The least popular Aghanim’s Shards from Division I Leagues of the 2023 DPC Winter Tour

At the end of the Division I DPC Leagues of the 2023 Winter Tour, we take a look at the least popular Aghanim’s Shards in the professional meta.

Analyzing something that works well is always easier than getting to the bottom of why something is below average. To understand why something isn’t performing too well requires a lot more thought and nuance. A few days ago, we took a look at the best performing Aghanim’s Shards from Division I of the 2023 DPC Winter Tour. Today, we look at the least popular Aghanim’s Shards from the DPC Winter Tour Division I DPC Leagues.

Looking at the least popular Aghanim’s Shards is a bit tricky. While looking at the most popular Shards, the data can be looked at as absolute Shards pickups as well as picks based on a percentage of games. While looking at the least popular Shards, the absolute number of Shards purchased does not have any meaning, because a hero who has a very good Shard but isn’t a part of the meta and isn’t picked at all will still show 0 Shard purchases. So the only way to look at the least popular Shards is to analyze Shard purchases as a percentage of the games in which they were picked.

Across the six Dota 2 regions (Southeast Asia, China, North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe), a total of 420 games were played in the Division I DPC Leagues of the Winter Tour. From those games, the data for the lowest percentage of Aghanim’s Shards picks for heroes who were picked at least 20 games has been shown. All the data was obtained from datDota. This data only includes Aghanim’s Shards that were purchased and does not include Aghanim’s Shard pickups from the second Roshan.

Lowest Percentage of Aghanim’s Shards Picked (at least 20 games) from Division I (2023 DPC Winter Tour)

When the data for the lowest percentage of Aghanim’s Shards picks is tabulated, a lot of popular heroes pop up who barely have any Shard pickups. Lina (she does not need a strong Shard), who is pretty much the talk of the meta, has one Shard purchased in 104 games. The item build is all about the right click damage, and the Shard, which bolsters magic damage, has no place in any build.

Same is the case with Tusk and Mirana. Both these heroes have been popular for a while now, but their Aghanim’s Shards have never been a regular part of the item build. For Tiny, the story is a bit different. Until a few months ago, he was a position 1 right click hero, which was when his Shard was popular. Nowadays, he is played either in a position 2 or position 4 role, which makes the Shard a lot less useful.

But the heroes to be prioritized in this list are the likes of Troll Warlord, Legion Commander and Terrorblade, who are situational picks, and can be good ones with a buffed or revamped Aghanim’s Shard in Dota 2 patch 7.33.

Aghanim’s Shard is a very unique item. It costs 1400 gold, doesn’t consume an inventory slot and provides absolutely no stats. But the upgrades some of the Shards provide are so good that heroes literally get picked based on the Shard upgrade. Heroes like Riki and Techies have become viable picks because of their strong Shards, while others like Pangolier and Phoenix have stayed in contention for a while because of theirs.

Aghanim’s Shards were released in Dota 2 patch 7.28, but they haven’t seen a massive shakeup yet. When Dota 2 patch 7.33 finally arrives, it would be nice to see some massive changes made not just to the Shard upgrades, but also to the Shard dynamics – things like gold and time it unlocks. Of all the significant changes in Dota 2 over the past few years, the introduction of the Aghanim’s Shards is definitely a positive one.

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• Source: https://www.gosugamers.net/dota2/features/65111-the-least-popular-aghanims-shards-from-division-i-leagues-of-the-2023-dpc-winter-tour