How Bristleback and Skywrath Mage perform as teammates in Dota 2 7.41e, from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41e, Bristleback and Skywrath Mage win 49.37% of ranked matches when playing on the same team, over 12,555 matches.
Running from this lane duo can feel impossible. The stacking slows from Viscous Nasal Goo make it easy for Skywrath Mage to land his full combo, and a target silenced by Ancient Seal has no way to fight back or escape. The problem is that their damage doesn't mix well. Skywrath’s abilities are all magical, and the resistance reduction from Ancient Seal is a huge part of his burst. That debuff does nothing for Bristleback, whose Quill Spray damage is physical. They help each other lock a target down, but don't actually amplify each other's killing power.
This leaves them feeling a little disjointed in teamfights. Bristleback wants to be in the middle of everything, surviving with his back turned and spamming spells in a long, drawn-out battle. Skywrath Mage, on the other hand, is a glass cannon who wants to delete one hero from the edge of the fight and then reposition. While they can sometimes overlap to kill a key target, they often end up with different ideas about how a fight should be won. Their game plans don't naturally align, which keeps them from being a truly reliable pair.
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 | 52.13% | 1,291 |
| Crusader & Archon | 48.09% | 2,063 |
| Legend & Ancient | 46.56% | 988 |
| Divine & Immortal | 43.48% | 207 |
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 | 49.37% | ▲ +0.1pp | 12,555 |
| 7.41d | 49.26% | ▼ -0.1pp | 158,679 |
| 7.41c | 49.38% | ▼ -1.2pp | 76,125 |
| 7.41b | 50.60% | — | 83,816 |
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Data updated Aug 17, 2026.