Patch 6.79 Pub Tier List: Everyone Sucks

Disclaimer: We've assembled this list largely using win rate from Dotabuff.

Pub tier lists can be quite strange. They don’t offer the same advice as competitive tier lists, where you may see Bristleback on the rise, nor do they highlight ineffective heros in the meta. For pubs, heros in the bottom tier aren’t there because they suck, it’s because we all suck. At the bottom you’ll find competitive picks like Bane, Io, Chen, yet in pub play they are well below 50% win rate.

Have you read Purge’s Welcome To Dota, You Suck? At Dotabuff we've found some truth to this. Everyone, mostly everyone, sucks, and this greatly influences the win rates of heros that are commonly top tier. When skill bracket information was available, very high tier represented only 2.5% of the Dota population. So if you ever wondered why Batrider is in the bottom 10 of win rates, its because win rate is heavily influenced by your common player.

Tier 1: Pub Stompers

Abaddon, Lich, Venomancer, Warlock, Death Prophet

These heroes are all close to or above 57% in pub win rate. Common theme? Great team fight heros that are uncomplicated in their skill timings. Lich, Death Prophet and Venomancer have an “I win this team fight” button they just need to press at the beginning of the fight.

Venomancer: By pressing two buttons on keyboard and with the help of two mouse clicks this hero can deal a total of 2578 magic damage PER HERO. It’s no surprise that Venomancer is among the top 10 damage dealt per minute. As a great high ground defender, pusher, and ganker, Venomancer earned his place at the top.

Death Prophet: Easy to use, high mobility, crazy ultimate - what’s not to love? And with a tanky build, Bloodstone and Heart of Tarrasque are among her top 5 most common items , her ultimate becomes even more devastating.

The recent buff to Exorcism that increased its damage by 20% (!!) made this hero popular not only in pubs, but also in a competitive play. Having a button that practically says “Melt my Enemies” makes for a very fitting Queen to our Icy Lich King.

Lich: No wonder this hero is Tier 1 in both pubs and competitive play. Recent rework to his “Sacrifice” ability, which now gives XP for consumption of friendly creeps, made him an absolute monster in terms of XP gain. On top of that, the buff to his “Ice Armour”, that now decreases the attack speed of ranged units as well, made him very potent lategame. That, in term, has increased his versatility, as he is capable of fulfilling almost any role: offlaner, mid or support.

His ultimate ability not only deals a great deal of damage, but also forces the opposite team to spread out. Ask your usual pub team to coordinate a delta split? Good luck.

Tier 2: Pub Winners

Necrophos, Wraith King, Zeus, Lycan, Crystal Maiden, Centaur Warrunner, Luna, Ursa, Omniknight, Viper Spectre, Disruptor, Treant Protector, Mirana, Dazzle, Slardar, Shadow Shaman, Drow Ranger, Jakiro Ogre Magi, Tidehunter, Riki, Silencer, Slark, Witch Doctor, Bloodseeker, Phantom Lancer, Bristleback, Elder Titan

These are heroes you welcome on your team, and you grimace when they’re on your opponents team. You have Zeus, who can kill secure teamfights and miscalculated ganks, and Ursa, who can steal several Roshans in the average wardless game.

Necrophos: The recent nerf to his name has disqualified him from appearing in Tier 1, but he is still a very strong pub hero nonetheless. Where does this strength comes from? Once again - high versatility, low cooldown nuke and a very strong aura that eats away your enemies’ lives, without them even noticing it. He was already strong in 6.78c with an overall win rate of 55.17%. In 6.79 his win rate has increased to 56.11%, his only change was a game breaking 1 extra base armor.

Skeleton King: The king of pub carries and you only need to ever use 1 skill! Like Abaddon, much of Skeleton King’s success comes from his multiple lives. Do you kill him first, twice or last, twice?

Spectre: Notorious for being one of the worst carries in lane and rarely picked in competitive play, yet she’s among the top 3 carries in win rate. Her poor base damage can be irrelevant at times when all players are farming at the passive gold rate. Her ultimate however allows her to be a part of teamfights anywhere, especially when you forget to buy that TP.

Elder Titan: By all means a Tier 1 in competitive play, even after significant nerfs to the Ancestral Spirit. The small AOE aura, that completely shatters the armour and magic resistance of his enemies is a force to be reckoned with. Professional players use the fact to its most, allowing one team to deal a lot of damage in a small amount of time.

In pub, however, the utility of this aura is reduced by disorganization and more frequently--inappropriate picks, so this otherwise very strong hero only made it to Tier 2.

Crystal Maiden: Crystal Maiden has always been a top tier support, even with Midas rocketing up her most common items built (almost never built before 6.79). She can jungle, support a carry in lane, and roam, while being a global mana battery.

Tier 3: Average Pubbers

Clockwerk, Razor, Night Stalker, Alchemist, Sven, Kunkka, Brewmaster, Keeper of the Light, Shadow Fiend

These are heros that hover around 50% win rate. We’ve started it off with Spirit Breaker, because he deserves to be in a lower tier after his months of tyranny.

Spirit Breaker: He still remains an over 50% winrate hero, but has fallen far from his peak in his 6.78 days, where he nearly topped our winrate charts at 57.78%. He is now one of the few heroes that doesn’t have a 1.7s base attack speed (BAT), and his new 1.9s BAT is the slowest in the game along with Treant Protector. This change affects him throughout the game and he is no longer the feared Bash Lord he once was. His ultimate also got nerfed heavily, in 6.78 he was magic immune during Nether Strike’s delay and it would follow the target even if they have teleported away. Now he can be disabled during the delay and interrupt his ultimate, the enemy can also move out of range or out of sight to interrupt his ultimate.

Clockwerk: Another Tier 1 competitive hero that requires too much organisation and discipline to be fully effective in pub games. At the same time, his hook is a lot easier to land compared to Pudge’s, while providing significantly more benefits to the team, by both stunning the enemies and allowing for a quick close-up with cogs. By picking off an otherwise safe support, he can help to reduce the amount of disables/saves/utility his team will be faced against in a teamfight. Or by suiciding into some melee carry, he can allow his team to promptly wipe the rest of the opposite team and gang up on the carry later, having a numerical advantage.

Brewmaster: One of the most versatile and hard to control heroes in the game has only made it to the third tier of our list. Since 6.78 he has received some interesting buffs to his Aghanim’s Sceptre ultimate and for about a month he was seen in the competitive scene once in a while. However, being one of the micro heavy heroes, that does not rely on auto attacking too much, he is neither popular nor efficient in the current pub meta.

Tier 4: Pub Losers

Earthshaker, Juggernaut, Lion, Dragon Knight, Undying, Ancient Apparition, Pugna, Doom, Axe, Pudge, Legion Commander, Timbersaw, Dark Seer, Sniper, Beastmaster, Medusa, Nature's Prophet, Visage, Nyx Assassin, Tiny, Outworld Devourer, Leshrac, Lifestealer, Bounty Hunter, Enigma, Huskar

These are heroes that lose most of the time. You'll find commonly OP heroes, such as Timbersaw, Visage and Outworld Devourer here, but their skill cap may kneecap your usual player.

Legion Commander: She’s the 2nd most played hero this month, and though players may still be learning all of her quirks, her win rate has flatlined at 48%. Once commonly played as a 4, she’s transitioned more to a semi-carry role in pubs, with an item build similar to Lifestealer (Treads, Armlet, Desolator, Assault Cuirass), and a similar versatility in the jungle.

Often a nuisance in high level pubs if you don’t have counters like Bane or Dazzle, Legion Commander’s win rate seems to suffer due to a few factors in snowball heros like Nature’s Prophet and Pudge: map awareness, teamwork, decision making. To reliably snowball with Duel, you’ll need to know when to pick your fights, where to pick them, and teammates who are ready to tip the scales.

Visage: Arguably one of the best supports in the game, yet is the 3rd least picked hero. You'll find that a requirement to tab through units is a trend for ineffective pub heros. Visage strongly favors coordinated aggressive trilanes - something rarely seen in public matchmaking, and him becoming squishier with the last patch did not help his win rate at all. Without being able to completely destroy the early game for opposition, he will fall off in his effectiveness really fast, since his familiars won’t be able to deal that much damage (both because of an increase in survivability of enemy heroes and Visage’s own low levels), while becoming increasingly easy prey to enemy auto attackers.

Nature's Prophet: From our experience we would have placed Furion in Tier 2. The game completely changes, perhaps for the worse, when the rat king is picked. Then again, perhaps there is a reason for his frequent appearences in Dotacinema's Fails of The Week.

Pudge: Pudge is the paragon of “mid and/or feed” heros. A pub game with a Pudge will end gloriously or fail miserably within the first ten minutes, amidst cries of flaming allies for every missed hook. Not everyone can be Dendi.

Tier 5: Pub throwers

Chaos Knight, Tusk, Bane, Broodmother, Storm Spirit, Templar Assassin, Gyrocopter, Lina, Rubick, Troll Warlord, Faceless Void, Naga Siren, Chen, Magnus, Lone Druid, Puck, Enchantress, Clinkz, Windranger, Skywrath Mage, Phantom Assassin

It’s may be an immortalized event when PGG black holes 0 heroes, but it’s no surprise for pub Enigmas have been doing this since day 0. In this tier you’ll see the likes of Naga Siren, Magnus, Faceless Void, Queen of Pain: heroes with ultimates that hinge on decision making, and considering their win rates, those decisions have are usually bad.

Another common theme? Heros that have more than one unit, such as Chen, Enchantress, and Lone Druid.

Chen: - The least picked hero in Dota, and perhaps the most repicked, but we can all change that right now. Watching Luminous cover how Aui_2000 gets a level 5 Chen in 3 minutes may inspire millions of support players worldwide. And perhaps raise that 45% win rate as well. Chen has a skillset that can be one of the most rewarding experiences in this game. He can harpy harass, triple centaur stun, troll push towers, and save multiple lives with Mek (his most built item), Test of Faith, and his global heal. However, with great skill comes great responsibility, and few are able to take that burden.

Phantom Assassin: PA deserves a special mention here, as one of the most played worst heros, at 43.65%. It most likely doesn’t help that more Battlefuries have been built than Black King Bars. The change in the current meta towards more aggressive-midrange playstyle leaves no place for this otherwise extremely lategame-potent carry, and even with the recent buffs to her Stifling Dagger, which sometimes create an unexpected opening for a quick attack, Phantom Assassin is still very suboptimal until 30+ minutes into the game. And most of the games are already decided by then.

Broodmother: Even after a huge buff to her web, she is still at the lower end of our list. Several reasons can be provided to explain a seemingly OP hero to be so ineffective. One of them, is that while Spiderlings do not provide such a huge bounty as, for example, Visage’s Familiars, they come in big quantities and an inexperienced player can possibly make enemy carry extremely fat early in the game. On top of her pushing capabilities, broodmother has relatively little to offer, since even with her ultimate on, her autoattacks are going to be much slower and less painful than the ones of a farmed carry. She can survive in almost any situation, that is true, but unfortunately, that is pretty much the only thing she is capable of doing.

Tier 6: Repick Heroes

Meepo, Queen of Pain, Batrider, Tinker, Ember Spirit, Earth Spirit, Shadow Demon, Morphling, Anti-Mage, Io

At the time of writing this, these heroes have won 43% of their games. These are heros that we wish players would repick if randomed.

Meepo: Even with the major changes to his ultimate, we've yet to see whether he's been buffed or nerfed: his win rate still hovers around 43%. Meepo is the ultimate micro hero. You can feed your familiars, Chen creeps, or spiderlings, but any mistake with Meepo can be fatal.

Invoker - A hero that may be difficult to just “wing it” if you’ve never played him before. He is extremely versatile, but for some reason, most of the population in public matchmaking decides to stick with 2-3 “favourite” spells, while completely disregarding the others. That in turn, makes him extremely suboptimal, since most of the spells he posses have some significant drawback, to compensate for the aforementioned versatility, making most of the matchups against Invoker ridiculously one-sided.

Batrider: The nerf to his base damage and ultimate has hit him hard in pub as well as competitive play. From patch 6.78 to 6.79, his win rate dropped from 46% to 42%. In competitive play he went down to Tier 2, and he still remains one of the best disablers/initiators, but has harder time as a mid hero, lowering the flexibility, rather than the strength of the pick. In pubs, however, the effect of 10 starting damage is devastating, since it is rare for a team in a public match to be coordinated enough to make necessary stacks for a jungling Batrider and mid/offlaning Batrider is extremely hard for professional players, let alone the common folk in pubs.

Earth and Ember Spirit: We initially thought the 2 new spirits would move out of the bottom of the win rate table. Last month, both heros were at the bottom with 40% win rates. However, in this month, Earth Spirit has rocketed to a 45% win rate.

We do think they may require changes before they can be enabled in captain’s mode. Especially Earth Spirit, he may need changes that would amount to an overall nerf. For example, 6.78c Wisp had a 43% win rate in pubs, but he still received a big nerf going into 6.79. Just because Earth Spirit have a very low overall pub win rate does not mean he won’t be nerfed. The final verdict remains to be seen.