The Changes and Implications of 6.52c

by Banjkan3 and CounterGambit

Introduction

There are some key changes in .52c from .48b: Changes to various heroes and their viability, new item introduction and adjustments to currently overpowered ones or vastly inferior ones. We will go through the differences in gameplay and what possibilities this brings to the metagame, followed by an intensive discussion on the heroes affected. Hopefully, I can share some of the collective thoughts and insights of the community regarding what will likely be the league stable map for months to come.

Contents

Part A: Gameplay
I. Lineups
II. Mid game Adjustments
III. Map Control

Part B: Items

Part C: Heroes
I. Old First-Pick/Bans
II. Other 6.48b Heroes
III. New Heroes
IV. Lower Tier/Situational New Heroes

Conclusion

Credits

Part A: Gameplay

I. Lineups

In terms of overall lineups and hero choices, there will be an outburst of middle/late picks, specifically strength heroes. With strength Treads and Armlet paving the way for high mid-game DPS, heroes such as Slardar, Skeleton King, Sven and Chaos Knight are able to combine their stun with survivability and damage, this means that you don’t have to wait for, for example, a Radiance on Skeleton King before being able to do anything, even with just armlet and treads you will be dealing some major damage in team fights. Play styles will change; slow-based heroes (Viper, Pudge) have always been unforgiving during the laning phase, however, now they continue to provide powerful chasing and ganking during the mid game (whereas before Daggers would have made this more difficult). Heroes like Lina, Leshrac and Zeus can no longer simply walk uninhibited with a dagger around enemy territory, which means effective warding and map sight becomes that much more important.

Late game must also be considered during drafting, as certain heroes who were once powerhouses cannot carry the same weight anymore. The idea of the classic carry, semi-carry and triple-intelligence heroes so often seen in the gank-oriented 6.48b, is replaced by the aforementioned strength heroes, who are decent early on, but can pull their weight late game as well. On top of this, late/mid game support heroes such as Lion and Ogre, may make a return as their disables carry more weight.

II. Mid game Adjustments

The current .48b play style very much revolves around strong lanes; in almost every replay you will find very powerful dual stun lanes, and often games can be decided by how effective these lanes are. The nature of Dagger means that there is also a definite focus on “stun-lock” gangs and burst spell damage, the teams winning these ganks will often build on them to obtain better map control and be, ultimately, in a better position to win the game.

There is uncertainty about how .52c will change this. There is now better choices for mid game DPS item builds, which should make mid game DPS heroes more viable. As far as the Dagger goes, it is now much less of an option for initiation on caster heroes like Lina and Leshrac, because it can no longer provide a defensive escape mechanism. However, the Dagger nerf could equally be a buff to ganking, particularly when ganking with slow or silence, as players can no longer simply blink away. It will require more competitive analysis and drafting before we can determine this.

6.52c does favour pushing, a revival of a classic strategy. There is definitely a more team-oriented style of play, with there being numerous power houses late game and relatively easy ways of farming, players may need to select a lineup that favours aggression and mobility from 10-25 minutes. On top of that, the extra ban (which the majority of players look forward to) means that you can ban powerful anti-push heroes without seeming as suspicious.

Hopefully as a result of this, obvious heroes such as Pugna, Venge, Lesh, Zeus and Warlock will still be strong, but less likely pushing heroes will make a prominent return in pushing strategies: Abaddon, Drow (Aura + Orb walking + Silence), Syllabear (Demolish + tankability) and Chen (new Troll/Centaurs + HoM bounty reduction). The Ukrainian team xLo recently used a Drow, Venge, Omniknight, Panda, Warlock push-strat against VP and came very close to winning. With the various hero changes, they would have had even greater success had they tried it in this version.

To conclude on pushing, if a team is able to build on an effective pushing strategy that depend on the correct bans/first picks, it will be highly advantageous over a team based on a total carry, especially with well-balanced heroes that are effective in many type of strategies (Omni, Leshrac, Pugna for example).

III. Map Control



There is a very real lack of escape mechanism for most heroes, sure, if you're some kind of agility hero or very rich you can afford a Lothar's Edge, but even with this there are still hard-counters; ganks with Truesight will still be very effective, and pushing with sentries renders Lothar’s almost useless in a 5v5 situation. This has many implications for map control. It will be much more important to have sight of the map now, otherwise it will be nigh unto impossible for you to farm. Because of this, there will probably be more earlier fights over wards, and more use of heroes who can ward without feeding (THD for example).

Of course this will place more weight on heroes who give Map control, the obvious; Beastmaster and Treant, yet perhaps we will also see some weaver (much nicer ultimate, much better geminate, although still very fragile), and visage (remade), who give even more map sight than BM. An interesting aspect of watchers is that you can TP to them with Boots of Travel, this has potential to be extremely surprising seeing as you can put Watchers anywhere.

Part B: Items

Power Treads

The big stat bonus means that Treads are now a great investment in the early & mid game. Treads are particularly a buff for damage based heroes such as Sven, Skeleton King and Chaos Knight to whom treads give the ability to deal a lot of damage fairly early on in the game.

Armlet of Mordiggian

One of the biggest changes from .48b is the addition of Armlet. Giving the damage of a relic and a great deal of survivability, the raw power of Armlet allows strength heroes with some kind of stun or slow to do some excellent DPS at an early stage.
This will be the key to allowing picks such as Skeleton King and Dragon Knight to really shine.
The +25 damage that comes from strength makes this items most attractive on strength heroes, but the extra survivability, both in terms of burst HP and armor, makes item a viable choice on even weak agility heroes.

Shiva’s Guard

On top of the large armor and mana pool buffs, Shiva’s Guard provides a 30 second cooldown, 750 AoE, 40% slow effect, on top of an Aura which reduces enemy attack speed by 25%.
Although fairly expensive it gives an enormous advantage in 5v5 situations if gotten early. This makes it a viable item to rush in games where pushing occurs mid game.
However in games that drag on into late game, this item becomes somewhat less powerful compared to disable items such as Guinsoo’s Scythe.

Guinsoo’s Scythe

While Guinsoo’s is much harder to attain, both because of increased cost and nerfed buildup, the finished product is, in most cases, a stronger item than before, with increased Hex range and higher mana regeneration, as well as some basic stats. Many intelligence heroes who have poor farm and could have previously headed for the cheaper and nice buildup of Guinsoo will no longer head down that route, however, it will definitely be an advantage for teams to have “farming” intelligence heroes, for example Leshrac or QoP, who farm up a Guinsoo for the improved Hex and powerful mana regeneration.

Vladmirs Offering

The current incarnation of Vladmir’s is far and away a better item than in .48b. That said, it is still highly situational. Vladimir’s is significantly cheaper and it does allow life steal together with an orb effect, which gives some flexibility for some melee heroes.
The main problem is that the life steal and the command aura are best late game, but at that point Assault Cuirass typically becomes the preferred choice, since the –armor aura and the attack speed aura benefits the whole team. This makes it is unlikely that Valdimir’s will have a significant effect on competitive games.

Part C: Heroes

I. Old First-Pick/Bans

There was, in .48b, a hardcore of bans/first pick powerhouses that were seen almost every game.

Warlock

As strong as ever, having retained his immense laning power and 5v5 capabilities.
The only possible difference could be use of Shiva’s Guard, but now there are 4 bans instead of 3 and Warlock will probably be high on the ban priority list.

Zeus

Pretty much unchanged, his nukes are still very powerful, although Dagger nerf hurts him, but he’s got options on other items. The ultimate is a very powerful counter to heroes trying to blink to initiate; if you can keep sight of the enemy then a well-timed Zeus ultimate can completely destroy their intiation if they are relying on Daggers. The real change with Zeus will be a change in play style, much more we will see Zeus

Beastmaster

Despite the hawk nerf Beastmaster is still very strong. His pig is indirectly buffed, as it’s very difficult to escape without dagger, his initiation is still amazing. Even bottle, for Rexxar, is relatively untouched, as he tended to use bottle to gather runes rather than buying one for the sake of laning.
Interestingly, although in most cases Necronomicon will be the optimal choice, with slow being better, as well as powerful DPS items for strength heroes such as Treads, Armlet, it becomes viable for Beastmaster to go the DPS route late game, especially if team items such as Shiva’s Guard and Assault Cuirass are acquired since, as they greatly enhance melee heroes’ abilities to do damage,

QoP

While her mid game is still very powerful, her early and late game have been hit hard. First off, she’s lost a lot of her early game power through the various nerfs to blink aand scream. On top of that, wave has a higher cooldown at all levels, which obviously hurts her late game. I think that; while we will still see QoP being picked, as time goes on people will see that it is not so necessary to ban her, as she is no longer a threat from the first level of previous versions. This said, it’s important to respect that she’s still one of the most versatile heroes, and that a farmed QoP in the midgame is still a real powerhouse.

Magnus

I don't think .52c has hit him awfully hard, granted his ultimate is a little weaker, with a longer cooldown at higher levels and shorter AoE, but blink is still the item to go. He has another option for damage, in terms of armlet, however Battle Fury is still a nice choice. All in all his role is pretty much the same, although the Dagger nerf has made Magnus much less versatile and more easily countered.

PotM

Despite the changes to leap-scaling and the removal of invulnerability, the nerfs to Blink dagger mean that she is one of the few heroes who will have a reliable blink, and clearly this is a huge advantage. PoTM is still a very powerful hero.

Shadow Priest

Not much has changed here, with the buffs to late guaranteeing that he will still be picked and banned. The item changes do not really effect him much, simply because he tended not to buy any other than headdress + basilius.

Nerubian Assassin

In terms of .52c he's relatively unchanged, however, people have begun to realise that sentry warding sensibly early on is really key, and that it’s not terribly hard to counter NA. Another thing to consider is he will be less useful in one-shotting all the new high-HP heroes that we will see. On the other hand, his impale is now a lot better and in some ways his mana-burn is a very strong counter to heroes like Omniknight and Skeleton King, who will be used far more. This means that he will remain a powerful pick.

BristleBack

There are two things that have changed about BB . While he has received nerfs to tone him down: the back angles have been reduced hurts a bit, the armour has been hit hard, the HP and strength reduced, the quills rebalanced. These things all hurt a little, but the main problem, in my eyes, is that other heroes have become a lot better. Another thing to consider is that physical damage has become a lot better, and while he excels in tanking spells, one of BB's key weaknesses is low armor. Other fat strength heroes like CK and Skeleton King now deal some fairly nice damage (with Armlet and Treads), and are generally improved, whereas Armlet isn't really an option for BB. He's not a bad choice, as such, but he will certainly no-longer be the “gg-we-win” pick that he is considered to be now.

Sand King

Hit really hard by this version. No armor, the ultimate is MUCH easier to counter, and although he still has his nice stun he is very hurt. I think that he will be picked originally, possibly even banned, but gradually teams will begin look for alternatives, perhaps in heroes such as Earthshaker and Leviathan.

II. Other 6.48b Heroes

Lina

It's interesting here, I think, out of the two that Lina will be hurt a fair bit, if you look at the competitive gaming scene Lina is one of the heroes who dies the most, with the Dagger nerf this is only going to increase. Ultimately, if you have a really GOOD slayer player then it's still a useful and nice hero, and the power of the hero is relatively unchanged, her laning power is almost unprecedented, and she's still good in gangs. However, if you have average/bad slayers they will no longer be that useful (whereas they were before, with dagger it was relatively mindless)

Leshrac

I think he's one of the good heroes who have been affected all that much. Dagger was never clear-cut before, although it was certainly a big bonus, Leshrac’s powerful farm means that you now have options on lots of nice items as the game goes on, with added Shiva’s Guard, for example. The play style will probably change though, “support Leshrac” will still be feasible, but we might see more people playing him to carry, with a play style similar to the way in which Maelk recently played him against KS.

Centaur

I would argue that Cent is still strong, despite the change to dagger, as it didn't have too much of an affect on his initiation, and his late game and farmrate are still pretty strong. A possible consideration would be that Centaur is fairly weak against physical damage until rather late on, as he often takes a Hood as his early game tanking item, and this will render him more easily counterable.

Skeleton King

An absolute beast with the item changes, you have options on Armlet (perfect synergy), and an orb effect without passing up life steal (S&Y buffed, desolator with armlet). The key thing with Skeleton King is the ability to get damage FAST, with around 5k gold spend you have massive DPS and huge survivability, and this is something that many other carries cannot boast of. The only problem, I would say, is the mana burn counter, which was a factor in 48b where he got picked anyway.

Sven

While there were some big nerfs, the improvements of so many of his item options (Treads, Armlet and BKB) mean that Sven is stronger than ever. With an initiating stun, high damage against towers, and his nice aura, Sven is also a very strong pushing hero.

That's about it for current common picks. Moving onto stuff that I think will have potential to become strong.

III. New Heroes

Terrorblade

Not really new as such, but was never really first picked (although occasionally he was banned to stop lower skill teams from beating higher skill teams). Now he is a complete powerhouse, the buffs to late game, as well as the fact that you can't escape from him with dagger, on top of the buffs to nearly every single one of his item options (S&Y, Skadi, Butterfly, hell even Buriza) COMBINED with the fact that his Metamorphosis is much shorter CD now... He is really a complete beast as the game goes on, possibly the "new Bristleback" in terms of auto-win capability, it will be more important than ever for teams to ban him and try to find counters and ways of slowing his farm.

Puck

Despite receiving nerfs in .52, puck is still immensely strong, packing 3 strong AoE spells, a pseudo-blink and phase shift. This makes a well-used Puck very hard to gank. He can solo or dual lane with success, and, even after the range nerf, can still farm vs. relatively hard dual stun lines. Grabbing a Guinsoo/Necronomicon/Shiva’s Guard fairly early on shouldn't be overly difficult, and from then on it's plain sailing. Now that tournaments no longer prohibit his use, he will be a powerhouse.

Omniknight

The key hero for me, I think he'll even be seen as a first pick and possibly taking bans with the buff to his heal and the indirect buff to his play style in general, now that it is much harder to run away from fights (no dagger). His heal does HUGE damage, which means he has some very nice lane presence, if you can get it off it’s more powerful than a level one Laguna/Finger of Death. While this means that he can solo effectively, Omniknight will also be used to great effect in dual lanes, where a well-timed repel can turn the tides of a dualstun combo’s attempt to get a kill. Another nice thing is the fact that he forces enemies to play in a specific way, they HAVE to get medusa/a hero with diffusal, since it is very difficult to win against a permanently repelled carry. He's just good throughout the game, with options on carry/support.

Lich King!

Making a comeback from the olden days, his slow is huge without dagger, and the extra bounce means that the laning power is much better. It's an exceedingly strong ultimate in 5v5 now that people cannot blink away. The frost armor is another powerful attribute in a time where we will see a lot more physical damage. Can solo or lane. In a solo lane he will have a lot of control with Nova spam, however he also has potential to make very strong duallanes, Pudge + Lich is one particularly nasty lane.

Lion

Improved impale means he's actually useful in lane, the Mana Drain buff gives him presence as more than just a disabler, and allows, with some minor hitpoint regen, almost permanent Finger ganks in the mid game. He adds huge amounts of disable to his team, as well as a fair amount of burst damage, with hex being a key counter to stuff like TB, as well as Finger being... well finger. One really nice thing about Lion is that he doesn’t really tail off much at all in the lategame as compared with Lina. Hex just continues getting better and better, and with a Guinsoo or a Euls his power is only increased.

Shaker

A real alternative to Sand King, he's fatter, has instant damage, and his ultimate is much less easily countered. He's also extremely good against carry heroes, with a lot of stun to lockdown stuff like TB/Luna. I think we'll see a lot of shaker use. One problem is that you need to play an excellent ES, as Fissure can be a real double-edged sword. In teamfights Fissure placement will be extremely important; a well played fissure has the ability to split the enemy team.

Pudge

The lack of dagger is a HUGE buff to him, in lane he always has been powerful, and now he has interesting options of lane partners, with the newly buffed Omniknight, Lich or even the older THD. If he can land an early -> mid game hook then his enormous damage combo can often guarantee kills. Later on he can farm up to be a tank and excellent initiator, if you grab omni as well the repel + rot combo is impressive in teamfights. If he doesn't farm too well he can have problems, but I would expect him to be picked pretty soon after .52c starts being used.

Slardar

A hero who has received nothing but buffs, you're looking at next to no damage from sprint, a buff to strength treads and the introduction of armlet, more damage on crush, and of course the innate buff to chasing heroes that resulted from the Dagger change. A real late game damage option, with the key advantage of not only dealing damage himself, but also allowing allied carries to really rip it up with their damage items.

Dragon Knight
DK is an interesting hero; he has received many buffs, from those which increase his early game power (level 6 ulti actually usable, lowered cost on Dragon Breath), to those which increase his power later on, (dagger nerf, Armlet/SnY/Treads buffs). The main thing that makes Dragon Knight interesting is his ability to tank physical damage. With the highest armor in the game, he can provide a counter to teams that take advantage of the new DPS items and heroes that rely almost purely on physical damage. He can then fill the same role against physical damage as BristleBack has filled against spell damage.
This does not suggest that Dragon Knight will be as powerful as BristleBack was before, but it does give make Dragon Knight a powerful choice against lineups that rely on physical damage, something we haven’t really seen before, but will see in 52c..

Ogre Magi

He is much stronger in lane than comparable initiators (Sven/Skeleton King), because he brings a slow as well as the potential to double cast come level 6 giving him a lot more burst damage. Many casters/support heroes were hit very hard by .52c, with their low hp+armor and lack of dagger. Ogre is much fatter than most, and will be much harder to gank. Bloodlust is another thing that should certainly not be underestimated, it is an extremely powerful buff to carries, specifically strength heroes, as was shown recently by VP in ASUS, where LighTofHeaveN’s DK became an absolute monster with BL and Empower.

IV. Lower Tier/Situational New Heroes

Broodmother

An interesting hero, because of various changes which give her such versatility. She can be laned as a pusher, jungled, soloed on mid with bite + webs. She got buffs in terms of items (Armlet, BKB, Butterfly) in addition to the huge cooldown, damage and lifesteal buffs to her ultimate. Broodmother is powerful throughout the game, adding something at all stages. On top of that her webs are also fairly nice, providing strong map control.

Chen

While Chen’s play style hasn’t particularly changed in the transition from .48b -> .52c, the massive buffs to the jungle, particularly in terms of the improved chance of gaining “high tier” creeps, warrants some kind of mention. It is now much easier for Chen to gather an army of strong creeps for mid game pushing due to the fact that you have two guaranteed spawns. On top of that, the addition of more creeps with interesting abilities means that he can add a lot more to his arsenal. From Ensnare to Command aura, the amelioration of the jungle means that Chen can add a lot more than he previously could to his team. In terms of item changes there are few differences, one possibility is the farming of a fast Eul’s, infinite cyclone charges are very attractive since they allow for you to surround with your stun creep, but the likelihood is that Mekansm will still be key.

Void

While Void has taken a blow in terms of his strength since .48b the strength treads and armlet introductions go some way towards making up for his hit point deficit.
His improved casting animation makes his ultimate a lot more potent as you can both blink and Chronosphere almost instantly. This, when combined with the presence of more big AoE ulties, specifically Chain Frost, will mean that Void has potential to be an excellent pick.

Ursa

Ursa’s damage output has always been strong, where he suffered, in .48b, was that the blink dagger meant people could just blink away from you. With improved item options (Vladmirs, Lothar’s), the lack of blink for enemies as an escape, and a play style revolving more around mid game physical damage, the scene is right for Ursa to see some use.

Visage

Visage has undergone some drastic changes over the past versions. His slow is much more useful, with a lower manacost, and he has lost his ability to orbwalk. He has potential to be an excellent pushing hero, with some powerful summons and the ability to gain a lot of damage and heal when units are killed fast. His cloak is also a powerful counter to AoE, helping to further bolster the push.

Conclusion

It will certainly be interesting to see how .52c unfolds. There seem to be all sorts of new and revived strategies and viable heroes, and it will certainly be nice to watch the how effective innovation will be against those who try to stay old school.

-Banjkan3 & CounterGambit

Credits

Special Thanks to:

-Justin Kong & Akuryou for their help during the editing process
-Patccmoi for his excellent guides on the new items
-Naz for his help on improving the original idea
-MYM for organising the mock draft, which has and will continue to highlight some of the new aspects of .52c