Top 5 Imba Heroes of DreamLeague Season 29 Closed Qualifiers

Following the conclusion of the DreamLeague Season 29 closed qualifiers, Cyberscore has compiled statistics on the most popular heroes. Across 300 matches played, a clear hero pool emerged around which most drafts were built.

In this article, we break down the top 5 most contested heroes of the tournament, based on picks, bans, and win rate.

Phoenix

Phoenix became the most popular hero of the qualifiers, appearing in 30% of matches with an approximate 55% win rate. The hero was also frequently banned, receiving 182 bans across 272 games. Teams primarily selected Phoenix as a support.

The main reason behind this popularity is the innate ability Dying Light, which deals 4% of missing health as magical damage every second. With the level 10 talent, this value increases by an additional 1%. Notably, the ability provides its full effect from level one and does not scale with leveling, unlike most heroes.

In addition, Phoenix remains one of the strongest heroes for teamfights and lane dominance. Many meta offlaners struggle to deal with him, and he also scales well into the late game thanks to percentage-based damage from Sun Ray.

Batrider

Batrider was the most banned hero of the tournament: out of 267 matches in which he appeared, he was banned 229 times. Despite relatively few picks, the hero boasts a very high win rate — 71% across 38 games.

Canadian pro player and streamer Artour Arteezy Babaev described Batrider as “broken” in patch 7.41, noting that the hero appears in almost every ranked game.

One of the key changes in the new patch was the addition of movement speed to Firefly: by the end of its duration, movement speed increases up to 30%, making the hero extremely mobile and enabling fast initiations. Since Batrider is often played as a position four, the added mobility further enhances his ability to rotate around the map.

Another key change is the hero’s innate ability, which applies a debuff on attack that deals additional damage, making trades highly unfavorable.

Alchemist

Alchemist also made it into the top five. Despite 37 picks, he posted one of the highest win rates at 67.6%, while also being frequently banned — 228 times. In nearly all matches, he was played as a carry.

Like Batrider, he was described by Arteezy as “overtuned” after patch 7.41. The update strengthened his innate ability Greevil’s Greed, and now Aghanim’s Scepter increases both the base and maximum gold bonus from kills. In addition, killing an enemy hero grants Alchemist bonus gold from creeps for 40 seconds.

The passive ability Corrosive Weaponry was also improved: each attack now reduces the target’s movement speed and base damage by up to 4%, increasing to 5% with the level 10 talent.

Another important change affected neutral camps: on the safe lane, ancient creeps were replaced with a medium camp, allowing Alchemist to farm efficiently without leaving the lane.

Beastmaster

Beastmaster proved to be one of the most flexible heroes in the qualifiers: with 66 picks, he maintained around a 59% win rate. Additionally, he was played across all three core positions depending on the situation.

In patch 7.41, the hero underwent a significant rework. His innate ability Rugged, which reduced damage from creeps, was removed and replaced with Inner Beast, granting attack speed that scales with levels. The damage of Wild Axes was also increased at all levels.

Additionally, the summons for boars and hawks were split into separate abilities, allowing them to be upgraded independently. Hawks are now summoned in pairs and attack alternately. Many pro players prefer boars, as they can be used to stack neutral camps.

Beastmaster was already strong before the facet update, but after the changes he began appearing even more frequently, which is reflected in his qualifier statistics.

Pangolier

Pangolier closes out the top five, being picked in 95 games and banned 162 times. His win rate stands at around 50%.

Previously, the hero was very weak after a series of nerfs. The final blow came in patch 7.40, where Pangolier and several other heroes lost their facets without receiving compensating buffs. However, in 7.41, the hero made a comeback thanks to buffs to all of his abilities and the overall weakening of other heroes.

The slow duration of Swashbuckle was increased from 0.4 to 0.6 seconds, Shield Crash damage was raised to 240 at max level, and Rolling Thunder now stuns for 1.2 seconds at all levels.

Overall, this makes Pangolier ideal for extended fights, and currently he is one of the most reliable heroes for team play.

Earlier, Cyberscore shared the final statistics of the online tournament PREMIER SERIES.