Zeus' role in DotA

Hello everyone,

I've started playing DotA long ago, around when Riki has his Death Ward. I stopped playing around 6.6x, just before Slark was introduced, and switched to HoN/LoL. I picked up DotA 2 about a month ago when I received a beta key. I used to play Zeus solo mid in clan wars and minor tournaments some years ago, around when Undying got released. Zeus seemed to work pretty well back then, I also remember videos like MyM Merlini's Zeus wreaking up other teams pretty bad.

I've tried picking back Zeus now, and... I don't know, he just feels off. He has no disable short of a mini-stun, his damage output / burst doesn't seem just "that great" anymore, his ultimate numbers feel weak... I was curious enough to look at his changelogs, if anything he got buffed, not nerfed. It's a strange feeling, to play what used to be one of my main heroes for tournies and to "not feel well" at all with it. I have watched quite a bit of tournies VODs too, and Zeus was (unsurprisingly) absent. I've never ever seen him banned/picked in the recent years.

What I mean by that is, I've always been aware of Zeus' weaknesses. Low HP pool, subpar stats, crappy range, lack of disable, lack of positionning skill... Still, back then he could still fit in tournaments and didn't feel "off" with all this.

So what's your call on this? Pub players, pro players, all input is welcomed. What do you think of Zeus? Does he still have a little niche or is he completely off the table?

~Myzzrym