The biggest winners and losers of Dota 2 Patch 7.36

Dota 2’s Patch 7.36 featured some of the most impactful game changes in recent years. While some heroes and items were minorly tweaked, others were completely overhauled, resulting in the biggest winners and losers of Dota 2 Patch 7.36.

As an avid fan of the Dota 2 competitive scene, I was looking forward to which heroes would rise to the top and dominate the ranking system and the heroes that would take their place in the history books after gigantic nerfs. After going through the Dota 2 Patch 7.36 notes, all Innate ability passives, and Hero Facets, I identified the early winners and losers of Dota 2 Patch 7.36.

Winners of Dota 2 Patch 7.36

The biggest winners of Dota 2 Patch 7.36 are Juggernaut, Legion Commander, Templar Assassin, Tiny, and Weaver. These five heroes experienced positive surges in their win rates shortly after the patch, and they were also contested in the first professional matches of the new meta.

1) Juggernaut

Juggernaut received a significant buff to his damage output. The Duelist Innate ability gives him a 10 percent bonus damage. Blade Dance also starts with a 35 percent Crit Chance now, enabling Juggernaut earlier in the game. As a result, Juggernaut’s win rate spiked from 49.92 percent to 58.73 percent overnight after Patch 7.36’s release.

All 7.36 Juggernaut changes:

• Duelist Innate Ability: When a target faces Juggernaut, he deals 10 percent more damage. Omnislash always applies this bonus.
• Bladestorm Facet: Blade Fury can also deal critical damage. The ability uses Blade Dance’s stats for this.
• Bladeform Facet: Juggernaut gains a Bladeform stack every two seconds. This ability has a max stack of 10, and a single stack gives a three percent base agility bonus and a one percent movement speed bonus. These stacks linger for three seconds when Juggernaut receives damage and then reset.
• Blade Fury: When Blade Fury ends, it applies a strong dispel to Juggernaut.
• Blade Dance: Critical Chance is now fixed at 35 percent instead of the previous scaling structure of 20/25/30/35 percent. In return, the chance of critical damage is no longer fixed at 190 percent, and it now scales to 130/150/170/190 percent.
• Omnislash: Bonus damage now scales as 30/35/40 instead of 40/45/50.

2) Legion Commander

Legion Commander has always been a strong laner, but she’s even stronger now after receiving some of the more notable buffs of the patch. Following Legion Commander’s buffs, she was immediately picked in professional matches, and her win rate increased by eight percent, going from 49.87 percent to 57.97 percent.

In addition to having a more robust kit, the Spoils of War Facet makes Legion Commander a dream teammate for physical damage heroes.

All 7.36 Legion Commander changes

• Moment of Courage Innate Ability: The scaling of this ability changed to 40/60/70/80/90 percent from 55/65/75/85 percent. Its cooldown also scales differently as 2.3/1.9/1.5/1.1/0.7 seconds, which used to be 1.9/1.5/1.1/0.7 seconds.
• Stonehall Plate Facet: Gives Legion Commander an all-damage barrier after using Overwhelming Odds. This corresponds to 100 percent of the damage dealt to the enemy heroes and stays active for eight seconds.
• Spoils of War Facet: When Legion Commander wins a duel, any unit that deals damage to the loser in the Duel will gain four/eight/12 bonus damage permanently.
• Overwhelming Odds: Ability Base Damage now scales as 40/70/100/130 instead of 35/65/95/125. Deals more damage per hero at 40/70/100/130 instead of 35/65/95/125. The spell doesn’t deal bonus damage to illusions anymore; the buff duration was increased to six seconds, and its cooldown is now 18 seconds.

3) Templar Assassin

Playing Templar Assassin requires precision, and players often need to work with timing. Templar Assassin became a much more versatile laner after Dota 2 Patch 7.36. Psi Blades becoming available instantly gives Templar Assassin more options, and she just feels better now, which is reflected in her win rate jumping from 45.17 percent to 52.13 percent.

All 7.36 Templar Assassin changes

• Base Health Regen is now set to one instead of 0.25. Base Attack Time is now shorter by 0.1 seconds at 1.6 seconds. Higher Attack range by 50 at 250. Faster Attack Projectile Speed by 100 at 1000.
• Psi Blades Innate Ability: Bonus Attack Range is 0/50/100/150/200 from 80/130/180/230. Blade Range scales 550/600/650/700/750 instead of 600/650/700/750. Spill Damage doesn’t reduce for connecting units; it scales as 80/85/90/95/100 percent instead of being fixed at 100 percent.
• Voidblades Facet: Psi Blades slows enemies by five/10/15/20/25 percent for three seconds upon contact.
• Refractor Facet: Allows Refraction to gain a damage instance every time Templar Assassin consumes a shield instance.
• Refraction: Now grants 30/40/50/60 Health barrier charges instead of Damage block charges. It now provides two/three/four/five instances instead of three/four/five/six.
• Psionic Trap: Bonus total trap damage by 100 with Aghanim’s Scepter.
• Psionic Projection: Bonus Damage is now 300 from 200, and channel time increased to two seconds from 1.5 seconds.
• Talents: Level 10 talent is plus five percent Psionic Trap Slow, level 15 Psi Blade Attack and Spill range decreased to +100. Level 20 talent now provides Refraction Dispels, and Level 25 Talent gives five Refraction instances instead of seven.

4) Tiny

Tiny Airlines is back, bringing back a familiar face, Craggy Exterior. Tiny’s long-forgotten passive ability returned in Dota 2 Patch 7.36, while the hero received notable nerfs. Combining these boosted Tiny’s win rate to 51.66 percent from 46.54 percent.

All 7.36 Tiny changes

• Base Health Regen is now two instead of 1.5.
• Craggy Exterior Innate Ability: When enemies attack Tiny, they get a stacking debuff, which decreases their attack damage by two/three/four/five percent per stack, capping at 10 stacks. This debuff lasts five seconds, and each new stack refreshes the duration.
• Crash Landing Facet: Toss’ landing radius becomes 450 from 275. Landing also deals 25/30/35/40 percent more damage to enemies in the area, slowing their movement speed by 20/25/30/35 percent.
• Insurmountable Facet: Tiny gains Slow Resistance based on 25 percent of his STR and Status resistance based on 10 percent of his STR.
• Tree Grab: Now grants more bonus damage in the late game, scaling as 10/20/30/40 from 14/21/28/35.
• Grow: Grants +10/20/30 Movement Speed instead of Slow Resistance. It also grants more bonus damage as 60/120/180 instead of 50/110/170.
• Talents: New level 10 talent grants +200 Avalanche Cast range. New level 15 talent grants -10 percent Grow Attack Speed Reduction. New level 20 talent grants +70 Tree Grab Bonus Base Damage.

5) Weaver

Weaver always had one of the best passives in Dota 2 and now starts the game with it. Geminate Attack availability from the beginning makes Weaver arguably the strongest level-one hero in the game, boosting his win rate to 52.13 percent from 47.50 percent.

All 7.36 Weaver changes

• Higher Agility gain at 3.3 from 3.1
• Geminate Attack Innate Ability: Bonus damage scales as 5/25/40/55/70 instead of 25/40/55/70. The cooldown scales are 10.5/8.5/6.5/4.5/2.5 seconds from 8.5/6.5/4.5/2.5 seconds.
• Skitterstep Facet: Give Skuchi a 50-movement speed bonus and slows enemies by 100 percent for 0.3 seconds when they’re affected by Skuchi.
• Hivemind Facet: When The Swarm bugs attack enemies, Weaver gets three/five/seven/nine XP.
• Talents: Level 10 talent now grants five more Skuchi damage at 60. Level 25 talent now reduces Skuchi’s cooldown by three seconds instead of 2.5 seconds.

Losers of Dota 2 Patch 7.36

Dota 2 gameplay Patch 7.36 was too rough for some heroes. At the time of writing, the biggest losers of Dota 2 Patch 7.36 are Tinker, Anti-Mage, Bristleback, Death Prophet, and Lifestealer, as their win rates plummeted after the patch went live.

1) Tinker

Tinker wasn’t in a good place before Patch 7.36, and Valve still did him dirty by removing some of the most iconic mechanics the hero had. Rearm doesn’t reset item cooldowns anymore, and Heat-Seeking Mİssile is gone, which made me question Tinker’s existence in the game as his win rate sunk to 33 percent from 46 percent.

All 7.36 Tinker changes

• Base Movement Speed is now 310 from 290, and March of the Machines replaces Heat-Seeking Missile.
• Eureka Innate Ability: Tinker gets a one percent item cooldown reduction per four INTs, which caps at 60 percent.
• Repair Bots Facet: Allows March of the Machines to heal allies upon passing through with a heal per second of eight/12/16/20. This healing lasts for four seconds.
• Translocator Facet: When Tinker fully uses the Defense Matrix, he blinks in a random forward direction in the 300 range.
• Laser: Now has a longer cast range at 600, which isn’t AoE by default. When AoE talent is picked, the Blind also affects all enemies in range. Creep Blind duration is the same as enemy hero Blind. It now costs less mana at higher levels at 95/105/115/125 from 95/110/125/140. Aghanim’s Scepter bonus no longer provides bonus cast range; it lets Tinker shrink creeps instead.
• March of the Machines: Call an army of robots that deal 16/24/32/40 damage for six seconds in a 900 radius.
• Defense Matrix: Now has a higher cooldown at 20 seconds from 12 seconds.
• Rearm: It doesn’t reset item cooldowns anymore and doesn’t grant Magic Resistance on its own. It now has a quicker channel time at early levels, 2.75/2/1.25 seconds. Mana cost is also reduced to 125/175/225.

2) Anti-Mage

Anti-Mage bounced back hard in the last patch, but 7.36 ended Magina’s comeback story. Anti-Mage’s early game became much weaker after the patch, making it more difficult for him to scale as fast as possible into the late game. Following the patch, Anti-Mage’s win rate dropped to 49.42 percent from 52.10 percent as new carries rose to the occasion.

All 7.36 Anti-Mage changes

• Mana Break Innate Ability: Mana Burn scales 16/23/30/37/44 from 25/30/35/40. Max Mana per hit scales as 0.8/1.6/2.4/3.2/four percent. It no longer slows targets on complete drain by default.
• Magebane’s Mirror Facet: Allows Counterspell to reflect spells when activated.
• Mana Thirst Facet: If an enemy hero in 2500 range has less than 60 percent mana, get bonus damage, 20/45/70. This bonus caps at 15 percent mana.
• Blink: Now costs 10 more mana at 50.
• Counterspell: Costs 50 mana and only blocks spells by default.
• Blink Fragment: Holds two charges; the base restore time for charges is 20 seconds.
• Talents: New level 10 talent grants +10 percent Counterspell Magic Resistance. New level 15 talent grants 40% Slow on Fully Mana Drained targets. New level 20 talent reduces Blink Cooldown by one. Level 25 talent grants +200 Blink Cast Range.

3) Bristleback

Bristleback always found a way to remain relevant in the meta, but he received some tough-to-swallow blows in Patch 7.36. Bristleback’s damage output was considerably nerfed, causing his win rate to drop to 44.55 percent from 50.84 percent.

All 7.36 Bristleback changes

• Base damage was lowered by eight.
• Warpatch Innate Ability: Warpath is now an Innate ability.
• Berserk Facet: Allows Warpath to increase Attack Speed by five/10/15/20 per stack, and the damage per stack is five at all levels.
• Snot Pocket Facet: Viscous Nasal Goo stack limit increases to six alongside the armor reduction, 2.5/3/3.5/four. The Bristleback skill starts shooting Viscous Nasal Goo after threshold instead of Quill Spray.
• Viscous Nasal Goo: Aghanim’s Shard no longer increases the stack limit.
• Quill Spray: Quill Stack Damage is now fixed to 30.
• Bristleback: Aghanim’s Scepter Stack interval is now 0.4 seconds.

4) Sand King

Sand King lost his throne overnight. The patch took away some of the core parts of the hero’s kit and put them into Facets or removed them altogether. As a result, Sand King’s glorious win rate dropped to 47.47 percent from 52.75 as he’s easier to deal with now.

All 7.36 Sand King changes

• Caustic Finale Innate Ability: Doesn’t slow enemies anymore. Base damage was reduced to 20/40/60/80, max health as the damage was also reduced to 8/10/12/14 percent, while the explode radius is now 400 from 500.
• Sand Shroud Facet: Allows Sand Storm to make Sand King invisible while increasing its radius by 125.
• Dust Devil Facet: Allows Sand Storm to follow Sand King around.
• Burrowstrike: Casting behavior changes to allow it to be cast immediately.
• Stinger: New AoE ability that slows enemies while dealing damage.
• Epicenter: Now has more pulses with less damage and range. The total Epicenter duration increased to six seconds, and the attack slow is higher in early levels.
• Talents: New level 15 talent grants +50 Stinger damage. New level 15 talent grants +12 percent Stinger slow. Incremental Epicenter level 20 talent now gives less radius bonus. Level 25 talent gives 10 Epicenter Pulses.

5) Phantom Assassin

Phantom Assassin is another hero who must work with a significantly different kit. One of the vital parts of the hero, Blur, lost its most overpowered specialties. If you choose the Methodical Facet, landing critical hits will now be limited. Players will need to explore new ways of harnessing Phantom Assassin’s power, but in the meantime, these changes resulted in her win rate dropping to 44 percent from 48 percent.

All 7.36 Phantom Assassin changes

• Base attack damage is up by two.
• Base attack speed increased to 110.
• Immaterial Innate Ability: The hero starts the game with 15 percent Evasion and gets 1.5 percent more in each level.
• Veiled One Facet: Makes Blur undispellable on the attack while reducing all mana costs by 30 percent. When Blur gets dispelled, all abilities and items will cost zero mana for five seconds.
• Methodical Facet: Increases Coup de Grace critical damage by 100 percent on each level. It removes random procs, and Coup de Grace starts triggering every sixth attack on heroes and every fourth attack on creeps.
• Blur: No longer gives evasion nor makes Phantom Assassin invisible, but still hides her on the map. Blur gets removed when Phantom Assassin attacks. Vanish Radius and Buffer were rescaled.
• Talents: Level 15 talent now gives 50 less Phantom Strike Cast range. The other level 15 talent now grants +15 percent Immaterial Evasion. Level 25 Talent increases Coup de Grace proc chance to 10 percent.