From The Ashes of Winter Wyvern: Supports Of The New Meta
At The International 5, the memory of EG.Universe’s “six million dollar” Echo Slam shines the brightest, but does anyone recall ppd’s Ice Vortex that first gave vision and set up the play? What about the follow up Ice Blast? Core players take the farm and the highlight. Occasionally, a Rubick spell sequence or a timely ultimate will shine the importance of support players, but that’s only a minor part of what they are responsible for in the course of a game. It’s few and far between that support players gin up community hype for the small things: lane rotations, zoning, stacking, early game play-calling. These actions don’t show up in K/D/A, but rather in W-L. This is not to say that supports impact the game more than core players, but the two play a mutually dependent role in a team game. It’s no surprise that players seeking to climb the MMR ladder gravitate towards core over support roles. They feel like they have a greater influence over the game. This is certainly true for exceptional talents, such as Miracle or Badman, who rose to the top of the MMR charts off their superior play in the mid and safe lane. But, for the rest of us, support play is just as important when seeking to impact a game.
The Post Winter Wyvern Era
Winter Wyvern, before her nerfs, was the perfect support hero. Her skill set represented the paragon of playing support: Arctic Burn, an offensive spell to zone heroes and initiate ganks in the early game; Splinter Blast, a wave clear to farm and defend tower; Cold Embrace, a defensive spell; and Winter's Curse, a BKB-piercing stun that also functioned as a mini Black Hole. There are a few basic functions that a support needs to fulfill: laning, ganking, and team fight. Winter Wyvern answered every function that you wanted in a support, and excelled at them. It’s a shame that she has since been nerfed into obscurity, but her fall combined with the changes in patch 6.86 have created a space for new, just as impactful, support heroes to enter the meta.
Welcome To The Jungle
Top Win Rates, sorted by 5k MMR bracket
Out of the top 10 heroes in the 5k+ MMR bracket, five are support heroes (six if you count Venomancer’s time in the safe lane). And four out of five of those support heroes—Chen, Abaddon, Bounty Hunter, Omniknight—are picked more in the 5k+ bracket than any other. The most surprising hero in this group is Chen, who is ranked #1 in win rate in the 5k MMR bracket, and currently a top pick in the professional meta. Most recently, at the Starladder LAN Finals, Chen has a 68.75% win rate out of 16 games, and he’s the 2nd most contested hero, right behind Invoker.
Most Picked At Starladder LAN Finals
Part of Chen’s resurgence can be attributed to patch 6.86’s overall effect of buffing jungle creeps and, consequently, Chen’s army, which now has access to a stacking, 20% magic resistance aura. The addition of an offlane jungle camp opened up possibilities for Chen to influence other areas of the map in the early game. He also received non-trivial buffs to his base stats and Penitence. Despite being a hero with significant potential, and certainly his favorability in competitive play validates this, Chen is still nonetheless a historically unpopular hero, particularly due to the finicky nature of his summons (also shared by most unpicked friends such as Visage, Beastmaster, and Brewmaster).
A Familiar Face
There is one support hero, however, that has been highly picked in both pub and professional play. Vengeful Spirit is the top picked support in the 5k+ bracket (#3 overall) and the top overall pick at Starladder and the Shanghai Major Qualifiers for China and Europe. She’s no stranger to the meta, when pushing, physical damage lineups were in vogue. With the return of push heroes such as Death Prophet, Chen, Lone Druid, as well as her old foe, Batrider, the meta was ripe for her resurgence.
Vengeful Spirit’s impact, her win rate, in the mercurial, random nature of pubs is a testament to her overall strength. Who knows what heroes your teammates will pick or random into. Vengeful Spirit is stronger paired with certain heroes, but she isn’t tethered to them to influence a game. Her skills are simple and direct: a single target stun, a single target ultimate, an aura, and an area of effect spell. The simplicity of her spells make her versatile for pubs but also a veritable first or second phase pick, as top teams like Evil Geniuses has shown in their recent Starladder games.
Looking Ahead
If the regional differences in picks at the Shanghai Majors were any indication, it’s that the meta is still being established. Bane was preferred in the Americas, but not China. The same goes for Chen. On the other hand, China valued Nightstalker more than any other region. Finally, it seems, judging from the paltry win rates across the Shanghai qualifiers and Starladder, no one still knows how to use Oracle.
The meta will solidify as we approach the Shanghai Majors, but it won’t be without a period of experimentation. The new Aether Lens is upending our expectations of the strength of support play. It’s a solid pickup on Vengeful Spirit, but it has shown to be potent on a host of other support heroes, such as Bane, Witch Doctor, and Rubick. Like the now nerfed Glimmer Cape, Aether Lens is an item that significantly increases the impact of support heroes, perhaps on the verge of power creep. Gone are the days of moneyless support players. It’s a new era for support heroes—it has been for some time—and if you haven’t noticed it yet, perhaps there will be some highlights.
Update: Fixed incorrectly referring to Winter Wyvern as male
Chen deserves being buffed - best hero in whole dota ^^
Winter Wyvern is a she not a he
THIRD!
WW is female...
I believe EGGS just trolls the audience outright. There is no way no how no one told 'em after the last article of theirs that WW was a female.
Chen definnetely needs a major buff maybe some skill changes
WW was OP. It was like, every team that ban/pick her will win the game. But the nerf really hit her like a meteor.
Please write something about the map change. I think its really something big.
wtf?
^^^^^^
Vs is the easiest support to play. You go 2nd skill to scout, SS to initiate and 1st to disable. If you die, 3rd skill will be a valuable impact. No wonder she is a favorite hero for pubs and pros. No nerf or buffs needed.
I enjoy playing Venge in this patch, shes always a solid pick.
I like how the author referenced Guns'n'Roses awesome song (Welcome to the Jungle) :)
^fixed the winter wyvern gender in the post. ofc she's a female dragon
^never seen more obvious bait with the 'female dragon'
sad stuff
Where is Io?
I think "ashes" is not a very appropriate term for an ice-based hero, could have been "melted puddle" or something
Omniknight is an offlaner, not support. He needs way too many items and way too much xp for him to be a support.
Then he's played a position 4 support or a greedy support. He doesn't have enough impact with his levels as other offlaners
not really a dragon, but a wyvern. Google the difference.
WW... noooooo </3 so sad. :(
shittiest meta ever
I'm just happy to see Akke back on Chen. Watched all of [A]'s games back at TI3 from his perspective. Which sounds very creepy now that i say it aloud.
@OhMyGecko all good bro, we all know Akke hot with dem blue eyes. Not here to judge
VS was my favorite support hero:)
but she is underpowered in lane compare to others and sux vs illusion based heroes so i stopped playing her, not rly a pub hero but situational on tournies maybe
"EG.Universe’s “six million dollar” Echo Slam "
lol wut, there is no such thing as 6 million dollar echo slam thats an urban myth.That echo slam was so easy to land and the game was already in hand of EG anyway.
@limon, http://www.dotabuff.com/blog/2015-12-19-new-ward-spots-and-terrain-changes-in-686.
aaaaand chen's been nerfed. Thanks for letting him be viable for a few weeks tho :)
They nerfed Chen too much by increasing the CD and argha not affecting the CD anymore
Jeeez ...
Man, I am really sad about WW. They could have applied nerfs in so many other ways, but not her fucking ult. GG Volvo!
Maybe Chen isn't bad, maybe he's just misunderstood and if he gets a major buff he'll fuck the meta and all the OG Chen bros would be like "I played Chen before it was cool" and then get butthurt because the response they get would be "CYKA BYLAT IDI NAYUI ME CHEN MID OR FEED" and no-one would ever play Pudge because he'll never again get a hook off with that wall of Chen creeps ruining your fun.