Dota 2's 7.34e patch nerfs TI meta heroes Bristleback, Chaos Knight, Spirit Breaker
This small update only contains balance changes and number tweaks, which may lead to some disappointment for players who were looking forward to more sweeping changes.
Dota 2's much-anticipated 7.42e patch, the game's first update since the conclusion of The International (TI) 2023 in late October, was finally released on Tuesday (21 November).
This small update only contains balance changes and number tweaks, which may lead to some disappointment for players who were looking forward to more sweeping changes. With that said, it did contain some much-needed nerfs for the tanky, high-damage Strength heroes like Bristleback, Chaos Knight, and Spirit Breaker, among others, that so thoroughly dominated the metagame of TI 2023.
Here are all the biggest changes you should know about in Dota 2's 7.42e patch:
Meta-defining Strength heroes get much-needed nerfs
TI 2023's metagame was dominated by tanky, high-damage Strength heroes that could brawl from the laning stage all the way up to the late game, so they were bound to get hit by the nerf hammer.
First up is Bristleback, whose Aghanim's Scepter-into-Bloodstone build decimated many teams during TI. Quill Spray's max damage has been reduced from 550 to 500 while Hairball, from his Aghanim's Shard, had its cast range reduced to 1000 and cooldown increased to 13 seconds.
In addition, the hero's titular Bristleback passive had its damage threshold for automatically releasing a Quill Spray rescaled from a constant 225 to 300/275/250/225. This should discourage players from running the 2-2-1 skill build that was popularized during TI.
Finally, Bristleback's Level 20 Quill Spray Stack Damage Talent had its bonus damage reduced from 25 to 20.
Up next is Chaos Knight, who was a top pick for the carry role due to his strong laning presence and high-burst damage potential.
7.42e targeted his early sustainability and farming presence by increasing the lifesteal penalty against creeps from Chaos Strike from 40% to 70% and massively boosting the manacost for Phantasm from 75/125/175 to 100/200/300. The hero's base damage was also decreased by 5, reducing his ability to harass opponents in lane and making last-hitting creeps a bit more tricky.
Meanwhile, Spirit Breaker was arguably the hero of TI 2023 due to his ability to set up ganks from all across the map, split-push by quickly clearing creep waves, and tanking enemy spells.
The patch nerfed his iconic Charge of Darkness skill by increasing its cooldown from 21/18/15/12 seconds to 22/19/16/13 seconds. Even his Aghanim's Scepter upgrade was hit, increasing the enhanced ability's cooldown from 8 seconds to 9 seconds.
Greater Bash also had its damage multiplier against creeps reduced from 1.5x to 1.3x, which should make it more difficult for Spirit Breaker to clear creep waves.
The trio of Bristleback, Chaos Knight, and Spirit Breaker weren't necessarily nerfed to the ground as many hoped, but the patch did make it harder for them to do what they did in TI. This should hopefully discourage teams from insta-picking them and open up opportunities for other heroes to get picked.
Other top picks at TI that received nerfs include Dazzle, Earth Spirit, Kunkka, Muerta, Necrophos, Primal Beast, and Treant Protector.
Unpopular Agility, Intelligence heroes get buffs
With Strength heroes largely dominating the TI metagame, many Agility and Intelligence heroes were rarely picked or even outright ignored. 7.42e handed some of these heroes a bunch of buffs to hopefully reintegrate them back into the metagame.
Drow Ranger had her Multishot skill's cooldown reduced from 26/24/22/20 seconds to 24/22/20/18 seconds, Enigma had his Black Hole cooldown reduced from 200/180/160 seconds to 180/170/160 seconds, while Lion had his Earth Spike cast range significantly increased from 575 to 650.
The Universal hero Lycan also received some handy stat boosts, as his Base Agility was increased from 16 to 18 and his Agility gain was increased from 1.4 to 1.8. Another unpopular Universal hero in Timbersaw got a nifty buff to his Whirling Death ability's stat loss on enemies from 10% to 13%, perfect against those pesky Strength heroes.
Meta items nerfed, non-meta items buffed
The latest patch didn't just focus on heroes, of course, as a bunch of items were also tweaked. Meta items during TI got nerfs, as should be expected, while unpopular ones got some much-needed buffs.
Two of the most-purchased items during TI were Hand of Midas and Heart of Tarrasque, with the former giving many heroes an easy way to scale into the late game regardless of how their team performed while the latter boosted the power of the meta Strength heroes even further.
Hand of Midas' Base Charge Restore Time increased from 100 seconds to 110 seconds, forcing Hand of Midas enjoyers to wait just a bit longer before they can turn poor creeps into cold, hard gold. While we don't think this will make the item fall out of favour any time soon, any nerfs to it will be welcome.
Meanwhile, Heart of Tarrasque had its total cost increased from 5100 gold to 5200 gold while its Strength bonus was reduced from 40 to 35. While this item will still be a core pickup for Strength heroes, its cost-effectiveness has been significantly reduced and may even make some players think twice before buying it.
On the other hand, unpopular early game fighting items were given some much-needed buffs.
Eternal Shroud had its Magic Resistance bonus increased from +30% to +35%, Vladimir's Offering and its upgrade into Helm of the Overlord had its aura armor bonus increased from 3 to 4, while Pavise had the cooldown for its Protect ability reduced from 18 seconds to 16 seconds.
For the full list of changes in Dota 2's 7.42e patch, you can check the patch notes here.
7.42e will notably be the patch to be played in ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023, the last big Dota 2 tournament of the year featuring 12 teams will be fighting to claim the lion's share of the US$1 million prize pool from 11 to 17 December.
ESL One Kuala Lumpur will begin with a three-day Group Stage, taking place from 11 to 13 December, and will split the 12 participating teams into two groups of six teams each to compete in a single round-robin format.
The top six teams from the Group Stage will then proceed to the Playoffs, which will be hosted in the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre from 15 to 17 December. The Playoffs will follow a double-elimination format.
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