Patch 7.20's General Changes
The wait is over and it seems it was worth it—the changelog for patch 7.20 is massive. Today we will be focusing on the general changes to the game, looking at how they might affect the gameplay and what they mean for an average Dota player.
We will also be doing a separate blog post on the map changes, once we get some idea on new and better ward spots, farming patterns and points of interest.
Deny Mechanics
- Denies no longer give the denier 25% XP
- Creep denies now give the denier 20% of the gold bounty
It is hard to say whether we will see a return of solo offlaners with this change, but this step definitely makes laning stage a little less impactful on the overall course of the game. Contesting creeps in lane and being able to achieve at least something in it is still very much worth it, but perhaps this change will allow for different approaches in the early game.
This change also means there is now less overall XP in the game, making levelling a little bit slower. This theoretically should extend the time supports get to dictate the pace of the game, while also making many carries vulnerable for a little longer.
Teleporting
- Added a new dedicated inventory slot to hold Town Portal Scrolls
- Boots of Travel: No longer shares cooldown with Town Portal Scrolls. Upon teleporting, +10 seconds are now added to your Town Portal Scroll cooldown
These changes make split-pushing more complex and will also make late game macro mistakes considerably less punishing. There are now more ways to react, more safe opportunities to engage and absolutely no reason not to have a TP in your inventory.
It is going to be very interesting to see how the heroes who sometimes get Boots of Travel early will benefit from being even more mobile across the map.
Armor
- Changed the Armor formula to: ( 0.052 * Armor ) / ( 0.9+ 0.048 * Armor)
After running some calculations it seems Armor is a little bit more effective, compared to the previous patch: If previously 50% damage mitigation was achieved at exactly 20 Armor, now the same value is achieved at 16 Amor.
The changes should be quite noticeable throughout the whole game: at 10 armor there is already almost 5% difference in damage reduction; at 40 armor heroes will now mitigate ~¾ of physical damage, while previously the value was closer to ~⅔.
It also means that armor reduction should be a lot more potent: we will keep an eye out on heroes like Dazzle and Slardar, as well as the buffed Desolator.
Hero Kill Bounty XP
- Killing Sprees now give an XP bonus ranging from 200 to 1250
- Reworked and simplified XP hero kill bounty system. No longer includes a team XP component
Killing sprees now giving both XP and Gold bonuses means that taking out priority targets is now more or less mandatory for a comeback. Previously, several pick-offs on low-level supports of the winning team could result in sizeable XP swings.
This change is in line with what was introduced in the patch 7.11, where the comeback gold mechanic was heavily nerfed. It resulted in a lot less “rubberbanding” and made several comeback-heroes a lot less appealing for a period. Given how similar these changes are, we expect similar results: late-game carries who relied on picking off supports in a teamfight to get back into the game should be less popular, while tempo heroes will not be punished by teammates’ misplays, but should also be a lot more careful, when on a long kill streak.
Mana and HP regen
- Reworked Mana and HP regen from attributes. They are no longer multipliers of your regeneration values
- Mana Regen: Intelligence now provides 0.05 mana regeneration
- Mana Regen: Removed the 0.9 base mana regen value
- Mana Regen: Rebalanced mana regen values based on the formula change
- Health Regen: Strength now provides 0.1 Health Regeneration
- Health Regen: Base regen values reduced by 1.5
- Health Regen: Rebalanced health regen values based on the formula change
It is hard to analyze the full results of these changes, but for the most part it should mean that stat scaling isn’t going to be as powerful as it used to be, at least for Strength and Intelligence heroes, who rely on massive mana or HP pools and high regeneration.
Our initial impression is that this change will make heroes like Storm Spirit, Zeus, Outworld Devourer and Leshrac weaker and will probably also have a small effect on regen-relying Strength heroes, such as Alchemist and Dragon Knight.
Root Mechanics
- Town Portal Scroll: Can now be canceled and prevented by Root
- Fixed inconsistencies between different Root sources
Root was standardized and it is a good thing—if moving forward we get more of the new “element-based interactions”, consistency of the old mechanics should be a priority, otherwise the game will become even more complex.
No roots no longer interrupt, meaning that you can’t use Overgrowth or Troll Ensnare to cancel Black Hole on a BKB Enigma. All roots now cancel and prevent teleportation and mobility spells. The effect now has its own niche, without any exceptions and specific cases, and this change is very welcome.
Cleave and Splash Changes
- Cleave damage is now normal physical damage type, causing it to get reduced by the armor of each unit impacted
- Cleave abilities damage values have been rescaled
- Increased standard Cleave area. Distance increased from 625 to 650, final width increased from 330 to 360
- Templar Assassin: Psi Blades can now spill off of illusions
- Changed how illusions' incoming damage is processed; it now happens at the final step
- Fixed Splash damage being affected by Spell Lifesteal and Spell Amplification
- Fixed Splash damage not considering armor type
- Black Dragon Splash Attack damage type changed from Magical Damage to Physical Damage
- Black Dragon Splash Attack now does its full damage in the 250 AoE
- Similar adjustments to Dragon Knight's splash damage described below
This change is a big nerf to all cleave heroes and all heroes who want to get a Battlefury, especially given the changes to armor. Stacking cleave damage in an attempt to one-shot a group of enemies through cleave attacks is no longer a viable strategy.
For heroes like Sven, Kunkka and even Phantom Assassin this change means that their playstyles are now restricted even further. They weren’t particularly powerful before the cleave nerf and will probably be even less of a threat in the late game.
Spell Immunity and Dispels
A great deal of passive abilities and auras no longer pierce spell immunity, meaning that kiting BKB heroes is now slightly harder. The big highlights of these changes are probably the Ensnare abilities from Dark Troll and Naga—they used to be very potent in kiting or disabling enemy heroes with Spell Immunity.
Anchor Smash, Epicenter and Requiem of Souls also no longer apply their secondary effects on spell immune targets, meaning you can no longer mitigate incoming damage from BKB’ed enemies.
Theoretically it should help melee heroes without gap closers the most—it should be easier for them to Blink in and deal damage under the effects of the BKB. Though it is still hard to tell whether it is actually worth trying to play something like a carry Sven.
- Hex state can now be removed by strong dispels
A big buff to Slark and several other heroes. Hex was the ultimate disable for the last several patches, but now it is more in line with stuns. It does take away from its uniqueness, but also promotes counter-play in specific cases, allowing the game to be more interactive.
Towers and Structures
- Tower, Barracks and Ancient health increased
After all the changes to armor and health, most structures now have more or less the same amount of EHP against physical damage. For the most part it shouldn’t result in significant gameplay changes, but it does make Pugna slightly less potent at pushing.
Misc Changes
- Day/Night cycle increased from 4 minutes to 5 minutes
- Scan no longer ignores units in the Roshan pit
- Max attack speed increased from 600 to 700
Extra Max Attack speed will rarely come into play, however certain heroes can benefit from it on occasion. New Drow Ranger, Troll Warlord and Windranger are probably going to have some new builds, allowing them to fully utilize the ability to attack roughly 4 times a second.
- Default aura range increased from 900 to 1200
- Removed movement speed modifiers from spawned creeps
- Added a new sound that gets played when all of a team's barracks are destroyed
- Opening secondary shops now highlights the items in the full shop UI, rather than switching to a filtered view
- AoE of other wards are now shown during ward placement
- Added a new game state, Leashed. Leashed units follow the same rules as rooted units with regards to teleport and mobility based abilities, but can still use normal movement. The following abilities now apply the Leashed state: Pounce, Dream Coil and Soulbind
Leash is a rather interesting new extension of Root mechanic: it prevents mobility spells and teleports, finally giving Puck some niche, while also making Slark an interesting counter to heroes like Storm and Ember Spirits. Overall the patch really seems to favor Slark, given how he also doesn’t break clarity when using Dark Pacr while farming jungle.
- Self damage no longer disables things like Clarity, Bottle, Blink, etc
- Lifesteal amount is no longer limited by the current HP of the target and uses the full damage you are dealing instead
- Backpack can no longer be manipulated while taunted
No backpack manipulation during taunt is a massive buff to Winter Wyvern: the hero’s ultimate was more or less rendered useless damage-wise once players figured out they can simply backpack their DPS items, saving their teammates.
- Intelligence heroes strength gain increased by 0.2
- Killing an Observer or Sentry ward now prints out a notification in chat to your allies
- Respawn time for level 1/2/3/4 increased from 5/7/9/13 to 6/8/10/14
- Reverted a global turn rate change done in 7.00
- Attribute growth values that had 2 decimal points have now been rounded up
- Shrines' Sanctuary ability now additionally restores 2% HP/Mana pool per second
Finally, the reverse of a global turn rate change of 7.00 is going to be interesting. It largely went unnoticed at the time, but do keep in mind that people are generally more likely to notice inconveniences, rather than convenience improvements.
First!!
7.21 when
What a patch. Reminds me of 7.0 release
For those that keep saying Dota is dead and RIP Dota, i suggest to adapt.
Dota is a sport that keep evolving, which means this is actually the way Dota keep on surviving its existence : major change , completely new meta , new learning point and more fun.
Personally, i think this is great patch for supports
GLHF
BIG PATCH
VALVE FIX TROLL ULTI PLEASE
Love the new patch. Some stuff needs to be toned down a bit but it's always like that. Played a turbo ogre game with dagon. Midas.Scythe. Atos and bloodthorne. Most fun ive had losing in a long time :)
7.20b is out
Let's go boisss
Jakiro's best buff ever
last!!!!
Yes lets buff PA ITS SO FUN TO PLAY WITH AND VS ALSO PA WAS SO WEAAAAK!!!!!!
6,5k gold and imba.... Fucking retarded patch+hero.
Scenario time.
Oh no Sven and Cm ganks me, oh no im losing health and Witchdoctor is on hia way too omg omg....
Fuck it seems its the only way iM 1/3 hp it seems i must waste 15'mana....
Dagger time!!! *play A-team themesong*
Bammm!!!! ''KAAZZAAAM!!!!
KAAABOOM
*1k critt*
Crystallmaiden have been killed
*1k critt* + 1100 range away WD who was on his way...
Witch doctor Has been killed.
*1k critt*
Yay Sven at half hp woohoo!!!!
And my lifesteal (900 gold) from all of it im at full strength
Il use my *lvl 4 blinkstrike* on him
*(Troll ultimate attackspeed achieved!!)*....
Sven had been killed.
//all chatt - ezpzy im promode Kärry -Phantom Assasin aka noobseeker.
Uses free smoke to move aeay and ignore any global spells.
Slark is fucking OP...
and thats it... 7.20b
Also nerf CM and Earth Spirit
(And now i am fking dyslexic playing earth spirit)
Buff buff then play, nerf nerf then quit. The cycle starts again.
Buff buff then play, nerf nerf then quit. The cycle starts again. (2)
this shit logic is so retard.
RIP BLoodseeker my +25 guarantee mmr hero
Buff buff then play, nerf nerf then quit. The cycle starts again.
Buff buff then play, nerf nerf then quit. The cycle starts again.
new meta is always needed. if not people are just gonna stop playing. boring games
pa is soo weak buff buff more
Does denies still reduce exp?
I only got one chance to play meepo and it was a normal match... so sad
6.20 is a great patch Kappa
Please justify my question, why i got legend 1 but in my stats i got 2.4k mmr in my new account calibration ? Its part of the new patch? The 7.20? Or what?
Why is that a big nerf to cleave? I mean before 7.20, ur cleave damage get reduced by armor of your primary target (40 armor morph i.e.). Now u hit the sourounding low armor target with a lot more damage. Dont understand this. Ty for explanation...
RIP Dota. I don´t have the time to learn this game again and again. So much imbaness in this patch. Cancer Hereos got buffed and their winrate increased to 60 % ??? WTF.