The Trickle Down Effect on Pubs
I confess I am a Juggernaut picker. And it turns out that I’m not the only one, as Juggernaut this month is now the most played hero. He was 7th in patch 6.82c, 3rd in 6.83, and now has reached 1st and surpassed longstanding pub heroes such as Pudge, Sniper, and Phantom Assassin. Juggernaut now appears in nearly 41% of all games. At one point I used to get flamed for putting only one point in Bladefury, now I get flamed for picking the hero. Mask of Madness is now core above Battlefury. How did this happen?
The Final Buff
Like with the trend of many underused heroes, Icefrog buffed Juggernaut with a series of minor, under-the-radar changes. Under-the-radar, because Juggernaut has received nearly universal buffs since the beginning of Dota-time. He received an initial boost to his ultimate jumps at 6.04, a movement speed buff in 6.49, an Aghanims upgrade in 6.60, and various improvements to healing ward from 6.63-6.71. Juggernaut at the time was a situational pick in pushing lineups. The enemy team drafts Juggernaut, you know they're pushing, and now you draft Ancient Apparition. It’s only recently that a series of final tweaks to his ultimate, base attack time, and agility that rocketed him to competitive meta and eventually our pubs.
6.81
- Base attack time decreased from 1.6 to 1.5.
6.81b
Omnislash damage per slash rescaled from 175-250 to 200-225.
Base Attack Time improved from 1.5 to 1.4.
6.81 was a minor buff, had little ripple effect through the community, but it made Juggernaut players happier. There were some rumblings that Juggernaut was going to be the next Faceless Void: Strong laner, solid competitive pick, and a mainstay pubstomper. At the time, Battlefury and Aghanims were still the two most popular items, and Mask of Madness was nowhere to be found, despite a well read theory craft post by thunderfunking, which showed it as the most damage efficient item on Juggernaut. In his post, he wrote "A rare choice for Juggernaut because he has such a low health pool, this 1900 gold item nearly doubles the damage from extra attacks, exactly on par with an Abyssal Blade."
6.83
Base Agility increased from 20 to 26.
Blade Dance critical strike chance rescaled from 15/20/25/35% to 20/25/30/35%.
Here it is. There have been heroes that received 1 armor buffs or nerfs that resulted in dramatic changes on their laning stages. Juggernaut received not only what amounts close to a 1 armor buff (7 agility = 1 armor), but 6 additional base damage to go with the fastest base attack time. His critical strike was already the best scaling crit after PA, and the scaling to his early levels tipped the scales to what is now THE early-mid Juggernaut build: one point in Bladefury, one point in healing, and the rest in crit and stats (note: though pubs have trended towards Mask of Madness, the most popular builds still max Bladefury).
This new build capitalized on the strengths of Juggernaut's recent buffs to be an ADD right clicker. Early points in stats compensated for his poor health gain and Mask of Madness significantly buffed his ultimate's damage output. MoM not only allows Jug to be more active in the early-mid game, but also opens up ancient and jungle farming, so one of your starved supports can catch up in the safe lane.
I attribute Juggernaut's MoM-Crit build to the Chinese competitive scene, where it was used during iLeague. The Western scene first witnessed it in CDEC vs VPP at D2L last month, and then the hero caught fire, appearing in matches across all DAC qualifiers in Europe, Asia, and America.
We already know what happens next. Juggernaut appears in our pubs. The popularity and success of Juggernaut in the competitive meta trickles down to us. He is instantly locked, the other team responds with Axe, and everyone cries.
Next: The Sumail Effect
Recently, Sumail has captured the attention of the Dota community with his Storm Spirit play throughout DAC. To be fair, his solid performance throughout DAC was accompanied by exceptional play from his teammates and outstanding drafts by PPD. What we will all remember, however, is his performance in the final game, where he achieved a motley crew of stats: most deaths in 5 minutes, most kills in 10 minutes, and fastest bloodstone timing.
At the same time, Storm Spirt's popularity over the past day has risen nearly 40%, from 11 to 15% pick rate in pubs. I would attribute, or blame, this to Sumail's success on the hero. Chinese pro YYF commented, "there's a new storm trend on the ladder, everyone is first picking storm, and they don't even know how to play it." As with the Juggernaut and Axe wave, there's not much we can do now, except sit back, pick Shadow Fiend, and build Eul's.
I absolutely agree that success in the tournaments would effect the lower level play such as pubs. "If it is shown to work against pros that have been playing for years, why shouldn't it work for me?"
i prefer jugger pickers that pudge pickers......... Kappa
good blog
mamku ebal! Abama abizyana ! Eto vse zagovor 4to bi nabrat' klassi! Ne ver'te pindosam! Slava rusi!
Small correction, it was the second most kills in 10 mins at DAC, not first most.
Axe has made me go on a Dota 2 strike lately after causing me enough grief and damaging my fucking monitor. Seriously, there better be some MAJOR and I mean MAJOR nerfs to some Axe. No more creep cutting, no more spamming beserker call, none of that shit should've ever happened.
Jugg pickers are worse than Pudge pickers. They think that being op with that hero means they are good at Dota, but cmon', who won't be good with a hero that has Magic inmune, Heal, Crits and Invulnerability? Hope Volvo nerfs him next patch.
Yeah, I just had about 3 games today, 2 of them had jugg in the other team and 1 Axe in our team. I lost all games with jugg in it. Guess I'll be calling a break from DotA until this filth is nerfed back again to acceptable levels and hopefully that happens sooner than later.
I'm sick of this shit, it's stupid and ruins the fun of the game.
Big baby.
You are all fucking noobs...You think everyone who picks pudge sucks....Cause its the 2nd most picked hero this period after jugg and most players are bad with him....But before you blame someone for picking pudge wait to see him play...and then Judge retards.....
I see most players here play low skilled games...cool...this is why your opinions are not correct...maybe you should try League of legend...
to be fair, i saw na'vi play warlock mid the other day, tried to copy it in a 3.2k match and this happened http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1222845121 i think as long as you understand a hero's strengths and weaknesses fully and be open-minded enough to adapt your build, you can try to copy pro players in pubs and have a better chance of getting away with it.
Gonna milk this Jugg thing for my MMR haha
Made me 3 k MMR now Thks Valve and Icefrog
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/123383756
also kunka
>opinions
>correct
tfw
I don't know why people asking for Jugg/Axe/Troll nerf (or the Unholy Spinity, if you will). I've seen so many people failed at playing Jugg/Axe successfully just because they think they are invulnerable to damage and didn't think that their opponent won't counter such pick.
Pub nowadays are at least more tryhard than it used to be, Jugg and Axe only need minor nerf if there's any, no need for major nerf. I didn't pick these heroes as much as other people since I love to counter it more than picking it.
There's a reason why Sniper was buffed in recent patch while people crying OP for those 3 heroes
1/1/1 Juggernaut with Mom 1st appeared in western dota scene right before chrismas 20/12/2014 by Team Secret, resp. Kuroky. I remember it very well. http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1104760577
troll was always good and op in certain line ups but he has severe kiting issues if hes silenced
axe falls off like a brick if you dont feed him early game in the laning stage
jug is annoying but easy to counter with euls/ghost scepter/eblade, make sure you kill the healing ward because it heals a lot of health
nerferino juggerino plserino
"I attribute Juggernaut's MoM-Crit build to the Chinese competitive scene, where it was used during iLeague. The Western scene first witnessed it in CDEC vs VPP at D2L last month"
You need to watch more games! Pretty sure the idea came about much earlier. Jug saw a lot of play in XMG captains mode where at the time, PA was considered one of the best carries, and Kuroky played juggernaut as what was then considered a kind of poor man's PA.
Here you go:
http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1104760577/builds
Seeing as how he prioritized stats so heavily one can argue it's not the exact same thing, (but the CDEC also prioritizes stats over the crit so theres that..)
Regardless, the idea has been around for much longer than a mere month. Infact, the January 13th 6.83b patch was on January the 13th, which nerfed the omni slash range somewhat, adressing the trending pick already then.
Edit; I see match was already linked. Still a somewhat awkward thing to write though, "attribute" it to the chinese competitive scene last month? That's like saying the chinese competitive scene is lagging behind by a month or more!
Always amuses me that "professionals" are years behind the actual innovators in high level pubs.
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/66236631/matches?date=&duration=&faction=&game_mode=&hero=juggernaut&lobby_type=&page=4®ion=
omfg stop it with pros developing builds for pubs... it's the other way around... Jugernaut MoM has been around for years, Still remember playing that OP shit back in dota 1 like 4 years ago, same with SF euls and force staff.
^ Exactly.
You are over analyzing.
What happened was that after endless buffs his attack speed got to a point where you can't manfight him anymore.
WITHOUT ANY ITEMS:
He moves fast
he attacks insanely fast
he has massive crits
he has magical immunity
has a strong AOE percentage based heal
and oh and go figure he can instakill you from 450 range while being invulnerable.
This is izzy katka for anyone sporting a brain.
He's so reliant on the attack speed buffs that I can guarantee you if he gets nerfed back to 1.7 BAT no one will pick him anymore.
pubs can "copy" but i still believe theres never a "broken" hero.
its still a PEBKAC
Incoming nerfs to Jugg and Axe:
http://www.gosugamers.net/dota2/news/29911-new-bloom-update-launched-on-test-client-nerfs-to-axe-and-juggernaut
i used to hate jugg when i started(like first 50 games) but his voicelines and stomping power mad me regret those days but now...man he's become almost as cancer as pa is
I pick jugg ,get milked with ominiknight D;
I dont understand why you would pick shadow fiend and build eul's. Is that a new trend?
^ its for sure kill. you use euls on enemy then requim right on his face.
^its also super hard and only worth it for big lulz
I agree to you. I always get flamed when I pick the Axe. What people dont know is that I pick Axe snice i play Dota and he aktually is my most played Hero. This red beast was my first pick in a Dota match, so I have a special connection with him....
Great article. So cool to see this stuff. Seems almost poetic.
The idea of MoM was in the mind of many jugg players for a while, the real innovation is the skill build
I've started to play with MoM as core item on Jugg 8 month ago with 6.81b.
http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/706596112
1 bkb to rule that sf that all
wow you guys are so salty, DotA is still fun you know
there's not much we can do now, except sit back, pick Shadow Fiend, and build Eul's.
I figured they introduced Winter Wyvern as a direct counter to jug. All of her abilities can effectively shut down everything he might throw at you.
He will be balanced if they put his BAT to 1.7 cause 1.4 is stupidly fast
Now i understand it. The complaints about Axe and Jugg and PA were just "todays" version of the complaints about Spirit Breaker and PL, and before that, Riki, Sniper, Pudge...
Bad players strike again.
trench life is hard, but still fun. if you dont like jug, just pick omniknight. jug no likey omni.
Kids always cry about heros being broken then pick it thinking they will destroy, end up getting ravaged...
This is the reason I love when heroes get buffed.
I used to get flamed for jungling on jugger, now... well I still get flamed but at least im not the only one hue hue.....
i Still prefer to max blade fury than crit since it damage is no joke at early stage of game.
Btw Juggernaut is 1 of my favorite hero even before this patch.
"As with the Juggernaut and Axe wave, there's not much we can do now, except sit back, pick Shadow Fiend, and build Eul's."
ROfl