Dota 2’s 7.23b patch makes neutral items spawn later, nerfs support Lifestealer

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The Outlanders update for Dota 2 has received yet another letter sub patch. In 7.23b, neutral items will now start appearing only at seven minutes, instead of the previous five. Fifteen heroes have been changed again, with Lifestealer in particular receiving the strongest nerf for its inane support playstyle.

Another big change is the removal of the melee hero damage block introduced in the main patch. Now, it will only work against lane creeps and neutral creeps and will be entirely ineffective against players and player-controlled units. While this is a blanket nerf to all melee heroes, it’s also a buff to heroes that deal with summons like Broodmother and Nature’s Prophet. Now, they’ll be even more obnoxious in lane and with the removal of Stout Shield, since there are only subpar options to counteract their units.

Neutral items

Mind Breaker

• Reworked. Passive Cooldown. Passively provides +25 attack speed and +25 Magic damage on your attacks. The next attack against a hero silences them for four seconds. Twenty second cooldown

Mind Breaker received a total overhaul of its effect. The item previously granted 25 percent magic resistance and an ability to steal mana on hit. Now, it’s been changed to become an even better offensive item and provides some utility with its silence mechanic.

Titan Sliver

• Attack damage reduced from +22% to +16%
• Magic resistance reduced from +22% to +16%
• Status resistance reduced from +22% to +16%

Titan Sliver was one of the most powerful tier-three item in the games, providing three powerful effects in one slot that was the dream of carries everywhere. The numbers have been deservedly brought down to below items you can actually buy.

Most neutral items received minor buffs or nerfs and likely won’t change too much in terms of their usage.

Hero buffs

Nine heroes received buffs. Four heroes that received reworks to their skills—Chaos Knight, Drow Ranger, Riki, and Treant—have had a perceptible drop in win rate afterward. Now, IceFrog has seen fit to buff them up again, mostly with stat boosts and number changes.

Ember Spirit, Huskar, Juggernaut, Morphling, and Pugna also received minor adjustments. Morphling was one of the hardest-hit heroes in the Outlanders update, which removed his ability to cycle through two health and mana bars. Now, the hero is on pace to become the lowest win-rate in the patch, especially because of Snapfire’s massive buffs in 7.23a. It’s probably going to take a while longer before the hero becomes a force of nature again.

Related: Dota 2’s 7.23a patch removes Tome of Aghanim, buffs newest heroes

Hero nerfs

Lifestealer

• Infest
  • Infest movement speed for heroes is now the same as the creeps bonus
  • Infest health bonus reduced from 750/1000/1250 to 400/800/1200
  • Infest cooldown begins once you leave the infested unit
  • Infest scepter cooldown increased from 20 to 25

Lifestealer support was absolutely and positively overpowered. It required little skill or agency from the player. All it required was to press R and get into your ally carry before sitting back and doing nothing else. In fact, doing something else was probably a worse option than doing absolutely zilch.

It gave 750 health and 30 percent movement speed at level one, meaning that at 10 minutes, your carry hero could conceivably be walking around permanently hasted and with 1.5 times his normal health pool. The stats were broken, yes, but the idea behind the whole thing was just not right.

Techies

• Scepter bonus range from 400 to 300
• Proximity Mines
  • Proximity Mines replenish time increased from 15 to 23

Techies excel at turtling and protecting objectives with preset minefields to deter opponents. With the introduction of new neutral buildings in Outposts, Techies became one of the strongest heroes in the game to lay claim to them, preventing enemies from stepping foot into one.

The hero also received a rework to his Proximity Mine in 7.23, giving the trio three charges of the skill. The cooldown has been increased, decreasing his farming speed and his ability to quickly set up an area that is difficult to infiltrate.

Four of the highest win rate heroes in Crystal Maiden, Lone Druid, Vengeful Spirit, and Razor received minor nerfs again. These four heroes were also targeted in the 7.23a patch and will likely see even more adjustments.