With The International 7 qualifiers finished last week and three events to go till the most important one of the year, Valve took no time to nerf some of the most played or banned heroes in the past month.
Queen of Pain and Sand King, the heroes with the highest pick rate in the 365 games played during the TI 7 qualifiers, got hit by the nerf hammer and the downsides are quite big especially that a key item in their success was also nerfed. Veil of Discord which was often prioritized as first item by the mid lane players during the TI 7 qualifiers, got its recipe cost increased from 400 gold to 500. For Queen of Pain the nerfs are aimed at her impact in both early and mid game stages while for Sand King, his starting laning stage dominance was nerfed by cutting half of his damage on the level one Caustic Finale.
Queen of Pain
- Base Damage reduced by 4
- Level 25 Spell Lifesteal reduced from 70% to 60%
Sand King
- Caustic Finale timer damage from 45/65/85/110 to 20/50/80/110
Clockwerk, a hero that transitioned from offlane to support lately, and who has also been in the top five most picked heroes during the qualifiers also got touched by the 7.06e update and his early laning presence has also been nerfed.
Clockwerk
- Battery Assault mana cost increased from 75 to 100
- Base damage reduced by 3
It really seems that Valve has been trying with this latest patch to slow down the early game a little as other heroes than the aforementioned ones got the spells that made them extremely efficient during the laning stage, nerfed. A few examples would be Sven who now has his Warcry cooldown increased from 32/26/20/14 to 34/28/22/16, Lina who got her Dragon Slave damage reduced from 110/180/250/320 to 85/160/235/310 and Dark Seer whose Surge cooldown was increased from 12/11/10/9 to 13/12/11/10
The 7.06 patch was implement mid-May this year and on the launching date one hero became clearly the most interesting one. On the 15th of May, Night Stalker received an active component to his Hunter in the Night passive. Able to now have flying movement and vision for two seconds, therefore to have clear pathing over cliffs, Night Stalker became one of the most contested supports in competitive games. LGD Forever Young were the first to spam the hero during EPICENTER and since then more and more teams found him as an extremely efficient roaming support up to the point where he was the most contested hero during the TI 7 qualifiers.
Picked 81 times and banned in 237 games, with a an overall 54% win ratio across all regions, Night Stalker was clearly meant to get some nerfs. The 7.06e patch reduced his base intelligence from 16 to 13 and his Hunter In The Night cooldown was increased from 26/22/18/14 to 30/26/22/18. For those not extremely familiar with how the base intelligence would impact him, keep in mind that the stat is directly linked to the hero mana pool, mana regeneration and spell damage amplification.
Night Stalker change longs from 7.06 to 7.06e
7.06
- Increased Strength attribute gain from 2.8 to 3.1
- Reduced base health regeneration from 2 to 1.75
- Added an active component to Hunter in the Night
- Hunter in the Night can be activated during night to grant Night Stalker flying movement for a short time
7.06b - none
7.06c - none
7.06d
- Reduced Void day slow duration from 2 to 1.25
- Increased Hunter in the Night mana cost from 50 to 80
7.06e
- Base Intelligence attribute reduced from 16 to 13.
- Hunter in the Night cooldown increased from 26/22/18/14 to 30/26/22/18
With Night Stalker getting hit in his spamming spells capacity, some other supports might get their way back into the meta, and Valve made sure they buffed a few ones who got almost completely ignored for the past month. Ogre Magi, Shadow Demon, Visage and Winter Wyvern got only buffs this patch so make sure you check the full patch notes before wondering why you are perhaps so slowed during a level one gank. The full 7.06e patch notes can be found here as well as in game in your Notifications box.
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