Analyzing 7.28: Items
The new patch was surprisingly tame when it comes to hero balance changes, but it is more than understandable. New items are already doing a lot of work to shake up the meta and today we would like to concentrate on the most interesting and impactful items in the new patch.
Helm of the Dominator 2
When an item can almost single handedly increase the winrate of a hero by more than 5%, it definitely deserves to be discussed. Lycan did get buffed in 7.28, but the buffs were rather small and it is HotD 2 that made him the bane of high level pubs once again.
Heroes like Chen, Beastmaster and Visage, who frequently incorporate HotD in their build are also winning considerably more games. Once again, without receiving any significant direct buffs.
It probably doesn’t mean the Zoo meta is back, at least not yet, but players should definitely be cautious, especially in the higher level brackets.
Falcon Blade
This unassuming blade is basically a stat-agnostic Ring of Aquila in disguise. It does cost slightly more than the pre-neutral Ring of Aquila and is weaker on Agility cores, but we will probably see a lot of it on carries who want to use mana to farm.
Orb of Corrosion
Definitely a weird item that can be pretty powerful on position four supports who got some early extra gold and want to apply even more pressure across the map. Worth considering on position two Ember Spirit, perhaps, but otherwise this item shouldn’t be particularly impactful or game-changing.
Witch Blade
The actual ability on the item is pretty cool, at least thematically, but it is pure stats efficiency that makes Witch Blade worth considering in some cases on Intelligence cores. The question is, when do you go for it over Orchid Malevolence, and we aren’t sure yet. For ~900 extra gold you get a much better active, extra mana regeneration and more damage.
Perhaps it will find good use in games where you will eventually need a harder lockdown (e.g. vs. dispels or natural Eul’s builders), but still need an acceleration item. +6 Armor shouldn’t be underestimated as a farming and sustain boost.
Gleipnir
This is a late game upgrade for Rod of Atos that is perhaps worth considering after all your other slots are exhausted. Against a single target it doesn’t provide any particular benefits, compared to Rod of Atos. The AoE is huge, certainly, but we are not completely sure 3400 extra gold over Atos are justified, unless it is the only thing you can upgrade.
Mage Slayer
This can be very good on active agility cores in some matchups. Think Monkey King or Ember Spirit: heroes who want to join fights earlier to create space and typically start from mid.+20% Magic Resistance should be more or less the primary effect you want from this item, however, otherwise there are better options.
Eternal Shroud
This is a very fun new option for frontline spellcasters. Heroes like Timber and Bristleback can get a lot of utility from the Eternal Shroud, taking advantage of the Magic Resistance, the extra mana and the spell lifesteal. Best used when the enemy has some sort of AoE magic damage: think Calldown from Gyro or Leshrac’s Pulse Nova.
New Blink Daggers
1750 Gold Recipe on all types of new Blink Daggers means they are the last slot you are upgrading into in the very late game. Of the three, only the 
Overwhelming Blink deserves to be purchased earlier, since the effect is considerable, unique and useful.
Swift Blink is very specific: not many Agility carries actually want to have a Blink. Probably at its best on ranged cores who want to have mobility options: think Drow Ranger or Sniper. It might also be useful on Strength carries in the late game: once upon a time not so long ago even Butterfly was built on Sven, CK and Tiny, and the extra movement and attack speed are usually what these heroes want. Extra Armor can also come in handy.
Finally there is Arcane Blink and -50% cast point can be excellent for many reasons, but not on heroes who want or typically can actually farm up almost 7k gold. Best reasonable candidates are probably Death Prophet, Leshrac, Tinker and Lina, while the best candidate overall is definitely Jakiro, but unless we see him in a core position, it is ill advised.
Wind Waker
Wind Waker is an overpowered item, but it also costs an overpowered amount of gold, so it is only fair. There is a reason it is the most expensive item in the game: having an ability to ensure an allied hero stays alive through any initiation is worth a lot. We will probably see it quite a lot and potentially quite early in professional games: the cost is very, very prohibitive, but the gains are very, very lucrative.
Silver Edge
The item is back to being somewhat stat-agnostic and it was a necessary step. It wasn’t particularly great that only melee Strength cores could reap the full benefits of a very specific item.
Monkey King Bar
Big oof for MKB. Massive decrease to damage and cost increase finally make this item balanced. Still probably on the strong side and definitely shouldn’t be disregarded, but at least it is not blatantly overpowered anymore. The bigger hit could possibly be the introduction of many new Magic Resistance items, rather than nerfs to MKB itself.
Closing Thoughts
There seems to be two main themes for new items: they are either very late-game progressions for intermediary items like Eul’s and Rod of Atos. Or they are early game, “my first item” type of options. Both are definitely welcome, especially several new sources of Magic Resistance and general survivability for Agility cores.
Overall it feels like the TTK in the game should go up: strong damage items got some small nerfs, while there are more early game survivability options to select from. This might have an interesting impact on the overall feel of the game: the chances of narrow escapes and close kills is higher, so Dota should be more fun for the majority of players.
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"Best reasonable candidates [for Arcana Blink] are probably Death Prophet, Leshrac, Tinker and Lina, while the best candidate overall is definitely Jakiro"
So you never heard of ENIGMA???
Yeah Enigma can get the farm and definitely benefits from cast point reduction on arcane blink. And they don't mention it, but i tried it on SK because his ult is cast point now, not channel, and it was actually pretty nice. It lets you blink first and the ult itself happens almost immediately, plus the cd reduction on it is nice. I could maybe see Tide getting it for the cd reduction too.
The Arcane Dagger on Tinker and Axe is BUSTED
It's a bit of a costly upgrade from atos to gleipnnir, but it's worth it for escape heroes that rely on linkins or similar spell block seeing that it doesn't trigger linkins
Arcane blink on shaker tho? So good.
Forgetting about Shadow Fiend for Arcane Blink? The cast point on your ult after blinking in is so fast you almost have no time to react, don't really even need to euls someone to burst them down now.
Feels like OP on point ignore any other initiators besides int, who can MASSIVELY benefit from arcane dagger cd and cp. Don't even talk about cores. When with Strenght dagger the only benefit many initiators can get is a damage only - slow are meaningless when you stun at same time.
i found that swift blink pairs really nice with morph and jugg, especially juggs ult and swiftslash.
the article is so poorly written, its not in depth at all, arcane blink is great on a lot of initiators and especially magic sf and tinker, falcon blade is arguably the worst item of all and we definitly wont see "lot of it", meanwhile orb of corrosion is purchased in every game ive seen so far, sometimes even 2 or 3 times in the same team (not saying its good to have multiple)
The main use of overwhelming blink is to cancel another blink. Have you ever chase someone with blink and they just blink out the time you blink in? Having damage attached with blink prevents escape.
Eternal Shroud is maybe an every game purchase on centaur, unless you definitely require a pipe for the team. Pop it and use double edge on some creeps, and it's like a soul ring that turns the enemy's HP into mana
"Это может интересно повлиять на общее впечатление от игры: шансы на трудные побеги и частые убийства выше"
побеги и правда будут трудные. а убийства все выше и выше ;)
orb of corrosion is too overrated, literally every pos 4 melee-rambo type such as bara and earth spirit always go with this item
Excuse me in what world is orb of corrosion only good on position 4 heroes? I've seen high MMR pos 3s and p1s buy it very frequently, only skipping it if they aren't laning vs melee. This article is hardly even an analysis, anybody could read the patch notes and gain the same level of understanding, if not more, than what is presented here.
Tested arcane blink on Doom, thought it worked pretty well. Doom being the farm machine he is can farm it pretty quickly, and combining it with War stomp (neutral centaur stun), you can do an instant blink / stun followed by a sped up ulti (or blade to remove linkens), lowering its cooldown as well. Really good against targets with Linkens / Manta to try to stop your ulti.
What does TTK mean?