Let's Talk About Black King Bar
Black King Bar is an integral part of the game with many mechanics and abilities balanced around it. Lately, however, the item has been getting increasingly important, to a point where the first major item BKB feels mandatory on a wide variety of heroes. Is BKB too strong right now and how it could be nerfed is a question we will try to answer today.
Is it actually overpowered?
We believe the answer to be yes. The average time for a BKB purchase in the last Major was around minute 23, with most cores going for it pre-minute twenty. In fact, a lot of them were a first major item for the hero.
Given how cost inefficient BKB is in terms of stats and how little it gives in terms of farm acceleration, this feels very forced by the game design. Players would prefer to not go for BKB and their heroes would be more efficient and successful in terms of Net Worth by not going BKB, but the moment at least one hero on the map gets this item, everyone else has to follow suit.
That was mostly true before: BKB timing was always important for Dota. However, in the current patch an early BKB is not punished in any capacity. Since patch 7.29 BKB only goes down to six seconds, which is ample time even in the late game. For comparison, it used to go down to five seconds from 6.82 to 7.29 and would actually go down to four seconds before 6.82.
The second reason BKB is so good right now is the relatively slow farming speed of heroes. Previously, flash-farming heroes could try to outpace the enemy team with efficient farming items, bulking up in stats. Right now, they just don’t have enough time or rather they have the same amount of time, but with the reduced farming speed they don’t get the same amount of items they used to previously and their long-term efficiency simply can’t compete with momentary power spike of multiple BKBs on the enemy team.
Even Tiny and Templar Assassin, the heroes who were relatively unscathed by the jungle changes are now suffering from this effect. In a fight, it doesn’t matter that you are three thousand gold ahead of the enemy core if you don’t have BKB. At the same time, if you build BKB early, skipping acceleration and efficiency items, then why would you play a flash-farming core in the first place, when you could go for a tempo one and be more useful to your team?
The absence of any meaningful punishment for an early BKB coupled with an extremely fast paced game makes for a meta that managed to fully converge on one single item. It is not a critique of the game’s or the patch design, though: the amount of options after you get your BKB is still massive and makes for a very enjoyable overall experience. However, the first ~20 minutes of every relatively high level game are basically “who can get multiple BKBs up faster” and that’s a problem that should be recognized.
Potential solutions
There are several obvious ones: there are enough numbers on this item to be tinkered with and we are almost sure we will see the return of a five-second late-game BKB, as opposed to six seconds. The cooldown could see an increase and the price could change as well.
Slightly more creative solutions could involve changing the build-up for the item. Swapping Ogre Axe for Staff of Wizardry, for example, would ensure that Black King Bar isn’t a bit of a tanking item as well and would immediately make Agility and Strength cores who typically build BKB slightly worse off.
Better yet, if Black King Bar had no aggressive stats at all and instead gave things like regeneration, armor and mana pool, it could also solve the problem of a rather uninspired BKB + Refresher build. Leave long duration spell immunity an option, but make sure that there is a massive DPS and utility trade off associated with it. Right now BKB is a +34 damage and +200 HP item for Strength cores and while it definitely isn’t a lot, it is still giving more than it should, it feels.
Increasing the value of status resistance could be a solution as well. There was a patch where multiple Satanics stacked and it was almost as bad as the current state of BKB, but a middle ground between the current state of status resistance and status resistance at its peak would provide a nice alternative. In some cases, e.g. against Beastmaster and Bane, having extra status resistance would be preferable to BKB and it could introduce an actual decision-making process when it comes to defensive items on cores, as opposed to buying BKB in every single game.
Finally, we feel like the amount of free Dispels on Neutral and Purchased Items could potentially warrant removing the dispel mechanic from BKB. It sounds extremely weird, but the dispel effect right now is slapped onto pretty much everything. There is Eul’s, Aeon, Greaves and Lotus for utility heroes, Manta and Satanic for cores, as well as Flicker, Ascetic Cap, Witchbane and Stormcrafter among neutral items.
There is a lot of dispel in the game and it prevents many support heroes from being played at all. Spell Immunity no longer gives 100% magic damage resistance and removing dispel from it kind of makes sense, at least in theory. Naturally, a lot of heroes will have to be rebalanced, or would they? Because when was the last time you saw Silencer, Venomancer, Warlock and many other non-hard disable supports being played successfully at high level? All of them get countered naturally by the default item progression on 95% of core heroes and removing dispel from one already strong, borderline problematic item would be a step in the right direction.
Closing thoughts
BKB is too good right now and it is a combination of several factors, some of which are not necessarily BKB-related. Slower-paced meta, easier access to farm, changes to EHP on heroes and the availability and relevance of save items and save supports all play a big part in the evaluation of the item. Perhaps the item in its current state would be considered fine or even weak in another patch.
That said, we still feel like BKB should get a bit of a rest. It’s been one of the cornerstones of Dota for a long time, but evolving the game and diversifying the options players are presented with could be the next big step for the game. Do you agree with us, or do you think BKB is too iconic to change? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
If they nerfed the living hell out of skywrath and some other heroes that stun consistently then we wouldn't have to go for bkb every round.
It would be interesting if BKB didn't give immunity from magic damage. Hood and pipe of insight would be better than now
Yeah, I loathe BKB. I hate literally having to buy a $4k item in order to play the game at all, and it limits the creativity of builds dramatically + feels like a shit purchase on, as you said, many heroes besides making many heroes completely irrelevant. I see literally supports buying BKB and I honestly can't even blame them. But its frustrating because without mana, without spells, heroes that don't do damage by attack-moving are totally irrelevant. I'd say BKB is my least favorite item in Dota 2 and this article is a balm to my soul.
It's nice to see finally people joining what i'm saying for more than 5 years.
Nerf those fucking overpowered spell and then bkb will stop getting op/mandatory.
We used to have an era were 2k hp heroes were considered tanky, and reaching 3k hp by minute 50 was quite rare outside of centaure and spectre with multiple tarasque and you HAD to use a lot of right click to finish them, spells were just not enough.
Now we have heroes with 4k hp at 30 min getting sliced like butter by spells ...
And that's not even considering the insane duration of spell; often offering (between cdr and spell duration from talent/item) permanent disable by a single hero;
As a dota extreme example, if all our heroes were like anti mage / pa / riki, bkb would be the weakest of all item, and wouldn't need a nerf at all. The strength of bkb rely on how overpowered spells are.
If you were to take a similar stupidity from nature, spells and bkb would just look like the arm race between newts and snakes; newts getting more poisonous so snake needs to become more resistant; to the point that if you are out of that arm race, you'll get utterly demolished. (newts' poisons are spells, snakes' immunity is bkb).
the reason why bkb is so strong now compared to perpahps a couple patches ago is the nerf to status resistance. if they just buffed status resistance and included it in other items bkb goes back to more of an even item. no need to nerf bkb.
As a mainly 5 main (4 sometimes) I've been feeling this way for a while. The 20 minute bkbs have gotten pretty old.
As a 5 just finishing items like glimmer or force and then getting bodied by 1-2 cores with fresh BKB pre 20 minutes sucks. A lot of the times I'm not even of position, but the bkb let's them play out of position to kill me.
It really sucks, I think next patch making it 8-5 seconds would help, but we need some other options as well. The bkb "meta" sucks because it isn't even a meta, it's a requirment.
1. No good status resist item except 4k sange upgrade which the same as bkb.
2. Too many cc strat like shadow shaman, DK, etc. Cant even start a fight without getting cc-ed to death.
The magic resistance items should be made cheaper. Hood is very competitively priced, but upgrading to Pipe is a huge drag on the item development. Pipe is basically the same price as a BKB. Maybe just prop up the BKB price and make team magic resistance cheaper, by cutting Pipe recipe cost to basically have teams go for resistance over immunity... Changes to the BKB stat wise could be another way, but I don't think there are any heroes that buy BKB for the stats, 10 str is only 200 hp on two thirds of the hero. It could be that the 200 hp saves you at some point, but that immunity is really nice and saves you way more than the stats.
BKB has been an issue for a very long time! This is nothing new, core BKB timing has been key for contributor for team fighting forever in the pro tier games.
Dota evolved a lot around casters since the introduction of new talents tree which made them super scale into the late game , in turn this made bkb a requirement. The fact that the item conceptually was not changed does not surprise me one bit. You have to tweak and nerf a lot of heroes (id say around 90% of the hero pool + some changes to the other 10%) before you touch the item itself.
You need bikibi you need bikibi you need bikibi!
Make bkb 6 or 5 seconds flat, buff status res and improve pipe costs or buildup. Dota without bkb, isn't dota. But dota with only bkb isn't either. Definitely needs a change.
just a fun fact, at one point bkb could be sold to get back a full 10 seconds..
you cant get back 10 seconds now even after selling
Game is power creeped to hell. BKB is not that strong. What is strong is spells and magic damage. You have one oppurtunity to use BKB well in a fight.
My idea for BKB, which I honestly thought valve would have implemented by now:
Instead of an item, BKB is now an inherent skill for every hero (kinda like the neutral item slot) - it starts at 1 second duration on minute 5, and ramps up every few minutes to reach maximum potential of 6 seconds.
Of course you might need to balance a lot of spells accordingly if implemented, but I think it makes sense.
yea, some imune magic, is best, when you go against mage
Limit purchase of 1 BKB per team.
Are you fucking crazy?
BKB should be buffed IMHO. Game is full of heavy make damage nukes and disables.
Are you fucking crazy?
BKB should be buffed IMHO. Game is full of heavy make damage nukes and disables.
Anyone that thinks BKB should be removed or nerfed should be ignored. It's an integral part of the balance of the game. DotA is a game of hard CC. Playing around BKB timings, playing around BKB cooldowns, etc. is all part of the game. If you don't like it, you are free to go play League of Legends, a game literally designed from the very start to be DotA without hard lockdown/BKB.
People suggesting things like BKB as an inherent skill, or 1 BKB per team... I am glad you are nowhere near Valve and do not have any influence over the development of this game. BKB is not "overpowered" - as a very concept that makes no sense. It's like saying that the AWP or the AK-47 are overpowered. It's like saying that the Queen is overpowered in Chess. It's not meant to be "balanced" because it's not a game variety element, it's a core game mechanic. It's like saying "stuns are overpowered". Stuns are stuns, they're a part of the identity of the game. BKB is the same. It's part of the identity of the game.
And I'm sorry but anyone who thinks BKB is overpowered as a concept is just... not fit for DotA. Now maybe the numbers are too good on it, maybe it's too cheap, maybe the components aren't quite right (I think they're iconic and should stay personally - it's been those items for such a long time it would be just bizarre to change it), maybe the way it loses charges isn't quite right - maybe it should go down to 6 seconds from 10 seconds by losing 1.5s each charge, maybe it should go down from 10s to 2s but be rebuyable to 10s like it used to be, etc. Those are the sorts of discussions that are worth having.
But people saying it should be completely reworked, removed, turned into an inherent spell, etc. are just crazy.
I have an idea. Make BKB similar to blink dagger. Cannot be activated in 3 seconds if takes player damage.