7.07 Pub Tier List
It’s been slightly over a month since Dota’s 7.07 balance update,and there is no denying the effects of this patch were among the strongest in Dota’s recent history. Once again, we are compiling the Pub Tier List using data solely from the Very High Skill bracket so that it’s relevant to both the majority of the players and dedicated gamers.
Stompers (56%+)
Omniknight, 
Centaur Warrunner, 
Vengeful Spirit
Following the tradition of previous patches, only three heroes are once again part of the “Stompers” tier. This time around, however, the usual suspects are missing — Abaddon, Zeus, Spectre, Necrophos are not in the top category any longer.
Omniknight replaced Abaddon as the top-tier pick for the patch. Changes to his talents opened up a new way to play the hero, and he can be a very decent semi-carry, courtesy of +90 damage on level 15. His current typical playstyle includes going offlane, building an early Radiance if possible, and then becoming an absolute nuisance in ganks and teamfights, where it is impossible to ignore him due to the constant damage output, but is also quite hard to focus down. More on the hero can be found here.
Centaur fills the similar niche, but with more emphasis on teamfights. He is a strong initiator with great damage output, especially in the early levels. Later on he becomes one of the strongest utility heroes, which allows your team to engage or disengage almost at will.
Finally, there is Vengeful Spirit — a hero who is never a bad pick. Turns out, she is also quite frequently a good pick in 7.07. Reliable stun, armor reduction, strong team aura and a specific, but powerful, initiation tool make her one of the most versatile heroes in the game. She can fill the role of either position 4 or 5 support, or can become a very strong tempo-oriented carry. Her stat growth is absolutely ridiculous, with one of the highest Agility gains in the game, coupled with one of the better Strength growth for Agility heroes (third highest Strength growth and second highest Agility one). Altogether it makes her a tanky, high-damaging core that might lack flash-farming potential, but is exceptional at taking down towers and creating space for a true-position-1 mid.
Winners (53%-56%)
Chaos Knight, 
Underlord, 
Spectre, 
Zeus, 
Brewmaster, 
Night Stalker, 
Terrorblade, 
Shadow Shaman, 
Elder Titan, 
Spirit Breaker, 
Tidehunter, 
Lich, 
Clockwerk, 
Ancient Apparition, 
Pudge, 
Bounty Hunter
Brewmaster is one of the toughest heroes to lane against. With constant Drunken Haze spam, he can deny the enemy carry a lot of gold from last hits, while ensuring his own safety and farm. Later in the game, he is still one of the best teamfight heroes, with a 6-second cyclone on Storm Brewling, making it one of the longest single-target disables in the game. Naturally, the target is invulnerable for the duration, however it doesn’t really matter, since you can just destroy target’s teammates in the meantime and concentrate on the cycloned unit later. And at level 25, with an appropriate talent, the downtime on Primal Split becomes 35 seconds, allowing the hero to constantly have presence on potentially all three lanes, while having access to his extra abilities.
With the introduction of Spirit Vessel, Ancient Apparition was no longer a very lucrative pick against certain heroes and to make up for it he was buffed in other areas, allowing him to jump a tier up, compared to last patch. Having a guaranteed slow on Chilling Touch, coupled with no AS slow for teammates made the ability stronger in most scenarios, despite the nerfed damage. It greatly increased the kill potential for a lane with Ancient Apparition, making him a much more potent laner. He is still a niche pick by all means, but while he became less compulsory against heavy heal and regeneration, he became a lot stronger in all other games, resulting in a significant win rate jump.
Finally, there is Pudge, an all-time pub classic. Over the course of the last several years the hero went from being situational mid to a very potent position 4 support. Without having any waveclear, he is still an apt high-ground defender, courtesy of Meat Hook. He is an extremely strong ganker, with a permanent slow from Rot coupled with a potential nuke. And he scales rather well, is the game is at least even by minute 20. Later in the game, once again, he becomes a target you don’t really want to focus, but can’t ignore.
Solid (50%-53%)
Anti-Mage, 
Wraith King, 
Storm Spirit, 
Crystal Maiden, 
Nyx Assassin, 
Abaddon, 
Drow Ranger, 
Luna, 
Winter Wyvern, 
Skywrath Mage, [missing hero: outworld-devourer], 
Visage, 
Ogre Magi, 
Treant Protector, 
Jakiro, 
Beastmaster, 
Medusa, 
Dragon Knight, 
Slardar, 
Shadow Demon, 
Witch Doctor, 
Bane, 
Faceless Void, 
Tinker, 
Silencer, 
Huskar, 
Disruptor, 
Ursa, 
Gyrocopter, 
Clinkz, 
Warlock, 
Sniper, 
Dark Willow, 
Axe, 
Undying, 
Sven
Anti-Mage was considered a top-pick in the beginning of 7.07 and received well-deserved nerfs in the following mini-patches, making him a rather balanced hero once again. He is still one of the best split-pushers and farmers in the game. While he can still take over the game relatively early on, he is no longer as much of a threat ultra-late-game, just like it was in the pre-7.07 era.
Storm Spirit, as well as several other Intelligence heroes, received an exceptional indirect buff in the form of Kaya, reducing his manacost just enough to return him to his glory days. It is still an item slot, and it still delays his Bloodstone or Orchid, but overall his power level has been smoothed out significantly, so that he is no longer a very high-risk hero to pick.
With more Intelligence heroes in the meta and with Medusa receiving several strong buffs, it is unsurprising to see Nyx Assassin among the solid picks in the current metagame. A rather versatile hero, who can be played offlane, as a support and even mid absolutely destroys intelligence cores, while still providing great utility in most game situations. Naturally, landing his stun might require some practice, but it is practice that will definitely pay off.
Finally, there is Dark Willow. For a hero that is slightly over a month old, she is doing exceptionally well. With multiple disables, high damage output and elusiveness from Shadow Realm, the hero will probably continue to rise in the tiers, especially once people stop playing her mid and offlane, and fully concentrate on the support role.
Situational (47%-50%)
Phantom Lancer, 
Doom, 
Queen of Pain, 
Phoenix, 
Juggernaut, 
Riki, 
Death Prophet, 
Lion, 
Earthshaker, 
Enigma, 
Kunkka, 
Bristleback, 
Enchantress, 
Sand King, 
Weaver, 
Rubick, 
Viper, 
Razor, 
Venomancer, 
Leshrac, 
Oracle, 
Phantom Assassin, 
Dazzle, 
Shadow Fiend, 
Necrophos, 
Invoker, 
Mirana, 
Tiny, 
Meepo, 
Bloodseeker, 
Dark Seer, 
Earth Spirit, 
Windranger, 
Techies, 
Pugna, 
Lycan, 
Batrider
Enchantress is currently one of the hottest picks in the CIS scene. After the hero was introduced to offlane in the NA region last year, she lied dormant for a period, only to come back with full force once again. Enchantress is an extremely punishing lane hero who scales incredibly well and even enables early pushes. She does require some micro-control, making her weaker in pubs, but in the right hands at the right time she can make a lot of difference with her surprising survivability, high damage output and potential utility.
The recently reworked Viper is perhaps the situational hero of the patch. Throughout the history of Dota, Viper was thought of as a lane-dominator with poor scaling. His entire goal was often to prevent the enemy mid from having a good start, while being tanky and survivable enough to remain independent. 7.07 didn’t change a whole lot about it, making the hero slightly weaker in the lane, but giving him a silver-bullet type of an ability. Break is a mechanic that is only as strong as the passive it disables. Therefore, in some situations Viper can and will be the top pick, while in others he will fall flat due to inferior damage output and utility to other mids.
Finally, there is Necrophos. Once a mighty hero who required his own “dealing with’ post is almost forgotten. Given how Diffusal Blade no longer purges and to get a similar effect you need to invest a lot more into a Nullifier, it is especially surprising, but considering how Intelligence caster-cores are on the rise, the once-dreaded Ghost Shroud is a lot less of an issue. Couple it with all-around nerfs to all of his abilities and you get a highly situational pick that is perhaps better suited for offlane, rather than first or second positions.
Avoid (44%-47%)
Magnus, 
Legion Commander, 
Troll Warlord, 
Ember Spirit, 
Slark, 
Tusk, 
Pangolier, 
Keeper of the Light, 
Lina, 
Naga Siren, 
Monkey King, 
Chen, 
Lifestealer, 
Puck, 
Timbersaw, 
Broodmother, 
Morphling, 
Templar Assassin
The “Avoid” tier is slightly less populated this time around and given the addition of a new hero it is a good sign — more heroes are focused at the center of the spread, rather than being outliers. Unfortunately, Pangolier, the newest addition to Dota, is, in fact, an outlier. His win rate showed a strong growth since the introduction, but it is now come to a halt. There is nothing particularly surprising about it, however, since the hero does have a very high skill floor. On top of it, he is a new type of situational hero — he can be an absolute monstrosity in certain areas of the map, while being very tame in others. Overall, it might be the case that the hero will follow along the path of Earth Spirit, where he is in fact completely overpowered, but until someone in a professional game shows his prowess, people will deny it and continue underestimating him. Or he can continue being an “Avoid” pick until some heavy buffs.
Speaking of recent heroes, Monkey King is still firmly situated in the “Avoid” category, with not even a glimmer of hope. After the heavy nerfs in one of the patches, the hero was almost forgotten as a position 4 support and is currently outclassed by most position 1 and 2 carries. Given the diverse and unique skillset of the hero, he is probably very hard to balance, with small changes potentially leading to big gains or losses in the win rate department, but for now we advise against trying Monkey King in ranked games unless you absolutely know what you are doing.
Repick (<44%)
Arc Warden, 
Nature's Prophet, 
Io, 
Alchemist, 
Lone Druid
Three of the heroes in this category are quite hard to play well and it is understandable how they ended up in the lower tier of a pub tier list. However, at least in the case of Alchemist, the situation definitely looks dire — the hero was slightly nerfed in terms of HP regeneration on top of suffering from the introduction of Spirit Vessel. Overall, he became a weaker hero that there are more options to deal with, hence the overall irrelevance looks understandable.
The presence of Natures Prophet in this tier, however, is a surprise. The hero has one of the highest base damages in the game, can retreat to jungle when pressured in lane and is overall very apt at both farming and pushing. His fight potential severely depends on his itemization, which can be seen as a plus or a minus, but teamfights are not the reason the hero’s generally picked. Perhaps the Complexity approach with position 4 Natures Prophet is a way to go for the hero at the moment.
The Attribute Perks
One of the things in the patch not covered yet is the impact of the attribute perks on the metagame. Turns out, they had a lot less of an influence on the overall power levels of heroes than might have been assumed. On average, the Agility heroes have lost ~0.9% of their win rate, while Intelligence and Strength heroes have received ~0.7% and ~0.4% win rate respectively. For a completely new mechanic, the introduction was close to seamless, with the exception of Status Resistance potentially leading to mistimed spell combinations.
Closing Thoughts
Yet again, the patch has outdone the previous iteration of Dota in terms of pub balance with an even tighter spread of heroes around the 50% mark. There are still slight problems and the introduction of “bonus heroes” might have had a slight impact on the stats, but overall the game seems to be in an excellent shape meta-wise, with many open strategies and variety of paths to victory.
For such a drastic follow-up to a very good patch, 7.07 was definitely worth the wait — it refreshed the game, without noticeable negative impact on an overall game balance. And given the amount of big LAN tournaments this year, the fine-tuning of the patch will probably become easier.
DUZA!!!!!!!
kawaii desuuu
medusa counters pls, other than nyx and voker
@Tsunami pretty much any strong defusal blade carrier...
QoL suggestion: change the omniknight link from the russian dotabuff to https://www.dotabuff.com/blog/2017-11-26-from-pub-to-pro-omniknight-becomes-top-pick-in-competitive-play
avoid pango lul, one of my best mmr gainers
Октарин и 25 лвл на брюмастере почти 100% вин
PL gets diffusal will probably scale well against dusa.. she's not that hard to counter..
lone druid repick aka first pick/ban in pro games. once again pubs=irrelevant mess
3x sunstrike cataclysm = invoker balanced
Lone Druid nooooo :(
avoid pangolier? LUL he is very strong offlaner... and lone druid is a fine pick... and so is morphling. honestly 50% of this tier lists are bullshit
Can you guys please acknowledge Arc Warden? He was repick two tier lists ago, then jumped to solid, then bank to repick. You never said anything about why and it's kind of unfair to be honest.
arc warden isnt that bad too be honest and nullifier is interesting on him plus necro 3 being a nice purge at the moment seems quite sweet.
Necro from stomper to Situational BibleThump
How is Morphling 44%-47%? 52.44% in 5k+ now. And Centaur is 36.54% in 5k+.
Puck has 100% pick/ban in high mmr. Also pangolier morph and brood are super op.
You cant make Tierlist just over winrate.
uninstall dota
Why is IO not in the mentioned hero in the commented section, the hero is so strong specially in late game given a great position and a very reliant aggressive dual laner with that could hinder or even jeopardize enemy at Mid in special
Thank you, Dotabuff, for this excellent content. I'm surprised I don't see it talked about very often at all on Reddit or by the Analysts at events, etc. Seems odd. These articles are clear and concise and enjoyable to read.
pretty much i can win 5k games with NP. i Had 8 straight wins as NP in my calibration games, idk why its 44% only, but in the right player, NP stomps early game, rekt other lanes with his global presence and secure long game with his farming capability and push power.
i like this
just look at np's lane presence. everythings clear than
skeleton king on the topic pic...
hey danny
GGWP uninstall I only play Arc Warden, Nature's Prophet, Io, Alchemist Alchemist and Lone Druid
Monkey Will Rise Again!!!
@Sngmtokos
These rankings are based on overall winrates, if he is achieving a 44-47% WR then for most people he should be avoided. It's not that he can't win, it's that most of the time he doesn't.
How about people start playing position 5 Abaddon again.
I miss when he had that sweet 60% winrate; then people tried to make him an offlaner and look where he is now.
Pudge has no waveclear? Uh....ROT?
@hartzfear
this is pub tier list of course it is based on overall win rate.
make your own tier list if you can't comprehand.
im one of the reason why TA is in "Avoid tier" :( i hate myself
lmaoing at the "premium article"
Elder Titan in Winners List. I am not surprised, his lvl 25 talent is ridiculous , his ulti has only 25 sec cd and is highly spamable. Before patch, I never built aghanim on him, now almost always if it comes to late game.
avoid monkey king my ass. reached 17 win streak (12 ranked games) from this patch thanks to the level 25 talent (both).
Winrate is statistically insignificant for determining what is strong in a pub. Just because omniknight is good against a bunch of bad players, doesn't mean it is the strongest hero.
Think a little analytically about this. The strong heroes are the ones top MMR players are going to spam the most.
That means Pudge, Storm Spirit, Shadow Fiend, Queen of Pain, Tinker, Sand King, Tiny. Those are the top tier heroes ATM. NOT fucking Centaur Warrunner.
@Hermione Granger that's why it's a pub tier list, where only 1% of games are in 5k+ bracket. These are the heroes that do well in your average pub game against similarly average players. Doesn't mean they are necessarily the strongest heroes in all brackets though.
Medusa so good that i once got ganked by 3 people, all of them died. I even once rekt sf in mid and reach lvl 25 before even 27 minutes. She fear no hero. BUT THAT M************ SPIRIT VESSEL REKT ANYBODY. REDUCING REGEN AND DAMAGE BASED ON PERCENTAGE? THAT THING MAKE ALCE PLAYER CRYING WITH JUST 2825 GOLD.
in my bracket RN (divine 5) looks like medusa and doom is the stomper, they are so well rounded from early until mid-late game
Good thing lone druid is in the dumpster what kind of loser would find that hero fun.
Weaver is sooo fucking dead since 7.07. I have 467 with him actually and I constantly played him for more than 4 years already and he is now unplayable in comparison to before... it is so sad for me personally :(((
Nice article, should do this often every few months. Well played!
pango is bad....if that person doesn't know what he is doing or the other team has the spell to break him out of his ultra like pudge hook.
Please buff slark.
Lone Druid is a monster, but bunch of noobs are picking it wince it has stomped the major dreamleague in an incredible fashion. But its not like avg pub player can play and micro the hero properly. Truth be told, the hero needs a nerf on his aghanim's buff.
Medusa mid is certainly the most possible safe pick in any bracket, even if you are having a bad game the hero will tank like hell past lvl 20 anyway and still be relevant.....if you have a good game you will own pretty much any lineup.
Morphling has a trash ultimate (situational, most pro players don't level the ulti until they are forced to, it can produce some awesome "youtube plays" but its very very situational overall), making him quite balanced (because he is quite op for his other spells and talents), he has trash winrate overall and just a "solid" one in (52%) in 5k+, and Elder Titan is also really strong in themeta and is still morph's natural counter.
But pls buff slark, his value has carry is so poor I guess puck gets a low winrate because he is played in lower mmr brackets........because the hero is ridiculously OP, relevant at any part of the game, imba talents, so hard to kill and high dmg output......but requiers good talent with fingers
farmville doto best doto
Why is the mid lane position so garbage this patch? Zeus is the only midlaner besides maybe brewmaster thats above "solid" and the only reason that is is because he has spells that deal 98765 damage whenever he presses a button