6.89 Right Around the Corner
With fall approaching and the professional rosters starting to take form, patch 6.89 is just around the corner. Along with the arrival of our next hero, The Monkey King, and the likely addition of Arc Warden to Captain’s Mode, Ice Frog will be looking to bring all those outlying heroes back into the meta. Die hard Windranger fans and specialist Gyrocopter players can fully expect to see their heroes getting buffed – so get ready.
Windranger
Despite being a popular hero in pub matches, she’s one of the weakest heroes in the game. Can you ever remember a time when she was a popular competitive mid-laner? With an ultimate that’s pretty much useless at level 1, she’s simply not designed to have much of an early game impact. It’s also rare to see her farm quickly enough to keep up with the more carry-orientated mids like Invoker or Templar Assassin. We think that 6.89 buffing Powershot or reworking Focus Fire might be the way to go – she’s certainly effective if she has a good start.
Gyrocopter
It was long ago that Gyro was the number one hero in the game, zooming accoss the map unleashing his devastating arsenal of weaponry upon his foes and laughing off their feeble attempts to halt his reign of terror. But nerf after nerf slowly reduced him to ‘repick pls’ status and he’s barely a shadow of his former glory. Worst of all, Luna, the hero he was meant to be ‘a better version of’, had made a massive comeback. If Icefrog doesn’t want to buff his spells again then he should at least improve his base damage. It feels like Gryo currently right clicks like a Techies at early levels.
Nature’s Prophet
Another ‘gg we lost’ hero in the majority of pub games you’ll play, NP is in a bad place right now. With the addition of Iron Talons and the extra pull camp, the offlane is not what it used to be and – after the recent tower buffs his pushing feels weak. This is a hero who needs careful changes thanks to his unique play-style but something needs to be done. Perhaps buffing his Treants might turn things around for him.
Troll Warlord
The old 6.83 ‘spin to win’ meta feels so long ago now but that was the last time Troll was a viable pick. With the last round of buffs from 6.88 he’s definitely out of the ‘trash tier’ list but with Morphling, Phantom Assassin, Luna, and others back in contention he’s getting overlooked. A few small tweaks to his early game should be enough to get the pros whacking out the Troll once more.
Razor
Razor has just been unpopular for ages now. Out all the mids we rarely see (Lina,Viper, Leshrac etc.) he’s the one we’d like to see buffed most of all. Right now Razor is a pretty decent mid laner against melee heroes, thanks to Static Link, but that’s about it. Like Death Prophet, without farming up some items fast he’s too easy to burst down in team fights and he needs to stay alive to dish out his damage. Some significant buffs to Eye of the Storm or Unstable Current might be enough to bring him back into the meta.