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Valve released a new patch for Dota 2. The company presented an update 7.30e, which is already in Dota 2. Valve released a new hero – Marci in the new patch, which was shown in the teaser at The International 10.
The patch is not a global update, which is why it has not received a new number 7.31. This patch is only a continuation of the story 7.30.
Patch 7.30 gave us a lot of cool and exciting moments at tournaments, especially at The International 10. However, like any patch it had a lot of unbalanced things that IceFrog should have worked on in the next updates.
Patch 7.30e is not about global changes in the game, it’s about reworking the balance in existing conditions. Reducing the power of too imbalanced heroes and items without rebuilding the architecture of the map.
Let’s take a look at what 7.30e brought us in terms of balance.
Overpowered heroes are nerfed
Probably what players have been waiting for most of all is that Valve will finally reduce the power of Tiny. Indeed, this hero shone new colors before TI10. Changing his talents and adding a Status Resistance talent doubled the amount of times teams wanted to pick this hero to their draft almost every game. Tiny was banned in the first stage in nearly every game on The International 10. Those who gave it to their opponents often regretted it. Tiny had a lot of burst damage at TI. Improved Silver Edge with Critical Damage helped keep Tiny mobile while dealing more damage. We can just refresh our memory with Virtus.Pro Nighfall’s Tiny.
Video: Youtube Dota Wakanda
Tiny received the following changes in 7.30e:
TREE THROW
- Unit bonus damage reduced from 25% to 20% (now matches Tree Grab values)
- Splash now equals Tree Grab splash values (from 200% to 40/60/80/100%)
TREE GRAB
- Building damage reduced from 90/120/150/180% to 70/100/130/160%
TALENTS
- Level 15 Talent reduced from +30% Tree Grab Unit Damage to +20% (tooltip was 15% before but was doing double damage)
As you can see, Tiny’s burst damage is now reduced by decreasing Tree Grab damage, also as an Aghanim’s Scepret damage, since Aghs have become very popular for Tiny lately.
I don’t think this nerf will take Tiny out of the game, but it will move him back to the fourth position.
One of the most popular heroes at TI10 was Elder Titan. It is truly one of the strongest heroes in Dota at any time and in any patch. At one point, Elder Titan really shoots out at a tournament and all teams start appreciating this hero, picking him up in the first round of the drafts. Elder Titan is very good for playing the fifth, fourth of even offlane position and guarding his Carry. Despite being a melee hero, he has a high movement speed if he uses Astral Spirit.
It is this ability that IceFrog decided to downgrade Elder Titan.
ASTRAL SPIRIT
- Movement speed per hero rescaled from 7% to 5/6/7/8%
- Bonus damage per hero reduced from 20/40/60/80 to 14/36/58/80
- Vision range reduced from 400 to 350
Elder Titan, however, is not significantly weaker. Yes, his Astral Spirit doesn’t look as imbalanced anymore. This hero is still good on the lane stage with the prospect of going into late game. Just remember the tearing on Elder Titan XinQ from PSG.LGD.
Video: Youtube Singularity Gaming
Another hero we will see less often in patch 7.30e is Lycan. Professional teams and matchmaking players at high MMR were taking this hero to the offlane, making a quick Helm of Overlord, then Aghanim’s Scepter. The hero especially seemed broken in combination with such strong damage dealers as Tiny and Sven. Lycan got his way, though, and now has an increased cooldown on his Aghs ability.
Video: Youtube Dota 2 clips
WOLF BITE
- Scepter cooldown now matches Shapeshift (80 to 125/110/95)
- Scepter now causes the target to have a fully fixed 150 attack range
Spectre is another hero that should have been significantly weakened in Patch 7.30e. Pro players on TI used one new build on Spectre buying the fast Aghanim’s Scepter. The ability that gives Aghs – Shadow Step allows you to quickly move to enemies across the map in a similar way to Haunt, but the illusion appears only on one target. This ability has a very small cooldown and in fact Spectre got a mini-haunt for 4100 gold and could join the battles almost always. Now the Shadow Step ability is weakened.
SHADOW STEP
- Scepter cooldown increased from 30 to 40
TALENTS
- Level 10 Talent reduced from -5s Spectral Dagger Cooldown to -4s
Though the weakening doesn’t seem too bad for Spectre players considering a huge Haunt cooldown. Cooldown ability reduced to 10 seconds. This means that Aghanim’s Scepter on Spectre is still strong.
Magnus has undergone minor changes. I think a lot of this was made possible by the game of Collapse. Team Spirit’s offlaner showed aerobatics by playing this hero. The constant combinations of Horn Toss and Skewer will long be remembered by all Dota 2 fans.
Video: Youtube dotaku
Magnus got in the following changes:
HORN TOSS
- Shard now applies a 100% MS and 100 AS slow to targets instead of a stun (duration from 0.75 to 1.25)
- Shard damage is now done at the start rather than the end
SKEWER
- Range reduced from 900/1000/1100/1200 to 900/975/1050/1125
TALENTS
Level 20 Talent reduced from +425 Skewer Range to +375
The Items key fixes
One of the most popular items on TI was Silver Edge. I think this is largely due to the fact that Valve had previously added Critical Damage to this item, which was extracted from Crystalis. Previously, the item wasn’t even made by the players in games where it seemed like you couldn’t do without Silver Edge. For example, against a team which playing with Bristleback or Spectre, the opponent has Shadow Blade. However, he does not want to upgrade it to Silver Edge just because the cost of the item was too expensive. The bonuses it gave just weren’t enough and it didn’t perform well at all for its price. Ever since Valve changed that, Silver Edge has been appearing as a combo item for mobility, espace, and damage. The change popularized the item on heroes like Slark, Tiny, Lina, and others. I think Silver Edge was also purchased because the Shadow Blade CD on the active ability – invisibility was significantly reduced after the grading it from Shadow Blade.
And here are the updates to Shadow Blade and Silver Edge
SHADOW BLADE
- Attack Damage reduced from +25 to +20
SILVER EDGE
- Attack Damage reduced from +60 to +52
- Attack Speed reduced from +40 to +35
Another item that has become very popular at TI10 is the Falcon Blade. It’s a cheap item that doesn’t give any active abilities. Its main advantage was mana regen, which was needed to carry with the main attribute Agility for farming. Apparently IceFrog is glad with this situation, but there is still a slight change. Recipe for Falcon Blade just went up by 25 gold.
As you can see, update 7.30e has no global changes. In fact, Valve released it only to introduce a new hero – Marci. Of course, at the same time it would be nice to make a small balance patch like that. It would have helped to bring the Magnus and Tiny pickers down after TI. Also, the update aims to bring back some old heroes, like Omniknight or Spirit Breaker. The paradox is that these are very powerful heroes, but the meta at TI was such that almost no one used them in their games.
This patch is a rehearsal for something really global. Marci is already testing in pubs and players are most likely waiting for her to be added to Captain’s Mode. Also with the new big patch Marci should get her Aghanim’s Scepter and Aghanim’s Shard.
I think the new global patch 7.31 should not be expected until after the start of the DPC season. For now, we can enjoy 7.30e, come up with new strategies, builds, and use other less popular heroes.