Certain Dota 2 heroes manage to remain relevant for longer periods, but recently, Pangolier has piqued the interest of Quinn Callahan due to its ability to evade numerous nerfs in 2023.
During an interview in DreamLeague Season 21, Neal “Tsunami” Khandheria posed a question to Quinn about how many nerfs it would take for players to stop selecting Ember Spirit and Pangolier, two heroes that have been staples in Quinn’s repertoire.
“People stopped picking Ember, this hero is garbage, he’s maybe pickable,” Quinn responded, before turning his attention to Pangolier. The three-time major champion believed that Pangolier was not being nerfed in ways that would have a significant impact.
Despite the minor nerfs Pangolier has received in recent patches, his win rate has only dipped by a marginal 0.5 to one percent, indicating that Valve has been lenient with adjustments to the hero. This led Quinn to call for a substantial nerf to Pangolier.
Quinn, the star mid-laner for Gaimin Gladiator, also provided an example of the nerfs Pangolier had received and why they had not been effective. Instead of addressing the Swashbuckle-Diffusal Blade interaction, one of Pangolier’s talents was slightly modified in patch 7.34c.
Although Pangolier maintains a modest 51 percent win rate in ranked matches according to Dotabuff, he has become a preferred choice for mid-lane players in competitive matches. This is largely due to the prevalent mid-lane matchups in the current meta, where Pangolier stands out as one of the few heroes that isn’t easily countered in the lane.
When teamed up with a group capable of securing the early-to-mid game phase, Pangolier can snowball and become an extremely frustrating Dota 2 hero, especially with the assistance of Aghanim’s Scepter. Quinn’s request for a nerf carries weight, even though he frequently picks Pangolier himself, as it suggests that even those who exploit the hero’s full potential may be growing tired of its prominence in the meta.