How Dota 2 patch 7.34e is changing the meta – biggest losers

Dota 2 patch 7.34e hasn’t brought that many changes, but an important number of heroes have already lost some of their spammers, as well as several win rate percentages at the community level.

In most cases, the nerfs can barely be felt. But in combination with other changes made to the game, the meta has started to shift a lot more significantly than we anticipated.

Here are some of the biggest losers in Dota 2 patch 7.34e:

Heroes that became worse after patch 7.34e

Chaos Knight had a win rate of more than 55% at the end of the previous patch. Now his win rate is below 50%, while his pick rate went down 6.5%. This is a huge change that will completely shift the meta and bring to the surface other carry heroes.

CK’s win rate dropped largely because of the -5 base damage reduction, which is quite a nerf. Another big nerf was Phantasm’s mana cost, which went from 75 – 175 to 100 – 300. For a hero like CK, that’s a massive nerf.

Another hero that got hit badly was Kunkka, who lost 3.6% in his win rate and 2.8% in his pick rate. The nerfs were substantial. Ghostship now delays just 35% of the damage instead of 45%, Tidal Wave deals just 180 damage instead of 250, and Torrent Storm lasts just 4s instead of 5s, while its cooldown is 75s instead of 70s.

Bristleback went from being picked in 17% of all games with a win rate of 50.3%, to being just another hero, with a win rate of 46.8% and a pick rate of 12.6%. His nerfs include a lower max damage for his Qull Spray (550 -> 500), a higher damage threshold for his Bristleback ability (225 -> 300-225), and some smaller nerfs for his Hairball.

Necrophos also got hit, going from a 54.8% WR / 20.4% PR to a 52.1% WR / 18% PR. It’s not that bad, but you definitely feel the nerfs. Ghost Shroud costs 25 more mana, Hearstopper Aura offers just 7s of regen instead of 8, and Death Seeker now has a 19s cooldown instead of 16.

Batrider somehow managed to drop even more in win rate. He started at 39.1% and got to 37.2%. This is an abysmal win rate that guarantees that nobody will pick the hero in pubs. In professional matches, it’s a different story. But in pubs, his pick rate is 0.75%, which is practically non-existent.

Dark Willow lost nearly 1.9% in win rate and 2.3% in pick rate after she got hit by a tiny nerf that makes her Shadow Realm’s cooldown 2s worse than before.

Treant Protector went from a 54.4% WR / 10.6% PR to a 52.6% WR / 9.4% PR. The numbers are not disastrous but the nerfs can be felt immediately when you play the hero. His movement speed dropped by 5 and his Leech Seed lost 5 heal/damage at each level.

Troll Warlord went from 52% / 4.5% to 50.2% / 4.5%. In other words, people don’t really mind the patch changes all that much, but they’re not as successful as they used to be with this hero. Troll was not touched at all directly, but some of the other changes have affected his success rate significantly.

Bounty Hunter went from a win rate of 49.5% to one of 48%. The pick rate of this hero has remained the same, around 9.6%. It’s clear that many players, especially in the lower MMR brackets, enjoy picking Bounty Hunter for the speed and surprise elements he provides to his team.

In the early game, a good Bounty player will cause severe disruption by killing couriers, setting up ganks, and being a nuisance to the entire enemy team. Sentry Wards will be wasted just to counter the hero, and even that method is not very effective because he can buy wards of his own to deward.

Bounty Hunter was not touched by the new patch but he still went down in win rate because many of the heroes he used to work with or against have suffered significant changes.

Ancient Apparition’s win rate went down 1.4%. The same is true for his pick rate. The nerfs he suffered are not that big: 0/2/4/6 damage per second for Ice Vortex, which went from dealing 12 – 36 damage per second to dealing just 12 – 30 damage per second. Ice Blast’s duration also lost 1s at level 2 and 2s at level 3. That’s the bigger nerf of the two.

Pangolier, despite struggling in the previous patch, is now an even worse hero. His win rate is 41.6% and his pick rate is 2.85%. He didn’t get touched by the patch, but the other changes have ruined his chances.

Header: Valve