Although Primal Beast is Dota 2’s newest hero, releasing in February 2022, he hasn’t generated much buzz. It’s not hard to see why- the Beast currently sits at a 45% overall win rate as of this writing. The hero received a minor buff three days after launch but bafflingly was nerfed in patch 7.31c. The big question facing Valve is this: What’s wrong with Dota 2 Primal Beast? Is the hero too weak, or does the community simply need time to learn how to use him?
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An Alligator Walks Into A Bar
One of the Beast’s main issues, something that the community has been quick to notice, is that of BKB. Black King Bar shuts down Primal Beast completely, much more than with most other heroes. While other heroes may have abilities that either bypass Spell Immunity or don’t target enemy heroes, Primal Beast doesn’t. While all but one of PB’s abilities apply some form of crowd control, none of them pierce Spell Immunity. This is particularly painful as he’s a frontline initiator, meaning he relies on crowd control to manage fights. And on top of all that, he can’t rely on his basic attacks. Trample, his W, disarms him. This means if he wants to use it, he must commit to not attacking for 5.5 seconds.
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop
Primal Beast’s kit seems highly geared towards diving into the enemy team. His Q lets players get in quickly and disrupt enemies. Meanwhile, his W lets him deal AoE damage once he’s in the middle of his enemies, as does his Ultimate. His E encourages him to take the brunt of the enemy damage. And yet, when Primal Beast gets into the fray he rarely seems to do much. Why? Well, while the Beast’s kit rewards players for moving around, it also penalizes them for staying still. His W deals damage based on movement, so if he gets stunned or rooted the ability is wasted. His Q lets him roll through enemies, but it doesn’t stop him from being CC’ed. Worst of all, his Ultimate forces him to stand still but doesn’t give him any kind of defense. Thus, Black King Bar comes to be Primal Beast’s biggest weakness and his biggest asset. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come cheap. Having to farm early for it hurts the Beast when he might otherwise be at his strongest.
Is There Hope?
What’s wrong with Primal Beast? Well, with strengths that are easily avoided and weaknesses that are easily exploited, he’s is not in a good place. But it’s too soon to give up hope, as the Beast has just released. 5 Months isn’t a long time to judge a hero. There’s still a chance the meta will shift in his favor, or players will figure out new tech. While Primal Beast may not be good in teamfights, players have already recognized his devastating potential in lane. He does much better in a 1v1 or 1v2 scenario, as he can pick and choose his fights. Being able to lock down one or two heroes with his CC gives him a major advantage. Not only that, but early in the game, there aren’t likely to be any BKBs to contend with.
So, what can Valve do? Well, Primal Beast is somewhat of a difficult hero to balance. When he can rampage, he’s amazing, but it’s too easy to stop right now to be useful later. The idea of a hero that can wade through the enemy team is cool, but hard to balance. There will likely be a very thin line between overpowered and underpowered that Valve will have to walk. Right now the Beast is in the latter category, but there’s certainly potential for growth.
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