7.39 First Impressions – DOTABUFF

It is always amazing to witness how small, seemingly insignificant changes can have a very pronounced effect on the overall meta of the game. Reading through the patch notes, we felt like the game is going to stay more or less the same, with maybe a couple of hero highlights. The initial impression was that this patch is mostly laying down the groundwork for future, bigger updates. Well, the initial impression was wrong.

We are not going to discuss specific heroes today, as the meta is still developing. Instead, we will concentrate on the bigger picture — what playstyles currently work better and why.

For the last couple of years there was a distinct shift towards more tactical, active Dota, as opposed to a more strategic one. Crowd control spells were universally nerfed, multiple items had Status Resistance and the general Hero tankiness was at an all time high. We are not going to argue whether it was better or worse gameplay-wise, but CC once again becoming a lot more powerful is a welcome change.

The biggest change came from the Sange, Kaya and Yasha family of items. Status resistance is definitely nerfed and even the 5% is very much noticeable, but there are also other things to consider. Most importantly, the spell lifesteal mechanic got reworked, streamlined and slightly nerfed across the board.

That means preemptively cast spells or spells you activate before engaging are no longer as powerful as they used to be in terms of sustain. Meaning that bursting down targets while they are disabled is a lot easier, as long as they don’t get to react.

There are still very powerful sustain items in the game, don’t get us wrong. But between lower potential Status Resistance and lower passive Health Restoration, the first move advantage is stronger than it was for the last couple of years.

This is also supported by the reduction in secondary survivability stats. For example, Radiance now provides less passive Evasion, while Vladmir’s Offering is slightly weaker Armor-wise. Similar trend can be seen with Glimmer Cape.

Again, this is addressing the tankiness of heroes. The game-wide EHP reduction should be very noticeable and correct itemisation is becoming a lot more important. Harder saves with additional mechanics are probably going to be a lot better this patch, so consider a Ghost Scepter instead of Pavise in some of your games. A Tier 4 Outworld Staff is possibly one of the best neutrals in the game right now for the same reason.

Neutral Items in general got a bit of an overhaul, tightening the system and eliminating some of the randomness. The enchantments also got slightly nerfed, mostly survivability-wise. With one notable exception of Quickened, which now give +15% Evasion at Tier 4. Keep a close eye on this enchantment specifically, as it can be surprisingly good on support heroes, though Mystical is similarly great, now with the added Cast Range at the highest Tier.

Finally, to drive the point home, a lot of the heavily obscured areas of the map got slightly more open. Most importantly, the safe lanes got substantially reworked, allowing for more angles of approach, while also providing clearer vision.

This, once again, gives an advantage to the team smoking up and looking for a gank. And these changes become relevant from the very beginning of the game, so in our opinion, proactive play is more rewarding in general, not only when itemisation comes into play.

Surprisingly, this is leading to longer professional games for now, but we will have to wait and see how the meta will shape up in general. Personally, I think that scouting heroes are going to be the name of the game with most teams trying to squeeze in at least one dedicated information gatherer. Then again, I’ve been wrong before, we will just have to wait and see.

The patch is most definitely primarily about creating a foundation for bigger changes, but it doesn’t mean that it is small or tame. Sometimes the smallest fundamental changes have the biggest impact and we are already seeing the professional scene heavily experiment with new heroes.

We strongly advise keeping an eye on the meta trends through the hero tab on Dotabuff. It seems that for now the old favorites are still slightly ahead of the curve, but it is definitely going to change, once players start figuring out new things that work.

And if you already have some cool new revelation of your own, share them in the comment section below. We are always on the lookout for new, interesting topics to discuss!