Dota 2 Patch 7.19c – More nerfs, more drama

On September 14th, Valve released another patch designed to nerf some of the most played and somewhat overpowered heroes in the game. And to some degree they’ve done a good job, although like many others, I tend to view a hero as being OP not because of its base attributes or other small characteristics, but because of its overall fighting mechanism. The combination of its abilities, the items it tends to build, the role it fulfills in a lineup, the timings it can achieve and the ease with which it can snowball and win a match almost on its own.

Because of these things, I fail to see how a tiny nerf to one of a hero’s attributes will change anything. Or how reducing the duration of a broken ability from 7 seconds to 6 seconds will actually translate into a palpable advantage for the opposite team. These things, while being nerfs from a mathematical perspective, will rarely constitute impediments for a player who’s experienced at playing a certain hero.

If you’re a god with Enchantress, having a slightly lower base movement speed will not mean much to you. If you’re Suma1L on Storm Spirit, having your Static Remnant deal 20 less damage is not that big of a deal. Of course, you won’t be pleased and you might even feel it from time to time, when an enemy gets away with 10 HP. But in general, you won’t care. You’ll pick the hero and win with it just as often as you did before.

Patch 7.19c nerfed around 16 heroes. Some suffered multiple significant nerfs while others just one or two. Here are the key victims chosen by IceFrog and punished in the virtual applause of the angry Dota 2 mob.

Key heroes that got nerfed in patch 7.19c

Clinkz

Critical nerfs:

Base strength reduced by 2

Searing Arrows manacost increased from 10 to 12

Earthshaker

Critical nerfs:

Root now disables his Scepter ability

Enchantress

Critical nerfs:

Strength rescaled from 19 + 1.3 to 16 + 1.5

Base movement speed reduced from 325 to 320

Base intelligence reduced by 2

Grimstroke

Critical nerfs:

Ink Swell no longer makes the target immune to attacks

Ink Swell no longer silences and disarms the target

Soulbind duration increased from 4/6/8 to 6/8/10

Phoenix

Critical nerfs:

Level 15 Talent reduced from +50 Fire Spirits DPS to +40

Silencer

Critical nerfs:

Last Word damage rescaled from 150/200/250/300 to 120/180/240/300

Arcane Curse manacost increased from 105/115/125/135 to 125/130/135/140

Global Silence manacost increased from 250/375/500 to 300/450/600

Spectre

Critical nerfs:

Dispersion rescaled from 10/14/18/22% to 7/12/17/22%

Haunt manacost increased from 150 to 150/200/250

Ursa

Critical nerfs:

Fury Swipes damage per attack reduced from 15/20/25/30 to 12/18/24/30

Earthshock damage reduced from 90/140/190/240 to 50/100/150/200

Enrage damage multiplier rescaled from 1.5/1.75/2.0 to 1.4/1.7/2.0

Weaver

Critical nerfs:

Base intelligence reduced by 2

The Swarm cooldown increased from 35/30/25/20 to 44/36/28/20

Time Lapse cooldown increased from 60/50/40 to 70/55/40

Wraith King

Critical nerfs: