Auto ChessVincenzo "Skulz" MilellaAnalysis, Heroes2 Comments

Dota Auto Chess: best heroes Pick and Win rates - June 2019

Auto ChessVincenzo "Skulz" MilellaAnalysis, Heroes2 Comments
Dota Auto Chess: best heroes Pick and Win rates - June 2019

The pick and win rates of all Dota Auto Chess heroes. The data is gathered via an official API, considers all regions and servers, and is updated periodically.

The Heybox app from xiaoheihe.cn is a Chinese app officially authorized by the game developers. It gathers data from all the regions and servers, but it is based on the final boards, so it doesn’t take into consideration all the chess pieces bought and sold during the match.

Even if the statistics are slightly biased, they are the only reliable and official ones at our disposal, and I believe they are useful to study the meta. I will update this article over time, but be aware that the data might become inaccessible in the future.

May 27th - June 3rd

I could not update these stats in the past months due to API limitations, but things changed now, so I will be able to provide fresh data regularly.

The table below shows the match count and the win rate of all the heroes at Rook and above. The units are sorted based on their win rate.

All the tables are responsive. If you are using a phone, turn it sideways for a full view. Otherwise, zoom in or click the grey area of each table to swipe them. They are quite long, but there is no other option to display all the heroes.

Hero Matches Win% Hero Matches Win%
Techies 13K 33.8% Chaos Knight 44K 17.3%
Sven 15K 32.8% Troll Warlord 41K 17.3%
Death Prophet 8146 31.0% Abaddon 49K 17.2%
Enigma 25K 29.9% Viper 37K 17.2%
Zeus 14K 29.4% Slardar 26K 17.1%
Tidehunter 25K 29.3% Enchantress 21K 16.9%
Tinker 10K 24.7% Dazzle 40K 16.8%
Clockwerk 11K 24.1% Puck 32K 16.8%
Terrorblade 8211 24.0% Disruptor 30K 16.8%
Gyrocopter 9671 23.4% Witch Doctor 22K 15.5%
Mars 16K 22.3% Crystal Maiden 47K 15.4%
Timbersaw 13K 22.3% Razor 47K 14.7%
Necrophos 59K 22.8% Lich 13K 14.4%
Alchemist 30K 21.3% Beastmaster 25K 14.3%
Medusa 77K 20.5% Tiny 14K 14.0%
Venomancer 12K 19.6% Anti-Mage 56K 13.8%
Bounty Hunter 20K 19.5% Windranger 70K 13.4%
Dragon Knight 33K 19.4% Morphling 15K 13.4%
Winter Wyvern 9540 19.2% Templar Assassin 59K 12.8%
Doom 49K 19.1% Mirana 28K 12.7%
Omniknight 32K 18.9% KotL 34K 12.6%
Luna 36K 18.1% Treant Protector 63K 12.5%
Sniper 9969 18.1% Shadow Fiend 33K 12.3%
Shadow Shaman 4425 18.1% Queen of Pain 38K 12.2%
Kunkka 74K 18.0% Nature's Prophet 48K 11.8%
Lycan 52K 18.0% Phantom Assassin 42K 11.8%
Drow 34K 17.8% Axe 16K 10.5%
Tusk 27K 17.4% Lina 5538 10.4%
Lone Druid 81K 17.3% Juggernaut 20K 10.2%
Batrider 45K 17.3% Io 113 8.8%

Winter Wyvern

The Auto Chess patch released on June 1st added a Dragon Mage into the game: Winter Wyvern.

It is still early to judge her real strength as high-ranked players will require more time to test new strategies, but adding more dragons surely helps to achieve the species bonus and thus to enable Dragon Knight. I also heard that Drodostudio might introduce two more dragon chess pieces soon: Jakiro and Visage.

Winter Wyvern works well in mage compositions when paired with a tough frontliner such as Axe or Mars. If placed correctly, the tank will absorb most of the enemy attacks while WW will heal him. She might become a core piece in Mage-God lineups.

Sven

The developers also reduced Sven‘s God’s Strength bonus damage from 100%/200%/300% to 100%/150%/200%. Honestly, I don’t think this nerf will be enough to balance him; as you can see from the data, he has the highest win rate in the game after Techies (closing the Goblin synergy is still game-changing).

Sven has a high base damage, his attacks deal 50% damage to enemy pieces within 2 squares of his original attack target (Great Cleave passive), and God’s Strength boosts his damage and the one of all allied Demon pieces.

This active ability is so powerful that you may easily ignore the drawback of having two or more Demons on the battlefield. A solid DPS piece such as Doom will greatly benefit from it.

Death Prophet

Death Prophet obtained the third highest win rate of the week, but she isn’t as strong as other 5-gold pieces.

Her ultimate does damage over time, but it stops as soon as she dies, while other abilities like Enigma’s Black Hole continue affecting the battlefield even after the death of the caster. I do not consider her a reliable pick, and the two-star upgrade doesn’t bring a great damage boost either.

DP is mostly a synergy hero, which works well when you can maximize at least one of her two synergies (Undead or Warlock). She has a high win rate but a very low number of matches because Rook players mostly get her to complete those synergies and end the game, so she isn’t a hero who can adapt to many team compositions.

Related: Most popular synergy combos

February 22nd - March 4th

Hero Matches (All) Win% (All) Matches (Rook) Win% (Rook)
Tidehunter 5905904 31.0 24003 32
Enigma 3601181 31.4 16092 31.2
Death Prophet 2220335 28.5 7431 29.5
Techies 3168490 28.8 12411 28.5
Lich 2686680 30.0 12978 28.1
Gyro 3052311 27.9 11464 28
Medusa 6185213 20.7 29713 27.7
Tinker 5152737 10.9 5960 25
Doom 4414275 18.8 15711 23.2
Slardar 2958952 14.2 6989 22.6
Nercophos 6468373 20.2 29905 22
Clockwork 5804022 11.2 7807 21.8
Slark 1838871 5.0 1582 21.8
Alchemist 4901391 15.1 8888 21.1
Dragon Knight 8370934 16.1 31154 21.1
Bounty Hunter 6064768 10.4 7726 20.8
Tusk 5673508 11.7 8217 20.8
Viper 8099817 14.4 31266 20.7
Enchantress 4775902 9.8 6070 20.7
Disruptor 7926752 19.8 29519 20.3
Kunkka 9427525 18.6 34381 20.3
Batrider 7995861 13.1 18352 20.2
Omniknight 6121102 12.2 16185 19.9
Lone Druid 7604328 17.5 33408 19.8
Puck 8748448 14.5 34994 19.8
Anti-Mage 5965634 13.8 24113 19.5
Terroblade 2180786 7.6 1524 19.5
Chaos Knight 8864072 11.9 20961 19.3
Troll Warlord 6695168 16.4 13223 19.2
Timbersaw 6298077 11.2 9111 19
Luna 9970450 13.3 29258 18.8
Shadow Shaman 5395661 13.2 8667 18.7
Lycan 6491325 13.4 13095 18.7
Drow Ranger 4978849 11.8 11933 18.6
Templar Assassin 7173559 14.1 27681 18.5
Treant Protector 8080694 13.3 30377 18.2
Beastmaster 8480852 15.2 22861 18.1
Abaddon 9656777 13.1 26512 18.1
Crystal Maiden 5745704 17.4 23830 17.9
Keeper of the Light 5411752 17.5 21924 17.6
Sniper 3214863 11.7 6471 17.6
Witch Doctor 5218932 13.7 8528 17.4
Phantom Assassin 5842623 12.2 23458 17.3
Nature's Prophet 5928553 12.7 22477 17.1
Axe 8955524 12.9 18844 16.8
Tiny 2735468 10.2 3919 16.8
Juggernaut 8813998 14.7 23945 16.6
Windranger 5720766 13.9 26164 16.6
Sand King 2460703 8.7 4303 16.5
Razor 8378770 14.5 29006 16.4
Ogre Magi 2518822 6.3 3634 16.2
Venomancer 1980854 10.2 3090 16.2
Riki 1015955 3.7 661 16.2
Mirana 2704576 10.0 5415 15.3
Shadow Fiend 9629004 12.5 26811 15
Morphling 1922397 5.6 2604 14.6
Lina 1891080 8.7 3862 14.1
Queen of Pain 3781148 7.6 9470 13.5

A summary of the data

  • Tidehunter is the best hero in Auto Chess because he can change the fate of any team fight in the late game thanks to his AoE stun.

  • The elf composition is extremely popular at the moment as this species synergy provides a huge amount of evasion.

  • Magic damage is necessary to deal against elves, and this factor increases the pick and win rate of mages such as Crystal Maiden and Keeper of the Light. Note that three mages are better than six in most teams.

  • Crystal Maiden is a very underrated hero. Her mana regeneration isn’t helpful only in mage lineups, but it is also great in combination with crowd control and AoE abilities as they will trigger earlier, and occasionally twice in the same round.

  • Naga is the only species that counters magic damage directly as the synergy increases the magic resistance of the whole team. This explains the win rate of naga heroes in this meta, raises the versatility of units such as Tidehunter and Medusa, and the pick rate of other nagas, like Slardar and Slark. In particular, the latter is quite underwhelming on his own.

  • Anti-Mage is a solid hero in the early game, and he is a member of the infamous elf lineup. In the late game, his passive ability Mana Burn counters heroes with powerful abilities like Enigma, Disruptor, and Lone Druid, as they won’t be able to generate enough mana to activate them.

Swine Sappers loading screen for Techies - Valve

Swine Sappers loading screen for Techies - Valve

Looking at the data, you might notice also some odd placements, here are a few examples:

  • Tinker is in the top 5. He is not considered a powerful chess piece, but having Tinker on your final board means that you used a composition based on mech and/or goblin, which are effective and rather easy to build.

  • Techies isn’t a popular hero just for the goblin synergy, but mainly because he possesses an AoE ability which inflicts heavy physical damage. It can’t be countered by nagas, neither evaded by elves as their passive works only against auto-attacks. A two-star Techies is a game-winning chess piece because Explosive Bomb deals 1,100  AoE damage.

  • Techies is also powerful in combination with undead as their synergy decreases the armor of the opponents, and thus the damage inflicted by physical attacks and spells. It partly explains the win rate of undead units, but be aware that while some aren’t very popular (Drow), others are great picks in the current meta (Necrophos).

  • Shadow Fiend has an abysmal win rate. He is an amazing hero in Auto Chess, particularly in the early and mid game, so the players tend to overuse him. SF is picked even when there are no synergies with other chess pieces on the board, so overall his win rate is low only because he is a highly-contested unit.

Mid-February

Hero Matches (All) Win% (All) Matches (Rook) Win% (Rook)
Tidehunter 5905904 31.0 24003 32
Enigma 3601181 31.4 16092 31.2
Death Prophet 2220335 28.5 7431 29.5
Techies 3168490 28.8 12411 28.5
Lich 2686680 30.0 12978 28.1
Gyro 3052311 27.9 11464 28
Medusa 6185213 20.7 29713 27.7
Tinker 5152737 10.9 5960 25
Doom 4414275 18.8 15711 23.2
Slardar 2958952 14.2 6989 22.6
Nercophos 6468373 20.2 29905 22
Clockwork 5804022 11.2 7807 21.8
Slark 1838871 5.0 1582 21.8
Alchemist 4901391 15.1 8888 21.1
Dragon Knight 8370934 16.1 31154 21.1
Bounty Hunter 6064768 10.4 7726 20.8
Tusk 5673508 11.7 8217 20.8
Viper 8099817 14.4 31266 20.7
Enchantress 4775902 9.8 6070 20.7
Disruptor 7926752 19.8 29519 20.3
Kunkka 9427525 18.6 34381 20.3
Batrider 7995861 13.1 18352 20.2
Omniknight 6121102 12.2 16185 19.9
Lone Druid 7604328 17.5 33408 19.8
Puck 8748448 14.5 34994 19.8
Anti-Mage 5965634 13.8 24113 19.5
Terroblade 2180786 7.6 1524 19.5
Chaos Knight 8864072 11.9 20961 19.3
Troll Warlord 6695168 16.4 13223 19.2
Timbersaw 6298077 11.2 9111 19
Luna 9970450 13.3 29258 18.8
Shadow Shaman 5395661 13.2 8667 18.7
Lycan 6491325 13.4 13095 18.7
Drow Ranger 4978849 11.8 11933 18.6
Templar Assassin 7173559 14.1 27681 18.5
Treant Protector 8080694 13.3 30377 18.2
Beastmaster 8480852 15.2 22861 18.1
Abaddon 9656777 13.1 26512 18.1
Crystal Maiden 5745704 17.4 23830 17.9
Keeper of the Light 5411752 17.5 21924 17.6
Sniper 3214863 11.7 6471 17.6
Witch Doctor 5218932 13.7 8528 17.4
Phantom Assassin 5842623 12.2 23458 17.3
Nature's Prophet 5928553 12.7 22477 17.1
Axe 8955524 12.9 18844 16.8
Tiny 2735468 10.2 3919 16.8
Juggernaut 8813998 14.7 23945 16.6
Windranger 5720766 13.9 26164 16.6
Sand King 2460703 8.7 4303 16.5
Razor 8378770 14.5 29006 16.4
Ogre Magi 2518822 6.3 3634 16.2
Venomancer 1980854 10.2 3090 16.2
Riki 1015955 3.7 661 16.2
Mirana 2704576 10.0 5415 15.3
Shadow Fiend 9629004 12.5 26811 15
Morphling 1922397 5.6 2604 14.6
Lina 1891080 8.7 3862 14.1
Queen of Pain 3781148 7.6 9470 13.5

Vincenzo is an esports writer with ten years of experience. Former head editor for Natus Vincere, he has produced content for DreamHack, FACEIT, DOTAFire, 2P, and more. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.