[DATA] Item usage in 6.67 (2nd update)

[Gheizen64]

6.67 has been a bit of a slow child, but finally there are now enough games for me to analyze some data and to share it with all. Numbers are still very low, so they are more of a guideline than a real representation.

For the one less experienced, this topic refer to item usage in COMPETITIVE GAMES only, aka those posted on gosugamers and nadota, and from version 6.67, 6.67b and 6.67c only. Sadly, most asian replay are in 1.24b, and since i have a mac i can't use a version switcher and see them. Also, i have considered only the item at the END of the game. Item bought and then sold aren't considered here.

Contrarily to my belief, 6.67 brought a shift in the meta. Or, to say it better, it strongly consolidated previous trends that started on 6.66. Before clarifying myself further, i'll present you the numbers from this version:

In the first 125 games i've analyzed, there were:

Numbers

Power Treads (almost all were strenght)
- 793 total, 6.344 apg


Phase boots
- 123 total, 0.984 apg


Boots of Travel
- 167 total, 1.336 apg


Bracers
- 263 total, 2.104 apg


Wraiths
- 131 total, 1.048 apg


Nulls
- 92 total, 0.736 apg


Wands
- 784 total, 6.272 apg


Poor Man's Shield
- 24 total, 0.192 apg


Urn of Shadows
- 97 total, 0.776 apg


Soul Ring
- 13 total, 0.104 apg


Hand of Midas
- 2 total, 0.016 apg


Bottle
- 358 total, 2.864 apg


Blink Daggers
- 303 total, 2.424 apg


Vanguards
- 124 total, 0.992 apg


Black King Bar
- 134 total, 1.072 apg


Hood of Defiance
- 51 total, 0.408 apg


Pipe
- 11 total, 0.088 apg


Aghanim Scepters
- 72 total, 0.576 apg


Force Staff
- 52 total, 0.416 apg


Shiva's Guards
- 39 total, 0.312 apg


Bloodstone
- 7 total, 0.056 apg


Linken's Sphere
- 47 total, 0.376 apg


Skadi
- 30 total, 0.240 apg


Blademail
- 27 total, 0.216 apg


Assault Cuirass
- 29 total, 0.232 apg


Heart of Tarrasque
- 7 total, 0.056 apg


Manta Style
- 143 total, 1.144 apg


Lothar's Edge
- 64 total, 0.512 apg


Battlefury
- 27 total, 0.216 apg


Radiance
- 48 total, 0.384 apg


Butterfly
- 47 total, 0.376 apg


Ethereal Blade
- 1 total, 0.008 apg


Armlet of Mordiggian
- 9 total, 0.072 apg


Buriza Do Kyanon
- 12 total, 0.096 apg


Cranium Basher
- 5 total, 0.040 apg


Monkey King Bar
- 11 total, 0.088 apg


Diffusal Blade
- 42 total, 0.336 apg


Mask of Madness
- 15 total, 0.120 apg


Helm of the Dominator
- 33 total, 0.264 apg


Satanic
- 6 total, 0.048 apg


Stygian Desolator
- 8 total, 0.064 apg


Sange and Yasha
- 10 total, 0.080 apg


Maelstrom
- 2 total, 0.016 apg


Mjollnir
- 3 total, 0.024 apg


Guinsoos
- 108 total, 0.864 apg


Eul's Scepter of Divinity
- 24 total, 0.192 apg


Orchid's Malevolence
- 9 total, 0.072 apg


Necronomicon (all three levels)
- 35 total, 0.280 apg


Dagon (all five levels)
- 14 total, 0.112 apg


Arcane Ring
- 1 total, 0.008 apg


Refresher Orb
- 2 total, 0.016 apg


Mekansm
- 54 total, 0.432 apg


Ghost Scepter
- 63 total, 0.504 apg


Ring of Basilus
- 84 total, 0.672 apg


Vladimir's Offering
- 42 total, 0.336 apg


Divine Rapier
- 6 total, 0.048 apg


- 351 Str Heroes were picked, 2.808 apg
- 378 Agi Heroes were picked, 3.024 apg
- 521 Int Heroes were picked, 4.168 apg

Obviously, numbers for rare items are too low, and i'll discuss only the most used ones.

For reference, this is the link with 6.66 numbers and discussion: http://www.playdota.com/forums/18643...es-8th-update/

Notable changes from 6.66 final numbers:

Bracers 2.754 apg -> 2.104 apg
Wraiths 1.497 apg -> 1.048 apg
Nulls 1.235 apg -> 0.736 apg
Wand 5.422 apg -> 6.272 apg
Urn 0.658 apg -> 0.776 apg
PB 0.679 apg -> 0.984 apg

Str heroes 2.866 apg -> 2.808 apg
Agi heroes 2.845 apg -> 3.024 apg
Int heroes 4.298 apg -> 4.168 apg

EDIT: first update. Samples of games from 25 to 50.

EDIT2: second update. Sample from 50 to 75.

EDIT3: third update. Sample from 75 to 100.

EDIT4: fourth update. Sample from 100 to 125.

[D4rKAv3nGeR]

Very detailed. How did you put in so much effort?
Anyways, can you exp[lain the meaning of "apg" ?I am unaware of that term.

[BabuinulVerde]

average per game
also obviously he doesn't include items that were bought and then sold later..only items heroes finish the games with ( maelstorm - 0 while mjlonir - 1 )

[Gheizen64]

Things i'd like to highlight:

Bracers/Nulls/Wraith, who want you anymore?

Bracer went from over 2.5 apg to below 2 apg. Wraith and nulls went from over 1 apg to less than 1. Have people forgot how good those items are? Not at all. Just look at Magic Wand numbers. From 5.4 apg to over 6 apg, and also Urn from 0.65 to the current 0.92 apg. This mean that people appreciate now those two items more than before, and prefer building them over the classic bracers variant. Wand is officially the most used item in this version, surpassing even PT. Most broken? It's impact on the game is mostly positive, so i don't think so.


Power Treads, officially the best pair of boots ever?

Even with the recent buff on PB, it seems that PT can't stop their growing trend. Now stably over 6 apg , PT have dictated a power level that wasn't thought possibly before. Everyone get PT now, even heroes like Morhpling and SF, that are historycally users of BoT. Why? Because PT are just too cheap, and farming PT and then BoT is not only safer than going straight BoTs, but it's often even FASTER. I'm expecting a nerf or a general reworks of the two boots, because as of now, PT are just in another league. Astral Trekker's one.


The old joke of "Lol pickz stunnerz and win, agi are food" is true no more.

Incredible but true, agi have now surpassed str heroes in numbers. In 6.66, we started with a str prevalance and we ended with numbers essentially equal (2.866 vs 2.845 apg). Now, in 6.67, agi start up on front. There are many reason for this. Imho, the main reason is Power Treads. Yes, power treads. Power treads give the ability to many carries to have survavibility and greater DPS all at once, and much earlier in the game compared to before (400 g buff). The classics archenemies of agi carries, nukers, have been hugely nerfed with those PT, since +190 hp is often enough for agi to be out of combo-nuke range. Also, PB doesn't grant defense anymore, this mean that a SF with PT or any other agi hero with PT will kill your poor nuker so much faster. Not that casters go PB anyway anymore.

[Jay.J]

You're missing normal boots. Presumably some people never upgraded at all since the APG for the 3 boots doesn't add up to 10.

[Nivo]

Great list. Some items are overused in competetive games. I think that points out that there are slight imbalances that are pro players taking advantage of.

[D4rKAv3nGeR]

Well now that thats sorted, I can actually understand the meaning of the whole thing!
OT :
I don't find it very surprising to see the rise of Agility once again after their downfall back at v6.5x . Agility Carries are winning games lately and their popularity was bound to rise (Medusa,Morphling,Shadow Fiend & BroodMother being the most popular amongst those).
Hardly do you see a BristleBack or DK carry these days.

Treads were always a personal favorite due to the ease of its built and the DPS as well as stats it provides. Its nice to see more and more people are seeing the worth of this item now.

Arcane has 0 apg. Now surprise there. It has too many counter parts in the form of Wand, Bottle and now Soul Ring.

That pretty much sums up my thoughts at the whole thing at a glance.

[Sinisterz]

^^^

they might never buy boots at the beginning

[Gheizen64]

Originally Posted by Jay.J

You're missing normal boots. Presumably some people never upgraded at all since the APG for the 3 boots doesn't add up to 10.

Yeah, i didn't count normal boots. I didn't consider them that much relevant, honestly. Boots are meant to be upgraded anyway. To find normal boots number, i suppose you just do 10-PT-PB-BoT. That would give ~ 1.32 apg. So a bit less than BoT, and a bit more than PB.

[Jay.J]

Originally Posted by Sinisterz

^^^

they might never buy boots at the beginning

Presumably it's end items though.

[badmafa]

The Power Treads analysis makes no sense. They haven't been changed in ages and Phase Boots were recently buffed. There is zero reason to think this would result in greater use of Treads and no explanation is given as to why this is happening.

[D4rKAv3nGeR]

Originally Posted by badmafa

The Power Treads analysis makes no sense. They haven't been changed in ages and Phase Boots were recently buffed. There is zero reason to think this would result in greater use of Treads and no explanation is given as to why this is happening.

Why doesn't it make sense? An items usage changes with the meta game regardless of it being buffed or not. The current game has shifted towards farming up quick items and having strong DPS as early as possible. Treads is one item that forms the core of any build and offers DPS.What more could you want?

[badmafa]

Originally Posted by MentaLMasTRMinD

Why doesn't it make sense? An items usage changes with the meta game regardless of it being buffed or not. The current game has shifted towards farming up quick items and having strong DPS as early as possible. Treads is one item that forms the core of any build and offers DPS.What more could you want?

The game was already focused on farming up quick items and having strong DPS as early as possible. There was no metagame shift between 6.66 and 6.67. If you are asserting that 6.66 was more of a rice version, then the average for Travels should have decreased. Instead, it actually increased and the Phase Boots average decreased.

Conclusion: no meaningful data can be derived from such a small sample of games.

[D4rKAv3nGeR]

Originally Posted by badmafa

The game was already focused on farming up quick items and having strong DPS as early as possible. There was no metagame shift between 6.66 and 6.67.

Or was there?
The addition of Soul Ring has really added up to game pace. You hardly need to go to base if you have a Soul Ring + any small regen item. This means more time Pushing/Ganking/Faster Farming and less time healing. Have you ever tried the item out? Its friggin imba!

Also earlier games (I mean a lot earlier) relied a lot on turtling and less on pushing.

[fgiveme]

I agree that the sample is just too small this time (25:187 compare to your previous analysis)

[Gheizen64]

Originally Posted by fgiveme

I agree that the sample is just too small this time (25:187 compare to your previous analysis)

Read first two line of OP could help.

On PT usage going up. I don't see why you are surprised, even claiming bullshit and lolling.
Those are the same numbers that we had in the latest stage of 6.66, same identical numbers. If i look at the last 24 games i've analyzed in 6.66 for example, i'll get an apg of 6.24. The TOTAL apg in 6.66 is slightly lower because when the version just came out (4 month ago), people still didn't realize how PT were good. When 6.66 came out, the first version of my topic listed PT at... 5.04 (22 games), then 5.51 at 39 games, until it went over 6 with the last update (meaning that, in reality, the older games have an apg in fact regularly greater than 6). The trend is still slightly growing, but PT were already over 6 apg 2 months ago. Dunno what you don't get here.

[Wendek]

Dudes, he made 8 updates on the previous one... ofc the first one has less data than the last one.

Gj anyway. As much Divine Rapiers as Necrobooks... must admit i'm a bit "wtf?!" on that. And more Dagons, the item that wasn't even buffed that much (manacost and 50g on recipe iirc) but for some reason people started understanding it can own? A year ago, talking about Dagon on any hero except NA here would have only gotten "troll spotted" or "go apem tard" answers, rofl.

[Gheizen64]

Originally Posted by badmafa

The Power Treads analysis makes no sense. They haven't been changed in ages and Phase Boots were recently buffed. There is zero reason to think this would result in greater use of Treads and no explanation is given as to why this is happening.

I really don't get what you don't get. People needs time to realize an item is good, don't you think? At the beginning of 6.66, PT were around 5 apg. At the end of 6.66 PT were around 6.2 apg, as they are now. This isn't a growing trends of 6.67, it's a growing trends in general. It started 3-4 months ago.

Originally Posted by Wendek

Dudes, he made 8 updates on the previous one... ofc the first one has less data than the last one.

Gj anyway. As much Divine Rapiers as Necrobooks... must admit i'm a bit "wtf?!" on that. And more Dagons, the item that wasn't even buffed that much (manacost and 50g on recipe iirc) but for some reason people started understanding it can own? A year ago, talking about Dagon on any hero except NA here would have only gotten "troll spotted" or "go apem tard" answers, rofl.

Naah. It's just that we have few games, and the first games are often games were people "experiment". This is why i think PB will get lower than 1 apg with more updates and item like Dagon and such will also decrease.

[Kallp]

Thanks for the data, glad you're sticking with it.

[badmafa]

OP, you didn't include all of your data in the 6.66 thread, making it unnecessarily confusing. There is no distinction there between early 6.66 data and late 6.66 data. You only provide an average over the entire version, which at best is misleading and at worst completely undermining the entire point of collecting data.

In order for this process to work effectively, you should organize data by version, and then also by month. Drastic changes from one month to the next (but within the same version) are metagame changes that can be attributed to the discovery of a strong counter to a previously-considered-imba hero, or finding the ultimate strategy of the version (ie the 2 supporting 3 of 6.64). When you only list the data by versions, it's impossible to tell if a drastic change is due to metagame changes or map changes. It becomes a game of speculation.