How Dota 2 patch 7.34e is changing the meta: biggest winners

Dota 2 patch 7.34e has been around for just a few days and it is already changing the meta in more significant ways than we expected. Some of the most famous heroes of the previous patch have lost 3-4 points in their overall win rate, while others have gained up to 4 points.

Here are the biggest winners of the new patch.

Winners

Beastmaster’s win rate went from 43.5% to 47.6%. It’s still quite low, but at least it’s viable for specialists who have hundreds of games with this hero. What is strange is that Beastmaster himself didn’t get changed by the new patch.

What did change, however, are some of his items and counters. With buffs to the first category and nerfs to the second category, a better balance was reached.

Another hero that has gained in popularity and win rate is Lycan. His popularity more than tripled, while his win rate is now above 50%. It used to be below 46.5%. All of this was achieved by some buffs to his agility and core item build.

Timbersaw, Gyrocopter, Chen, Luna, Enigma, Ember Spirit, and Phantom Assassin have also gained in win rate, but not all of them have become more popular. Enigma is slightly less popular than before. The same is true for Phantom Assassin, even though she didn’t get changed by patch 7.34e.

In the case of Ember Spirit, the new patch gave him a solid 2.2% boost. But his win rate was so bad (42.2%) that almost nobody cares about the improvement. Part of the reason is that he didn’t get buffed himself. Other heroes simply got nerfed.

One hero that got more than 3 points both in popularity and win rate is Gyrocopter. Team Spirit’s carry player, Yatoro, famously said before The International that Gyrocopter is useless. He’s probably right, but in the lower divisions, people still pick him. And now that his win rate has gone up, they might even start winning with him a bit more often.

Chen’s popularity did not increase significantly, but his win rate is now close to 53%, which makes this hero one of the best supports to pick.

Visage was above 50% win rate before the patch, and got a slight boost after it (52.4%).

Other heroes that have become a lot more popular but not necessarily a lot more successful are Juggernaut (+3%), Lion (+2.9%), Shadow Shaman (+2.75%), and Slardar (+1.7%).

Header: Valve