Does Windranger Deserve A Nerf?
With patch 6.86 looming on the horizon after the end of The Frankfurt Major, 
Windranger seems to be one of the main focal points of change for the Dota community. She currently rests as the most popular hero in pubs, and it wasn’t long ago that she was also the top pick for players in the 5k+ MMR bracket (that #1 spot is now Shadow Fiend, currently at a 45% pick rate in the bracket). Windranger is still certainly in the spotlight, showing up in 32.75% of our pubs. But does she deserve a fate worse than having her name changed from Windrunner to Windranger?
A History of Power Creep
Believe it or not, there was a time when Windranger was lamented as one of the worst heroes in Dota 2, and Mirana could do everything Windranger could do, but better. Windranger was a “tweener” hero—she didn’t fit in any role and had an underwhelming skillset: unreliable stun (can’t support), poor escape (can’t offlane), lackluster ultimate (not a core hero). With this in mind, over the past year Valve and Icefrog has dispensed a series of incremental changes to each of those weaknesses, vaulting her to infamy.
6.84
- Reduced Shackleshot cast point from 0.3 to 0.15.
6.83
Powershot
- Increased cast range and travel distance from 1825 to 2600.
- Max damage is now reached after 1 second of channeling, instead of 0.7 seconds.
- Reduced cast point from 0.3 to 0.
- Reduced vision radius from 800 to 400.
Focus Fire
- Increased Focus Fire attack speed bonus from 400 to 500.
6.82
- Increased Shackleshot search range from 525 to 575.
- Increased Windrun duration from 2.75/3.5/4.25/5 to 3/4/5/6.
6.81b
- Reduces Focus Fire manacost from 150 on each level to 75/100/125.
6.81
- Activating Windrun now disjoints incoming attack projectiles.
Aghanim’s Scepter upgraded Focus Fire
- No longer causes Focus Fire to not reduce damage of secondary item effects.
- Now reduces the attack damage reduction from 50%/40%/30% to 30%/15%/0%.
One of the most significant changes to Windranger was one of its first, over a year ago: the change to her Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade (6.81). It buffed her ultimate’s damage by reducing its damage penalty as well as removing the innate reduced damage of secondary effects, such as Critical Strike and Maelstrom procs. The next four patches buffed every other aspect of Windranger's flaws. Along with the Aghanim Scepter change, the reduction to Focus Fire's mana cost made it an essential skill for Windranger, when before it wasn't skilled until level 10. Windrun's duration was buffed by 10% more at Lvl 1 (2.75 to 3) to 20% more at lvl 4 (5 to 6). Powershot's range was extended to almost a Lvl 3 Clockwerk hookshot. And finally—the skill at the root of public discontent—Shackleshot was buffed in its search range and its cast point, making a once unreliable stun a flip the keyboard moment for its victims.
Now the stage was set. The trend in changes to Windranger mirrored closely to that of Juggernaut. Few things changed about the core functionality of the hero. Like him, she received incremental buffs that, over time, didn’t receive the relative amount of attention, until one day, everyone noticed.
Slahser and W33ha’s Way
Before her breakout popularity today, Windranger was a staple within the wheelhouse of proficient mid players. In mid 1v1 tournaments you have your typical Shadow Fiend, Queen of Pain, Puck matchups, but Windranger was right there as well. She has a fast turn rate, one of the best attack animations, and two skill shots that make for highlight moments in the mid lane. She was, however, still unpopular in the professional meta.
First, don’t underestimate the impact a youtube tutorial, or an errant community post, can have on the meta, whether for pub players or pros. We wouldn’t have had a lane statistic for “Jungling Necrophos” otherwise. Back in March, Slahser—Danish ex-pro and Dota content creator—produced a video that showcased his way of playing Windranger. Instead of Maelstrom or Blink Dagger/Force Staff first (the most popular core items then), build Aghanim Scepter. Windranger has one of the best stat gains in the game, but poor initial stats. And instead of skilling Focus Fire at lvl 10, skill it at lvl 6 and threaten the mid tower if your lane opponent leaves. This was a breakthrough that took advantage of Windranger’s buffs to Focus Fire and Aghanims, and leveraged her strengths during a specific window. A few days later, Pajkatt used the build in a pro match (Alliance vs Na`Vi), and thanked Slahser in the end.
The next step in Windranger’s popularity was aided along by W33ha, Team Secret’s mid player, whose wizardry with this hero rivals the best recent signature heroes of other pros: CDEC.Aggresif and Gyrocopter, Secret.EternalEnvy and Ember Spirit, EG.Sumail and Storm Spirit. Keep in mind that Windranger’s last buffs, albeit minor, were back in 6.84. There were some rumblings of a Windranger trend when during TI5, EG’s opponents banned all of Sumail’s heroes, leaving him with Windranger. Credit, however, has to go to Team Secret, who was dominant in their Windranger games, with a 67% in 6.85 and 71% win rate in 6.85b. Not only is Secret one of the most popular teams, they succeeded with Windranger on the biggest LAN stages of 6.85: MLG World Finals, Nanyang Championship, and the Frankfurt Major.
Altogether it was a confluence of factors for Windranger’s rise: buff after buff, synergy with a meta of Slardar and Dazzle, beloved hero by the community, pet favorite of mid players, success on the main stage. It was only a matter of time that she became the villain.
Public Enemy
Let’s get some statistics aside first:
- Across 309 professional games for 6.85, Windranger has a 43.7% win rate
- During the LAN finals of the Frankfurt Major, her win rate was 31.25%, and she was the 14th most contested hero.
- Across all skill brackets for pubs, her win rate is 49.48%
- She has the highest pub win rate in the 2k bracket, at 49.79%
- Her lowest pub win rate is in the 5k+ bracket, at 45.77%
There are a few confounding issues at hand here. First, Windranger was unfavored at Frankfurt in a meta that favored counters in defensive supports, such as 
Winter Wyvern and 
Dazzle. Second, Windranger is a high skill cap hero with a specific function, so her impact can vary significantly among pub players, and even pros (to compare, W33ha has a 70% professional win rate with Windranger across 6.85 and 6.85b).
However, that doesn’t remove the fact that Windranger is a losing hero across all pub skill brackets and across all professional games. Whether Icefrog and Valve favors balancing for pubs or pros, the hero doesn’t seem to be cutting it in either arena. Win rate isn’t the end all measuring stick for a hero nerf, but combine that with her contested rate in pro games and you have to ask: what are you nerfing for? Take a look at two recent high profile public enemies: 
Leshrac and 
Lina. Unlike Windranger, both heroes were highly contested in the competitive scene (100% P+B for Leshrac, 98% for Lina at TI5), and both had extraordinary win rates in either pub or professional play (Leshrac 56% in 6.84c pubs, Lina 62% at TI5).
The last question for a hero nerf is one that can supplant any argument about win rate and hero power: is the hero fun to play against? This seems to be the sticking point for community discontent on Windranger, namely Shackleshot. At its highest level, its a 3.75 second stun that seems to latch at the most improbable distances and angles. Windranger has been the same hero for more than half a year, but only recently has she gathered enough victims for a public backlash. First, awkward angles from shackles can be attributed to perspective (elevation differences, such as low/high ground, or Batrider in Firefly) and hero movement (line drawn from shackle release). There is no conspiracy here, no hidden bug.
We can look at several past heroes who have been victims of nerfs and nightmares to play against. Good luck laning against 6.83 Sniper or 6.84 Bloodseeker. Sniper eventually was nerfed out, but then there was Lina, perched on our own high ground in the mid lane, auto attacking at 700 range. Then there was Techies, who found limited success with a few professional teams and performed poorly elsewhere. But with Techies, Dota became two different games: one was Dota and the other was Minesweeper.
The main arguments against Windranger seem to be that: one, Team Secret and w33ha are very good with her, and two, it doesn't feel good when you lose against her. She isn’t as gamebreaking as Techies, nor is she as lane dominant as Leshrac and Lina were. Shackleshot remains unreliable until she gets a Blink Dagger. Windranger still has that particular element of lane dominance and bullshit skill that flirts with being imbalanced, but she’s just not there yet. However, with her history of repeated buffs, she’s at a point where she’s teetering on that edge. Windranger has long been a community favorite. Let's hope she doesn't reach a point where she's nerfed into obscurity.
The shackle needs a nerf and thats it. She has fairly low starting hp, high stat gain but is kinda fragile already. Windrun is fine people tend to counter it or kill her easily now.
No! Windranger is my best pick dont do this VALVE please!
Disjointable Shackle shot & she's fine -- if anything change her BAT to 1.7 on top of that and she's balanced.
No need for damage or duration nerfs or any of her spells.
How can you nerf the shackle??? It's very hard to perform (especially in comparison to other one click stuns!) and it deserves to stay like that. Wr is a very hard hero to play, I'm currently mastering it and it's really hard to weight in the game...so please, just focus on other pimp heroes everybody knows which ones...and don't rosik please
Edit: PLUS the shackle when latches 2 enemies can easily win a fight (even its not as effective as others hero skills) and it's unfair you don't get money for it...the guys who propose a nerf are just nonsense and obviously don't play wr very often :)
I guess all defensive voices here is wr abusers in pubs. What about 49% winrate, you calling it *balanced*, and it could seem right. BUT. You should count winrate with AGHANIM SCEPTER. WHILE IT'S FIRST ITEM ANY WR BUYING OUT, SHE HAS 57% WINRATE WITH THIS FUCKING SCEPTER. Any suggestions? Emm?
The fact she can stun 2 people on 4 seconds with ability to 100% wipe any hero with just one ulti is just ridiculous. She deserves at least shackle nerf, and i'd say she also needs dmg fix.
I see your point Wings and I say that maybe u are right about the defensive voices, but is also true that most attacking voice come from people who don't play wr and rosik about it. I could agree to lower the stun duration (but I wouldn't ofc because loads of hero has similar skills durations like the maxed silence of dp) but not to the proposal on the disjoint stuff. It's one of her feature And if you take it off it simply nerfing too much, it is difficult to perform and you should be rewarded by that kind of stun, which I repeat, it gets no kind of award is KDA ratio
Plus 4 sec stun is nothing compared to being charged by bara and get ultimate by it or Lina's endless combo... Wr can be easily countered: linken and silence literally make her useless
It's funny how everyone that says she doesn't need a nerf plays her, even op has around 100 games with her, be honest she can easily delete any hero if they are caught off guard are even slightly out of position, her attack is good and powershot can control lanes well so its easy to farm with her and she always has windrun if she gets in trouble.
She didn't nerf at all. At pro match, only w33ha plays well with her.
NERF THIS FKIN OP "BALANCED" HERO
Nope, in fact a little buff in the CD of the run would be good.
I have a hard time believing a hero that is solidly hovering at, or slightly below, a 50% win rate needs to be nerfed. The meta changed around her and she is a jack of all trades so it was only a matter of time until she would find a niche in pub / pro play.
In terms of making the shackleshot disjoinable i am on the fence because then you need to get a blink to make up for that and that will hurt her ability and timing in the game. Honestly it is fine the way it is, it isn't game breaking and she isn't a lock to run over another team like a Lesh, Bloodseeker, Sniper, or Lina in previous patches. Just like Earth Spirit is a skill shot hero with a few tweaks to make playing him easier and less archaic, so too does Windranger have things that make her more palatable. Hers is not the only stun that can't be disjointed either, honestly she is a wildly fun hero to play as, she really doesn't NEED anything changed about her at this point.
I agree that her shackleshot should be a true skill shot, like pudge, mirana, clockwerk, etc. But if the unit target ability isn't changed, at least make the duration shorter. No more than 2.5 seconds. If the point target is put into play, then keep the duration.
no more than 2.5...what a bullshit Tortellini. So why we don't speak about nerfing Tusk...He's perma picked and that cd on the ulti is simply ridicolous!
Shackleshot disjointable.
BAT from 1.5 to 1.7.
Windrun level 1 less than 3s duration.
Anything less than all of these 3 won't remove this plague from planet Dota. I am pretty sure Dota is fine with this cancer not seeing the light of day for at least one year. We've managed to do it with Void, we're going to reach the one-year mark with Troll and Sniper in 2016, and we absolutely can do the same thing to Windranger.
6.86
• Focus Fire manacost from 75/100/125 to 75/100/150.
• Shackleshot is now disjointable.
• Shackleshot max latch distance from 575 to 525 (6.82 reverse change).
• Windrun no longer disjoints flying projectiles.
Three years ago she was played in a support role and I think that people now see her as a carry don't know how to deal with her in pubs.
She is extremely squishy in the early game (poor initial stats), a zero factor hero without items and can't flash farm to recover if she had a bad start at mid as other heroes. You just need to kite her windrun and counter the hero. There are a lot of heroes that can do this like: Clockwerk, Axe, Spirit Breaker, Bristleback, Enigma, Pudge, Slark, Nature's Prophet, Outworld Devourer, Juggernaut, Ember Spirit, Phantom Lancer, Templar Assassin, Phantom Assassin, Lina, Naga Siren, Riki, Broodmother, Lifestealer , Weaver, Shadow Shaman, Crystal Maiden, Storm Spirit and the list continues ...
It's just that people don't know how to play against her.
title actually made me laugh out loud
Just get mkb or some magic burst damage and buy wards to make sure you aren't picked off. Making shackleshot disjointable won't fix you losing to her if you don't take measures to stop her from being effective in the first place.
What I consider a joke is that she can disjoint flying projectiles when using windrun, EVEN when your hero has a MKB. She should NOT be able to disjoint incoming projectiles just by activating skillrun,
I must agree with people on top, i honestly think she is not that overpowered. Schakle can be little hard sometimes, but thats a problem only if whole play of your team is bad. She is fine, is my opinion.
No I think she does not need a nerf. If she gets nerf she will be shite.
maybe something like:
shackle shot is now disjointable
if a unit dies/tree is destroyed that someone is shackled to, the shackle ends early
dont think ult needs a nerf apart from maybe a mana cost one like 100/125/150 or something
either lower her strength gain, make shackle shot disjointable, or let us purge her ultimate from her. WR isnt op shes just fucking annoying if she was OP she'd have a retarded winrate like 6.84 leshrac
saying it because strength in numbers and reasons, disjointable shackleshot. Hell, even buff something else at the same time if volvo is scared of making her not played.
Other WR skillset are fine, except shackleshot. I hope icefrog nerf / make her shackle disjointable on next major patch
like others have said, make it so shackle can be disjointed, and there's not much left to do.
Just return the manacost of FOcus Fire before 6.80 : 200/300/400 mana point
yoo weed lovers :)
wtf is this shit...hero should nerf is fucking alchemist......SO UNBALANCED........NERFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF ALCHEMISTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
the only thing that need to be fix is the mechanic of the shackleshot so it wont oddly executed...or make the shackle range abit tiny...nerfing all the other skill rendering WR useless...the only problem is the shackleshot ridiculous shackle range ability
nerf tusk
I hate windruner. Its such bullshit hero to deal with. Tries to schackleshot you if she succeeds you die if she dont she simply runs away. Even if you survive the stun duration, then you sitll cant fight back just because damn windrun. So basically you must be ~4 - 5 sloted to start being able to deal with her, when you have mkb.
Don't you dare nerf my wr! Just learn how to counter her! Idiots just run right next to the trees when they see a wr chasing them. She doesnt need a nerf!!!!
How about reduce powershot damage and remove slow from windrun?
The only thing needing a fix is her Shackleshot, not a nerf but a fix so it do not shackle in the weirdest way ever. She is not that good beside it. Focus Fire is good and all, IF YOU can stand and shot for 10 seconds.
HANDS OFF FROM FROM WR! SHE IS GREAT NOW, NOT OP. DONT TOUCH HER!
i played 99% of my matches as WR, its rly simple to counet her. each nuker can easily kill her. support lina could be a hude problem for wr.2-3k players juts dont know how to counter her, thats why they wanna see her nerfed. not fair imho
I have played like 400 games with wr and she is my fave hero and she doesn't deserve nerf becuse she can't farm fast like sf and Lina but she have more killing potential so as Lina so she is fine balanced hero honestly she need skills not anyone can play her and ez to conter so plz no nerf plz
If you make shackle a skillshot no one will ever hit again
I am larfing at people who say "b-but just dont stand near trees lah". Windranger picking at its finest. With vegetation covering nearly 50% of Dota's terrain, do you know how hard it is to stand at a spot where you would not be 575 distance from a tree?
fuken op
Rly guys, u just need to control her as u do vs Huskarl, Slark, NS and many others. Pick more stuns and high-armor characters and all will be fine. GL HF all.
nerf that bitch
every thing you said makes sense. But i still hate because shackle shot is bullshit
"Let's hope she doesn't reach a point where she's nerfed into obscurity."
God, I hope with all my heart that hero is never ever played again.
is this even a question? ofc it needs a nerf, in todays games taht ive played, ive seen windranger every game, every single game, shes OP on the lvl of ursa and PA, deso and her ult plus windrun= domination over enemy team...
I also really hope PA gets a big nerf, that 50% miss, even mkb cant help there man, even if it does the crit of stunning 450% will do ( in late game) from my experience atleast 1.5k to about 2k dmg no problem at all, when i play squishy hero i mean all of u guys already know she can one shot alot of supports...
dem boobs O_o
Delete Windrunner, that's the perfect nerf for her atm
Im tink she deserve a base damage nerf like -4 or -6