Dota 2 patch 7.36 has taken the community by storm. It changed the game in huge ways, causing many heroes’ win rate and pick rate to increase or decrease dramatically. Innate abilities and facets are proving to be a big deal in most cases. As a result, we now have a new meta.
This guide explores some of the best mid heroes that you can pick in Dota 2 patch 7.36 to gain MMR.
Templar Assassin
Valve
The buffs received by Templar Assassin were long overdue. In many of the previous patches, this hero suffered from timing and survivability issues. As a result, she was constantly one of the least picked and least successful heroes in the game. But now, TA is a beast.
Initially, patch 7.36 buffed TA a bit too much, increasing her win rate by more than 8%. The next balancing patch lowered her bonuses a bit, but not enough to bring her back to where she was.
The innate ability of this hero is now Psi Blades. This means that you can skip this ability until around level nine or 11. If you maximize Refraction and Meld, your damage output will be very high by the time you reach level eight. This means that you can farm the jungle even faster than before.
On top of that, by picking the Refractor facet, you gain five additional damage instances per cast. That’s a total of ten instances and each of them is worth 110 damage, which can be further amplified with a Desolator and a Daedalus.
It’s often a good idea to buy an early Crystalys before the Desolator. However, you should do that only after you buy the armor reduction component of the Desolator. That way, you will farm a lot faster.
TA no longer needs a Bottle in my opinion. Buying a Falcon Blade is much better because you gain 200 HP, 14 damage, and 1.8 mana regen. That way, you will have all the mana you need to cast your Q and W continuously.
For the HP regen, you can rely on your natural one and also on your defensive Refraction charges. After patch 7.36a, you have five charges but each one comes with a 20 – 50 damage barrier. This means that if a creep deals less than 50 damage, you will not lose a charge.
And if you have 5 shield left on your current charge, you will only lose one charge even if the next damage instance is greater than 5. Against neutral creeps, this typically means that you will absorb two or even three damage instances per charge, which makes your Refraction 100% – 200% more effective.
When playing Templar Assassin, you should always focus on boosting your damage, attack range, and mobility before anything else. To that end, items like Power Treads, Dragon Lance, Desolator, Blink Dagger, and Daedalus are very useful.
Because of the Psi Blades nerf introduced in Dota 2 patch 7.36a, TA can no longer easily harass enemy opponents in the lane. But you don’t need to. As long as you farm well and get enough last hits, this hero will get ahead very quickly. After level five, you can already start to farm jungle camps. By the time you’re level eight, your farming speed will be the best on the server.
Few heroes start to gain momentum as early as this one. Playing TA correctly and not getting killed often puts you 2000 – 3000 networth ahead of your opponents at the 15-minute mark.
Zeus
Valve
Zeus has a win rate of 54% at the moment thanks to the powerful items he can buy relatively quickly and the abilities he can maximize. Being able to deal 180 damage plus 4% of the target’s current HP every 1.6s is quite powerful. Add to this the Lightning Bolt, which deals 350 damage plus 4% of the target’s current HP and you have a monster that can kill supports in seconds.
When playing Zeus, the biggest challenge is to have enough mana to cast your spells as often as you want. To achieve this, you need to increase your mana pool and mana regen.
Items like Arcane boots, Infused Raindrops, Kaya, and Aether Lens are crucial. But the good part is that you can obtain all of them very quickly because they cost less than 7000 gold combined.
By the 15-minute mark, you could be ready for the big fights and perfectly able to damage enemies from a long range. Zeus is like Sniper, in the sense that he likes to keep his distance from his opponents. With the right items, that’s not very complicated. If you also buy a Blink Dagger, your enemies will have a hard time getting to you.
When playing Zeus, you should aim to have at least 900 mana regen per minute or around 15 per second. This would allow you to cast roughly 10 spells per minute while maintaining a healthy mana pool.
Arcane boots give you around 3.5 mana regen. You get 0.8 from Infused Raindrops. You also gain 2.5 from Aether Lens. After buying Kaya, the amount goes above 10 thanks to your natural intelligence and the item’s 50% mana regen amplification. By the time you’re level 12, your total mana regen will be 15+ and your mana pool will be 1250+.
Zeus should be picked in combination with other global heroes, such as Nature’s Prophet, Invoker, or Spectre. His toolkit gives him the ability to contribute with lots of damage to fights that are taking place around the map. If a second global hero is added to the draft, you can always have at least three heroes at any given location, which guarantees easy kills.
Leshrac
Valve
Leshrac’s agility was decreased by Dota 2 patch 7.36 but his base armor increased by 1. It seems that the hero suffered agility nerfs just for the sake of a better or more relevant specialization. There was no point in having a pure mage starting the game with 23 agility and a 2.8 agility increase per level.
Leshrac now has a nice AoE bonus relative to his intelligence. For each point, he gains 0.5 AoE for his spells. This means that when his intelligence reaches 100, his bonus AoE is 50.
When playing this hero, always pick the Chronoptic Nourishment facet because it keeps his Diabolic Edict intact while giving him the ability to regenerate lots of mana based on his basic attacks. This is useful in the early game. The amount is 10 – 22% of the damage dealt. However, to gain mana you need to attack units that have mana.
Because the hero’s innate ability is quite powerful in the late game, IceFrog decided to nerf the AoE of every one of his spells. But not by much, so it doesn’t really matter. Overall, Leshrac now has a win rate of nearly 54% and a pick rate of less than 6%, making him the perfect hero to spam.
Leshrac greatly benefits from mana and mana regen, but he needs other things as well. You can’t keep your distance as you would with Zeus, so you need to build armor, magic resistance, and some survival tools. Players often buy Eul’s Scepter, Shiva’s Guard, and Eternal Shroud when using this hero. Kaya & Sange and Bloodstone are two other great options.
Void Spirit
Valve
Void Spirit’s win rate increased to 54%+ after the new patch was released and that’s because his innate ability, Intrinsic Edge, gives him 33% more secondary bonuses from his primary attributes. Meanwhile, his facets are also quite powerful.
Sanctuary allows you to absorb all damage types when using Resonant Pulse. Symmetry gives you 40% of the damage dealt to enemy heroes as damage block for 20s. However, Resonant Pulse no longer creates its own shield. This option is viable if you know what you’re doing. In such a case, it can be very useful.
When playing this hero, the goal is to become both tanky and dangerous. Many players like to buy items that boost stats and physical damage. Manta Style, Daedalus, Harpoon, and Aghanim’s Scepter are some of the most popular ones.
Void Spirit naturally excels in the mobility department. If you have a way of dispelling silences, you become very hard to catch and kill. And in the eventuality in which you do get caught, having superior damage and stats allows you to just fight your way out of trouble.
The success of Void Spirit depends on your ability to move optimally during team fights. You tend to have numerous options for entering the fight and the goal is always to do it in a way that allows you to escape after dealing damage. Ideally, you will want to kill a support hero and then wait for your abilities to recharge before going back in.
Necrophos
Valve
This hero was very strong in the previous patch, and he continues to be one of the best midlane choices. His innate ability, sad*st, gives him HP and mana regen every time he kills a unit. On top of that, the Profane Potency Facet gives him +40 AoE for each sad*st stack.
Or you could choose Rapid Decay, which increases the hero’s movement speed based on the speed lost by his enemies.
Necrophos greatly benefits from prolonged fights. Because of that, it’s a good idea to buy items like Shiva’s Guard and Radiance in combination with Blink Dagger and other mobility items. As long as you can stay alive and healthy while your opponents are losing HP with every passing second, you are winning.
In that sense, Necrophos is like Bristleback. You can’t fight him for more than 5 – 10s at a time. Enemy teams usually strive to kill Necro first and then focus on other heroes because they understand how dangerous he is.
Luckily, your toolkit is perfectly adapted to deal with that problem. By using Death Pulse you can heal yourself while damaging your opponents. Ghost Shroud further increases your HP regeneration and makes you untargetable by physical damage for 4.5s.
If you have a full Magic Wand, you will gain more than 500 HP instantly. Combined with armor and some magic resistance, that could easily add up to 1000 effective HP that the enemy needs to damage to get the kill. But if their HP drops below 40% HP, you can use your ultimate to get an easy kill and then quickly regenerate thanks to your innate ability.
Dragon Knight
Valve
DK is frequently used in this patch because he’s tankier than ever. The only problem is that he is now weaker at lower levels. Dragon Blood has become his innate ability, giving him +4.5 HP regen and +2.5 armor. With every level, they both increase by 0.5. This means that you will need to get to level 21 to have the same bonuses you used to have much earlier.
The best DK facet is Fire Dragon because it allows you to farm much faster. This facet gives you 55% cleave with 450 range when Wyrm’s Wrath is level 4. The bonuses are even greater when you’re in dragon form.
When playing DK, the goal is to improve your mobility and farming speed at first. Later, you will need to become as tanky as possible because you’re expected to play the tank role, even though you’re a midlaner.
Storm Spirit
Valve
In Dota 2 patch 7.36+, Storm Spirit gains a lot of mana regen as the game progresses because of his innate ability, Galvanized. Whenever you participate in a successful fight, if an enemy hero dies within 1200 range, you gain 0.2 mana regen. You also gain 1 mana regen for leveling your ultimate, Ball Lightning.
However, you lose 0.6 mana regen whenever you die, as long as you have Galvanized charges stored up. Overall, you will gain mana regen because 0.1 mana regen per charge is gained permanently.
The hero’s facets are Shock Collar and Static Slide. The first one is not very impressive but the second one transforms your Static Remnant into a targetable ability. Against heroes that cannot easily escape, your remnants will be very powerful.
When playing Storm, you need a decent mana pool but more importantly, you need mana regen, damage, and survivability.
Header: Valve
