Biggest Losers of the 7.24 Patch
Image by Cuong Le Manh
Dota is a tough game to balance as small changes have unknown effects across the game. Every patch and every meta has some heroes that emerge as overpowered and other heroes as weak.
The 7.23 patch was no different and like every follow-up patch Valve made some small changes to these heroes to try and balance them.
It seems unlikely that Dota will ever be a very balanced game across all the heroes as Valve keeps implementing radical changes to the map and gameplay. With each large change, the complexity of the game increases and the effects of abilities and heroes goes up and down.
Still, Valve is doing their best to make Dota as fair and balanced as possible. Here are four heroes that are the biggest losers of the last patch.
Disruptor
- Thunder Strike manacost increased from 130 to 130/140/150/160
- Static Storm Scepter no longer increases duration from 5 to 7
- Level 20 Talent changed from +180 Gold/Min to Kinetic Field Grants True Sight
Disruptor is a hero that’s been flying under the radar for the past few months. He wasn’t a staple pick or a common pick or a pick that you would expect. It seemed like all of a sudden he became a strong meta hero which was showcased in the last Dreamleague Major.
He was picked 86 times in that tournament, ahead of common tournament heroes like 
Kunkka, 
Omniknight, 
Venomancer, and 
Ember Spirit. Disruptor was even used by 
beastcoast in game 3 of their elimination match against 
Nigma Galaxy as mid and he won over w33’s 
Pugna.
Well Disruptors short time as a strong hero is over as he received two nerfs in the last patch.
Thunder Strike now costs more mana and his Scepter upgrade was nerfed. This Scepter was the 2nd item Chris Luck built in game three against Nigma.
With these nerfs, Disruptor was weakened in the early game and mid to late game. With the Thunder Strike nerf, he can’t harass as well in the laneing phase. Thunder Strike is a spell Disruptor players loved to spam early on to harass and gain vision of the enemy.
beastcoast put Disruptor mid to get an early Aghanim’s Scepter which is a huge upgrade for team fights. Now with this change, will we no longer see Disruptor as a core?
He’s still a solid hero and a well-timed Glimpse can be devastating. It can lead to an extra kill which could lead to easy tower pushes or Roshans. Now, he’s just not as unbalanced as before.
Doom
- Strength gain reduced from 4.0 to 3.7
- Scorched Earth movement speed reduced from 12/13/14/15% to 9/11/13/15%
- Devour HP regen reduced from 3/8/13/18 to 3/7/11/15
Three nerfs to Doom, what did he do? Other than being the lord of darkness, he was picked the 6th most often in the Dreamleague Major with a 55.75% win rate.
A common theme around nerfing heroes is to nerf their early game. This stops their momentum going into mid and late game where their strengths begin to shine.
Doom had some minor early game nerfs with his movement speed reduction on Scorched Earth but his strength gain reduction doesn’t affect him until mid to late game. The same applies to Devour HP regen, the level one skill remains the same and then reduces by one at the 2nd level.
So does this mean Valve thinks Doom’s early game was fine but his late game was the problem?
In the upper bracket finals, lower bracket finals, and grand finals of the Dreamleague Major, Doom was picked four times going 2-2. If teams are picking him in these important matches then they must believe that he’s a strong hero.
These nerfs indicate that his overall tankiness was reduced. No other changes were made to his core abilities like Doom, or Infernal Blade so it seems as if Valve just wanted to make him less tanky.
Lich
- Base damage reduced by 2
- Frost Blast manacost increased from 105/130/155/180 to 115/140/165/190
- Sinister Gaze duration reduced from 1.6/1.9/2.2/2.5 to 1.4/1.7/2.0/2.3
The nerfs to Lich have come after the Dreamleague Major where he was picked 8th most often but only had a 47.71% win rate. In the upper bracket finals, lower bracket finals, and grand finals of the Dreamleague Major Lich went 3-1.
The nerfs to Lich target his early and late game. The lower base damage reduction on a support is rare but when considering his strong ability to harass in the early game with Frost Blast it makes sense. Frost Blast was also nerfed with an increase in mana cost at all levels of the ability.
With the Sinister Gaze duration reduction his late game was nerfed too. Sinister Gaze was recently upgraded with an Aghanim’s boost which turned this spell into an AoE ability. This made Sinister Gaze a mini Black Hole though of course as a position 5 it’s a hard item to get.
So with a subpar 47.71% win rate on the 8th most popular hero, was Lich really that overpowered? His strength is in the early game with strong harassment abilities which was nerfed. His late game is still strong with a strong damage reduction spell in Frost Shield which was untouched and Chain Frost which forces the enemy to move in a certain way which was also untouched.
With these minor changes, it’s possible that he’ll go back to being an average support pick rather than a high priority one.
Treant Protector
- Strength gain reduced from 3.5 to 3.4
- Nature's Grasp manacost increased from 60/70/80/90 to 75/80/85/90
- Living Armor reduced from 4/6/8/10 to 5/6/7/8
At the Dreamleague Major, Treant was only picked 52 times with a 42.31% win rate. Still, this hero has been very strong since the 7.23 patch and the nerfs continue to come.
Nature’s Grasp quickly became one of the most annoying spells in the game as soon as it came out. In the laneing phase, a well placed Nature’s Grasp plus a follow up stun is a very bad time for any hero. By increasing the mana cost of this spell, Treant players can no longer spam it to get kills repeatedly (unless they buy mangos).
Living Armor is a unique ability because it provides global healing and protection for towers and allies. It made pushing towers and killing enemies slightly more difficult as you had to get rid of the stacks of armor and regeneration before you started doing full damage.
The change to Living Armor boosts the early game but nerfs the late game. The strength gain reduction from 3.5 to 3.4 is almost nothing but hey, we’ll take it.
Closing thoughts
These heroes weren't the only losers of the last patch but they were some of the hardest hit. The up and down nature of meta heroes continues and the next batch of heroes will be ready to shine. Until then, I hope Disruptor, Doom, Lich, and Treant players enjoyed their time.
Do you agree with these changes? Were these heroes overpowered in your opinion? Which heroes do you think will become meta next? And which heroes need more nerfs?
gb doom
Do you guys even proofread this shit? "The max stacks are now 8 which is easier to deal with than 10. Valve wasn’t going to completely remove the stacking and so reducing it by 2 is probably as good as it’ll get."
This spell doesn't work like this anymore.
tinker?
Can we stop having the reach people writing articles. They can't even spell.
"laneing"
"the laneing phase"
"a well placed Nature’s Grasp plus a follow up stun is a very bad time for any hero"
"which was nerfed"
"which was also untouched"
+ many more
Sorry guys, that's on me: glanced over some things while proof-reading. Will try to do a better job next time.
"Laneing" though is a bit of Youngelee's spelling quirk, which I keep as it is. Gives posts from him some character, you know)
How does one write for Dotabuff? Is a guest blog possible?
Yea Disruptor is so bad now that pro teams still pick/ban him every game.
Bullshit post again , can somebody else write?
I really don't understand this article and it completely breaks the formula that these articles usually follow as set by Kawaiisocks?
No hard numbers or facts. Just here's a nerf and I think that this kills hero. WHERE ARE THE HARD FACTS? This is an article posted to Dotabuff! Use that to your advantage!
That's another gripe I have with this article, it just acts like these heroes are completely unpickable. Not only was this a vibe that was given throughout the article, it was essentially straight up said in the Closing Thoughts; "Until then, I hope Disruptor, Doom, Lich, and Treant players enjoyed their time."
@KawaiiSocks -- isn't even so much about the formulations -- it's about the living armor part... it's added armor and regen! There are no more stacks.
I see all doom players (in non comp. matches) stay in jungle until like 30 mins in the game.. that's a weird hero not sure if effectively good at beginning but i guess yes as got picked 6th most..much less useful in late game I guess..
Strange nerf, Doom has never been that strong each and every time I met him
Techies is the biggest loser of the 7.24 Patch; because there is no more side shop or side lane outpost to mine.
no CM? shame.
#doomdidnothingwrong