Dota 2’s big update, 7.29 which came out just a week ago brought a new playable hero, Dawnbreaker as well as many visual changes to the map along with other changes to the current hero pool and items. The update was a bit polarizing due to some heroes straight up being ‘broken’, notably Phantom Lancer whose win rate rose up to 53.58% with an average pick rate of 13% due to his shard being considerably buffed. While the removal of Necronomicon affected Lycan which caused a drop in Lycan’s overall pick and win rates.
However, patch 7.29b addresses these issues and aims to balance out the hero pool as the update has nerfed more than 15 heroes including Phantom Lancer, Huskar, Techies, etc.
But not all heroes were nerfed as Lycan’s Base armor, Agility, and Intelligence gains are increased while his Summon Wolves’s Cripple ability will now slow movement speed by 15%. Both his Level 15 and 20 Talents were reworked in his favor and Shapeshifter’s health bonus increased from 150/250/350 to 200/300/400.
On the other end, Phantom Lancer’s Base damage and Base armor are now reduced while his shard’s benefits have been toned down by a decent margin. His Phantom Rush was also affected as the bonus Agility has been lowered to 10/20/30/40 while his Level 10 and 15 Talents are also affected.
Lina was also affected by this update but rather in a positive way with her Light Strike Array getting a mana cost reduction and a bigger radius and increased Agility. Hopefully, with these changes, Lina’s role as a mid-laner could be possible again since she was mostly picked for support roles. Hoodwink, too, received multiple buffs with his Acorn Shot now having a 75% damage, an increase of 10% while his Strength gain increased to 2.0.
You can read the complete patch notes on Dota 2’s official blog.
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