Dota 2 Patch 7.30b: Top Five Heroes You Should Play in Your Pubs

The new patch 7.30b has been available for two weeks, and a good number of Dota 2 tournaments have taken place during this period, allowing players to get an idea of the meta. While some heroes of the previous patch, like Terrorblade and Timbersaw, have fallen out of favor, others, such as Luna and Winter Wyvern, are still very much in demand. In addition, we see some new heroes joining the fray because of the major changes to items and skills in Dota 2. Here are the top five heroes from position one through five in patch 7.30b.

Patch 7.30b: The best hero in each Dota 2 role

Position 1 (Carry)

Clinkz

Through all the transformations he's undergone throughout the years, Clinkz has finally reached a position where he has become a first choice carry hero. In the patch, 7.30, his 'Strafe' was removed and replaced with 'Burning Barrage,' which is just a better version of Drow Ranger’s Multishot spell.

Burning Barrage has a lower mana cost, has a shorter cooldown, and most importantly, applies attack modifiers. With that in place, Clinkz now has the ability to head into the jungle, or wave clear with ease. You deal a ridiculous amount of burst damage with Burning Barrage. Prior to this patch, Clinkz had a very weak farming skill set and had to rely on a good laning phase to be effective in the game. However, this weakness has now effectively been removed.

Additionally, since Burning Barrage's damage is insane, you can actually man fight most enemy cores if your Ultimate that grants bonus health and damage is online.

Clinkz shines in patch 7.30b with great lane shoving, quick jungle clearing, swift map movement, and incredible attributes in teamfights such as damage and HP. According to Dotabuff, in the Divine and Immortal bracket, the hero has a high pick rate of 12.58%, while his win rate is 51.65%.

Currently, the most popular item build on the hero is Power Treads into Maelstrom into Dragon Lance into Eye of Skadi/Black King Bar into Daedalus.

Position 2 (Midlaner)

Batrider

Batrider has always been relevant in the game, no matter the patch or meta but it has been quite a while since he was truly first-pick/ban material. The current 7.30b patch has however restored Batrider to his former glory. His 'Sticky Napalm' skill received a slight buff in the main patch, but its effectiveness seems to be a lot higher in lane battles.

In the current meta, Batrider is a staple hero for most teams, because of his strong laning presence. Batrider’s kill threat even in the proximity of the enemy tower, so there is very little room for error on the enemy's part.

The fact that Boots of Travel just fits in so naturally with his item build allows Batrider to cause havoc across the map, which in turn enables him to dictate the tempo of the game. For the hero, an ideal game would mean an eight-minute Boots of Travel timing, which causes the enemy to be on the backfoot for almost the entirety of the mid-game.

This combined with the fact that Batrider is able to farm very quickly with this Firefly means that his net worth is almost always going to be relatively high. According to Dotabuff, in the Divine and Immortal bracket, the hero has a pick rate of 8.05%, while his win rate is quite high at 54.19%.

Currently, the general item build on the hero is Boots of Travel into Blink Dagger into Black King Bar into Octarine Core into Aghanim’s Shard.

Position 3 (Offlaner)

Lycan

The new and revamped ‘Helm of the Overlord’ has almost single-handedly made Lycan into an absolute beast in this meta. The removal of Necronomicon in the previous patch 7.29, made it seem like the Zoo meta was gone for good. Usual Necronomicon buyers like Lycan and Beastmaster had to pivot to different styles of gameplay, since face-rushing the enemy with an overwhelming number of units was no longer feasible. The new patch, however, means that there is now a revival of these heroes.

With Helm of the Overlord, the owner can now dominate an Ancient Creep that has a bonkers amount of movement speed, damage, and armor. When you get the item, the creep you dominate with it, is likely stronger than any of the heroes on the opposing side. With 'Howl' to buff his dominated creep, as well as a couple of tamed wolves to assist it, very few heroes can stand up to the immense damage output of the Lycan.

Due to the buffs that the dominated creep has received, it is extremely difficult to take down. This means that one lane is always pushing into the enemy side, allowing you superior map control which in turn allows your team to extract more from the map and outfarm your enemies.

Lycan has always played around its summons, and while there were attempts in the previous patch to play with an Armlet and Echo Sabre build, it did not really have too much success outside of niche scenarios. Because the build up to the Helm of the Overlord consists of several cost-effective items, the hero often does not have to worry about spending money on regen and tanking up. While his Ultimate also allows him to function without his boots. This means that Lycan can rush the item straight away and then become a menace everywhere on the map.

With his Summons and Ultimate, Lycan can provide you with a strong split push, strong mid-game teamfight ability, and the ability to transition into a damage-dealing core with items like Desolator, Assault Cuirass or Basher or a utility offlaner with his Aghanim's Scepter or Solar Crest.

According to Dotabuff, in the Divine and Immortal bracket, the hero has a pick rate of 7.44% with the highest win rate at 57.76%

Position 4 (Soft Support)

Keeper of the Light

The buffs to Keeper of the Light might not stand out on paper. However, as a result of the nerfing of multiple support heroes who were frequently chosen in the previous patch, Keeper of the Light has risen to the top.

The most common item build by a Keeper of the Light has been buying three Null Talismans. This is capable of handling any lane pressure and dealing a ton of damage to enemy cores.

An ideal soft support Keeper of the Light would help the offlaner with his lane, push the tower with the midlaner’s rotation, and then find spaces on the map where he can simply push lanes and farm. As a result, enemies will be more focused on him than on cores. Keeper of the Light is one tricky hero to catch and can always force you to make worthless rotations if you do not position yourself properly.

Keeper of the Light's Illuminate's channel time is now set to 3 seconds, which has greatly helped the hero. As a result of all the farm that he accumulates, a support Keeper of the Light ideally rushes Aghanim’s Scepter after his three Null Talismans to provide teamfight with his Will-O-Wisp.

He also has many other spells that serve multiple purposes, such as dealing damage, slowing and granting mana, making Keeper of the Light an excellent choice during this patch.

Also, the hero provides the freedom to play it as a midlaner as it can take out stacks with ease and go high damage burst item builds with Dagon, Octarine Core, and Ethereal Blade.

According to Dotabuff, in the Divine and Immortal bracket, the hero has a pick rate of 14.89% with a win rate of 50.02%.

Position 5 (Hard Support)

Omniknight

Despite the fact that a healing support isn't really that prominent in Dota 2 as it was in the previous patch, one hero still has found his place in the meta. Due to recent buffs that Omniknight received in Patch 7.30, he has seen a significant uptick in pick rate and has become a first phase pick for many teams.

Having Omniknight as a support makes the laning stage a breeze for the carry thanks to the regeneration that he can provide with ‘Heavenly Grace’ and ‘Purification’. Heavenly Grace received a buff in patch 7.30, and considering the importance of having a Dispel (with heroes like Batrider climbing their way up the meta), its potency has gone up significantly.

While Heavenly Grace is arguably the skill that is Omniknight’s bread and butter, Guardian Angel's cooldown has also been slightly lowered, which has made him a very strong teamfight presence.

Since the hero is unlikely to get much farm, the hero usually prefers to buy utility items like Force Staff and Glimmer Cape as his staple items.

According to Dotabuff, in the Divine and Immortal bracket, the hero has a pick rate of 9.35% with the third highest win rate at 50.02%.

Sven and Vengeful Spirit, in addition to the heroes mentioned above, have also been featured frequently in professional matches on a regular basis. It will be interesting to see if the meta throws up any other heroes that have the potential to dominate Dota 2, in the upcoming days and at TI10.