If your mom or dad ever say Dota 2 is not helping you out in studies, just show them the patch notes for 7.11 and tell them how mathematically challenging it is. Heck, even your math teacher will be perplexed by those formulae. Here, we try to simplify the changes and see how they will potentially affect the game.

Buyback cost changed from 100 + (Level * Level * 1.5) + (Time * 0.25) to 100 + Networth / 13

This is a very good change for supports in general and losing teams in particular. For a support, even though the GPM and XPM (which indicates to level), the net worth is usually low as most of the money is spent in buying support items (in an ideal scenario, of course!) In such a case, it is pure criminal to make the hero pay out of his ass for a buyback. We’ve seen Virtus Pro’s Solo having a net worth as low as 2k very late into the game. Let us consider a scenario:

50 minutes into the game, a position 5 support is level 20 and has a net worth of 8000.

Old buyback cost = 100 + (20*20*1.5) + (3000*0.25) = 1450 gold

The only thing separating a core and support here is the level difference. Nothing to do with net worth. And of the 1450 gold for buyback, 750 comes from the time factor!

New buyback cost = 100 + 8000/13 = 715 gold

The new formula reduces the buyback cost substancially for supports and players not doing too well on the networth front. On the other hand, for someone escalating up the net worth ladder with 700 gpm, a death may result in the hero having to shell out a ton of money for buyback. Imagine what an Alchemist will have to spend! Consider another scenario:

30 minutes into the game, Alch is level 20 has a net worth of 26000

Old buyback cost: 100 + (20*20*1.5) + (1800*0.25) = 1150 gold

New buyback cost = 100 + 26000/13 = 2100 gold

The mechanic is great to put a halt on snowballing heroes, but you still need to kill them to draw out the buyback!

Buyback no longer reduces gold earned after respawning

Great change to help a team on the comeback trail.

Earlier scenario:

Your core has a lot of farm stacked up for a BKB but gets picked off. He has to buyback and you get the entire enemy team down, but now he doesn’t have the money thanks to the buyback penalty.

New scenario:

You clean up the enemy team, your core who had to buyback gets a Triple Kill and has his BKB ready for the next fight!

Again, all of this depends on getting the required kills. But yeah, if the buyback is made worth it, the net worth lost will be a lot lesser than the previous patches.

I remember an Admiral Bulldog pub game on his stream on which he was actually telling his team mates (who got caught out) to try to die to the opposition Sven who had bought back as he wouldn’t get too much gold because of the penalty. Gone are those days!

3) AoE gold for the losing team no longer scales with the overall team networth difference, just the individual networth of the dying hero. Previously, a core on your team doing really well meant that a support on your team dying gave an increasing amount of gold to the enemy.

– The comeback component is now just: (DyingHeroNetWorth * 0.026 + 70 ) / # of killers

This takes the place of the components below that considers Networth

For example in the 1 killer case, it replaces (NetWorthEarlyFactor * 90 + NetWorthFactor * 0.03375).

Like the previous formula, it is only given to the losing team.

4) The gold multiplier based on the dying hero’s net worth rank changed from 1.2/1.1/1.0/0.9/0.8 to 1.2/1.05/0.9/0.75/0.6

This has to be the most complicated Dota 2 change I have ever seen in my life. And I’ve seen quite a few changes. Again, to make it simpler, let us look at it from the point of view of a scenario.

You are playing Faceless Void and are the best carry on the server (has to be). Even though you are Divine 5, your team is full of Heralds (every game, right?) and aren’t playing well. Your team has a net worth deficit of 10000 gold. You are the highest net worth hero on your team and with your supreme skill (Chrono, MoM and right clicks), you manage to get a kill on an enemy hero. First case: The hero is Juggernaut with the highest net worth on the opposition. Second case: The hero is Lion with the least amount of net worth on the opposition.

Old Formula = 1 Killer: NetWorthPoorFactor * NetWorthRankingFactor * (126 + 4.5 * VictimLevel + NetWorthEarlyFactor * 90 + NetWorthFactor * 0.03375)

New Formula = 1 Killer: NetWorthPoorFactor * NetWorthRankingFactor * (126 + 4.5 * VictimLevel + DyingHeroNetWorth * 0.026 + 70)

Net Worth Difference = 10k

Net Worth Early Factor = (Enemy Net Worth – Allied Net Worth)/4000 = 10000/4000 = 2.5

But the maximum value of this factor can be 1

Hence, Net Worth Early Factor = 1

Case 1: Hero killed is Juggernaut

Enemy Juggernaut Net Worth = 20k

Enemy Juggernaut Level = 20

Net Worth Poor Factor = 1.3-0.1*NetWorthRank = 1.3-0.1*1 = 1.2

Net Worth Ranking Factor = 1/1.25 = 0.8

Net Worth Factor = Net Worth Early Factor*Victim Net Worth = 1*20000 = 20000

Old Formula

Gold = 1.2*0.8*(126 + 4.5*20 + 1*90 + 20000*0.03375) = 942 gold

New Formula

Gold = 1.2*0.8*(126 + 4.5*20 + 20000*0.026 + 70) = 774 gold (17.83 % decrease in gold)

There is a decrease in the gold earned, but the decrease is comparatively modest, although it does hurt.

Case 2: Hero killed is Lion

Enemy Lion Net Worth = 5 k

Enemy Lion Level = 15

Net Worth Poor Factor = 1.3-0.1*NetWorthRank = 1.3-0.1*5 = 0.8

Net Worth Ranking Factor = 1/1.25 = 0.8

Net Worth Factor = Net Worth Early Factor*Victim Net Worth = 1*5000 = 5000

Old Formula

Gold = 0.8*0.8*(126 + 4.5*15 + 1*90 + 5000*0.03375) = 304 gold

New Formula

Gold = 0.6*0.8*(126 + 4.5*15 + 5000*0.026 + 70) = 167 gold (45.07 % decrease in gold)

There is a massive decrease percentage wise in the bounty if the hero killed is the least net worth hero. A lot of it is also because the 0.8 factor at the start has been reduced to 0.6, so it applies not just to the losing team, but the winning team as well. I remember a caster saying that Solo has such a low net worth towards the end (and yet he’s so effective) that killing him feels like killing a creep with skills. You don’t even feel good about it. And that feeling is going to get even worse!

A few remarks about these mechanics:

1) The higher the net worth of a hero, the more gold you get.

2) The higher the level of a hero, the more gold you get.

3) Difference in net worth of teams no longer makes a difference in the bounty.

4) The worse your net worth rank on your team, the more gold you get as compares to the highest net worth hero on your team.

5) The comeback component applies to only the team behind in net worth. As it no longer depends on net worth difference, even with a small deficit, a team can earn a lot of gold by winning a team fight and might lead to back and forth fluctuations in the net worth lead.

This last point, for me, is the biggest thing to take away from this new patch.

6) The victim net worth has a multiplier of 0.026 in the comeback component. In the old formula, up to three people ganking had a multiplier of 0.03375. Four heroes ganking had a multiplier of 0.027 while a five man gank had a multiplier of 0.02025. Which means the current multiplier, 0.026 is higher only for five man ganks. In simple words, if you gank as five while behind and get a kill, you will earn more as a team than before! In most other scenarios, there is a possibility of getting less gold. So group up, get a goddamn smoke and start the quest for that important kill!

There are a lot of ways to look at these changes and I will be going into greater detail to study in what scenarios these changes are better and in which ones are they worse. As for now, I believe 7.11 is giving losing teams a better chance to make a comeback. How it turns out, we’ll find out soon enough!