Dota 2: Analysis of update 7.24, changes that will transform gameplay

The Leipzig Major ended with Team Secret becoming the new king, and the Dota 2 patch 7.24 was also released. It plays out similar to last year, when Valve released the big patch of the year (7.21) right after the second DPC Major ended. This patch brings a LOT of changes that impact gameplay or require players to change the way they play in most situations. Here are the major changes and their impact on gameplay.

Item Neutral

Hero now has its own neutral item slot. Each hero can only hold one neutral item at most.

This is a great change to balance the game for neutral items. Previously, if the team got a lot of neutral items that were good for the core, you could stack them to increase their buffs. Or by stacking items like Quickening Charm and Spell Prism, many heroes can exploit moves thanks to their cooldown reduction. This change forces teams and players to make more rational decisions about what items the hero should hold.

fountain now has Stash for Neutral Item. Neutral items now reside here instead of above ground of the fountain. Right clicking on an existing item in the new interface will bring it to your stash/courier and possibly to your hero. This interface also shows the status and location of other dropped items.

Neutral items can be converted to Stash Item Neutral at home by right clicking on the menu (from your backpack or neutral slot).

A good and easy way to send neutral items so you don’t have to chase your teammates around the map to get that neutral item.

Number of neutral items dropped per tier increased from 3 to 4 (probability from 9 to 10%).

Now you can’t stack them endlessly, so increasing the number of neutral item drops shouldn’t matter much. It gives players many options to see what suits them best in each match.

Drop rate from Ancient neutral is 3 times higher.

This is a big change for Ancient. The best way to get neutral items now is to stack two/three times the ancient campsite, and take the camp the moment the next tier’s neutral item spawns. There is a high chance that it will drop at least one or two neutral items and maybe three if the team is lucky. Once higher neutral tier items are obtained, the power of the whole team will increase unexpectedly and can go into battle immediately.

Item Tier 5 now drops from 60

Out of the 613 pro games that took place in patch 7.23, only 23 lasted more than 60 minutes. Of those, 19 games finished between 60 and 70 minutes, but only four actually saw tier 5 items drop. These numbers show that most games over 60 minutes end within the next 10 minutes, which is why we rarely see tier 5 items present. But now, the chance of them appearing has increased by about 5 times! This is a good change for games lasting more than 1 hour. They will make the game more interesting as well as Valve can balance the tier 5 items more (due to more data). Of course, a lot of these items are incomplete, but more or less it’s still better than 7.23.

Shrine

Shrine has been removed from the game.

This is a HUGE change. Shrines were added in patch 7.00, in the jungle and in each team’s home. The home shrine was then removed, followed by only one shrine in the jungle, and now it’s gone. Teams can lure opponents into fighting near the Shrine to gain an advantage, or teleport to the Shrine while at a disadvantage, recovering mana and health to turn the tide of the game. This happens a lot during Roshan, as the game has two Shrines near Roshan. They are also seen as a tool to support cores who have to go to the jungle early due to bad laning. In general, the Forest Shrine is something that is too familiar to everyone but has now disappeared. The teamfight will certainly play out differently – especially in the river area.

Outpost

Outpost moves to main jungle.

Outposts are now right in the middle of each team’s main jungle, making it harder to control enemy Outposts. You have to really go deep into your opponent’s territory to take the Outpost. The good thing is, once the tier 2 turret in the safe lane falls, the opposing team can’t easily capture the Outpost (since there’s no Shrine anymore), so things should be less difficult. But at the beginning of the game, it will put the team in a position to defend its Outposts and earn the necessary XP from them.

Outpost vision reduced from 1400 (air) to 700 (ground) (same for truesight).

Observer ward has 1600 vision, so Outpost is basically half of observer ward.

Outposts are initially owned by each team, and can be taken at any time (rewards still occur at 10 minutes).

No more teamfights at 10 minutes to win Outpost to get first 150 XP. As long as you don’t lose the safelane, the Outpost is mostly still under your control.

Bounty Rune

The bounty runes in the lane are moved to the sub jungle.

In patch 7.23, there are two bounty runes near Outpost and two near river. 7.24 hours there are two in the secondary forest (small forest without Outpost) and two in the river, in the old location. Bounty runes are now easier to obtain, with any secondary jungling hero being able to pick them up. Before 7.24, you had to go all the way to Outpost to get it.

Talent GPM

Remove all GPM talents.

This is another big change, and will have a negative impact on supports. A total of 24 heroes used to have GPM talent and they were replaced with new talents. A lot of supports like Ancient Apparition, Dark Willow and Grimstroke depend on the GPM talent to make farming easier. Without these talents, supports must be prioritized to farm to ensure they get the necessary items. In 7.23, support was able to compensate with neutral items that cores didn’t use, but not anymore. So 7.24 is not a patch for support right?

Resurrection time

Hero respawn time increased from 6/8/10/14/16 for levels 1-5 to 12/15/18/21/24.

A long time ago, the XP for early game kills was greatly reduced, making early ganks not worth it anymore. Better to stay in lane and farm without worrying about kills. Here are the specific changes happening in patch 7.07:

Base hero kill bounty (not including assist) from level 1-5 reduced from 100/120/140/160/180 to 30/60/90/120/150 (You still get extra XP for hero killing) from assist calculation formula)

But with the increased respawn time, it makes the extra kills all the more worthwhile; Not much, but still worth more. XP and gold early game are still poor for ganking heroes, so getting more last hits is still the main focus of the cores. But with the increased respawn, it can delay your opponent’s laning phase, so early game rotations and ganks are now more valuable than they were before patch 7.24.

Buyback cost

Buyback cost increased from 100 + NW/13 to 200 + NW/12.

Buyback cost has increased and that difference is between old and new buyback cost increases as networth goes higher, the difference in the early game will be felt more heavily by the impact of the extra 100 gold. The networth factor doesn’t change much, but the extra 100 gold can make it difficult for supports to buyback early and mid game. Cores will also be affected, but usually the support will be the one that has a harder time farming enough gold to buyaback.

A lot of changes happened in Dota 2 patch 7.24, and we will see this patch in the qualifiers for the third DPC Major, ESL One Los Angeles. Surely Valve will make more adjustments in the near future.