Do any of you guys miss a simpler time when tankiness wasn’t polarized, spellcasters weren’t eternally scaling, defensive items weren’t so dominant and lane matchups were more even?

I miss it.

The product of current game design has it so early brawling is back on the menu, very cool. And all roles just have staple tankies that can scale without items or just man up with natural bulk. Nukers also don't fall off late game as much as they used to.

This design just leaves most agi carries in a tight spot. Formerly designed to be fragile early and somewhat unconditionally strong late. Except now, they keep the fragility of early game and become a BKB/satanic one trick in late. Supports also have access to way more ways to protect themselves now in the form of better stat gain, item choices, natural bulk, and many ways to out-attrition a bkb.

Perhaps its just the way the devs want it. But it also polarizes the value of a bkb, too, in a rather inorganic way. Remember when there was valid conversations about delaying your bkb timing so you can have a longer bkb to play with in late game? We don't hear about it now, because spells get more powerful over the years and there's also more of it. Now more than ever, agi heroes that have no presence in the early game also just have way less payoff in the late game. You either have bkb and you get to fight, or you don't. And people know this. In the pro scene, we see a lot of people just run into each other, both teams pop bkb, defensive items are used to out-attrition a bkb, and both teams immediately disengage. Happens all the time now.

Dota is just different now, but not in a way that I like.

How do you feel about this?