Ward placement animation offers an unfair advantage

Observer and sentry wards with custom animations or styles can give an unfair benefit to the player. Here is why.

In Dota 2, multiple skins and custom animations are introduced with each battle pass and new treasure chest. They are purely cosmetic, but sometimes they can accidentally affect also the gameplay.

Reddit user MidSolo discovered it while observing a match with a Broodmother in the mid lane:

“The enemy mid has a sentry in place, and the mid brood ferries a sentry over to counter it. But when the broodmother places her sentry, it comes gently floating down.

I see the enemy mid frantically trying to predict where it will land to find the hitbox and destroy it with a tango, but it’s too late. The broodmother already destroyed the enemy sentry with her quelling blade.

Essentially, sentries with a placement animation (specially those that come from way above, and slowly) have a virtual grace period because it’s difficult to know where exactly they’ve been placed, so they can’t be targeted quickly.”

Broodmother was surely using the Shifty Minnow skin on his wards, a Mythical item obtainable through The International 2017 battle pass. The following video displays the placement animation.

Moreover, a lv 36 battle pass will also unlock the blue style, which makes the observer extremely similar to the sentry - at first glance it could confuse the opponent.

Image: dota2.gamepedia.com

Header Image: Dota 2 Sets