We are officially on the home stretch to The International 8, with just over 15 days remaining before the Dota 2 world championship tournament kicks off its group stage games.
IceFrog has therefore seen fit to adjust a sizable number of heroes’ attributes and abilities, with the latest balance update Patch 7.19. This is the first such patch in more than a month, and will likely be the actual version used at TI8, since there’s no more premier tournaments until then.
The change that jumps out immediately from the change log is a nerf to Crystal Maiden, particularly to the mana cost of her first ability Crystal Nova. Though the upper ends of the ability’s mana cost curve are unchanged, the lower ends (specifically the first two levels) have been bumped up to 130 and 140 mana, respectively. This amounts to a 30 percent and 20 percent increase for each level respectively.
Meanwhile, midlane favorite Outworld Devourer has received a significant buff to his Essence Aura, particularly in its second level onwards. Topping out at 450 mana per trigger makes Essence Aura an even more desirable trait, and will likely cause Outworld Devourer to be a more frequent pick in particularly mana-dependent drafts.
Zeus’ Nimbus ability, which serves as his second ultimate after purchasing an Aghanim’s Scepter, has had its radius reduced from 500 units to 450. As one of the most annoying yet easy to use abilities in the game thanks to its global range and quick cast time, Nimbus definitely needed some balancing. This nerf will help ranged heroes stay out of its area of effect while attempting to take it down.
Everyone’s favorite skillshot hero Pudge has had the cooldown on his signature ability Meat Hook greatly increased. Rather than the 17 seconds that it starts with at level one, Meat Hook will now be unusable for a whole 27 seconds after casting. While this does seem like a particularly heavy-handed change, Pudge’s small base mana pool doesn’t allow him to cast Meat Hook all that often in the early game anyway.
Also, the free Enchanted Mangoes that come with the daily “bonus” hero have been bumped back down to just one per hero. The immense advantage given by the old double Mango bonus was just too great for something entirely reliant on the random number generator, after all, and Valve has brought it down accordingly.
