From Divine Bracket To Pro: Dark Willow Surfaces At DAC 2018
Out of the two latest heroes, Dark Willow rose to prominence in the latest DAC 2018. She was the 2nd most picked support at the Major (7th overall) and is currently boasting a near 54% win rate in 5k+ MMR brackets. She's always been a substantial pick in high level pubs, but it has taken some time--about a month--for pro players to adopt her into the meta.
The PGL Bucharest Major would've been the first notable opportunity to showcase the hero, but she was rarely picked. Pro teams at the next Minors, GESC and Dreamleague, weren't ready just then either. Little has changed with the meta in Valve's biweekly patch approach. Dark Willow even received a nerf in the same time, with Bedlam's cooldown and Terrorize's cast time increased.
Does Dark Willow Need Any Changes?
No one really knows how good a hero is until it's featured in a competitive environment. There are a multitude of reasons why pubstompers don't always transition well into competitive play (the current top 3 heros in pubs: Zeus, Spectre, Wraith King). In fact, heroes that dominate in both arenas tend to get nerfed. But if a hero works in competition, then it has a use case for the meta. Even though Dark Willow had a 44% win rate at DAC, she was also banned nearly twice as much.
Dark Willow isn't close to the power of other hero releases, such as Winter Wyvern and Monkey King--both of which got hit by the nerf bat not to soon after their time in the spotlight. It's a testament still to the hero's strength that she is picked, notwithstanding her nerfs since her release in Captain's Mode.
Dark Willow feels like a hero in a tenuous place of balance. She's a hero that's strong, but on the verge of being overpowered. And what would tip the balance may not be others buffs, but more time for teams to become more comfortable playing her. She’s still maturing in the current meta.
Some of her skills have long cooldowns, and at the same time she also has a rotation of three disables. Her spells don’t work instantly, but they have such a high impact when they do that it’s no surprise pro teams have been able to capitalize on various synergies with her. Vici Gaming, OG, and LGD paired Dark Willow with Puck on several occasions. Underlord has also been another common partner, featured in Mineski’s game 2 win over LGD.
Jabz’s Dark Willow build in the grand final match against LGD at DAC
Though her spells are situational, high level payers can not only maximize the impact of those situations, but increase the occasions of them happening. If you can reduce the drawbacks of Dark Willow’s crowd control—the timing--what you get is that Cursed Crown is essentially a 3.5 second AoE disable and Terrorize is a 5 second, AoE fear and hard disable. These spells alone should stake her place in the meta, but she is also more than that.
Reliability In Damage and Survivability
Dark Willow balances her crowd control with an ability to also dish out a large amount of damage. Bedlam has the potential to deal up to 880 damage/second for a total of 4 seconds to a single hero. In a DAC game with Mineski vs LGD, Jabz had the 2nd largest damage output with the 2nd lowest networth on his team. It’s her damage that had some players predicting a possible mid role for the hero.
Then, there’s Shadow Realm, which is both an offensive and defensive tool for her. And after 7.07b, it’s no longer dispellable—a boon against common counters like Oracle’s Fortune’s End (does not get disjointed and purged Shadow Realm) and AoE dispels in Invoker’s Tornado and Brewmaster’s Dispel.
It’s exciting to see new heroes begin to find a place in Dota's competitive scene. Even Pangolier showed some potential in the hands of iceiceice. With patches coming around every two weeks, let's hope they remain in the meta.
Let's hope Pango doesn't stay in the meta. He's annoying.
Willow is the type of supp that litteraly can shit on enemy carry with his bedlam.Ooh and also don't forget about his 600dmg long rage nuke at level 20.
Willows Ult can deal 2k+ damage with Veil, fucking ridiculous
it does even without veil
I truly hope her winrate won't get any higher, I like playing her.
she's slippery like puck and sand king
Perfect Hero ^ Real talk
She's got the lockdown of shadow shaman, the damage of skywrath, and the ult potential of disruptor. She does what other offensive supports do, just all-in-one. I sense the nerfs she's procured are merely the beginning. Shadow Realm for sure is going to see some work, most likely in duration.
In other news,
Currently the Enchanted Mango has a 34.11% win rate. This is unacceptable. It is our duty as fellow gamers of the DotA 2 community to put this item in the position of power it deserves. It has been there for us when we needed mana for reincarnation, when we had that clutch nyx stun saving our teammate's life, and when we accidentally used it in fountain before the runes even spawned. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
If anything changes about dark willow's presence in the pro's, is that people will figure out how to deal with her rather than pros figuring out how to play her. Almost 100% of her damage is magical, making her completely useless against a bkb'd carry. She also gets shutdown by heroes with aoe spells that can keep her locked down even in shadow realm. People like puck, lina, earth shaker and spirit. She had a sub 50% winrate at DAC and can safely be considered not over powered.
The current top1 hero is Visage (in all skills) according to your own data, why your top3 includes only Zeus, Spectre and WK?
Honestly, people talk a lot about all the things she can do, but nobody seems to remember the big, pulsing asterisks attached to each of those things she can do.
Her stun is frustrating to utilize, similar to Alch.
With her ult, you have to choose between doing damage close range as a pretty squishy hero and opting to disengage with a fairly large and predictable fear.
Brambles isn't quite as reliable as other forms of root, but it's still in my opinion her best skill and the largest reason to pick her.
Shadow Realm is again similar to Alch, and while that can be useful, it forces tradeoffs yet again.
All of this leads to a hero that isn't quite as straightforward as she initially seems, and reduces the opportunities to utilize her damage potential. Sure, she CAN do huge damage, but after the initial mid build faffing about, I haven't seen a lot of people attempt to focus on her damage output or run her in a core position. What makes her fly under the radar sometimes is her ability to disrupt teamfights, making her teammates seem stronger than they are. It's easy to not realize you walked into a root that is preventing you from dishing out damage, while the enemy Sven or Sniper or whatever picks away at your health in a crazy teamfight.
I think if she had the instant casts and effects many other supports have, she would be overpowered. The fact that you have to be discerning with your casts more often makes it a lot easier to swallow the damage and lockdown potential she harbors. Props to Eggs for mentioning the cooldowns and cast times for sure.
You just have to play against DW once and see how she uses her W and tps out in your face or use her ult in large tfs without bkb to understand why she is instant pick or banned lately.
dark willow will born to be the best support, she have stun area and damage sick than other support hero, i hope valve will nerf this hero
Dark Willow XD