Just last Friday, Valve released a major patch for Dota 2 with Patch 7.26. Shockingly, it only had four lines of changes with more promised to come. That promise is now fulfilled with 7.26a.
Valve sure surprised us with this one as we expected the developers to do more testing, but we’ll take it anyway. Patch 7.26a adds what was initially supposed to be included in 7.26. Almost all of the changes are focused on items and heroes with the sole exception of one. As usual, we’ll focus on the most important ones.
- READ MORE: Dota 2 Patch 7.26 is a short one
General
- XP bonus for kill streaks reduced from 30->100 * Level to 20->90 * Level
The overall idea of this patch seems to be to slow down the pace of the game even further. Patch 7.26 partially did that by reducing the amount of gold in the game by 10% and kill streak gold by 50%. Now the experience bonus takes a hit.
Items
Boots of Speed/ Power Threads/ Arcane Boots / Phase Boots
- Changed from +15% movement speed to +45 movement speed
- Phase Boots active speed reduced from 22% to 20% bonus movement speed
Tranquil Boots
- Active state changed from +26% movement speed to +75 movement speed
- Inactive state changed from +18% movement speed to +50 movement speed
Guardian Greaves
- Changed from +17% movement speed to +50 movement speed
Boots of Travel
- Changed from 38/44% movement speed to +110/130 movement speed
Spider Legs
- Changed from +28% movement speed to +65 movement speed
Force Boots
- Changed from +40% movement speed to +115 movement speed
Woodland Striders
- Changed from +50% movement speed to +140 movement speed
Yasha / Manta Style
- Changed from +20 movement speed to +8%
Sange and Yasha / Yasha and Kaya /Trident
- Changed from +30 movement speed to +10%
Drum of Endurance
- Speed bonus reduced from 13% to 12% movement speed
Spirit Vessel (reworked)
- Provides a negative aura that reduces health regen, heals and lifesteal by 20% in a 1200 aoe
- Soul Release debuff regen reduction reduced from from 60% to 35%
- No longer requires Wind Lace (nor provides movement bonus)
- Recipe cost increased from 750 to 1000
Silver Edge
- No longer reduces regen
Eye of Skadi
- Reduces all regen, heals and lifesteal by 35%
Nullifier
- Debuff is no longer dispellable
Blade Mail
- Intelligence reduced from 10 to 8
The movement speed changes bring us back to the pre 7.20 patch when they were first introduced. Now they’re reverted and it’s not the first time we see this. It really feels like the development team is having trouble figuring out what to do. Expect to see changes to specific hero movement speed in the next few patches. Spirit Vessel’s active efficiency before 7.26a is now split into a passive aura and the active component. Vessel loses the movement speed but the degen aura has a 1200 radius and at least on theory seems like it’ll be crazy in long team fights. Eye of Skadi is the real winner in the debuffs department as the item currently slows movement and attack speed while also reducing regen, heals, and lifesteal. Slark will no doubt resurge and now carry heroes have a way to directly counter picks like Huskar.
Heroes
Movement speed across the board gets nerfed in both passives, actives, and flat hero speed. We’ll cover everything else that’s not related to that.
Alchemist
- Greevil's Greed cap reduced from 20/24/28/32 to 18/22/26/30
- Greevil's Greed Base gold bonus reduced from 4 to 3
- Greevil's Greed Bounty Rune multiplier reduced from 2/2.5/3/3.5 to 1.5/2/2.5/3
The Alchemist nerf was guaranteed as soon as we saw 7.26 since the hero could easily get out of control thanks to gold. He can still do that but his numbers got tweaked.Bounty Hunter
- Track self gold reduced from 150/250/350 to 130/225/320
Brewmaster
- Primal Split Permanent Immolation damage increased from 20/40/60 to 25/50/75
Chaos Knight
- Phantasm cooldown reduced from 145/135/125 to 125
Chen
- Divine Favor health regen reduced from 2/3/4/5 to 1.25/2.5/3.75/5
Clinkz
- Searing Arrows damage increased from 20/30/40/50 to 30/40/50/60
- Searing Arrows mana cost from 6/8/10/12 to 9/10/11/12
Dragon Knight
- Strength gain reduced from 3.6 to 3.4
- Elder Dragon Form Scepter no longer increases attack range
Drow Ranger
- Base armor increased by 2
Ember Spirit
- Searing Chains cooldown increased from 11/10/12/8 to 13/12/11/10
Keeper of the Light
- Blinding Light cooldown increased from 14 to 20/18/16/14
- Will-O-Wisp cooldown increased from 120 to 130
Leshrac
- Pulse Nova damage increased from 100/140/180 to 100/150/200
Lone Druid
- Level 25 Talent reduced from 0.25 Spirit Bear Base Attack Time to 0.2
Luna
- Attack animation improved from 0.46 to 0.35
Outworld Devourer
- Arcane Orb damage increased from 5/7/9/11% to 6/8/10/12%
Phoenix
- Fire Spirits cooldown increased from 45/40/35/30 to 51/44/37/30
- Supernova scepter upgrade no longer allows you to cast Sun Ray
- Level 20 Talent changed from +1.25s Supernova Stun Duration to Sun Ray During Supernova
Pugna
- Decrepify cast range reduced from 700 to 400/500/600/700
- Nether Ward duration reduced from 30 to 18/22/26/30
Void Spirit
- Level 10 Talent reduced from +30 Damage to +25
Wraith King
- Vampiric Aura damage reduced from 6/12/18/24 to 4/10/16/22
Overall nothing too groundbreaking in the heroes department. The big winner seems to be Clinkz as his movement speed remains untouched while also getting an extra 10 damage on Level 1 of Searing Arrows. As if the hero wasn’t good enough already. If you want to see the full log of changes, check out Dota 2's official page.
The 7.26a Gameplay Update has been released https://t.co/NScn0ca04K
— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) April 21, 2020
The last two patches have slowed the pace of the game significantly, so playing a late-game carry is quite the risk at the moment. Heroes that rely on levels instead of gold will be the dominant force until a new meta is formed. Valve might retract some of the recent changes in the upcoming weeks but only time will tell us for sure. In the meantime, stay tuned for more Dota 2 news.
