A week after the release of the major Dota 2 Patch 7.40, Valve released a subsequent letter patch to deliver balancing changes.
Valve has released Patch 7.40b, a follow-up patch to the major Largo update that included widespread minor changes to items and heroes.
A notable change affected Urn of Shadows and Spirit Vessel. In the previous 7.40 update, their Soul Release function was buffed so that two different Urns/Vessels could collect a charge from the same hero death. However, with the 7.40b update, Valve patched out this function for a single hero owning two Urns/Vessels–meaning they will only gain a single charge despite owning both items. The charge also now prioritizes Spirit Vessel over Urn of Shadows, if both are in a hero’s inventory.
The balance changes to heroes affected over half of Dota’s hero pool. While most were minor tweaks that are unlikely to impact win rates or pick rates, some heroes received significant buffs or nerfs.
Patch 7.40b buffed the new hero, and more
It has been a week since Largo touched the Dota 2 battlefield, but his presence wasn’t nearly strong enough, with a below-average win rate in high-ranked pubs. Valve addressed this by further buffing the musician, adding more pull distance and bonus health regeneration to Frog Lick, improving Croak of Genius, and increasing Frog Lick’s damage further through its Level 20 Talent.
Once again, Clinkz can’t escape major changes after yet another rework in 7.40. The hero received buffs through minor Innate improvements, Strafe enhancements, and additional damage to Searing Arrows.
Lone Druid was also one of the heroes reworked in last week’s major patch. However, the overhaul proved weak, leading to more decent buffs to the bear, including increased damage and reduced cooldown on Entangle, as well as a decreased cooldown for Savage Roar.
Marci, who dominated the meta before her major nerf last week, received counterbalancing buffs across most of her abilities–likely in an effort to prevent her from disappearing from the meta.
Pangolier received major buffs across both base stats and abilities. Swashbuckle’s range and damage were increased, Shield Crash now has a shorter cooldown, and Rolling Thunder gained increased duration, damage, and magic resistance.
We will also likely see more of Brewmaster, Spectre, and Treant Protector, as they received a substantial number of buffs.
Carry heroes bore the brunt of the Patch 7.40b nerfs.
On the other side of the coin, several meta-dominant heroes were hit with punishing nerfs.
Drow Ranger resurfaced at the top of the meta after last week’s changes, and this patch quickly brought several nerfs to tone her down. These included downgrades to her popular Sidestep Facet with increased movement speed penalty, a longer Glacier cooldown, and changes to her Level 10 Talent Tree, which now provides a smaller mana cost reduction for Frost Arrows.
Windranger has been rising as a carry pick, but her dominance may be impacted by these nerfs. Her Tangled Facet now grants less bonus damage per hero, Powershot’s slow duration was reduced, and Windrun’s physical damage reduction was lowered by 10%.
Another thriving carry hero, Juggernaut, was also significantly nerfed, receiving reductions to Healing Ward duration, Omnislash slash rate multiplier, and the Level 25 Blade Dance Lifesteal talent.
Kez has been a special case recently, barely shining in pub matches but consistently contested in professional play. The bird received hefty nerfs to his Switch Discipline Innate, Falcon Rush damage, and Level 20 Talent attack speed.
Other impacted heroes include popular tanky picks such as Tidehunter and Viper. You can read the full Patch 7.40b notes here.
