6.87 Pub Tier List
It is this time of the patch once again—the dust has settled, and it is possible to have a look at what heroes are performing better. Once more, the tier list will only use the “Very High” skill bracket as its base to make it more relevant to the majority of our readers. Given a variety of gameplay changes introduced in 6.87, this pub tier list will look significantly different, and there are many new things that stand out.
Stompers (56%+)
Omniknight, 
Necrophos, 
Lifestealer, 
Abaddon
Some very welcome changes have come to the top tier of the list. Both Zeus and Spectre are gone from the pub stompers section, and the tier itself has shrunk to only four heroes total.
The regulars of the list: Omniknight, Abaddon and Necrophos are joined by what can be considered one of the most meta-defining heroes: Lifestealer. He is a tanky hero, who deals exceptionally well with other tanky heroes, making for a very strong case in 6.87.
Several sizeable direct buffs, coupled with a global change to the Strength attribute, have propelled the hero from the “situational” tier he was in the last patch. And if this wasn’t impressive enough, his win rate in 5k+ games this week is above 60%. There is no denying that everyone should learn to play with and against this hero. Luckily, the are guides and matchups sections available.
Winners (53-56%)
Elder Titan, 
Riki, 
Zeus, 
Lich, 
Centaur Warrunner, 
Sven, 
Undying, 
Spirit Breaker, 
Wraith King, 
Crystal Maiden, 
Warlock
Elder Titan and Riki at the top of the Winners tier does not seem real; however, the former, discussed in great detail earlier this month fits extremely well in the current meta, while the latter has recevied a variety of substantial buffs. The extra 40 damage on 
Blink Strike is a massive game-changer, making the hero a lot scarier in the early game and allowing him to be a successful roamer.
Crystal Maiden has somehow managed to squeeze into this tier. There were a couple of smaller buffs to the hero; however, none of them seem enough to increase her tier standings. One of the possible explanations is how much of an enabler she can be in lineups dominated by mana-deprived strength cores, especially in less efficient MMR brackets. Her win rate in 5k+, however, remains rather low, at ~47% this week.
Finally, Warlock seems to be continuously underestimated. He has been in the winners tier for at least several patches now, but he is consistently ignored by most players. This patch is easily his time to shine—his damage amplification can be massive, while the distraught he brings to the battlefield can make several enemy heroes too pre-occupied to actually deal damage to your team.
Solid (50-53%)
Alchemist, 
Enigma, 
Venomancer, 
Terrorblade, 
Bounty Hunter, 
Treant Protector, 
Silencer, 
Spectre, 
Tidehunter, 
Mirana, 
Anti-Mage, 
Dark Seer, 
Luna, 
Nyx Assassin, 
Disruptor, 
Death Prophet, 
Slark, 
Shadow Shaman, 
Slardar, 
Phoenix, 
Pudge, 
Faceless Void, 
Vengeful Spirit, 
Drow Ranger, 
Juggernaut, 
Dragon Knight, 
Timbersaw, 
Axe, 
Huskar, 
Earthshaker, 
Meepo, 
Kunkka, 
Witch Doctor, 
Beastmaster, 
Clockwerk, 
Jakiro
Perhaps the most notable change in this tier is the inclusion of Axe. Formerly a part of the “repick” tier, Axe has entered the patch as one of its biggest winners. A strong direct buff and several item changes have made the hero a lot more viable and even ensured his presence in several professional matches. Sadly, his damage potential, despite the substantial increase, is still lacklustre against tankier cores, preventing the hero from entering higher tiers.
Timbersaw is another former “repick” tier hero who has made a comeback. A massive direct buff to the Reactive Armor, coupled with a longer debuff duration on 
Whirling Death, have made the hero a force to be reckoned with. Additional charges on 
Bloodstone have also helped the hero to find his role in the world of Dota. The hero excels at dealing with both tanky targets and the squishier ones. He absolutely destroys supports and BKB-lacking glass cannons, but also has a lot to offer against Strength carries, substantially decreasing their already limited DPS and taking away a huge chunk of their maximum health with each cast of the Whirling Death. Percentage-based abilities stay relevant throughout the game.
Death Prophet has received a multitude of nerfs in 6.87. The spell-immunity piercing properties, pure damage and extra vision from Spirit Siphon were gone, and the hero was frequently discredited by the patch-reviewers. It turns out trading the Pure damage for extra magical had almost no effect, while the increased duration ensured the lane dominance of the hero and almost unparalleled power level in the early game.
Situational (47-50%)
Ursa, 
Visage, 
Doom, 
Night Stalker, 
Storm Spirit, 
Dazzle, 
Ogre Magi, 
Keeper of the Light, 
Medusa, 
Pugna, 
Invoker, 
Magnus, 
Viper, 
Chen, 
Tinker, 
Rubick, 
Morphling, 
Ancient Apparition, 
Chaos Knight, 
Earth Spirit, 
Lion, 
Sand King, 
Templar Assassin, 
Shadow Demon, 
Phantom Assassin, 
Naga Siren, 
Clinkz, 
Winter Wyvern, 
Bloodseeker, 
Bane, 
Brewmaster, 
Weaver
Medusa has been a viable hero in the 6.86, but her current standing is once again quite low. In the previous Meta, which was dominated by farm-oriented heroes, she was a good fit, but currently she struggles to keep up, and even in her best games she still feels lacklustre. Her DPS is surprisingly low in almost all stages of the game, and in a meta where every core reaches 3k HP with ease, she is not the best pick. There might be a build or two which will still work, but in most cases they are extremely high risk with only moderate rewards.
Tinker has made a bit of a comeback, getting out of the “avoid” tier and entering the pool of viable heroes. A small direct nerf, coupled with scaling damage from magical abilities have made the hero significantly stronger in the earlier stages, while his late-game potential has never been in question. His ability to be a Doom-level nuisance with much higher damage output should definitely put him on the radar for both mechanically superior pub players and professionals.
Magnus has also become a lot more viable. In a game dominated by high-HP cores, having more damage is never a bad thing. He also pairs nicely with almost any melee core, since his cleave allows them to farm faster and deal damage to the enemy backlines. Moreover, with an increase in the value of armor, having cleave has a lot of benefits, since the cleave damage is not reduced by armor value. Being mindful with what target to prioritize, if the enemy team is clumped up, is not a particularly hard skill to master.
Avoid (44-47%)
Batrider, 
Puck, 
Skywrath Mage, 
Arc Warden, 
Ember Spirit, 
Leshrac, 
Lone Druid, 
Oracle, 
Legion Commander, 
Tiny, 
Lycan, 
Sniper, 
Lina, 
Bristleback, 
Shadow Fiend, 
Tusk, 
Queen of Pain, 
Io, 
Razor, 
Phantom Lancer
The biggest surprise of this tier is undeniably Arc Warden. Since 6.86, the hero has received nothing but nerfs, rendering the cheesy BoT+Rapier strategy useless. Despite that, the hero has increased in the tier list and currently has a rather respectable win rate in the Very High Skill bracket. For the most part this probably stems from the fact that only heroes dedicated to learning the intricacies of the hero are playing him currently. Moreover, with the potential for cheesy strategies gone, many players are now devising new ways to build and use the hero effectively, frequently catching the enemy team by surprise. Who knows, maybe we will even see support Arc Warden take over at some point in the future.
Lone Druid has decreased in rank in the 6.86-6.87 transition. His biggest selling point was the Spirit Bear, who could tank tons of damage while dealing meaningful Radiance burn. Very much like with Spectre, the Radiance burn has become less of a factor recently. The 17% miss chance is still annoying, but the damage output is nowhere as impactful as it used to be. Best case scenario, it will zone out or kill a support hero, but it will have a very hard time dealing with the cores of the enemy team.
Finally, Leshrac has brought some disco back. With scaling ability damage and Bloodstone buffs the hero is definitely better off. Not to the degree where he becomes a nuisance, but certainly good enough to make an occasional appearance in higher level games. Speaking of higher level games—the hero has a massive win rate in 5k+ and >20% difference between 4k and 5k games.
Repick (<44%)
Techies, 
Troll Warlord, [missing hero: outworld-devourer], 
Windranger, 
Nature's Prophet, 
Gyrocopter, 
Enchantress, 
Broodmother
Gyrocopter is slowly losing his ground in pub play. It is unsurprising, given how he doesn’t have the tools to deal with tougher opponents and is not a tanky hero himself. His early rotations are not as impactful, and his farming speed is quite limited, especially compared to melee heroes with cleave. Moreover, after several patches of professional and high level pub dominance, people have simply learned to play against the hero and are not caught in bad positions as easily.
Enchantress is also among the biggest losers of the patch. Severe limitations to her damage output could not have been timed worse. If previously these changes would generally mean an extra hit or two to kill a target, in the current meta it makes a lot more difference. She is also a really bad matchup against currently popular Lifestealer. Despite that, the hero still looks pretty strong in 5k+ games, where people rely more on her ability to dominate the early game, rather than her ability to transition into a core later on.
Finally, Outworld Devourer is broken once again. The trends from the end of 6.86 have already shown that the hero is not to be feared, but the direct nerfs in 6.87 have completely killed him. To be fair, his downfall still comes as a bit of a surprise, since his damage scales extremely well against low-Int targets, and he can even shut down these targets early game and make them unable to cast anything. Regardless, the hero currently sits at 44% win rate globally and 37.5% in 5k+ games.
Final Thoughts
The new patch follows in the footsteps of its predecessor without being repetitive. It has increased the pool of viable heroes even further and has even decreased the amount of pub-dominant heroes, while still substantially changing the meta.
The tankier meta seems to be here to stay. This meta makes the game slightly slower in skirmishes and allows more time for counter-reaction, potentially making it a better viewing experience. The average game length has also slightly increased, but it should not have a huge impact on the “density’ of the games. The kill count will potentially go lower, since it is now harder to focus down a target, but the teamfight frequency should remain high, especially in the earlier stages of the game.
am i the last one?
I dont understand why they dont stratify this with the meta where you can devide it into clusters of mmr... The outdated "very high skill" is meaningless for anything but identifying who is a scrublet when checking accounts on posts... Wouldn't take that much work... Hell give me a dotabuff pluss and I can do it every patch, and I dont even play much...
Patch is pretty good. There is no OP heroes like OD or Troll few patches ago.
Retard post,braindead writer
Troll has been in the bottom tiers for like, forever. Has he really been a poor fit for all the recent metas, or is he just boring to play?
PS You really need to work on the section titles socks. I've seen people take over games with OD, WR and gyro, and while I know that doesn't translate to the rest of the dota world, it still matters that even in the right hands these heroes are criminally strong, so I wouldn't label them as automatic "repick" heroes. Heck, Io is in the avoid tier, but anyone above 5k seems to like their odds when an Io is on their team. If anything, the heroes below 50 become increasingly situational the further down you go, so maybe use that as reference for the titles?
I play Puck with great success
@It's Called a Hustle, Swe... you are totaly right about ember
Only heroes dedicated to learning playing him.
Gotta say I like this meta. I watched previous TIs and nowadays is much more fun to watch, more fun to play, more dynamic and full of action. GJ IceFrog
Windranger is down because everyone is trying to get her Compendium skin and failing hard, because most people don't main WR.
I usually dont rant but that guy who said meepo is garbage hero???
I viewed his profile and boom! not a single very high skill bracket.
my meepo is 70+% wrate with almost 400 games.
people like that who comment but aint got no game are trash
not even sure why im ranting
The only heroes that actually require practise to be really effective and need like 100+ games to master are the ones <50%. Is this coincidence?
If you take players with 50+ games on certain heroes and then compare them to each other, the statistic will look much different.
Example of guy above: 400 Meepo games, ~70% winrate?
400 randoms with 1 game on meepo, combined a ~20% winrate?
Result would be ~45% winrate. This means Meepo is garbage in theory, but is he? Same for many other heroes below 50% winrate.
Correction: "A small direct nerf" concerning Tinker: I think you mean buff.
The pick has Skeleton King instead of Wraith King lol
Jesus Christ Brood
Gyro from the Strongest to the weakest list ? wtf
Shudnt nerf him stright down to this level!!!
nd slark nd axe shud be at the top of the meta !!!
what a shit he wrote ... where is lc ?? AVOID (44-47%) why puck and lina in this bracket ?? REPICK (<44%) Windrannuer + NP > it's a nod bad hero to win doto . why i should repick furion with tp and wr with shakle ( SHAKLE HAVE SOME INBALANSE IN GAME MAN ) SOLID (50-53%) slark ( no comments) huskar ( just delete game pls )
Any hero is good if u know how to use I have a 68 win rate with Lycan and cm . I like Lycan this ptach
ember spirit ROX
Why are people saying FACTUAL STATISTICS are incorrect? Obviously some people will have good win rates on heroes in the lower tiers - that doesn't mean the hero should be moved up.
Why isn' timber a stomper he crushes everyone with blademail and the whirling death upgrade
My Enigma almost made it over 53%
@spookysharks
Stats that consider players first X matches on said heroes can't be real. You can't expect a Meepo or Invoker to rule within the first 10 games but why should a first time Jugger, Leoric, Necro or Abaddon have problems? For some heroes you just don't need any skill (regarding the hero itself), which doesn't mean they are better - even though the winrates may look like it. Is like compare a 1 game meepo to a 200 games invoker and create statistics based on those performances.
BS IS BEST
I Believe Techies should be a situational hero, rather than a repick.
His terrible win rate is due to clueless players using him wrong. Just like Arc Warden.
lol avoid troll ? as a troll player i can tell you he's still a strong hero
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/96575853/matches?hero=troll-warlord
Why the fuck would you need to avoid picking any of those heroes on the avoid list?
Majority of readers VHS, yet the top posts every day are: "Get me out of potato bracket" "GG Hidden pool" "Force 50" "I could be 7k if Volvo didn't hate me" "Yet another conspiracy theory" "How to get 2k?" etc.
How dare you bash Windranger so badly. Idk if people just suck with the hero or what, but as a wind player primarily I feel you can carry/semi carry with her in nearly every single game. AM, Chaos Knight, and other illusion heros can be difficult to combat late game, but other than that the hero can kill anyone easily. 62+% winrate
lul wr repick?