Clockwork Rules The Meta At DreamLeague Season 29

DreamLeague Season 29 has concluded, and it is the first tournament played on Dota 2 patch 7.41c. The latest update had some pretty hefty nerfs, leading to a solid shake-up to the meta.

In this article we will go through the most popular heroes at the event. We will also recap the most successful heroes and the most overrated as well.

Clockwork is jetpacking ahead of the competition.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the rise of Clockwork in the current meta. He was contested in 173 matches, the highest at the event. He won 56% of the games he played in, so his contention rate is clearly justified. 

During the laning stage, Clockwork burns enemy mana with Cogs, something the pros have mastered at this point. He comes with a long-range BKB piercing stun and multiple vision abilities as well. Most teams just first pick Clockwork and can fit him in basically any lane thanks to his toolkit.

Closely following Clockwork is Puck with 170 appearances. Similar to Clockwork, the hero is fairly flexible, though they only won 46% of the time. Losing his powerful 25 Coil talent hurt the hero's late-game significantly.

After that we have everyone's least favourite bear. Lone Druid continues to dominate the meta, and of the top 5 most contested heroes, he was the least picked and most banned. With only 13 games played, Lone Druid still came out with a positive win rate. 

The last two heroes to make our list are Pangolier and Kez. Two flexible cores with 161 and 157 appearances in drafts. While not similar in playstyle, drafting wise, both heroes can be picked in multiple core roles and provide great scaling.

Lion is king of this jungle

When looking at the most successful heroes, we are listing the heroes with the best winrate with at least 5, 15, and 25 games played. 

Starting our list is another surprise. Witch Doctor was picked in five games and won all of them. This comes as a bit of a shock, as the hero has long been seen as competitively unviable due to his unreliable stun and relatively short range abilities. 

One important thing to note is that only Andrey "Dukalis" Kuropatkin picked Witch Doctor, and his skill build focused on maxing Maledict and heal, with only a value point in stun. Perhaps that is the optimum way to play the hero right now.

Queen of Pain also made this list. This also comes as a surprise due to her fairly substantial nerfs in the last update. Still, her win rate proves she is still viable, with 13 victories in 18 games.

Last to make it here is Lion.  The hero had 23 wins and 13 losses, a fantastic showing. The hero recently had his innate reworked to buff him when he dies OR gets kills. So you benefit from it if you are behind or snowballing, a very nice change. Finger of Death has a shorter cooldown, and Lion can farm jungle for a short while after using it. This solves his long-term farming problem.

Sniper can't land a bull's-eye right now.

Looking at the least successful heroes with the same metrics, we start our list off with Sniper. With only one win in five games, Sniper wasn't looking too hot.

The hero was played in the mid lane, and while he does often win the laning stage, his major problems remain the same. He is incredibly slow and squishy and requires multiple items to keep his distance from enemies. Players try to use him with Shadow Blade, Hurricane Pike, and Shard upgrade, but it is not enough to make him viable right now.

Next we have Terrorblade, who honestly hasn't been the same since Sunder stopped piercing BKB. Terrorblade remains a solid laner, but Metamorphosis comes with a long cooldown, and his ability to farm quickly is somewhat mitigated by the map being so large; everyone is farming quickly. Six wins and 13 losses tell the tale of a sad carry.

Lastly, we have Void Spirit, who did the worst among his brothers. The hero has been taking quite a few nerfs in a row. His remnant no longer reveals wards when upgraded with Shard. He lost 0.6 mana regeneration (big on a hero whose main damage comes from spells), and Dissimilate was slightly nerfed recently as well. He won 33% of his games, a huge drop from the 60% in Birmingham.

And that's the current state of the meta. While there is more to process here, we barely have time before the next Blast Slam begins. Be sure to tune in to see how it further evolves in the next tournament.

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Featured Image Source: ESL