Here’s a better look  at the five best mid heroes in pubs from the past month of Dota 2 patch 7.31.

The mid lane is possibly the most unique lane in the game of Dota 2, because it is mostly played 1v1 (there have been patches where the mid lane has always had a support along with the core, but they have been far and few). So when a new patch drops, it is always interesting to see the change in mid heroes based on the new meta.

However, that isn’t really the case with Dota 2 patch 7.31.

Although patch 7.31 brought with it a lot of changes to heroes, the meta as a whole has stayed pretty much what it was in patch 7.30, and none of the previous heroes have been nerfed to the ground. So while some new heroes have popped up, a lot of the strong mid heroes are the same as what were seen in the last couple of patches.

Here, we take a look at which mid heroes have managed to hold onto the bragging rights in the mid lane and which new ones have turned up with patch 7.31.

The heroes have been picked as the best performing ones from the Divine and Immortal brackets. This data is as per Dotabuff and has been analyzed for the past one month, so it well and truly reflects the games from patch 7.31 only. The choice of heroes has been made from a combination of high pick rate and high win rate heroes.

Storm Spirit (Pick rate: 12.16%, Win rate: 53.41%)

The way the game is played hasn’t changed in quite a while, so the overall timings and objectives in Dota 2 patch 7.31 are pretty similar to what they were in the last few patches. Storm Spirit has been a strong mid hero for the past many months, because he is a hero that does quite well against most other mid heroes. Evil Geniuses picked Storm for Abed “Abed” Yusop in all five games of the Singapore Major for the same reason – dependability. Storm was a first phase pick in three of the five games, which shows that he is a hero that doesn’t care too much about the mid matchup. That, paired up with the fact that the hero hasn’t been nerfed in the last couple of patches, continues to make Storm Spirit a viable mid hero in the current meta. The high pick rate is an indication that is a solution to the quandary of putting too much thought into the mid hero pick.

Puck (Pick rate: 10.54%, Win rate: 51.19%)

Dota 2 patch 7.31 brought a lot of changes to Puck, with some buffs and some nerfs. But like Storm Spirit, the thing about Puck is, it has been a comfort hero in the mid lane for more than a few patches now, which has carried on into patch 7.31. Puck is one of the more reliable tempo controllers, and with a small buff to Dream Coil and a new talent from patch 7.31, has Dream Coil cooldown brought down from 80 seconds to 65 seconds, which has made it a stronger team fight hero. Puck doesn’t really have an insane win rate, but its pick rate is second only to Storm Spirit in top tier pubs.

Huskar (Pick rate: 7.60%, Win rate: 55.34%)

Huskar has always been a mid hero, but in the current meta, is so strong that is being played in the mid lane as well as the safe lane. The same things that make him a strong safe laner are what make players pick him up in the mid lane. The only slight difference is the levels and timings the hero hits when played in different lanes. Years ago, Berserker’s Blood provided Huskar with damage as his health reduced. That was then changed to magic resistance, and finally to HP regeneration. It clearly wasn’t working too well, so patch 7.31 added some magic resistance to the mix back again. So now when Huskar is extremely low on HP (which is where he prefers to play), it gives him 310 attack speed, 80% of strength as max health regen bonus and 25% additional magic resistance, which when added to the original 25% hero magic resistance, takes Huskars magic resistance to 43.75%. That surreal tankability that Huskar has had when low on HP has improved with  patch 7.31, and that added survivability is just what a hero like Huskar needs to turn the tides of a team fight.

Primal Beast (Pick rate: 2.03%, Win rate: 57.45%)

Primal Beast’s primary role is that of an offlaner, with more than 75% of his pub game presence seen in the offlane. But he does have around 10% of his games recorded in the mid lane, and the picture is quite peachy for those games with a win rate of over 57%. Primal Beast started his Dota 2 journey a bit slowly, but ever since a few buffs were thrown his way and players learned the best way to play him, the hero accelerated his win rate while maintaining a high pick rate. The early levels from the mid lane makes him a threat early on in the game to create havoc in the side lanes. At level 6 or 7, when opponents in the side lanes are around level 4, Primal Beast is extremely strong with level 3 or level 4 Trample. With the right rotations and team coordination, mid Primal Beast can wreak havoc on the opposition early on in the game. Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen has demonstrated the potency of mid Primal Beast in his pubs.

Templar Assassin (Pick rate: 6.33%, Win rate: 51.91%)

Templar Assassin continues to be a strong hero in the mid and safe lane because of one thing – lack of nerfs. The hero has been dominating pubs and professional games for a while now, but has been given the lenient treatment by IceFrog. In either lane, she typically plays the position 1 role due to her insane farming capacity, which was seen in Bucharest at TI10. The cherry on top of the cake has been that Desolator, which is a bread and butter item for her, received a buff in patch 7.31, and now gets additional +2 damage (up to +25 additional damage) with each kill. It is going to take more than a few small nerfs to keep TA out of the meta.

Honorable Mentions

Batrider (Pick rate: 5.04%, Win rate: 52.28%)
Keeper of the Light (Pick rate: 4.94%, Win rate: 52.78%)
Pugna (Pick rate: 3.34%, Win rate: 51.83%)