>>536615212
>>536615418
It's been this way for 13 years when icefrog started to seriously balance DotA. Some heroes can be played extremely well at the tippy top level, and DotA is a game that is meant to be watched/streamed live. Chen, Wisp would rape everyone in pro matches, so they had to be nerfed to not be picked every single match (despite being dogshit in 2-4k mmr pubs with uncooperative randoes, 95% of the playerbase)

Ivy is in a similar position.

>Native bullet lifesteal, firing rate boost around 33% usually, full movespeed when shooting, PLUS extra movespeed, and can share it with 2 other heroes
>grenade allows her to farm quickly, safely shove lanes and stall pushes
>statue gives her i-frames, a stun, and a native heal
>ult lets her rat, can save teammates, bring teammates to a fight, creates a follow up for a statue stun, silences, reduces bullet resistance, on top of decent damage

And on top of that she heals others for any healing she receives, and healing tempo gives a fire rate boost. Icefrog pushed her into an overpowered support hero, but people want to get kills and do damage, so they pick Ivy and then are confused that Ivy shoots styrofoam nerf darts and melees with a pool styrofoam noodle toy, not realizing Ivy's role is to give Mo&Krill an uber and Wraith/Haze/Infernus a blowjob, and has been balanced to be that support hero. Is this strong in a pub full of uncooperative randoms who are all bad at the game? No, Ivy sucks in that scenario.

Icefrog doesn't communicate or share reasoning about his balance changes. Hope this clears up confusion to why the most popular hero is such dogshit in pubs.