The BIG winners of Dota 2 patch 7.24

February 2, 2020 Helvert Jess Tagaan

Patch 7.24 was released right after the Leipzig Major. That was followed by the True Sight Premier from the TI9 grand finals and the OG’s big announcements. Things have settled down now and the next thing to look forward to are the qualifiers for the ESL One LA Major. We saw how the changes from patch 7.24 will affect game play. Now let’s take a step back and see what heroes will be stepping out as winners from patch 7.24 and which others will probably come out as losers.

WINNERS

1) Death Prophet

-Base armor increased by 1
-Base movement speed increased by 5
-Spirit Siphon charge restore time reduced from 60/52/44/36 to 45/40/35/30

Death Prophet is already a hero that does well in the lane and the with the new buffs, her mid lane presence is only going to get stronger. The increased movement speed (now up to 315) will allow her to chase her mid lane rival while siphoning HP from him/her. Crypt Swarm is usually the ability maxed out first to ensure a fast farm rate, meaning Sprit Siphon is left at level 2, which is where it has a higher buff. A 12 second cooldown reduction is huge, especially considering there are only two charges at level 2. Depending on how the lane is going, DP could potentially take two points in Spirit Siphon at level 3 to make the enemy mid’s life a living hell. If the lane is tough, it is always better to take a second skill point in Crypt Swarm for easy last hits.

2) Earth Spirit

-Stone Remnant charge replenish time reduced from 30 to 25
-Level 20 Talent changed from +150 Gold/Min to +3.5s Geomagnetic Grip Silence

Patches where Earth Spirit gets buffed are rare and looking at the buffs in 7.24, the Earth Spirit God, Jerax had a moment where he wondered whether retiring from Dota 2 was the right thing to do!

The big buff here is the charge replenish time reduction, which makes a huge difference in long drawn fights. A few seconds after a fight breaks, Earth Spirit can find himself without Remnant charges, which makes the hero a lot less useful. And with the new talent, it is a 7 second silence on a 13 second cooldown, which is quite insane! The other talent at level 20 is 15% spell amplification, which isn’t bad and helps in clearing creep waves, but this seems to be a bit better for Earth Spirit. Even though this won’t make him hero of the meta, it will lead to us seeing at least of few games of Earth Spirit in the professional scene. Looking at the buffs had OG’s Jerax comtemplate his retirement…

3) Grimstroke

-Base intelligence increased by 2
-Level 10 Talent changed from +90 Gold/Min to +100 Ink Swell Max Damage
-Level 15 Talent increased from +125 Cast Range to +175
-Level 15 Talent increased from +12% Spell Amplification to +15%

The buff to Ink Swell takes the damage at level 4 to 400! Stroke of Fate is a great skill no doubt, but with an in-your-face hero like Slark or Phantom Assassin, it might be worth maxing out Ink Swell by level 7. It’s also accompanied by a 3.7 second stun, in case you’ve forgotten. Grimstroke is one of the heroes who has received a really good talent in replacement of his GPM talent. Don’t get me wrong, the GPM was good, but he can always farm at a faster rate than most supports thanks to Stroke of Fate.  Both the level 15 talents are good, although with the increased Ink Swell damage, the Spell Amplification looks a lot better. That takes the damage up to 460.

4) Medusa

-Intelligence gain increased from 3.4 to 4.0
-Stone Gaze speed bonus increased from 35% to 50%

Medusa has the sixth highest agility gain in the game. With the buff from patch 7.24, she also has the sixth highest intelligence gain! More intelligence is not just more mana for Medusa, it’s increased effective HP thanks to Mana Shield. The additional movement speed when Stone Gaze is used means she can use the ability before getting into position and then move quickly to the best spot to affect the maximum number of enemies without losing a lot of Stone Gaze time. This will be quite useful in Roshan fights, popping Stone Gaze on the high ground and going into the Rosh pit to catch enemies unexpectedly.

5) Nyx Assassin

-Vendetta bonus damage changed from physical to pure damage
-Vendetta damage reduced from 250/400/550 to 250/375/500
-Level 10 Talent changed from +90 Gold/Min to +0.3s Impale Stun Duration

Change of Vendetta damage to Pure damage is a pretty big buff, especially with neutral items like Craggy Coat floating around increasing armor for supports. Around 17 armor cuts down physical damage in half, which would mean just 275 Vendetta damage. Now it’ll always be 500, but sadly not while attacking Bristleback from the back or Mars from the front. Even though Vendetta applies a break, the bonus damage is applied before the debuff, so the Vendetta damage will be reduced in those cases. However, it counts as spell damage, which means the +8% spell damage amplification at leve 10 can take the pure damage to 540. It will also be amplified by items like Null Talisman and Kaya. The additional 0.3 seconds to Impale is also a nice talent, taking the stun duration from 2.8 seconds to 3.1 seconds (a little over a 10% increase).

6) Queen of Pain

-Intelligence gain increased from 2.9 to 3.4
-Sonic Wave damage increased from 340/430/520 to 340/450/560

Additional intelligence for QoP is more damage, more mana and more mana regen. Additional Pure Magic on Sonic Wave is always a bonus. Not the biggest of buffs, but QoP has been receiving buffs for last few patches and this should just add to make that stronger. Since patch 7.21, her intelligence gain is up from 2.5 to 3.4. Eventually, she is bound to become a regular meta mid laner.

7) Sven

-Storm Hammer damage increased from 80/160/240/320 to 110/180/250/320
-Warcry self movement bonus increased from 6/10/14/18% to 10/14/18/22%
-Warcry cooldown reduced from 36/32/28/24 to 32/28/24/20

Sven was a major part of the meta at TI9 and a few nerfs saw him go out of the game, but these changes coupled with the buff to Mask of Madness can bring back the Rogue Knight. The previous build on Sven was Hand of Midas and not MoM, but Midas has been nerfed quite a bit in the last few patches and the game has gotten faster as well, which makes it not-so-good an item. Increase in the Storm Hammer damage for early levels can also make Sven a good lane support (a role in which he has been played before), just taking a ton of Mangoes to lane and throwing out Storm Hammers.

8) Techies

-Blast Off self damage changed from Pure to Magical
-Level 20 Talent changed from +150 Gold/Min to -28s Blast Off Cooldown

As much as I hate the hero and I hate to say it, this is a good buff for Techies that could lead to more position 4 Techies picks in professional games. Not only does he have reduced self damage initially because of the 25% magic resistance heroes have, Techies also has a +25% Magic Resistance talent at level 10. With the reduction in Blast Off cooldown at level 20, the cooldown comes down to 7 seconds for a 7 second silence! If you thought the Earth Spirit silence was busted, you had surely not looked into this. Techies can be a more active part of team fights, silencing enemy heroes left, right and center while dealing 900 magical damage to them and taking relatively low damage himself. You know what, writing all this makes me want to play the hero I hate with a burning passion. I might just become one of those people I despise thanks to Dota 2 patch 7.24….

9) Undying

-Fixed Helm of the Dominator not working on Zombies
-Level 15 Zombie damage talent is now base damage
-Tombstone Deathlust health thresholds is now always 40%
-Tombstone Deathlust movement speed bonus from 50% to 35/40/45/50%
-Tombstone Deathlust attack speed values from 75 to 50/60/70/80
-Flesh Golem debuff duration increased from 5 to 6
-Flesh Golem duration increased from 30 to 40
-Flesh Golem now grants +30 Movement Speed

Helm of Dominator not working on Zombies can be a bit confusing, the way it’s phrased. What it means is, the Dominator Aura now affects the Zombies from the Tombstone, and that is a big change. The aura is more beneficial for player units, which makes it the perfect item for Undying. The increased Flesh Golem duration with added movement speed makes Undying a hero that can just frontline and slow enemies while taking a lot of damage. May be 7.24 is the time to bring in the mid Undying for a cheese strat and then get reported by your teammates.

LOSERS

Winners in a new patch always come at the cost of others that take a loss. A few heroes that were dominating patch 7.23 were nerfed quite a bit and they will probably be seen a lot lesser in patch 7.24.

1) Disruptor
2) Doom
3) Io
4) Lich
5) Magnus
6) Slark
7) Treant Protector

There will be lot more to the patch than just these heroes and it will be interesting to see which heroes the professional teams think are the best this patch. We will get to see pro Dota 2 on the 7.24 patch for the ESL One LA qualifiers which start on the 7th of February, which is when we will get a better idea of the new meta.

source : vpesports