Visage - Bouncing Between Niche and Broken and Back
Dota 2’s game balance is often a sought after ideal, especially when compared to other esports titles. Last year, The International 2016 broke the record of the most amount of heroes picked at a Valve event (105), an insane feat that seems near impossible in other games.
Unpicked heroes since the event have been either significantly re-worked or buffed. Bloodseeker, Lina, Leshrac, and Treant Protector have all graced the professional scene since, some have been very impactful and contested a lot (Lina and Treant Protector), while others have proven to be niche, but still effective. One hero sticks out like a sore thumb: Visage. Visage has also had his moments in the pro scene since, but has faded just as quickly, as he has done so often.
From King of Trilanes to Drow Ranger’s pet
There were times in which Visage was a force to be reckoned with. At The International 2013, Visage was by far the most picked hero and retained a 56% win rate. Back then, trilanes were a vital part of the meta and when trilanes shine, so does Visage. 
Soul Assumption deals more damage the more damage has been dealt around Visage, which makes him the perfect trilane hero.
Ever since TI3 though, trilanes have faded out of the meta, and Visage has slowly faded into niche at best. He became nothing but a rare niche pick who would appear out of nowhere as a pocket strategy with Drow Ranger. Her aura enabled Visage to be a force in all stages of the game, and a support player could easily transition into a core position. When wings.gaming however established Drow Ranger as a hero strong enough to be picked by herself at the beginning of 2016, Visage started to fade away for good. His partner was picked quite frequently and was in fact the 9th most picked hero at TI6, but Visage himself remained unpicked.
Much like the other unpicked heroes at TI6 though, Visage received buffs, significant ones and 7.00 virtually forced him into the meta.
New Visage, but still niche?
7.00 had some drastic changes in store for Visage. Gravekeeper’s Cloak was reworked almost entirely, and instead of providing magic resistance and armor, it now acts as an aura for Visage and his Familiars which reduces all damage. The aura is important because Familiars no longer have spell immunity (35% magic resistance instead) and have actual health and health regeneration instead of requiring attacks to be killed. The most important change to Familiars though is how they attack. Familiar still lose damage per attack, but now they re-charge 8 damage every 2 seconds instead of requiring a hard reset through Stone Form. This is a huge buff to Visage and allows him to be a strong hero by himself, rather than relying on the damage buff by Drow Ranger.
These buffs made Visage a brutal force to be reckoned with, and in the first week of 7.00, his win rate in pub games jumped from 44% to 52%. The hero automatically forced his way into pro games, and Icefrog saw it necessary to nerf him again, reducing the health on Familiars.
Familiars were definitely buffed overall in 7.00, but removing their magic immunity was a significant nerf that slightly changed the way the hero was played and significantly changed the way one would play against him. Simple AoE spells would automatically affect Familiars and with the rising popularity of Veil of Discord and heroes such as Ember Spirit, there was certainly enough damage for Familiars to die quite consistently. And as good as Familiars may be, summoning them still had a 160s cooldown.
Visage faded out again, but after a slight buff in 7.03, which increased the Familiar’s HP again, OG demonstrated at DAC that the hero is still a viable pick. Out of 10 games, OG won 8 with the hero, and only once did they pair the hero with Drow Ranger. But despite another few buffs in 7.06 (increased Visage’s Strength gain, increased Grave Chill duration), 7.06d (Summon Familiars cooldown decreased to 130s) and 7.06e (reduced Grave Chill mana cost), Visage has yet to escape the niche status.
Despite all the buffs, all of Visage’s weaknesses remain. Visage is not necessarily the most competent lane support, and in a dual vs. dual lane scenario, Visage needs a carry that can either enable his damage output with his own damage or through tanking sufficiently. In the late game, Visage gets countered quite easily with cheap evasion, and the only item to enable true strike for his Familiars is Bloodthorn [EDIT: The recently reworked Solar Crest also provides a % based chance for true strike]. Unlike many other safelane supports, Visage also doesn’t have any defensive capabilities, making it near impossible for him to save a core from a gank. He’s also not a dedicated roamer, which is why he’s been largely ignored for the better of 4 years, during which roamers rose to fame.
So why was Visage still picked 10 times at the recent MDL?
Fit for the meta after all
One of the obvious reasons is that OG likes the hero and showed that Visage is quite the flex-pick by drafting him early and playing him as a core. Teams began to counter-pick against them but then also started to pick the hero just for themselves. Visage works as a 5 position support in the current meta because, while there is still a focus on the laning stage, teams don’t play as aggressively in their offlane as they used to. In a 2v1 scenario, Visage my still not necessarily shine as lane support, but if his carry is self sufficient, Visage can focus to pulling and farming.
Visage also can roam, granted his cores and the other support provide sufficient damage. In a meta where heroes like Queen of Pain and Puck populate the solo lanes and supports like Sand King or Earthshaker provide sufficient lockdown, long enough to charge up Soul Assumption, Visage has a lot of tools in the shed to be a valuable pick and a potential dual roamer.
In the mid game, Visage provides vision around the map and can either set up kills or assist in such, similar to what a Clockwerk or a Night Stalker would do, except he doesn’t need to put himself in harm’s way and often requires experience, more so than farm. He’s also a good hero to pick utility items up with, such as 
Solar Crest or 
Heaven's Halberd. Some players even opted to build a 
Pipe of Insight on Visage to make Familiars less squishy.
Visage’s physical damage output also nicely complements the magical damage by currently popular supports and cores.
More situational than niche
While MDL could very well be a fluke, teams have shown that Visage can work very well in the current meta. While a core Visage may remain niche for now, a support one suddenly seems more situational than before. He can certainly still be dead weight during the laning stage, but all the recent buffs have pushed him into a much more viable field, at least for pro games. In pubs, the 5k+ MMR bracket has never really let go of Visage since his re-work in 7.00. He’s been one of the most successful heroes in the bracket since.
Visage jumps from being a niche pick to a situational support, meanwhile Broodmother is still as ignorable as ever
Hate to see random Visage in ranked matchups
Just don't nerf him, Volvo. Pls.
Most illusion/summon heroes are cores so it makes sense that Visage could make the full switch to core hero with his skillset.
Visage has the highgest winrate in 5k. Its sad to know ezfrog will destroy our poor little birdie.
just spammed bird to 5k, shhhhh -> dont tell icefrog.
OG were running Notail carry Visage recently right?
THIRST!
"Visage gets countered quite easily with cheap evasion, and the only item to enable true strike for his Familiars is Bloodthorn."
Solar Crest Rework *cough*
"When cast on an enemy, it removes 10 of their armor and grants your allies to have 35% Accuracy on the target."
Solar Crest Rework *cough* XD
yea exactly they provide an small chance of true strike
its +25%
so lets think they are attacking someone with 15%miss chance
the amount of solar crest beign usefull on that is 15 x 25 / 100 : 3.75 %
Con fking grat volvo : you provide 3.75 precent more phisical dmg
dumb choice On the best situation when you attacking windrunner with windrun
you have 25 precent true strike
So you have always 25 miss chance (considering most heroes naturaly have 0% evasion ) but on the best situation you got 25 true strike
the item need a buff on true strike calculation
or just a rework - i have an idea
the buff stays at 7 second
what about the first 1.75 second provide 100 % true strike
like when you attacking PA with silver edge and miss breakes
so its gonna provide 25 % of the time true strike just like when you use solar crest on alley you have 25 precent more evasion
plus you have more team work and timing
then you can nerf the item to 8 armor
another good thing is you have just a single answer to evasion in dota 2
MKB cause bloodthrone is expensive and someone who needs silence buying it if you want true strike you will buy mkb - its expensive so only cores can buy it and cores dealing the dmg so there is no point to prefer bloodthrone if you dont need silence - usually in dota you have multiply choices like clinz recently people buying hex so much
they need disable and somestats i like the mana regen too - you can have mana regen and attack speed plus silence with orchid and BT plus true strike
For a mele hero Abyssal Blade is another choice
for a support eul is an option to disable
so why not SC be an option for evasion (ITS NOT RIGHT NOW ! )
Read this frog
Coincidentally I just won a pub match with Visage, and I dare say once he gets his familiars his map controlling potential rises exponentially. And I agree with the article, when partnered with a roamer with reliable lockdown, Visage becomes a force to be reckoned with during early to mid-game. Not to mention he can easily pick off unsuspecting supports during clashes with his familiars.
Loved the hero since the original DotA, and I wish players would get to appreciate him more across every MMR bracket.
@Mind A little correction pal: It's "true strike" not "true sight". They're both terms used in DotA2, and they have very different meanings.
True strike allows one to ignore evasion effects granted by abilities and items, but not evasion granted by high ground advantage (especially true with buildings).
True sight on the other hand allows units and structures to detect invisible units around the sight's area of effect.
Just a little FYI for those who do not know yet.
the first time I know visage, is when I got badly owned by him in DotA 1 back then, because he was SO BROKEN.
Good to see him being spotted again, it's a forgotten hero, don't nerf him please
Хех Визаж в мид лане разваливает все вплоть да 4К ММР. на большем ММР на нем не играл так как не успел еще апнуть.Так-что пикаем Визажа и умоляем союзников дать мид.
New visage is support?You'shown the Fly's match, he is OG's support and plays supports in the most!
"In a 2v1 scenario, Visage my still not necessarily shine as lane support,"
Small typo there as I guess it was meant to read *may not my.
Loved the article though.
Я не понимаю, почему его рассматривают как саппорта. Чтобы быть саппортом, у героя должны быть способности, позволяющие саппортить: хил, замедление+урон, эскейп для тиммейтов(типа Креста Дазла), хороший контроль, баф для тиммейтов или дебафф для врагов(как например ульт Дазла). А что есть у Визажа: Grave Chill - дебафф на скорость атаки и передвижения для врага, но баф для самого Визажа, соотнветственно, этот скилл помогает убивать; Soul Assamption - наносит немало магического урона, если Визаж накопит заряды(опять же,скилл для убийств, а не для саппортинга); Gravekeeper Cloak - пассивка, работающая как аура, дающая хорошую защиту от физического и магического урона для самого Визажа и его фамильяров(опять же не саппорт скилл, а скилл, который позволяет Визажу хорошо стоять не только в миду, но и соло на сложной линии); и наконец ульт Summon Familliars - 2(а с Аганимом 3) гаргульи, которые наносят много физического урона и имеют 1 активную способность, а именно стан. Какой вывод могу сделать я, человек, отыгравший довольно много игр на Визаже: Визаж - не саппорт. Визаж - его герой, которому нужно ходить либо на мид, либо соло на сложную линию. Совсем забыл сказать о том, что все его бафы от Valve как раз делают из Визажа отличного кор героя, который с минимумом Артефактов и с быстрым получением уровня(талант на 10 уровне и Мидас нам в помощь) способен убить большинство героев, а потом взять и спушить.
BohrInGame Broodmother Is a lot closer to being viable than you might think, still super niche but in a game where she is not pestered by 2 or more aoe heroes, she crushes. Brood can get levels faster than pretty much any other hero in the game, and so she can hold her own as a carry if she is not shut down in lane, and if she is she can transition to jungle some. I would not say she is good right now, but that is not because of her power as a hero, it is because of the meta. Brood has always been an easily countered hero and unless they make her literally op or nerf every single aoe hero she will see very little play competetively.
In other news if you want to play brood try playing her mid, if you can convince your team to let you and you last pick it you can pretty often surprise the midlaner and rapidly take control of mid, and then once the enemy is determined to gang up and kill you you can just run off into jungle and take ancients. Then you get tp boots and an orchid and start ganking towers (yes I know that is not how that works but what I really mean is tping to a lane and pushing it, maybe killing a solo guy and hitting tower a bit, and then tping elswhere to do it again.) by 25-30 minutes you can be level 25 with a full inventory. If all wnet well the enemy carries won't be online yet and you can kill them in under a second, but sometimes you just have to resort to actually fighting the enemy with your team and/or backdooring
I think I will always love playing Visage as a solo offlane, hit level 6 and murder their carry
That is because Brood is not a game winning hero. Yeah she can make a ton of space and get 2 towers in under 15 minutes alone, but she creates a 4 v 5 game, and that is assuming you do not have a slow core.
i play visage as core for mid, definitely a niche pick, especially with right lineups. i often play him when he is not countered by the other team. they ban heroes like invo tinker and shit but aren't ready for a visage pick. snowball early or farm midas.
yea you are right @noir i just forgot idk why - english is not my language
Right now it's impossible for Visage to be a suitable place balance wise, every time he gets a slight buff the Drow-Visage combination becomes ridiculously strong and as a result he gets nerfed back to the bottom tier. The easy solution to this is just to have Drow aura not affect the familiars, this would allow Visage to be buffed to a suitable point.
@ Mind , my man. I blanked out halfway through your comment because there was a bit of disconnect between your sentences. Keeping in mind that English ain't your preferred language, I still think you should add a tl;dr just in case IceFrog decides to drop in. I am sure he'd appreciate it. xD
@Mind not to pick at certain things but Shine adds 35% not 25%, also Silver Edge can't miss.
L A N C H A
because hes a great hero