Overview of the current meta in professional Dota 2

A month has already passed since the release of patch 7.29 in Dota 2. Professional teams already played more than 1,000 maps in official matches. In this article, we will make Tier tops of heroes and look at the latest trends of the meta.

In addition to the major patch, several minor balance patches were released, the last of which, patch 7.29c, weakened Beastmaster and strengthened some other heroes, which had a great impact on the current meta. We have gathered the most popular heroes of the professional Dota 2 for the last 2 weeks and split them into levels. The main criterion of each level is the total number of picks and bans.

Tier 1

• Puck
• Centaur Warrunner
• Timbersaw
• Mars
• Nyx Assassins
• Juggernaut
• Grimestroke

At the first level, there are heroes that have at least 200 picks/bans to their credit over the past two weeks. Each of these heroes is universal in the current patch and can be used in any setup.

The king of the current meta — Puck. After the previous patch 7.28, where the hero received a big buff, the nerfs of patch 7.29 didn't affect its popularity. Over the past two weeks, the hero got into the picks/bans 327 times, most of which were at the ban stages. Now it has a 55% Win Rate.

Juggernaut is the only clear carry in Tier 1 list. The main feature of the hero is in his versatility: he doesn't need special conditions and setups; the hero fits into any strategy. It plays without problems through Battlefury and Maelstrom, and its ability Blade Fury that has the BKB effect is extremely useful until the late stage of the game.

With the new patch 7.29, Centaur Warrunner, not the most popular hero of patches 7.27 and 7.28, gained a new life. The hero received a long list of buffs for all abilities. Now it regularly gets into the picks of professional teams and has a 54% Win Rate.

Tier 2

• Snapfire
• Storm Spirit
• Lifestealer
• Enchantress
• Morphling
• Broodmother
• Medusa
• Tiny
• Leshrac
• TideHunter
• Faceless Void
• Death Prophet

We placed the heroes that have from 200 to 150 picks/bans over the past two weeks to the second level. It doesn't mean that they are weaker than the heroes from Tier 1, but they are less likely to be used.

Snapfire is one of the most extraordinary characters of the last patches. In patch 7.27, it was regularly used on the mid-lane position. With patch 7.28, the heroine's popularity was significantly weakened, but the teams still tried to take it both in the mid-lane and offlane position. But with the release of the current update, Snapfire finally returned to its original support position: the combination of the Lil 'Shredder ability and the Solar Crest item decreases most of the opponent's armor.

At first sight, Broodmother is a highly situational heroine, for an effective game with which you need a lot of practice and knowledge. But patch 7.29 incredibly strengthened the ability of this character. This heroine has got on the Tier 2 list due to the Chinese region teams. Chinese players have understood the heroine's full strength, and now Broodmother is permanently banned both in the Regional League and in i-League 2021. In the rest of the regions, this heroine is far from being so popular.

Patch 7.29 returned Lifestealer to the list of popular heroes. The last update significantly strengthened the hero, especially its ability of Open Wounds that received a bonus to the damage from the victim's maximum health. It is an extremely useful skill in a fight against heroes like Centaur Warrunner and Mars.

After the severe nerf of Faceless Void in patch 7.28, where the hero was picked only 28 times, it is returning to former popularity in the current patch. And all thanks to essential buffs. His ultimate Chronosphere was considerably strengthened by receiving a greater radius and a shorter delay before applying.

The current meta of the professional Dota 2 looks in this way, but we still don't know all of the opportunities of the new patch. It will be extremely interesting to look at what teams come up with for the second Major.