7.36c First Impressions
We didn’t have to wait long for a new Dota patch right after TI qualifiers. There were definitely some balance issues in the game and from the looks of it, most of them were addressed. We are going to highlight some of the biggest patch changes and try to guess what it means for the meta.
Item Changes
There aren’t really many worth highlighting. We feel like the changes to 
Khanda cost aren’t big enough to dissuade people from buying this item, while 
Silver Edge is still as niche as it was, even with an extra second of Break.
The only really interesting one is the 
Meteor Hammer. It had a noticeable advantage over other 
Kaya derivatives in terms of Mana regen and as a result it was built quite often on heroes like 
Storm Spirit. Without this edge, we feel like most players will revert back to the other options — 
Yasha and Kaya looks especially interesting.
Bloodthorn nerf is also a very welcome one and we feel like it should make 
Chaos Knight a lot more manageable. It is a sizeable decrease to CK’s potential burst damage and the hero already lost ~1.5% win rate since yesterday.
Hero changes
Most hero changes are pretty tame, with very few overreactions. Given how much more complex the game got over the last month we feel like it is a good thing. There is one change I personally don’t particularly enjoy, as it makes the hero pretty much unplayable at higher levels.
Dark Willow lost her ability to send Jex towards an ally and casting Bedlam effectively once again requires Mireska to be out of position. This already led to a whopping ~3% win rate loss across all brackets and pushed the hero below 50%. Coupled with the Bramble Maze nerfs, the hero is in a pretty bad spot right now.
Clockwerk’s Expanded Armature aspect should also feel slightly less oppressive, with longer cooldowns and lower mana burn at earlier levels. We feel like the hero is still very much viable, but is a lot less of a nuisance during the laning stage. His second aspect also looks better and better with every patch.
Pudge finally got his Flayer’s Hook aspect toned down slightly. The extra Meat Hook speed felt wrong and a bit too strong. Reacting to it was much harder and we saw some incredible plays during TI qualifiers, but some of them felt undeserved.
It is kind of sad to see the Clockwerk and 
Shadow Fiend combo gone, but it was one of the changes deemed necessary and we kind of agree. Shadow Fiend was way too strong and nerfs to the hero are more than welcome. Even if they remove a cool legacy interaction.
Another hero who got a long list of nerfs is 
Templar Assassin and, again, it is well deserved. Making every single layer of Refraction a Barrier with HP was a questionable decision, in my opinion. Much like Mega Meepo, it is a way to make the hero playable in otherwise impossible matchups, but it results in an identity erosion. Over time the cumulative effect of these types of changes could lead to heroes feeling a lot less unique. Pulling the idea back slightly, with much lower HP on Refraction Barriers is a very good move and a well placed nerf.
Tinker getting nerfs to Defense Matrix on top of 
Arcane Blink nerfs are also welcome. Not because the hero was particularly strong or oppressive in pubs, but simply because it is Tinker — possibly the most infuriating hero to play against in the history of the game. Moreover, the hero looked very good in some TI Qualifier games and the success getting replicated in pubs was only a matter of time.
Closing thoughts
Most of the changes in the patch were nerfs to overperforming heroes, which makes total sense, considering the meta of the Qualifiers. That said, there are some smaller buffs here and there worth exploring. We are particularly excited about 
Silencer maybe finding a niche in the game.
What are your thoughts on the patch and the current meta? Perhaps there is a hero you are excited to see buffed? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
WD out of the game, SK facet 1 back in the game
So support brained. Dark willow from 51% to 49% "pretty bad spot right now", Tinker from 46% to 41% "welcome"
Just lobotomise him into another indistinguishable hero like Techies - but we may as well add Arc Warden to that, and OD, and PL, and Brood, and Meepo, and Huskar... once we have 100 or so copies of 5 bland template heroes for each role, maybe then the game will be fun!
dota ResidentSleeper
I’d pick brood here
@fishcakes no disagreement on your assessment of me) Very much a support player and a Tinker hater. A very proud one.
Disagree with you exaggeration regarding Techies, Arc, Tinker, Huskar etc. becoming bland or heroes merging into templates. You can have well designed heroes who are unique, annoying and frustrating, but also feel fair. Previous version of Tinker wasn't it. I think the current design is a step in the right direction, as homing missiles from the treeline off-screen were largely non-interactive, unless you had a dedicated Tinker counter. Hard to control bans in Pubs as well.
New Tinker is as unique as the old one and pre-nerf he was possibly even stronger than the old one, it just took players a while to figure it out and only the best managed to get it there, mostly in TI qualifiers, where the hero looked downright broken.
I think TA getting barrier HP on refraction is closer to what you are referring to as "lobotomisation", where a hero gets their weakness covered up in a very inelegant manner. When there are less pronounced weaknesses for the hero, yeah, the game gets less deep. Same with Mega Meepo. Has nothing to do with win rate, both TA and Meepo only got stronger because of their "lobotomisation" and Tinker, arguably, also only got stronger on 7.36 release.
In that sense, yeah, I agree with you. Refraction shouldn't have HP and Mega Meepo shouldn't be a thing. Similarly, Tinker shouldn't have a strong dispel on Matrix AND a ~40s cooldown BKB to use right after, as, once again, this covers his main weakness — getting caught. The heroes were very much stripped of their main weakness to exploit from a support position, making them feel a lot more generic hence Tinker getting this nerf is "welcome".
I think the ones responsible for balancing should be fired immediately, and at best deemed to homeless wandering around the streets.
I cant believe they didnt touch Phoenix, AOE damage still strong
I cant believe they didn't touch Phoenix, AOE damage still strong
I cant believe they didn't touch Phoenix, AOE damage still strong
I cannot see why the nerf pudge? He is banned or picked and ban every game…no chance to pick him and play with it
Sf max no. of souls should scale with one of his basic abilities so that he doesn’t become broken af after like more than 5 creep waves, now he hits and nukes u too damn hard and makes the mid lane matchup too difficult
idk why they touch willow atm
Dude how can you be happy with this patch? Low winrate heroes nerfed, yet arc warden that has 55% win in every rank untouched... Very fair
Just gonna let y'all know sange & Kaya now increases Medusa's EHP from mana by 33%