she can still do many great things from a support position, but having farm priority allows her to max out both her nuke and her team aura in a timely manner—something a support Vengeful Spirit has to choose from.
All hero’s abilities scale decently well with 
Magic Missile becoming a powerful nuke and disable, 
Wave of Terror getting extra armor reduction and lower cooldown and 
Vengeance Aura simply becoming stronger. It means that every single level the hero gets is going to be impactful and the earlier she can max out her spells, the better.
These abilities also work for her whole team. In fact, they are probably at their best when it is one of the teammates who is the primary beneficiary of the aura, the stun and the armor reduction on the opponents. Vengeful Spirit can’t farm, but she can ensure that her teammate who can, will get an extra edge over the opponent, while also having a safety net in the form of 
Nether Swap. This is especially true if the game goes late.
Building for offlane
Looking through the guides for the hero, we can deduce that the hero is either extremely flexible or that the players are still debating on what the “best” build for the hero is. There is an almost even spread between players maxing Stun, Wave of Terror and Aura, though the latter is mostly reserved for support playstyle.
All of the hero’s abilities are great. Though they might look simple, they are very effective and that’s what matters the most. We can’t really tell you what the best way to level the hero is—going for aura is definitely better when you have teammates you can push with early, Wave of Terror can be devastating against lower-armored targets and Magic Missile is a very reliable damage and disable source. Think about what you need the most and adjust accordingly.
While her ability point distribution largely depends on the game, her item build has been mostly figured out. 
Vladmir's Offering is among the best items in the game in the current meta and pairs nicely with Vengeful Spirit’s playstyle and role in the game. It is an extra aura for teamfights, a siege enhancer and given how Vengeful Spirit leaves her illusion even if she dies, it will stay on the battlefield until the very end.
It also solves the problem of mana regen on the hero, allowing her to be stay on map for longer and independently sustain herself—something extremely helpful for a slow-farming hero in a slow game.
Solar Crest is also an item many players still sleep on. It is out of reach for most supports and doesn’t feel too good on cores, but on utility offlane heroes it makes perfect sense, especially on Vengeful Spirit. It pairs nicely with the hero’s innate Armor reduction and Vengeful Spirit really benefits from all the stats the item provides—she needs armor, health and mana pool.
Finally, there is 
Force Staff that is finally making a comeback on core heroes. Having it early can solve a lot of problems throughout the game and supports sometimes don’t get in a timely enough manner to make a difference. The 
Hurricane Pike is also a meaningful progression on a hero that occasionally wants to hit heroes.
Closing Thoughts
Seeing meta still developing is a great sign. 7.20 came more than a month ago and there are still heroes unexplored or underappreciated. We hope the trend continues even after the upcoming Minor, though big tournaments with the best teams in the world have a tendency to set the tone for the rest of the patch.
We are certain that Vengeful Spirit is going to be making frequent appearances in the professional scene. She is flexible and straightforward, making her a great addition to pretty much any draft.
IDK THO DUAL OFFLANE META
I've always perceived Venge as a strong hero by design. However, since 7.20 she's crippled somewhat because you can't reliably mash quickcast R to swap. You'll fail by swapping two times.
I've seen even 7K players doing two swaps instead of one on Dotabuff's guide games.
There's a thread on Dota Dev about this. https://dev.dota2.com/showthread.php?t=289051
Trying to solve the issue, I've redesigned my buttons. Moved quickcast from my R to Alt+A, and left R as a non-quickcast. It's harder to button mash Alt+A, and in case I forgot the combo, R works and you can't mash it.
Theoretically in dual lanes anybody could be an offlaner.
pair vengeful with a pos 4 sven and u win every lane
thank me later for free mmr
use warlok to breake offlane meta XDDD
I'm thinking that people still haven't caught on yet to just how powerful VS is when paired with her Aghanims Sceptor given the recent rework to have 2 charges of the ultimate at any given time.
This officially makes her the only hero in the game now who can displace an enemy into your team during team fights 100% reliably (hook isn't always reliable), and not put herself in danger if the timing is right (batrider grab involves him having to dive into enemy territory to snatch a hero, then desperately try to get out as fast as possible which puts him at risk for stuns). Just swap the enemy into your team, then swap one of your creeps to get you back to safety.
I think combining this with aethers lens would make for some sick pick offs on a support VS, though I can definitely see support VS having mana problems/problems farming.
Maybe replace one of her level 10 talents with 90 GPM could make this more support oriented path viable.
In response to some of the aghs comments here:
There definitely is some risk and some really nice reward to having aghs on VS, but it seems like aghs might be better as a fallback option if your draft takes a left turn. If you have enough stuns and are building a team around her aura, it makes more sense to buy items that compliment the goal of the draft. Stopping off for an aghs might stunt the rest of the teams' ability to take objectives. If, however, you do grab the VS as a support and the game goes late, the aghs makes a little more sense for that pickoff on the carry to enable a safer push.
just another article to promote useless ideas in low brackets that lose games lol
I think anyone who is <ancient shouldnt be allowed to commend on these articles tbh. Hence the commentator above who is crusader and says that this is "just another article to promote useless ideas in low brackets that lose games lol"
i just read the comment, cuz i'm not allowed to comment about this article, but u guys can check my profile, tell me whats wrong with my VS, thx guys
She dont have escape mecanism, offlanr venge is just not good
Why do you need escape mechanism when you can just kill everyone?
Does Bristleback has an escape mechanism?
Is it really new meta? It was pretty popular thing at Ancient+ bracket for a year now.
nice art
If VS does well in the dual offlane, she becomes quite a reliable secondary carry/core against certain lineups. If she doesn't, she is still useful coz of her abilities even with minimal farm.
anyone can dual offlane with vs in either carry or support role
dual lane can go invoker/tinker/storm
I totally agree on the comment above by Murranji: "Theoretically in dual lanes anybody could be an offlaner."
she lacks an escape mechanism early and has mediocre survivability...
so offlane venge has the same itemization that classic support venge... ROFL what a quality article
+1 to "Theoretically in dual lanes anybody could be an offlaner."
на русском оставлю комент
пикнул оффлейн венгу- проиграл за 20 минут SeemsGood
>low movement speed
>lacking an escape mechanism
>low str gain all over the years
Must be a good offlaner lol
her starting damage sucks; unplayable!
VS is bae, if anyone talks clap about her i'll beat you up fam guurrr.
Mid Veng is the true position.
Chaos Knight очень недооценён, с его новой пассивкой он легко стоит лайн и фармит лес без хила, собирая армлет уже можно наказывать в тимфайтах и быстро сносить.