General DiscussionWhy is there an illusion heavy meta?!

because heroes like drow morph are strong with introduction of dragon lance and illusions go naturally with high agi heroes

Total hp increased
SD's illsuions were buffed in one of the recent patches (dont remember exactly which one)
Dragon lance now gives agi

Thank you. But still:

as far as I see it, Drow isn't necessarily played with a Manta as core item. And the higher potential of Morph goes along with the ability to morph str/agi stats, with fits perfect to the stats given by Dragon Lance. Plus, the damage of his ulti illusion was highered to 80%.

I've read on Dotabuff about the "illusion-based meta", and I've heard casters at TI6 talking about it. But i still don't get where this comes from, since I don't see such a priority on illusions in my daily Dota life neither (maybe cause I'm 3,5k...).

Could this impression of the meta be based on the rise of TB in the group stage of TI? But this wasn't temporarily because of Dragon Lance, rather because the potential of TB wasn't seen like this before...

Thank you too, PLYO. Seems like if all this aspects come together, one can speak of such an illusion based meta.

You really don't get it?

Let's put this simple example:

Shadow Demon with his disruption spell on Drow/TB/Morph/Luna with Dragon Lance and decent items like every 15 seconds can efficiently siege enemy towers or high ground with no risk at all and they can't do nothing about it.. Now add to this Manta illusions etc and you'll get a clear picture, ez and safe pushing xD

illusion based meta? goobi pls when PL is trash tier we can't speak about illusion based meta

Yeah, ofc i knew about the SD, but speaking about an illusion meta only because of this wasn't enough for me. I didn't realize that many smaller things come together. I wrote my first reply before i saw PLYOs comment.

I summarize:

- SD buff on Disruption
- Dragon Lance
- Morph buff on ulti
- Total HP increased
- consecutive buffs on Luna in the last patches

Thanks guys.

I dont know where i read it, but here's an example, speaking about Luna in the latest article "Shifting Tides—Meta Changes":

"The big boom came when people started realising how good the hero is against illusions and how good her own illusions are."

Why would be there a boom of a hero, who is good against illusions, when illusions are not in the meta.

Not my opinion, just citing.

But don't you know that admins who write that are 2k pinoy monkeys 4Head xD

Illusions in general are a highly efficient way of dealing damage, especially if used by agi heroes.

also, skill cap.

no pl no naga makes it a false illusion meta.

what the casters meant about illusion based meta is the combination of shadow demon+ a good agility here. This combo is very strong late game and also provides u with a slow and reliable high ground seige.
Otherwise traditional illusion heroes like spectre, PL, CK and naga aren't as popular as they used to be...

In 3.5k mmr there is no meta, that's why you don't see it.

Let me give you an example.

Enemy team has Terror blade, or Morphling, or Drow, Or Alchemist

with a Shadow demon support to disrupt the carry.

when the enemy team is around lvl 6 (assuming their laning stage went fairly well)

They can group up and take your towers 1 by 1 , and you cannot do a single thing about it, because your towers will melt.

Everytime you lose a tower, the enemy gets tons of gold, they use that advantage to keep buying items, keep pushing, take control of your map, ward your side of the map, ETC.

It's not just "OH ILLUSIONS R STRONG AND WILL WIN FIGHTS N GAMES"

it's what is BEHIND THE USE OF THE ILLUSIONS.

With Alch always getting armlet/radiance, and TB / Morph / Drow being able to get dragon lance , illusions have more stats, combined with a shadow demon , they can be very hard to deal with .

You cannot defend well without a hero like omniknight, or a good jump on the enemy.

There have been quite a few buffs to illusion based heroes and illusions in general.
Damage block (from stout shield, PMS, vanguard, etc) now affects illusions which makes them a lot more survivable.
Dragon lance gives lots of cheap stat which is good for illusions heroes since illusions only benefit from stats, not from flat HP or damage, thus giving most illusions heroes a new strong item which lets them do better in midgame.
Shadow Demon has been repeatedly buffed with his illusions as mentioned above. Buffs also for Morph, TB and Luna.
Many of the AOE nuker midlaner like Leshrac, QOP, Lina, Ember and even SF and OD have either been nerfed or fallen out of the meta, removing a lot of counters to illusion heroes.
Diffusal Blade was buffed several times. Diffusal is Obviously great for illusion heroes.
Towers were give an armour aura which makes fighting under enemy towers harder. Thus sieging safely with illusions became more popular.
HP increase benefited illusion heroes slightly more than regular heroes.
Some of the old meta carries like Gyro were nerfed as well as the items they used to buy like Drums and S&Y leaving the floor open for illusion cores.
Buffs to pipe and Crimson benefit illusions a lot.
Abyssal blade rework. Illusion heroes now get more out of abyssal than they did before while regular carries get a lot less.
Armlet Buff benefits strength heroes and their illusions. (More of a buff to STR heroes in general but it is extra good on those with illusions like Alch)
Strength now gives 20 HP which once again benefits illusions a lot.
Nerfs to stacking weakened many popular cores while not majorly affecting Illusion cores. Also Damage block change mentioned earlier now makes jungling with illusions more efficient.
Nerfs to flat bonus damage of items like MKB and abyssal weaken many cores but don't really weaken any of the illusion carries.
Roshan buffs make it harder for normal carries to take Rosh. Illusion carries never really prioritised Rosh so it doesn't hurt them as much.

There were other changes that favoured illusions as well but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Generally a lot of things went in favour of Illusions.
NOTE: Dragon lance is the biggest reason why illusions are good now. This is also why PL, Naga, Specte and CK aren't great now, since they don't build dragon lance. Ranged illusion heroes like Luna, Morph, SD and even TB can build it and thus are strong at the moment. The only exception is Alch who just farms fast and this can make really strong illusions early into the game that the enemy isn't farmed enough to kill quickly. Also Armlet buff helps him.

naga is a situnational pick.... pl is garbage

i suppose that naga isnt popular because turbopushers like drow morph are in every game

I remember when terrorblade, juggernaut, and morphling were in all my games, now I just see morphlings, not even terror blades, weird.

So basically thanks to drow and shadow demon the TI4 death ball push is back as the premier strategy except instead of having to wait for DP and Shadow Shaman ulti cool downs they can just keep pushing and fighting with 100% uptime.

SeemsGood thanks OSFrog.