Dagon is OP. Why don’t you buy it?
Andrey Badyanov about the hidden gem of 7.35.
In 7.35c Valve vastly buffed Dagon:
- Spell Lifesteal bonus increased from +11/12/13/14/15% to +15%
- Energy Burst Cooldown decreased from 35/30/25/20/15s to 27/24/21/18/15s
Lvl1 Dagon has only 27 seconds cooldown now! I’m genuinely surprised, that I don’t see a couple of Dagons in every game in my matchmaking.
1. 8 months ago I found out that lvl1 Dagon is equal to or even better than Hand of Midas in terms of farming (since Dagon insta-kills any non-ancient creep), not to mention the other benefits of Dagon. Since then, Dagon has been buffed while Hand of Midas has been nerfed.
2. In addition to dealing enormous damage, Dagon is great in healing its wielder as well:
- +15% spell vampirism looks strong on any caster.
- Energy Burst heals for 75% of the damage dealt! It’s 300 health for lvl1 Dagon use and 600 (!) – for lvl5.
3. Dagon can be used through BKB. Yes, damage is significantly reduced, but still: lvl5 Dagon deals 233 damage and restores something around 175 health.
Which heroes should buy Dagon?
Of course, Nyx Assassin wasn’t deleted from the game. Dagon is the only item needed in the game for him at all. However, aside from Nyx, there is a whole bunch of heroes who are a great match for Dagon in almost any situation:
★ Rubick. Wisper recently played on pos3 Rubick, rushed a lvl5 Dagon, and crushed Falcons with KDA 12-1-21! What a great way for Dagon to synergize with Arcane Supremacy, increasing both the item’s damage and cast range!
Even two-time TI champion Johan «N0tail» Sundstein appreciated this performance:
Fast Dagon 5 is a signature Wisper’s build for Rubick, he has been playing it since 2022.
★ I’m pretty sure Dagon is great on an offlane or mid version of Bloodseeker – after all, the item still has an awesome synergy with the Bloodrage. Everyone has jsut completely forgotten about it. Dagon is a good fit in a utility build with Gleipnir.
★ Timbersaw is a meta hero, and Dagon will give him more burst and survivability due to spell vampirism. Timbersaw’s combo of spells with Kaya and Dagon always looks scary. Plus, Timbersaw is a universal hero so he will get some more damage from item’s stats. Ain’t much, but it’s honest work.
★ Bounty Hunter, can kill every hero in the game with Aghanim, Dagon and Khanda. He also gets a powerful lifesteal from Khanda, and every Shuriken Toss on 2+ heroes.
★ I’m not even talking about Ogre Magi at all – he shoots Dagons in a fight in all directions, just like in Star Wars! Midas and Dagon on Ogre – and your networth goes into the stratosphere.
★ Pos 2 Pugna with Decrepify. Speaking of which, Malrine has the 28th-level Pugna in Dota Plus. Are we going to see him in the Falcons’ games?
★ Necrophos has always had a great combo of Dagon and Reaper’s Scythe. Now he gets nice stats and a bunch of regeneration from constant Death Pulse. It seems like Death Seeker + Death Pulse + Dagon 5 and Reaper’s Scythe combo would knock out any hero. And now add Sange&Kaya to that sequence!
★ On Io, Dagon has been super cool since the start of 7.33, while going undetected. But I’ve seen some Io nerds abusing a ton of Energy Burst healing. 900 health to ally by pressing Dagon on some neutral creep – what do you think about it?!
* * *
Dagon is definitely awesome right now. However, the item is still in the «junk» category in terms of purchase frequency alongside Crimson Guard, Y&K, and Holy Locket.
And this is something we need to fix immediately.
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