What separates a good patch from a great one is often the sheer amount of viable strategies and playstyles. It is underwhelming to see multiple or even all regions converging on the same pool of heroes with very little deviation, even if the game is well balanced within those confines. We are happy to say that 7.29 is definitely a great patch and the end result is that each DPC region has its own unique identity and signature heroes. With slightly over a week before the Major, it is time to look at what the competitors are bringing to the table.

Any time there is a big patch, a few heroes will fall through the cracks in the meta shuffle that ensues. We have already covered some of the best and brightest shining heroes in all the roles so be sure to check out those articles if you haven’t already. In this one, we are going to dig a little deeper into the developing hero meta to find some diamonds in the rough.

As of about halfway through the DPC season, Warlock was the most picked and highest win rate hero in North America. He was also outside of the top 30 picks in nearly every other region. As of today, Warlock is still the most picked hero in North America with an incredible 69.57% win rate. It has also been noticed by the European pro teams and has jumped up in popularity to be the 7th most picked hero with a 68.75% win rate. Here is why I think the other regions are going to be in trouble at the next Major tournament if they aren’t ready for Warlock.

The final part in our series, where we discuss the most reliable and successful heroes in each position. Today, we make it to position one heroes: the carries. Compared to the previous patch, there are certainly massive shifts in which heroes are doing well and while we were predicting the resurgence of ranged carries, the actual meta seems to have developed around characters who are in some way counters to the ranged cores.

Position four support role is one of the most fun roles to play in the current patch. There is a wide variety of heroes that are viable in this position and given the current state of the economy, it is slightly easier to earn money as a support. Recently added and changed Shards are also allowing many heroes to be experimented with as the offlane support. That said, there are still heroes who clearly stand out and are statistically the most reliable soft support heroes.

For the first time in a few years, there has been a pretty big shake-up to the basic structure of mid lane Dota. The lane is less random thanks to the delaying of power runes until six minutes. The consistent Bottle refills from Water Runes and 3-minute Bounties have also removed a lot of the potential for early pressure as well. At the moment, there appear to be a few different ways to maneuver the mid lane meta. We're going to review the top mid heroes of 7.29.

Many things can change the balance of power in the support role. Meta shifts, item alterations, and even global economy changes all have a major impact on the typically first phase picks. It is hard to react to the enemy draft when you are essentially picking blind, hence some foresight is almost mandatory, especially at the higher levels of play, where meta more closely resembles the professional one. Today, we want to have a look at supports you can’t go wrong with in the current patch.

When Icefrog deleted Necronomicon from the game he executed a sort of hard reset on the offlane meta. Just before the patch dropped there simply wasn’t a better option than a Beastmaster with a Necro book. Throughout patch 7.28 we had seen some interesting trends of ranged offlaners like Viper, Outworld Devourer as well as more traditional team fighters such as Tidehunter. In most games though, you’d just prefer to have a Beastmaster.

Support Visage is a concept that has been virtually ignored for many years now. Back in the day of trilanes, it was one of the scariest things you could go up against, but through direct nerfs and changes in the meta, Visage was first tamed and then repurposed for primarily mid play. Today, we would like to have a look at whether there is perhaps a place for Visage in the support role and if so, how would it work?