Dota’s patch 7.20 brings a lot of changes, and a lot of feelings.

Patch 7.20 is finally out. People have been waiting for this patch since the end of TI8 which was almost 3 months ago now. This patch is incredibly huge and is going to completely change the meta. The amount of changes in this patch are way too many for me to cover in one article so I will only be covering the biggest changes in my opinion. Let’s get started right away.

MAP CHANGES

The map has been changed completely. There are many new juke spots all over the map. They have added a lot of additional paths in the Radiant and Dire jungles which also have new uphill and downhill spots. Supports will be figuring out the best warding spots in the 7.20 map for months to come.

DENY MECHANICS

• Denies no longer give the denier 25% XP.
• Creep denies now give the denier 20% of the gold bounty.

This is a really interesting change. The denies might be more important to certain cores now since getting extra gold in the early game is more important than extra XP for some heroes.

TELEPORTING

• Added a new dedicated inventory slot to hold Town Portal Scrolls.
• Boots of Travel: No longer shares cooldown with Town Portal Scrolls. Upon teleporting, +10 seconds are now added to your Town Portal Scroll cooldown.

A massive buff and an incredible quality of life change. The Boots of Travel change is a buff to both split push and anti split push. Whoever gets this item first will be able to control the pace of the game if they can clear creep waves fast.

MANA AND HP REGEN

Reworked Mana and HP regen from attributes. They are no longer multipliers of your regeneration values.

• Mana Regen: Intelligence now provides 0.05 mana regeneration.
• Health Regen: Strength now provides 0.1 Health Regeneration.

Previously, the regen from clarities and salves would multiply themselves with Intelligence and Strength from items and from base stats. This allowed regeneration consumables to scale along with hero stats. In 7.20, consumables will only add a flat amount of regeneration to the already existing regeneration value instead of multiplying it.

ROOT MECHANICS

• Town Portal Scroll: Can now be canceled and prevented by Root.
• The following roots no longer interrupt channeling spells or the current action: Dark Troll Ensnare, Searing Chains, Naga Siren Ensnare, Crystal Maiden Frostbite, Entangling Claws, Nature’s Guise, and Overgrowth.

Huge nerf to TP Scrolls and Boots of Travel but a huge buff to channeling spells. Heroes with channeling spells no longer have to worry about getting cancelled by roots in 7.20.

SPELL IMMUNITY AND DISPELS

• The following abilities no longer pierce Spell Immunity: Curse of Avernus, Acid Spray, Bloodrage, Thirst, Elder Dragon Form, Lycan Wolf Cripple, Epicenter, Entangling Claws, Spiderling’s Poison Sting, Anchor Smash, Nature’s Guise, Wave of Terror, Venomancer’s Poison Sting, The Swarm, Maledict debuff, Ghost Frost Attack, Wrath of Nature, Netherward Mana Degen, Life Drain targeting, Primal Roar Secondary Knockback, Requiem of Souls, March of the Machines collision, Atrophy Aura, Tombstone, Flesh Golem, Wall of Replica slow, Naga Siren Ensnare, Dark Troll Summoner Ensnare, Wild Axes, Natural Order, Death Pulse projectile, Assassinate, Shiva’s Guard Aura, Assault Cuirass Aura, Tempest Tornado Aura, and Orb of Venom

Massive buff to Black King Bar and spells which provide spell immunity. There are only a few single target abilities left that can go through BKB in 7.20, like Fiend’s Grip, Demonic Purge and Eye of Skadi.

MISC CHANGES

• Day/Night cycle increased from 4 minutes to 5 minutes.

The day and night cycle are now synchronized with the Bounty Rune timings. This will create a lot of difference in rotation timings and ganks.

• Added a new game state, Leashed. Leashed units follow the same rules as rooted units with regards to teleport and mobility-based abilities, but can still use normal movement. The following abilities now apply the Leashed state: Pounce, Dream Coil and Soulbind.

Massive Slark and Puck buff. Heavy nerf to mobility heroes like Ember Spirit and Storm Spirit who are forced to buy a BKB or a Force Staff now to escape leash.

ITEM CHANGES

• All item-based movement speed bonuses are now rebalanced around being a percentage rather than a constant addition.

This is a massive change to the structure of the game. Since all items only grant a percentage change to MS in 7.20, base movement speed is really important now. This also increases the value of talents which grant movement speed. This change makes it so that slow heroes will remain slower than the other heroes for the rest of the game and vice-versa for fast heroes.

• Added a new item: Yasha and Kaya
• Added a new item: Kaya and Sange

Ever since Kaya was added to the game, people have been anticipating the addition of the Kaya counterparts to S&Y. These items look really cool but there’s barely any heroes that would buy them in opinion.

SOLAR CREST: ITEM REWORKED

Active Ability: Can be cast on allies or enemies, removing your own +12 Armor bonus. Grants allies +70 Attack Speed, +10% Movement Speed, +12 Armor. On enemies it applies -70 Attack Speed, -10% Movement Speed, -12 Armor.

This item is amazing for both defense and offense now. The ability to increase or decrease someone’s attack speed by 70 is very strong and we are going to see many players buy this item now. Since it is so expensive, I expect only offlane heroes to buy this for their tower hitters.

• Removed Ring of Aquila from the game.
• Bracer, Wraith Band and Null Talisman can no longer be upgraded into other items.
• Added a new basic item: Crown, +4 All Stats, 450 Gold (available in side shop). Used in items that previously required Bracer, Wraith Band, and Null Talisman

Ring of Aquila was the most cost-effective item in the game for any right click carry. Many players will be rushing multiple Bracers, Wraith Bands and Null Talismans in 7.20. Crown seems like a really strong item and it can also be purchased from the side shop which opens up a lot of options for cores and supports.

Hero Changes:

There were so many hero changes in 7.20 that it is impossible to talk about them all of them in one article. 37 of the 116 heroes in the game got ability reworks and the majority of the others also got a lot of balance changes. I highly suggest you to go read the patch notes for yourself. I am only going to talk about the hero changes that made my jaw drop.

ANTI-MAGE: 

• Replaced Spell Shield with Counterspell. Passively grants you 15/25/35/45% Magic Resistance and can be activated to provide a Counterspell shield for 1.4 second. Causes all spells that target you to be blocked and reflected onto the enemy. Cooldown: 15/11/7/3. Manacost: 40

A shield that reflects all single-target spells for 1.4 seconds at a 3 second cooldown on level 4. AOE disables are a must-have against Anti-Mage now, else he will be really hard to deal with.

BOUNTY HUNTER: 

• Reworked Jinada. Passive cooldown 12/9/6/3. Causes your attack to deal +80/110/140/170 Bonus Attack Damage. Steals 12/18/24/30 Unreliable Gold from enemy heroes. Your weapon glows when the attack is ready to strike.

We have heroes that can steal almost everything from others now. Silencer steals Intelligence, Rubick steals spells, and 7.20 brings us a hero that can steal gold from others. Jokes aside though, this is an interesting mechanic and we will have to wait and see how it works out.

BREWMASTER: 

• Reworked Drunken Brawler. It is now a self active buff. Lasts for 5 seconds. Grants you 50/60/70/80% evasion and 80% chance to Crit for 200/220/240/260%. Movement speed alternates between -20% and +40% while this is active. Cooldown: 20/19/18/17. Manacost: 35/40/45/50
• Replaced Drunken Haze with Cinder Brew. Covers a target 400 AoE with alcohol, slowing them by 25% and causes them to have a 20/25/30/35% chance to attack themselves instead of the target. Lasts 7 seconds. If the targets are hit by any fire-based spells (including immolation from your Fire Spirit), the duration will refresh and they will ignite and burn for 10/25/40/55 DPS. Cooldown: 20/18/16/14. Manacost: 50. Self attack is not lethal
• The following heroes have fire element damage: Dragon Knight, Jakiro, Phoenix, Axe, Doom, Ember Spirit, Brewmaster, Lina, Ogre, Batrider, Wraith King, Clinkz, Invoker, Warlock, Underlord, and Huskar.

80% evasion and 80% change to crit for 2.6x damage. This hero can melt low HP heroes in a few seconds now. Also, 7.20 introduces the first elemental damage type into the Dota with Cinder Brew, the element being fire. I wonder if Ice Frog will implement more elemental types in the future.

DAZZLE:

• Replaced Weave with Bad Juju. Passive ability. Grants you 30/40/50% Cooldown Reduction. Anytime you cast a spell, all enemies within a 1200 AoE around you lose 2/2.25/2.5 armor for 10 seconds. Debuffs stack and refresh duration. Doesn’t affect Roshan.

Since cooldown reduction applies to items as well, many items will be super-efficient on this hero now. Dazzle will be able to spam items Glimmer Cape, Force Staff and Scythe multiple times in a teamfight now.

FACELESS VOID

• Time Lock now causes Faceless Void to land a free second attack while the target is locked in place. Deals bonus 30/40/50/60 damage and bashes for 0.75 seconds

The free second attack from Time Lock also has a chance to proc Time Lock. This can create an endless loop and hypothetically, Void can kill any hero with a single attack in 7.20. Although the chances of this happening in a real game is astronomically low, I am really hoping to find atleast one clip of something like this in a fails video.

SHADOW DEMON:

• Reworked Soul Catcher. Targets a 175/200/225/250 AoE area. Causes all enemy units in the area to lose 25/30/35/40% of their current health, and gain half of it back after 10 seconds. Cooldown: 26/24/22/20 Cast Range: 700. Manacost: 110

An ability that can instantly remove 40% current HP of every unit in an AOE sounds incredibly strong. This paired with other AOE spells like Reverse Polarity and Aghanim’s Finger of Death can wipe heroes off the screen in a second.

TROLL WARLORD:

• Berserker’s Rage now applies an ensnare instead of a bash
• Berserker’s Rage proc chance increased from 10% to 10/12/14/16%
• Basher and Abyssal Blade are no longer restricted items
• Reworked Battle Trance. Now causes you to go into an uncontrollable trance, forcing you to attack the closest targets in a 900 AoE. During this trance, you are unslowable and cannot die. Grants +140/170/200 Attack Speed, +30/35/40% Movement Speed and +40/60/80% Lifesteal. Lasts 6.5 seconds. You gain normal vision over the target you are currently locked on. Cooldown: 90. Manacost: 150

Troll can no longer stun-lock you to death without giving you a chance to do anything about it. But at the same time, Troll can buy Basher which stacks with the ensnare from Berserker’s Rage. Also, The new Battle Trance seems very strong. Culling Blade is the only spell that I have discovered which can kill Troll through the new Battle Trance.

UNDYING:

• Reworked Flesh Golem. No longer amplifies damage. Slow is now a constant 24/32/40% in 375 AoE. [?] Enemy units in 400 AoE lose 7% of their Current HP per second as Magic Damage. You gain +400/1000/1600 health when in this mode. Cooldown: 110

A spell that gives you 400 AOE Rot (Pudge) which also increases your HP up to 1600. Seems really balanced. The main problem with Undying in teamfights was his Tomb Stone which is really easy to deal with if you have the right heroes like Troll or Jugg. But now there’s a tanky undead monster alongside it that slows you down and hurts a lot. I am definitely going to be spamming this hero before it gets nerfed.