Ask any Dota 2 player about their experiences with Pangolier, and you’ll probably hear the same story: he is an absolute monster. Got caught lacking near walls? You’re chain-stunned to death. Forgot to buy a Ghost Scepter? Watch yourself melt to a flurry of swords and a jumping ball of death.

Despite enjoying a near-unprecedented run of meta relevance for nearly three years, the recent Dota 2 7.40 patch hasn’t been kind to the cavalier swashbuckler. The question now is: can the hero rise back to the top, or will he be mired in the dumps for a long time?

The History Of Donté Panlin The Pangolier In Dota 2

It might surprise you, but Pangolier wasn’t a true meta hero in Dota 2 until players began to realize just how oppressive Diffusal Blade is on him.

When the hero was first released, players quickly noticed that Swashbuckle had strong synergy with on-hit effects. Javelin (sometimes even multiple copies) became the most economical damage item, later upgrading into the likes of Maelstrom and Monkey King Bar.

In his early appearances in the competitive scene, Pangolier was largely typecast as a Blink-stun initiator, compensating for his lack of scaling with aura items like Guardian Greaves.

From Blink Initiator To Diffusal Menace

But it was Diffusal Blade that really catapulted Pangolier into the limelight.

He has access to a low-cooldown, multi-hit spell (two of them with Aghanim’s Scepter) that easily procs Diffusal Blade’s passive manaburn. The Inhibit active also helps him set up for Rolling Thunder while enabling extra hits with his naturally high, stat-boosted base damage.

On top of that, the burn deals physical damage, neatly synergizing with Lucky Shot’s armor reduction. By 2022, Pangolier surged into the meta as a premier midlaner, and various game mechanics have coincided to keep him in top form.

Patch Changes That Cemented Pangolier As A Meta Midlane Hero

The introduction of the Universal hero attribute in Patch 7.33 further boosted Pangolier’s laning and scaling.

Not long after, the rollout of Innates and Facets in Patch 7.36 empowered him even further, increasing Rolling Thunder’s roll and turn speed. This allowed Pangolier to chain-stun heroes by turning on the spot, rather than relying on walls or terrain to keep enemies locked down.

This evolution is clear when examining three of Dota 2’s best midlaners on Pangolier: Quinn “Quinn” Callahan, Michał “Nisha” Jankowski, and Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak.

Of Quinn’s 128 professional matches on Pango, all but 13 have come after 2022. Nisha has played only four Pangolier games before 2022, and has since racked up 87 and counting, with his match history split due to an account change after joining Team Liquid.

Malr1ne’s stats are even more drastic.

Pangolier is comfortably his most-played hero in competitive Dota, with 142 matches—30 more than his next most-played hero in Puck. And outside of three matches in 2021, where you can see he opts for the older Maelstrom build, he’s played every other Pango match in 2022 and beyond, including in The International 2025 Grand Finals.

Pangolier In The Past Year: Dota 2’s Premier Flex Hero

Team Falcons have a penchant for picking Pangolier early in the draft, before deciding to assign him to Malr1ne or Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf.

While Thunderbolt was the dominant Facet early on, repeated nerfs have caused Double Jump to become the de facto choice — even in the midlane — especially as teams opted to flex the hero more and more. Across the 2024–25 competitive season, Pangolier appeared at roughly a 60/40 split in favor of the midlane, according to data from spectral.gg.

It’s rare for midlane heroes to have the tankability to survive increasingly punishing safelane duos, especially when bolstered by the strong harassing potential of position five heroes like Jakiro and Pugna. It’s also rare for an offlaner to scale well enough to justify a midlane slot.

Heroes like Beastmaster tend to be the exception because of their wildly varying builds. For example, he can rush Helm of the Dominator into Overlord for tempo, or Aghanim’s Scepter for scaling. By contrast, Pangolier has straddled that boundary so effectively (and for so long) that it’s become routine for him.

Why Pangolier Wins Lanes Other Flex Picks Can’t

What made Pangolier so strong in the lane was mostly thanks to Shield Crash. It functions as both an offensive and defensive tool, closing the distance against enemies, slowing and damaging them, and providing a barrier that grants him strong trading power.

This is similar to Abaddon, another meta core pick that’s dominated the past year of competitive Dota, helping the hero sustain in lanes that others simply wouldn’t be able to.

Double Jump makes the spell even better in the side lane, and the barriers could amount to hundreds of points of shielding—nearly impossible for most heroes to eat through.

What’s Next For Pangolier In Dota 2 Patch 7.40 And Beyond?

And now… he simply doesn’t have a Facet any longer.

Whatever the reason, some heroes in Patch 7.40 were released into the wild without them. Most received massive reworks, and a few have even benefited as a result—even at the pro level. Earth Spirit and Slark, for example, have already seen successful appearances at DreamLeague Season 27.

Pangolier, unfortunately, received the worst of both worlds.

Without any rework to his kit, and even tanking some nerfs to his current skills, it’s caused his win rate to crater by more than 7% in pubs, according to Dotabuff. He’s also vanished overnight in professional drafts.

Still, Pangolier is the eighth-most contested hero at DreamLeague Season 27 at the time of writing, though that figure is almost guaranteed to drop.

Can Pangolier Survive Patch 7.40 Without Diffusal Blade?

It’s hard to say, given that the tide of change in Dota is quite unrelenting. The latest 7.40 patch might not be the biggest update we’ve ever had, but it did change something that’s been part of the game’s fabric since the beginning.

Although Diffusal Blade has undergone numerous changes over the years, it no longer functions with illusions, removing its iconic interaction with image heroes like Phantom Lancer and Naga Siren. But will all that be enough to keep Pangolier afloat? Well, early win rates seem to suggest otherwise.

What Patch 7.40 Took Away From Pangolier

Unlike other facetless heroes that received reworks or new tools after core mechanics were shifted into Innates, such as Slark’s Essence Shift or Spectre’s Desolate, Pangolier largely just absorbed a series of heavy nerfs.

The slow switch to Swashbuckle made sense, as swapping between skills keeps the hero’s kit intact, but just makes one skill less laden with secondary effects. Shield Crash and Rolling Thunder were hit hard, though.

Shield Crash received a major nerf in the sidelanes, as hitting two heroes will no longer provide double benefits to its barrier.

The lower cooldown is nice for spamming, but it was a needed buff considering Rolling Thunder no longer lowered the spell’s cooldown while active. It might, however, prove to skew the hero back to the midlane, where he might actually benefit from having a lower cooldown spell to spam and bully enemies out of the lane.

Will Pangolier Bounce Back Better Than Ever?

Probably. Some hero kits are simply too valuable to disappear for long. It’s why major teamfight heroes like Earthshaker continue to resurface at every The International and why Nature’s Prophet, despite repeated nerfs, inevitably teleports back into the meta.

Ember Spirit is another hero that has seen the end of the nerf bat many times. And yet, his mobility and burst/sustained damage potential (depending on which era, this hero has gone through SO MANY different builds) keep bringing him back.

Pangolier is firmly in that tier of heroes.

His teamfighting impact is so absurdly high, and as long as Rolling Thunder exists in its current form, it will always demand respect—whether it’s the likes of Black King Bar or picking specific heroes to counter him. Despite being labeled as a spellcaster, few heroes can match his burst physical damage on top of the teamfight control he provides.

It’s why some teams remain completely enamored with the hero (cough, Falcons, cough) and keep picking him. He’s a safe, flexible selection, lanes well enough, teamfights like not many others, and scales into the late-game.

Once his Facets are restored, Donté Panlin will roll back into the meta — and nobody’s hearts will be safe.

FAQs

What is Pangolier’s role in Dota 2?

Pangolier is typically played as a core hero in Dota 2, most commonly in the midlane, where he can lane safely and scale well into the late game.

Is Pangolier still good in Dota 2 after Patch 7.40?

Pangolier is noticeably weaker in Patch 7.40, as evidenced by a decline in both his win rate and presence in professional matches. That said, his value in teamfights keeps him situationally viable, but only with the right drafts.

What changes in Patch 7.40 hurt Pangolier the most?

Valve’s decision to remove Diffusal Blade’s illusion interaction, along with nerfs to Shield Crash and Rolling Thunder, hurt Pangolier the most in Dota 2 Patch 7.40, reducing both his laning strength and overall impact as a core.

Is Pangolier easy to play in Dota 2?

Not exactly. Pangolier is easy to pick up but extremely hard to master, making him one of the less beginner-friendly heroes in Dota 2.

References

1. Quinn (DOTABUFF)
2. Jankowski (DOTABUFF)
3. Nisha (DOTABUFF)
4. Malr1ne Overview (DOTABUFF)
5. Malr1ne Matches (DOTABUFF)
6. Malr1ne (DOTABUFF)
7. Wrapping up Competitive season of 2025 (Spectral Lea)
8. Match 8609420125Overview (DOTABUFF)
9. Match 8608974467Overview (DOTABUFF)
10. Pangolier (DOTABUFF)
11. DreamLeague Season 27: Statistics (Liquipedia)