Nerfs Galore – Dota 2 Patch 7.19d

I’m not sure what’s happening in IceFrog’s life but his latest Dota 2 patch, 7.19d, is another giant step towards the cemetery for many of the game’s heroes. We’ve seen this happen multiple times in the latest patches but in 7.19d the situation is even more extreme as almost every single change is a nerf.

Who got punished

Here are the heroes that got hit by the bus that is patch 7.19d:

Grimstroke – You know that a hero used to be overpowered when he’s getting big nerfs almost every patch and IceFrog is still not done nerfing him. In 7.19d, Grimstroke lost a lot of its edge, as his Ink Swell’s movement speed bonus is now just 18% at every level while his Phantom Embrace got rescaled: from 12/18/24/30 DPS to 6/14/22/30.

© Valve Corporation

Necrophos – Necrophos got two of his talents significantly diluted. His level 10 damage talent now gives just 30 bonus damage instead of 40 while his level 20 attack speed talent only gives 70 bonus attack speed instead of 80.

Riki – Nobody will notice, but Riki just got punched in his invisible face. And his early game is ruined because of it. His late game also took a big nerf, but just look at the hero’s most annoying ability, Smoke Screen. Its slow was rescaled from 10/15/20/25% to 8%/12%/16%/20% while its miss chance got changed from 40/50/60/70% to 10%/30%/50%/70%. And besides these 2 nerfs, there are 4 others regarding his ultimate, Tricks of the Trade, and 2 of his talents.

Silencer – This is another hero whose early game got severely nerfed thanks to one tiny change: Last Word’s damage was rescaled from 120/180/240/300 to 75/150/225/300.

Terrorblade – TB’s Conjure Image now costs 5 extra mana with each new ability level, the slow effect of his Reflection was reduced from 25% to 20%, his Sunder’s mana cost is now 50 at level 3 instead of 0 (that’s a huge nerf against heroes with mana burning abilities and items) and his level 15 talent only gives +250 HP instead of +300.

Undying – His Tombstone can now be killed a bit more easily: just 7 hits at level 4 instead of 8.

© Valve Corporation

Ursa – The buff duration of Fury Swipes was reduced from 20 seconds to 8/12/16/20 seconds. Which means that in the early game, he can no longer abuse this ability to get easy kills by chaining two Fury Swipes instances together.

Weaver – The mana cost of his Shukuchi got increased by 10, from 60 to 70.

Zeus – This hero suffered a massive nerf to his most used ability in the early game. Arc Lightning now costs 80 mana instead of 65/70/75/80. This is absolutely devastating for a hero whose attack range and attack animation are terrible. Zeus used to farm creeps from afar and his early game strength consisted in his ability to easily take last hits without getting involved. Now he’ll have no other choice but to rely on his right clicks, which are super bad.

Drow Ranger – Her Marksmanship offers 5 less agility bonus at every level.

Earthshaker – His base armor was reduced by 1.

Treant Protector – The heal of his Leech Seed got significantly nerfed. From 15/30/45/60 to 12/24/36/48.