Patch 7.25c was released to the Dota 2 client and it brought changes to almost every aspect of the game including items, heroes and the pick phase.
Due to the coronavirus outbreak and no big LAN events in sight Dota 2 updates are no longer tied to the conclusion of a certain tournament. Almost two weeks after the last patch, 7.25c arrives to tune down some of the more popular picks.
General changes
When two players pick the same hero in a round, the hero is banned instead and the round restarts
All Pick hero selection duration reduced from 25 to 20 seconds
Wards can now always be attacked by the owning player
Harpy Stormcrafter mana capacity reduced from 150 to 125
Previously when two people picked the same hero, the player who took longer to do so received some extra time to choose a new one. Now the result will be a ban, which seems really weird. It’ll be a very unorthodox way to counter hero spammers as they’ll usually wait out for the last pick. Examples include picks like Huskar, Broodmother, Meepo and so on. Will hero spammers suffer as a result or will they just think twice before picking an obvious hero? Are Valve playing 4D chess here?
Attacking your own wards is a nice touch since you’ll now be able to remove them in case you accidentally block a camp. The option seems to be bugged at the moment as it takes 8 full hits to destroy a ward instead of the usual 2.
Items
Ring of Regen
Health regeneration reduced from 2 to 1.75
Soul Ring
Health regen reduced from 2.5 to 2.25Headdress
Health regen reduced from 2.5 to 2Mekansm
Health regen aura reduced from 2.5 to 2Pipe of Insight
Health regen aura reduced from 2.5 to 2Recipe cost increased from 800 to 1000Helm of the Dominator
Health regen aura reduced from 5 to 4.25Ring of Tarrasque
Health regen reduced from 4.5 to 4Royal Jelly
Health regen reduced from 2.5 to 2.25Necronomicon
Strength reduced from 10/15/20 to 6/12/18Vladmir’s Offering
Recipe cost increased from 450 to 550Dust of Appearance
Cost reduced from 90 to 80We can see that regen is going down across the board, meaning that sustain in the early game will be a bit worse now. On the bright side detecting invisible units is 10 gold cheaper.
Heroes
Beastmaster
Call of the Wild Hawk no longer blocks neutral campsLevel 15 Talent reduced from +35 Boar Damage to +30 Centaur Warrunner
Retaliate attack damage per charge reduced from 6/8/10/12% to 4/6/8/10% Clockwerk
Strength gain reduced from 3.7 to 3.5 Death Prophet
Base damage reduced by 2 Exoricsm Scepter damage multiplier reduced from 1.75 to 1.5 Spirit Siphon mana cost increased from 70 to 80 Huskar
Berserker's Blood attack speed reduced from 140/200/260/320 to 130/190/250/310 Level 15 Talent reduced from +10 Burning Spear DPS to +8 Keeper of the Light
Chakra Magic cooldown reduction from 4/5/6/7 to 3/4/5/6 Level 20 Talent reduced from +250 Will-O-Wisp AoE to +200 Lycan
Shapeshift cooldown increased from 110/95/80 to 125/110/95 Meepo
Base agility reduced from 24 to 17 (base damage and armor unchanged) Divided We Stand now level requirement increased from 3/10/18 to 4/11/18 Phantom Lancer
Base agility reduced by 3 Phoenix
Fire Spirits damage reduced from 20/40/60/80 to 15/35/55/75Level 15 Talent reduced from +40 Fire Spirits DPS to +35 Snapfire Firesnap Cookie damage reduced from 90/160/230/300 to 70/140/210/280 Wraith King
Base damage reduced by 2 Mortal Strike skeletons duration reduced from 90 seconds to 60
While most heroes get slightly toned down the biggest nerfs go to Meepo and Lycan. It looks like the nerfs in the previous update weren’t enough as Meepo is still the hero with the highest win rate for the month, sitting at 57%. With an additional level required for his ultimate, his laning stage will be significantly harder. This will also delay his farming by an extra minute or so, which will in turn change his timings for some of the items. Meepo’s base damage and armor remain unchanged, but with 7 agility down he’s losing some attack speed (and 1 movement speed) which will slow down his farm even further.Lycan’s only change is the extra cooldown on Shapeshift or at least so it seems at first glance. Thanks to the extra 8 seconds from the talent Shapeshift is still hitting a total duration of 30 seconds at max rank. During that time, Lycan is a fast killing machine that cannot be kited. Items that the hero often uses like Necronomicon, Vladmir’s Offering and Helm of the Dominator each get worse with 7.25c, but will that be enough to stop the wolfman?Patch 7.25c doesn’t bring anything game-changing but simply tries to dethrone some of the most successful heroes. Whether it’ll succeed remains to be seen. Stay tuned for more Dota 2 updates.
