Glimmer Cape for cores meta and why is it good

It’s been 202 years days since the release of the big 7.37 patch in Dota 2 and the competitive scene is going crazy. In what we suspect, or hope is the final stretch of the current patch, the meta is evolving in ways few could have guessed.

Tundra Esports, who outpaced and outplayed everyone by far at The International 2022 and claimed the Aegis of Champions with an aura stacking strategy revolved around Wraith Pact and enhanced by Aeon Disk on cores, are breaking the pattern once more.

With the addition of Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov in the carry position, Tundra are once again looking into how to outmanoeuvre their opponents by playing at an insanely fast pace. Their latest finding?

Glimmer Cape on cores

It’s only February, but Tundra Esports are already boasting two LAN tournament trophies, FISSURE PLAYGROUND 1 and BLAST Slam II. At Blast, they started to toy with the idea of rushing a Glimmer Cape or two on their cores. Built mostly on 33’s offlane heroes at first, now Tundra are going all in with their concept and are dominating their group stage at DreamLeague Season 25 with Glimmer on all their cores.

In the current and very recent meta, Glimmer is rushed by Phantom Assassin, Bristtleback and mid lane heroes, with Tundra’s dyrachyo and Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov fully embracing the idea. Even Nigma Galaxy’s Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan adopted the idea at BLAST Slam II, and Falcons’ Oliver "skiter" Lepko gave it a go at Dream League Season 25.

Why is Glimmer Cape good on cores?

A notoriously good item for supports, Glimmer Cape provides a 25% passive magic resist and when activated, it gives a 300 magic damage barrier along with 40 movement speed. The important thing is, obviously, the magic resistance.

Carry heroes like Phantom Assassin, who is becoming a menace once she gets her key items, are extremely fragile in the laning stage, and overall early to mid game, due to the current meta where heavy magic damage burst heroes are dominating the game. Thus, Cloak, one of the Glimmer Cape components, is a key factor for surviving the early laning stage and snowball into under 30 minutes victories.

With the 25% magic damage resistance from Cloak, the 300 magic damage barrier and the base magic resistance your hero has, by the minute 15, as a core you can get to around 450-500 magic damage reduction. That’s an insane number for the early game and for an item that costs 2150 gold and can be farmed by cores in around 15 minutes with no issues. Most players who opt for this, are finishing it around the 15 minute mark, if not even earlier and with 2 or 3 glimmers completed on your team, the teamfights are looking very different as Tundra is demonstrating these days at DreamLeague.

Glimmer Cape vs Black King Bar

While Glimmer Cape is a staple support hero item, one of the key items for cores, especially for mid lane and carry players, is Black King Bar. The latter is net superior, giving magic resistance and immunity to pure and reflected damage while also providing additional bonuses (health, health regeneration, attack damage).

If you are a core who plans to AFK farm for the first 20 to 30 minutes of the game, BkB is definitely the item you want. Glimmer is for fast tempo, for joining the teamfights as a carry or offlane before the 20 minute mark and ideally closing the game within 30 minutes.

7.37e meta heroes countered by Glimmer Cape:

• Lina
• Tiny
• Zeus
• Batrider
• Lich

Counter heroes to Glimmer Cape:

• Shadow Demon

SD is making a resurgence given the Glimmer madness due to his Purge, so if you are a core who wants to embrace the Glimmer Cape meta, make sure you put the hero in one of the four ban slots before you search for a match.

Tundra are doing it again but at what cost?

Following their nearly spotless run in the upper bracket at TI2022, Valve has decided to immediately nerf some of the items they used, and the biggest nerfs were applied to Wraith Pact and Aeon Disk. The Aeon Disk nerf impacted a lot of the support players, who might find themselves once again holding the short end of the stick when the next patch arrives. Whenever that comes, we anticipate that Glimmer Cape, a go-to item for every support player out there, will be hit by the nerf hammer.