The Biggest Winners in Dota 2 patch 7.35

Dota 2

17 Dec

Otomo

Dota 2 patch 7.35 has been out for a few days and we can already see which heroes will be stomping pubs and which heroes to avoid. With so many changes there was bound to be a major reshuffle in the meta and that's a welcome change from how stale the previous patch was in the end.

In this article we will list the biggest winners of Dota 2 patch 7.35, highlighting their buffs and talking about whether they are worth spamming for MMR or if you should avoid them for another patch.

The five biggest winners of Dota 2 patch 7.35

Underlord

No more blinking out of Pit of Malice (Credit: Valve).

Pit of Malice: Now deals 20/30/40/50 damage upon rooting a unit
Cast Point improved from 0.35s to 0.25s
Fiend's Gate: Cast Point improved from 0.45s to 0.2s

Underlord got some nice changes in the patch, Pit of Malice dealing damage means enemies can't just blink out of it the moment it expires, giving the hero some much-needed utility. The spell's reduced cast point makes it a little easier to use, the same buff that Fiend's Gate received.

Certain map and item changes also benefit the hero. Now that Twin Gates uses mana, Fiend's Gate is a more appealing option for moving around. Underlord also buys Shiva's Guard, which now utilizes Veil of Discord, greatly buffing his magic damage.

We're not surprised the hero gained 4.4% win rate, thanks to getting damage buffs from his spells and items. Underlord feels more threatening and significantly less of an aura-bot late game. While he is one of the biggest Dota 2 patch 7.35 Winners, the hero is still not worth taking to use in high-level pubs, where other options are just plain better.

Doom

Can't deny me now! (Credit: Valve).

Base Movement Speed increased from 285 to 290
Devour: Neutral abilities now level up automatically at the time when neutral abilities would scale
Infernal Blade: Cooldown decreased from 16/12/8/4s to 13/10/7/4s
Doom: No longer makes a hero deniable

Movement speed is one of the best buffs to give out. In between escaping enemies, chasing down victims, and farming creeps, everything a player does in Dota 2 revolves around movement speed.

Five movement speed isn't huge but it does add up over the course of a game, especially when combined with Scorched Earth's bonus speed. So that's a nice bit of love there.

Infernal Blade also got a decent buff at early levels. Since that ability gets a value point early and maxed out last, it spends a lot of time as level one. Shaving three seconds off its cooldown early goes a long way to increasing the hero's effectiveness.

Doom (the ultimate) was changed a few patches ago to stop enemies from healing. Doom became a spell that can dish out real damage, instead of just disabling enemies. Unfortunately, enemies often denied the Doomed target and stopped Doom from claiming the bounty.

I see this as the biggest buff to the hero, that landing a good Doom guarantees a kill, which helps the hero accelerate his farm and snowball his advantage.

Doom went from winning 42.5% of the time to 47.5%, a huge buff but not enough to turn the hero into a pub stomper.

Death Prophet

Can't run, can't use spells, and can't fight back. (Credit: Valve).

Silence: Now also slows enemy movement speed by 10/15/20/25%
Level 20 Talent Crypt Swarm applies 50% slow for 1s replaced with +15% Silence Move Speed Slow

For a hero who relies on sticking to her targets, getting more slows is a massive blessing.

Silence slows enemies for its entire duration, which is very powerful. That's a 25% area of effect silence for six(!) seconds. Enemies can't run away now, can't use spells, and definitely can't fight back while being Spirit-Siphoned and under attack from Exorcism.

Death Prophet is among the biggest Dota 2 patch 7.35 winners because the meta has also evolved in her favor. We expect to see more agility heroes in this patch and fewer strength cores, which is a boon for magic damage dealers such as Death Prophet. The buff to Shiva's Guard is another point in her favor.

With more slows in her arsenal, easier enemies to deal with, and an improved shopping list, we highly recommend adding Death Prophet to your hero pool in either the mid or offlane role.

Timbersaw

Oh boy, someone in Falcons is happy. (Credit: Valve)

Base Strength increased from 25 to 27
Strength gain increased from 3.2 to 3.5
Reactive Armor: Max Stacks increased from 10/20/30/40 to 15/24/33/42
Stacks per Hero Attack increased from 2 to 3
Level 10 Talent +200 Health replaced with +0.2 Reactive Armor Regeneration Per Stack
Level 15 Talent +6 Reactive Armor Stacks and Duration replaced with +6 Max / +1 Hero Attack Reactive Armor Stacks

Timbersaw is gonna be a lot harder to bring down in this patch. He starts off with 44 more health and gains an additional point in strength every three levels. A level 25 Timbersaw has 220 health more than before, enough to survive an extra hit or two.

Reactive Armor is also a lot better now. It has more stacks and they build up 50% faster than before against heroes. Timbersaw had to receive 20 hits from enemy heroes to max out Reactive Armor before, and now it's only 14 while receiving more regeneration.

The corresponding Talents are pretty nice as well, combined the hero goes from having 25.2 regeneration from his passive to 38.4. We think the extra stat loss at level 15 is a little better though, as the best defense is a good offense.

As you can probably guess by now, the meta greatly favors Timbersaw right now. Meta picks are squisher while Shiva's Guard and Bloodstone, both staple items for the hero, are enormously buffed this patch. We expected the hero to do well this patch but a win rate bump of 8.4% is absurd.

The hero is still slightly underpowered and best in the hands of a professional like Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf. We recommend picking Timbersaw only if you're extremely comfortable with him.

Leshrac

Good luck killing Leshrac in this patch (Credit: Valve).

Diabolic Edict: Damage increased from 7/14/21/28 to 9/16/23/30
Lightning Storm: Now also slows attack speed by 50

For people wondering, Diabolic Edict dishes out 10 explosions a second for 4 seconds, so that's a damage increase of 80 per level. It's also Pure, which means it doesn't get reduced by armor or magic resistance.

Lightning Storm slowing attack speed makes Leshrac a more dangerous laner, as he can use the spell to disrupt the enemy's last-hitting attempts and win trades. It's more useful once maxed out, as the slow duration is negligible in the first couple of levels.

The biggest buff to the hero is that his two most important items, Bloodstone and Shiva's Guard got massively buffed. Yes, it's repetitive to read that but frankly, the meta is shaped by who can use the best items, and in the current patch it is Leshrac by miles.

Leshrac gained nearly a 10% winrate increase, going from 47.7% to 57.1%, I've never seen a hero have such a jump to his success before and fully expect pros to abuse him to gain MMR. Be sure to pick the hero when you can, because he is one of the best to climb the MMR ladder with right now.

Featured Image Source: Valve