Best offlane heroes of Dota 2 patch 7.34e

Dota 2 patch 7.34e has shaped the meta a lot more than we expected. Some of the previously strong heroes are now hardly picked anymore, while others, who had been neglected, are becoming popular again.

In this guide, you will discover 10 of the best offlane heroes in Dota 2 patch 7.34e.

1. Sand King: 54.6% WR

Sand King is incredibly hard to deal with when you’re a melee carry like Slark or Phantom Assassin. This hero will punish you for every misstep and can even kill you if you’re not careful. Despite the recent nerfs he received, SK remains one of the strongest offlaners in the current meta.

In previous patches, one of his most important abilities was Burrowstrike. But nowadays, people focus a lot more on Caustic Finale and Sand Storm. In combination, these two abilities make life hard for any opponent.

Ideally, because SK doesn’t have a large mana pool, you should delay the use of your first Sand Storm as much as you can. But if you notice that it would assist you in getting last hits and keeping the enemy heroes away from the creeps, you can start using it at level 1.

You should either use it immediately, in order to give your mana pool a chance to regenerate until you use it at level 3, or simply wait until you are level 3 and then start using it.

When farming during the laning phase, never miss an opportunity to hit the enemy carry or to kill enemy creeps while he is nearby. Every creep that dies under the effect of Caustic Finale will cause enormous splash damage and slow movement speed enough to get several more hits immediately after.

Retreating against a Sand King is difficult. Fighting head-on is also challenging and he can always escape using his Burrow Strike. Thanks to his combination of abilities, SK can choose his exchanges and pick only favorable fights. With just a few items, this hero becomes hard to deal with in the early game. Late game, he is perfect against illusions.

2. Abaddon: 53% WR

Abaddon is a hero you don’t want to face as a melee carry, especially if you don’t have a good disengage mechanism. His most powerful spell is probably Curse of Avernus. Once a target has been hit for 4 consecutive times, it can no longer escape because it loses 60% of its movement speed. It also loses 120 attack speed. The debuff lasts for 4.5s.

Abaddon excels at saving allied heroes from bad situations using a combination of abilities. He can heal for 325, provide a shield that absorbs 210 damage before exploding, and dispel most debuffs with the same ability, Aphotic Shield.

Abaddon is hard to kill not only because of these abilities, but also because of his ultimate, Borrowed Time, which causes him to heal when receiving damage. This lasts for around 5s, which is plenty of time to teleport away to safety or simply run away.

Because they know that they can’t be killed that easily, Abaddon players often initiate fights and buy aggressive items like Radiance. If you have a good team that knows how to maximize its advantage of having an Abaddon, the opposing side will struggle in big fights.

In terms of his item build, Abaddon needs mobility and damage. But you can also play him defensively, buying items like Pipe of Insight.

3. Axe: 51.6% WR

Axe was buffed in Dota 2 patch 7.34c and since then, he hasn’t been changed. The buffs increased the radius of his Berserker Call (300 to 315) and the damage of his Culling Blade (by 25). His level 10 talent, which gives extra armor to his Berserker’s Call, also got buffed (from +8 to +10).

These buffs were sufficient to make Axe very appealing to some players. The hero is now picked in 16% of all pubs, which is roughly one in six games.

Axe typically has an easy laning phase followed by an excellent mid game in which he ganks left and right, putting pressure on the enemy jungle and creating space for his other two cores. When you play Axe, it’s enough to have a Blink Dagger, a Vanguard, and a Blade Mail (in addition to boots, of course).

As the game progresses, you will likely end up buying a Black King Bar as well. Or, if you feel like you don’t need one, a Heart of Tarrasque or a Crimson Guard.

An important thing to consider when deciding to buy items on Axe is what kind of boots you should use. This is a hero that loves to gank a lot, so a pair of BoTs may not be a bad idea. They’re expensive and your stats will suffer as a result, but the added movement speed and map movement capabilities more than compensate for these downsides.

In the big team fights that decide the fate of the match, Axe is expected to jump in and trap either a key target or multiple enemy heroes of lower priority. For example, if you manage to Call a Phantom Assassin, the game could end right there.

4. Nyx Assassin: 51.4% WR

Nyx is not as popular as he used to be, but he’s still a solid pick for the offlane position. This is a hero that threatens everyone on the enemy team after he gets his level 6. Cores can’t carelessly farm because of him, supports are forced to constantly buy Sentry Wards, and there’s tension in the air whenever he is not visible in one of the three lanes for more than 30s.

Nyx offers his team the ability to initiate with ease, out of invisibility, and you can further upgrade his kit with a Blink Dagger and other items that are very valuable.

Nyx works best in combination with heroes that can add some extra damage while the target is stunned for 2s. An example is Invoker, who can assist with a Sun Strike from anywhere on the map. Another example is Nature’s Prophet, who can teleport in to get the job done.

Nyx doesn’t like to play alone because he’s not strong enough to get solo kills in most cases. But if he has a partner to roam with, or even better, a teammate who can assist from afar, that’s the ideal scenario.

Some people have tried the Nyx plus Spectre combo with great success. The idea is simple: Nyx moves invisibly, finds a target, damages it, stuns it, and then Spectre joins to finish the job. For optimal results, an additional source of damage is ideal to have.

Nyx can be played aggressively, with a Dagon, a Phylactery, and an Ethereal Blade, or in a more team-oriented way, with a Blink Dagger and an Aghanim’s Scepter. Never underestimate his Spiked Carapace against heroes that use Radiance.

5. Night Stalker: 51.2% WR

Night Stalker is a hero that gains tremendous power during the night. So for half of the game, you’re highly impactful. And during the other half, you need to play as safely as you can.

Most players don’t have the discipline to do this. And even if they do, they know that their team will not have the discipline to do this. That’s why Night Stalker is picked in just 5% of games. But don’t be fooled by this statistic. This hero is very strong and can be built into a tanky core that can bait a lot of attacks and ultimates for his team.

NS can ministun, silence, and damage opponents with ease. But his true strength comes from his excellent mobility and durability. During the night, he gains +40% movement speed and +80 attack speed. He can also slow his opponents by 50% for 4s during nighttime.

Dark Ascension allows him to gain 50 – 150 bonus damage, refresh the cooldown of his abilities, and gain the ability to fly with unobstructed vision for 30s. This ultimate has a long cooldown (140 – 130s), but it’s so powerful that it can win important team fights if properly used.

The best NS builds seem to involve buying an Armlet, just because it gives the hero everything he needs: survivability, sustainability, and damage. You can buy more damage items if the situation allows you to. But if it doesn’t, a Black King Bar and some magic resist or armor will do.

The goal is to be hard to kill and as annoying as possible. This is the kind of hero that can use his mobility to ruin enemy combos and force key targets to retreat.

6. Ogre Magi: 51.3% WR

Ogre Magi is a hero that gains a lot of strength per level. He also has a lot of armor and can regenerate his HP relatively quickly thanks to his natural capabilities, which involve a 1.5 HP regen per second. It’s not that complicated to buy a few more items that give you HP regen and you can have 500 HP regen per minute.

That allows you to get involved in trades that don’t necessarily favor you but still compromise the enemy carry’s ability to farm the way he would like.

When you play Ogre Magi, you should focus on maximizing Bloodlust and Ignite, because these two abilities will greatly speed up your farm, your fighting ability, and the farm of your teammates. The +13% move speed and the +75 attack speed buff, which lasts for 30s, is extremely useful in the early game.

This is a hero that becomes more and more useful until it reaches around level 10. After that it stagnates for a short while, but then you can start buying powerful items that assist your team.

Some people enjoy playing Ogre as position 4, while others play him as position 5 or even 3. This hero does a great job in a variety of roles. But he is always good if he plays around other cores and buffs them as frequently as he can.

Ogre is the kind of hero that you pick when the team’s Slark, Morphling, or Phantom Assassin needs a bit of extra power to overcome a slow start. Buffs that greatly enhance damage output are very useful in the first 15-20 minutes, when such heroes struggle to farm Ancient stacks and grow slower than others.

7. Lycan: 51.4% WR

Lycan is the perfect choice for games in which someone needs to rally the entire team and push early. Or when the team’s carry needs a lot of space and someone needs to create it in a safe way, without getting killed each time he tries.

Lycan’s abilities give him the option to skip buying boots and just focus on his core items. Helm of the Overlord is probably the most important item on this hero. If you also have a Lone Druid on your team or some illusion-based heroes, they will greatly benefit from what Lycan brings to the table.

This offlaner is all about auras. He will often buy Assault Cuirass and maximize abilities such as Howl, which greatly lower the opposing team’s capabilities. A team that struggles to defend itself will quickly give up key objectives such as the mid towers, as well as map control.

If your teammates are good, they will understand your timings and take advantage of each usage of your ultimate.

Lycan can be played more aggressively if you want. But that requires the purchase of items like Desolator and Basher. In most cases, you won’t need to build that much damage because your teammates will have plenty of it. Instead, you should focus on auras. And if you have a powerful carry that lacks mobility, an Aghanim’s Scepter would help a lot.

One of Lycan’s key strengths is the map vision he provides to his team. Wolves are invisible and can be used to scout the enemy jungle. You can keep them in key locations to see what the other side plans to do. If you catch even a single smoke movement, that might save you the game.

8. Centaur Warrunner: 51% WR

Centaur is one of the few heroes that love to become as tanky as possible very early on. His natural toolkit is sufficient to allow him to farm very quickly, so all he needs is mobility and durability.

Usually, good Centaur players will buy a Blink Dagger and a Blade Mail, and then invest in a Heart of Tarrasque. In most games, you can have these items before the 25-minute mark, which perfectly positions you for the mid and late game.

Centaur’s Hoof Stomp stuns for 2.2s and deals 300 damage. The radius of this ability is 325, which generally allows him to trap two or even three targets. If the continuation provided by his team is solid, the fight ends almost immediately after.

Because Double Edge deals 300 + 150% strength as damage, Centaur benefits a lot from buying strength items. Heart of Tarrasque is the first one that comes to mind, but there are many more, such as Armlet or Heaven’s Halberd, that can make a big difference.

In general, Centaur isn’t expected to deal a lot of damage in the mid portion of the game. He just needs to be a reliable initiator that can start fights. Or, if his team is in trouble, he’s expected to use his ultimate and Hoof Stomp to help it disengage.

Centaur’s Retaliate is similar to Spectre’s Dispersion. It deals 45 damage + 40% of Centaur’s strength as damage. When you add to all of this damage a Blade Mail, Centaur becomes the kind of hero that you simply don’t want to hit. He is a Windranger’s worst nightmare.

In the laning phase, Centaur farms well using his Double Edge. His item build should include support items like Pipe of Insight.

9. Spirit Breaker: 50.4% WR

Spirit Breaker is one of the most popular heroes of the current meta. His pick rate is 24%, which rivals Pudge’s. When you play this hero, the goal is to get your level 6 as fast as possible and then roam. You shouldn’t spend too much time farming, although a few good items never hurt.

Spirit Breaker’s biggest strength is his ability to charge at and stun BKB targets. That’s why a lot of heroes prefer to buy Linken’s Sphere when playing against him. But if several enemy heroes buy that item, they will lack a lot of other things, such as armor and damage. Plus it’s frustrating to buy an expensive item just to protect yourself from one or two abilities.

SB’s item build usually involves a Shadow Blade, because charging while invisible is one of the best ways to guarantee that your charge will be successful. Another important item that can help a lot is Octarine Core. A lot of players love buying this item because it reduces the cooldown of SB’s abilities, which already have a low cooldown.

This allows him to charge many times during a team fight and stun multiple heroes each time, which usually results in a big advantage for his team.

Spirit Breaker is perfect for a ganking playstyle that seeks to put a lot of pressure on any enemy hero that shows up in his lane. Your opponents should never feel safe when farming, unless they have several teammates around. In turn, this allows your team to make better use of the map and outfarm them.

In team fights, SB should seek to control a key target that can be brought down with ease. If a hero deals a lot of damage, keep him busy and stunned.

10. Dark Seer: 50% WR

Dark Seer is one of the strongest laners in Dota 2. His ability to disrupt the enemy carry is phenomenal. And if left unchecked, he will quickly become so strong that you can no longer lane against him. What’s great about this hero, apart from the fact that he gets picked in just 1.5% of games, is that he can quickly build a Mekansm and a Pipe, making his team unbeatable in a 5v5.

Dark Seer is the kind of hero that enemy teams learn to ignore in most cases, because he can simply Surge and get away. His stat increase per level is phenomenal: 2.6 strength, 1.8 agility, and 2.7 intelligence. Apart from that, he can easily farm using Ion Shell on his own creeps. Or, in some cases, on the enemy’s creeps.

His Vacuum is great for pulling lots of enemy heroes together, but he’s not a Magnus. So unless there’s a follow-up from his team, even a perfect Vacuum won’t win the fight.

Dark Seer’s ultimate, Wall of Replica, is great against powerful heroes because it creates very strong illusions that can be used to deal a lot of damage.

If you have a core that needs movement speed to be effective, Dark Seer can maximize his MS for 6s, which phenomenal.

Header: Valve