DAC 2017 Meta Recap
DAC 2017 has come to a close,as Invictus Gaming take home the title after a clean sweep against OG in the grand finals. The Chinese team proved that they know the meta and the game like no other team right now, with 3 top 4 finishes, and that there are only few to contest them at the height of their strength.
The tournament lasted well over a week, and as a result we witnessed a meta develop day by day, with certain heroes crystallizing as too strong by the end. While we expect to see a small balance patch before the Kiev Major, this tournament’s meta defined what teams from here on out will practice for.
Roaming is the name of the game
Going into the event, the meta saw quite a shift. Patches 7.03 and 7.04 brought in many changes that rendered heroes less popular and some of them even useless in a competitive aspect. 
Slardar’s nerfs and the introduction of Monkey King edged him out of the meta, and while he was the third most contested hero during the Kiev Major Qualifiers, he only ranked 12th during DAC.
His replacement, 
Monkey King, was much more respected as the 2nd most picked hero at the event. Filling the same role as a roamer and initiator, but with stronger teamfight capabilities, Monkey King fits the current meta perfectly, which is also reflected in his winrate (59%).
The event could’ve been the Monkey King show, if it hadn’t been for 
Earth Spirit. For the same reasons as Monkey King--an ability to roam, gank and teamfight well--Earth Spirit was the most picked hero at DAC, and his winrate is respectable as well (55%).
With most bans directed at core positions, teams constantly fought around which of these two roamers to pick. On the off chance that either was banned, the likes of Slardar were usually substituted in, with guest appearances from 
Riki.
Alchemist is back
Not that 
Alchemist was really ever gone, but the hero is certainly here right now and teams fear him, for all the right reasons. He was the 2nd most banned hero at the event overall and could’ve been number 1, if teams had started to pay more respect to him in the group stage, where he was “only” the 4th most banned hero. It was the playoffs where Alchemist was the most banned, and in the 7 games that he wasn’t banned and subsequently picked in, he only lost 2 of them.
His ability to farm is unrivaled and when behind against Alchemist, it feels more difficult than ever to take him down, as neutral creeps only spawn every other minute. With the ability to use 
Moon Shards on other heroes, Alchemist’s late game becomes even stronger, in theory at least. In practice, there have been only few cases where Alchemist would even get the chance to do so.
China Meta
The meta in the playoffs was largely influenced by Chinese teams
While Alchemist may have been feared throughout the playoffs, 
Magnus was the most banned and most contested hero overall. With 5 Chinese teams present, the event was bound to be heavily influenced by the Chinese meta and as a result, both Magnus and 
Lifestealer were more contested than Alchemist. Both these heroes have been important corner stones of the Chinese meta for a while. Lifestealer is the ideal carry for many Chinese teams right now, with his ability to outlane many popular offlaners, his survivability and his strong midgame impact. More on that can be found here.
For similar reasons, Magnus has risen in popularity. Magnus enables carries like Lifestealer to be stronger and to farm more efficiently. Empower also allows Magnus to jungle/farm efficiently himself, to an extent where Liquid has even decided to jungle him from the jump in some of their games. In the midgame, Magnus poses a threat in teamfights with his strong AoE ultimate, but even Skewer is enough in ganks to catch a hero out of position. His talents (+12% Spell Amplification at lvl 10 and + 90Gold/Min at lvl 15) allow him to farm even more efficiently, and he can thus transition into a smoother mid- to lategame with stronger carry or utility items, such as 
Shadow Blade or 
Eul's Scepter of Divinity.
Another big part of the Chinese meta has been 
Abaddon. As an offlaner, Abaddon is too difficult to kill, and he can transition into a close to impossible to kill core and siege tank, which is why he was the 2nd most banned hero in the group stage. He didn’t win a single game in his 8 group stage games however, which is why he was paid less and less respect in the playoffs, with only 7 bans. In the 9 playoff games that he did get to play, Abaddon won 6 of them.
Lina is yet another hero that Chinese teams enjoyed playing in recent times. The recently buffed lvl10 respawn talent allows Lina to have a stronger presence on the map, as she’s rarely dead for too long. Chinese pros compliment that talent with an early 
Bloodstone on Lina, which further reduces her overall death time and provides her with much necessary sustain. A carry/mid that doesn’t spend much time dead can farm the map, apply more pressure and doesn’t leave any openings. So even if Lina dies in an engagement, it won’t result in an immediate objective for the enemy. At DAC, she was the 6th most picked hero with a 67% winrate.
7.05?
There’s been one week between the releases of 7.03 and 7.04 and 4 overall balance patches in the span of 4 months since the release of 7.00. It’s obvious that Valve doesn’t shy away from tweaking the balance of the patch at all and it seems very likely that there will be another, small balance patch going into Kiev. The meta trends from DAC are too strong for Valve to ignore them and with obvious favorites and successes, such as those from Alchemist, Monkey King, Lina or even Invoker, it would not be surprising to see small tweaks going forward.
Whatever those tweaks may be, the past few weeks and months should be an indicator that Valve understands the balance of the game as it is right now and that it will be good for Dota. Boston’s meta was already largely celebrated, Kiev may just trump it.
first?
first
3rd...................
2nd
Monkey king better get hit with the nerf hammer. If i have to play mid against a fucking monkey in my trees one more time I'm going to lose my shit
6th. Made it, Mom.
7th lol?
Still feel like MK is just a flavor for the moment. Saw the same thing happen when Silencer was brought into the game. Teams abused his power, then they figured out how to beat him and he has struggled ever since.
Silence mere mortal
Alchemist is back NotLikeThis
Make abaddon great again please! From previous top 6% abbadon player
Lina and ls will get nerf...maybe buff void or morph?
Still waiting for AM buff
Kappa
15th as Lycan talent is +15DMG
Release 7.05 before the Kiev Major and buff the non picked heroes please IceFrog BibleThump
IO buff confirmed for 7.05 xD
Pls dont nerf spectre, lol she is my favorite hero
The problem is every roamer in the game can be beaten with proper warding, sentries and dust except Monkey King. Tree dance has a 3 second cd and costs zero mana. And unless you have flying vision, Kotl, WR and beastmaster, youre screwed. And after wrecking your laning stage he transitions too easily into a right click team fighter. You just cannot fight inside his Ultimate. There's no reason NOT to pick him. And thats bad game design
^What about PA?
first!
is too short (minimum is 6 characters)
make support great again!
now most of pos 4 supp is basically a non-supp hero but played in supp position (e.g riki,lina,weaver,silencer and now MK) even bounty hunter and riki is not supposedly to played as support but yeah i played them as supp.
i started to think that a pure supportive heroes like dazzle,cm,jakiro,appa and phoenix are losing their ground in the recent meta and its not rare that we've seen only 1 supp strat in professional scene.
MK has already been nerfed 4 times and he is no longer viable as a carry hero. He also has been nerfed to the point where he isn't even very effective as a solo ganker. So, now we are left playing him as a support with team ganking/scouting ability. Which ultimately leads to little farm or exp due to the amount of time tree dancing as a scout. That is why he is so effective in the PRO scene, because they actually have coordination.
If MK is nerfed any more, he won't be viable even in a support role. Why even add him to the game?
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Lets go back to former split push rat doto. Teamfighting in 2k sucks
Why did Abaddon get nerfed in the previous 2 patches? This result is the proof he is far from inbalanced.
Where can I find statistics about how many heroes were picked and what heroes never got picked?
MK is fine now, for the pro scene, still think a little nerf to his ultimate is needed. Just up the cooldown a bit, down.
The vision thing is tricky, its most of the reason he's playable and the tree jumping is unique. I'd look for more heroes to use/counter it in the near future because the game needs it.
I like MK tho, he's fun to watch and play.
@Wolfmother
If you put him in the ganking role (which he most often is as described by @manushka) he won't be getting the farm you say he will. In order to get him into the core position you have to give him time to farm or give him the kill instead of the assist, neither of which work well with his early game timing because he is too weak to be given more than 4th priority farm.
Jingo mastery is already basically useless unless he is a carry, his q is the weakest crit in the game and his ult is as effective as he is tanky. It won't take long to learn to counterpick him in pro scene.
So many pople are active posters here, but never on the forum
Why am I so noob! Damn, I cant carry them to victory.
VS is nice. just swap him outside of his ulti and its over :)
@Wobbel is swap far enough to grab him from the middle?
@Wobbel never mind, circle is 780 radius and VS swap at lvl 1 is 700, so it's pretty easy to end that yeah.
@Wobbel
On top of that, swap is at most 45 sec cd, MK ult is at least 70. You can in theory always have swap ready for it.
So glad everyone isn't complaining about Earth Spirit. He doesn't need anymore nerfs ='( haha Seriously though he is by far the most fun hero to play.
Buff earth spirit please
Happy monkey king, alch and abbadon is being played! I like this sort of gameplay and all heroes I like to play myself. Hope they dont nerf them too hard though.
What mmr is VHS?
Newbie here =_=
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