Statistics lie. It’s not that the data is wrong per-se, but rather that as humans we’re subject to a number of conditions that cause us to misinterpret the data before us:

Laziness: we often look for the simplest, most easily reached answer and stick with it. It's the same reason why so many people play Windranger; she is versatile enough to be the one size fits all hero.

Confirmation Bias: it’s all too easy to find a statistic that reinforces our existing viewpoint, turning opinion into fact. Contrary to what your friends tell you, playing games in the Very High Skill bracket is not that same as being over 5K solo MMR.

Context Dilution: we often take statistics and assume they apply to us, in our situation. The truth is often much more complex. Just because AdmiralBulldog can play a mean Nature's Prophet doesn't mean you can. Your favorite pubstomp hero may not be as effective as you go up in skill.

Our primary goal here at Dotabuff is to help give Dota players the tools, information and confidence they need to improve. To that end, we want to tear down the barriers sitting between data and the players who want to utilize it to better their gameplay. Today we’re releasing a new tool to help you dig into the data: interactive Hero Meta Statistics.

Hero Meta Statistics

The new Hero Meta Statistics feature does one thing very well: makes it easy to slice and dice hero statistics in order to find the exact data point or trend you’re looking for. It removes the barriers of laziness, confirmation bias and context dilution to give you accurate data with much more context than ever before. Here are a few things you can do with it:

Show how good a hero is at different skill levels: Io has never been a pubstar, but at what point does he become good? Io is awful until he reaches the 4-5k MMR range where he is just okay with a 47.99% winrate. He becomes good over 5K MMR when coordinate increases his winrate to 53.75%.

Find out which hero feeds the most gold to the enemy team: Huskar, until you reach about 4K MMR, who then gives up the title to Meepo. Who feeds the least? Well, Techies, but other than that: Abaddon and Omniknight. Maybe that's why their win rates are so high?

Determine who is best at last hitting in the middle lane: Alchemist wins for the most part, but Shadow Fiend is strongest at the 10 minute mark in very high skill games.

Find out who places the most wards: Crystal Maiden, still the reigning queen of vision and the supportiest of supports.

... and thousands of additional scenarios, all at your fingertips.

How it Works

Our primary goal with the new Meta statistics was to make it easy and fool-proof to find the data that’s meaningful to you.

We’ve distilled the process into 3 simple steps:

1. Show - Determine which statistics you’d like to see. Whether it’s pick or win rates, last hits at 10/20/30 or ward statistics, you’ll be able to find it here.

2. Compare By - Determine how you’d like to group the data. For example, comparing by Ranked MMR will show you how the values differ between <2K, 3K, 4K, and 5K+ brackets. You can also compare by Skill Bracket (normal, high, very high), faction (radiant or dire) or lane (middle, safe, off).

3. Filter By (optional) - Available to Plus subscribers only, you can filter your search to run a custom query against the dataset. This allows you to do specific and tricky things like showing last hits at 10/20/30 by skill bracket for heroes in the middle lane on US West.

How will you use it?

This feature has been in development for a while, we're very happy to finally release it! You can expect more in-depth data-centric tools like this in the coming months.

Like any good tool, it’s only as useful as you make it. We’re very excited to see the innovative queries you run and what insights they reveal! Let us know what you come up in the comments.