Why is Venomancer plaguing your Dota 2 Pubs?

Venomancer has always been a toxic hero. Not by virtue of ruining games, but due to his whole kit being based around spreading his venom. However, as of Dota 2's most recent 7.37 patch, Venomancer has had a huge upswing in popularity. But what could explain this huge jump in popularity for one of the most annoying heroes in Dota 2? Well here's why.

Before we get into why Venomancer is such a plague in the current patch of Dota 2, it's worth going over some notable traits of the hero prior to his changes. Typically, Venomancer is mainly played as a Support or on the rare occasion, as an Offlaner. The support variant of Venomancer has a significantly higher win rate (and pick rate), as the hero doesn't need many items to impact games.

We have transferred the stats to the table below:

As a support, Veno typically builds utility items like Force Staff and Spirit Vessel. On the other hand, as an Offlaner, Venomancer builds aura items (like every Dota 2 Offlaner these days). Regardless, both builds work great for Venomancer, as he is a universal hero, who greatly benefits from both build's item choices.

At first glance, Venomancer doesn't seem that harmful. Dota 2 players would rather deal with Venomancer over Viper any day. But once you let the toxins from the Jidi Isle linger, it becomes much worse than some flying dragon snake hybrid that is Viper. Venomous Gale, his first ability, is arguably one of the strongest level one spells in the game, as it debuffs and slows enemies hit by 50% for a whole 15 seconds on top of dealing damage. So if you catch a Gale early on, you are most likely going back to the fountain one way or another.

Then comes Venomancer's most iconic Dota 2 ability, his passive, Poison Sting which adds damage over time and slow debuff to all Veno (and his Wards') attacks for again, 15 seconds.

The slow isn't nearly as bad as Gale with the max level being 14% and damage at 32 dps. Over time though the poison can become quite the hindrance.

Going in tandem with Poison Sting is Venomancer's Plague Wards which allow Veno to summon a Plague Ward that attacks enemies and applies Poison Sting at 50% of the damage, but the full slow.

Last of course is Venomancer's ultimate Noxious Plague which is a poisonous debuff that deals a percentage of health as damage. After taking an initial burst of damage, the ultimate takes 5% of their max health as damage for five seconds. Additionally, if the target dies or the debuff expires, nearby enemies are infected with a non-spreading version of the plague.

Prior to the introduction of Hero Facets, Venomancer was more of a meme pick. Mainly due to the infamous jungle Venomancer build of old Dota 2. However, his two Hero Facets gave Venomancer hope. Both facets are strong, but achieve different things.

The Patient Zero Facet for Veno allows Noxious Plague to spread one additional time without the impact damage. Although this facet is good, Venomancer's Plague Carrier Facet is why he's built up this reputation. Typically Venomancer is amazing at holding down a specific area of the map with his wards. However, with this Hero Facet, Venomancer can place his Plague wards on allies, solving one of Veno's biggest issues.

Combined with Venomancer's new Innate Ability from Dota 2's 7.37 Patch, he can deal massive amounts of damage. This new innate, called Septic Shock allows Venomancer to deal a bonus 10% base damage per debuff the target has. This can be further increased with Aghanim's Scepter, which increases the bonus to 20% damage per debuff. So with a simple cast of his spells, and his Wards that all inflict their debuffs, Venomancer without any items deals an additional 100% bonus base damage to a target affected by only three Plague wards, a Gale, and a Noxious Plague.

Now combine this with items like Orchid Malevolence or Eye of Skadi that inflict debuffs and you have some incredible damage potential. Dota 2 streamer, caster and analyst Wagamama did some testing and a full level 30 build focused solely on damage can do up to 30,000 damage per second.

So in short, you can start abusing Venomancer in pubs because of his new Innate Ability, which skyrockets his damage potential. The flexibility of being able to run this hero as a support or carry that provides vision, does max HP per second damage, and can control critical areas of the map makes Veno a premier pick right now in Dota 2 public matches.

TLDR:

Fret not, if you are on the receiving end of Venomancer's venom, there are multiple solutions to purge the debuffs and poison. The best counters to Venomancer are Black King Bar, Eul's Scepter/Wind Waker or Lotus Orb which all dispel debuffs that Venomancer inflicts (outside of Noxious Plague).

In terms of heroes, any hero that can dispel the debuffs essentially voids Venomancer's strength. Heroes like Oracle or Omniknight are strong against his venoms, as they can either dispel or provide status resistance to survive the debuffs.

Either way, with Venomancer's strength he's bound to get knocked down a couple blocks when the next patch rolls around. But for now, be sure to gain some MMR and abuse Venomancer's current strength in Dota 2!

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