Dota 2: Patch 7.26a Overview

Here's what’s new in Dota 2’s latest patch.

Just a few days after we saw patch 7.26, it’s now time to check out the next Dota 2 update. As you know, 7.26 featured some core gameplay changes. However, there were no hero or item changes, Valve announced they’d be releasing a new patch just for those changes. Well, now it's here!

So, let’s take a look at some of the most significant changes. If you want to learn more about everything, please take a look at the entire changelog.

Item and General changes

The only real gameplay change in this patch is related to the bonus experience for killstreaks. Instead of 30->100, it’s now 20->90* level, which means that you will basically get less experience than before. That was expected, especially after the gold nerf that took place in 7.26.

In terms of items, the first important thing is related to movement speed. It seems like Valve decided to step back from their percentage-based movement speed bonus. Now, all items that provide some sort of movement speed will give you a flat amount, rather than a percentage.

Apart from that, items such as Headress, Soul Ring, Pipe of Insight and so on, now cost a little bit more. This is also something that we’ve expected to see because these items were just too strong.

In terms of buffs, the only item that receives a significant buff is Eye of Skadi. We can’t really say we’re surprised because this item was crushed after 7.26 and the removal of the stats buffs. However, it seems like IceFrog decided that the nerf was too strong, which is why Skadi now reduces all heals, lifesteals, and regen by 35%.

Hero changes

The first nerf comes to Alchemist, who now won’t be able to farm as fast as he used to. That’s because Greedevil’s Greed got three nerfs:

Greedevil’s cap is down from 20/24/28/32 to 18/22/26/30
The base gold bonus is down from 4 to 3 and lastly, the multiplier of this spell is now 1.5/2/2.5/3 (previously, it was 2/2.5/3/3.5)

Another hero that also got nerfed (once more) is Death Prophet. Just when we thought that the hero got enough nerfs in the previous patch, it seems like IceFrog doesn’t agree. Now, the hero has 310 starting move speed (was 315), and his Exorcism gets two changes:

It provides a 16/18/20% movement speed bonus, rather than a flat 20%
it costs 50 mana more to use on all levels than before (450 on level 3).

The last hero that we will cover here is Phoenix. As we’ve predicted in our previous article, these nerfs were expected because the hero is extremely popular right now. We clearly saw this during the ESL One LA Online, where teams like Virtus.Pro absolutely ripped through the competition with Phoenix.

As a result, the hero now gets three nerfs that should make him a little bit more balanced. The first one increases the cooldown of Firespirts in the first three levels (from 45/40/35/30 to 51/44/37/30). The next thing that changes is the fact that you can’t use Sunray while you’re using Supernova if you buy an Aghanim Scepter. Instead, this effect is now a level 20 talent that replaces the +1.25s stun from the egg.