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.
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:
PART 2: REWORKS AND REBALANCES
And that's it for this essay, hope you enjoyed it.
Not being able to craft them sucks. Especially when everyone I talk to about it…
First I'd like to say I absolutely love this game it's quality. Basically I first…
Welcome to Teacher Tuesday, a thread where anyone can ask any type of question without…
I’m kind of new/returning to gwent I played beta and obviously it’s a lot lot…
Level 1 Bag (Free with Atmosphere Level 2) 6 small consumable (First Aid, Repair, Fire…
Here's my crew - T34-85M - for the life of me I cant figure out…