Being the first actual month after the 6.81 patch, May saw a number of shifts in terms of hero picks and bans. With a good deal of tournaments running then, let us see how the teams have reacted, adjusted and drafted with the nerfs, buffs and changes.
May tuned out to be the only full month wherein we played under the 6.81 patch. The metagame changes were well received, but how did that relay to the hero picks, bans and win rates?
The previous month was the home stretch for many tournaments. While not many tournaments finished during that month, May represented a crucial stage for tournaments like WPC-ACE, D2L Western Challenge, Dota 2 Champion's League, The Summit and ESL. All four The International 4 regional qualifiers were also held then.
Most picked - Mirana
After falling down to fifth place last April, Mirana leaps back to take the distinction of being the best hero outside the first ban phase. She takes the trophy by a wide margin, getting picked in almost 150 games more than the second placer in Invoker. Last month's top two favorites in Centaur Warrunner and Ancient Apparition drops to fifth and eight place respectively.
Nature's Prophet and Dark Seer make their way back in the list, and Wraith King jumps up to take the slot previously held by Ember Spirit. The most noticeable entry though is the appearance of Treant Protector as he takes the fourth spot from not even inside the top 15 last month.
Most banned - Batrider
Despite a number of nerfs, Lycan is still one of the most banned heroes in the game. His gap from the others isn't as big now though, as another hero in Batrider had been banned an almost equally (but slightly more) number of times. These two aren't really new to being here, as they are two of the top three most banned heroes last month.
New entrants in the most picked area like Dark Seer and Treant Protector also found their way into this list, while supports Io and Shadow Demon also entered. Among the heroes who exited the list are Dazzle and Luna.
Most contested - Batrider
The top three banned heroes also take the podium spots for the most contested heroes. Ember Spirit, who was third last month, just barely hangs on to this month's as he finished fifteenth. Falling off is the hero with the most average deaths last month in Shadow Shaman, and entering are supports like Shadow Demon and Io which are both generally never in the front line.
Taking the biggest hit this month is probably Nyx. Placing in top fifteen in picks, bans and contests last month, he is no way to be seen on May's charts. Naga Siren is also interesting in a way that while she has placed fifth in the most banned heroes for two months in a row, not many teams are actually picking her.
Top winrates - Templar Assassin
May's best heroes performance-wise is like a flashback from a few versions ago, as Templar Assassin, Visage and Earthshaker placed first, second, and third respectively. The increase of Io's usage affected his win rate, dropping out from the list from number two last April.
An interesting note is that ten of the heroes from the most contested and banned list, and nine from the most picked list are not within the fifteen heroes with the best win rate.
Kills/Deaths/Assissts
Dunking and tossing seemed to be trend this month, as Axe and Tiny topped the heroes in kills per game. Axe, of course, is no newcomer as he has made a firm hold to the top spot that he had first secured last April. While Shadow Shaman's popularity dropped, he also retained his spot as hero with the most deaths per game with an almost equal amount from the prior month. Entering the top two of the assists board, on the other hand, are two big heroes in Earthshaker and Elder Titan.
For heroes picked more than fifth times, Keeper of the Light tallied the least average kills as he only had 1.5 per game. The elusive Morphling is still the hero with the least deaths per game, while Outworld Devourer is the one with the least assists.
Tidbits
We also came across some numbers which may not be significant, but are interesting nonetheless.
- Storm Spirit has the lowest win rate for heroes picked more than 50 times, finishing with a .359 winning rate last month as it won only 33 times out of 94 games.
- Sniper still has the lowest win rate among all, but its at least slightly better than April's 0/14. He went 2/9 (.182) last May.
- Templar Assassin, aided by her Psionic Trap for vision and Psi Blades for clearing creeps, is not surpringly the hero with the best rune control, averaging five per game.
- Anti-Mage still works, well at least half of the time. He has a 50% win rate across 36 games, and he is the hero with the highest average level, gold per minute and experience per minute last month.
Source: datDota, Gosugamers
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