Dota 2 patch 7.27b has rolled out, bringing with it sweeping changes to many heroes. The update reverts changes to Bloodseeker, Centaur Warrunner, Chaos Knight, Clinkz, Medusa, and Treant Protector, essentially returning these heroes to their older versions, while also handing out buffs and nerfs to others.
Here’s a breakdown of the biggest changes in the patch:
Don’t call it a comeback
Bloodseeker
The 7.27b patch has reworked Bloodseeker to be back to his old self before the 6.82 update. He now has more staying power in both the laning phase and in fights in exchange for reduced innate damage potential.
The reworked Bloodrage no longer amplifies the damage its target deals and receives, instead it increases Bloodseeker’s attack speed by 50/80/110/140 and spell amplification by 6/12/18/24% while draining 2.4/2.6/2.8/3% of his max health per second. The ability lasts for 8 seconds and has a low mana cost of 25/30/35/40 as well as cooldown at 14/12/10/8 seconds. It can be cast on allies to provide half the bonus attack speed without interrupting movement.
Bloodseeker’s staying power is now tied to his passive ability, Thirst, which also no longer grants attack speed. It now provides 6/9/12/15% of max health as a heal for creep kills and 12/18/24/30% for hero kills. The great thing about it is that it still provides you with half the heal values even if you don’t get the last hit yourself as long as you are within 300 radius of a dying enemy creep or hero.
Centaur Warrunner
Centaur Warrunner is now back to being a beastly tank that punishes enemies for even thinking of attacking him once the game goes late, though his strength as a laner has been diminished in exchange.
His Retaliate ability no longer has an active component that provides attack damage, had its base damage reduced from 16/36/56/76 to 15/30/45/60, and now does half damage to towers. However, it now returns 20/25/30/35% of Centaur Warrunner’s strength as damage. Combine that with the new Blade Mail and you just might return more damage to your enemies than they deal to you.
His Hoof Stomp ability has also been buffed, as it now deals significantly more damage from 80/110/140/170 to 100/150/200/250 now while also having its mana cost and cooldown reduced from 115/120/125/130 and 22/19/16/13 seconds to 100/110/120/130 and 15/14/13/12 seconds. Its stun duration has been reduced a bit from 2/2.25/2.5/2.75 to 1.7/2.0/2.3/2.6 seconds, but it is certainly stronger at its lower levels.
Chaos Knight
Chaos Knight is back to being Dota’s king of RNG as his Chaos Strike passive is now back to having a 30% chance to proc instead of using a cooldown.
However, the biggest change to the hero is that his Phantasm ultimate is now more spammable. The ability had its cooldown reduced from 125 to 75 seconds and its mana cost dialed back from 125/200/275 to 75/125/175. The illusions no longer have an extra 25% magic resistance and their numbers have been rescaled from 3 at all levels to 1/2/3, though they now deal the original Chaos Knight’s full damage.
With the window in which Chaos Knight is at peak strength with Phantasm off cooldown now much larger, arguably the best fighting carry in the game should see more action in the current fighting-oriented meta.
Clinkz
Old Clinkz is back, with Death Pact becoming his ultimate again while Strafe returns to replace it as a basic ability. Burning Army remains as an added ability once he acquires Aghanim’s Scepter.
Strafe grants 110/140/170/200 attack speed and 100% evasion against ranged attackers for 3/4/5/6 seconds. The ability has a significant cooldown at 34/30/26/22 seconds but manageable mana cost 40/50/60/70
His reworked Death Pact ultimate grants him 60/80/100% of a target friendly or enemy creep as bonus health and 6/10/14% of the target’s health as damage for 65 seconds. The ability virtually has a full uptime with an 80/70/60 second cooldown and 100 mana cost.
Burning Army now summons 5 skeletons in a 1300 line that have 1000 health, but die in 2 hits and deals 30% of Clinkz’s damage. It has a cooldown of 90 seconds and a 150 mana cost.
Medusa
Medusa’s Split Shot ability is no longer passive and has been returned to how it was before the 7.07 patch.
The ability can now be toggled so that Medusa attacks four extra enemies in a 150 area-of-effect (AOE) aside from her primary target. Medusa’s damage towards her primary target receives the same damage reduction penalty as with her secondary targets. The overall DPS is better than before, however, as Split Shot deals 50/60/70/80% of Medusa’s overall damage compared to 30/45/60/75% before.
In addition to that change to Split Shot, Medusa’s stats have also been improved so that she’s tankier, especially in the early game. The hero’s base Strength and Intelligence stats have been improved from 15 and 19 to 17 and 23, respectively.
Treant Protector
Treant Protector’s Leech Seed ability has been reverted to how it was before the Outlander’s Update, as it is now an enemy target spell again instead of an AOE toggle. The ability slows the movement speed of its target by 8/14/20/26% while dealing 16/32/48/64 damage per pulse, with a pulse afflicting the target every second for 5 seconds. The ability has a 18/16/14/12 cooldown and 110/120/130/140 mana cost.
Treant Protector’s Eyes in the Forest ability from Aghanim’s Scepter has also been buffed, as it is now a charge-based ability with 3 charges that replenish after 40 seconds.
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Buffs
Rubick
Get ready for the return of mid Rubick, as Icefrog has massively buffed the Grand Magus’ Fade Bolt ability and given it a strong talent that makes the hero viable as a core again.
Fade Bolt’s most important aspect, its damage reduction for all enemies it hits, has been changed from being a fixed value to 10/18/26/34% of the target’s base damage. This makes the ability weaker early on but much stronger at mitigating the damage of right-click carries in the late game.
On top of that, Fade Bolt had its damage increased from 80/160/240/320 to 100/175/250/325 and manacost reduced from 135/140/145/150 to 120/130/140/150.
But what makes mid Rubick a real possibility is his new talent selection at Level 15, which makes Fade Bolt steal damage from heroes that it hits. That new source of right-click damage for the hero that also debuffs enemies makes getting to Level 15 a priority, something that a mid Rubick can do.
Dark Seer
After years of having his Vacuum ability always being nerfed, Dark Seer seems to have finally gotten on Icefrog’s good side as he has been buffed in this patch.
Vacuum had its damage increased 50/100/150/200 to 100/150/200/250 while also having its mana cost reduced from 100/130/160/190 to 60/90/120/150. Dark Seer’s ultimate, Wall of Replica, also had the duration of the slow it inflicts on any enemy hero passing through it increased to 1 second.
In addition to those ability buffs, Dark Seer also had his base agility increased from 12 to 18, though his base armor was recuded by 1 as a result.
Doom
Doom has seen a lot of professional play in this patch as either the mid, offlane, or position 4 support hero in fast-paced midgame lineups. Icefrog seems to like seeing more of him, as he has increased his attack range from 175 to 200 while also giving him an additional 1 base armor (literally taking no damage!).
Doom’s Devour ability has also been adjusted, as it now gives more bonus gold, from 20/80/140/200 to 50/100/150/200, in exchange for less health regeneration, 3/7/11/15 to 2/6/10/14 HP regen per second.
Magnus
After seeing a resurgence in popularity as either the secondary core or position 4 support in four-protect-one strategies, Magnus continues to get buffed in this patch.
The bonus damage granted by his Empower ability has been increased from 10/15/20/25% to 11/18/25/32% of the target’s base damage, the slow from Shockwave was increased 60% to 75%, and Skewer’s radius was increased from 135 to 145 while also having its cooldown reduced from 26/24/22/20 to 22/20/18/16 seconds.
With all these buffs to his basic abilities, expect to see more of Magnus in virtually any role in both pubs and professional play.
Pudge
Pudge also continues to get buffed with this patch, with his Meat Hook ability getting its cooldown reduced from 27/22/17/12 to 21/18/15/12 seconds while Rot had its slow effect increased from 11/18/24/32% to 14/20/26/32%.
Pudge’s Strength gain has been reduced from 4 to 3.2 per level, though that has been compensated by another buff to his Flesh Heap passive, which now increases his Strength gain from 1/1.5/2/2.5 to 1.5/2/2.5/3 for every hero that dies near him. His base health regen has also been buffed to 2 HP regen per second for more staying power in lane.
All these buffs should make Pudge more of a terror in pubs at the hands of the right players, but his viability in competitive games remains to be seen. We may start seeing more teams give him a try, though.
Sand King
Sand King is now more viable as a late-game hero, especially against tanky enemies, with the rework to his Caustic Finale passive.
The ability now places a debuff on enemies that Sand King attacks that slows their movement speed by 10/15/20/25% for 5 seconds. If the target dies during the 5-second debuff, an explosion deals 70/90/110/130 + 10/14/18/22% of the target’s max health in a 500 AOE. Now, imagine what would happen if a Sand King takes down a 3,000 HP Centaur Warrunner or Pudge in the middle of a team fight.
Shadow Fiend
Shadow Fiend has seen some action in competitive play as a hard-hitting midgame monster that can end games quickly if he’s able to snowball. 7.27b makes the hero stronger in that regard by amping up the bonus damage he receives from his Necromastery passive.
Necromastery’s maximum soul count has been decreased from 12/20/28/36 to 11/14/17/20, with the increased max soul count from Aghanim’s Scepter now at 25 souls. The bonus damage Shadow Fiend gets from each soul he has has been changed from a constant 2 to a scaling 1/2/3/4, though he no longer gets extra souls from hero kills. The hero’s Level 20 Necromastery talent has also been increased from +2 damage per soul to +3.
With the Level 20 Necromastery talent selected and Aghanim’s Scepter, Shadow Fiend gets 170 bonus damage — more than half of what you get from Divine Rapier. On top of all that, Requiem of Souls also deals more damage as it now releases a wave per 1 soul instead of per 2 souls.
Sven
Sven has largely fallen out of favor as a carry, so Icefrog has massively buffed his God’s Strength ultimate to make him viable again.
God’s Strength no longer provides a bonus 10/20/30 strength to Sven whenever he casts it, but it had its bonus damage increased from 80/120/160% to 110/160/210% and its duration increased from 25 to 40. His Level 25 talent has also been changed from granting 32 strength in God’s Strength to God’s Strength adding 50% more damage.
As if that weren’t enough, Icefrog also buffed Sven’s Warcry ability by having it provide its bonus movement speed to allies as well as reducing its mana cost from 60 to 30/40/50/60. However, the ability’s bonus movement speed has been dialed back a bit from 10/14/18/22 to 8/12/16/20 and its bonus damage component has also been removed.
To top it all off, Sven’s farming ability was also improved with his base movement speed increased from 315 to 325 and his Great Cleave passive’s cleave distance increased from 650 to 700.
Io
Prepare to see Io, and whoever it is tethered to, zooming around the lanes as its base movement speed has been increased from 280 to 320.
Nerfs
Queen of Pain
Queen of Pain emerged as one of the most popular heroes in the previous meta, just in time for the release of her Arcana. But now that the hero has done her part in growing TI10’s prize pool, Icefrog has hit her with the nerf hammer.
Queen of Pain is now a bit more squishy as she had her Strength gain reduced from 2.3 to 2.2. Her Shadow Strike ability had its initial damage reduced from 50/75/100/125 to 30/60/90/120 and its mana cost increased from 110 to 110/120/130/140. Finally, her Sonic Wave ultimate had its mana cost increased from 250/360/500 to 250/400/550.
While these changes won’t make Queen of Pain suddenly drop out of the top tier of meta heroes, it should make life just a bit harder for her.
Jakiro
Jakiro has also emerged as one of the more popular support picks in the current meta thanks to his strong team fight control and versatility. 7.27b makes life just a bit harder for him by increasing the mana costs of his Dual Breath and Ice Path abilities from 135/140/155/170 and 90 to 140/150/160/170 and 100, respectively.
Lone Druid
Despite being rarely picked in competitive games, Lone Druid was still hit with the nerf bat in this patch for some reason. The hero is now less tanky as his Strength gain was reduced from 2.7 to 2.5 while the armor bonus he gets from his True Form ultimate was reduced from 10/15/20 to 8/10/12.
Lone Druid will also be getting punished more for having his Spirit Bear killed, as the backlash damage has been increased from 10% of his max HP to 20%. The Spirit Bear’s Entangling Claws passive no longer has a special duration for creeps, though its damage per level has been changed from bonus damage to base damage.
Monkey King
Monkey King continues to get nerfed, as his Jingu Mastery passive had its bonus damage reduced from 60/90/120/150 to 40/70/100/130 and its hit tracker duration reduced from 10 to 7/8/9/10. Icefrog still threw the hero a bone, however, as his base armor has been increased by 3.
Phoenix
Despite being nerfed for what feels like eight-straight patches now, Phoenix remains a strong pick for both support roles. So Icefrog nerfed him some more by increasing the mana cost of Fire Spirits from 80/90/100/110 to 120 and rescaled the hit count for Supernova from 5/8/11 to 6/8/10.
Ursa
Ursa was the most popular carry of the previous patch due to his quick buildup and huge status resistance potential, so he was bound to get nerfed. 7.27b dials back Fuzzy Wuzzy’s early game strength by reducing the slow of his Earthshock ability from 10/25/40/55% to 10/20/30/40% while increasing the cooldown from 9/8/7/6 to 11/10/9/8 seconds. His Enrage ultimate also had its cooldown increased from 50/40/30 to 70/50/30 seconds.
Items
Hand of Midas is back, as the item’s recipe cost has been reduced from 1850 to 1750 gold, meaning you can now get it faster and easier. Meanwhile, Monkey King Bar has been nerfed as its recipe cost has been increased from 350 to 550.
Finally, Abyssal Blade, Mjollnir, Silver Edge, and Solar Crest can no longer be disassembled while Silver Edge can now be disassembled.
To see the full list of changes in the 7.27b patch, check here.
