Facets that Desperately Need a Buff
The facet mechanic is very interesting, but it is going to take a while before it matures into what we feel Valve envisioned. Currently, many heroes have a “weak” and a “strong” facet, as opposed to having two distinct situational options. Today we are going to look into some of the most egregious examples of this and share our opinion on why they are underwhelming.
Disruptor Kinetic Fence (-6.0% Win rate)
Replaces Kinetic Field with the ability to create impassable walls.
This one is very straightforward to explain: Kinetic Fence is a fun looking ability, but it doesn’t synergise with the rest of the hero’s kit. Two Fences can be used to block the enemy’s escape and there are definitely creative ways to use them, but the end result is still inferior to the regular, circular barrier.
Dealing 
Thunder Strike damage along the wall in a small AoE and applying the associated slow could be an interesting buff and fix to an otherwise weak aspect. We are still not sure when exactly Fence would be better than Barrier, but it could be an interesting experiment.
Keeper of the Light Recall (-6.6% Win rate)
This facet grants the ability Recall
This is probably one of the situational abilities that isn’t necessarily weak, but is rather hard to utilise in uncoordinated pubs. The opportunity cost of losing 
Solar Bind is also too high, in our opinion. Perhaps having access to both spells, with different power levels could be a solution.
There were several semy-effective support KotLs during TI qualifiers who took the Recall aspect. We can’t say it was particularly impressive, but it is a way to flex KotL between multiple positions in Captain’s Mode. Having pro-only and pub-only aspects isn’t inherently a bad idea, so maybe it is ok this facet is underperforming in pubs.
Lone Druid Unbearable (-14.22% Win rate)
True Form transforms the Spirit Bear instead of Lone Druid.
This one is just silly, to be honest. LD is easily one of the most broken heroes in mid level pubs and the reason for it is the ability to survive most ganks, while dealing a lot of damage to both heroes and buildings. Unbearable takes away the survivability factor and makes Lone Druid an unreliable glass cannon.
This facet definitely needs a rework or some creative buffs, because we genuinely don’t know how it is supposed to work. Maybe the idea is to make Sylla the main source of ranged damage, but with a 1.8 / 2 / 2 Attribute gain this is a very questionable idea, even on a Universal hero.
Naga Siren Deluge (-10.62% Win rate)
Naga Siren can create a splash around herself and her illusions, damaging enemies and reducing their Status Resistance.
The supposedly “support” facet for the hero is kind of weird. -20% Status Resistance sounds interesting, but actually making it work in a frantic teamfight is very hard, especially on a support hero who has little to no Illusion survivability.
Core Naga definitely prefers having the -Armor effect from 
Rip Tide, as it is her main source of manacost-free early game economy and teamfight damage. Perhaps leaning more into displacement potential from Deluge Naga with an increased AoE on Deluge and increased Cast Range on Ensnare could be a way to make Naga work as a support. For now, though, just skip this facet altogether.
Sand King Dust Devil (-9.77% Win rate)
Sand Storm follows Sand King when he moves or Burrowstrikes.
There isn’t much to say about this one. It was heavily overnerfed and truth be told, we are ok with it. The “random AoE crowd control” mechanic isn’t particularly fun to play against.
Realistically, this facet should be buffed, but we hope all the Sand King changes are going to come with an Aghanim’s rework of some sort. The hero is constantly shifting between being overpowered and irrelevant and we hope Valve will find the right balance. For now play the Sandshroud SK — it is actually quite decent.
Venomancer Plague Carrier (-9.1% Win Rate)
Plague Wards can be attached to allies and have extra charges.
There are two reasons for this big discrepancy between facets: not only is Plague Carrier kind of bad, but Patient Zero is also extremely good. We don’t really know what the big idea with Plague Carrier is, to be honest.
The only realistic way to utilise it is by playing Veno core and using mobile wards to farm quickly and efficiently. Building into a 
Bloodthorn and getting extra +50 magic damage from every single ward attack is a neat idea, but at this point why not just play any of the conventional illusion heroes with higher levels of survivability, farming speed and late game potential?
Visage Faithful Followers (-12.5% Win rate)
Familiars automatically move with Visage and attack his targets.
The “newbie” facet that sounds kind of ok on paper. Familiars having extra MS and Range isn’t nothing, but the lost versatility is definitely noticeable. It is much harder to land good stuns, impossible to prioritise backline enemies and it can’t be even used as a crutch to learn the hero — Visage is a micro character first and foremost.
In our opinion this aspect is unnecessary. It doesn’t work for newbie players, it doesn’t teach newbies anything important about the hero or micro in general and the only it can be “fixed” is by really amping the values on Familiar bonuses. Brute forcing balance isn’t the way Valve usually operates, so hopefully we will see some sort of a rework for Visage aspects.
Windranger Whirlwind (-5.63% Win rate)
Focus Fire randomly attacks enemies within range.
This one is kind of cool on paper and we believe that in a slower meta it could actually work as is. Right now, though, it takes too much time to get off the ground and become useful. It also doesn’t contribute to Arcana progress, which is a shame.
Perhaps some small number adjustments could make it a viable facet for the hero: the teamfight potential is definitely there and with a right setup this facet can deal more damage than the regular 
Focus Fire. Being both slow and conditional makes it too unreliable for now, but do keep an eye on it.
Closing thoughts
“Where are the Time Zone and RRP?” some of you may ask. This is a good discussion starter and may be a topic for next week. For now we are just going to point out that they aren’t necessarily as bad as people think they are. At least in terms of Win rate stats.
Today we concentrated on Facets that have a >5% negative win rate difference when compared to the alternatives. They are undeniably weak to a point where they can’t even be considered “situational”. These are the ones we hope to see buffed or maybe even reworked.
What are your thoughts on this list? Do you feel like players are simply bad at utilising some of these “bad” Facets and how would you fix them? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Nice article. It would be sweet if the text of the facets could be added at the beginning of the discussion of each. I bet I am not the only one who hasn't memorized every facet for every hero yet, and it is a pain to flip back-and-forth to look them up while reading your analysis.
Great idea, added those!
That's awesome, thanks!
I have literally 11 wins in 12 games with uncontrolled familiars on Visage. 9 game win streak. I fear! I really fear! What is it? Why? I know that facet is worst in the game right now (I really want lose some games). But I win, after win back to back. My opinion? It's bad facet. You earn literally nothing, but lose large amount of control. Why it work? Cause Visage on low rate is broken - AC, VO + BoB and your's team just can't lose any fight. Plus, when you don't use familiar as control - they are attack. It's a lot of damage. I don't have never single game Visage before, and if that facet will change, never game another one. This facet is my only chance to gaming on that hero, really. I have a lot of fun. Please, don't change.
It might work. Just plus attack range, more survival for familiars(it's a bug? I can't tap stone form while silence or stun!) and normalising them to aggro. Please! It's fun for people like me, who love idea of hero, but hate unit control. Visage like a concept - tier S hero for me. All of this years I never ever dream about that kind of experience. Didn't take it from me!
Time Zone is literally better Chronosphere for most of scenarios unless you specifically want to catch somebody like Slark or Puck, or your team is completely handicapped (which is quite often also true). The small difference in winrate comes from a bit wrong playstyle players do with it - you want to max Time Dilation which makes your enemies basically 100% slowed inside of square and in general makes Void more useful early game.
Whenever I lost on Void this patch it was not because of Time Zone - if anything, I was able to comeback a few games and delay defeat longer with it, and in winning games it was really powerful spell. It's easy to lose on Void in general because hero is on a weaker side this patch compared to some broken stuff like Wraith King. (IMO it lacks a bit of damage on either Time Dilation or Time Lock to secure those early fights better. Like why Shadow Fiend has 1000000 damage on his coils and Time Dilation whopping 13 per second per cooldown? It's hilarious, casting it on enemies with more cooldowns should be much more rewarding).
The whole game needs massive nerfs, I'm sick and tired every hero being 4 slotted and level 20 by 30 minutes. Back in the good old days you'd need to reach 45 minutes to get level 25, by 20 minutes you barely had 1 item, now days you are literally fully slotted by 35 minutes and max level 30 at 40 minutes.
There is way too much gold and experience being given and too little gold lost when you due! Reliable gold needs to be cut and gold lost on death should be increased.
The whole game needs massive nerfs, I'm sick and tired every hero being 4 slotted and level 20 by 30 minutes. Back in the good old days you'd need to reach 45 minutes to get level 25, by 20 minutes you barely had 1 item, now days you are literally fully slotted by 35 minutes and max level 30 at 40 minutes.
There is way too much gold and experience being given and too little gold lost when you due! Reliable gold needs to be cut and gold lost on death should be increased.
DISRUPTOR KINETIC FENCE 👉 Increase the cast range 2x, length, and make it instant.
So magnuses reverse reverse polarity faceit is fine but wr faceit needs a buff ? ur all dellusional
I'd pick brood here
Timezone is useful when you have 5 melee on your team lol
There is way too much gold and experience being given and too little gold lost when you due! Reliable gold needs to be cut and gold lost on death should be increased
why this arcana got these legs though. Also all of the facets which replaced regular skills, like KotL, are really dumb compared to the power that Rubick for instance was given. That should be the level most heroes got. Facets that improved the character's base functionality and giving a choice off of that boost. Facets should have improved heroes, not nerfed them. Kotl isn't even that strong in the first place.
I don't knowwwwwwwwwwwwww
I kinda hate facets in general. Balancing heroes against each other is already a headache, but it doesn't get better when you add in talents that need to be balanced against each other. I like depth of gameplay! I just feel like there's one facet that is almost always better than the other, and it creates an illusion of gameplay depth. Furthermore, paradoxically, the goal of both talents and facets is to create flexibility within the hero. I kinda feel like that means there's even less tension in drafting than ever.
I don't feel like heroes need more things to play with. I feel like having more heroes would be better, and maybe, MAYBE, we've hit the limit of what is realistically good for the gameplay anyway?
facets are cool but the whole "this facet sucks" while "this facet is GOATED" is really annoying