Let's Talk About EHP
One of the most hotly debated topics right now is the HP pool inflation. Over the years, the baseline and potentially achievable survivability skyrocketed, resulting in a much lower lethality of Dota engagements. Today we want to add our voice to the discussion, highlighting what we consider to be the pros and cons of the current Dota approach to time-to-kill.
More space for counter-play
This is what we consider to be the biggest benefit of higher average HP pools. Getting caught out of position on a tanky hero means you still get to react. Since targets are much harder to blow up and hard crowd control doesn’t last as long, the possibility of counter-play is much higher.
This results in more dynamic fights, where brawling is potentially a lot more back and forth. Thinking of Health Points as a resource that can be spent on baiting the enemy to overcommit and get out of position is a potential extra layer allowed by higher survivability.
Heals are also more pronounced when you get a target that doesn’t evaporate in a split of a second. Similarly, save items and heroes are a lot easier to utilise effectively. All this makes the game more engaging, in our opinion. Instead of fights being decided by good initiations, we get a game that is balanced around smarter ability usage and itemisation.In theory, it is also a very strong diversification tool. Tanky heroes can get very tanky, while squishier heroes feel even more squishy by comparison.
The negatives
However, there are several problems that are especially noticeable at the highest level of play. The first move advantage is still very strong, but it is no longer a viable strategy as a whole. Previously, vision heroes could be the cornerstone of a team’s draft, where quick pickoffs on priority targets would lead to a teamfight victory. The current level of tankiness simply doesn’t allow for it, hence heroes like 
Night Stalker are mostly ignored.
Moreover, heroes who could previously boast unparalleled tankiness are now weaker in comparison. In trying to diversify tanky heroes from squishy ones, the current balance made historically tanky heroes less relevant. 
Tidehunter is still a very tanky and survivable hero, but when compared to other offlane heroes he no longer stands out as much.
Glass cannons are also not having the greatest of times, though there are some examples of heroes who fit this category and are in the meta. Glass cannon-punishers, though, are fully irrelevant. Heroes like 
Spectre, 
Bloodseeker and 
Juggernaut who have a safe amount of burst damage simply don’t offer anything, when their burst is not killing heroes.
The only style of carry currently viable in the meta is survivable, sustained damage carry. It is not even necessarily a 
Gleipnir problem, though it is a part of it. Simply put: a fair fight against targets that may have half your DPS, but have three times your survivability is just not mathematically a good option.
What we end up with is an undeniably EHP-dominated meta, which isn’t bad on its own for a time, but it does limit the pool of viable heroes. Hopefully it will change in the next patch.
Potential solutions
There are several obvious solutions to the problem. One is a blanket decrease in the efficiency of HP items. It is by far the easiest and the most intuitive one. Toning down Strength to 20 HP per point and decreasing flat HP values on some of the artefacts could go a long way.
At the same time, we are afraid it will result in the loss of potential counter-play options. Current brawling team fights are fun to watch and are fun to play, in our opinion. Dota is balanced on a knife’s edge and it is easy to skew it too hard in the other direction with minor changes.
Making risky heroes more rewarding could be another way to go. Let tanky heroes be generally tanky, but make sure that glass cannons deal enough damage to cut through all that survivability, if they see an opening.
This, however, can lead to a problem where support players will once again suffer. For example, Juggernaut’s Blade Fury is currently irrelevant against most meta targets. If it was reasonably buffed, it would still be irrelevant against very tanky heroes, but could make support play slightly more miserable. Which, honestly, doesn’t sound like too bad of a balance issue, but could lead to less enjoyable support experience.
Finally, balancing the game on a per-hero basis is an option. It is generally the most common option in Dota, where overperforming heroes get slight nerfs, while underperforming ones get stronger. The problem with this approach, though, is it frequently leads to power creep.
Power creep is more or less how we got to where we are now. It is not necessarily a bad thing: this power creep did make playing support more interesting and impactful, it made the game more engaging and it does result in heroes’ strengths and weaknesses being more pronounced.
However, we feel like the start of the season is when a massive shake-up is desperately needed. Game-wide economy and attribute changes will be painfully unbalanced, most likely, but it is a band aid that needs to be ripped off sooner, rather than later.
What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you feel like Dota needs a game-wide “ruleset” change that deals with the EHP issues, or do you think that balancing around the current levels of EHP is a better solution? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
wk go brrrrrrrr
Это чистая правда,сейчас при игре на инвокере очень трудно выдать урон,у каждого по 3 к хп,гривсы,пайп,кримсон,а у тебя 2к здоровья и весь твой сейв это инвиз.хочется реворка героя и за
I dont mind the new high HP meta. It helps against instant burst by a carry you cant avoid unless you are a literal scripter. Getting 2-3 crits in a row from PA was just death even in immortal. Yes, unlucky death, but it shouldn't ever be a win condition. Thats the whole reason we have methodical facet now.
The problem IMO is old hero designs are just poorly balanced for two new meta things: "Big HP" and "Escapes".
I dont mean give jug stun, but at least let him handle one of those lol.
Like, give juggernaut straight 3-4-5-6%HP damage per second on spin. And spectre desolate 1%HP on every attack. Changes nothing for supports even at 50min, but that Timber that is just tanking fountain with aghs+crimson, now feels a tiny bit less strong.
P.S. Bloodseeker is actually not that bad vs tanks imo, because he goes aghs and does 7%hp per second.
add items that deal %hp damage
kappa
Don't add items with % based damage... It removed the edge the tanky heroes have on the other heroes. And they just become normal heroes with weaker other abilities in comparison. Rendering heroes to be "more of the same" than the individuals they are and are supposed to be...
I would say that the mobility of the heroes is too good at the moment. I don't know how to fix it, but blink is way too powerful, be it on an item or skill. And this has been addressed multiple times, but it still always creeps up again and again. Best way to avoid a gank or gank is to either not be there or have the ability to jump the target with little to no time for reactions... I guess the tankier heroes are part of the attempt to solve this issue.
Easy solution, roll the game back to TI5 patch (metrics and heroes wise), but with the new items and heroes. Balancing only the rewlly broken heroes.
high EHP, but still 25 min highgrounds. boring meta
Я считаю что команда которая хорошо инициировает должна выграть файт, а не команда которая сделала ошибку и потеряла позицию. Так что считаю что надо уменьшить хп, а то файты сейчас прям долгие и могут идти вплоть до 2 минут
Hella right, it's not ok that you literally get 2 bracers on any hero on any position and become slightly immortal for 2 players against you, cause they'll never have enough damage to bring you down, with some exceptions
Yeah, hp has gone up but damage has also gone up by A LOT. Not even considering Time To Kill (TTK) now vs then makes this entire article moot
FIX HIDDEN POOL & CONDUCT MANAGEMENT FFS, WHO CARES THOSE TROUBLES WHILE UNABLE TO GET A ONE ENJOYABLE PLAYING EXPERIENCE OUT OF 20 GAMES IN A ROW!
It is an interesting discussion certainly, one that I think it's on people minds but has not been voiced. If we take into consideration the Time To Kill (TTK), I believe there isn't a huge discrepancy (in general cases) of how the game used to be and it is now. The way I look at it is that in a given scenario, where a 10 sec fight breaks out, in the past as a support if you got picked off cuz they had better vision you couldn't do anything about it, nowadays there is room for a counter initiation and possibly for you to reposition yourself and be able to cast your spells, where as you would've died in the past. You can say that teamfights in dota became WoW Arena 2.0 and I would agree to some extent, I do prefer it this way as I don't think it is skillful to pickoff a target without him having any room to react (voidspirit with orchid and nullifier that mutes items comes to mind). Since the facet patch I feel like it limited the meta for ti quite a lot, which happens, some heroes are simply stronger, but I'm sure overtime there will be a better power curve that will allow more heroes to be viable and participate in the current meta, with different nuances for multiple styles of play and drafts.
мета безруких идиотов (игроках на танках) покупающих шиву, тараску, бм, кримсон что слишком тежяело пробить даже с критами и 25 лвлом на snapfire
и так каждая вторая игра, удалил эту мерзость до следующего патча