Overview of Dota 2 Patch 7.19d

Patch 7.19d has been recently released. It is a minor patch, mainly focused on nerfing the popular heroes in the current meta. As always, I’m only going to cover the most important changes, so let’s get right into it!

Patch 7.19d:

Drow Ranger:

• Marksmanship agility bonus reduced from 40/60/80 to 35/55/75.

This might seem like a very minor nerf, but since every ranged hero on Drow’s team will be getting an increase in damage through Precision Aura, this nerf is not insignificant. Also, Drow strats are mainly focused on taking objectives as soon as possible, and this nerf will definitely affect the time taken for Drow’s team to take down towers.

Grimstroke:

• Ink Swell max damage reduced from 220/280/340/400 to 160/240/320/400.
• Ink Swell movement speed bonus reduced from 18/22/26/30% to 18%.
• Phantom’s Embrace latch duration from 4/4/5/5 to 5.
• Phantom’s Embrace DPS rescaled from 12/18/24/30 to 6/14/22/30.

These are some major nerfs to Grimstroke’s early game. The damage nerf to ink swell reduces his ability to get kills in the laning phase. The movement speed reduction nerf is not very significant since its not the strongest aspect of the skill. The Phantom Embrace latch duration change can be considered both a nerf and a buff for different scenarios. It increases the silence duration but it also gives extra time for heroes to remove the bug to avoid the damage.

Phantom Lancer:

• Spirit Lance cast range rescaled from 750 to 525/600/675/750.

This hero is one of the strongest carries in the meta and he definitely needs more nerfs than this. Still, this is a step in the right direction atleast. Since most players max Spirit Lance only after maxing the other skills, this nerf is definitely impactful.

Riki:

• Smoke Screen slow rescaled from 10/15/20/25% to 8/12/16/20%.
• Smoke Screen miss chance rescaled from 40/50/60/70% to 10/30/50/70%.
• Tricks of the Trade AoE reduced from 500 to 450.
• Tricks of the Trade duration rescaled from 4/5/6 to 4/4.5/5.
• Level 20 Talent reduced from +900 Blink Strike Range to +700.
• Level 25 Talent reduced from +400 Tricks of the Trade AoE to +300.

Recently, there were many complains about Riki on forums like the Dota 2 subreddit. Apparently, players have been struggling to deal with this hero up until the 3k-4k bracket. Moreover, he has a very high win-rate in those brackets. Considering he wasn’t that much of a threat in the higher MMR brackets, these nerfs seem a bit too harsh in my opinion.

Smoke Screen is absolutely atrocious at level 1 now, making it almost useless unless more points are invested into it. The AoE reduction to Tricks of the Trade, combined with the level 25 talent nerf, reduces the ult’s impact quite a bit in the late-game. The level 20 talent nerf is the only nerf which I feel was necessary. Having 1700 range on a skill like blink strike was completely absurd.

Silencer:

• Last Word damage reduced from 120/180/240/300 to 75/150/225/300.

Further nerfs to his laning stage. This change will affect him a lot since many players leave this skill at level 1 until they max Arcane Curse. The damage on level 1 was 150 as of Patch 7.19b and it is at 75 damage currently.

Terrorblade:

• Conjure Image mana cost increased from 70 to 70/75/80/85.
• Reflection slow reduced from -25% to -20%.
• Sunder mana cost increased from 200/100/0 to 200/100/50.
• Level 15 Talent reduced from +300 Health to +250.

This hero is very popular in the current meta and these look like some much needed nerfs. The conjure image mana cost will force him to buy extra clarities while he is farming neutrals and pushing waves. The Sunder mana cost from 0 to 50 at level 18 gives a new way for players to stop TB from using sunder (Through Mana Burn). Most TB players take the HP talent at level 15 over +25 Attack speed, making it a significant nerf.

Ursa:

• Fury Swipes duration reduced from 20 to 8/12/16/20.

Even though this nerf seems really brutal, I personally feel that this was justified. Having a 20 second duration on Fury Swipes at level 1 made it really difficult for certain heroes to lane against Ursa.