Riki Appears As The New King Of Pubs
Though he’s rarely seen in the professional scene, Riki continues to dominate pubs at a Spectre-like level across all skill brackets, sitting at a 59% overall win rate in the past month. He has flourished even in Divine and Immortal brackets, where players are keen to punish Riki’s weaknesses.
We’ve harped on here before about the strength of invisibility heroes in lower skill brackets. Riki's win rate drops to 56% in Ancient and 53% in Divine/Immortal, a respectable margin that's higher than heroes like Necrophos, Ursa, Phantom Lancer, and Silencer--the meta picks of high MMR pub games.
A History Of Changes
While Riki’s win rate has hovered between 58-59 the past month, his pick rate has increased 4.5%, the 2nd highest next to Pudge.
There was much speculation abound when Riki’s ultimate, Tricks of the Trade, got reworked in 7.12 six months ago. His win rate, in the days after the change, hopped from 52% to nearly 58% overall. Though it declined in higher MMR brackets, he was still above 50% in Divine and higher games.
Predictably, he was shortly nerfed in the ensuing patches. In 7.14, Valve increased Tricks of Trade’s attack interval, and in 7.16, increased its cooldown as well as Cloak and Dagger’s Fade delay. The nerfs didn’t stop there, as Smoke Screen’s cooldown increased from 11 to 17/15/13/11 in 7.18, and Blink Strike’s cast range reduced from 800 to 500/600/700/800.
Throughout it all, two overall changes became Riki’s saving grace. First, his base attack damage increased from 4-8 to 11-15 from patches 7.17 and 7.18. Second, Blink Strike’s damage increased from 55/70/85/100 to 100 across all levels. With the damage from Blink Strike being applied before his attack, Riki could essentially last hit and still remain invisible. He won’t be able to use it as frequently as Phantom Assassin’s Dagger to farm safely, but it let him salvage a bit of his weak laning stage.
From Core To Support And Back Again
Liquid.Miracle dominating on a position 1 Riki. The hero went unpicked during the main event at TI8 and won only one game, by Team Liquid, out of three during the group stages.Roaming was already the norm, but the introduction of Bounty runes became a boon for greedy position 4 support heroes. The success of roaming heroes now didn’t only hinge on the outcome of their ganks. They benefited from just moving around the map.
However, changes to the frequency of bounty runes—from 2 minutes to 5 minutes—as well as the removal of its experience bonus has essentially nerfed the roaming role in Dota. Compounded with the increased focus of the laning stage--how a lane can be swayed by just the amount of ranged creep denies—support heroes now had to stay put. With Riki being a weak laner, he had few opportunities as a support, and much less as a core.
Riki was picked just 3 times of the entirety of TI8. Liquid was the only team who won with the hero, with Miracle on it in the 1 position. He surfaced 8 times during the Kuala Lumpur qualifiers, with a 37.50% win rate. Compared to Spectre, Riki, once shutdown, has few windows to comeback into the game. He has no global ultimate where he can reap some teamfight gold. Those opportunities, however, are plentiful in pubs.
The Pub Margin Of Error
It’s not surprising that invisible heroes have historically dominated lower skill level pubs, but Valve has dampened their impact overall multiple patches. Shadowblade at one point used to have a cooldown of 18 seconds instead of 28. Sentry Wards (and Observer Wards) can be bought in singles and can stack in your inventory—a much needed quality of life change that made life easier for supports. In as recent as 7.16, Sentries got buffed, increasing its duration from 4 to 6 minutes.
Overall, Dota players have grown smarter over the years. Invisibility doesn’t always mean invincibility. Even in a 3K pub, you may see a sentry lane ward against an enemy Treant and Riki.
So, the way Riki takes advantage across the board in skill brackets may not just be the rigor of detection in pubs, but rather the pace of play. Games just last longer in pubs. They're are less coordinated, and hero synergies are determined on the fly than at the outset.
What we also got an object lesson watching OG during TI8 was that the meta isn’t solely about the lane. Some spectacular mid game play by Ceb’s Axe brought OG back from a disastrous early game. And OG’s Treant pick in game 1 ensured that they’d be able cut their early game losses and delay the game just enough.
Yes, Riki has some strong skills that seem to verge on being imbalanced. His 25 Tricks of The Trade Talent, already on a short cooldown, makes it a nightmare to participate in a teamfight as a support. His designed weaknesses are supposed to offset this. Keep him down once, and shut him down for good. And yet in pubs, mistakes don’t necessarily compound as they do in competition, because they’re plenty to be made by both teams. That's the kind of room Riki needed to takeover pubs.
What position does riki dominate? offlane core , safelane core or roamer?
second
turd! :)
What a time to be alive
3st
@FE, he probably dominates all of those in normal skill games.
Riki is surprisingly effective at the moment. I think he went into the slot 4 role quite heavily at the start of 2018 and he is now slowly sliding back into a more core role and as such he is essentially back. But by no means is he impossible to handle. Warding is key...
Smoke Cloud makes him hard to hit and also silences the people in it. And then the ult takes Riki off the map for quite a few seconds so he is hard to kill. I checked the down time is between cloud - ult - cloud cycle and it is actually 0 seconds with lvl 2 ult on. And the ult cooldown is probably too low (40 seconds on ult 3)... He basically has it available at all times. And all this makes him hard to handle.
I know a dude whose favorite hero is Riki not long ago, he adds WK only recently to his pool or something
https://www.dotabuff.com/players/243319409
I wonder if he get hyped reading this article
i dont know why people think riki is countered by slardar or even bounty atm...the hero is broken atm
You are surprised at 3k warding??? I see sentries at any MMR
he is pain in the ass kind of hero and will always be
@FE
in archon - legend, offlane core riki
Leave my boy Riki alone you peasants
@Espada not bad but he only plays core riki.
Well he blows up pretty easily, so down here in 1.5k, I'm enjoying blowing up his ass as Techies.
I've been picking blood against him, which at least doesnt let him run away low health. Still tough without good warding/dust
Mindless and stupid hero to play, smoke is almost infinite with the talent, his blink is just absurd, damage was always over the top and his ultimate (specially if basher) is just a 'win' button.
Yeah sure can be countered just like everything but his skills are OP the numbers are just proof of it.
There mere fact that someone is 3k doesnt mean that there will be no wards or dusts in the game... hell in most of my 2k games there are around 40 wards (20+20) bought by EACH team most of the time
I love it. Nice article
Yeah, i see in my 2.9-3.5k games tons of sentries, for sure at least 15 if there is NO invis and 25+ sentries with invis, often much more. And also plenty of observers, most of the time out of stock. It was more like 2013-2015 were the people could not ward properly...
>Even in a 3K pub, you may see a sentry lane ward against an enemy Treant and Riki.
omg a u writing that from 2013 or what?
valve fix riki's ult please it is very imbalance
I feel like at the moment the absurdity of the spells is the problem in pubs and the opportunity windows are the problem in pro matches. Perhaps some small changes to the cooldowns and ranges of the spells would aid the pub scene and some increased spell legnths and shorter cast points would aid the pro scene? Maybe change the bllink strike damage to after the attack to aid in pub scene, because invisibility during the laning stage hasn't always proven to be a massive boon in the pro scene.
I kind of don't want to see him entirely tank out though. Dota has a formula that most heroes hover around, and having heroes like him, monkey king, techies, pudge, etc can really mess with the way you WANT to play the game if you face them. I think that's really important for the balance of the game. I'd be ok with him being relegated to a more situational role like Broodmother, but for the good of the game I'd rather him not be completely useless.
Maybe Riki's problem is an ulty that gives invincibility, dishes out a lot of damage, and is absurdly large with the lvl 25 talent? You know, a complete "deal damage with no danger to yourself" ability, that can't even be countered by blademeail? Untill his ult becomes breakable (if only by aoe stuns), this hero will not be balanced properly.
Activly spamming Riki (First pick if possible). Usually go through Phase - Diffusal - BF. Have a huge KDA and a winrate at about 65%. I'm currently at 2k. I hope that at higher mmr bracket I'll finally have more challenging and difficult games, otherwise you can probably call this hero "Imba"
im most comfortable on using riki as roamer phase and diffu can kill soft support with his cloud and blink strike alone.
I've seen a riki with empower buff, with just diffusal and yasha, solo killing a bb in mere seconds that has crimson and blademail and maxed out passive. If that's not OP enough I don't know what is.
I completely exterminate Riki with subtle heroes. I tease this rat in the forest until it attacks me and applies Eul's on it. After that, we leave his cloud or Ultimate Ability + can be seen if you apply dust and calmly kill ... I do these things against Riki on Pangolier.
if you played enough riki you will know his weaknesses, skill, hero, and items..
Pls leave riki alone. He is nerfed too much already, i dun wan to see him nerfed again on 7.19d. I love riki so much :( and pls volvo dont reduce his level 20 talent (+900 blink strike) bcs its too OP, its like catch am, and also his level 15 talent where if u get a diffusal u can just go around and blink at everyones back and voila u found a kill :( 26-13 record on my riki :(
@I am still smiling^ ofc it'll get harder as you climb as you'll see less of people using dust while you're in ult form, using ghost scepter/glimmer/force staff, they'll use sentries more plus you'll see less potatos walking around with half hp basically screaming 'KILL ME' but you'll also get better at dealing with this kinda shit as you climb - gl bro.
pls gaben nerf riki. hes fuckin broken hero omg. trust me 80% is fuckin annoying when someone pick riki EW idiot hero riki
Most people complaining about riki being ''broken'' even tho he has been nerfed patch over patch over patch, its just because they dont focus him good enough early game and then cry late game. Riki is one of the squishies heroes of the game, he cannot even harass in lane, just being still receiving exp and warding, Riki dies too easily and may be left behind if played properly. People buys sentries when riki can just change from lane. Me, as a riki player, can say that nor blood nor slardar nor bristleback, nothing truly counters him, its harder, yes, but the strength of riki doesnt come from just absurd invisibility, his Q is the stronger spell ive seen in my life, killing juggernaut, lifestealer and skill dependant heroes, AN AOE SILENCE THAT MAKES YOU MISS, and if you got diffusal is like being hexed. I dislike a lot all of those nerfs but i manage to win pretty much with riki, check my profile. I just guess that it will be harder on another bracket because mine is shitty
I'm a Riki spammer and I can say a lot of people misunderstand this hero. His laning stage is HORRIBLE. And the enemy just letting him to get his diffusal blade and other items in the lower MMR games then mid/late game there are crying why is so fat that rat?! Lots of player don't pick correct counters and correct counter items for it. Like Clickz he is good at solo and low hp support kills.
Riki don't have a huge HP only around 1,5-2k so he is very weak but slippery hero. In the international it was picked 3 times. Only 1 win was earned. So he is not an immortal hero he is just underrated (especially his late game) in the lower MMR games... Riki always dominated the lower skill bracket because his invisibility and rat nature.
(I hope they will modify back his ulti to 0.4 sec so it can synergen with the "new" item Nullifier. Maybe 0,6-0,5-,0.4 will be good)
Other heroes got much more better lategame... WK, CK, Troll, Sven, Medusa, AM, Spectre ect etc.... And much better at pushing...
Ну да, всё правильно.
Oh my god they just nerfed riki again