Is Vanguard overpowered in Dota 2 patch 7.33b?

Dota 2 players are seriously complaining about Vanguard right now, and the fact that it’s so overpowered in the early game that it practically forces you to pick natural Vanguard carriers.

We regularly see the item being purchased in pubs. And not just by Axe players. Doom, Anti-Mage, and other heroes can make excellent use of this item.

One might ask: so why not treat it as just another Dota 2 item that’s useful to buy? And the answer is simple: in Dota 2, to encourage risk-taking and creativity, you cannot have an item that makes it almost impossible for the enemy team to kill you for 10 minutes after you’ve bought that item.

When you purchase Vanguard, nobody wants to hit you anymore. And you can hit them in return. You can also dive under their tier 1 tower at the 7-minute mark. That shouldn’t be possible or at least, it shouldn’t be as easy as it is in the current meta. Apart from that, the patch is fun.

What’s wrong with Vanguard

Vanguard gives heroes +250 HP, +5.5 HP regen, and a %60 chance to block 64 damage from incoming attacks if your hero is melee, or 32 damage if it is ranged.

This means that your melee hero will negate almost all support damage and much of the carry damage. And if you also have a spell that can heal you quickly, you become extremely hard to kill. Because you can essentially reach a 20+ HP regen and force a lot of rotations for just one kill. In most cases, it’s not worth it.

The enemy team would rather prefer to farm the jungle. There are much better alternatives and that leads to a situation where nobody is interested in taking risks. Attention is focused on other heroes or other parts of the map.

Instead of the usual Dota 2 that we got used to, we now have highly tactical games where map movement and farm efficiency are all that matter.

Another problem is that certain heroes, such as Axe, Pudge, or Doom, are picked a lot more often than they should be. That’s simply because their natural abilities give them so much sustainability that they can just absorb a massive amount of damage without dying.

Vanguard is broken because it offers a huge bonus for just 1700 gold. You can have the item 5-7 minutes into the game and it provides unfair advantages for that stage of the game.

Header: Topson