It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s Legion Commander. The offlane hero is soaring sky-high at the moment. Not only is it the third most-picked hero this month, but it also has the second-highest win rate in Dota 2 and it seems to be capable of thriving in any core position, although it’s still best as an offlaner.
It’s being picked 22.41 percent of the time at the moment and winning 54.26 percent of those games, according to Dotabuff’s snapshot on Tuesday, May 23.
What’s more, pros have had great success with it in their ranked Dota matches, too. Everyone from Vici Gaming’s Yang to Nigma Galaxy’s Miracle and former OG legend Ana has been using it, regardless of lane and position.
The top build is nothing out of the ordinary. Starting items include Tangos, Quelling Blade, Iron Branches, Circlet, and Gauntlets of Strength. These are then built into Bracer and Magic Wand for an excellent stat boost early on, followed by Boots of Speed, Vanguard, Phase Boots, Blade Mail, Blink Dagger, Black King Bar, then either Assault Cuirass or Heaven’s Halberd. Silver Edge isn’t all that uncommon either. It typically replaces Blink Dagger.
Legion Commander has undergone a series of changes in recent months. The biggest change happened in the massive 7.33 update that was released on April 20. Overwhelming Odds was changed from being an area-targeted move to a non-targeted move, and rather than granting a movement speed bonus per hero and creep hit, it granted an attack speed bonus on Legion Commander that scales when leveled. It was also given a much bigger radius, and can also be cast while Duel is active, allowing Legion Commander to attack faster.
To compensate, Press the Attack was changed to grant move speed instead of attack speed, essentially swapping the moves but making Overwhelming Odds incredibly powerful.
Legion Commander received nerfs to Overwhelming Odds, Press the Attack, and Duel in 7.33b and 7.33c, but it’s done little to change the fact she’s become an absolute beast. It will be interesting to see whether more nerfs will follow, but in the meantime, it’d be unwise to not give the menacing hero a whirl in any one of the core positions.
