Dota 2: The best core heroes for grinding MMR in patch 7.31b

The 7.31 update has significantly changed the Dota 2 landscape, with some of the biggest changes including a new hero in Primal Beast as well as a massive rework for Techies. New Aghanim's Shard and Aghanim's Scepter upgrades have been added to the game too.

With the release of the 7.31b patch, the dust has settled enough for certain heroes to emerge as the strongest ones in the current metagame.

For those looking to grind MMR, these heroes should be picked as often as possible to quickly climb up the ranks.

Here is our list of the three best core heroes to play and grind MMR with in the 7.31b patch right now:

Necrophos

Necrophos received an interesting change in the 7.31 update, as his ultimate, Reaper Scythe, no longer increases the enemy’s death timer. Instead, Rotund'jere now gains passive health and mana regeneration for every hero killed by his ultimate.

With this change, Necrophos can easily gain 30 health regeneration with just a handful of kills, letting the hero scale better into the late game.

The Pope of Pestilence only needs to remain alive to be a threat in teamfights, and the bonus health regeneration is a big help. The hero also gains bonus mana regeneration, which helps alleviate Necrophos’ mana problems.

Dota 2 is going through a brawl-heavy meta, with players engaging each other more often to make space for their carries.

This kind of metagame suits Necrophos, as he is likely to rack up plenty of Reaper's Scythe kills to boost his survivability.

Necrophos is also a great hero to have in small skirmishes, as his constant heals keep his allies alive, while slowly whittling away the enemy’s health.

Necrophos benefits a lot from having dispels to remove negative debuffs and stay alive. Eul’s Scepter of Divinity, Guardian Greaves, and Lotus Orb are the ideal items to aim for each game.

The hero can also purchase Kaya and Sange, along with Eternal Shroud, to shrug off enemy spells, Necrophos’ biggest weakness.

With great scaling, solid laning presence, and incredible durability, it’s no wonder the hero has a 55% win rate in the off lane right now according to Dotabuff.

Play him well and Necrophos just might end up an unstoppable tide of pestilence that only gets stronger with every foe he fells.

Huskar

A few years ago, Huskar was the terror of the midlane, as he received an enormous amount of magic resistance the more his health went down.

Indeed, it was typical to see the hero shrug off a Finger of Death, while only having 300 health.

7.31 restored some of that magic resistance by providing Huskar with up to 25% extra magic resistance.

While it's not quite as strong as before, it was still enough to give the hero a 6% win rate increase when the patch dropped, that settled to just under 55% in the midlane.

Patch 7.31b dialed Huskar down a bit, reducing his agility and increasing the cooldown for Inner Fire. But that hasn’t been enough to stop Huskar from being the most successful hero in the Archon to Legend bracket.

Huskar has several things going for him that make him a beast at grinding MMR.

He deals a good mixture of physical and magical damage, which makes it hard for players to itemize against him. Huskar is also a natural carrier for Armlet of Mordiggian, a strong item right now and the perfect fit for this hero's needs.

Not only does Huskar deal mixed damage, he is also able to counter both types of enemy damage.

Inner Fire allows him to disarm enemies, removing their ability to deal physical damage to him, while the new magic resistance makes him far less susceptible to magic damage. This is compounded with the fact that the hero receives a hefty 3.3 strength gain per level.

After purchasing Armlet, Huskar can go for any item build he chooses.

Black King Bar is the ideal item when facing multiple disables. Heaven’s Halberd provides the hero with more physical damage mitigation while reducing negative status effects. Aghanim's Scepter prevents enemies from escaping, practically ensuring a kill with each ultimate.

Huskar deals a great mix of damage, has a ton of durability, and has a flexible item build. The hero peaks in the Ancient bracket with nearly 57% win rate, the perfect hero to grind MMR in the midlane.

Tiny

Tiny made our list of the biggest winners of the 7.31 update and it’s easy to see why.

Avalanche is now a proper area-of-effect stun, Toss deals better damage, and the earlier Aghanim's Shard timing allows the hero to flash farm faster in the game. The Stone Giant was also the most contested hero in the recently-concluded GAMERS GALAXY: Dota 2 Invitational Series Dubai 2022.

Tiny is the best carry in the 7.31b patch for grinding MMR.

During the laning stage, the hero can choose to max his nuking ability to get kills and shut down the enemy offlane, or he can max out Tree Grab in order to farm faster. Tree Grab allows Tiny to easily farm the enemy creeps, while also harassing enemy heroes in a large AoE.

The current metagame is fast-paced, with most matches ending within 35 minutes or so. This makes ultra-late game farming carries no longer viable. Tiny shines in these faster-paced metas as he comes online faster than other cores and can end games very quickly.

The current item build for Tiny is to go for Echo Sabre, Aghanim’s Shard, Black King Bar, Silver Edge, and then get whatever else the team needs.

Tiny’s shopping list is simple yet highly effective. He can instantly bring down fragile supports with just two hits thanks to Echo Sabre, while Black King Bar allows him to rampage in fights, and Silver Edge provides him with a powerful opening attack along with a Break.

A common theme on this list is to highlight heroes who are naturally hard to bring down, and Tiny is one of the toughest heroes to kill.

Tiny gets 20 armor from his Grow ultimate, and is tied with Centaur Warrunner for the second-highest strength gain in the game.

His only weakness is that he doesn’t scale ultra late game as well as other carries, but that’s not an issue in 95% of the games in the current patch.

With games ending quicker, Tiny is the perfect carry to grind MMR.

Otomo is a long-time gaming enthusiast and caster. He has been playing games since he was 10 and is the biggest Dota 2 fan.

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