Riki’s surprising rise in Dota 2 patch 7.32

Riki is the kind of Dota 2 hero that you really don’t want to play against in the low MMR brackets. And that’s because in those brackets, people don’t know how to counter him. And if he gets away even with just several kills in the game, he can become overpowered quite quickly.

But in the Ancient, Divine, and Immortal divisions, almost nobody picked Riki a few years ago. The hero had severe weaknesses that made him impossible to play in the first 15 minutes of the game. But now that he’s received a few key buffs and a much-needed rework, he has become very successful.

Riki’s win rate in the past week has been nearly 55%, which is very impressive. More and more people are starting to pick him in pubs and it seems that the significantly lower cost of Diffusal Blade is helping him a lot.

In Dota 2, whenever something gets changed, there’s a chance that it may create some completely unexpected effects somewhere else. The change to the Diffusal Blade seems to be one of those things that cause significant changes in the state of the game.

Riki’s strengths and weaknesses

Riki has one of the worst attribute increases in the game. He gains just 2.6 strength, 1.4 agility, and 1.3 intelligence per level. But in compensation, he has excellent movement speed (315), health regen (2.5), and a very nice attack animation.

He also happens to be an Assassin, which means that his skills are perfect if you want to kill heroes around the map. In team fights, Riki’s Smoke Screen allows him to silence heroes in a huge radius and guarantee that they deal almost no physical damage because of the 75% miss chance.

If you combine Riki with Disruptor, together they can create a damageless Disruptor ultimate that lasts for 4.4 seconds every 11 seconds. It’s absolutely incredible what this duo can do.

Riki’s Tricks of the Trade can deal a lot of damage for 2 seconds and grant the hero protection from all forms of enemy damage. This is a perfect survival tool in most cases.

Riki’s Blink Strike is even better than a Blink Dagger. Its range is 900 and comes with 2 charges that replenish every 10 seconds. This ability also deals lots of damage and slows the target for 0.8s by 100%. It’s practically a nearly 1-second root.

Riki’s ultimate, Cloak and Dagger, grants him almost permanent invisibility and a lot of passive damage per ability. The effect is doubled against creeps, which means that you can actually farm with Riki these days.

Header: Valve Corporation