It’s just been a few days after The International and Dota 2 fans already have a new hero to tinker around with in-game. Marci joins the game as the latest strength hero and brings several unique positioning and movement abilities.
In the Dota: Dragon’s Blood Anime, Marci accompanies Princess Mirana in her adventures. A loyal but fierce friend, Marci quickly gained popularity amongst Dota 2 fans. Little did they know, the girl was also going to be one of the new heroes in-game.
Valve announced Marci as the latest hero to join the battle during TI10. And just a few days later, she is already available in-game.
Marci is a strength melee hero who uses her fists for most of her attacks. Her abilities include helping out allies, vector targeting for movement as well as stunning opponents. She has a flexible kit and it will be interesting to see how Dota 2 players play the new hero.
Marci grabs an allied or enemy target and throws it effortlessly behind her, damaging and stunning the unit if it’s an enemy. Any enemy units in the landing area will also be damaged and stunned.
Dispose is Marci’s stun. She can reposition enemy heroes behind her, stunning them briefly. This ability in combination with Rebound is a powerful repositioning as well as initiating tool
Vector targeted. Marci bounds to the targeted unit, choosing a direction and distance she will spring away from it. Upon reaching the unit, Marci lunges to her final destination, damaging and slowing enemies in the area.
If the unit she runs to is an ally, it receives 35.0% bonus movement speed for 5.0s.
Rebound is her vector-targeted ability. She can choose which unit to jump off and then the direction in which to jump to. Her landing spot damages and slows enemies. At level 10, players have the option to increase the Rebound cast range.
Marci’s loyalty helps ensure survival, imbuing a chosen allied hero and herself with lifesteal and attack damage.
Sidekick is an ability that shows off Marci’s loyalty. She helps a chosen allied hero with lifesteal and attack damage. Later in the game, she can also choose to provide allied heroes with spell immunity, which would be invaluable in the late game.
Marci taps a hidden power, gaining Fury charges that allow her to deliver a rapid sequence of strikes. The last strike in every Fury combo creates a damaging pulse around the target that slows movement and attack speed for 2.0s. In between Fury combos, Marci is unable to attack for 1.5s.
Marci receives a basic dispel when Unleash is cast and gains 15% movement speed.
Playing the new hero as a core, which she is, is the best approach forward for many players. Her ultimate allows her to hit with increased Fury, which is basically a rapid number of strikes. This ability slows the opponent’s movement and attack speed and allows Marci to deal additional damage.
With the right items and positioning, Unleash can be extremely effective against enemy cores.
Marci’s Talent tree allows her to build on her abilities. With increased cast-range, and providing spell immunity to her allies, Marci takes on a role similar to that of Legion Commander. The hero can help her allies get spell immunity with the Level 20 talent, which is invaluable in the late game.
Marci is still relatively new and players are figuring out her abilities. The hero’s ultimate, however, is most useful only with the right damage and attack speed items. Her movement abilities make her difficult to catch but allow her the mobility requires to initiate on opponents. Dispel’s stun and repositioning tool (of which there are very few in Dota 2) allows Marci to bring an opponent in front of her allies.
However, the hero is most useful with crucial items. Without adequate items, she is not as strong of a hero and other supports might be better-off. Marci is best played as an offlaner, a hero that can control the tempo of the game. her positioning and stuns allow her to take on the initiation role in the game and Marci can be instrumental in the late game with her spell immunity talent. Tnl-Media-Betting will publish a guide for the latest hero and provide more tips in the future.
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