The small Dota 2 7.34b patch dropped today, adjusting some heroes ahead of The International 12 qualifiers later this week.
Aside from minor changes to several heroes and two items, the biggest nerfs were to Sand King, Witch Doctor, and Invoker — three heroes that received massive buffs in the preceding 7.34 patch.
Sand King’s area denial is now worse in Dota 2 7.34b
Credit: Valve
Crixalis was taken down a royal peg with number decreases across the board, after shooting up to 58 percent win rate — the highest of any hero in 7.34, according to Dotabuff.
Burrowstrike now deals less damage, and his Epicenter Shard upgrade now pulses every 3.5 seconds instead of 2.5. The removal of his level 10 talent, which increased his Sandstorm radius, also decreases his area deniability aspect.
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Witch Doctor’s pure damage is staying — but Death Ward is getting big nerfs
Credit: Valve
Witch Doctor — second on the win rate charts according to Dotabuff — had a high win rate as well, after a massive buff to Death Ward’s damage by converting it to pure damage.
The ultimate retains its pure damage numbers, but now has 600 attack range instead of 700, and a 100/80/60 seconds scaling cooldown instead of a flat minute at every level.
The hero has also received some minor nerfs to his laning, with lower base damage and intelligence gain, as well as nerfs to two Death Ward talents.
Quas-Wex Invoker isn’t an unkillable menace in 7.34b any more
Credit: Valve
Carl received a long list of changes in 7.34, with key changes including his swap to universal, Wex orbs giving cooldown reduction, a massive buff to Ghost Walk, and changes to the Spirit Vessel recipe.
With Vessel getting a double-Crown build-up, everything combined for Quas-Wex to become a terrifying menace from practically every position. The hero saw play across positions two to five at an absurd, near 60 percent win rate in Immortal-level pubs, according to Dota 2 Pro Tracker.
All those changes have received slight nerfs, including the removal of one Crown from Spirit Vessel to give fewer stats, a big reduction to Ghost Walk’s regeneration numbers, as well as removing it entirely when taking damage in the last three seconds, and Wex no longer working on items — removing synergies with Hand of Midas and Witch Blade.
READ MORE: The Dota 2 hero tier list (August 2023)
