With the news about Dota 2 Patch 7.33 being potentially delayed for longer, fans are not happy with the lackluster changes included in the Dead Reckoning update. While Patch 7.32e just feels like a minor balance patch to try and alleviate some of the major problems with the current state of the game, the disappointment seems to overshadow the latest addition to the Dota 2 roster, Muerta.
Muerta is the newest hero introduced to the game, increasing the roster size to a whopping 124 heroes. A rare occurrence in the Dota 2 scene, Muerta is introduced to us primarily as a ranged Intelligence carry hero. With the likes of Lina and Nature’s Prophet functioning as the top right-click carry heroes of this patch, who also happen to be Intelligence heroes, Muerta is in good company.
Looking at her skill set, it is safe to say that Muerta’s primary focus lies in damage with a secondary focus on control. A powerful damage skill that scales over time with an added fear effect makes the skill very effective against solo targets or in teamfights. The disruption can break enemy formations and leave them open to a counterattack.
In addition to that, having a slow combined with a silence makes Muerta an effective zoning hero as well. Making sure enemies are crippled in the midst of battle, especially with her passive ability being able to target two enemies, is essential to her damage output.
And finally, her ultimate skill is a powerful steroid that grants her flat bonus damage, which is further increased on ethereal units, while simultaneously turning Muerta ethereal as well. This is a perfect combination of offense and defense, letting her output heavy damage while staying relatively safe.
Muerta performs well with modifier items, with Maelstrom being the primary farming tool on this hero. An upgrade to either Mjollnir or Gleipnir works well with her skillset, especially synergizing well with her ultimate skill. Revenant’s Brooch is an item that is closely tied to Muerta’s lore and unsurprisingly performs amazingly well with her inherent skill set.
Muerta performs best against heroes that highly depend on positioning thanks to her fear and silence. As of now, she is being picked as an effective counter to the top meta hero: Lina. But she is currently at a 39 percent win rate in pro-level pubs as of the day of release, according to dota2protracker.com, making her seem quite underwhelming at the moment.
This is natural since this hero is very new, there is still time before we learn more about her best hero matchups and item builds, so this kind of win rate proves that the hero is at least somewhat balanced right now. We will be presenting more detailed thoughts on the same shortly, so stay tuned. More info on the 7.32e patch can be found here.
