The Best Hero Is The Worst To Play
Omniknight has been the king of pubs for the past few patches. He’s the only hero with a 60%+ win rate in pubs, and he holds the top spot across all skill brackets. Yet, he’s currently the 47th most popular hero in 6.85b, with a 8.9% pick rate. To compare, you’ll see Shadow Fiend (28% pick rate), the 2nd most popular hero, more than 3 times as often as Omniknight. He isn’t alone here. There are heroes like Abaddon, Venomancer, and Lich—all with greater than 50% win rates but in the bottom half of picked heroes. Even success in pubs can’t transcend the simple fact that some heroes aren’t that fun to play.
No Love For Support Players
Run down the list of our most picked heroes this month and it’ll take 21 heroes before you see a support, Crystal Maiden. Earthshaker is the anomaly here as the 5th most popular hero, but he is also played in the offlane in 33% of games. But in the majority of All Pick scenarios, support players are relegated to second class citizens. The pick stage begins with a clamoring for the cores, until the remaining few are forced to field suggestions of “support please.”
Supports take most of the blame and rarely the glory (e.g. see the chat wheel categories for items and neutrals, which include bemoaning, passive-aggressive comments such as “We need wards.” and “Can anyone upgrade the courier?”). There are no 8k MMR highlights for ward placement or critical rotations. Playing a core is a fairly simple task for the general player, at least for the early game. There’s a loose rubric to follow. If you’re the carry, you hit creeps. If you’re the mid player, you hit creeps. If you’re the offlaner, you try to hit creeps, but it’s ok if you don’t. What is there to do for the non-creep hitting crowd? You can pull creeps and ward, meanwhile gauging where to rotate among all three lanes. Support players, however, are behind the scenes, pulling the strings that can change the tide of the game, whether by using timely Smoke of Deceits or setting up the jungle for their cores to succeed. It’s an interaction that goes unnoticed among the majority of Dota pub players, but at least in 4-5k and 5k+ MMR brackets, adhering closer to the professional meta, we do see Winter Wyvern and Dazzle entering the top 15 most picked.
Sounds That Feel Good (And Bad)
There’s a certain amount of satisfaction that we associate with various sounds in Dota: that ring from a creep kill, the whoosh from a healing salve, the splash from Kunkka’s Tidebringer. There’s an entire field of study, psychoacoustics, that examines this kind of interaction between how we feel in response to sound and music. It’s akin to a Pavlolvian response when we net a last hit. The game chimes our success, and we feel satisfied. Compare the auto attack sounds of Blademaster against Omniknight. One results in a pleasing slice and the other sounds like a thud from a roll of newspaper.
Sounds, and the result of those sounds, play integral parts in how Dota heroes feel. Dark Seer’s karate chop sounds like he’s initiating a pillow fight. When he kills a hero with an auto attack it’s an ironic satisfaction. Omniknight’s Guardian Angel sound is majestic, but the resulting effect is often incomprehensible. How much damage did you really prevent?
The fact is that Omniknight’s abilities are passive ones. Even defensive supports, such as Dazzle and Winter Wyvern, have active, offensive spells or they have core items with actives, such as Medallion, and Urn of Shadows. Aside from Purification, there is no immediate reward to casting any of his other spells. Degen Aura no discernible sound and has a negligible radius. And Repel is a preventative effect. It can enable your Storm Spirit teammate to engage with impunity, but afterwards, does the team congratulate you for that? No, that’s what you were supposed to do (“Can anyone cast Repel?”). There would be some joy in seeing Finger of Death do zero damage to a repelled target, but as of 6.71, the spell can no longer target magic immune units. Unlike other supports, Omniknight is tethered by obligation to his teammates. He is more priest than paladin, holy warrior.
Aesthetic Balance
Omniknight is notable in that he has been extremely successful in pubs for more than a year. He doesn’t need a balance change (non-existent in competitive play) but perhaps more of an aesthetics one. His impact is well documented in pubs, but he isn’t popular enough for that to create a ripple. Valve’s recent buffs to the cast point of Purification over 6.84 and 6.85 may have been part to improve the playability of the hero. But he could also use improvements in his model, cosmetics, and perhaps even an Arcana. How popular would Omniknight be if there was a German Shepherd puppy following him around?
Huh. Makes sense.
if they increased his cast point for the heal bomb and/or GA I reckon he'd be way more fun to play.
That's pretty much why I usually don't play Skywrath, Slark, Lich, Mirana, Sniper, Storm and Witch Doctor. God, even Timber and Techies' voices are better than those.
They already buffed Purification's cast point, now it's actually really fast. A little more range, plus make him look, sound, and feel better. That's it. The hero is basically fine, it's as they said. Nobody wants to support, and nobody wants to play a hero that doesn't seem cool or interesting.
no more hounds please my wallet is empty enough as it is
What is a blademaster?
I can confirm-NO LOVE FOR SUPPORT PLAYERS
I am a full time support (90% + of my games) and have taken up the role over the last two years because i simply know no one wants to do it.
I have come across players that recognize the strife and give me positive reinforcement, then there are the players that act entitled to my constant warding, pulling, smoking, rune control, rosh timer, courier-management, rotations etc.
Life is hard for a support player, even once you hit the 4-5k bracket, everyone is too busy trying to be the next Miracle and Sumail.
There needs to be more public support and recognition from the professional scene for the most demanding role
A single change would transform the hero into a monster overnight -- attack range 128 > 500 -- instantly becomes the best support in game.
Honestly, fuck everyone on my team who picks four cores. If I'm going to support, I want another one with me. Better to spread the utility that way. Otherwise, fuck y'all I'm picking Techies.
Please no I don't want to play against omni fuck that hero
PLEASE do not aestheticize this hero, or add an arcana for it. I can not stand playing against this hero, and it has the potential to ruin games just as much as Techies used to for the enemy team. I fully support nerfing Omni into oblivion, as I'm sure most other pub players would.
Regarding the Sounds section, DotA is just WAY too behind in how great it could be. Imagine that every time you land a heal bomb on multiple enemies, you actually hear a BOMB sound effect for each enemy hit. Imagine if the sound made by Treant Protector attacking a unit actually sounded like a 2 ton tree hitting something. One of the reasons Jugg is very popular is because his attack sounds are crisp and very pleasing to the ear. It sounds like you're actually playing an action game in a grand fantasy battleground.
Immersion is a huge part of the player experience. The reason why WC3 DotA was so great was because the heroes were badass as hell, sounded badass as hell, and felt badass to play. They were true heroes, legendary characters that you respected and awed. Valve DotA is just... lightyears behind. Slardar's model makes everyone want to puke. Half the heroes hit with sounds like wet noodles. There are no GREAT characters like Illidan Stormrage or Rexxar the John Cena of fantasy heroes.
I hate to bring up LoL because I don't even play it but I've seen some of the production and I believe one of the main reasons they are doing better is because their characters are actually well developed. Lore, personality, hit sounds, they all titillate your interest and make you want to play them.
In a game where 90% of your time is spent controlling 1 hero on a single map, wouldn't you want the majority of the development to happen on that front? I'd much rather revert back to the old UI if it meant a few extra design enhancements to the heroes and the map.
TL;DR Dota 2 is an empty shell of a game with no heart and soul, only hats.
Because omni is not an easy hero which make the player who used omni means they know how to play this hero. meanwhile most pub player try to imitate the meta. SF mekans meta, Alche meta even they dont know how to play that hero.
a good omni almost guarantees victory from what ive seen
@Crimsonstfu`
I used to only play support but, by chance really, most of the guys i pub with are support players and avoid playing core roles by choice. I attribute any early to mid game success to them and probably drive the other cores mad with completely biased praise.
But that's fine. Their numbers look bad, their efforts are unnoticed yet they set the game up completely for the cores.
And saying 'Thank you' requires nothing.
Tbh I really like Omniknights attack sound? Juggernaut's attack sound and Nightstalker's are favorites too. The hero needs nothing, he's great as he is, no buffs needed. I don't play him a lot because it feels like cheap wins for me, there is not much challenge to him. I have a 81.82% winrate with him over 15 games.
About the sounds, the fact that a Rampage gets you a huge sound (and text) that everybody hears, when a perfectly landed support job (e.g. Shallow Grave with the perfect timing) will be ignored by the game itself… so, of course, it gets ignored by your teammates :'(
Biggest problem in games, When you need a support no one wants to pick support, When you need carry everyone picks support. Has this happened to anyone else?
no, if you play 2k mmr that was so many noob player like all carry team.
huh, i just want to hit 6k and fuck this 3k bracket. ARGHGHGH
Clicked on Blademaster, was scared of the noise. But thanks for the article, interesting and makes sense:)
In low skill bracket, there are almost no one know how to counter omniknight
I LOVE OMNIKNIGHT!!!!! DAGGER AND OCTARINE SO FUN TO PLAY
I -FUCKING LOVE- to kill a god damn void with purification when he chronospheres anyone in my team with madness on. lol, best thing in the world right there.
True, in my skill bracket people seems only know physical damage and most dont prioritize targeting the support first
Currently the Enchanted Mango only has a 34.43% win rate. Together, we as a community, have the ability to fix this problem and end this horrific tragedy. Please help. It is our duty as gamers to give this item the respect it is due.
I just came here to say I love the Omniknight attach sound. Nothing feels better than killing heroes with The Equalizer!
So the bottom line is he want's more hats...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRV3iz5hCNY
I know exacly what he needs
Omni the best!
Well its not always fun to win in some ways. And i play for the fun of it
We just need the Omniknight Set that SiractionSlacks made that would make him more cooler :3
Bigger problem is nobody supporting, everyone wants to be Miracle and play mid.
I support all the time ;)
The big problem with Omni and Dazzle (in my bracket at least ~2K) is that sense of entitlement mentioned above. Players dive and expect you to save them even if you are across the map. Or they run away from you instead of towards you when fleeing pursuit. They die? "GG no heals no angel no grave" After a while you just get tired of carries raging at you because their shitty gameplay/map awareness got them killed. So I switched to more offensive and disabling supports even it means a lower winrate.
i can tell you why nobody plays this hero. You cant rack kills and its IMO a quite unsatisfying hero. You mostly cant do shit except hug your teammates. Also; playing a support is like being the anus of a body anyway, since everyone will take a dump on you because "wards were shit" or "support screwed us" and "you arent supposed to take that kill".
People dont understand the teamwork that is required but still this hero magically maintains the 60%+. Ranked is a complete shithole for me (1300 mmr, rarely play ranked) and you're dependent on heroes like pudge/bloodseeker/windranger. Games are getting way too standard.
I would vouch any time of the day for a setup where the harder the hero is to play, the stronger it is. Currently, the simplest heros like Riki easily rack 10 k/d but harder heroes like oracle or chen are dependent on a knowledgable team
So am i the only omni picker in 3k? i went from 900mmr to 3k picking cm, abbadom, omni.. and only supports ^^
cookies is best support
his supporting on profile stats is 1/1
best dazzle/ww/cm/rubik europe
chen still pending
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irrelevant comment
I play supports mostly! Omni is amazing in lower tier bracket (like lower 3k) but in 4K some people get smarter and may have diffussal and have great balance in spells and normal atk which doesn't make Omni flexible in such scenarios.
WW, Dazzle, Lion, Tusk on the other hand, now we talking!
still waiting for a Thor arcana (or just a set) for omniknight...
It's not surprising how little supports are appreciated. It's like that in everything. People that support never get the credit, it's always the people actually doing something to get the credit even if they don't deserve it. When you're getting rampages all over the place people are like wow they're amazing, but when the support has their jungle warded turning you invisible and warding up rosh, it's treated like that's just what they're supposed to do. That is true, but the carries should be doing the killing, it's their job.
He needs better lines like:
'Get healed you NOOB!'
'I just saved you, now say thanks'
'Once again Omni saves the day'
'My suport carries us to victory'
A E S T H E T I C S
I have 75% winning using omniknight for 80+ ranked games within 3.5k to 4k MMR... hahaha... Omniknight along with good mid or good hard carry is almost sure win... :))
Omni is not picked because people are stupid lol.
Aside from his lack of mobility and his weak zoning ability as a lane support, and that his inability to gank, he is one of the best late game supports.
Especially with Bkb's going down to 5 seconds duration, Repel gets better. You can cast Repel over and over again, almost 90% of the time making a teammate magic immune (14 sec cd, 12 sec dur). Of course diffisual blade counters repel but first do you really want to spend that much money just to deal with one spell from probably a five position support? And second he can keep casting Repel if you are not quick on killing them.
Guardian Angel also just gets better as game goes late, cause late game more physical damage wins. And by any chance if Omni gets a spectre he can just stay far and hidden, so enemy cannot initiate on him and kill him before he gets off any spell. Then he can time a decent GA. What counter play do you have against GA in pubs? Most of the time, nothing.
He is also not really hard to farm. He has higher armor than average, average attack damage and a really good aeo nuke that also heals yourself, which enables you to kill 4-5 jungle creeps whenever possible.
I am an Omni picker lol love dat hero.
When you talk about Omni, you should mention sven! And we all know that there exist only one sven on Europe servers ... He goes by the name of executioner. He always place it in the bag!
abaddon is actually fun to play. very versatile in terms of team role, even in late game situations.
omniknight isn't boring it's just that it's not that easy to play him
playing omni is not that boring sometimes omni turn the hole game
I'm sorry but support not getting the spotlight is no longer the case people these days value support plays almost just as much as carries. There are highlights of expert level wyvern ultis and the 6 million echo should be classified as a support play even though universe is an offlaner (ppd provided the vision plus the iceblast to win them the game)