How Sand King and Viper perform as teammates in Dota 2 7.41e, from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41e, Sand King and Viper win 49.86% of ranked matches when playing on the same team, over 3,901 matches.
Locking down a key target with a Burrowstrike into Nethertoxin feels like it should be a guaranteed kill. The issue is that both Sand King and Viper deal their damage slowly. Even with Viper Strike added on top of an Epicenter, it's a sustained stream of magical damage, not a sudden burst. This gives enemies a window to use defensive spells or items like a Black King Bar to survive the initial assault and turn the fight around. The damage is potent but rarely fast enough to secure a kill before help arrives.
This makes their success very dependent on perfect execution during mid-game fights. If Sand King’s initiation is flawless, Viper has plenty of time to apply his damage and control the area. But if the stun is dodged or only catches a less important hero, the whole play fizzles. The two also have conflicting positioning goals; Sand King wants to be deep in the enemy formation, while Viper wants to kite and fight from the edge of his Nethertoxin. This can leave them fighting separate battles instead of focusing down a single target together.
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 | 52.85% | 403 |
| Crusader & Archon | 48.58% | 562 |
| Legend & Ancient | 45.53% | 257 |
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 | 49.86% | ▲ +1.4pp | 3,901 |
| 7.41d | 48.46% | ▲ +0.9pp | 48,100 |
| 7.41c | 47.59% | ▼ -1.4pp | 22,102 |
| 7.41b | 49.00% | — | 28,989 |
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Data updated Aug 17, 2026.