Best Offlane Heroes of Dota 2 Patch 7.35c – TOP 6

The offlane role has become increasingly important with each patch. Dota 2 patch 7.35c did not change the trend created by previous patches. This means that when you play position 3, you are as essential to your team’s success as the carry.

There are dozens of offlane heroes that you can choose between. Some of them are currently much stronger than others. This guide explores some of the best picks that can help you win MMR.

Axe

Axe is currently the second-most successful hero in Dota 2 patch 7.35c, with a win rate of 53.7%. His pick rate is also high: 17.5%. That’s because this hero is both very strong and relatively easy to play. You don’t need to make a lot of complicated decisions and calculations. All you need to do is farm well in the early game, which is easy thanks to your abilities.

Many Axe players like to cut the creep wave with the help of a support and force the enemy carry to last-hit under his own tower. This tactic is very hard to stop, even when a trilane is used. In the lower MMR brackets, almost nobody knows what to do against it.

Axe deals pure damage with his Counter Helix and the amount is substantial: 95 – 170 in a 300 radius. The ability is triggered after every 7 – 4 attacks. This means that by the time you’re level 7, the enemy carry will have a hard time staying near the creep wave. So if he’s a melee hero, Axe will give him a rough time until he starts farming the jungle.

Battle Hunger applies a powerful debuff that decreases movement speed by 11 – 35% and deals 10 – 25 damage per second. This debuff lasts for 12s. If you cast it at the right time, the enemy carry will not be able to get rid of it and will have to suffer its entire duration. The key here is to cast it near the end of the creep wave.

Axe’s Berserker Call is what kills enemy heroes once you have a Blink Dagger and a Blade Mail. It traps everyone in a 315 radius for 1.8 – 3s and forces them to attack you. If there are creeps around, the combination of Blade Mail damage and Counter Helix damage will often be sufficient to bring the target low enough for a Culling Blade kill.

This is Axe’s ultimate and it kills anything below 275 – 475 HP, giving him permanent bonus armor and temporary bonus armor and movement speed. The buffs are all substantial. The temporary ones last for 6s.

The great thing about Culling Blade is that it cannot be stopped. It counters Abaddon’s ultimate and Dazzle’s Shadow Grave.

When playing Axe, the essential items to buy are Vanguard, Blink Dagger, and Blade Mail. Everything else is nice to have but optional. Once you have your Blink Dagger, you can play very aggressively and organize smoke ganks in the enemy jungle.

Sand King

Sand King is a top 5 hero in Dota 2 patch 7.35c because his abilities make him easy to play. Only 7% of all Dota 2 matches have a Sand King, so you can pick him with ease whenever you want.

This hero is great against melee carry heroes, but he can work in a wide variety of situations. His toolkit allows him to farm with ease and at the same time, to disrupt the farming process of his opponents.

Sand Storm gives SK great AoE damage per second and also follows him at a rate of 100 units per second. This means that you can change your position to avoid enemy wards and to better damage enemy creeps.

Caustic Finale applies a base damage of 50 – 110 plus 10 – 22% of the target’s max HP when it dies, creating an explosion that will affect units in a 500 radius.

Thanks to this ability, you can inject poison into the entire enemy creep, so that when a creep dies, they all die. The successive explosions can greatly damage the enemy carry if he’s too close to the creep wave.

Burrowstrike allows you to stun for 1.2 – 1.8s and damage units from 525 – 750 units away. If you also have a Blink Dagger, your mobility and initiation capacity will be phenomenal. You will essentially have the option to initiate from a range of almost 2000 units.

Epicenter deals between 660 and 1300 damage, slows movement speed, slows attack speed, and is very hard to dodge when SK has a Blink Dagger. This ability makes this hero a scary opponent to play against.

Slardar

Slardar moves at an incredible speed and can initiate fights with ease. At level 6, he can already remove 10 armor for 18s and he can cast this ability every 5s for just 25 mana. The affected unit is also revealed by the debuff.

Slardar’s Guardian Sprint gives him 25 – 40% bonus speed for 10s and can be cast every 17s. While in the river, you gain additional bonuses, such as HP regen, armor, status resistance, and +18% movement speed.

Slithereen Crush allows Slardar to slow movement by 35% and attack speed by 35 for 6s, as well as deal 300 damage in a 325 radius. You can use it every 7s, so your enemies will be permanently debuffed in a team fight. If they are close to you, they will move slowly, be stunned for 0.8s and receive a lot of damage.

For those who like to play Slardar aggressively, Bash of the Deep provides a 1.1s duration stun for every 4 attacks, as well as 50 – 200 bonus damage.

Slardar needs a Blink Dagger to be effective. Other than that, you should build him as an unkillable tank with some offensive capabilities. It all depends on what your team needs to succeed. If you already have enough damage, be an annoying frontliner that can tank a lot of damage. If not, build some attack speed and damage yourself.

Dark Seer

Dark Seer is one of those offlaners who love to build utility items for his team. He often gets a Crimson Guard, a Pipe of Insight, a Mek, and a Blink Dagger. His ability to farm is excellent thanks to Ion Shell.

Almost nobody enjoys playing this hero, which is why his pick rate is below 2%. But his win rate is above 52%.

Most of his spells are designed to help his teammates. Surge, for example, gives an ally maximum speed for 6s and can be cast every 9s.

Vacuum can trap multiple enemy heroes, disrupting their abilities and applying 250 damage. The pull it creates in a 550 radius gives you the chance to hit lots of opponents with your Wall of Replica, which creates replicas that deal high damage and are very hard to kill.

Centaur Warrunner

Centaur Warrunner is an offlaner that nobody likes to lane against. His Double Edge deals 120 – 300 damage plus 60 – 150% of his strength as damage. By the time he reaches level 5, Centaur is a menace in the top lane, requiring multiple enemy heroes to protect the carry.

Retaliate gives Centaur the ability to return 15 – 45 damage per hit plus 16% – 40% of his own strength as damage. Add a Blade Mail to this passive ability and nobody will want to hit you.

Hoof Stomp stuns for 2.2s in a 325 radius, dealing 280 damage. This is a good ability to initiate fights, but in a lot of cases you will need to use it as a follow-up because it has a 0.5s delay. If the enemy has a Blink Dagger, he will blink away by the time you’ve completed the animation.

Centaur’s ultimate, Stampede, allows you to give all allies maximum speed for 3.5 – 4.5s. That’s very useful during team fights or when an ally gets caught by a smoke gank.

Centaur needs a Blink Dagger to be effective. Ideally, you should also have a Vanguard, a Blade Mail, and a Heart. A Pipe of Insight or a Crimson Guard works very well on this hero if your goal is to give allies some powerful buffs during team fights.

Bristleback

Bristleback is a natural tank thanks to his abilities. He can absorb enormous amounts of damage while dealing similar amounts in return. That’s what makes him a powerful hero. The typical counter to this offlaner is a Silver Edge. But that can only be bought after the 20-minute mark in most cases, and there are ways to counter the item.

Without the break debuff, killing Bristleback requires the enemy team to hit him from the front. This can only be done if he’s stunned or surrounded.

Bristleback’s fighting mechanism involves powerful slows and powerful AoE damage that increases with each stack. If you have enough mana to cast all of your spells whenever possible, you will turn yourself into a monster in just 5 seconds.

The reason why Bristleback has a win rate of nearly 52% and a pick rate of around 10% is that players in the lower MMR brackets don’t know how to counter him. He becomes unkillable really fast and then stays that way unless you have a method of bringing him down.

His strategy is easy to execute while the counter-strategy requires careful coordination, which is hard to achieve when everyone is playing poorly.

Using abilities like Viscous Nasal Goo and Quill Spray, Bristleback creates huge challenges for any team, even without strong items like Kaya and Sange, Heart of Tarrasque, or Octarine Core.

Header: Valve