General DiscussionViable Carries in 6.79

Medusa.

Broodmother maybe: unobstructed movement in webs, wtf, how do u kill him without batrider firefly?
Clinkz: a viable 1 position, searing arrows go through magic immunity
Luna: moon glaives/ ulti buff
Skeleton King: Vampiric aura is granted to range heroes (now a viable trilane hero?). can still be easily kited and no escape mechanism.

meepo lvl 4 ult!!!

What about Lycan, Morphling and Spectre?

Lycan is really strong when he's played as position 1

I think broodmother's buff won't make a huge difference. She will be a viable offlaner once again, but there just so many carries that are better as a 1st position.
Leoric (SK) might become a good support for ranged carries like Medusa, but I don't see him as a viable 1st position hardcarry. His 3rd skill losing its active part is a huge nerf in terms of lategame potential.
Morphling didn't get his starting stats back, sooo... Well, maybe in conjunction with leoric there might be a bit of a meta, but he is still rather weak in his current state.
Alchemist is going to be interesting. He is easier to burst down, but much harder to deal with in longer fights.
Lycan as a 1st position is also somewhat unviable. Well, I can see him getting picked against SD lineups, when there is no hard bkb control.
Clinkz is also an off-laner, there are better 1st position carries. But I agree on his searing arrows going through bkb being a huge buff. And +10 dmg is cool.
Luna is one of my favourite heroes, and the glaives bouncing back is a nice addition (well, a nice return to classics), but in a teamfight, you will probably have more than 2 targets, hence a 5% reduction in damage could be seen as a nerf. At the same time, a lot of heroes had their night vision decreased, and Luna now also fills the role of a scout + gives a tactical advantage.

I'd say Spectre, because she can reality to illusions now. Speaking of Morphling, would Spectre be able to realise herself into a Replicate illusion?

Also, Venomancer. He's been played as a carry before, and now that his Q deals more damage AND finally ignores invisibility (also applies to Posion Nova as well), his passive lasts longer and is given to the poison wards as well, he could just about cut it as position 2.

On a side note, I can imagine Balanar on position 3. His ultimate offers so much after the aghanim and 6.79 buff, considering vision is a valuable resource in the competetive scene.

Spectre ulti buff is really cool indeed, but I don't think it will have a really huge impact on the game, unless once she uses the reality for the second time, she is replaced with an illusion on the initial target. Though it could be a viable option to dodge control spells.

Venomancer is probably going to stay at his 4th position, since he didn't really get right-click buffs and venomous gale is going to be OP even without money investment.

Balanar is a mid hero, and he will remain such, though becoming a lot stronger. He will still struggle mid against more conventional ranged midders, but he now has a lot more to offer.

bara yolo doto best doto^

Think about what this does for Spectre refresher build. You could have 14 seconds of jumping to whatever hero you want to attack. Pro teams will use this once they figure it out. In fact I saw Typical Mistakes beat Dignitas easily today with a surprise Spectre pick. They used him aggressively to gank with BH and Nyx scouting the targets for him.

Also, do note that reality is instant cast now.

I am still thinking whether Relentless is trolling, or being serious) Even though I did enjoy an occasional refresher on Spectre, especially when I just switched to Dota 2 after several years of Dota 1/HoN and was relatively good, I still don't think it is an utility maximising item) Also - manapool.

What manapool, you can cast it from fountain, imo it's one of the best items for spectre

Yeah, but then if you "reality" to an enemy hero, you are no longer at a fountain. Instant casting is a buff, but again, I don't think it is crucial.

I guess AM will fade out from meta. He is already a 4th or 5th pick and when I watch games with him - his team usually lose.

Axe carry new meta. Constant dunking.

Brood will hardly budge. I'm sorry to those excited, its just not going to happen, her primary strength is her split pushing ability, and she just can't do that when just about every hero in the game can stop her pushes by themselves. And you can't actually farm that well offlane because you are still really squishy and sentries will force you to sit back and leech XP. Too squishy and useless in team fights and struggles to do her job as a split pusher. The buff is nice, but she is still pretty weak.

Meepo is interesting, but I think the key is laning, what will happen now that jungling and pulling has been nerfed? The level 4 ultimate sounds ridiculous, but we will have to wait and see. I think the swap with the small and mid camp might be good for him in the end.

Luna doesn't change much.

Clinkz becomes a threat again, I don't think he will dominate anything, but we should see more of him.

Less of Alchemist, and a bit less of Na'ix, but hard to see either of these heroes disappearing.

I think Spectre will suffer because of changes to laning, but again, we will have to wait and see.

I just thought about this. meepo on easy lane can simply jungle after level 4 with one meepo being on the lane, and easy lane will be so close now which will be easy to kill even with level 2 poof.

brood secondary carry, trust me!

Luna is the new most picked carry i think
She can now ez kill the whole enemy team

Also i think we will see more pa

Luna/Spec/Pa.

Few of my favorite right clickers getting some new love.

#Purpleteam2013

Weaver.

I don't feel the carries are changing that much. It's the meta that's changing and a few supports. So carries affected by the meta change will change.

Does Morphlings micro buff make him viable again?

@Totenkreuz
I really don't think morphling will be shown much love. He did get a nice buff to versatility, since he can morph str/agi faster, but apart from it there was no actual buff to his spells/stats.

Saw Na'Vi play NS as 1 st position by XBOCT with ultra-aggressive early-mid game. He is actually really nice as a tactical hero, since he limits the vision of the enemy team AND gives flying vision with aghanim. There are several problems associated with this, since Aga is not a exactly a DPS item and unless he is safelaning, he will not get it too fast. Don't know. Will have a look at it in a week or so.

Also. Bloodseeker. Still don't know why isn't he picked. He is not a late-game carry, BUT he has a nice buff in terms of speed and +dmg actually stacks up to 5 times, which can be seen as slightly OP in pub and could be pretty nice in competitive. His ulti goes through BKB, and can pin down melee BKB carriers and Lifestaler. His 1st skill is nice early to silence disablers + scales really nice lategame, since his own BKB won't dispell the DMG buff. It can also be used on something like gyro/dusa/luna for some crazy yolo plays. There are a few heroes that BS will win mid from (remember iceiceice TI3 mid naga and add nice lifesteal every time you deny/lasthit a creep). I see a lot of hate for him in pub, but I wouldn't call him OP, and he could be a viable 1st position in ultra aggressive strats and a decent mid hero.

From my last games with OD, I'd say the OD nerfs are not noticable.