Analyzing 7.07 Top Tier Offlaners
7.07 was quite the big balance patch, changing the dynamics of the game and as a result the way certain roles play and approach the game. The offlane position is one of the most notable positions to have changed, with a dynamic that reminds of old times, with tanky offlaners returning, looking to be more utility than playmaking. As supports dual roam more often than before, offlaners often have the opportunity to find themselves in 1on1 scenarios, which is why the following heroes are so popular: they excel in these match-ups and generally come out ahead.
As such, it is only appropriate to look at the meta and its top offlaners both in pub and pro play, analyzing what they do best and what it is that makes them so successful and popular.
Tidehunter - 52% win rate
Loading screen by Robo
Tidehunter has always been a situational pick in the pro meta, with teams resorting to the hero’s strength in playoff games as a fallback. The hero provides a certain stability, both through his ultimate but also through his usually stable laning stage and farm, which enables him to pick up a variety of utility items for the team.
As the offlane position changed over the years, Tidehunter’s popularity and effectiveness decreased over time. Teams and players looked for more aggressive offlaners, heroes that could do more in the midgame, heroes that posed bigger threats throughout the entire game, without relying on a big ultimate.
With the meta shifting back to a more 5on5 oriented meta, players don’t require the offlaner to get kills all over the map anymore. Instead, they need to farm and keep up with the other cores, something Tidehunter excels at. Tidehunter is also difficult to bully in lane and with both supports rotating more often than before, Tidehunter is thrown into more 1v1 scenarios than he would’ve been in previous patches. As such, Tidehunter becomes a valuable pick that can ensure a stable laning stage, as he will generally have farm and contribute to the team’s midgame potential.
His new talents (additional Anchor Smash reduction, additional Kraken Shell block and either 25% cooldown reduction or +250 attack) also allow Tidehunter to scale that much more. The following clip perfectly illustrates the tankiness of Tidehunter with the appropriate talents.
Underlord - 55% win rate
Underlord has been in the game for over a year now and he’s been a top performer since. Topping several pub tier lists of ours, Underlord is a pub nightmare that can largely go unpunished. Popular item builds make him incredibly tanky with pick-ups such as 
Crimson Guard and/or 
Pipe of Insight. He has an innate ability to flashfarm and can even be a threat in the laning stage, if the supports have no reliable way of shutting him down. But with 4 Armor at level 1 and at least 700 HP, it is quite difficult to truly zone out Underlord, at least not without dedicating at least one support to the lane.
Similarly to Tidehunter, Underlord fits the role of a utility core perfectly. In addition, he provides teamfight control, can push out lanes reliably and provides good map contro with his ultimate, allowing him to push the limit on sieges and have a generally strong map presence.
Atrohpy Aura also allows him to scale well into the lategame as well and his talents can either turn him into a capable carry or at the very least a very annoying hero, who’s near impossible to bring down.
Brewmaster - 52% win rate
7.07 focused largely on talents when directly balancing heroes. Brewmaster has arguably received the most notable talent change, catapulting him into the top tier of professional play for the longest time, until a nerf in 7.07c.
His new level 25 talent (-65s Primal Split cooldown), coupled with the additional health for his brewlings available at level 20, made Brewmaster a fierce pick in the competitive meta. The hero’s biggest weakness always has been the reliance on his ultimate, which has a rather long cooldown for its effect. Also, Brewmaster never scaled well into the lategame, as his Brewlings would die easily and his ability to farm is easily outmatched by other popular heroes in this list.
While that generally hasn’t changed, teams have found a more appropriate way to play the hero. With an early 
Hand of Midas, Brewmaster could reach level 25 quicker, thus becoming more potent. Together with a 
Radiance, Brewmaster would also be able to farm more consistently. A lategame Brewmaster was no longer a one-trick pony that needed to desperately find a kill, but instead it became a huge nuisance that many couldn’t deal with.
The Storm Brewling also has a basic dispel on top of dealing damage to summoned units, making it an excellent utility ability that often comes in handy against popular carries such as Chaos Knight or Phantom Lancer.
Much like the other heroes in this list, Brewmaster excels in most 1v1 match-ups and provides a lot of teamfight control, but he also has a lot of ganking potential on his own, making him a bit of a special case.
Since his nerf in 7.07c (Earth Brewling armor reduced by 2), Brewmaster has seen less play and success both in pub and pro play. In pro play, Brewmaster doesn’t provide sufficient utility from the offlane position, as he generally needs to build items for himself first, before he can assist the team.
Omniknight - 55% win rate
Loading screen by ChiZ
This is arguably the best patch for Omniknight yet, as proven by the 27 bans dedicated to him at DreamLeague, making him the most banned and most contested hero of the Major. The hero has never been so strong both in pub and pro play and there are a variety of reasons for that. Over the course of the years, Icefrog has kept buffing Omniknight, Repel especially. Long gone are the days of purging away Repel with a Diffusal Blade and even Guardian Angel is more likely to stay up as Diffusal Blade doesn’t have the purge ability at all anymore.
A more detailed breakdown of why Omniknight is so successful can be found in our Omniknight blogpost.
Beastmaster - 50% win rate
Beastmaster has always been a good pick in pro play, but he’s never found a true home in pub play. Not only does the hero require a certain amount of micro skill, the hero relies on timing and coordination, something that is difficult to achieve in a pub environment.
Much like Brewmaster, Beastmaster has started to phase out of pro play, but he is still a strong situational pick. He pushes like no other on this list, but he also provides much less utility as he generally never builds into items such as Mekansm or Pipe of Insight, but instead usually goes all-in on pushing.
The offlane still has its groove
A couple of months ago, we illustrated how the offlane position changed over the years. While the offlane position has changed yet again, it still feels rather empowered, with more farm dedicated to these heroes.
At the case of Brewmaster, we can also see that these changes never stop and in a few weeks from now, heroes on this list could be phased out of pro play entirely, but for now these are among the strongest offlaners to pick today.
Hello, (SC FY).
"the following clip" 1h12 lol
excuse me, where is clockwork?
here is a clip! (hour long video)
edit: dang someone beat me to that joke ^^^
Best offlaner actually: Centaur Warrunner
Relying on heavy ults on your pub games is useless af
Centaur and Clockwerk completely overlooked. Which both are great offlaners this patch.
That 1on1 thing is complete bs in most games, i really dont understand how in high mmr and pro matches ppl leave any of those off laners to freely bully their carry. I personally prefer to duo off to force a tri lane or force enemy sups to leave their core alone by pressuring and killing them over and over. They wont really be able to gank our safelane since we have 2 there (possibly a 3rd), nor our offlane (since they are under-leveled and pressured). The only lane possible would be mid, in which we could have a double rotation. This way we literally at the very least break even in one lane while winning the other two.
How tne fuck they didnt get Bristleback God of offlane? Timbersaw also. wtf with them?
Don't wanna be that guy who says "You forgot [Insert any hero who can offlane here]" but Doom is sitting on a 50% WR offlane and is a complete boss. If ever there was a hero who just needs to soak up exp to scare opposing safelaners, it's Doom.
"A couple of months ago, we illustrated how the offlane position changed over the years."
That article was 13 months ago. Not that appropriate to say "a couple of months"
On highest tier there is also doom offlane
axe, will always be my most annoying offlaner
13 is the new 2.
finally some post about UL being a top tier offlaner!... i gained like 400 mmr mostly using him over the past few months, pretty good hero who is quite suited for being a great pusher/teamfighter
Hmm what about BB? hes still good offlane i think.
RE: Clip
It's linked to a specific time, so if you play the video you'll see the action that's referred to
RE: Heroes (Doom & Bristle)
Neither of them are competitively as relevant as the others. We'll publish more lists and you'll see more heroes not making those lists, doesn't mean they're bad. These heroes here though are undoubtedly the best between pubs and pros
I think pangolier is a super solid offlane.
Great with escapes, Great in Team fights, Very easy to farm with.
Isn't Doom the third most picked offlaner in pro circuit, ahead of Brewmaster and Beastmaster? Not to mention being the second most picked offlaner at 5k+ with a 53% win rate?
Somehow i have offlane ench in 100% of my games and I win like Most of Them, but thats maybe cuz i play her.
What I personally like the most about having these types of offlaners being popular right now is that it forces at least someone on your team to play the game 'correctly'. Let me explain:
I'm sure we all see the person that wants to try a new build with their hero. Oh man, that new aghs is too good to pass up bruh. Gotta have it, he says. Ok sure, it's cool, but really, you're passing up some pretty important items to get it. Like, I very much see the appeal to having aether lens on, say, shadow shaman. But maybe it would be better if the team had a force staff to help your Ursa escape sticky situations. Sure, you can initiate from further, but your Ursa is still slow and now you're wasting channel time because you activated too early.
My point is this: utility offlaners buy items that the entire team needs. Crimson guard isn't the flashiest item, but boy oh boy can it make a huge difference. Radiance is fun to grab for farming, but that miss chance can play a huge role in the success of your teamfight. I almost feel like it is less the hero and more the items that they naturally build that your team desparately needs that you wouldn't see on that offlaner if they picked, say, weaver or mirana or batrider. They're nice, but it's likely that your team didn't pick other heroes that naturally fill the gaps that having a utility offlaner would have filled.
A balanced team goes beyond having heroes that fill each role. You need heroes that also naturally cover a wide pool of necessary items for success in the game. There's wiggle room in both needs, but hey, almost everything in Dota has wiggle room.
The problem is u can't get your lane most of the times because in drafting phase U pick your offlaner in 2nd/3rd pick and opponent use this fact and pick a carry who can dominate the lane against that certain offlaner. so we know offlaners like tide/brew/beastmaster/omni are so good this patch but it's still very very situational.
where is my lich offlane?
@RAGE
There are situations where you could take advantage of that though. Switch the lanes, force their carry pick out to better counter it, etc.
Nice article, actually this is best offlaner from the point of view of dota 2 pro circuit right which is so different than the pub offlane hero. Agree with the list, maybe some notable mention like jakiro also somewhat work even though the win rate isn't that high I believe
I Just Went 24/4 With Phoenix Off lane And Carried my entire Team Against A PA, Sven, Slark, Shadow Shaman, And Slardar. I'm pretty sure Phoenix needs to be on here, Fire spirits are just so strong.
haha you posted that on two articles
I've been having, great success with Legion in the Offlane, she can bully both the carry and support and get kills, she reaches lvl six easily and if the lane is pushed she can just hit the jungle and get back in lane once they pushed it again. If there is a haste or invis rune she can Gank mid or just good communication in your team, dive towers like it's nothing and win duels.
Furion is also hella good in 7.07. I have like, 100% winrate with him this patch.
also ench is destroying rn