It’s been a week since the release of the Wandering Waters and it looks like this was a patch dedicated to massive mechanics overhaul, rather than balance changes. We are definitely not complaining — the game feels very fresh, though there are definitely some kinks to iron out and some heroes to tone down a bit. Latter category is what we are going to discuss today — the most powerful characters to play right now.
Carry — 
Lifestealer with Fleshfeast Facet
While there were some minor nerfs to the hero’s MS and Infest interaction with the Ancient Creeps, we feel like the sheer amount of HP the hero gets from Hero kills more than makes up for it. Getting a free refresh on Open Wounds is also a very powerful bonus and the combination of a massive HP bar and incredible lifesteal make the hero unkillable.
Not a lot has changed in terms of build for the hero, though. It is still a 
Radiance carry who doesn’t push the tempo too hard and is comfortable going late with an adequate amount of gold. We don’t disagree with high level play, though we will point out one potentially underrated interaction that can come in handy in the late game.
New 
Revenant’s Brooch says that it adds 80% of hero’s attack damage as magic damage on proc. What it doesn’t state explicitly is that the Lifestealer’s Feast damage is added to his attack damage and as such, it is fully added to Critical Hit calculations. Scaling, enemy HP percentage-based crits for 3300 gold that also provide some spell lifesteal to work with your Radiance feel like a good deal on paper, so maybe give it a try.
Mid Lane — 
Dragon Knight with Fire Dragon Facet
The hero “lost” some farming potential and got a ton of damage in return. That’s a trade most heroes would be willing to go for and this “new” DK is excellent as a Carry and is probably even better as a midlaner.
DK has very few truly problematic midlane matchups and can pressure towers well enough. He can also farm stacks quickly in the Dragon Form, so at his peak he is as efficient as the previous iteration. Most importantly, though, the hero’s typical 
Mage Slayer build was semi-buffed for DK’s mid playstyle. Less attack speed is noticeable, but it is more than made up for with the extra regeneration and some extra damage.
Regardless of whether you want to play him mid or carry, the hero is simply broken as a tanky damage dealer, so play him while you can.
Offlane — 
Abaddon with Mephitic Shroud Facet
Another hero who is more or less the same as the last patch playstyle-wise, but significantly stronger. Sure, all Universal heroes received a massive attack damage nerf, but Abaddon was the hero that benefited from this the least — he previously had the lowest total attribute gain across all Dota, so him being Universal really didn’t impact him all that much.
Now the hero has 10 extra damage at level one. It is very, very scary to go toe-to-toe with the hero in the lane because of it. And while he doesn’t scale as well as he used to with items like 
Harpoon anymore, they are still a core of his kit that turn him into a relentless chasing machine.
Instead of adding to the problem, we propose a bit of a solution: with a 
Silver Edge or 
Khanda and a source of silence, you can kill Abaddon from full to zero without his ult proccing, as long as he doesn’t have a dispel. A lot of Abaddons get extremely cocky in pubs, skipping safety items in favor of more damage and punishing them for this style of play is infinitely satisfying.
Supports — 
Jakiro and 
Winter Wyvern
Jakiro is still the dominant support for pub play and his lane presence only got better. He no longer has to choose between winning the lane and then not being to capitalize on it with a tower push, or having lower lane presence, which doesn’t necessarily create opportunities for pushes in the first place. He now gets both of his Liquid attacks and the Ice Breaker facet is just a cherry on top. Essentially the hero’s been straight up buffed and is probably the most versatile and reliable support in the game right now.
Wyvern is a bit more interesting. The Recursive Winter’s Curse makes her teamfight presence almost unparalleled — her ability to reset fights is probably higher than that of 
Warlock. The damage output of the hero is also nothing to scoff at, with multiple talents turning Splinter Blast into an ultimate-level ability on a six second cooldown.
The hero has a rather weird laning playstyle, though. Considering her lack of range or attack damage, she is one of the weakest heroes in trades without her Arctic Burn. That said, she has one of the highest kill potentials among all supports, courtesy of good AoE damage and slow, as well as a decent save for when the enemy has already used all of their abilities.
At the highest level of play we are also seeing the Winterproof facet picked up, though we feel like for less coordinated pub play, focusing on the ability to deal damage on your own and the ability to control enemy heroes is probably a priority.
Closing thoughts
How are you enjoying the new patch? Did your favorite hero get buffed, nerfed or changed in a way that you enjoy? Personally, I’ve been struggling with Dazzle a little bit — the changes to the hero do make him a lot more interesting as a save support, but I feel like he is still a little bit lost in-between the roles.
Share your thoughts on the patch in the comment section below and point out the strong heroes we have missed in our First Trends discussions, while I will continue keeping a close eye on the meta.
