New Meta: Fighting Lone Druid
Lone Druid hasn’t been part of the meta for the longest time now. Despite 6.88 being one of the most diverse patches in Dota history, Lone Druid remains nothing but a niche pick. 8 picks at TI6 were still admirable in comparison to a variety of other heroes, but it illustrates that the hero is simply just not fit for the current meta. That said, the 75% winrate in these 8 picks shows that not all is lost for the hero just yet.
Playstyles around Lone Druid haven’t changed for the longest time. Item builds may have varied--from the Radiance build to a short period of Armlet builds back to Radiance--but the hero has always been the split-push, farming type.
That may all change in 7.xx. Talent trees encourage us to change the way heroes have been traditionally played, such as Ember Spirit. And much like Ember Spirit, Lone Druid now has a new build and playstyle that may very well change the way we perceive the hero.
Goodbye Radiance, Hello Dragon Lance
For avid followers of the Dotabuff blog, it shouldn’t be a big surprise that 
Dragon Lance improves yet another hero. Throughout the last year, Dragon Lance has had an immense impact on the meta, allowing heroes like Drow Ranger and Luna to be more viable than before.
As for Lone Druid, it certainly isn’t the item by itself, but a combination of it with the new talent. Lone Druid’s level 10 talent gives the player a choice between additional 200 attack range or 250 health. Considering the old Lone Druid, neither choice may seem particularly impressive--the additional health certainly is nice, as the main hero never built any significant items to improve survivability outside of auras.
The new build uses the additional attack range however and together with an early Dragon Lance, Lone Druid will have a whopping 890 attack range--a Sniper in the making. Now, the range in itself would yet again not be a reason to rate this new build highly. It’s a combination of a new skilling and the 2nd talent that make this build so strong.
At level 15, Lone Druid can choose between either +30 damage on the Spirit Bear or +65 damage on the main hero. The 65 damage talent roughly equals a 
Demon Edge and a 
Broadsword, which would cost 3600 gold. Yet again however, this isn’t everything.
[missing skill: lone-druid-rabid-5413] is an incredibly capable spell that allows for continuous use at level 4, due to its 30s duration and 30s cooldown. Together with 
Phase Boots, Lone Druid can move around at max movement speed at just level 7. With the already quick Spirit Bear, a player can chase down any target and wear it down, especially with early debuffs like 
Orb of Venom and 
Blight Stone.
The build continues to focus on damage to turn Lone Druid into a right-clicking machine, much like Sniper. Following Dragon Lance, 
Desolator is the most logical choice. It uses the damage talent best and any debuff--in this case the minus armor--is more effective here as the Spirit Bear immediately becomes stronger too. Many players opt for a 
Maelstrom next for efficient farming, pushing, and even more kill potential. From here on out, the options are all open. Some choose the instant 
Daedalus, some want more stats and CC with 
Eye of Skadi.
The most interesting choice actually happens early on. While most do purchase Dragon Lance first, there are some builds that use the new 
Helm of the Dominator. The rework now includes an aura in the item and good stats. The aura is particularly good as once again the Spirit Bear benefits from it. While the Helm is a good addition to the build, it seems rather situational for now, as it delays other, important items.
There is one glaring weakness of the build, or two if you will: Both the hero and the bear remain rather squishy and exposed. Later into the game, Lone Druid may have a 
Hurricane Pike to keep himself safe, but the Spirit Bear is extremely squishy in this build and will likely die numerous times--for 300 gold each time.
Lone Druid himself remains rather squishy too. While he has good stat gain (+2.1 Str and +2.7 Agi) and could build into stat items later on, the fact that he is the one dealing the damage leaves him open for simple initiations, and he has no innate escape abilities. The in 6.86 introduced Savage Roar does help him avoid ganks, but it isn’t a perfect solution. Especially in the later midgame, when the first enemy support picks up a Blink Dagger, Lone Druid is very much exposed to ganks. In that aspect, he’s very much like a Sniper. That said, he’s much more survivable than Sniper, due to his insane movement speed, which allows him to position himself much better in teamfights.
Unlike the traditional build however, this new build doesn’t do well when behind. A late Radiance can still transition the hero into a pushing machine and nuisance, but falling behind with this new build will leave Lone Druid very useless and squishy for most of the time. Even with the build, his early midgame is very weak and passive. He may have the movement speed and attack range, but his damage output isn’t threatening until he acquires the level15 talent and/or picks up the Desolator.
Flexibility
This new build allows for an entirely new playstyle that Lone Druid has never really been known for. Instead of a farm and split push heavy focus, Lone Druid can actually commit to ganking and killing people, both solo and together with teammates.
His solo kill potential is off the charts with the increased MS and attack range, allowing him to run down almost any opponent with ease, especially since his Spirit Bear can provide him with the necessary vision even uphill. As a result, it may be best suited to lane Lone Druid in the midlane, where he can not only become a lane dominator due to his bear, range and MS, but he can also smoothly transition into ganking and pushing other lanes if necessary.
So while Lone Druid may be more of a ganker or fighter with this build, he can still very well transition into a pusher. 
Assault Cuirass and Desolator allow him to take towers with ease.
Is it enough though?
Lone Druid’s pickrate has only marginally increased since 7.00. From just under 2% to now just over 3%. His winrate in pubs has increased by 5%, which is significant, but it is still at roughly 45%. Wings.gaming’s Shadow attempted the build in an official match vs. Digital Chaos, but the Chinese carry had only little success with it. It perfectly illustrated that the build may be strong, but it may still not be enough to keep Lone Druid at the forefront of the meta. His bear is dead weight in the midgame that feeds away 300 gold, and while his damage output may be significant, he also doesn’t offer any other utility, aside from Savage Roar, which is both situational and risky.
The new build is fun to play and it seems like a good change of pace to the so fare stale progression of Lone Druid. That said, it seems like the hero needs just a little bit more to be viable.
"The in 6.86 introduced Savage Roar does help him avoid ganks, but it isn’t a perfect solution."
second
third mofos
Fourth people
just another glass canon
alfredo will always be king
seveneleven
NERF PLS THANKS
Just no, pick sniper if you want long distance heroes. Play LD like it's meant to be played.
This meta prove dota player dun have any inovation and prefer to make this shits
Not LD fans here
So it's a right clicking ranged Lone Druid with a bear that's just there because it tanks for you and might bind your target. This reminds me so much of my WC3 Dota days.
fools cant shutup about ember spirit
"His bear is dead weight in the midgame that feeds away 300 gold, and while his damage output may be significant, he also doesn’t offer any other utility, aside from Savage Roar, which is both situational and risky."
Next blog must give some solutions to this...and also about His bear not able to fully utilize some important items eg. +10 Strength from Abyssal Blade.
I recently played against such LD he had very good ms and owned us mid game sort of but late game he dint scale well since he was farmed but not the bear..
His build also gave us easy snips on his bear for 300 gold so i dont think its a good option unless u get back to old meta thats getting bear farmed and then build items for u.
@MCT I know right, pick silence... Ember is fucked
Yeap the bear feeds later
But the druid's damage is much scarier than sniper
Mid-late game hero
All these meta heroes but I've never learnt them
How I hate Dotabuff revealing all our babies, so we have to make new meme builds FeelsBadMan Well... Veil of Discord Gyro is next on the list Kappa.
Tried this before and it was so fun rather than LD jungle for the radiance.
why isn't nobody talking about putting echo saber on his bear. That shit is straight retiredly good.
Заипатая Мета говор вам от Russian Comunity
yay
what a nice meata
@venlafaxine thanks for that idea mate
With this build LD has zero scalling, which is very bad for a carry. Both Sniper and Lycan have a better scalling.
Anyone that has played enough Lone Druid knows he has one of the most complex power peaks of any hero. The new option of a ranged Lone Druid has made his power peaks even more complex and has inarguably made his late game much stronger.
Since this is dotabuff after all, perhaps the most important stat to consider is that Sniper averages the longest match duration of any hero short of only Tinker and Techies. Sniper has always been the comeback king. That's obviously because of his amazing high ground defense thanks to his extremely long range. In contrast, Lone Druid has historically always had one of the lowest average match durations. There's two reason for that. The obvious reason is because Lone Druid pushes well and ends early. The second less obvious reason is because Lone Druid in melee form has terrible high ground defense. Lone Druid has always been able to turn an early advantage into a win but could seldom defend long enough to turn around an early disadvantage.
That has changed. In ranged form Lone Druid now has the longest attack range short of only Sniper. Combined with his +65 damage talent and Lone Druid has gone from one of the WEAKEST to one of the STRONGEST high ground defense heroes in dota. Thats a HUGE change to the dynamic of the hero. You are now looking at a new hero that can win both fast and slow dota.
Truth be told - this was the old style of playing LD back in Dota 1. We used to pick up phase with Maelstrom, not take bear and max his empower... could chase and kill anyone.
Keen to try this once again.
I think you forgot to mention the most retireded part of this build. The -50 sec respawn time is insane, in conjunction with what austin said, he can defend for days.
@venlafaxine
I think its because a lot of the stats of echo sabre are wasted on the bear (str&int)
LD is much stronger with classic radiance build
the weakness of the build is focusing to much on hero, as before was focusing to much on the bear.. u can still farm lance and deso for hero, then some item for bear, then back to the hero IMO... if bear is squisky, build vanguard + solar crest.. low gold = high survavility
so..
bear boots 400 gold
hero boots 400 gold min 3
hero lance 1900 gold min 7
hero deso 3500 gold min 15
bear solar crest 2700 gold min 20
hero mjornir 5700 gold min 30
hero skadi/ bkb 5700 gold min 35
bear abysall 6400 gold min 45
= 26700 gold in 35 min which is equal to 593 gpm.. natural amount for a good LD player..
Why not just pick sn00paDooPa then?
i tried giving the bear an echo sabre. it was ayt.
Professional play is obviously a whole different beast, but this build is completely viable for pub and ranked play.
One aspect that hasn't been talked about is the bounty runes. Both the bear and Druid can grab runes so with some luck you can potentilly deny an enemy bounty rune and grab your own every couple minutes.
The new patch and talent trees didn't make LD a pub stomper by any means, but it increased his flexibility by giving you another option. Classic bear build, Druid ranged build, or a hybrid between the 2.
And in an ultra late game, like Austin mentioned, Druid becomes much stronger than he used to. With a potential of being 12 slotted between Druid and the Bear. High ground defense, solo kill potential, late game, and flexibility have all been improved since 7.00 release.
Valve, implement saddle for lone druid to ride his bear around and give him starting movement speed of quadrupedal hero like luna please. Also, give him steak on a stick to bait bear. Also, give him cowboy hat and spurs.
The best hero ever ..
only scepter the item of owner the the rest is the bear then the owner will just stand on base ..
The tricks is Push then blink , travel good for rat
Just like Tinker
Look at my RECENT All bear All Win out of 100% win rate i can guarante to win 80%
Try me add and party
But your win rate with LD is only 70% :D
Still doing radiance and people have no idea how much power peak lone druid is at level 5 and when he has 19-23 min radiance... Insta deathball
@charmander
jokes on you, im already playing veil gyrocopter
@Jazakuuul That's why good ember spirit players will buy manta/bkb/linkens depending on the type of silence
seu creysson MITO
to me for this current meta are still under progressive and yet we had never seen pubs playing this shit crazily like the others does.
This meta were straight on to the stats build which seems not applicable on LD consider the bear and LD need to have items in order for pubs games.But trust me :, DL , Hex , solar crest and abbysal blade for LD . And for the bear , u can buff it with any item tht contribute damage and high nukes. come on guys , 12 active slots and 6 backpacks still pretty good in late game. even from 6.86 and before.
From Azusa with love~
70% is insane winrate bro
please that Ld meta is famous at version 5 of dota 2 where ld uses DPS items than rad on bear, and also that ember spell cast meta is used in dota 1 too except only we use arcane boots
Hmm, what about a level 25 talent which allows the Spirit Bear to either gain stats in itself and make use of stat items or gain a talent that would make him benefit half of LD's stats? Too op?