How Ancient Apparition and Dark Willow perform as teammates in Dota 2 7.41e, from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41e, Ancient Apparition and Dark Willow win 52.78% of ranked matches when playing on the same team, over 288 matches.
Landing Cursed Crown on a target already affected by Cold Feet highlights the core problem here. Both Ancient Apparition and Dark Willow offer delayed crowd control, and they don't stack effectively, leading to redundant casting and wasted potential in skirmishes. This overlap extends to their general game plan. You end up with two fragile, magic-damage supports who want to play from the back line, which often leaves the team without a durable initiator or a true defensive save. Their combined damage is respectable, but it's all magical, making it easy for the enemy to itemize. Dark Willow’s Terrorize can even work against Ice Blast, scattering enemies out of the area or helping them survive the shatter threshold.
How this pairing performs across skill brackets — the duo's team win rate 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 | Team win rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Herald & Guardian | 40.58% | 138 |
| Crusader & Archon | 50.49% | 309 |
| Legend & Ancient | 52.42% | 227 |
This duo's team win rate in each recent balance patch — whether the pairing is trending up or down. Patches without enough matches are omitted.
| Patch | Team win rate | Change | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.41e | 52.78% | ▲ +5.5pp | 288 |
| 7.41d | 47.27% | ▲ +3.7pp | 26,451 |
| 7.41c | 43.55% | ▼ -2.2pp | 15,543 |
| 7.41b | 45.71% | — | 16,244 |
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Data updated Aug 11, 2026.