Hey, what is up, guys? It’s Librarian Husky, and today I want to give two takes for every single role. We’re going to be going from position one, which is the safe lane for all of you who somehow don’t know that after 15 years of DOTA, all the way to position five. So let’s get into it.

Safe Lane Analysis

Getting into the safe lane, so the first thing that I’m not a huge fan of is the new Dragonite carry. Basically, Dragonite carry is becoming a thing. Why is it becoming a thing? Well, they just buffed the red dragon, which is cleave, the fire dragon. So basically, the E gives you 30, 40, 50, 60% cleave now. Honestly, this isn’t that impressive, and with the ulti, it can get amped by 20, 30, 40, 50%. So at max level, you’re going to get 40% buff.

Dragonite Carry Concerns

If you get a bit more, you’re going to get a 40% buff, which is like what, an extra 25%? It’s 23%, so you’re going to get 80-something per cleave at max. I just don’t really see the angle. I don’t really see why this hero would be best as this sort of type of right clicker because my issue with it is that I don’t think the lane is that OP anymore.

Lane and Ability Nerfs

They nerfed the regen in the B patch from four to two. The base regen on Dragon Blood is an eight, so they kind of made his laning a lot worse. His Q is still an incredible ability, his stun is still an incredible ability, but now you just, like, in order to farm, you have to have this poor laning ability.

Challenges with Dragonite Carry

If you want to farm, you have to put points in it, but then you don’t have points in your Q, so you can’t fight. You don’t have points in your stuns, so you don’t want to fight. Essentially, you have to AFK farm for a long time, and you might be saying, “Okay, that’s what carries do,” but I just feel like it doesn’t necessarily scale that well. The scaling is average.

Limitations of Dragonite’s Playstyle

I just think the lane is not great, it’s average. The scaling is average, and I don’t really see it excelling. It doesn’t play fast; the hero is very slow tempo. If you want to fight early game, it’s actually quite bad. You might be surprised, but with the other Dragon forms, you’re either getting armor reduction, corrosive damage, or attack speed and movement speed slow. This Dragonite doesn’t get those things ever, so I’m not a fan.

Emerging Picks: Slark and Lina

Next up, Slark and Lina are up and coming. Slark carry is really good in my opinion. I believe that the hero is very hard to play, but honestly, you just take the normal leeching leash, which makes it where you get Essence Shift stacks when you pounce on people. What’s really good about this hero now is that in the laning phase, your innate Barracuda gives you 10 HP regen per second if you’re out of vision.

Advantages of Slark in Lane

If you just go in the tree line for a short period of time, you get 10 HP regen. You know what Ring of Health is? The 700 gold item gives 4.5 regen; it’s literally more than double. This ability just makes Slark a way better laner. This hero is a very bad laner, so now it’s a good laner, or at least more stable. Its ultimate is better now; it’s 10 more regen than it used to be.

Buffs to Slark’s Ultimate

When you’re out of vision and you skill the ultimate, it’s way lower cooldown. It got buffed in the 7.36 patch, and the B patch literally buffed it twice. The cooldown was 75/65/45; now it’s 50/40/30 instead of 45 at max.

Potentially Broken Heroes: Slark and Lina

It’s crazy, I’m pretty sure that this hero has the potential to be broken if played properly. Then there’s Lina. Why is Lina potentially broken? Honestly, I think it pairs well with two of my favorite supports right now: Treant Protector and Sven. We’ll get into Sven later, but I believe Lina carry is strong because she gets her passive innately now, which is very strong in the lane.

Lina’s Strengths and Synergies

She has a crazy level 15 talent where per stack of her E, she gets magic resist. You can get 35% magic resist with your passive, which is insane. All you need is armor, which is why you pair it with Treant or Sven.

Midlaners: Monkey King, Ember, and Tiny

Getting into the midlaners, Monkey King mid has impressed me like crazy recently. This hero is pretty scary. Why is it scary? Mostly it comes down to Jingu Mastery. This aspect, where you can hop around with a 0 second cooldown if you’re above 90% health, means that if you win your lane and get off to a good start, you are the most oppressive force in the game, hands down.

Dominance of Monkey King Mid

The mobility on Monkey King is unmatched. If you can put this hero into an Ember Spirit, a Dragonite, or a Primal Beast, he can dominate. I’ve seen Dragonite and Primal Beast in a recent tournament, and Monkey King mid 1v9’d both games alone, completely alone. If you think I’m exaggerating, go watch the games. Monkey King mid in good matchups is OP.

Stable Midlane Picks: Ember and Tiny

The most stable midlaners are Ember Spirit and Tiny. While Monkey King can be crazy, if he’s got the wrong matchup, he’s not as strong. That said, I saw him play against a Razor, and it looked okay, so maybe he’s just OP. Ember Spirit got buffed really hard; his Sleight of Fist has a stupid low cooldown in the lane. Now it’s 12 seconds at level one, and he can double hit with it. His Flame Guard is innate.

Ember Spirit and Tiny’s Strengths

You use Ember Spirit’s abilities early on to push out the wave in hard matchups. This hero is extremely stable, especially with Mage Slayer, making him a formidable opponent. Then there’s Tiny. With his Crash Landing facet, your Toss does way too much damage, allowing you to one-shot creep waves at some point.

Efficiency of Tiny’s Toss

One-shotting creep waves in DOTA with one ability is very interesting because it means you have two other abilities to farm with, making you farm incredibly fast. You do a crazy amount of damage without committing. Some players are even skipping Blink Dagger in the early game and opting for Phase Boots because of how broken this Crash Landing Toss is.

Potential of Offlaner Snapfire

Snapfire offlane has a lot of potential. You might wonder what’s good about it now. First off, the hero is always a good laner with really strong abilities. You take Ricochet, and if you miss or glance, two Ricochet attacks will bounce towards nearby enemies, giving you built-in cleave on this hero.

Understanding Snapfire’s Mechanics

Snapfire’s innate ability means you deal 25% more damage with her auto attacks but have a 25% chance of a glancing shot dealing 60% damage. If you miss, the Ricochet cleaves and deals 75% damage, which is significant. This works with your Little Shredder, allowing you to proc like crazy.

Itemization and Talents for Snapfire

You buy a Gleipnir, and you scale really well. Snapfire has very good talents: Scatterblast damage, Little Shredder attacks at 15, and Little Shredder multi-shot at 20. This multi-shot is really crazy when combined with Ricochet, enhancing Snapfire’s damage output significantly.

Snapfire’s Late Game Potential

At level 25, you get Little Shredder attack damage, which goes nuts. I see a lot of potential here and just wanted to put it on the table. Maybe something to try for sure.

AA Stacking Strategy

AA stacking is the way to go. On Underlord and Dark Seer, it’s the most stable way to play offlane right now. If you’re looking at high MMR and don’t know what to do, here’s a simple strategy. On Underlord, build Atos, Mek, and then into a Pipe, Crimson, or obviously Greaves, in some order of these items.

Optimal Builds for Underlord and Dark Seer

Whatever’s good for the game, of course, is just OP. On Dark Seer, it’s unbelievable. These heroes do way too much with just their abilities. Dark Seer is completely overtuned, and Underlord, in my opinion, is overtuned as well. You stack auras, click them on your team, and go ham. It’s the way to go.

Best Position Four: Hoodwink

Position four Hoodwink is the best. I really believe this. With Tree Bounce and Trick Shot, her facet makes it so the acorn will bounce to a tree if it was to otherwise expire and then bounce back and hit. So, basically, you get two hits on a support, which is insane.

Hoodwink’s Laning Strength

It makes the laning stage ridiculous. This hero was always good, but my main gripe was the laning stage, and now it’s just OP. You give a hero that tends to be a mid-to-late game support a strong laning stage, and it’s like, wow, this hero is really something.

Itemization for Hoodwink

You buy Maelstrom and Gleipnir. You can go Aghanim’s Scepter first if your team needs control. Hopefully, they don’t because Maelstrom first feels great. It provides a significant amount of damage and farming potential. This is the best position four.

Challenges of Playing Hoodwink

The problem is it requires a lot of mechanical skill. This hero is quite difficult to play. You have to manage your mana very well early on. You need stick, clarity, and Sage’s Mask to sustain.

Mastering Hoodwink’s Mana Management

You’ve really got to manage your mana, but if you can get all these things down and farm well, it’s the best position four. Most supports are terrible at farming, but on another note, Spirit Breaker is the easiest position four. If you’re looking for a hero to just click buttons and win, definitely go for Spirit Breaker.

Advantages of Spirit Breaker

I’m a big fan of his movement speed facet. The other one, where you bounce people back far, is also good and super legit. However, I think the movement speed facet and his innate ability combined are among the strongest combinations in the game. Spirit Breaker is easy to play, clears waves, ganks, and is mechanically simple. Frontlining and tankiness tend to be good in Dota. Look at Abaddon and Wraith King; their win rates are always higher in average pubs because people target the wrong person.

Position Five: Evaluating Witch Doctor

I think Witch Doctor support is just terrible now with the Voodoo Restoration facet. If you’re going to play Witch Doctor support, go back to the Head Hunter build. The Voodoo Restoration’s radius and self-heal were significantly nerfed. People are still using it, but I don’t think it’s good enough.

Optimal Build for Witch Doctor

I would shift completely away from Voodoo Restoration and go back to Head Hunter. Play with a Holy Locket build and focus on the healing version of the W. This change can significantly improve your impact as Witch Doctor support.

Final Point: The Potential of Sven Support

Sven support is OP. If you don’t know why, let me break it down for you real quick. This hero has a facet called Heavy Plate, where Warcry provides a physical damage barrier. This is already crazy because, at max level, it offers significant protection and utility.

Sven Support: Unmatched Utility

It’s a 240 physical barrier. That’s a lot, guys. On top of that, Warcry gives 15 armor and 22% movement speed for 10 seconds, which is just a great ability. Warcry is one of the best abilities in the game, easily top 20 as a standalone ability.

Enhancing Warcry’s Effectiveness

At level 10, you get a 5-second Warcry duration, which is a 50% increase to one of the best abilities in the game. With a 240 barrier because of the facet, this hero makes your team unkillable against physical damage.

Synergy with Safe Laners

Sven pairs well with some safe laners that I like right now. I would say Templar Assassin is a great example. I really like it with Weaver, Shadow Fiend, Drow Ranger, and Medusa. The best combo is with Lina, who I mentioned earlier, because she benefits greatly from the armor.

Effective Combinations

Lina has a lot of armor problems and can follow up immediately to Sven’s stun. If you’re looking to do something cool with your friends, the Lina-Sven combo is effective. We’ve seen it from teams like Entity, and I’ve faced it in a pub. It was really obnoxious and effective.

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