Today's the last part of our series, and we are going to concentrate on mid heroes. Ever since the drafting rework in All Pick, we’ve seen a steady increase in popularity of versatile and reliable picks, and this trend continues in the new patch as well.
Puck is one of the most mechanically difficult heroes in the game. He requires both speed and precision of execution, while also being quite dependent on overall game knowledge and intuition. As Puck, players need to first make correct assumptions about where to rotate to keep their momentum going at all times and then they will need to press all their buttons in correct order, while also being able to react to enemy actions.
The payoff for this is quite substantial, however. After receiving multiple small buffs and some quality of life upgrades, Puck is now the strongest mid in Divine+ games. In fact, the hero holds their own in Archon+ games. So while they do trend upwards with increase in skill level and are at their best in the highest level bracket, as long as you have bearable ping and the willingness to stay constantly alert for the whole duration of the match, Puck can be a good pick.
We’ve all been there: spending all our tokens on playing hard support and now finding ourselves in dire need to farm more playing all roles and getting mid. Razor is your friend in this regard. He is a hero for players who don’t need to prove anything, who don’t need to be flashy and who won’t let their ego get in the way of a win.
He can stand mid against the absolute majority of heroes and his skillset can more than make up for lack of experience when it comes to 1v1 last hitting scenarios. He applies a decent amount of pressure, can start ganking side lanes early, isn’t terribly greedy and scales reasonably well.
All of this doesn’t require a lot of mechanical effort: good item choices to get tanky coupled with smart static link target prioritization during team fights is already enough for the hero to have a massive impact on the game.
Clinkz highlights the difference in team coordination between skill brackets exceptionally well: the hero wins 52%+ games up to Ancient and then immediately drops to 48% in Divine+. So while it is easy to recommend the hero to casual players, since he is fun, will net a ton of kills and allows for solo-carry potential, it is almost impossible to recommend him to more dedicated players. Even if you are winning on the hero in Ancient, sooner or later he will simply stop working.
Does it mean the hero is bad? Certainly not. In fact, Clinkz is great at hammering one important idea home: you don’t always need extra damage. More often than not, especially on more glass-cannon types of heroes, getting extra control is considerably more important than getting extra right-click. Making a habit of thinking about it in every single match can be very beneficial.
It is more or less impossible to be called a mid player without knowing how to play at least half the brothers in mid. Metas come and go, patches change the landscape and the balance, yet at least one of the Spirits is always going to be relevant. If you are serious about playing this role at a high level, you need to be able to play at least three spirits.
In fact, SEA has long experimented with Earth Spirit mid and the hero does work reasonably well in most games and, frankly, unreasonably well in games where he is allowed to snowball.
Currently, Void and Storm Spirits are doing alright in the higher level brackets. They are certainly underwhelming when it comes to games below Legend, but it is hard not to recommend them to players with good mechanical skill who want to practice skills, which are always going to be relevant.
Invoker never leaves anyone indifferent: he is either a God among mortals, single handedly winning the game for you, or a sixth enemy to face, sometimes both within the same game. That makes him an ideal fit for players who crave attention, be it positive or negative. Current patch also makes Invoker a pretty good pick in higher level games with a respectable 51%+ win rate.
The hero is also pretty fun to explore right now. Pretty much everyone at this point knows that there is a tempo Quas-Wex Invoker with a strong Tornado+EMP combo in midgame, and there is an Exort Invoker, who helps his team through Sunstrikes and farms up to be a late-game monster. The latter is the default one right now, at least in higher level pubs.
Yet there is a new, interesting build emerging: the Wex-Exort Invoker, who concentrates on right-click damage with Witch Blade and Alacrity. It looks really fun on paper and can potentially catch the enemy off-guard, so perhaps soon Invoker will be a three-in-one, not a two-in-one hero. Do leave us a comment below, if you’ve seen this mysterious beast in action and share your opinion.
First
he is either a God among mortals, single handedly winning the game for you, or a sixth enemy to face, sometimes both within the same game
Never have I seen a more accurate description of the average pub voker.
No OD?
Gonna show this to all my teammates that first pick mid pudge, rush blink, then complain about our carry and offlane being useless.
Interestingly enough, the description ov Invoker holds true for Pudge as well, of course with a lot more lean towards the sixth enemy case :)
in war 3 i only played mom/alacrity/crits voker
Viper.
Puck is good ya I admit but I dare anyone pick puck against my OD mid.
creo que el OD esta fuerte con el martillo meteoro
Viper is a good mid to learn the mid lane. you forgot that hero lol
Lol, Best mid to lose MMR fast
Peruanos só sabem fuder a partida dos brasileiros.
surprised OD isn't here considering how many times that jerk been picked lately
Clinkz falls off in high level pubs? Check better, players are just playing him incorrectly, it's entirely possible to have high or very high winrate with the hero, even though it's not a standard mid.
either wp invoker or gg injoker
No paragraph for pudge, this is discrimination.
Yes, yes it is)
А как же сф