Trilanes are still very common. Buyback nerf hit Nature's Prophet the hardest and he did fall out of favour quite significantly. Alliance at TI3 played some of the dirtiest and most efficient Dota you'll ever see and these things got changed to their disadvantage.
Ahh, I just haven't seen them as much as I used to and while visage is still around I don't see as much of him either. I could just be missing most of games where these are popping up though so it could all be anecdotal.
I can't imagine how hard it is to balance against not just heroes but actual strategies that utilize most if not all of the game's various aspects. I mean eventually some team will figure out a new dominant standard and things will have to be mixed up again.
edit;
Yea, his damage was too much for me so I kept trapping him and letting others finish the job. Same thing for his Bounty Hunter friend. My first time being insulted in a moba game. I feel proud!
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Yeah you'll get baited and insulted by the enemy sometimes if you're doing a good job of not getting yourself killed. Plus Disruptor can be truly maddening if you glimpse someone who just tp'd to a lane all the way back to fountain or across the map. Expect to take some abuse for pulling that off.