Dota 2 Patch 7.30e Item Changes and Their Implications

Just as everyone expected, Dota 2 patch 7.30e has brought a lot of nerfs to some of the most abused items and heroes of The International 10. As you might remember, Dota 2 patch 7.30d was released right before TI10 and it created a narrow meta, which means that a small percentage of heroes came to occupy most of the drafts. With patch 7.30e, IceFrog seems to have tried to adjust that a little bit.

Dota 2 Patch 7.30e Item Changes

In total, 25 items got either nerfed or buffed by patch 7.30e and the changes could make a big impact on the meta.

Battle Fury

Battle Fury’s damage was increased from 55 to 60, but its Quell damage got reduced from 18 to 15.

Bottle

The Bottle now stores the rune for a maximum of 90 seconds instead of 2 minutes. This is a huge nerf because a lot of players were abusing the long duration to force a favorable team fight using a Double Damage or a Haste rune.

Crimson Guard

Crimson Guard’s recipe cost was reduced by 75 gold.

Echo Sabre

Echo Sabre’s cooldown was nerfed by 1 second. This is a big nerf that might see the item abandoned completely.

Fae Grenade

The Fae Grenade no longer utilizes the hero’s attack damage. However, its damage per second has almost doubled (20 -> 35).

Falcon Blade

Flacon Blade now costs 25 gold more. This is an insignificant nerf that will probably not deter people from continuing to buy the item.

Guardian Greaves

The cost of Guardian Greaves was reduced by 100 gold. Given the huge cost of the item, this doesn’t change much. In Dota 2, almost nobody says during the mid game: “I’m going to buy Guardian Graves because now I can get it 20 seconds faster than the previous patch.”

Heart of Tarrasque

The cost of Heart of Tarrasque was reduced by 100 gold. This is a very expensive item and it’s not exactly cost-effective. Unless you’re a tank that can actually benefit from the HP regen (1.6% of Max Health per second), it’s not worth buying the item. But who knows? Maybe this buff will make it more popular.

Helm of the Iron Will

Its cost was increased by 25 gold, which is almost insignificant.

Holy Locket

This item was nerfed substantially. Given that the heal amplification is one of its main features, going from 35% to 30% will not feel good at all. Supports like Dazzle and Witch Doctor might still buy it, but they will definitely feel the nerf.

Hurricane Pike

The item got buffed thanks to its price decrease. However, the difference is quite small. Just 100 gold. For an item that costs near 4500 gold, it certainly doesn’t warm your heart to know that you will pay around 2% less.

Linken’s Sphere

This is one of the items that got a very significant buff: from +14 all stats to +16. For a lot of heroes, this item is starting to make a lot of sense. The stat increase is great, the mana and health regen are also great, and the 12-second Spellblock is amazing. In most cases, it saves your hero’s life. Or at least it forces the enemy heroes to buy items that can trigger it.

Mage Slayer

This item got a massive buff from IceFrog and will most likely get bought a lot against Intelligence-based heroes. The debuff duration increased by 50%, from 4s to 6s. And the attack speed increased by 33%, from 15 to 20. Good luck playing Leshrac or Zeus now!

Mjolnir

Mjolnir’s attack speed got buffed by 5 but it’s insignificant, in the sense that it won’t make people buy the item more often.

Psychic Headband

This item’s nerf (the fact that it no longer triggers LS) was clearly designed to make Linken’s Sphere a more desirable choice.

Satanic

The bonus damage got reduced by 10, from 55 to 45. Will it change anything? Not likely. People were not buying this item for the 55 damage. They were buying it for the lifesteal.

Shadow Blade

The attack damage was reduced by 5 (25 -> 20). This might actually deter some people from buying the item.

Silver Edge

This item got even bigger nerfs: damage reduced by 12, attack speed reduced by 5.

Skull Basher

For a relatively cheap item, the 75 gold buff is probably going to change people’s attitude toward it.

Swift Blink

The attack speed and damage were reduced by 5, which is a 10% debuff for this particular feature of the item. All things considered, this change won’t change anything.

Veil of Discord

No longer amplifies magical damage from attack-based spells. Depending on a team’s hero composition, this could be a huge nerf or an insignificant one.

Vladmir’s Offering

The cost of the item was reduced by 100, which is not bad at all. The current cost is 2600. For an offlaner or even a support hero, this is a pretty strong choice.

Helm of the Overlord

Everyone knew it was coming. The cost went up again, this time by 100 gold.

Witch Blade

The Intelligence bonus was buffed significantly, from 12 to 14. This will make heroes like Puck even tougher to play against.

Wraith Band

The armor bonus was increased by 0.5. This is a huge buff for Agility heroes, who tend to buy this item in the first few minutes of the laning phase.

 

Photo credit: Valve