BSJ named the best carry and mid heroes in patch 7.41f

Caster and former professional player Brian 'BSJ' Canavan named the best heroes for the first and second positions in the current meta in a video for the club's YouTube channel.

You might be wondering why Slark is back in the meta? It was not changed in any way in patch 7.41f. In the previous video, I already said that carries with a ranged attack type were constantly weakened. As a result, many of these heroes that dominated the lane simply fell out of the meta. In the previous patch, tempo characters capable of catching single targets, such as Slark, were ineffective. Ranged heroes had a huge amount of damage. They allowed the team to come together so quickly that the game was over before you could really play. Now we find ourselves in a completely different meta, where even on the professional scene, teams are increasingly favoring slower melee heroes who usually build Battle Fury.

As you can see, the other two heroes are Phantom Lancer and Sven. They fit perfectly into this meta. Slark punishes all melee players with Battle Fury because he hunts them around the map and gets into the game earlier. And Phantom Lancer punishes all carries that want to farm, because it outperforms them in the late stage. Nerfs to Mjollnir, Shiva's Guard and Radiance also have an impact, and Battle Fury by itself cannot cope with the illusions of Phantom Lancer. This is a very scary hero in the late game.

So now Slark is a tempo carry, something like Shadow Fiend was in the last patch, but who plays completely differently. And Phantom Lancer is a hero for the deep late game.

Topson started playing him before patch 7.41f, but now this hero is increasingly appearing in my games and looks very strong - this is Outworld Destroyer. He is one of my least favorite characters in the game because his Astral Imprisonment and ability to steal mana are some of the most annoying mechanics in Dota. Besides, there is a risk that he will kill you in an instant. A standard build usually includes Meteor Hammer, mobility items, Aghanim's Scepter if survivability is lacking, or Scythe of Vyse if you need to kill one character quickly. But Outworld Destroyer's main advantage is that it dominates the lane against melee heroes.

I still included Ember Spirit here because if you're looking to master the mid laner role, this hero is a great choice. However, you need to be very careful with Ember Spirit: there are counters like Slark and Outworld Destroyer, as well as Earthshaker or Monkey King, which can close you down in the lane. If we talk about a hero that is worth mentioning not so much in the context of learning how to play him, but because he appears in every match and is terribly annoying when you don’t know how to act against him, then this is Ember Spirit. The main thing to remember is that players on this character almost always collect Spirit Vessel and bet on Searing Chains, so he is extremely vulnerable to dispels.

And three more heroes will be special - these are Invoker, Arc Warden and Meepo. Invoker remained relevant from the previous patch with the same build through Meteor Hammer and Boots of Travel. But now I'm seeing Arc Warden a lot more often. Firstly, the pace of the game has dropped, allowing the character to have the space he needs. Meepo is also starting to punish due to the fact that the game has slowed down - he fits perfectly into the approach of simultaneously farming and hunting opponents.

Previously, Brian 'BSJ' Canavan talked about how the meta has changed in the first position after the release of patch 7.41f in Dota 2.