From 7.07 to 7.20: Review Dota 2 patches in 2018

2018 is over and there have been 14 Dota 2 updates in the past year. Let’s review the highlights of each patch.

We feel like IceFrog just announced yesterday that it will update the game every 2 weeks, but 2018 is over. Although that system of IceFrog has been discontinued, it gives us a lot of updates – 14 of them! We started 2018 with 7.07, the patch came out after TI7 and the game continues to change every two weeks from February 2018. 7.19 lasted the longest (almost 4 months) and we are currently playing 7.20. Through small patches, the game has seen a lot of changes and while patches are sometimes added too quickly, that has helped to make the meta more diverse. Let’s take a look at the main changes that appear in each patch.

Start 2018 with 7.07

2018 started with 7.07, patch was introduced in October 2017 but lasted until February 2018. This patch prevents mid from speeding up in 7.06: the mid lane gets another creep in the first 15 minutes of the game. This update is the beginning of the process of ‘slowing down the game’ and it will last for the rest of the season. There were times when Sand King was the most picked hero and Night Stalker was banned the most.

This patch also saw Gyrocopter respawn. This carry disappeared for several years and came back to life with 7.07. Although Gyro’s pick rate has now decreased, the Io-Gyrocopter combo is still used today.

The hero’s early XP levels are greatly reduced in this patch, which means that last hits and deny creeps are much more important than killing heroes in the laning phase.

7.07 was also the patch that started 75% of the hero’s XP lost if the creeps were denied and the remaining 25% given to the deny hero. This is where deny gets more emphasis in the laning phase.

7.08 – Windranger revives and XP Bounty Rune ends

Windranger is a long forgotten hero in the professional arena. She started respawning in 7.08, the first patches of every fortnight brought the hero back. Despite the increase in popularity, Windranger wasn’t the best hero at TI8. This is also the patch where Lycan, a popular hero in the first half of 2017-2018 DPC, started getting nerfed.

Before 7.08, Bounty Rune gave both gold and XP. Roam support used to rely on Bounty Rune without having to stand in the lane. The loss of XP in bounty runes hinders roaming supports and pushes the game into a meta where all heroes are forced to stay in the early game lane.

7.09 – Support is favored

7.07 doesn’t favor support at all, except for the courier upgrading itself in the 3rd minute of the game. 7.09 makes support a lot easier in the early game:

• Courier discount from 200 to 50
• Tango has 3 charges instead of 4 and the price is only 90 instead of 120
• The first Bounty is distributed equally to the team instead of just the hero who picks it up
• 15% gold from stack camps divided among heroes to stack

Not only is the courier 150 gold cheaper, reducing the burden on support, sharing the Bounty Rune means they have an additional 80 gold if the team wins two bounty. Before 7.09, only the hero that picked up the Bounty Rune would get 100 gold and usually that would be the core. The extra gold bonus, the jungle stack also brings benefits to the support.

Mid tower distance was reduced in 7.09: another reason why supports no longer roam after Bounty Rune XP was taken in 7.08.

Tier 1 Midlane Tower Changes. #Dota2 pic.twitter.com/1u45FkOUxS

— Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm) February 15, 2018

7.10 – Pay more if you want to go fast; Dark Willow in Captain’s Mode

If you’re trying to remember when Boots of Speed ​​cost 500 gold instead of 400, it’s full. It makes it impossible to build boots as the first item, especially with Pudge – a hero that can build Boots, Tango and Clarity.

7.10 is also the patch that brings Dark Willow into Captain’s Mode.

7.11 – Patch buyback; gold system rework

This is a patch that changes a lot of math formulas. The gold system was reworked and the gold penalty for buybacks was removed.

But the biggest change in this patch is that the buyback price is based on net worth instead of the time of the game. That makes buybacks easier and can get into important fights (especially with position 3, 4 and 5 heroes) because it’s cheaper and no longer penalizes buybacks.

7.12 – Pangolier enters Captain’s Mode; Death Prophet and Omniknight fall

7.12 puts Pangolier in Captain’s Mode

This is also the patch where the Death Prophet and Omniknight eras begin to end. This duo used to be very popular in the first half of the season, but the pick rate slowly dropped after 7.12 due to constant nerfs.

7.13 – Tower destruction is harder and hero stats changed

Attempts to slow the game down have not been very successful, IceFrog now makes turrets harder to destroy in 7.13: giving turrets more HP and reducing the bounty for turret destruction. The turret push formation was once again dissected.

Mid-game respawn time reduced and Glyph duration increased from 5 to 6 seconds. Overall, it gives teams time to adjust their lineups for a comeback. The early push formations gradually disappeared and were not seen too much as TI8 approached.

Strength, intelligence and agility stats are changed as follows:

• Strength – HP, HP recovery, magic resistance
• Intelligence – Mana, Mana regeneration, magic damage increase (spell amplification)
• Agility – Armor, attack speed, movement speed

Heroes gain 25% more from stats if that’s their primary stat, making champion strength a lot more buff.

7.14 – Techies appear in Captain’s Mode with their own Arcana

There’s not much debate in patch 7.14 – either you like Techies in CM or you absolutely hate it. But it didn’t have a big impact on the game as teams weren’t ready to use Techies in professional games.

7.15 – Roam is officially discontinued; Bounty Rune increased from 2 minutes to 5 minutes

Bounty Rune, previously spawned every 2 minutes now changed to 5 minutes! And the gold from each Bounty Rune is divided equally among the whole team. This change addresses two things that IceFrog is trying to do – end roam support and lengthen the game. And that worked as intended.

7.16 – Initiation of balance patches ahead of TI8

Valve announced the patches after that will just be the balance. In this first balance patch, the major changes are:

• Bounty Rune gold reduction increases every minute – if a team gets all the Bounty Runes in the mid and late game, the gold difference will be huge
• sentry ward duration increased from 4 to 6 minutes – ward observer and sentry pairing now time out at the same time
• Bloodseeker, Clinkz, Wraith King and Zeus get buffs one last time to make them important heroes of The International 2018
• Nerf 7.16 buried the Sand King and began to adversely affect the Night Stalker

7.17 and 7.18 – Continue nerfs and buffs

• Clinkz, Necrophos, and Pudge continue to popularize as Enchantress, Earthshaker and Weaver join in.
• Night Stalker is nerfed and it seems that Io is too, but Wisp shows no signs of slowing down

7.18:
Night Stalker: Void now deals half damage during day
Night Stalker: Base movement speed reduced from 290 to 285
7.20:
Night stalker: Getting sun burned during day, losing ability to attack and losing 3 gpm

— Dominik Stipic (@LacosteDota) June 26, 2018

7.19 – Hero change before and after TI8

7.19 begins with changes based on Summit 9 and ends Pudge’s dream of attending TI8. 7.19a through 7.19d both take place after TI8, with adjustments based on previous tournaments. At the end of 7.19d, it was the patch of three carries: Terrorblade, Morphling, and Phantom Lancer were the only three carries that were picked regularly in the pro scene. A lot of heroes like Specter, Bloodseeker, Necrophos, Wraith King and Clinkz – heroes that were often picked at TI8 – were nerfed and no longer available at the end of 7.19d.

7.20 – The journey continues with Grimstroke

We end 2018 with a big patch with Dota 2. From map changes, XP structure changes, denying gold instead of XP to a plethora of skill reworks, 7.20 is a patch that appeals to everyone. return person. In addition, Grimstroke is also added to Captain’s Mode! There are many things in this patch that are still unexplored and the community is still learning new things every day. This patch narrows the hero picks down a lot, but since there’s no tournament going on right now, teams will be practicing a lot and finding out what’s new about 7.20 in the early 2019 tournaments!

Alright I need to relearn everything

— Ioannis Loucas (@Foggeddota) November 20, 2018

Dota 2: 7.20 update details, gameplay changes hugely

Overall, 2018 has been a meaningful year for Dota 2. The constant patch update makes players and gamers have to constantly adapt. While the new patches of 2019 won’t come out as quickly as before, we expect there will be at least 8 to 10 patches throughout the year and they will have a big impact on the Dota 2 platform!

According to VP Esports