Analyzing 7.07 Top Tier Carries
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7.07 seems to have empowered carries more than ever, with classic hard carries, such as Anti-Mage, Morphling, and Medusa resurfacing. The creep equilibrium, as well as xp changes to creeps, makes it much easier to outlane the enemy offlaner and to deny xp. With Shrines pushed back further into the jungle, teams can’t play as aggressively into the enemy jungle as before.
In the last part of our Top Tier series, we take a look at the carry position and heroes that continue to excel in 7.07, both in pub and pro play.
Anti-Mage
Whenever a big balance patch comes around, pub players do a pretty good job of exploiting the strengths of a hero or two. These heroes tend to stick out like a sore thumb and will generally be nerfed in subsequent patches. For 7.07, one of those heroes was Anti-Mage.
Within a week, Anti-Mage went from a 49% win rate across all brackets to 55%, while his pick rate increased by 9% to 29% overall. Pub players realized that AM was incredibly strong, potentially too strong. With safelaners being more difficult to contest, a slightly cheaper Battle Fury and a new talent, Anti-Mage felt incredibly strong.
Since then, the new talent has been pushed to level 20. On top of that, Blink’s cooldown has been decreased by a second at level 4, and the new level 15 talents force Anti-Mage to choose between either a Blink cooldown reduction or 15 additional Agility.
The hero has been appropriately nerfed and is back to a 49% win rate, but he’s still a top tier pick, in the right situation. And as heroes like Medusa and Storm Spirit gain in popularity, Anti-Mage becomes more and more situational.
Spectre
For a while now, Spectre has had a very high win rate (~55%) in pubs. She is difficult to kill and doesn’t need to play much with the team. Her split-push is annoying to deal with and she can join any teamfight at a moment’s notice. Her new talents also allow her to scale better than before, and by level 25 you might end up killing yourself before killing her.
Much like any other split pusher, Spectre thrives in chaos, but she can be more engaged with her team if need be, something that other split pushers can’t do. Spectre can come in for an easy kill and the popular Urn of Shadows build has become even better now that the item can be built into a 
Spirit Vessel, which has components that further help Spectre.
She is not nearly as popular in pro games as she is in pubs, as she generally doesn’t want to group up or siege towers at all. Even in pubs she isn’t exactly among the popular crowd (only 7% pick rate overall), but when she is a good pick, she really brings it home.
Tiny
After his re-work, Tiny became one of the weakest heroes in the game and was in dire need of buffs. Icefrog obliged and addressed several issues, so much so that Tiny became too strong and had to be adjusted again. Since 7.07c, Tiny has been in a good place. While his pub win rate may not reflect that (46%), pro players have taken a liking to the hero. The new ability allows Tiny to farm ancients much quicker and earlier than before. In general, the hero seems to come online much quicker without relying on a Blink Dagger and has a lot of kill potential in lane. He also doesn't have to invest much into defensive items with the increased Status Resistance.
Tiny lanes well against most melee heroes and can even hold his own against ranged carries. More on Tiny in our Tiny blogpost.
Chaos Knight
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Chaos Knight became a top pick in the European and CIS meta shortly after TI. The hero proved to be an incredibly valuable pick up with early fighting and pushing potential. Only few carries have as much killing potential in lane as CK, and what he lacks in flash farming abilities he can make up with a Midas.
CK’s physical burst with Phantasm is near unparalleled, and he’s incredibly difficult to kill as time goes on with only few defensive items.
Medusa & 
Razor
Medusa and Razor are two rather popular and effective heroes at the moment, both in competitive play and pubs alike. One reason why these heroes are so strong is because of their laning flexibility. They can be played in virtually any lane, most notably mid and safelane. This allows pros and pubs to be more versatile during the draft, something that other carries don’t offer. More on these two heroes can be read up on in our Top Tier midlaners post.
Terrorblade
Terrorblade will often be a top carry. His natural skillset makes it difficult for players to kill him without a certain amount of coordination or hard lockdown, and his pushing power will always make him a situational pick. He also doesn’t take as long to come online, a quality that sets him apart from other illusion based heroes who generally rely on the likes of Radiance and/or Octarine to shine.
The most flexible role
For a while now, carries have taken a backseat in a lot of ways. With a large overlap in heroes with midlaners, carries/safelane heroes have become more sacrificial in the pro meta, which is why there's rarely a dedicated safelane hero among the most picked heroes at any event.
Why tho
Good article, and it would be nice if you also analyze the bottom-tier heroes as well. e.g., Slark etc
where Luna?
I've think Lone Druid and gyrocopter should have a place on this post, even as a honorable mention
how about le balanced water boi
Luna unmentioned?
Nice english
morph is the most broken carry on the meta, shame he was only mentioned.
Biggest bane of this entire patch is Morphling. And it goes unmentioned? Says something about the quality of these posts...
A passing mention of Morphling...
NEXT:
Analyzing 7.07 Top Tier AUTISTIC JUNGLERS
Morphling anyone? No? Ok...
Bottom line: hevvy farrrrm
So far, morp and luna. AM can be dealth with by ending thw game early...
Not talking about Morhpling LUL
MOPRH
article that's really useful in Herald-Guardian, as everyone is either carry or mid
Luna, Gryo, Morph? lacklustre article.
Lmao. Luna the most pathetic "carry" in dota. Should add Wraith King into this list. He only loses medusa in strong late game after 7.07c. Even Antimage can't deal with him.
And where're morph and luna? Why is am still here?
luna is dead and morph is annoying
morphs lack of using mana for the stat swap gave him an incredible boost in the early game
no morplhing, no luna and no weaver :D GOOD ARTICLE BRUH
I feel like you guys are missing out on Weaver. He seems like a pretty good pick against Medusa/Razor. And he's awfully popular
Bane is too popular as a support too. weaver will melt
ET is missing from the list fam
We Need article top Carry jungler dude, AHAHAHAHAHAAA
@Skim
Could you expand a little on your final comment regarding the sacrifice of the carry? Like, how do you see that effecting the game? More to the point, since someone is still having to play that priority farm position, what do you believe their role is in the team now? We have been seeing a handful of utility carries for a while, do you possibly think that is the direction it will continue to go or do you see a backlash in store?
it is funny i spammed am in like 6 games and now all I see is that my friends are playing him but when i play ranked my am is banned or picked by the enemy cant enjoy blinking and making fun of the enemy team FeelsBadMan :(
Where's Luna? With her current talents she's supastrong
No Morphing ? Personally, I think this Patch Morphing is too OP for this Meta.
luna man? luna rekts this patch.
Biggest nightmare of pub, morph not included in article.
KEK
why their has not mentioned void?
In my opinion Faceless Void is HUGE at the moment, but not as huge as Centaur Warrunner with 3 Hearts ;))))
Where the fuck is wisp? Best carry in dota at the moment.
sad to say for morph
:(
Morph has been nerfed into the ground, none of you know what you're talking about