The next big Dota 2 patch is less than two weeks away and we’re all eagerly waiting for those Sven nerfs. What else should we expect?
Dota 2’s patch 7.27 has been around since the end of June and the next major update is set to arrive in mid-December in Valve’s words. So, what’s coming with patch 7.28? Here are our thoughts and expectations.
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Nerf Candidates for Patch 7.28
Sven – The elephant in the room. All the supports are crying on Reddit and for good reason. Sven has a great kit and can farm insanely fast. What people are really upset about is the level 15 talent that adds a dispel effect to his Storm Hammer. It effectively gives him a Nullifier (an item that usually costs 4725 gold) at level 15. Combine that with his Aghanim Scepter upgrade that he usually gets around the same time and no support will be spared.
Magnus - The magnataur was once a typical pick for the mid or offlane. Things have changed over the last few months and you can see him at basically every role. Why? His Empower is just too good and makes your carry farm insanely fast. Hard support Magnus is also a threat due to how dangerous Reverse Polarity can be. He offers a lot and doesn’t have many drawbacks.
Faceless Void – The ultimate meta carry of patch 7.27 is without a doubt Faceless Void. It’s hard to harass him out of the lane and he’s arguably the best late game carry. We don’t really expect him to get nerfed but maybe some tweaks are in order. Either that or buffs to some of the other underused heroes.
Puck – You probably didn’t expect to see Puck on the list. The faerie dragon is the most elusive hero in the entire Dota 2 roster and each of his abilities does area of effect damage. His ultimate is on a rather low cooldown for what it does. With Aghanim’s it gets even worse, piercing spell immunity and lasting not for 6 but 8 seconds. Eight seconds of leash!
Drow Ranger – Drow was already in a good spot despite being hard to balance due to the nature of her ultimate. Once she got Multishot, though, the hero’s popularity spiked. She’s already doing well on the lane with Vengeful Spirit. Does she really need that much damage on her channeling ability?
Leshrac – The disco pony is back! He’s usually found mid, but you can even get away with it on the offlane. Leshrac will mow down towers real quick, and that’s what he’s been doing for years. His high movement speed makes it hard to lock him down, and he can hit item timings pretty consistently no matter the matchup.
Zeus – The god of thunder has also been a very popular pick in patch 7.27. Despite getting several nerfs he’s still the highest damage dealer in every match. The percentage-based damage coming from his passive is what makes him so good. Thanks to Aghanim’s and Refresher he’s viable even in the late game more than ever.
Monkey King Bar – Okay, let’s say a few words about MKB. The item was designed to counter evasion, namely heroes like Phantom Assassin, Windranger, Arc Warden, or just a Butterfly. Lately, it’s the most picked item for damage. At the start of 7.27, the recipe was changed and instead of Quarterstaff it now uses Blitz Knuckles. As a result, the attack damage was lowered from 52 to 42, but the attack speed bonus got increased from 10 to 35. Considering the item is very dependent on the magic damage procs and attack speed, this was a buff in every aspect. IceFrog followed up with some nerfs in some of the smaller patches, but that only increased the gold cost by a total of 550. Perhaps it’s time to tweak the item’s stats or rework it as a whole?
A New Hero
Valve initially promised fans a new hero in late November, but just as everyone and their grandmother expected – it got delayed. According to the latest blog post, the new hero will be coming in mid-December along with patch 7.28. So far, we know that it’s going to be a “she”. There’s a high chance the new addition will be a carry hero using a crossbow and an animal companion. That’s a welcome change since the last carry hero that got released was Monkey King back in 2016.
New Items
It won’t be much of a surprise if we also see some new items. Dota 2 seems to be lacking a bit in the magic department as there are plenty of options for physical damage. When it comes to increasing your spell output it’s basically Kaya and its upgrades or cooldown reduction with Octarine Core.
Map Changes
Last but not least, it won't be out of the question to see some map changes. Major patches tend to rework certain parts of the map, switch up neutral creep maps or add brand-new things like shrines or outposts.
What kind of changes do you expect to see in patch 7.28? Tell us on our Facebook page!
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