Slow resistance in Dota 2 patch 7.34

Dota 2 patch 7.34 introduced a new concept called slow resistance. This was previously included in the general notion of status resistance. But now it’s independent of it and you can use it to your advantage.

A lot of heroes with powerful abilities that used to slow their targets significantly, are now a lot weaker as a result. These heroes should generally be avoided if you want to gain MMR in the next few months.

How to use the new change

Slow used to be one of the most powerful instruments against melee or even ranged heroes that cannot easily blink away. In the case of melee heroes, one great slow at the start of the fight ensured that they would not be able to deal a lot of damage.

Kiting is much easier against an attacker who moves at 250 – 300 speed if your own speed is 350 – 400. People used to buy Force Staffs to kite heroes like Ursa or Troll Warlord or just rely on superior movement speed, Ghost Scepters, and so on.

But now it’s much harder to slow such heroes because they can build slow resistance. A 50% slow resistance would mean that even a powerful slow of 30-50% is going to be relatively ineffective.

The new alternative is to buy yourself a Ghost Scepter, a Force Staff, a Eul’s Scepter, or a Rod of Atos.

Luckily, many of these options are affordable. People can now buy Atos for just 2250 gold and use it to root a key target for 2 seconds. The cooldown is 18s, so if two heroes buy it on the same team, you can essentially root someone for 4 seconds, assuming of course they don’t have a way to escape it.

Slow resistance is provided in large amounts by certain abilities and items. The most notable item that might want to purchase to gain a lot of slow resistance is Armlet of the Mordiggian, which gives you 35% resistance. Combined with some other ability, you can reach a total of 50-60% slow resistance, which is a lot.

Another thing to consider is purchasing a pair of BoTs. If you really need to be highly resistant to slow, a combination of slow resistance and movement speed works really well.

Because of the new change, it’s doubtful that teams will rely on slow-based strategies and heroes in the next few months.

Header: Valve Corporation