Marci arrived in Dota 2 with Patch 7.30e as the post TI10 update. Changes and rebalances have been enforced again in the latest patch.
Marci was first introduced to the Dota 2 universe through the Netflix series Dragon’s Blood. She is one of the few memorable characters in a very unremarkable animation attempt.
Calm, collected and passively aggressive most of the time, she is the protector of lunar princess Mirana. She shares a unique bond with Sagan, Mirana’s mount.
From her introduction in Dota 2 metaverse, we know that she is a brute brawler, who petrified enemies in some way. She also has some sort of divine power, which is a passive talent or her SS mostly.
Marci was first seen in Dota 2: Dragon’s Blood.
Soon after the release of the update globally we delved into solo queues to test the redundancies of the character. The skillset is right now as follows:
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Q DISPOSE
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W REBOUND
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E SIDEKICK
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R UNLEASH
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Marci shard- NONE
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Marci Aghanim scepter- NONE
What are the possible uses of Marci in the Dota 2 meta?
Marci has insane damage and lockdown potential. A true Crowd Control core has been missing in the meta for some time. Marci looks to fill that gap.
Her AOE lockdown and vector dash skills provide decent options to initiate team fights. Marci’s buff with spell immunity talent is absolutely insane considering the damage output and lifesteal percentage.
What she lacks in damage is supplemented by her Super Skill/Ultimate, Unleash. Low Cooldown and insanely low mana cost make this skill broken on Marci.
She is quite versatile and we recommend the following builds for specific positions:
Position 4 Damage/Initiator roamer:
- Skill build: E Q E W E R E Q W W Q R W Q R
- Talent Build: 1 2 2 2
- Item Choices: 1. early game– tango, salve, 2x iron branch, ward
- 2. before 20 minutes– eul, wand, arcane
- 3. mid to late game– BKB, force staff, glepnir, greaves, crimson guard, pipe of insight, echo sabre, overwhelming blink, swift blink (Any 3)
Position 1/2/3 Damage/Carry/Sustain/Initiate Core:
- Skill builds and early game items are the same. You could opt for no salve if you want.
- Talent Build: 2 2 2 2
- Item Choices: 1. before 20 minutes– hand of Midas, Soul ring, Echo sabre, Maelstrom/BKB, Phase boots/Power treads
- 2. mid to late game– Mask of madness to Satanic, Daedalus, Abyssal blade, Desplator, Glepnir/Mjolnir, Assault cuirass, Greaves, Octarine Core, Moonshard (Any 4)
- Team Enablers: Magnus(Empower), Any AOE stun based hero(Tidehunter, Sven, Lion, Earthshaker, Enigma, etc.)
Also read: Valorant New Battle Pass: Skins for Valorant’s Act 3 Leaked.
Professional circuit captains mode addition of Marci?
There is no chance before December 2021 to expect even addition to the ranked pool. For Captains mode, we can expect the Hero to be ready for Captain’s mode by January end of 2022.
Until then we wait for rebalancing and major changes to Marci, the eternal guard to Mirana.
Expected future changes and bugs.
There have been no major bugs after we played 4 matches with Marci today. But there are some issues with the Ice Frog’s implementation of the Hero:
- The character looks like it is made in 2013. Even though it may be argued that it goes together with the game visuals, but it is 2021 with RTX.
- The Unleash stack works with buildings too. We could decimate tier 3 towers at Level 25 with E and Ult active, in 8 seconds. This is broken.
- The vector targeting skill on Rebound is based on the direction your Ally or Enemy is facing. If the target character moves, so does your landing location. It could be a feature.
- Attack speed and DPS output are pretty low without spells. Spellcasting brawler is something new but, it is difficult to work around after rebalancing.
- Cooldowns and Manacost for spells are too low. The hero is extremely broken.
- Silence skill on Level 25 should be on Aghanim shard or Aghanim sceptre. The talent is extremely overpowered. So is the Healing talent. That makes the Sidekick skill as good as Satanic.
Eventually, Valve and Gaben are gonna rebalance Marci to suit the needs of the meta. We have successfully predicted the skill pool of Marci before launch. Do read it.
