Here’s a better look at the five best offlaners in pubs from the early part of Dota 2 patch 7.31.

It’s been over a month since Dota 2 patch 7.31 was released. Although the patch didn’t change the game in ways like objectives, timings, map and economy, it did bring with it a new hero and lots of changes to items and heroes. These changes have shaken things up in hero picks, and here we take a look at which heroes have been thriving in the offlane in the position 3 role in the new world order.

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.

Primal Beast (Pick rate: 17.03%, Win rate: 53.83%)

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. Currently, the hero is doing great in pubs, and more than 75% of his lane presence has been in the offlane. In the laning stage, an offlaner's main objective is to make life a living hell for the opposition carry, and Primal Beast is a master at that with Onslaught and Trample. Later on in the game, he checks all the boxes for a typical position 3 hero – initiator, tank and disabler. There are quite a few professional Dota 2 players and streamers who are calling for Primal Beast to get nerfed, but until that happens, he is of the best heroes to turn to in the offlane.

Sand King (Pick rate: 16.55%, Win rate: 53.86%)

Sand King did receive buffs in Dota 2 patch 7.31, but those don’t necessarily have a lot to do with his popularity in the current meta. The buffs were relatively small, and according to Dotabuff, the new talents aren’t too popular. But his popularity could stem from the fact that a lot of Illusions heroes have become prominent position 1 picks, which can be countered by Sand King. Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer and Terrorblade are seen pretty often in the carry position (especially Chaos Knight), and Sand King’s barrage of AoE spells can make short work of the illusions. Sometimes, that's how Dota 2 works. Buffs to certain heroes can lead to their counters being popular, just like in every meta where Alchemist is a popular pick, so is Ancient Apparition.

Necrophos (Pick rate: 9.86%, Win rate: 52.14%)

Necrophos just saw one change made in Dota 2 patch 7.31, but it was massive. Reaper’s Scythe, which has for the past many years been well known for adding to the death timer, now longer does that. Instead, it gives Necro permanent HP and mana regen. There are positives and negatives to the new Reaper’s Scythe. The major negative is that you can’t target a hero with the ultimate and make him/her stay our of the game for a longer time or force a hero to buyback because of the long timer. But buyback was sort of a counter to the old ultimate as well – it would just negate the added respawn time (the even older Reaper’s Scythe prevented a hero from buying back, which was quite broken!). The positive from the new ultimate is that every Reaper’s Scythe kill has an integral effect in the game. The HP and mana regen builds up and keeps making Necro stronger, even if a team fight is lost. In the past few years, Necro has been played less as a Radiance carrier and damage dealer and more of a damage absorber with items like Guardian Graves, Holy Locked and Lotus Orb. The HP regen from Reaper’s Scythe kills adds perfectly to that playstyle, making Necro harder to kill with every charge he racks up. It also helps that he is the perfect counter to irritating meta heroes like Huskar and Tiny.

Beastmaster (Pick rate: 4.45%, Win rate: 55.26%)

The beasts in the jungle (neutral creeps) were made stronger in Dota 2 patch 7.31, and who would benefit more from that than Beastmaster?! Beastmaster has a whole new set of neutral creeps to add to his army, including the broken Skeleton horde, which makes him a strong contender for the position 3 role in this meta.

Pugna (Pick rate: 4.34%, Win rate: 54.73%)

Pugna underwent a major change, just like Necro, in patch 7.31. The Nether Ward aura now reduces spell damage by 25%, which is a lot of damage mitigation. Heroes have 25% magic resistance, and with a further 25% reduction on enemy spells, magic damage gets reduced by 43.75%. For physical and pure damage spells, there is still 25% spell damage reduction, which is a slap in the face of heroes like Bloodseeker and Invoker. The ward of course, has to be placed in a timely manner in a discreet location, but most players in high level pubs are more than capable of that.

Another way to make use of the Nether Ward in the current meta is to place it in front of the enemy and cast Life Drain on it after you have gotten an Aghanim’s Shard. The refracted Life Drain from the Nether Ward targets all heroes, and it can be used for instant deletion of Naga, PL or Terrorblade illusions (Chaos Knight illusions are strong illusions which aren’t instantly destroyed by Life Drain). So there’s more than a few ways the new Pugna and especially his Nether Ward can be put to good use, which has made him a popular pick in the offlane in the meta that has evolved around Dota 2 patch 7.31.

Honorable Mentions

Pangolier (Pick rate: 9.11%, Win rate: 51.88%)
Death Prophet (Pick rate: 7.89%, Win rate: 52.38%)