Boy, Valve sure wastes no time. The first small Dota 2 patch for 2020 is already live and some of the top heroes in the current meta get toned down. But that is not all. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?
The change you didn’t know you needed
- Gold bonus for the team that is behind is no longer considered if the difference is 1k or less
Perhaps the most important addition in 7.23f is the gold change. Previously, this often allowed a hero who was already the most farmed character on his team to further increase the lead. A great example would be a safe-lane carry that did well in the early stage but his team was behind in gold. After getting a kill on an enemy core, for instance, the bonus was much higher and as a result, the killer was suddenly the highest net worth hero on the map.
Will the nerfs be enough?
There’s a couple of heroes that define patch 7.23 – Puck, Doom, Tiny, Outworld Devourer, Snapfire, Treant Protector. Chances are at least unless banned, one of them will be in most matches. It comes as no surprise that all of the heroes mentioned above are addressed in the latest patch. The question remains though – will they still be picked? Our answer is: Yes, most definitely.
Puck
The faerie dragon is probably one of the most popular heroes in the current version as it received numerous buffs beforehand. Just look at this: plenty of area-of-effect damage, two ways to disjoint attacks and spells, two mobility spells and an ultimate with a rather low cooldown for the effect it provides. There’s just no reason not to pick Puck.
Patch 7.23f merely balances the hero a little by moving its damage talent from Level 15 to Level 10 and reducing the bonus from +90 to +30. Even with the nerf, this is still quite a bit for such a hero. The Phase Shift talent remains unchanged except that it stands at Level 15 now. Additionally, Puck’s base damage has been reduced by 2, which is no big deal since the hero already had plenty to start with.
Tiny
Tiny received nerfs to both his core and roaming aspects. Toss range is now scaling with levels, while his attack speed and strength gain per level have been reduced. Overall, the hero is still good and these changes won’t be enough to stop him from being a solid pick in almost every scenario. Furthermore, the stone giant seems to never fall off as he can be strong in all stages of the game.
Outworld Devourer
Ever since his rework, OD is really hard to balance as he’s capable of destroying an entire team with a well-placed ultimate. His ult is an example of pretty much the only ability that was almost halved in damage over a couple of patches.
Initially, Sanity’s Eclipse had a 0.6 multiplier at max level back when 7.23 released. That number increased to 0.7 in 7.23a and it’s been gradually reduced to the current 0.4 at all levels. Time will tell if it drops even further. OD remains an overall solid pick, while also being a really good counter to heroes with a small mana pool. And there are plenty of those in the current meta.
Doom
The Doombringer offers a wide variety of control in the offlane with his main weakness being the lack of armor early on and maybe some mana issues. Scorched earth is slightly worse now and he loses 2 of his starting strength, but the hero’s true strength is the amount of gold he can hoard thanks to Devour. Even without getting any kills he’s still able to build core items that make him a formidable foe. Add to that an amazing Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade and any hero melts.
Honorable mentions
Snapfire lost 1 base armor and received a nerf to her ultimate. Now its cooldown is 20 seconds longer, but that won’t be enough. Having access to potentially 1600 area damage as a support is no joke. And with the rest of her kit also being handy, there’s no chance she’ll be forgotten anytime soon.
Treant Protector was the hero to go to at the start of 7.23 but he’s been gradually falling off. That shows in his win rate – it’s much closer to the 50% mark. This could be an indication that people have learned how to play against an invisible tree. Over the last few updates, Treant received higher mana costs, less strength per level and lower slow percentages on his abilities which doubtlessly led to a drop in his popularity.
So what do you think of the new patch? Let us know!
