Mechanically, yes. You used be able to get to 5k+ with superb mechanics alone and people 2k-3k didn’t even know how to last hit properly. Now most 2k-3k players are at least decent at last hitting/denying and can cast their spells in fights.

Conceptually, no. People are still just as dumb as ever. The arguments I see from some averaged rank players and the things they do in game are really wild sometimes. The average player still has very poor conceptual understanding of the game and frequently makes glaring mistakes in basic concepts; how to lane, where to be on the map, where to fight, where to provide vision, what items to buy, power spikes, win conditions, etc.

The problem is that LS is incredibly easy to kite and the tanky meta heroes are either highly mobile (SB, Primal, ES), have great CC for kiting (Kunkka), or both. While Armelt/deso lifestealer is incredibly strong and good for damage dealing on tanky heroes, it’s very hard for him to keep on a single target.

Because of this mostly people play him as a siege weapon, where you either fight him or he continues to pressure the map/lane. IE the Midas/radiance or armlet/radiance build. But there are currently better picks to do that and offer more to their team (Spec, WK, Alch).

As a 5, you should only ever really be pulling to reset the lane. If the lane equilibrium is favourable, you block/contest the large camp pull and harass the 3/4 out of lane.

I cannot stand supports who go to pull the small camp and ruin the lane equilibrium. They pull without thinking and let the enemy 4 pull the hard camp without contesting. The result is the 1 has to 1v2 contest the hard camp pull or lose a full wave and then the lane goes closer to the offlane tower, which can also lead to the 1 dying during the contest or later after the lane equilibrium was ruined and they’re more vulnerable. I’ve even had supports pull during a double wave with catapult at 5 mins and basically give up a free tower because they’re so fucking moronic they can’t think 30 seconds ahead.

The key concept with playing 5 is that it’s a fluid position dependent on the conditions of the game. You can’t just go on auto pilot for the first 10 mins like cores do. Knowing when to pull, stack, gank, pressure the lane, or stay out of xp range changes based on the heroes in the game.

I absolutely hate supports that go on auto pilot and do the exact same thing every game. Moronic supports that get an idea in their head of what supporting is and just put their horse blinders on to what’s happening. An example is a support that sacrifices the lane to go stack camps when your team doesn’t even have a stack clearing hero. I hate when this happens when I play a lane dominating carry and need my support to kill and pressure the lane, but their off stacking ancients for 5 minutes. This would be great if I was a TA/Sven/Bristle. Sadly I’m an Ursa/Lifestealer/CK and I want to win the lane heavily and can’t clear stacks early. But by leaving the lane to stack I’m now at a disadvantage. And you’ve effectively neutered my comeback mechanic (the jungle/ancients) because I can’t clear stacks yet without dying.

Pos 5 PA before they nerfed the shit out of early dagger.

Pos 5 lifestealer for like a month before they quick fixed AGs after realizing how broken it was. (Just AFK in your carry all game and build auras)

Pos 5 AM

Pos 5 morphling before they nerfed that.

Then go outside and touch grass.

This is a turbo game with a bunch of noobs that don’t know what items to buy. Stop pretending like balance discussions are relevant within this context.

It wouldn’t matter if you did.

95% of people don’t have the mentality to improve at any given field to ever be considered an expert in it. It is not unique to this game. There’s a minimum amount of intelligence, coordination, and self-awareness required to be able to self reflect and improve one’s weaknesses. Since 80% of the population isn’t even self aware, that leaves a small pool of people capable of doing it.

When queuing with friends I see legend/ancient players that have 10k+ games and will literally never improve because they are too ego driven and have the inability to self reflect or be self critical. The top pro players could literally coach them for a year and they would make almost no improvement. You see this all the time with streamers who do coaching sessions with players that immediately get defensive and justify every wrong action they did. The ego is too strong for most people to overcome.

Because the demand of the roles is entirely dictated by the meta. If they actually make the offlane positions difficult to play or make mid fun again, all of a sudden everyone will be fighting over mid again.

This is a very recent phenomenom with this meta and it will likely change again before they even have time to think about adjusting it.

4 is a low stress role that can be played many different ways.

2 is a high stress role that is currently very boring.

The easiest positions to farm MMR right now are the 3/4 role as well. So people are gravitating towards those.

Lane dominant carries didn’t emerge out of thin air recently, they are a part of the game since forever. Current meta, however, is very much about strong laning, so you see these much more often

Very much this. The current meta is very centered around winning lanes and then choking the map out. So it favors heroes that are good at that.

A lot of carries have U-shaped power curves. Luna is a great example, who hasn’t changed much conceptually over the years and has been strong in lane with her nuke and had one of the best level 6 power spikes. Then falls off horribly in the mid-game and comes back online later with 4-6 items.

I don’t know what OP is complaining about with overpowered carries in lanes though, as offlaner is currently one of the strongest positions if you pick correctly. It’s common for the 3 to have as much farm and impact as the carry in games lately. I think either he’s picking bad heroes or just isn’t very good at laning. His examples for “strong” heroes also make zero sense.

I spam morph, he’s one of my favourite heroes to play and one of my best.

In the safe lane I mostly play him in unranked. In ranked there is almost always a better pick so unless I’m bored or it’s just the perfect morphling game I go something else. I’m convinced he’s only picked at TI because better picks were banned or because it’s a comfort pick for some players.

In mid he does even worse, especially against the current meta heroes. I’ll occasionally pick it mid if I know I’ll get a good match up but you’re usually just hurting your teams mid-game timing if you do. It’s very situational and harder to play the mid-game brawler morphling this patch with changes to AGs. Against the right heroes and old morph/ags you used to be prioritize early game items and then rush an AGs and be a menace from the 15-30 min mark. That okay style is very hard on morphling currently.

Also morph is a very punishing hero if not played well. I could see several players at legend level not managing their attribute shift well and losing the game with a few mistakes.

Shared courier days…. What a fucking nightmare.

Making observer wards 0c and changing couriers were two of the biggest quality of life changes this game ever made. And people argued them at the time.