Arc Warden is a 53%+ win price hero in all ability brackets this week, sustaining a comparatively excessive reputation. In brackets under Divine his win price is definitely nearer to 57% and whereas it’s no secret that Arc Warden is without doubt one of the hottest smurf heroes, we imagine that he would possibly really be overpowered. At present we wish to focus on why precisely.
For the longest time Arc Warden was balanced across the thought of him being a 2-in-1 hero: his stats and his skills mirrored that. Accessing the most effective XP and Gold acceleration mechanics within the sport got here with the draw back of getting poor stats and restricted means scaling. All of it modified within the final couple of patches, although.
Arc Warden now has a flat three agility per stage improve, that means he now scales significantly better into the late sport. Further fifteen agility at stage thirty would possibly sound and appear trivial, however it’s plenty of further DPS when Tempest double is taken under consideration. Maybe extra importantly, it’s DPS that Arc Warden doesn’t need to do something to get: it’s simply there.
Coupled with the insane stage 25 expertise that provides Tempest Double a 50% Cooldown Discount, it makes for a really bizarre character, considerably paying homage to Shadow Fiend from a few years in the past. Arc Warden can now construct utility gadgets, concentrate on survivability and he’ll nonetheless deal a decent quantity of proper click on injury come late sport.
It’s the largest purpose the hero’s playstyle is altering and the rationale why he’s immediately successful most of his video games, even at professional stage pubs.
There are two Arc Warden builds at present within the works in professional stage pubs: the mid one, and a carry one. They’re nearly equivalent in relation to ability construct: you max out Spark Wraiths, then max out Flux, whereas taking final at any time when attainable. Expertise-wise you are taking skills that improve your injury output, since, ideally, it’s your teammates or Tempest Double that do a lot of the tanking.
What these builds differ in is merchandise builds: mid one generally skips Hand of Midas in favor of earlier Arcane Boots, that builds into Aether Lens. The construct transitions into Aghanim’s Scepter and, lastly, into Octarine Core.
It’s a full-on caster construct that may get a zoning nuke that offers 340 injury by default and 465 injury at stage twenty with the expertise. On a 3 second cooldown. Or a 1.5 seconds cooldown on Tempest Double with the extent twenty 5 expertise. The Spark Wraith additionally reappears as soon as after activation and Arc Warden additionally generally builds Scythe of Vyse, which has a 7.5 second cooldown on Tempest Double.
The “carry” construct for the hero isn’t very completely different: it goes for Hand of Midas and Maelstrom into Gleipnir, earlier than going again for Aghanim’s, Aether and, in the end, Octarine Core with Scythe of Vyse. The tip result’s roughly the identical: the “mid method” comes on-line somewhat bit quicker, however has a more durable, riskier time attending to vital abilities. The “carry” one is extra dependable, however could be over-reliant on the workforce to create house.
Each builds wish to have Boots of Journey, although from what we’ve seen the mid one continuously delays it till after getting the Aether Lens.
The simplest and most dependable option to take care of Arc Warden is to finish the sport earlier than he will get stage 25. You completely don’t wish to combat right into a consistently split-pushing hero who, with any CDR impartial merchandise can repeatedly maintain a goal hexed for 10.5 seconds and has a possible 34-second cooldown BKB on roughly a totally practical hero, who basically has a 30-second respawn timer.
Whether it is already too late, there are some things you are able to do to extend your possibilities of successful. One among them is getting BKB: it doesn’t matter what core hero you’re taking part in and what you’re feeling your priorities are. It’s near unattainable to go highground in opposition to Arc Warden with out a BKB, since he’s basically a wild combine between Tinker and previous Techies. Maybe a BKB+Refresher combo is warranted as nicely.
Focus down the Tempest Double previous stage 25. Getting a hero kill is sweet and all and Tempest Double cooldown is comparatively low, however it’s actually onerous to take care of a ~50% uptime hex from the Clone in a combat. The gold and XP bounty is a pleasant cherry on high.
Arc Warden actually hates being jumped, so investing into further mobility would possibly repay. If you find yourself in a successful place and sieging, the primary hero will almost definitely be round Tier 4 towers, sending Tempest Double to outpush, whereas spamming Spark Wraiths. In the event you can gap-close within the downtime window between Tempest Doubles, Arc Warden will almost definitely die. His stats are higher than they had been, however he’s nonetheless prone to an easy close-range beatdown.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to buyback should you see a chance to shut the sport. They are going to turn out to be rarer and rarer, as the sport progresses and generally speeding the throne is all you want to win. Arc Warden isn’t the scariest of buyback heroes, since he nonetheless wants a little bit of time to arrange his Spark Wraith military to be absolutely efficient. Breaching high-ground in opposition to Arc Warden is exceptionally onerous, however staying there and holding your floor is way simpler.
Arc Warden is likely to be the hidden imba of the patch. With the modifications launched again in February, in addition to further “discover me” buffs in 7.31c, Arc Warden is now a type of tough-to-deal with heroes, only a few gamers know how one can play in opposition to.
Will the state of affairs change as soon as individuals turn out to be conscious of what to do in opposition to the character continues to be an open query, however for now we suggest banning him in your pubs simply in case.
