Marci joins Dota 2 – Meta Potential and Patch 7.30e Explored

Dota 2’s latest 7.30e patch brings forth a number of much-needed balance changes to the game, but more importantly brings a new hero to the fold – Marci. A fan favorite since her first appearance on the game’s anime series Dota: Dragon’s Blood, Marci’s addition has been greatly anticipated since first being teased during The International 10.

Along with the new hero, balance changes stemming from the TI 10 meta, most notably involving Magnus, Tiny, and Lycan, have seen the three heroes drastically nerfed.

Marci joins the fold

Best known as Mirana’s mute bodyguard from Dota: Dragon’s Blood, Marci has been the embodiment of a strong and silent type. After quickly becoming one of the most beloved characters from the anime, it seemed like a matter of when rather than if she was going to get added to the game. Although Valve promised that the hero’s release would happen before the end of Fall, Marci has been added to the game a mere two weeks after first being teased. She is also the first hero in the game not to have any voice lines, with a combination of whistles and her punches doing the talking instead.

True to her appearance on the show, Marci is a melee fighter whose kit includes both carry and support-oriented spells.

Spells

• Dispose (Q): Marci grabs an allied or enemy target and throws it effortlessly behind her, damaging and stunning the unit if it’s an enemy. Any enemy units in the landing area will also be damaged and stunned.
• Rebound (W): Marci bounds to the targeted unit, choosing a direction and distance she will spring away from it. Upon reaching the unit, Marci lunges to her final destination, damaging and slowing enemies in the area. If the unit she runs to is an ally, it receives 35% bonus movement speed for 5s.
• Sidekick (E): Marci’s loyalty helps ensure survival, imbuing a chosen allied hero and herself with lifesteal and attack damage.
• Unleash (R): Marci taps a hidden power, gaining Fury charges that allow her to deliver a rapid sequence of strikes. The last strike in every Fury combo creates a damaging pulse around the target that slows movement and attack speed for 2s. In between Fury combos, Marci is unable to attack for 1.5s. Marci receives a basic dispel when Unleash is cast and gains 15% movement speed.

Just based on her spells alone, Marci’s ideal position at first glance looks to be offlane. With a kit centered around initiating, buffing allied heroes, and tempo control, Marci’s only downside is her heavy dependency on her team. Due to the hero being incredibly broken (as what happens with almost every new hero Valve adds to Dota 2), she is also viable in all five positions in the current state of affairs.

The combination of Rebound and Dispose seems like a nasty initiation method that allows you to break enemy lines, and single out an enemy hero that’s ripe for the picking. Sidekick’s bonus damager and lifesteal looks to be a great lane sustain tool, and should probably be maxed if you’re taking her to the safelane. Marci’s ultimate Unleash should let you to just Mike Tyson your way out of nearly any situation.

All in all, Marci is definitely gonna get some changes in the upcoming weeks, and when the dust is settled we just might have a new staple pick for the offlane.

Balance changes

After TI 10 concluded, pub games were full of endless amounts players trying to recreate a glimpse of the magic Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov showed on Magnus during the event. For two weeks straight, you could not go two pubs without seeing either a Magnus trying to Skewer you all the way from Zimbabwe or the Lycan/Tiny combo displayed by many teams during TI.

We’ve got good news people, Dota 2 is officially out of rehab!

You can find all the changes on Dota 2’s official blog post, here are some of the biggest nerfs released with Patch 7.30e:

• Magnus’s Aghanims Shard spell Horn Toss has been changed so that now it applies a 100% MS and 100 AS slow to targets instead of a stun. Shard damage is now done at the start rather than the end so that enemies using Blink Dagger can’t just blink out of the spell. The hero’s Skewer range has also been drastically nerfed.
• Lycan’s Wolf Bite Scepter cooldown now matches Shapeshift’s cooldown, along with adding a fully fixed 150 attack range to the affected hero
• Tiny’s Tree Grab and Tree Throw abilities damage has been drastically nerfed, with the hero’s burst damage potential now being severely diminished.
• Elder Titan’s Astral Spirit has been nerfed, giving the hero less movement speed and damage during the early game.
• Grimstroke’s Ink Swell buff duration has been rescaled, effectively reverting the last change done to the hero.

With the changes, most of the meta seen during The International has been negated. As Dota 2 heads into the offseason, it remains to be seen when Marci will be added to Captain’s Mode, and how the meta itself will move forward into the new year.

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