The problem with Broodmother: a brief essay

INTRODUCTION

Broodmother has always been a very controversial hero. Being a lifelong member of the Quadfecta of Cheese along with Huskar, Meepo and Arc Warden, Broodmother has almost always been either completely unplayable or near-impossible to deal with (at least in high level pubs). As of 7.33 she's in the "unplayable" category, with an absurdly low 33% overall winrate (30% winrate in +Divine) and a miserable 0.41% overall pickrate. It wouldn't be a stretch to call Broodmother not only the worst hero of the patch, but also the worst a hero has ever been in the history of Dota 2. In this brief essay I'll try to evaluate what's wrong with the hero, and also some ways she can be adressed.

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PART 1: IDENTITY CRISIS

Broodmother is, conceptually, a very weird hero. For a very long time she had 2 carry-esque steroids in the form of Insatiable Hunger and Incapacitating Bite as well as surprisingly good stats, having decent AGI gain and one of the highest STR gains on an AGI hero; her webs have been adjusted several times, from granting invisibility to having free pathing to being a charge-based ability. The only staple in her kit has always been Spawn Spiderlings, and this skill is arguably the most contentious skill in her arsenal. Back when it was a basic ability, Spiderlings where the bane of every hero without an AoE ability. Many Zeus, Tinkers and Arc Wardens have been destroyed in the wake of the ravenous critters. Brood was an oppressively powerful laner, being near impossible to deal with as early as level 3 and most likely for the rest of the game if the enemy team wasn't equipped with several stuns and AoE abilities, being essentially a free win in these circumstances and earning her title as a cheese hero.

This, however, got changed, with Spiderlings becoming her ultimate. Brood went from being arguably one of the best laners in the game to being mediocre. She stopped being a mid laner and reverted back to being an offlaner, since she didn't have any tools in her arsenal to survive a solo lane against most orthodox midlaners. Much like a DK, she could survive a lane, but never thrive in it up until level 6, where she would become her oppressive lane dominator of old, taking control of the entire enemy jungle and transition into another (boring, if I say so myself) summon-based aura carrier.

Then 7.33 came and destroyed the poor spider. Brood received nerfs in almost all fronts: Hunger grants less damage at lower levels; Webs grant considerably less regen at lower levels; Spawn Spiderlings deal noticeably less damage. The only saving grace for Brood would be the fact that she became an Universal-type hero, since she very often purchased items that were outside her primary attribute of AGI. I said would though, and that's because her stats have been absolutely demolished by the change. Now, along with having one of the worst base stats in the game (the only heroes that have lower stats are generally heroes with some sort of built-in escape or survival mechanism like Anti-Mage, Enchantress, Weaver and Puck), she also has one of the worst stat gains in the game as well. Laning against Broodmother is a breeze: she has no armor, no damage and no hp, and with 2 HP regen at level 1 webs, you can easily harass her out of lane. Now that her Hunger grants less damage and the hero herself has less damage and attack speed to play with, you can easily outdamage any healing the skill would grant her in lane. With the map being larger, it's both a lot harder for Broodmother to play aggressively in the enemy jungle AND a lot harder for Broodmother to defend allied space and contest enemies, with the hero often having to spend her entire reserve of webs depending on how far the enemy runs away too. And don't even get me started on how much the new items screw her: Pavise nullifies any early-game impact spiders and Brood herself would have; Crimson Guard is the strongest it has ever been, making it impossible for Brood to do damage to the enemy; Harpoon do away with her elusiviness, one of the few things she has going for her. So yeah, saying that the patch isn't very favourable to single Broodmothers would be an understatement. That being said, I came up with a few ideas I imagine would help not only to bring her back, but ALSO to take her away from the Cheese category and into a respectable place where she isn't as frustrating to play against. So let's begin:

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PART 2: REWORKS AND REBALANCES

• STATS: This is the most glaring issue that should be addressed. Broodmother needs better stat gains in order to work. She is currently not equipped with the tools necessary to survive the early-game nor to scale into a decent semi-carry, and that's not going to change soon as long as she remains a melee hero with abysmal STR and AGI gains.

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• ​SPAWN SPIDERLINGS: This should go back to being a basic skill. BUT, before you start downvoting me, hear me out: the skill should have a maximum limit on how many spiders Brood can spawn, with Spiderlings being unable to spawn Spiderites. Obviously the stats of the spiders and the number of units spawned would have to be readjusted, but I think this would address several problems: it would allow Brood to be a threat in the lane, but not so much to the point of being oppressive since she wouldn't be able to just stay in the jungle for a few seconds and come back with an entire army of spiders that the enemy is simply unable to play around. it would make scouting riskier since Spiderlings would now become a limited resource, especially with adjustments to cooldown and duration of spiders. It would also fit in thematically, since a good mom is supposed to keep her young close, and not use them as scouts or cannon fodder; it would open up the possibility of playstyles (or at least a timing) more focused on damage dealing rather than aura carrying, since Broodmother wouldn't be so dependant on amassing a large amount of spiders before fights.

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• SPIN WEB: In previous patches it wouldn't be unheard of for a Brood to run out of webs depending on how much back-and-forth and how intently the enemy was in hunting her down; this is even more exarcebated now that the map is 40% bigger. 7.33b slightly addressed this by making webs bigger, but I think a slightly lower CD or increase in web count wouldn't hurt.

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• SILKEN BOLA: This is probably the most balanced spell in Broodmother's kit, so I don't think anything should be changed about it (albeit lower cooldowns at lower levels wouldn't hurt). However, it could act as a substitute for increasing the damage on new Spiderlings too much, increasing the damage dealt by this skill instead.

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• INSATIABLE HUNGER: Another skill that I don't see needing anything drastic done about aside from making it an ultimate again. Giving her better stats as an universal hero would be enough, but I did think of ways to add a bit of flavor to it, like giving a tiny % of the skill's damage/lifesteal to nearby spiderlings or increasing its duration whenever Brood kills a hero under its effect (it is insatiable after all).

​ And that's it for this essay, hope you enjoyed it.