Is Medusa still powerful in Dota 2 patch 7.33c?

Medusa received Major nerfs in Dota 2 patch 7.33c. But are those nerfs sufficient to get this monster out of the meta?

So far, the drafts we’ve seen in professional matches and the overall results registered at the community level seem to suggest that IceFrog needs to nerf Medusa even more if he wants to balance the hero.

In the past, people used to joke about Crystal Maiden and the nerfs she was getting patch after patch despite not being picked in pro matches. But Medusa certainly is a hero that requires back-to-back nerfs to be brought back to a relatively normal level of power.

The current statistics

We probably still need to see one week of matches before we can say for sure, but Medusa’s win rate will likely suffer just a 1-2% win rate decrease after the latest nerfs at the community level.

In professional matches, the hero continues to be picked and banned almost as much as before. In China’s first few Division I matches at the start of Tour 3, Medusa got picked or banned several times. The same thing happened in Western Europe.

Right now, the hero’s win rate at the community level is almost 57%. And her pick rate is 18.3%. This is easily one of the most picked heroes in Dota 2 right now. And she’s by far the most successful. The second-best hero is Legion Commander, who has a success rate of less than 55%.

Medusa’s recent nerfs

Dota 2 patch 7.33c gave Medusa’s Mystic Snake a significant nerf. Instead of being able to cast the ability every 10 seconds, she can now cast it every 13/12/11/10s. After the laning phase ends, this nerf becomes irrelevant.

But in the laning phase, it’s certainly a big deal because Mystic Snake deals good damage and gives Medusa a lot of mana. Since the hero functions almost exclusively on mana, the nerf can be felt immediately.

The bigger nerf has to do with Medusa’s Mana Shield, which now absorbs just 3.6 damage when it’s maximized instead of 4. That’s a 10% nerf to Medusa’s survivability, which is significant.

It’s even more significant when you consider the fact that it’s combined with another Mana Shield nerf. The ability no longer gives 200 – 300 bonus mana. It only gives 0 – 200 mana. What used to be the starting level bonus is now the max level bonus. In the laning phase, the difference can be felt right away.

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