Sunday, June 12, 2011

Top 5 Worst Pub Heroes (That you need to stop Picking)

These days, it seems like the only mode you can get away with in Matchmaking is Single Draft, which although I have advocated in the past as a good map for people learning the game, isn't very versatile. In lieu of not being able to see what Heroes your enemies are picking, as well as having a relatively restricted choice of Heroes yourself, playing Solo Matchmaking in Single Draft can always be a chore of trying to persuade your teammates to pick Heroes that actually fit into your team's makeup. For many players, such as myself, this exercise can be tiring to say the least, as players will often be hesitant to abandon their premeditated desires to play Heroes that won't help your team at all (or just ignore you completely).

So without further ado, here is my (not entirely serious) top 5 list of Heroes that you need to stop picking because it's making me sad (excluding Scout, which, honestly, I have not seen a lot of lately). Note that this list has nothing to do with Balance, but is really just Heroes that typical 1500-1600 players can't seem to get to grips with. Here we go!

#5 Pandamonium



Ever since Pandamonium has sprung into existance, a lot of people have been confused to his role. At first glance he almost seems like some sort of Melee-Physical based ganker, similar to Fayde. His small Mana pool and two scaling abilities, however, tell a much different story: that of some sort of carry/disabler hybrid. What's safe to say about Pandamonium is this: You probably don't know what you're doing. For real.

Pandamonium demands an extremely aggressive laning phase, during which he will need to rush Ghost Marchers and synergize with his ranged counterpart. Because it is the nature of most pub players to play passively in the lane and not communicate with their partner, this (ever so important) aggression is often non existent. Pandamonium also requires a (very) good farm, meaning it wouldn't hurt to last hit every single creep in the lane, something most players aren't capable of due to his low base damage. Mix this in with Canonball, a skill that is seemingly impossible to land (based on my observations) and you have a recipe for disaster.


#4 Electrician



Another Strength Hero with a difficult to define role for many people, Electrician's appeal to pub players remains a mystery to me. After all, most pub players thrive on heroes that have high damage nukes and long range spells which allow them to score last hits. It seems, however, that somewhere at the other end of the spectrum, these melee strength heroes with extremely obscure roles are somehow appealing. In any case, Electrician is, at least to me, known as being a hero that is extremely easy to screw up.

First and foremost, playing Electrician in the middle lane requires extensive practice and knowledge of what you are doing. When playing against ranged heroes with high base auto attack damage, it's easy to get shut down quickly. In the side lanes, Electrician must often play aggressively, gripping players at key opportune moments in which they over extend themselves. Since you can often bet your life that an inexperienced player will not be doing these things, Electrician will often come with a one way ticket to being useless later in the game.


#3 Gladiator



Another Melee-strength hero, Gladiator is known as being a difficult hero to play. This, however, does not seem to stop people from wanting to play him. Probably due to videos like this one, Gladiator remains a hot topic in lower level games and will often be picked over that Support character your team actually needs.

Gladiator's Achilles' heel is, of course, the fact that Pitfall, his main source of damage and crowd control, is a skillshot. Despite the fact that Gladiator has a skill (Showdown) which actually remedies this skill into a guaranteed-stun is little comfort to people who believe that this only makes it even harder to land because you have to press more buttons. Mix these faults together with an ultimate that is possibly even easier to miss, and it's not difficult to see why most 1600 games with Gladiator are loosely defined as a 4v5.


#2 Magebane



Second place, of course, has to be awarded to Magebane, or SDBane as I like to call him, for it seems his irresistibility knows no bounds. Magebane is a hero that sees little use in competitive play as is often regarded as an underpowered hero as is. Regardless of what you think of Magebane however, what can be established is that in the hands of incompetent player he is better suited as a paperweight.

What draws players to Magebane is relatively clear: his escape mechanism is almost unparalleled. The only thing more appealing to pub players than huge long range nukes is an easy to use escape mechanism which ensures longevity. This longevity, however, is often cut short when players realize that any competent disabler hero will easily shut them down without a Shrunken Head. Magebane also comes with an inherent inability to farm, automatically crippling any chances a typical pub player will have for accumulating core items.

#1 Flint Beastwood



The winner of this contest, however, has to go to our good pal Flint Beastwood. Since the dawn of Scout, people have been wishing and praying for a hero that could provide the same kill stealing potency coupled with a longer range. Their prayers were answered, unfortunately, in the form of a hero almost designed for overcompensating novice players. Flint is basically a pub player's dream- long range (the longest range in the game, to be exact), only two activated abilities (both of which require little to no aiming skills) and, of course, the ability to steal kills. Flint Beastwood deserves a pat on the back for not only replacing Scout, but officially making him obsolete.

Looking at the hero statistics page, it seems like it would take a lot to dethrone Flint. Of course, there's nothing wrong with Flint, and he's actually one of the most handy and all purpose ranged semi-carries in the game. So how to pubs manage to fail so hard? Well, with Flint, there aren't as many striking faults as there are subtle ones. Firstly, players will always pick Flint and demand mid, regardless of their team's proposed lineup. Secondly, most Flint Beastwood players that arrive fresh into the 1600-1700 bracket will have unrealistic expectations of how their lane will work. Somewhere deep down in MMR hell, Flint Beastwood players must be allowed to farm mid undisturbed for the better portion of 50 minutes, because the Flint Beastwood players I have encountered in my solo Matchmaking games seem to be completely overwhelmed with the idea of an enemy hero who will actually attack them in the lane (a special thank you and pat on the back to all Devourer players out there). Indeed, Flint has become the new staple of low MMR games everywhere, and I don't see this changing in the near future, unless S2 creates a hero with 2000 range and free level 5 Codex.

6 comments:

  1. well, its me An2x from HonBlog sir, i suggest you to use readmore feature to make the blog look neater, good article by the way

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  2. and i think i will repost it into my honblog, if you like

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  3. Electrician has a massive free aoe nuke with 350 dmg. He has an insane aoe dot which protects him, he ensures a 2v1 kill and rapes soulstealer HARD. Most potent roamer when wards are absent, ultimate doing miracles. Not difficult, incomparable to panda in terms of difficulty

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. heroes not to be played in pub: panda, valkyrie, pharaoh, gladiator because of skillshots and/or risky initiation.

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