With patch 6.86 looming on the horizon after the end of The Frankfurt Major, Windranger seems to be one of the main focal points of change for the Dota community. She currently rests as the most popular hero in pubs, and it wasn’t long ago that she was also the top pick for players in the 5k+ MMR bracket (that #1 spot is now Shadow Fiend, currently at a 45% pick rate in the bracket). Windranger is still certainly in the spotlight, showing up in 32.75% of our pubs. But does she deserve a fate worse than having her name changed from Windrunner to Windranger?

A History of Power Creep

Believe it or not, there was a time when Windranger was lamented as one of the worst heroes in Dota 2, and Mirana could do everything Windranger could do, but better. Windranger was a “tweener” hero—she didn’t fit in any role and had an underwhelming skillset: unreliable stun (can’t support), poor escape (can’t offlane), lackluster ultimate (not a core hero). With this in mind, over the past year Valve and Icefrog has dispensed a series of incremental changes to each of those weaknesses, vaulting her to infamy.

6.84

Reduced Shackleshot cast point from 0.3 to 0.15.

6.83

Powershot

Increased cast range and travel distance from 1825 to 2600.

Max damage is now reached after 1 second of channeling, instead of 0.7 seconds.

Reduced cast point from 0.3 to 0.

Reduced vision radius from 800 to 400.

Focus Fire

Increased Focus Fire attack speed bonus from 400 to 500.

6.82

Increased Shackleshot search range from 525 to 575.

Increased Windrun duration from 2.75/3.5/4.25/5 to 3/4/5/6.

6.81b

Reduces Focus Fire manacost from 150 on each level to 75/100/125.

6.81

Activating Windrun now disjoints incoming attack projectiles.

Aghanim’s Scepter upgraded Focus Fire

No longer causes Focus Fire to not reduce damage of secondary item effects.

Now reduces the attack damage reduction from 50%/40%/30% to 30%/15%/0%.

One of the most significant changes to Windranger was one of its first, over a year ago: the change to her Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade (6.81). It buffed her ultimate’s damage by reducing its damage penalty as well as removing the innate reduced damage of secondary effects, such as Critical Strike and Maelstrom procs. The next four patches buffed every other aspect of Windranger's flaws. Along with the Aghanim Scepter change, the reduction to Focus Fire's mana cost made it an essential skill for Windranger, when before it wasn't skilled until level 10. Windrun's duration was buffed by 10% more at Lvl 1 (2.75 to 3) to 20% more at lvl 4 (5 to 6). Powershot's range was extended to almost a Lvl 3 Clockwerk hookshot. And finally—the skill at the root of public discontent—Shackleshot was buffed in its search range and its cast point, making a once unreliable stun a flip the keyboard moment for its victims.

Now the stage was set. The trend in changes to Windranger mirrored closely to that of Juggernaut. Few things changed about the core functionality of the hero. Like him, she received incremental buffs that, over time, didn’t receive the relative amount of attention, until one day, everyone noticed.

Slahser and W33ha’s Way

Before her breakout popularity today, Windranger was a staple within the wheelhouse of proficient mid players. In mid 1v1 tournaments you have your typical Shadow Fiend, Queen of Pain, Puck matchups, but Windranger was right there as well. She has a fast turn rate, one of the best attack animations, and two skill shots that make for highlight moments in the mid lane. She was, however, still unpopular in the professional meta.

First, don’t underestimate the impact a youtube tutorial, or an errant community post, can have on the meta, whether for pub players or pros. We wouldn’t have had a lane statistic for “Jungling Necrophos” otherwise. Back in March, Slahser—Danish ex-pro and Dota content creator—produced a video that showcased his way of playing Windranger. Instead of Maelstrom or Blink Dagger/Force Staff first (the most popular core items then), build Aghanim Scepter. Windranger has one of the best stat gains in the game, but poor initial stats. And instead of skilling Focus Fire at lvl 10, skill it at lvl 6 and threaten the mid tower if your lane opponent leaves. This was a breakthrough that took advantage of Windranger’s buffs to Focus Fire and Aghanims, and leveraged her strengths during a specific window. A few days later, Pajkatt used the build in a pro match (Alliance vs Na`Vi), and thanked Slahser in the end.

The next step in Windranger’s popularity was aided along by W33ha, Team Secret’s mid player, whose wizardry with this hero rivals the best recent signature heroes of other pros: CDEC.Aggresif and Gyrocopter, Secret.EternalEnvy and Ember Spirit, EG.Sumail and Storm Spirit. Keep in mind that Windranger’s last buffs, albeit minor, were back in 6.84. There were some rumblings of a Windranger trend when during TI5, EG’s opponents banned all of Sumail’s heroes, leaving him with Windranger. Credit, however, has to go to Team Secret, who was dominant in their Windranger games, with a 67% in 6.85 and 71% win rate in 6.85b. Not only is Secret one of the most popular teams, they succeeded with Windranger on the biggest LAN stages of 6.85: MLG World Finals, Nanyang Championship, and the Frankfurt Major.

Altogether it was a confluence of factors for Windranger’s rise: buff after buff, synergy with a meta of Slardar and Dazzle, beloved hero by the community, pet favorite of mid players, success on the main stage. It was only a matter of time that she became the villain.

Public Enemy

Let’s get some statistics aside first:

Across 309 professional games for 6.85, Windranger has a 43.7 % win rate

% win rate During the LAN finals of the Frankfurt Major, her win rate was 31.25 %, and she was the 14th most contested hero.

%, and she was the most contested hero. Across all skill brackets for pubs, her win rate is 49.48 %

% She has the highest pub win rate in the 2k bracket, at 49.79 %

% Her lowest pub win rate is in the 5k+ bracket, at 45.77%

There are a few confounding issues at hand here. First, Windranger was unfavored at Frankfurt in a meta that favored counters in defensive supports, such as Winter Wyvern and Dazzle. Second, Windranger is a high skill cap hero with a specific function, so her impact can vary significantly among pub players, and even pros (to compare, W33ha has a 70% professional win rate with Windranger across 6.85 and 6.85b).

However, that doesn’t remove the fact that Windranger is a losing hero across all pub skill brackets and across all professional games. Whether Icefrog and Valve favors balancing for pubs or pros, the hero doesn’t seem to be cutting it in either arena. Win rate isn’t the end all measuring stick for a hero nerf, but combine that with her contested rate in pro games and you have to ask: what are you nerfing for? Take a look at two recent high profile public enemies: Leshrac and Lina. Unlike Windranger, both heroes were highly contested in the competitive scene (100% P+B for Leshrac, 98% for Lina at TI5), and both had extraordinary win rates in either pub or professional play (Leshrac 56% in 6.84c pubs, Lina 62% at TI5).

The last question for a hero nerf is one that can supplant any argument about win rate and hero power: is the hero fun to play against? This seems to be the sticking point for community discontent on Windranger, namely Shackleshot. At its highest level, its a 3.75 second stun that seems to latch at the most improbable distances and angles. Windranger has been the same hero for more than half a year, but only recently has she gathered enough victims for a public backlash. First, awkward angles from shackles can be attributed to perspective (elevation differences, such as low/high ground, or Batrider in Firefly) and hero movement (line drawn from shackle release). There is no conspiracy here, no hidden bug.

We can look at several past heroes who have been victims of nerfs and nightmares to play against. Good luck laning against 6.83 Sniper or 6.84 Bloodseeker. Sniper eventually was nerfed out, but then there was Lina, perched on our own high ground in the mid lane, auto attacking at 700 range. Then there was Techies, who found limited success with a few professional teams and performed poorly elsewhere. But with Techies, Dota became two different games: one was Dota and the other was Minesweeper.

The main arguments against Windranger seem to be that: one, Team Secret and w33ha are very good with her, and two, it doesn't feel good when you lose against her. She isn’t as gamebreaking as Techies, nor is she as lane dominant as Leshrac and Lina were. Shackleshot remains unreliable until she gets a Blink Dagger. Windranger still has that particular element of lane dominance and bullshit skill that flirts with being imbalanced, but she’s just not there yet. However, with her history of repeated buffs, she’s at a point where she’s teetering on that edge. Windranger has long been a community favorite. Let's hope she doesn't reach a point where she's nerfed into obscurity.