The International 2023 meta: Why is Necrophos so Strong?

Necrophos has been quite the popular hero at The International 2023 in Seattle. With a staggering 71% win rate across 20 matches, Necro's potential threat has never loomed large at TI12. A combination of the hero and item meta at The International 2023 has allowed Necrophos to shine, or in his case, decay the competition. Despite the hero's small amount of matches at The International, Necro has almost always won its lane and carried whatever game he's been a part of. Here's why we think Necrophos is one of the strongest heroes at this year's TI.

A unique set of circumstances has blessed Necrophos at The International 2023. But before going into why Necrophos is so strong, here's a quick rundown of his abilities. Necrophos' kit is essentially built around staying alive in the fight and decaying those around him.

His first ability, Death Pulse deals damage to enemies and heals allies in the AOE on a low, five-second cooldown. Ghost Shroud, Necro's second ability turns Necrophos ethereal, slows enemies in the area, and increases the amount of healing that Necro provides. His passive, and third ability is an aura that causes enemies to lose a percentage of their max health. Last but not least is his Ultimate ability, Reaper's Scythe which is an execute of sorts. The damage of the ability increases for each point of missing health an enemy has. Additionally, for each kill Necro secures with the ability, Necro gains permanent health and Mana regen. You can check out his full ability breakdown here.

The hero meta at The International 2023 has emphasized less glass-cannon type builds and more on being a tank and sustainability. Heroes like Earth Spirit, Primal Beast, Spectre, and Bristleback have been some of the most picked heroes at TI. They all are insanely tanky heroes who deal tons of damage over time in long, drawn-out fights.

And what does Necrophos excel at? Exactly the fights that these meta-defining heroes thrive in. Necro absolutely loves just sitting in the middle of fights, slowly decaying the enemies' health. Then finish any important cores off with Reaper's Scythe as its damage potential against these high HP cores is staggering.

Last year, the item of The International was Wraith Pact. If teams weren't building it on their offlaner, then they were losing. However now, at TI 12, the item or items of the tournament are Blade Mail and Heart. This coincides with the main theme of The International 2023 - Bulking up as a tank precedes damage.

All cores tend to lean towards tankier builds, that emphasize survivability. And which hero completely counteracts this? Necrophos. Specifically with his Heartstopper Aura and Reaper's Scythe abilities, which deal incredibly well with enemies with high max HP values.

On top of both the item and hero trends, Necrophos dominates his lane. Few, if any heroes can beat Necro in lane. This is due to the fact he gains both health and mana regen when he kills a creep. So, there's no need to rely on a bottle or additional regen, as it's already built into his kit. Necrophos crushes almost every lane matchup he's against, and so he gets off to an strong lead within the game.

The strength of the hero in the laning phase as well as his ability to counter the tankiest heroes in the game makes him a viable pick.

However, it still seems like only one team has picked up on the strength of Necrophos, that being Gaimin Gladiators. They've picked up Necro four times, and have a 100% win rate with it. We'll just need to keep watching The International to see how well Necrophos fares. You can check out Necrophos' full stats at TI 12 here.

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