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.
if she is neverfed my mmr down
Yes she needs a nerf. That shackleshot is extremely broken when you try to dodge it or run with high ms. It goes weird.
I don't play Windranger much but i can see why people dislike her, being disabled for almost 4 seconds while getting deleted off the map in this time is frustrating and feels like bullshit, kind of like getting insta killed by PA before being able to respond in one bash duration. However i don't want to see her [Wind] nerfed, in the late game teamfights she can only focus one person and although only 15 seconds CD on her ult she's kind of useless against the other 4 in that duration with the exception of throwing a shackleshot (which she likely used on that one target anyway).
Shackle should disjoint though!
Just some scrub's thoughts..
WR doesn't need a huge nerf! WTF why do people always keep asking for nerf when they suck at playing against the hero? I agree with ability to disjoint shackle. Other than that, WR is a balanced hero.
nerf shackleshot by allowing it to be disjointed
and I think you're pretty much done
Yeah, she doesn't need a huge fix, just disjoint shackle and maybe fine tune the double shackle to not work so weirdly. It's really not hard to win against a windranger, but like any hero should be, she's strong against certain lineups.
If wr doesn't diserve a nerf, why did we nerfed troll?
he deal less, is more tanky, just because they used to build full tank, deal less damage, is less mobile, has a crappy slow and a miss instead of a 100% evasion/slow and a stun.
On a more serious point: wr is in a very defavorable meta, yet she perform too well. similar to how ww was performing okeyish is 6.84, while we had a full nuke meta;
We shifted a very little toward physical meta, and BAM ww fucking OP.
In 6.86 we might shift a little more toward physical meta (sf will most likely take a nerf, qop too, gyro mb also. tuskar will most likely take one, mb shaker aswell. And that's all wind need to shine even more, cause if we shift toward physical meta, that mean less defensiv sup (houray for wind, no1 can stop her from killing som1!) that also mean less defensiv item on core, else they'll do 0 damage (2nd Houray for wind, core will be even easier to take down !)
No, WR doesn't deserve any nerf. The winrate is not as broken as sniper / Lesh was.
No nerf needed! I never heard anyone complaining about other RELIEBLE range stuns like SVen or Skeleton King have. So for you its OK when Sven stuns 5 ppl dealing 1250 damage, but you crying that could not escape shacklehot that deals no damage????
I tell you more - in FACT ITS UNFAIR THAT WINDRANGER SHACKLESHOT DOESNOT COUNT AS ASSIST (SINCE IT HAS NO DAMAGE)
I had many games where i did amazing shacle, my teammate got a kil and i didnt even get a money for assist!
disjointable schackle and onward.
>implying techies are broken
Heh.
Windranger and Earth Spirit should be fixed:
Windrangers Shacleshot is inflicted depends from target movement(valve please fix it)
Earth Spitirt's Boulder Smash depends from ES rotation, but most of the players thinks that it depends from position
Ive played a good amount of wind and shackle needs tweaking as it does land at bizarre angle but if you cant handle wind outside of dodgy shackles it means you have done what everyone does versus PA and back when troll was a hero (RIP) by picking alot of right click and few nuke. Then windrun looks OP as hell But huskar is OP versus all magic and Terror a strong hero vs a physical damage strat. If you want to blame this hero for a loss due to "imbalance" then why is her winrate in competitve win rate higher with slardar with her. She isnt purely a solo game winner unlike lesh was. Also she needs Boots(phase), Mana regen(bottle) and AGS to get more consistent kill thats 6450 gold.
Overall
She needs alot of money with no farming tool (gleave, claive, illusion) unlike other mid like SF or QOP or Lina who have spell to help farm.
She punishes positioning which all dota player try to get better at so easy to be annoyed by the hero.
And also nerfing in the last patches has been extreme go ask Storm spirit he had the nerf shotgun from ice frog and if people dont see what enables hero to be strong (slardar -armor + reliable stun due to radius) we will have a pool of few hero each patch that a op as all hell while the others are unusable.
wr shackle should be nerfed , because it has a low risk/high reward , and even if your fast enough to blink away from an incoming blink+shackle from wr if you are unlucky you get hit by the shackle in a weird position. not the best english i know but i think you get the point
No. Windranger is fine. I agree with the article. Her buffs were long overdue. I wrote a post on leddit awhile ago saying that she needed a buff, and lo and behold, he got exactly that. She's a great hero.
This hero is stupid and broken as shit nerf pls
That Shackle even can teleport whole map.its Must nerf!
No Windranger doesn't deserve a nerf at all. She is a very balanced hero. In fact her winrate was only 34% and not broken like Leshrac's. I however agree with the fact that the shackleshot should be made disjointable. Apart from that this hero doesn't deserve any nerfs because there are ways to counter and handle a Windranger easily.
Absolutely, I've had shackles latch at over 700 range. Honestly just reduce shackleshot duration and windrun cooldown and shes fine.
shackles need to be nerf
IMO she doesn't deserve a nerf, other heroes that matchup her need a buff.
nope. ffs get a fookin linkin. ez win
The fact that she has the threat to destroy you with just Aghs+1 damage item is damn annoying.
fix the way shackleshot interacts with moving targets so it makes more sense (and maybe make it disjointable?) If wr is in front of you, and you blink to the side after she shackles, the shackle will curve to come at you, but it will connect not from the angle it chases you from - but from the angle WR shoots it. So despite the fact that that shackle is coming from your side, it will latch as if its coming from in front of you.
WR is lazy hero, each games with wr picks are so annoying.. even noobs now pick wr now.. 1st skill stun duration is too fking long, and particle cannot be evaded with blink, invis or forcestaff either.. 2nd skill burst area damage and range make her ez fast farm.. 3rd skill cooldown and duration too imba, its like forever anti-physical damage without mkb.. need nerf definitely.. this hero is broken.. 100%
Either Shackleshot needs a duration decrease when it latches or have it able to be disjointed. Being latched for 4 out of every 12 seconds in a teamfight is literally not fair.
imho there should only be some tweaks to her shackleshot
1. it can be disjoint
2. deal minimal damage. perhaps 10dmg just so that it counts as an assist.
No offense to all wind players, however I would love to be able to do something when I'm stunned for 4 seconds and then destroyed. 4 seconds is the equivalent of primal roar
Currently the Enchanted Mango only has a 36.43% win rate. Together, we as a community, have the ability to fix this problem and end this horrific tragedy. Please help. It is our duty as gamers to give this item the respect it is due.
I think the only change that should be made, if shackleshot hits two living things, and one dies, it should be disjoint. Same if a tree is broken that it is attached too
Cooldown on her ulti is broken, cooldown on her windrun is broken and last too fucking long, shackle is the most broken ability and it also looks bugged, sometimes you get shackled almost in a "V" shape and it fucking sucks, she deserves a big nerf, its a skilless hero.
No guys, she is alright, only if you dont know how to play against her, thats the real problem!
You forgot the most important buff:
6.79
Focus Fire now remains sticky on the target it is cast on.
This means that Windranger can change targets and when returning to the original target, her attack speed bonus will resume.
This hero is not super strong, but it is super universal and it fits to any pick, that may be a problem
Shackleshot must be nerf. It can follow you ANYWHERE. Other skills are fine
She's fine.You just need how to counter her.Yah,sometimes shackles suck.
shackle's absolutely fucked; and when i say fucked i mean fucked up like your gran was on new years' eve... you can fire off a perfect shot against the trees, but because the shackle projectile is quite slow it ends up hitting a lateral-moving target at a 45~ degree angle and you miss, and vice-versa with panic-casts that should by all means miss end up shackling you to trees that shouldn't even be in the latch range. Either needs a rework or a serious adjustment because in current state is too luck-based. Everything else about hero is fine (aside from the ultimate but it's not as big a deal as shackle)
That ranga sl*t needs an actual mana cost on her ultimate. why does it cost as much as her powershot? while they're at it make that stupid shackleshot disjointable, or let it stun the first target but only ensnare the second one.
She might not need an overall huge nerf. But shackleshot is ridiculous. Maybe nerf shackle and give her a few stats instead idk.
If shackleshot becomes disjointable then we're done, she doesn't need anything other than that. The problem with blinking away form a shackle is that 99% of the time t will latch to a tree or an ally in the location in which you blinked. Just like skywraths ridiculous concussive shot, shackle needs to be disjointable, it doesn't make any sense that a piece of rope can change direction in midair, and somehow hit you 1500 range away.
Shackle disjointable and we're gucci.
6.86: Shackleshot is now disjointable.
Fixed
Shackle disjointable plz
reduce the stun on shackle to just 3.25s would be nice and make it disjointable
Windrunner should be removed from game even before last 2 buffs so dunno wtf is this dude in article saying maybe he is drunked.
So okay if you need to nerf her, nerf just shackle, other things are perfectly fine...
Just make shackle shot disjointable and its ok. :D
If you people want to nerf her, then think again!
She is not get any goddamn buff or nerf in this 6.85 meta, also she also have counters too, her win rate is about 39%!
=> SHE DON'T DESERVE A FUCKING NERF!!!!
Huh? Shackleshot the broken skill? I thought the windrun was the big problem. Can't even chase her when you have 522 movement speed and she's been hit by atos (not to mention the 100% evasion from level 1). That skill should at least ramp up more slowly and have a much longer cooldown.
Well i have an idea, make shackle somewhat identical to pudge's hook when casting (a skillshot), that means you'll have a straight line and if that hits it will be like a normal shackle