Head-to-head Dota 2 7.41e win rate from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41e, Ancient Apparition wins the Ancient Apparition vs Bristleback matchup: Ancient Apparition beats Bristleback in 56.17% of 7,612 ranked matches.
Trying to burst down a farmed Bristleback is a lot more manageable with Ancient Apparition on the other team. Bristleback normally sustains through long fights by turning his back and letting his regeneration and lifesteal do the work. Ice Blast can temporarily stop that health gain, creating a window where he's much more vulnerable to being focused down. The threat of Cold Feet can also be a problem for him, as it might force him to turn around and expose his front to keep from being stunned. These tools don't guarantee a kill, but they give your team a way to handle a hero who otherwise feels unkillable.
This dynamic means Bristleback has to play with more respect once Ancient Apparition gets his ultimate. He can’t take every fight as aggressively, and his team will often play around the Ice Blast cooldown, looking to engage when it's down. If it misses or gets used on another target, Bristleback can still run over a fight. He might also buy a Black King Bar or a Pipe of Insight earlier than he'd like to mitigate AA's impact. The whole game becomes a tempo-check around whether Ice Blast is available for the next big objective.
How the matchup shifts across skill brackets — Ancient Apparition's win rate against Bristleback in recent ranked matches, split by average match rank. Ranks with too few recent matches are omitted. These rows use the last 30 days of quality-filtered ranked matches, all patches in that span combined — a wider window than the patch-scoped count above, so the per-rank match totals can exceed it.
| Rank | Ancient Apparition win rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Herald & Guardian | 55.25% | 657 |
| Crusader & Archon | 56.34% | 1,230 |
| Legend & Ancient | 53.30% | 561 |
Ancient Apparition's win rate against Bristleback in each recent balance patch — whether this matchup is trending up or down. Patches without enough matches are omitted.
| Patch | Ancient Apparition win rate | Change | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.41e | 56.17% | ▲ +2.0pp | 7,612 |
| 7.41d | 54.16% | ▲ +1.1pp | 89,224 |
| 7.41c | 53.10% | ▲ +2.3pp | 40,282 |
| 7.41b | 50.81% | — | 45,316 |
Move this data into a draft
Ancient Apparition starts on Radiant and Bristleback on Dire. Add the other eight picks to see whether this head-to-head edge survives the full draft.
Data updated Aug 17, 2026.