Dota 2 Patch 7.16 Analysis

As expected, patch 7.16 came out after the ESL One Birmingham 2018 major. Valve mentioned at the beginning of the patch notes that the upcoming patches will mostly be focused on balance tweaks and that they will stop doing biweekly patches after the end of this season. Having a new patch every two weeks is fun for the pub players but for the pros it’s a bit of a hassle as they have very little time to figure out the patch. There were a lot of complaints on twitter regarding this and it looks like Valve just decided to drop their biweekly patches experiment.

As I predicted in the previous patch analyses, the meta has completely shifted towards 2-1-2 style of laning and roaming is almost dead as of now. The mid lane is more focused on outplaying your opponent and denying as much as possible. It has also become a lot safer for the mid-laners as the towers are much closer to the river now, making it harder to gank them. 7.16 does not change the meta a lot as its mostly just a lot of balance changes. I will be covering only the most important changes in this analysis, so let’s get right into it.

Patch 7.16

• Movement speed talents of the following heroes have been nerfed: Bane, Beast Master, Bounty Hunter, Clockwerk, Dark Willow, Gyrocopter, Legion Commander, Leshrac, Lifestealer, Nature’s Prophet, Nightstalker, Oracle, Outworld Devourer, Sand King, Shadow Demon, Shadow Fiend, Techies and Zeus.

Most of these movement speed talents were reduced by 5 MS and some of them have been reduced by 10. Techies’ talent got a -15 MS nerf. In the previous patch, after the midgame, many of the core heroes had really high movement speeds which made gap-closing really hard. It also made a huge impact in teamfights because it was harder to kite these heroes. Reducing these movement speed talents is a push in the right direction to prevent the cores from being overpowered in terms of MS. Supports will feel better in 7.16.

• Increased Base HP regen to 1.75 for the following Agility heroes: Anti-Mage, Arc Warden, Clinkz, Drow Ranger, Meepo, Pangolier, Phantom Assassin, Templar Assassin, Troll Warlord, Vengeful Spirit

Many of these heroes are the least picked or almost never picked carry heroes because they were really easy to harass and dominate in the early game. Giving these heroes 1.75 HP regen is really big. This combined with the new double mango build will allow these heroes to sustain in their lane. This HP regen is amplified by strength as well which means that this change will also matter a lot in the mid and late game.

• Roshan attack damage upgrade over time increased from 2.5/min to 4/min

Roshan has been getting little buffs like this in every other patch, making it harder and harder for teams get the aegis as an objective. This particular change is massive, specially if you are being contested, because the heroes tanking Roshan will take a lot more damage than before making it easier for their opponents to contest them. Expecting to see a lot more epic Roshan fights in 7.16.

• Sentry Ward: Duration increased from 4 to 6 minutes

This is a heavenly change for support heroes against heroes with invisibility. The duration has been increased by 50% which means that the supports would not need to buy as many sentries as they did before. 7.16 is truly a blessing for supports.

• Centaur: Base damage increased by 4
• Centaur: Hoof Stomp manacost reduced from 130 to 115/120/125/130

Centaur has not seen much play for a long time now. These changes are very strong and might actually bring him back. Previously, Centaur didn’t have enough mana to Hoof Stomp in lane more than once without using mana regen consumables which is not the case anymore. Also, since the manacost has been reduced in the earlier levels, Centaur can choose to put 1 level in it and max the other spells.

• Clinkz: Intelligence increased from 16 + 1.55 to 18 + 1.7
• Clinkz: Strafe dodge no longer has a count limit.

Clinkz has always been a pub-stomp hero but he was generally considered as a weak hero in the competitive scene.  These buffs can definitely change that. On paper, the new strafe seems borderline OP. You can dodge projectiles and infinite number of ranged attacks for 3.5 seconds which can abused very easily. The intelligence buff also comes in handy as Clinkz is a very mana intensive hero.

• Doom: Infernal Blade base damage reduced from 25/30/35/40 to 25
• Doom: Scorched Earth movement speed reduced from 14% to 11/12/13/14%

With the max Infernal Blade build, Doom was really strong in the offlane. Normally he could easily harass the supports off to base with a few infernal blade attacks and a neutral creep ability through devour. After these changes, the scaling of infernal blade doesn’t seem that good anymore and players might be more persuaded in going for the max Scorched Earth build now. Either way, this is a nerf to a hero who was very strong offlaner.

• Invoker: Invoke manacost removed

This a huge buff. Before getting his mid-late game items, Invoker has a lot of mana issues. Not having any mana cost for Invoke means that he can cast a few more spells than before which is exactly what an invoker wants.

• Morphling: Morph now only dispels on initial cast, rather than on all toggles

Personally, as a support player, this was pretty ridiculous to me and feels more like a bug-fix. Basically, you could never root him when he uses morph as he can dispel endlessly by toggling between the morph target and himself. This is a much required nerf to this hero.

• Night Stalker: Void no longer applies a ministun during the day
• Night Stalker: Darkness no longer sets enemy vision to a fixed amount
• Night Stalker: Darkness now reduces enemy unit and ward vision by 25% (doesn’t affect buildings)

Nightstalker got hit really hard in this patch. This hero was popular for a long time now, both as a position 4 and an offlaner. The utility that darkness provides was just way too good but it has been nerfed a lot now. Previously, Darkness used to reduce all enemy units’ vision to 675 and all the wards/building vision to 800. For example, ward vision range during darkness was 800 before and now it is 1200. That is a 50% increase in vision right there which is huge.

• Riki: Base HP regen increased from 1.5 to 3.0
• Riki: Blink Strike can now be cast on Spell Immune enemies
• Riki: Tricks of the Trade cooldown increased from 40/35/30 to 50/45/40
• Riki: Cloak and Dagger fade delay increased from 6/5/4/3 to 7.5/6/4.5/3

Riki has been buffed massively. Base HP regen has been increased by 100% which means that Riki players don’t need to go for tranquil boots anymore. They can go for more offensive choices like phase boots or treads. Ability to blink strike on spell immune units is also really strong. Before this, Riki was almost useless against spell immune units. Tricks of the trade cooldown has been nerfed a little bit but it’s almost negligible. Cloak and Dagger has also been nerfed in the earlier levels but since Riki players generally max this skill, it doesn’t make a big difference.

In conclusion, 7.16 is not going to massively change the meta but there were many buffs to heroes which were quite unpopular for a long while and there were nerfs to heroes who have been seeing a lot of play. The meta will stay the same but the hero pool in competitive matches is definitely going to change.

I write about Dota 2, Esports and Gaming in general. I’d love it if you followed me on Twitter and Facebook. Click here for more Dota 2 content. Click here to buy cool Dota 2 merch! Thanks for reading.