Facets introduced a lot of balance chaos to the game. There are many heroes who can perform great with one facet and be completely unviable with another. However, there are also heroes who are simply too weak in the current meta, regardless of what facet they choose. These heroes desperately need a buff and today we are going to have a close look at them.

Discussing the professional meta seems redundant — hopefully there is a minor, post-tournament patch to deal with some of the more problematic heroes. Instead, we would like to highlight a couple of our small grievances with the current balance of the game and start a discussion about what we would like to see changed.

There are bad, statistically game-losing Facets and there are “bad” hero facets. The ones that receive mockery, while technically being decent in some scenarios. Today we are going to go over facets that we feel get underserved hate and analyse how and when they can be the better option.

The facet mechanic is very interesting, but it is going to take a while before it matures into what we feel Valve envisioned. Currently, many heroes have a “weak” and a “strong” facet, as opposed to having two distinct situational options. Today we are going to look into some of the most egregious examples of this and share our opinion on why they are underwhelming.

We didn’t have to wait long for a new Dota patch right after TI qualifiers. There were definitely some balance issues in the game and from the looks of it, most of them were addressed. We are going to highlight some of the biggest patch changes and try to guess what it means for the meta.

We continue analysing high level Dota to highlight some interesting fresh ideas. EEU and SA are two regions where games are highly chaotic and aggressive and it definitely shows in their draft and build preferences. Some of their ideas are a return to classics, while some are brand new, but all of them should be easily usable in your everyday pubs.

I got to watch (and even cast) some of the International qualifiers and there are many interesting new ideas to explore. Some of them seemed extremely dependent on good teamplay and high levels of coordination, while some can be easily used in pubs. Today we are going to look at the latter group

The new patch is an absolute treat for players and theorycrafters, but it will definitely take some work before it can be considered balanced. Today we are going to highlight heroes and aspects that are in desperate need of attention from the balancing team. Not only are they undeniably strong, they are also quite frustrating to play against, making for prime nerf candidates. Incidentally, they are also some of the easiest heroes to gain MMR on.

Today we're pleased to release the first in a series of major updates to Dotabuff, starting with new and improved hero and facet statistics! Read on to learn more about this update and others we expect to deliver in the coming weeks and months.