Disruptor — Strongest Support in the Meta?
Disruptor is widely criticized as one of the poorest lane supports in the game, yet both professional and pub players agree that the hero is definitely worth playing. The hero is currently one of the most popular supports in the DPC meta and sits comfortably at >20% pick rate in the 5k+ pub games. So what exactly makes the hero seem so strong?
The Virtus.Pro effect
One of the common misconceptions regarding meta is that the “teams play meta heroes”. There are countless threads on Reddit and other forums that complain about how teams only play meta heroes and the tournaments aren’t varied enough. In reality, the relationship between what professionals pick and what makes the meta is inverse: strong teams pick certain heroes and they become “meta”, not the other way around; even if the end result is the same.
Disruptor definitely belongs to the category of “meta” heroes. A couple of years ago he was considered a “CIS specialty”, mostly picked by teams from the region. He perfectly suits the playstyle of the aggressive teams, allowing them to better capitalize on an early game advantage.
If a team with Disruptor starts winning, he can become an absolutely dominant support: he provides amazing catch, that allows for extra kills on fleeing enemies. He is amazing at ensuring early objectives, since he can always send at least one defendant away, while his ability to shut down underfarmed enemy cores in teamfights is almost unparalleled from a support position.
With the CIS Team now being the top team in the world, at least DPC-wise, it is only natural that the region’s niche picks start becoming more widely acknowledged. VP.Solo loves his Disruptor and his love for the hero now permeates the whole Dota world.
The Professional Way
Disruptor is anything but a flexible support: his skill build in the early game has been static for as long as he was present in the professional scene and it doesn’t seem like it will change any time soon. Realistically, he is good at one thing only, but he is simply unparalleled at it.
First two skill points of the hero are almost always used to level up Thunder Strike and Kinetic Field: these two abilities combined give the hero some resemblance of a lane presence through a rather underrated nuke and a makeshift “disable”.
The reason Thunder Strike is underrated is because not many players realise how much damage this ability actually deals at level 1: a 160 damage nuke is nothing to scoff at, even if the effect is delayed. Moreover, it also provides some very necessary vision over the target, allowing for more right-clicks to connect on an offlaner you are harassing.
However, past the first two levels, all skill points the hero receives have to go into Glimpse, despite Thunder Strike offering a decent ROI in terms of damage. Glimpse defines the hero: it is a very high-utility spell that has both aggressive and defensive uses and can have an impact on both the strategic and tactical levels.
After maxing out Glimpse and getting the ultimate, the build isn’t quite as clear-cut: looking at VP.Solo’s games, we can see different level 10 talent pickups, with more intense games forcing him to go for the +200 Health, rather than +40 Thunder Strike damage. There are also some games where the talents are skipped completely in favor of extra skill points in Kinetic Field and there are even games where Thunder Strike and Kinetic Field are skilled sequentially, with an equal amount of skill points into both, without maxing either ability.
There might be some hidden logic behind different approaches: sometimes you do need that extra damage, sometimes you need to have a low-value ability on a shorter cooldown to break Linken’s and sometimes you need that extra 0.6 seconds of lockdown from Kinetic Field. However, at least looking from the outside, there is a feeling that past level 7 the skill build of Disruptor simply doesn’t matter: once you have your 1800-range initiation tool and an AoE silence, the only meaningful progression for the hero is a potential Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade.
Dressing up for the occasion
While the skill build for the hero is pretty rigid, the itembuild is mostly dictated by the enemy team composition, as is the case with most supports. Unlike heroes like Lion or Rubick, Disruptor doesn’t need or rely on some sort of mobility to become fully effective, hence he is free to build items that are best suited for the game he is in. Or not build any items at all, since as a hard five he rarely sees any farm until much later into the game.
This independence from farm is definitely one of the hero’s strong points: Disruptor is very effective with simple Boots of Speed and while he can get a lot stronger with items, he is free to leave all the space for his cores and position four support.
Depending on the situation and if there is enough money after purchasing all the wards and smokes, we often see the hero go for either Force Staff, Drum of Endurance or Glimmer Cape. Both Force Staff and Glimmer Cape are, once again, situational purchases required for potential counterplay, while Drum simply provides a very decent aura for when none of your cores want to build Drum themselves.
There are two luxury items for Disruptor that are definitely worth mentioning: Blink Dagger and Aghanim’s Scepter combination substantially change the hero and make him a very strong initiation follow-up. If there is no need for the regular support items, making slow progress towards this combo is definitely advised.
Pub Suitability
There is no denying the hero is worth playing and exploring, however when it comes to pubs it is best to keep in mind that Disruptor might not be actually the strongest support and will require a certain degree of expertise from the player and a decent amount of team coordination.
To get the most out of the hero you need to have an early game advantage and as such he might not be the best pairing with late-game carries. Moreover, if the team with Disruptor does get an early game advantage, it should be abused as much as possible, otherwise the Disruptor pick can get wasted and will have a very hard time transitioning into the late game.
Virtus.Pro is the only professional team that makes Disruptor look incredibly strong: their win rate with the hero approaches 80% this month, while the average for all teams is below 50%. Virtus.Pro most frequently runs the hero alongside either Lifestealer or Gyrocopter, both of which are early fighting heroes. Moreover, Virtus.Pro is really good at outplaying the opponent in the earlier stages of the game, so getting an early game advantage comes to them naturally.
Disruptor himself doesn’t offer much in terms of getting an early game advantage and heavily relies on his team to get to a point where the hero is at his best. It is for you to decide, whether you trust your allies enough to understand this and both get to a point where your team sets the tempo and then actually utilize the tempo advantage. Otherwise going for a support that is a little greedier and has stronger laning presence might be preferable.
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Very detailed Mr.Kawai,i might talk to valve soon about your hard work.
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I struggle with this hero when I'm offlaner. What are the best offlane picks against disruptor.
Abbadon, Omniknight, Legion or any hero that can dispel Disruptor's debuff(Thunder strike) Will do fine.
@Elder_Goat82: honestly, anything that is a threat on lane on its own is a good pick against Disruptor. You can pick Doom, Ench or Batrider and should do just fine:
-Doom simply doesn't care about Disrupror harass and can force him out of lane early on.
-Ench, once she gets her creep, will zone Disruptor out completely and there is nothing he can do about it. Honestly, Ench matchup is one of the worst against most support heroes and doubly so with Disruptor.
-Batrider will easily force out a defensive Glimpse and this ability has a really long cooldown early on, allowing him to farm and/or get XP in lane in relative safety for a minute or so.
Omni is also very, very good, since he doesn't care about disruptor most of the time. Not sure about Legion and Aba, but they are definitely not bad matchups either.
Excellently written article. Thanks for all the hard work put in to this.
I haven't played Dota consistently for the past few months and there are a lot of changes. What support would say is strong for 2k pubs?
At 2k i would say anything u Good at
@theCalebRyan
*Disclaimer, I am only some 3k scrub... My words are not the gospel... Only noteworthy achievement is climbing from 1k to 3k*
In the 2k bracket, there tends to be a lot of ego and not a lot of skill or logic involved. When I pick supports, I tend to pick supports that can play outside the expectations of your standard AM/PA/Sniper first pickers. Heroes that I find particularly strong include
Dark Willow - She has insane amounts of CC if used properly, great nuking potential and can contribute greatly even if she isn't that farmed, if you can position and use skills well
Oracle - Great nuking potential, healing, rooting and if required, a disarm that can momentarily disable an enemy core unless they have a BKB or dispel. Particularly useful against PAs, LCs, etc. if you don't show yourself to the enemy. And a save that is more reliable than Dazzle's Shallow Grave.
Phoenix - AS/MS slows to counter the enemy, great against high HP heroes (The more HP they have, the more damage your Sun Ray deals over time) a lot of DoT if its skills are used optimally.
If you are more experienced/great at micro/a masochist
Chen - Ridiculous amounts of pushing power, great ganking potential. If played well, you can easily win multiple lanes, take down towers and cripple the enemy's economy
Visage - Surprisingly tanky with great counter nuking potential, great against burst damage heroes, good at pushing and good at counter-initiating if you micro the birds well.
That said, when picking support heroes, you need to bear in mind a ton of other factors in yours and the enemy's lineups. If your team lacks lockdown, then you shouldn't go for phoenix. If your skills have synergy, you at least secure yourself a minor victory, because you can combo your skills to achieve certain things
(Oracle's Fortune's End on your team's PA and PA Q+W on 2 nearby enemy heroes = damage from dagger on 1 hero, damage from Fortune's End(Q) on 2 heroes, root on 2 heroes and your PA wailing on them and possibly getting 2 kills with help from your Purifying flames(E). Or a save from your False Promise (R) if shit hits the ceiling.. Hahaha
And it doesn't stop there, really... Its also about item choices, skill builds and decision making. A lot of 2k pubs prioritize their items instead of team items. Examples are like a personal blink dagger on CM instead of a glimmer cape to save your teammate from a PA, or going Aghanim's on Warlock instead of Force Staff + Glimmer.
They also like to go with cookie cutter skill builds, but you need to read the terrain, and determine for yourself whether that precious skill point is worth investing in a certain skill early on, or left till later. (E.g. Having Bramble Maze + Shadow Realm + Cursed Crown on a level 3 DW for extra CC for ganking vs Bramble + lvl 2 Shadow Realm for extra damage)
Support life is frankly a tedious and often depressing life. Accept the reality that you will rarely get farm, you may not always get your levels (because the cores will want to snatch the tomes of knowledge of your hands too...), and you will likely die a lot (if you aren't careful). But with experience and patience, you suddenly find yourself immersed in a deeper game of Dota, a more tactical and more decisive game that is quite frankly, brilliant.
An Arctic Fox
P.S. Add me on steam if you would like to talk more about the support role. :)
Glimpse is a glorious tool to have when running a drow strat. Heroes that like to jump in can be glimpsed away, acting in the same general utility one would use hurricane pike for on drow. Pre 6, the combo is still great as you can get a silence wall combo earlier. Since drow isn't the best fighter (especially facing distance closers), glimpse is also invaluable for the 5v4 advantage it can consistently allow in fights and ensuring a successful sneak split push on a tower.
too much disrupter this week
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You don't have to make everything so complicated. Disruptor is cool because he is cool against strong meta-heroes: lifestealer, od, lycan, void, jugger e.t.c. He is cool for the same reason as Bane and Beastmaster, which are picked more often on 5k+ and win more games in that mmr bracket. Look at Lycan win rate on 5k+ and you will understand, why skilled players like Bane, Beastmaster and Disruptor.
I got 70% winrate on this hero GG
@gtfobae
Ну вот что ты наделал?...
**ушёл качать HOMM3**
Back when Dota2 was in its earliest years, this was one of the rarest supports you could ever met and now he is the "Meta". Also, he is one of those supports that benefits more on exp than gold and he doesn't need too many expensive items to keep up with the team, wards couple with an escape tool is good enough.
Ну так, дурачки на Вульвах сделали, что глимс ничем не контрится вот и результат...
I feeder with this hero, dont know how to play properly lol.
Enemy laughing whenever i use glimpse.
Great article dude, hope you got PAID for it
One aspect of Disruptor that everyone seems to miss is that none of his abilities are mitigated by the Status Resistance of STR heroes, meaning Thunder Strike, Kinetic Field, Glimpse and Static Storm work surprisingly well against high STR enemies, unlike other disabler supports.
Disputor mid game and late game displacement and CC is pretty strong right now even with the protective item or life-saving counter-spell from supports such as omni repel, VS swap, ES kick or pull and etc.
He used to be better when he had 60gpm/min when you try to solo support in 4.5k bracket. But in these days, games ends before he gets 20 talent before he can get any useful item for situations.