Ignored But Not Forgotten - The Unpicked Heroes of TI6
The past year has seen an incredible progression towards a meta that has been more diverse than any before. With 105/110 hero picks during the LAN portion of The International 2016, this meta will easily enter the history books of Dota 2. With such a diverse meta, it begs the question, why the left out heroes weren’t worth considering, especially considering the past International, where heroes like Lina and Leshrac were amongst the top picks. Why do they not matter anymore?
Lina + 
Leshrac
With the addition of items like 
Aether Lens or the fact that Intelligence increases your spell damage, it would almost be logical to argue that at least once these two heroes would be worth a pick. With a lot of burst and teamfight control, surely these heroes could thrive in such a teamfight-heavy meta, especially since both also provide push.
One of the biggest issues both face is the innate squishiness. Both need items in order to be survivable. As picks, they are also less flexible than other heroes, simply because they usually have to be laned mid. 
Mirana was the most popular hero at TI6, not only because of how strong she is, but also because she is incredibly flexible without dropping off significantly in effectiveness. The same can’t be said about Lina or Leshrac.
Another big issue for both heroes is a lack of teamfight presence in prolonged engagements. Evil Genuises’ game 1 vs. Digital Chaos in the lower bracket finals of TI6 features a 
Queen of Pain, which suffers a similar issue. Magic damage is good to burst heroes down with, but mana as a resource is quickly depleted in teamfights. As heroes become tankier, spells become less effective.
Physical damage is definitely preferred at the moment, especially as games are also expected to go into the lategame, where, through Glimmer Capes, BKB’s and Pipes, physical damage remains the most reliable one.
Visage
In a meta where 
Drow Ranger is as popular as now, one would expect Visage to make quite a few appearances. Especially with such an emphasis on physical damage, as pointed out above, would or should Visage shine, as a hero who scales quite well into the lategame. Not even a single ban or pick stands to his name however, regardless of how many established Visage players attended the event.
The current meta doesn’t allow for many greedy supports, such as Visage would be. While there are exceptions (
Kunkka, 
Sand King), this year has generally seen a trend away from greedy, farm orientated 4 positions. There is a bigger emphasis on offlaners now, with some teams even opting for two defensive supports. One support on each team may still farm or acquire a high networth, but it rarely is on a hero that truly transitions into a fourth core.
Visage is also by no means a teamfighter. He can push and gank, but in teamfights the hero falls flat.
Treant Protector
Treant Protector may be a defensive support, but his defensive capabilities are clearly inferior to those of currently popular heroes, such as 
Oracle or 
Dazzle. In fact, often times Treant needs a line-up around him, whereas the other heroes can be picked into seemingly every line-up.
The hero may be able to teamfight somewhat well due to his ultimate, but it has a high cooldown for a simple disable, which doesn’t even deal damage. Worst of all, the hero needs farm, yet has no innate farming ability. He does scale well into the lategame once he does get the farm though and Living Armor is an excellent spell against sieging, but none of these arguments are enough to truly propel him into drafts.
Bloodseeker
No matter the meta, for ages now has Bloodseeker tried to find a footing. When he was picked, it was not because he suited a certain playstyle, it was because of his insane damage output. The hero by itself is still considerably strong, but not worth the risk.
He generally needs more items than the average carry to truly match their damage output and his ultimate is easily countered with a simple TP. He gets easily bursted, thus often needs a BKB, but also deals only little damage in return.
The hero works best in order to boost another carry/core, but his laning stage or midgame pacing isn’t strong enough to really put him anywhere outside the safelane or jungle, unless it’s a suitable match-up or there is no need for him to dominate the midgame. In two occasions, Bloodseeker was picked in the qualifiers for TI6. While it could be argued that he was a key element in both victories, there’s a case to be made that another hero could’ve carried them to victory just as much.
Pros stick to what’s proven
As much as pro players and teams like to experiment, ultimately they’ll often still stick to what has proven to be successful. It has certainly gotten a lot better over the past years, especially the past one, but there is still a case to be made that certain heroes are unpicked, or underpicked, because they are not part of the flavor of the month.
This certain flavor will always be around, certainly in tournaments where millions are on the line and picking something out of the ordinary could risk a few hundred thousand dollars.
This is truly the most diverse meta we’ve come across in Dota history, but there will always be room for improvement and the Lina, Leshrac, Visage, Treant and Bloodseeker fans will be anxious to see what ideas Icefrog has in store for their favorite heroes. Who knows, maybe they’ll even be at the top of food chain come TI7.
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no one writes first or some shit ?
lulululul
FIRST!
About Bloodseeker:
"When he was picked [...] it was because of his insane damage output.[...] He gets easily bursted, thus often needs a BKB, but also deals only little damage in return."
What?
He WAS picked because of his insane damage output. Now, a couple of patches later, he deals less damage. Easy. Remember that idiotic bloodseeker patch maybe 2 years ago. It was hell.
He still deals 1k right click damage without crits....
Visage can't teamfight ROFL
So wierd these heroes have not been picked. They are all unique. I was expecting shit like troll, sniper and techies to be ignored. For me, its just an occasion. This five are definetly viable.
They need to bring back bloodseeker's old spell
ULU ULU
Whoever wrote this, should have mentioned that a big reason why Lina and Lesh suck is that their burst damage is chunked by a 225gold item, Infused Raindrops.
"Visage is also by no means a teamfighter. He can push and gank, but in teamfights the hero falls flat." this guy who wrote this has no idea about how visage works. beast in early figths and pick up roa and hes still viable in midgame figths
Everyday until Techies is buffed.
lina can be played in many roles, plus can shutdown ezly cores on early, so how come she is not flexible?
@Peterpan spoke the truth, all of the burst damage from lina or lesh in the early-midgame can be countered by a simple raindrop for 225.
i told you lesh needed buff...
^ who cares about you and you told who? idiot kid with 2k mmr normal skill LOL
who used arc warden??
arc warden isn't in captains mode. so no one could use him. if you've only played 100 games of dota you shouldn't be talking about what heroes need buffs or nerfs. the guy who wrote this contradicts himself in the same paragraph. in 6.84 bs's main advantage was the movement speed not dmg.
I think bloodseeker could come back as a magical dmg core,just like mirana. His dmg with e-blade and Dagon is insane plus his aoe pure dmg spell, he is still able to kill most heroes in one second.
Make Bloodseeker's 1st toggle, add another single target spell to counter linken's and he should be fine
And what about Doom? He wasn't picked much, was he?
doom was picked but he performed poorly. giving bloodseeker his old silence back to break linkes would probably be too much. even in 6.84 the hero wasn't competitively viable. just because he was picked a few times doesn't mean he won games. in ti5 i'm pretty sure he had a winrate in the high 30s. the big problem with bloodseeker was that about five minutes into your laning phase everyone on your team would be between half and 3/4 heatlh. bs got speed from even 3/4 heatlh and he got it from everyone on your team. his dmg was upped, but that wasn't what really made him a problem. what made him a problem was that if you're whole team was not LITERALLY AT FULL HEALTH he was running at something like 622 movespeed. if anyone has every played liycan they realize just how powerful it is to run faster than the speed cap. there could be a support at the enemy safelane and you could run from your jungle down to the enemy safelane, dive the support who was at 3/4 health (didn't show up on minimap because of thirst but you knew where it was because of your teammate's vision) kill the support, and run away at 650 movespeeed. there was basically nothing anyone could do to stop you because you were just too freaking fast.
you could've said it much faster
these hero are hero that revolve into bursting one hero/saving on hero and it's no longer affordable to lose too much cooldown just for one pickoff. they were core in the 6.83 meta where the comeback mechanic was so strong that just getting one key player pickoff would be a huge swing in net worth
@dlebensgefahr i agree, i wonder why they didnt pick bloodseeker, he works PERFECT in adition of faceless void (very contested this TI6), and he is a good counter for heroes like slark and timbersaw (very contested too), but noo, professional picks PROFESSIONAL pick like troll and ogre.. seriously, no wonder why
How many times I need to say
-Go jungle Bloodseeker with Iron Talon
-Farm Poor Man Shield and Boots first
-Transition into Aghanim Scepter (should get it in 10-15 minutes if everything is going ok and you get some ganks of)
-Start maning up with your team and use double Rupture (should be level 2 at that point)
-Go for Guardian Greeves (yes thats right, GG boots, remove silences and slows and negative buffs, helps your team, passive regen aura, always have mana, its totaly legit, I dont know why people dont realise that)
-After that, go for Linkens Sphere
-Throw some BKB for finish the game
-Attack speed or MKB is item of choice for late game, Mjollnir is also good.
Have fun stomping pubs!
wheres sniper?
remember, wings's captain said they have bloodseeker and treant strat.
The main problem of Visage is that he can't stun with birds, recall them and instantly stun then. It was the main feature of the hero. A lot of Visage players said that, for example, Lil, who played this hero for a very long time.
BUFF SF PLS!!!! BabyRage BabyRage
Which team picked Omni?!?
please nerf the timbersaw
sniper is totally uselees right now,very easy to take down and need expensive items
Navi picked Omni once (Artstyle)
i think in 23 August we will see very interesting changes. And these heroes will be stronger, but who knows(
buff techies Bruno pls
Best comments ever. Really.
*sarcasm intensifies*
Edit: i meant the whole comment section. Really.
Wkwkwk baka's
they didn't even bother to mention sniper, troll and techies. to be honest I just think it was a strange coincidence visage, lina and leshrac were not picked.
The point about lesh being squishtown is valid but lina? She has a movespeed buff that triggers on cast for poot's sake. All you have to do is get an aether lens+boots+wind lace and you become a ghost that stuns and nukes on the fringe of the action. I was honestly so surprised she wasn't picked up since she both counters and works really well with lots of meta lockdown heroes such as void, beastmaster, invoker, shadow demon, and elder titan. I guess it's all up to the captain's comfort zone and confidence in picks.
I just feel sick whenever I see Mirana nowadays. In every friggin' game :/
How does Lina counter anyone in the current meta
a lot of guys here don`t understand that not the heroes that need buff/nerf ... but the items
rain drop and no one can burst you with magic ,,, < the item that increases range > the stats on this item are crazy even meepo get it
my mom need to know about it
PATCH 6.89 IDEA LESHRAC
Basic
Base Armor Increase 3.29 to 4
(str) Strenght gain per level increased 16 + 1.5 to 16 + 1.9
Skills
Diabolic Edict : affects only heroes.
Lightning Storm : damage rescaled : 70/115/150/220.
Pulse Nova add cooldown 2 seconds.
Pulse Nova Damage Radius: 450 to 500.
Pulse Nova It can be activated being stunned.
(aghanimsscepter) Pulse Nova Aghanim's Scepter reworked : After two explosions three explosions occur every 0.5 seconds and the damage rescaled with 140/180/200.
wtf by making edict not do dmg to towers u killed the one thing lesh can do. I just go meme lesh build and max edict, as soon as enemy mid leaves lane just take his tower. I'm not too experienced right, but it worked for me.