Dota 2: The best cores for grinding MMR in patch 7.30e

Dota 2 patch 7.30e is nearing the end of its reign. The first iteration of the update came out on November 16 and has been followed by several balance patches since.

While the patch has been pretty well-received, players are already looking ahead to what patch 7.31 will bring.

Since this is one of the longer patches Dota 2 has experienced, we have a lot of information to work with to help players grind MMR. We previously talked about the three top supports, so in this list, we will highlight the three best core heroes to help you reach the next milestone in your MMR journey:

Drow Ranger

Drow Ranger is the eighth most-played hero this ranked season for The International 10 champion and Team Spirit carry player Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk. He holds an incredible 78% win rate with Drow Ranger in the competitive scene, his third-highest after Ursa and Troll Warlord

Aside from being a favorite of a TI10 champion, Drow Ranger is also one of the biggest winners of patch 7.30e. The hero went from a 48% win rate in pubs to almost 53%.

What makes Drow Ranger a great carry hero to grind MMR with is how simple yet effective her skill set is. During the laning stage, Drow Ranger’s attack range allows her to farm and harass relatively safely. The slow also puts enemy offlaners in a tough spot if they are ever caught unaware, making Drow Ranger great at punishing overly aggressive enemies.

While most carries either fall into tempo cores that fight early with the team or farming cores who only come online late-game, Drow Ranger is unique in that she can play both styles comfortably and effectively.

Aside from her raw damage output, Drow Ranger also provides some utility in teamfights with Gust's strong silence and 50% miss chance. This makes her a threat to both spell casters and physical right clickers regardless of what stage of the game they are in.

One of the drawbacks of having Drow Ranger as your carry in the past was that she doesn't have the ability to quickly farm creep waves or jungle stacks, but this was solved with the introduction of Multishot.

In addition, Drow Ranger can function as a bit of an anti-carry thanks to her Marksmanship ultimate. It allows her to pierce through enemy armor and quickly bring down high armor targets, which most carry heroes tend to be in the late game.

With a strong laning stage, flexible builds, and the ability to scale well into late game, Drow Ranger is a great carry to grind MMR with. Not to mention the addition of her Arcana also gives players a nice incentive to start playing her more.

Tinker

When writing these articles, it’s important to strike a balance between heroes that are easy to use and heroes that are very effective. It’s not worth recommending a hero that has an extremely high skill ceiling that very few players can achieve.

One such hero is Tinker, though thanks to his rework in the 7.30 update, it is now much easier to play the hero compared to before. Tinker is a complex hero that requires a player to have a good understanding of the laning stage, item builds, and positioning during team fights to be able to play him effectively.

Tinker is a slow starter and takes time to get online. During the laning stage, the hero focuses on farming creeps and denying the enemy’s farm with Laser. Tinker needs to be careful early on as this is when he is most susceptible to getting killed.

Once the laning stage is over and Tinker has a Blink Dagger, he can start putting pressure on the map. Being able to join any fight and output an enormous amount of magic damage makes Tinker a nightmare to play against.

Before his rework, Tinker’s item build was pretty much set in stone: Boots of Travel into Blink Dagger, with either Dagon, Scythe of Vyse, or Shiva's Guard coming next depending on your needs.

Tinker's item build is a bit more flexible in the current patch. If you want to go all in on burst damage, then Aghanim's Scepter and Dagon is the way to go. You can also opt for a more balanced build with Overwhelming Blink and Shiva’s Guard, which allows Tinker to play right in the enemy’s face with no virtually fear of dying.

One of the few counters to Tinker outside of pro play is Zeus and his global ultimate. In any match without the god of lightning, Tinker is a safe pick and reigns supreme as the best mid hero to grind MMR.

Beastmaster

While not as complex as Tinker to play, Beastmaster is one of the heroes with a higher than average skill ceiling. Playing well with the hero means you will have to micromanage several creeps, maintain early game aggression, and make good use of Primal Roar.

Beastmaster is a dominant laner thanks to his Boar summon from Call of the Wild. The summon starts pretty weak at level one but quickly scales to become a headache in the laning stage. At level five, Beastmaster can summon a Boar that has 600 health, 50 damage, and a 30% slow. And just for fun, the summon lasts 60 seconds on a 30-second cooldown, so most of the time players will be facing off against two Boars.

The Boar isn’t the only summon Beastmaster has at his disposal. The Hawk provides flying vision in an area while remaining invisible. The Hawk can also be upgraded with the Aghanim shard to divebomb into enemies and stun them.

Beastmaster’s greatest strength is his ability to take buildings. Once the hero has a Helm of the Overlord, he can easily pressure all tier two buildings across the map. This allows his team to take the enemy outpost and deny them neutral creeps across the map.

The standard gameplay in Dota 2 patch 7.30e is to take over the map, starve the enemy of resources, secure the second or third Aegis and then go high ground. No other offlaner is as good as Beastmaster at securing the map and that’s why he has a 59% win rate in the Immortal bracket.

Beastmaster falls off in the late game but that isn’t much of a problem since games with Beastmaster tend to end quickly. When games do go late, Primal Roar forces the enemy team to invest in Lotus Orb and Linken's Sphere unless they enjoy being stunned for four seconds even with magic immunity. Primal Roar also comes with a short 60-second cooldown, which even goes down to just 30 seconds with the level 25 talent.

It takes a few games to learn how to use all his summons, but any player who invests a lot of time into playing Beastmaster will have their efforts amply rewarded.

If you'd rather climb up the MMR ladder with support heroes instead, check out our piece on the three best support heroes for grinding MMR in patch 7.30e.

Otomo is a long-time gaming enthusiast and caster. He has been playing games since he was 10 and is the biggest Dota 2 fan.

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