Patch 6.88c
Playing mid in 6.88 has been a tough task. In such a well-balanced meta, judging who to pick is a bit of a lottery and opposing mids are always ready with a cheeky counter to your favourite midlaner. Even worse, with the likes of Mirana, Riki, Pudge and other popular roaming supports constantly ganking your lane, you can often find yourself respawning in base without having done much wrong. Let’s take a look at the key heroes to learn.
Outworld Devourer
Outworld devourer is a popular hero right now with a lot of the top players and it’s easy to see why. He hits like a truck, can snowball hard with few early kill, and has an ultimate that can be game winning ultimate if he gets ahead. Interestingly, you’ll see most of the top players maxing out Astral Imprisonment first, with a few points in Essence Aura and often only one point in Arcane Orb during the early game. Astral Imprisonment will help you speed up your farm and dominate the lane so that you can build a quick Hurricane Pike.
Storm Spirit
Storm Spirit is firmly back in the meta game so we can all look forward to seeing some more blistering performances by players like Sumail over the coming months. Storm doesn’t quite have the capacity to zip around as much as he used to, during the early game at least, but the buffs to Overload means he hits harder and a lot of players are maxing this out as soon as possible. His laning stage isn’t quite as solid as some of the other mids on this list but his late game potential is enormous – especially now that Orchid can be upgraded into Bloodthorn.
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Mirana
Despite the recent nerf to her Aghanim’s upgrade, Mirana is still a pretty solid mid lane choice. She has the capacity to dish out huge amounts of magical damage, whilst easily escaping attempts to gank her. She also brings a lot of utility to her team – both Sacred Arrow and Moonlight Shadow have turned many a game in her favour.
Tinker
Tinker is once again the most annoying mid in the game to play against. If the March of the Machines isn’t frustrating enough to push into, and his Heat-Seeking Missiles aren’t hurting too much, then you can bet that damn Laser will drive you nuts with its miss chance. Tinker has his counters (Storm Spirit) but he’s hero who scales like a hard carry and has a huge skill ceiling so he is one definitely one worth practising.
Templar Assassin
Another of the best mids in 6.88c, TA is one of the strongest mid laners in the game so long as she doesn’t run into a direct counter. Huge amounts of burst damage and the ability to stack and farm the ancients means it’s hard to stop her finding farm and kills. She’s also the only mid on this list able to solo Roshan quite early on in the game. She’s a bit of a glass cannon though – so you need to play around her Refraction timings closely.
