Why Ringmaster is the best support in Patch 7.38

In every patch, Valve has a tradition of "accidentally" over-buffing a strong hero. In patch 7.38, this tradition continues with Ringmaster, one of Dota 2’s newest heroes.

Upon his release, Ringmaster was considered many things—most notably, the most overpowered support. In the following patches, he received some nerfs, but he remained a viable support in pubs.

In patch 7.38, Ringmaster and Kez received facets. While Kez's facets are somewhat viable, Ringmaster could theoretically have the strongest facet as a support in the game right now.

Why Ringmaster could be a broken support hero

In this new patch, Ringmaster received two facets. These facets affect Ringmaster's Souvenirs, an extra spell slot that fills up with a spell whenever an enemy hero dies near him.

Valve may have overcook him again.

His old spells for Ringmaster's Souvenirs, such as Funhouse Mirror, Strongman Tonic, and Whoopee Cushion, are part of the first facet, Carny Classics. However, his new facet, Sideshow Secrets, contains three new spells that he can acquire at random, two of which are overpowered.

Why Sideshow Secrets could be the new Ringmaster's go-to facet

Crystal Ball, Unicycle, and Weighted Pile are the three new spells that come with the Sideshow Secrets facet in patch 7.38. While these new spells may not look that strong at first glance, don't let them deceive you.

Ringmaster's old facets.

Crystal Ball functions similarly to an in-game Scan but could arguably be even better. Although neither ability provides vision, they indicate whether the selected area contains enemies.

Ringmaster's random ability has a smaller radius in contrast to Scan, but it reveals invisible heroes and wards upon use. The effect also lingers for a second before fading. Additionally, like Scan, it also has a global range.

Ringmaster using Crystal Ball.

This means that even if Ringmaster is far from the skirmish, he can still help his team counter invisible heroes with his ability. The only saving grace for Scan is that, while it has a duration of eight seconds and a radius of 900 units, Crystal Ball lasts only four seconds and has half of Scan’s radius.

Weighted Pile is another random ability that comes with this facet. This ability reduces the enemy's vision to 50 units while knocking them back. Although their vision returns to normal within two seconds, in Dota 2, even a brief two-second window can be enough to gain the upper hand in a skirmish.

Moreover, this ability also prevents the target from sharing the vision with their allies.

Ringmaster on his unicycle.

The last random ability, Unicycle, is an escape spell. While riding the unicycle, attacking, using abilities, taking damage, picking up runes, or crashing into units and other obstacles interrupts the spell. However, crashing into trees breaks them and slows the unicycle.

This means that to stop Ringmaster from escaping on his unicycle, an opponent will literally have to stand in front of it, forcing them into a bad position.

Moreover, it also means he can use his second ability, Escape Act, just purely to save his allies and not himself. During the late-game skirmishes, this factor is pivotal as it can decide the victory or a defeat of the match.

Final Thoughts

While Ringmaster received powerful new facets, most of the items he usually builds have still not been nerfed. Glimmer Cape has been so useful that even core players started purchasing it more frequently in the last patch. This item remained untouched in Patch 7.38.

Solar Crest and Wind Walker had their overall price reduced due to a decrease in Windlace’s price. With the reintroduction of a GPM increase in this patch, these items are now easier to obtain for support heroes. Currently, Ringmaster holds a 50% win rate across 505 matches played as a position 4 support hero in Dota 2.