Greed Is Good: The Return of Midas
Midas was extinct in the previous meta, when the 2000 gold item hamstrung your early and mid game development. You needed that gold for your mass of Wraith Bands and Bracers to eke out every advantage at every point in the game. The opportunity cost for a Hand of Midas was too great. Now, a confluence of factors in Dota's previous patches have brought Hand of Midas back.
A Series Of Buffs And Nerfs
Before its corrective in 7.21b, Midas had been buffed across 3 patches. 7.16 and 7.18 reduced its overall cooldown from 100 to 90, but it wasn’t until 7.20 that increased its attack speed bonus, from 30 to 40, that Midas came back into the meta. Patch 7.21 doled out adjacent nerfs to Agility carries by nerfing Battlefury and Wraith Bands and removing main stat attribute bonuses. Hand of Midas mitigates both of these hits.
But it isn’t just the attack speed (the item is built on Ursa, for one) that has tipped Midas over into viability. Its main value proposition is its bonuses to XP and Gold over time. In 7.21, there’s less gold on the map--less gold from creeps and less ancient camps. At the same time, the XP required from levels 7-12 increased. Both changes made the game slower and longer in, opening the door for Midas' return.
Midas on Dark Willow? Midas has been a boon for teams who favor greedy supports, like EG’s Cr1t in their game against VP at MDL Macau.
Monkey King is an interesting barometers for how strong Midas is in the meta. Because of his need to both farm and fight, he has a variety of items at his disposal, from Battlefury, Radiance, and Maelstrom. All of these accelerate his farm and increase his teamfight potency, and yet pros are also opting to throw Hand of Midas into the mix. Though it delays his teamfight, Monkey King was always highly dependent on levels to enter the fray. Midas has always been a good synergistic item for Monkey King, but it wasn't the right meta yet, until now.
Midas For All?
Whenever Midas is a viable item, it seems like it in pubs it becomes a ubiquitous one. There’s always one way or another to rationalize the pickup, and at the pace of most pubs, players often default to the greedier option. It’s for the same reasons why players jungle with heroes when they shouldn’t—because they can. For most players, the risk will rarely be punished. Towers and tower auras are buffed, and the game moves even slower in lower levels of play.
But be wary that the same window that makes Midas viable makes it easily exploitable by heroes with early game power spikes. Viper, whose winrate has ramped past 60% this week, is a solid candidate to take over against slower teams. The current Atos+Greaves build makes Viper a powerhouse in fighting and pushing, while opponents are still scrambling to transmute their gold.
Midas, in its current state, isn’t as strong as its build rate suggests. Take a look at competitive games and high level pubs. Top ranked pub players exercise greater restraint on Midas pickups, because there’s a demand for them to carry their lower ranked teammates throughout the game.
Players may grow weary of the Midas meta, but at the same time it’s also opened up the meta to forgotten heroes, like Puck. As with many choices when it comes to Dota’s heroes and items—regardless of how strong they are, there’s always a time and place.
Great post! :)
7.21c
HAND OF MIDAS
Gold bonus reduced from 180 to 160
Already fixed :D
hahaha aaaaaaand obsolete
160 LUL
This article aged really well
LMAO
Midas can be used on enemy heroes to deal 450 instant damage
Boys, techies got buffed again, 20% cd reduction in his ult
this post did not age well
F
just make midas unreliable gold and it will be nerfed
@mllcg
Just make it drop on death too while you're at it
"opportunity cost for a Hand of Midas was too great."
learn English please
F
MIDAS PEPEGA
did the author not read the patch notes? last 2 patches midas got nerfed from 200 -> 180 -> 160. I think they are going to remove it soon, i think the goal of this was to reduce the amount of times "purchased". If that makes sense.
GG is my favorite item
ha.....
@guuz The author’s english is correct lol
Anyway MK doesn’t need lvl to enter the fray as he doesn’t rely on his ult too much. That’s why he’s viable as pos 4 before
@guuz < wow this animal knows only English and criticizing others. *clap clap*
@guuz " "opportunity cost for a Hand of Midas was too great." learn English please"
opportunity cost is a compound noun
he's describing the cost of the midas, not in gold, but in the opportunities you're exchanging to pick up a midas
that cost, the quantifiable amount of opportunities lost, was too large (great) to be worth the gold/xp gain from the midas
160 Gold T_T