The Dota 2 7.20 patch was released on the 19th of November and as expected, had a lot of changes. But many of the changes came in the form of ability reworks. A total of 36 heroes had reworked abilities and Sven, the Rogue Knight was one of them. Reading the initial parts of the patch, I had a good feeling about Sven as the armor mechanic was buffed with fewer armor points providing more physical resistance. Sven and Dragon Knight are the two (well, were the two) strength heroes that have armor naturally and it was one of the abilities that made Sven standup to a lot of bullies like Bristleback and trade blow for blow (or blow for Goo and Quill Sprays). But Warcry was changed to increase movement speed and provide a attack damage shield instead of armor, and even though initially it seemed enticing, it doesn’t really seem so on taking a closer look. Now, this might be a bit of an overreaction, but the inability to stand his ground and fight might signal the end of the Rogue Knight’s time as a safelane carry.

Sven has always been preferred as a position 1 hero in the professional scene. There are times when teams will pickup a support Sven (like Virtus Pro), but that’s not an everyday occurrence. However, after some good form in 7.06, Sven was nerfed until he was out of the game for the entirety of last season. Of the 4345 professional games played from the start of 7.07 to the end of 7.19, Sven was picked just 155 times and banned 111 times, which gives us a grand total of 266 games of contention in a year. The numbers are just awful and IceFrog hasn’t done the Rogue Knight justice in the recent 7.20 patch.

Sven’s win rate and pick rate in pubs in the last 30 days (source: dotabuff)

Since Dota 2 7.20 was released, Sven’s win rate and pick rate both have plunged. The win rate used to be above 50% before 7.20 and is now pretty much below the 50% mark. If we look only at the Divine and Immortal ranks, the pick rate is 2.09% and the win rate is 47.09%. It is, in a word, abysmal. In the one week after the release of the patch, 101 professional games have been recorded by datdota and what the data says is, Sven has been picked in 0 games and banned in, you guessed it, 0 games. So where did it all go wrong? Why is the Rogue Knight possibly worse than before? A comparison of the abilities might give us the answer.

Old Warcry:

Gave 5/10/15/20 armor to nearby allies (including creeps) for 8 seconds

Cooldown: 35/30/25/20

Warcry after the Dota 2 7.20 patch:

Sven’s Warcry heartens his allied heroes for battle, increasing their movement speed and provides them with an attack damage shield. Buff ends if the shield is consumed.

Effect Radius: 700

Move Speed Bonus: 8/12/16/20%

Attack Shield Health: 110/220/330/440

Duration: 10

Cooldown: 26/32/28/24

The old Warcry gave Sven tons of armor. The new Warcry does shield him from any kind of damage, but it is not the biggest of deals to get that off him. In addition to not having the bonus armor, one of Sven’s must have items (Mask of Madness, which also got nerfed with a decrease in 10 damage) has an active the reduces 8 armor.

Mask of Madness:

Gives 110 attack speed and 12% movement speed, but reduces your armor by 8 and silences you. Lasts 8 seconds.

Cooldown: 22

So not only does Sven have 20 less armor than before, he also gets 8 armor removed from whatever he has. Granted, he might be a bit less susceptible to the initial burst than before, but it still makes the 440 attack damage shield look lackluster. Let’s see what Sven and a worth adversary like Phantom Assassin have about 20 minutes into the game, considering both have been having decent games.



Typical inventory for a Sven about 20 minutes into the game

Typical inventory for a Phantom Assassin about 20 minutes into the game

To a lay man, it would probably seem Sven has the better of the stats (I’ve been a bit generous here and given him a couple of extra levels over PA). But in a battle between the two, Sven armor, which shows 11, will be reduced to -4 because of his own Mask of Madness and PA’s Desolator. That alone makes Sven take around 1.2 times the damage coming his way. PA has a damage output of 186 here. Two to three hits are all it will take for her to get rid of the Warcry attack damage shield. After that, it is time to slash down Sven and we haven’t even taken into consideration PA’s crits and evasion. If Sven still had the old Warcry ability, he would be standing with an armor of +16 even after the armor reductions which would give him a physical resistance of 50%. So every attack of PA which (186 damage) which now hits for 223 (because of the negative armor) would have hit for a meager 93 damage! PA would require about 2.5 times the number of attacks to kill of Sven, in which case he could either scurry to safety or retaliate and do some damage of his own. The armor chart below shows the difference in damage multiplier in the two scenarios. Positive armor now offers more resistance to physical damage, but at the same time, negative armor increases the damage amplification more than before. This just makes it worse.

The effective HP (EHP) in this case with the old Warcry is: 4944

The effective HP with the new Warcry is: 2912

The change to Warcry just does not make any sense.

Comparison of armor multipliers pre and post 7.20

Granted, not every hero is bound to have a Desolator. But nearly every carry has about 150-200 damage by that point in the game and getting the shield off isn’t the biggest of deals. Sven isn’t like a lot of other carries who can fight early. he needs his solitude until a few basic items can be farmed. The additional armor also helps a lot for sustain while farming in the jungle. That part though, could probably be accomplished by the attack damage shield as well. The meta is getting faster, and unlike games in 7.19, games in 7.20 are finishing around the 30 minute mark. In a fast meta, a hero that requires to farm for a while and can be easily killed off by the enemy carry or mid is never going to be popular. Sven might make it as a core in games where the team wins all three lanes and snowballs to victory, but it is hard to believe anyone can play the waiting game as Sven farms in the search of a better tomorrow. The gist of it is, no team will really consider the Rogue Knight as a viable carry anymore. We might have lost to the past, one of the hardest carries the world of Dota 2 has witnessed.

The only ray of sunshine in this warrior’s dark place is that the new Warcry makes him a better support. A 440 attack damage shield and 20% movement speed for the entire team can make a huge difference at the start of a fight. It is more effective with allies who already have high armor, as stacking up on already high armor does not increase EHP a lot. However, in a support role, two of his abilities, Great Cleave and God Strength do not have a lot of use. As the meta settles down, we might see a few position 4 or even position 3 Svens, but of all the abilities IceFrog changed in Dota 2 7.20, I hope he changes Warcry back to what it was.