On June 02 2013 01:58 Talron wrote:So about an other hero: Omniknight. I love this hero since forever, so I'd be happy to see him in competetive play. So I actually wonder why he's fallen off popularity, because he was popular as a solo mid during 6.70 [someone correct me if I am wrong about the version], because he's only recieved buffs ever since.
+ Show Spoiler +6.77 - Purification cast range rescaled from 400/500/600/700 to 700
6.76 - Purification cooldown decreased from 12 to 10
6.76 - Movement speed increased from 300 to 305
6.75 - Degen Aura AoE increased from 300 to 315
6.72 - Purification cast range increased from 400 to 400/500/600/700
6.70 - Degen Aura now also reduces attack speed (same values as the movement speed
6.70 - reduction)
6.68 - Movement speed increased by 5
6.67 - Repel Duration decreased from 5/10/15/20 duration to 6/8/10/12
6.67 - Repel Cooldown decreased from 20 to 14
6.67 - Repel Mana cost decreased from 60/70/80/90 to 50
6.57 - Lowered Omniknight's base movement speed by 5
6.55 - Decreased Guardian Angel AOE and duration a bit
6.50 - Changed Purification's damage type to Pure
Taken from:
http://www.playdota.com/forums/showthread.php?t=395166So let's have a look at him, by first looking at his stats.
Startdmg: 51-61 -> Decent. Nothing special. Good enough to lasthit properly
Starting Armor: 4.1 -> It's okay, at least he's no Doom or Alchemist
Strength 20 + 2.65 -> Pretty okay for a melee caster, makes him durable enough to do his job and not easy to focus down
Agility 15 + 1.75 -> Okay, so he doesn't get much armor and AS, but that's nothing he despereately needs
Intelligence 17 + 1.8 -> For being a caster it's a bit low, but there are more than enough items to cover his mana needs
Skillset:
Purification: Not only is this a 360 HP heal, it also damages surrounding targets, resulting not only in 360 dmg, but actually in a 720 hp swing as you heal your target at the same time, if you'd take a 1v1 fight for example. That's huge. Oh, and did I mention it only has a 10 sec CD and a nice 700 castrange? This skill is the saving grace for your xboct-like carry who's going in ballsdeep. The only downside of this skill is the quite high manacost of 160 on level 4. But as Omni naturally goes for some mana items, that isn't too much of a problem, especially if he isn't the only one getting mana replenishment support in his team.
Repel: 6/8/10/12 seconds of magic immunity for only 50 Mana. Unlike BKB it doesn't decrease the more you use it. With the recent nerfs of BKB - not being able to sell it anymore and the 6.78 nerf of it going down to 4 seconds duration with 50 sec CD. Repel has a mere CD of 14 seconds, so it has a downtime of 2 seconds in theory and an even longer duration than a freshly bought BKB as soon as Repel is leveled up to 4. While I make this skill sound ridiculously OP, and honestly speaking I personally even think it is on the verge of being so, it also has it's drawbacks. You remove some buffs of your target, including DD rune [but can be used offensively] but more importantly your very own GA. So you have to play accordingly, which the situation won't always let you. Also the low castrange of 500 is not the best, but acceptable. The worst part about this skill however is, that it can be purged with Diffusal blade.
Degen Aura: This skill is somewhat meh. It's only an 315 AoE, but it reduces not only move-, but also attack speed. When you're tanky enough in later stages of the game and you can allow yourself to be in midst of the fight and stick to the enemy carry it matters. Can be decent to chase down fleeing enemy heroes as well. Other than that it's his only skill, that's not as strong as the rest of his skillset.
Finally his ultimate, Guardian Angel: You and your team get pretty much no physical damage for the duration of this ultimate, which is 5/6/7 seconds on a 150 second CD, with the high CD being the worst part about the whole skill. Other than that it only affects allies within a 600 AoE around you upon activation [Recently introduced ASU makes this skill global and affect buildings, acting as a secondary even better glyph]. Well what else is there to say? It's freaking physical damage immunity, if you could only combine this with magical immunity, to become pretty much completely unvulnerable ... Oh wait, we do have it in the form of Repel!
Pros:
- Strong heal
- Durable
- Strong Teamfight
- Can potentially give anyone a free BKB throughout the whole game
- Ulti is an iWin button in teamfights
- Requires little farm to be useful [Arcanes is almost all you really need, if you use your mana carefully]
- Smashes his hamemr into your opponents face
Cons:
- Melee and thus limited in his laning
- Mana dependant
- Low ganking potential, if any
- Level/Exp dependant
- Slow casting animation
- Purge screws him pretty badly, which is worse these days with the popularity of SD [tho he's also banned quite a lot these days]
Omni's potential place in the current metagame:
In my eyes he's the answer to CK+Wisp. Anyone focussed by them will be healed up, so it's easy to tell which CK is the real one and which ones are Phantasm illusions, since they will inevitably be in melee range. Repel even prevents any initiation in a heads on fight to begin with. No Reality Rift, no Casino Knight 4 second stuns, no Tether stun and no blue balls in your carries face. Relocate is another thing. Sure you could argue ASU preventing global ganks, but with the CD discreptancy of Relocate vs. GA this is a bit too far fetched to me. GA also buys a lot of time to let the Phantasm illusions run out / getting them killed in any way.
The before mentioned nerfs to BKB make him just even more viable. Sure your opponents can get a Diffusal to counter you, but they'll run out of charges eventually, as you can always cast your spells again and again. Keep in mind, that you also force them to spend money on something, they probably rather want to spend on other things. A bit similar to an invis hero, forcing his enemy to buy detection.
So the only thing left is how play him:
I'd say playing him as a #2 in a solo mid position isn't too far off. Let's look what the popular mid heroes these days are: Beastmaster, Kunkka, Alche, Magnus, DK, NA, Slark, Juggernaut, Puck, QoP, Batrider. I probably forgot some of the heroes, which are just picked occasionally, however the point I'm trying to make is: Against who of those would Omni have serious problems? Imo only against QoP & Batrider. Puck can silence, but usually won't go for more levels into Wanning Rift before level 8. Other than that Puck obviously has the ranged advantage, tho Omni obviously face trouble against most ranged heroes, as would most other melee heroes.
Apart from that I don't see him having major problems against any of these heroes, especially in a melee vs melee scenario. In terms of gankability Omni can protect himself quite nicely.
And now the question: Why doesn't Omni see any play? I am trying to see it from every angle possible, yet I fail to see other reasons than his laning and Purge being a major shutdown for him. And as I mentioned earlier with the current trends of solo mid being mostly dominated by melee heroes, the laning trends are going towards his favor these days. So only the Purge problem still exists, but that can't be it.
So I'm done for now with this self-reflection / rant / prediction of next top Hero thingy I just wrote. What you guys think? Am I just so off, what's the deal with that holy fella?
#E: Btw, I'm posting this here, as this imo is the only place to have a decent quality discussion of any DotA related forum.
EPT
