Dota 2: Patch Analysis 7.21c

Viper constantly stormed the pro arena and high-ranked pubs, forcing Valve to admit this was a problematic hero. Therefore, 7.21c has nerfed Viper as well as buffed many heroes that have not been picked recently. Although this patch is small, but 7.21c will definitely bring a lot of changes to the meta.

GENERAL CHANGES

XP deny gain increased from 30% to 35% – we are slowly seeing the return of the ‘decoy’ lane, paving the way for roaming heroes and trilanes. 35% means that the offlane hero still needs some help early game against the opponent’s trilane. But if your roaming hero can control the other two lanes and put pressure on them, the opposing team is forced to rotate a support to a support. Theoretically, offlane should be easier to breathe when only 1v2.

Changes to Drum of Endurance and Hand of Midas are also worth noting, but they don’t completely disappear from the game. Despite the price increase, Drum of Endurance is still a very effective stat item with a good team support aura. Hand of Midas loses 11% of its gold effectiveness, but XP and bonus attack speed remain the same. In general, Hand of Midas is an item depending on the situation of the match but is overused in pubs as well as some professional games. Therefore, be careful when building this item, especially after being nerfed.

HERO . CHANGES

Most of the buffs are small so they don’t have much of an impact on the hero’s success. Alchemist is likely to return, as Acid Spray can now cover most of the mid river, helping to control early game farming. However, there are very few players using this hero right now, so everything is just speculation.

The nerfs in this patch are more recognizable. Elder Titan loses its effectiveness in laning phase, with Astral Spirit damage bonus reduced. ET may still be dominant in lane and probably still a popular pick in the pro scene, but the hero’s pub career has been disastrous – putting pressure on lane just got a lot harder and that’s it. the reason most ET players have a hard time.

Kunkka plays well in pub. Despite losing a lot of damage when denying, the hero is still very annoying to face, thanks to his ability to constantly harass and ensure easy last hits. Not to mention, we have an incentive to use Tidebringer more actively. Although the hero is a bit weaker, Kunkka’s gameplay tweaks made up for the losses.

Monkey King became weaker in the hands of players in the top 0.1%, who easily dodged stuns and high-damage nukes. But according to the statistics, most pub players are not affected by Mischief’s change.

Nature’s Prophet is now less of a nuisance in lane, taking a lot of damage from her level 1 minions. That means ‘paper blood’ supports have a chance to fight this hero and this is a welcome change. In theory, this nerf also reduces farming speed and turret push. Maybe NP in position 3 will appear less and change slowly to Furion support.

Finally, we have Viper, which has increased Nethertoxin’s manacost – he won’t have a flash farm in the jungle and can’t constantly spam Nethertoxin in teamfight. Here’s the change that’s needed: Viper’s win rate has dropped by almost 5%, from over 60%. Plus a few nerfs in the early levels of Poison Attack, this hero will return to his rightful place. According to pub statistics, Viper is still strong and popular, but this hero will definitely no longer dominate in the professional arena.

EPILOGUE

The release of the new patch so close to the Minor was a bit of a surprise, but here’s the thing: ESL Katowice and MDL Macau are two independent tournaments that both use those heroes.

Hopefully, with this patch 7.21c, we will no longer see familiar faces appearing in every game.

According to Dotabuff