Windranger’s Return
Ever since Shackleshot became disjointable and its latch angle reduced, Windranger has struggled to stay relevant in the meta. But she’s been getting small buffs ever since 6.86, and on the main stage at the China Supermajor, we’re beginning to see the results.
Her pick rate has increased by 3% over the last two patches, to 23% today. At the Supermajor, she’s been trending as a viable flex pick, either in the offlane or support role. Windranger has been picked 14 times, with a 64% win rate, and teams have had a 90% win rate when banning her 11 times. She was a prioritized as a first round pick/ban in the Mineski vs. PSG.LGD series. PSG let Windranger through in game 2, and Mineski snatched her up in the only game they won. Jabz helped his team nab a first blood and then netted another kill in the offlane.
Windranger being featured at the biggest non-TI event of the year has had a corresponding impact in pubs. In the past week, our meta stats have her as the #1 picked hero in the Divine and Immortal bracket at a 32% pick rate and #2 in Ancient at a 30% pick rate (for reference, Pudge in 7.16 is in first place with a 40% and Sniper is in second at 24%).
A History of Buffs
Windranger’s latest changes came in 7.14, and that’s where her pick rate began to rise. The patch fixed some annoying bugs with Focus Fire, ever since it was buffed to allow Windranger to have it activate while moving. You just couldn’t stop attacking your target. Blademail became an easy counter, letting Windrangers detonate themselves, and cycloning yourself with Eul’s Scepter left Windrangers hitting air for the entire duration.
Patch 7.14 also introduced beneficial changes to MKB and Maelstrom. While the removal of Maelstrom’s attack speed might’ve hampered Windranger’s farming ability, it received a corresponding buff to its proc damage. Windranger was already a terrible farmer—Powershot is too mana intensive and its mechanics make it inefficient as a wave clearing spell—so the net result to Maelstrom was negligible. It does, however, end up being a buff to Focus Fire, which has no use for attack speed.
Monkey King Bar’s impact on Windranger is similar in that regard. It lost attack speed in exchange for higher proc damage. Patch 7.07 also changed its 100% True Strike component to a 75% chance Pierce (chance to ignore evasion and blind effects), which essentially nerfed the item against Windranger’s Windrun evasion.
Windranger’s play at the Supermajor has highlighted the buffs she’s received nearly every patch, since 6.88. Windrun, in that time, has had its mana halved from 100 to 50, its cooldown reduced from 15 to 12, its movespeed bonus from 50% to 60%, and enemy slow from 8%/16%/24%/32% to 15%/20%/25%/30%.
The net result is that the spell is incredibly strong at level one, making her a strong laner even in the supporting role. She’s among the top heroes in attack range and turn rate, and she has one of the best attack animations. It’s the foundation of what made her a decent mid hero and offlaner. But now, with a 50 mana Windrun, she can easily harass opposing laners at level one. Watch Zai bully Secret’s safelaner Ace out of the lane and sealing it off with a kill. Zai ended up transitioning over to a core role and ended the game 2nd in damage, just a hair behind CCnC’s Ember Spirit.
Windranger still isn’t without her counters. Windrun being dispellable makes a hero like Oracle a natural counter pick. And there are a few support heroes that can lane well against her such as Warlock, Disruptor, Vengeful Spirit, and Skywrath Mage. VGJ.Thunder dominated the lane matchup against Final Tribe’s Windranger/Underlord with a Naga and Luna duo. It also probably helped that VGJ.Thunder followed Final Tribe’s Slark+Windranger 2nd round pick with a Bloodseeker.
But it’s her viability as a support that has moved her away from the rarely picked and banned pool of heroes. Shackleshot is a powerful stun, no matter how much farm you have. Her level 10 (+1.75 mana regen) and 15 (+100 Powershot damage) talents also ameliorate some of her farming woes. Since she’s flexible in either core or support, it puts pressure on opponents to decide how many resources they want to spend to counter her.
Windranger is getting just the smallest piece of daylight to emerge into the meta. For pros, that’s just another chess piece they’ll have to play with in the drafting stage. And for pub players, it’s all we need to pick her every game.
Love playing WR
Windranger is a fun hero to play. Btw im second. Yaaay
ur second and im gay
this attention to WR is thanks to Fly to Moon
who am i again??
The biggest problem that WR had for a long time was the fact that it took too long to get the items you need for her to be a useful core, and her kit didn't really lend itself to supporting past Shackleshot. Maelstrom changed that in a huge way, as even just the javelin is such a huge spike in damage. Honestly if Windranger had her old ulti, she would be massively overpowered now.
There is still a lot wrong with her as a core. You almost always need a BKB it seems, and there are certainly a lot of counters both in heroes and in items. I've said it a million times before: switching her to an agi hero would probably benefit her in terms of item flexibility. If that happened, she would likely become a serious pick. As she stands right now, the early item pickups have helped her fit into the snowball hero territory better, but she still struggles a bit too much transitioning to the late game once halberds, blademails, and euls litter the battlefield and she is still trying to get that blink dagger.
^her old ult was shit compared to the new one old ult gaved 500AS new one give 400AS +u can move while attacking
As carry, she need agressive support like Crystal Maiden, Oracle, Winter Wywern, Mirana or another support with stun. Windranger is good support, when she can use Shackleshot everywhere. You can be position 4 and even carry.
It was allready imba 3 patches ago, but she still keeps getting buffs. I bet icefrog's girlfriend is ginger.
looks like they buffed her tits
this b***h is so op its unfukkingbelievable, i cant even get it though my head how can one play this hero and not feel bad about himself, its like fighting a bunch of kids.... with a machine gun
I want a focus fire spitshot Talent as 25
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@Mr. Poopybutthole
The original rework of the skill had 350AS, which is considerably lower than the previous 500AS. It has since been upped to 400, but that still creates situations where you will put out less damage while your target is stunned, potentially allowing them to escape. Chasing is nice for targets you would not have been able to burst down anyway (if you for some reason are targeting the tank during a fight, for instance), but having to chase in the first place means it is taking longer, and therefore riskier, to attempt a kill.
Again, this issue of damage has been fixed with the changes to maelstrom and mkb, but it still places her in a risky situation where she needs to snowball to quickly purchase a bkb or aghs AFTER the maelstrom and mkb. The ability to move during a teamfight while still attacking is certainly nice as it aids in her survivability (she can step away while firing off the final killing shots), but as she stands right now I'd say she is more suited for pickoffs than teamfights.
Cutest hero in the game.
Everyone sleeping on her on the arcana votes, but ever since the Maelstrom rework her popularity jumped from 22nd to 5th! If there was ever a time for her to get an Arcana it is now.
Drow deserves an arcana more than WR - and Luna even more than them.
^Drow is a shitty, easily counterable hero, very inflexible and brings little to the table with her kit. To give that bitch an arcana is appalling.