Valve has stepped in to correct massive changes to Dota 2 over the last fortnight after the release of the 7.34b patch on Aug. 14.
Heroes that have taken the meta by storm have been struck down, with the likes of Witch Doctor and Sand King targeted for adjusting after heavy buffs in Patch 7.34 saw them approach a ridiculous 60 percent win rate, according to stats site Dotabuff.
What’s in Dota 2 Patch 7.34b?
The days of Witch Doctor and Sand King dominating Dota are over, for now
Witch Doctor, who had spiked in both pick rate and win rate, has borne the brunt of these newly-shipped Dota 2 changes. Death Ward’s attack range has been reduced and its cooldown in the early game has been nearly doubled, meaning we’ll see fewer Rampages out of the overbuffed hero at the beginning of the match.
Coupled with nerfs to Death Ward’s talents meaning less range and damage as the game wears on, plus some base damage and stat drops, Witch Doctor should hopefully be brought back in line with the median.
Related: One Dota 2 support hero has become a nightmare for carries in Patch 7.34
Almost the entirety of Sand King’s kit has been nerfed. From a Burrowstrike damage reduction to a near-removal of Sandstorm’s ability to move with the hero—which was only added last fortnight—SK’s reign at the top of 7.34 is at its end. To be fair, the hero needed it; already at 52 percent win rate before 7.34, SK shot to the top three in no time and was only growing in popularity.
Landmark Invoker changes partially reverted, other heroes receive minor buffs
The rework to Invoker also proved to be too much, with Valve immediately striking down cooldown reduction on Wex and halving late-game values for Ghost Walk. 7.34 saw Carl’s Quas-Wex build receive heavy buffs, with the classic Tornado-EMP combo shooting up in popularity thanks to Wex’s in-built cooldown reduction.
While ability cooldown reduction remains the same with Wex, it no longer has an effect on items. Invoker would take over games thanks to a faster uptime on Hand of Midas for farm, Boots of Travel for map-wide mobility, and Scythe of Vyse for a critical second or third Hex in a teamfight.
That’s not to say the patch was all nerfs: Abaddon received a hefty buff to the heal/damage and range of Mist Coil, Omniknight’s Repel now has a shorter cooldown, and Marci now lands a bonus hit for each Fury stack via her ultimate Unleash.
Dota 2 Patch 7.34b patch notes
Item updates
- Glimmer Cape
- Cooldown has been raised from 12 seconds to 14 seconds
- Spirit Vessel
- Total cost of recipe has been lowered by 200 (now requires Fluffy Hat instead of Crown
- Attributes bonus has been lowered from 12 to six
- Adds +125 Health
Hero updates
- Abaddon
- Mist Coil: Self Damage has been lowered from 50 percent to 40 percent
- Mist Coil: Damage and Heal has been raised from 90/160/230/300 to 100/175/250/325
- Mist Coil: Cast Range has been raised from 575 to 600
- Alchemist
- Base Armor has been raised by one
- Chemical Rage: Bonus Move Speed has been raised from 20/40/60 to 30/45/60
- Arc Warden
- Base Armor has been raised by one
- Magnetic Field: Cooldown has been lowered from 20 seconds to 20/19/18/17 seconds
- Bounty Hunter
- Shuriken Toss: Damage has been raised from 80/120/160/200 to 100/140/180/220
- Brewmaster
- Drunken Brawler: Fire Stance Critical Damage has been lowered from 145/160/175/190 percent to 120/140/160/180 percent
- Bristleback
- Strength gain has been raised from 2.5 to 2.7
- Base Mana Regen has been raised from 0.25 to 0.4
- Crystal Maiden
- Crystal Clone: AoE has been raised from 300 to 400
- Dazzle
- Shadow Wave: Heal and Damage has been raised from 60/85/110/135 to 75/95/115/135
- Earth Spirit
- Rolling Boulder: Delay has been raised from 0.5 seconds to 0.6 seconds
- Enchantress
- Strength gain has been raised from 1.7 to 2.0
- Enigma
- Demonic Summoning: Demonic Conversion has been renamed to Demonic Summoning
- Demonic Summoning: It’s now a point targeted ability with 400 cast range
- Demonic Summoning: Mana Cost has been lowered from 140/150/160/170 to 75/100/125/150
- Invoker
- Base Armor lowered by one
- Wex: Cooldown Reduction no longer works on items
- Ghost Walk: Health Regeneration has been lowered from 10->80 to 10->45
- Ghost Walk: Mana Regeneration has been lowered from 5->40 to 2.5->20
- Ghost Walk: Health and Mana Regeneration are disabled if Invoker took player-controlled damage in the last 3 seconds
- Talent: Level 10 Talent Tornado Cooldown Reduction has been lowered from six seconds to four seconds
- Talent: Level 15 Talent Cold Snap Cooldown Reduction has been lowered from eight seconds to five seconds
- Jakiro
- Macropyre: Aghanim’s Scepter Ice Wall Movement Slow has been lowered from 70 percent to 60 percent
- Talent: Level 10 Talent Attack Range has been lowered from +275 to +250
- Talent: Level 20 Talent Macropyre Damage has been lowered from +30 to +25
- Lina
- Dragon Slave: Burn Duration has been raised from two seconds to three seconds
- Talent: Level 10 Talent Damage has been raised from +20 to +25
- Talent: Level 15 Talent Health has been raised from +275 to +325
- Lone Druid
- Base Strength has been raised from 18 to 20
- Luna
- Moon Glaives: Aghanim’s Shard Orbit Radius has been raised from 150 to 175
- Moon Glaives: Aghanim’s Shard Collision Radius has been raised from 90 to 115
- Eclipse: Cooldown has been lowered from 140/130/120 seconds to 110 seconds
- Magnus
- Shockwave: Aghanim’s Shard Damage Multiplier on return has been raised from 50 percent to 75 percent
- Empower: Bonus Damage has been raised from 12/20/28/36 percent to 16/24/32/40 percent
- Empower: Cleave Damage has been raised from 10/20/30/40 percent to 16/24/32/40 percent
- Marci
- Unleash: Strikes per Fury has been raised from 3/4/5 to 4/5/6
- Mars
- Arena of Blood: Spear Damage has been raised from 75/150/225 to 80/160/240
- Meepo
- Earthbind: Projectile Speed has been raised from 900 to 1000
- Mirana
- Talent: Level 20 Talent Damage has been raised from +35 to +45
- Talent: Level 25 Talent Starstorm Damage has been raised from +200 to +250
- Monkey King
- Primal Spring: Cooldown has been lowered from 20/18/16/14 seconds to 18/16/14/12 seconds
- Mischief: It longer limits movement speed to 200
- Mischief: It now grants 10 percent bonus movement speed
- Morphling
- Strength gain has been raised from three to 3.2
- Night Stalker
- Hunter in the Night: Aghanim’s Shard Mana Cost has been raised from 0 to 50
- Hunter in the Night: Aghanim’s Shard Cooldown has been raised from 20 seconds to 30 seconds
- Omniknight
- Repel: Cooldown has been lowered from 60/55/50/45 seconds to 60/52/44/36 seconds
- Pangolier
- Strength gain has been raised from 2.5 to 2.7
- Shield Crash: Mana Cost has been lowered from 70/80/90/100 to 60/70/80/90
- Phantom Assassin
- Base Agility has been lowered by two
- Phantom Strike: Lifesteal now has a 40 percent penalty on creeps
- Riki
- Base Attack Speed has been lowered from 100 to 90
- Smoke Screen: Linger Duration has been lowered from 0.5 seconds to zero seconds
- Talent: Level 15 Talent Tricks of the Trade Agility Increase has been lowered from +40 percent to +30 percent
- Talent: Level 20 Talent Backstab Multiplier has been lowered from +0.4 to +0.3
- Talent: Level 25 Talent Tricks of the Trade Cooldown Reduction has been lowered from four seconds to three seconds
- Rubick
- Telekinesis: Impact Radius has been rescaled from 325 to 300/325/350/375
- Talent: Level 15 Talent +0.4 seconds Telekinesis Lift Duration has been replaced by +0.4 seconds Telekinesis Lift/Stun Duration
- Sand King
- Base Damage has been lowered by two
- Burrowstrike: Damage has been lowered from 100/150/220/280 to 80/130/200/260
- Sand Storm: Sandstorm Movement Speed has been lowered from 100 to 25/50/75/100
- Epicenter: Aghanim’s Shard Pulse Interval has been raised from 2.5 seconds to 3.5 seconds
- Epicenter: Aghanim’s Shard Pulse now only slows for 50 percent of the duration of the regular Epicenter slow
- Talent: Level 15 Talent +125 Sand Storm Radius has been replaced with +25 Sand Storm Move Speed
- Slardar
- Bash of the Deep: Water Bonus Damage has been lowered from 10/20/30/40 to 8/16/24/32
- Talent: Level 10 Talent Guardian Sprint Cooldown Reduction has been lowered from three seconds to two seconds
- Snapfire
- Talent: Level 10 Talent Firesnap Cookie Health Restore has been raised from 125 to 175
- Techies
- Blast Off!: Stun Duration has been raised from 0.8/0.95/1.1/1.25 seconds to 0.8/1.0/1.2/1.4 seconds
- Treant Protector
- Leech Seed: Damage and Heal per second has been raised from 20/35/50/65 to 25/40/55/70
- Undying
- Heroes inside the tombstone (with Aghanim’s Shard) are now stunned for three seconds if it gets destroyed
- Flesh Golem: Bonus Movespeed has been lowered from 30/40/50 to 20/30/40
- Vengeful Spirit
- Magic Missile: Stun Duration has been raised from 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4 seconds to 1.4/1.5/1.6/1.7 seconds
- Warlock
- Base Attack Speed has been lowered from 100 to 90
- Fatal Bonds: Imp Movement Speed has been lowered from 320/335/350/365/380 to 300/315/330/345/360
- Winter Wyvern
- Splinter Blast: Mana Cost has been lowered from 105/120/135/150 to 105/115/125/135
- Splinter Blast: Cooldown has been lowered from seven seconds to six seconds
- Talent: Level 15 Talent Arctic Burn Debuff Duration has been raised from + two seconds to + three seconds
- Talent: Level 20 Talent Arctic Burn Slow has been raised from +12 percent to +17 percent
- Witch Doctor
- Base Damage has been lowered by three
- Intelligence gain has been lowered from 3.3 to 3.1
- Death Ward: Attack Range has been lowered from 700 to 600
- Death Ward: Cooldown has been raised from 60 seconds to 100/80/60 seconds
- Talent: Level 20 Talent Death Ward Attack Range lowered from +100 to +75
- Talent: Level 25 Talent Death Ward Damage lowered from +60 to +45
- Wraith King
- Strength gain has been lowered from three to 2.8
- Reincarnation: Aghanim’s Scepter Cooldown Reduction has been lowered from 40 seconds to 30 seconds
