In addition to being bad farmers and bad playmakers, both heroes share one more key weakness that was not brought up yet; they can't push towers. If you ask me, a hero like this only really has one option for how to play and that is to teamfight. In many ways (or so I assume) both heroes are victims of the end of the brawl meta. Iirc pre-brawl meta the niche of these two heroes (outside of the teamfights that did happen) was to be a +1 for kills, silencer mostly to steal int for that sweet int growth and OD to actually secure kills. These types of manouvers, however telegraphed, inefficient and slow they may be, were the way to go even in the pro scene. I assume the meta around this type of play has been forgotten long since so no (pro) player can pull it off anymore, but I can imagine it being rediscovered. Razor has kinda eaten that niche alive though, why have slow ganks and long cooldowns when you can just go brr and still have good teamfighting and lategame (and not even have to worry about bkb!). Maybe in some super niche circumstance it's fine to be a worse razor 99% of the match for that one moment where you really need a big ulti. The fact you aren't forced to go hg anymore makes it hard to imagine what kind of weird ass situation that would imply. Maybe there is somehow a situation where OD/silencer can somehow get ahead in the early game but whereas a razor would be stopped at the t2 towers by some crazy turnaround they can just ult through the threat and proceed with the slowest deathball ever.

OD is a snowball hero with low farmining potential meaning that if you lose your lane you pretty much cant comeback. Doesnt help that hero has no sustain whatsoever and doesnt buy bottle. Its easier to win mid in low levels pub because supports usualy dont rotate and enemy mid laner is often allows themselves to be killed. It still can be a very punishing pick (like in match RNG vs Spirit on that tournament prior to Arlington), but that requires lkeeping the hero in mind because its certainly not one of the meta heroes. On a bright side OD is good pick against some of the popular carries (Troll, Ursa, Slark to a lesser degree, makes Void's game harder) and still very potent if allowed to snowball. Still think the hero is a bit slept on though, in some games it could had been a good pick if we disregard player's personal preferences.

Салам алейкум, Темирлан. Мы сегодня попались в одну катку, я еще тебе писал мол не тот ли самый kawaiisoсks из ДБ) Привет из Бишкека!

main difference is no one buys BKB in pubs

Не ожидал, что земляк пишет статьи на дб
Темирлан, салам алейкум

Agree with the article. Silencer is a bizarre hero by itself, neither having enough utility to be good support nor having enough power to reliably carry games. Of course, Global Silence is a great spell, but in my opinion, it doesn't justify picking him over other heroes. Intelligence steal and Glaves are quite potent things, but they just don't work in pro games.

He and OD are rare "intelligence carry" heroes in Dota, but because the game, in general, leans to physical damage and, well, BKB exists, they never can really shine. The only hero who can work in this category is Zeus - but only because his damage is very reliable and has a huge range. OD and Silencer unless they're snowballing need to position themselves really badly and even then the damage is just not reliable enough.

OD especially after all of his reworks feels more like "Astral + Meteor Hammer" bot rather then right click carry. And even this build was nerfed.

Темирлан, Салам

Stealing intelligence is pointless when your enemies have none

LMAOOO QUARTERMISTRESS

Remove refresher