Dota2 released its meta-shifting 6.79 patch last Monday, one of the biggest patches the Dota2 community has received in the games history. These massive changes have left countless gamers scratching their heads on how they should be pulling camps, timing buybacks, and playing the new meta. So instead of looking at a giant list of patch notes, lets take a look at raw statistics and results to find which heroes have been helped the most by 6.79.

First let's take a look at the best win rates of heroes prior to 6.79, these statistics are from 6.78c. Right click and select view image to see statistics clearly.

To the average Dota2 player, there is going to be some surprises. Warlock, Zeus, and Necrolyte all so high ranked? It is a bit odd but they are heroes who can take over games without many items. Now, let's take a look at the best win percentages of the 6.79 era.

With this information in hand, let's take a look at which heroes were the biggest winners of the 6.79 patch!

1. Death Prophet

6.79 Changes:

-Exorcism Spirit damage increased from 43-48 to 53-58﻿.

Death Prophet was pretty good before 6.79, her 52.41% win percentage was the 20th best in the game already. She could already take over games and single-handly win team fights and win base races against entire teams thanks to her ultimate. Now that her spirits have been buffed she's hitting just that much harder to be one of the games strongest heroes. Her weaknesses do remain though, as she's easy to focus down in team fights and is susceptible to early game ganks. Despite being one of the strongest heroes in the game, Death Prophet isn't seen very often in matchmaking, she sits at only 455,594 games played, right below Ogre Magi.

2. Lycanthrope

6.79 Changes:

- Armor increased by 1 (Shapeshift total armor is still the same as before)

- Base damage increased by 5

- Howl bonus damage for non-hero units increased from 4/8/12/16 to 5/10/15/20

- Wolves magic resistance increased from 50% to 80%﻿

﻿Once the most feared hero in the game, Lycanthrope is now not only pickable, but a strong midgame carry that can deal considerable damage. Lycan's 6.79 changes have made him a strong laner, as his base armor means he can stand up to harassment and because his wolves have an additional 30% magic resistance, Lycan can sustain in lane much better. Add on Lycan's extra five base damage and you have a hero that can do well in the lane, which means this is now a hero that can get his midgame items at a good time. Lycan's howl damage increase might just be one of the best minor buffs in the entire patch. With an emphasis on Necronomicons, Lycan's ability to buff every non-hero unit's damage by 20 with Howl makes him one of the best carries of the emerging meta.

3. Venomancer

6.79 Changes:

- Poison Nova no longer ignores invis/fogged units

- Venomous Gale no longer ignores invis units

- Venomous Gale damage over time rebalanced from 15/30/45/60 to 0/30/60/90

- Poison Sting duration increased from 6/8/10/12 to 6/9/12/15

- Poison Sting dps no longer dispels healing or disables dagger

- Plague Wards now have Poison Sting for 50% of the damage at the current skilled level (When both Venomancer and a Plague Ward affect a target, only the highest dps is applied)

- Plague Wards XP bounty increased from 12/12/25/25 to 20/25/30/35﻿

Look at all those buffs! Now take a look back at the best win rates from 6.78 and you'll notice Venomancer already had the 26th highest win percentage. Sure a 51.66% win rate isn't amazing but when you add all those buffs to a hero who's already winning, you end up with 4th highest win rate in game. It's hard to say just what Venomancer's role is right now. He was already a pretty good support in his own right but now with levels, Veno can put out a lot of damage and snowball quite hard. Veno in a solo mid role or in any 1v1 role is extremely good now. Only time will tell if he's able to make the transition from support hero to solo monster, but he's certainly one the winners of 6.79.

4. Disruptor

6.79 Changes:

- Kinetic Field AoE increased from 300 to 325

- Glimpse cooldown reduced from 60/50/40/30 to 65/50/35/20

- Static Storm AoE increased from 375 to 450

- Static Storm max damage increased from 170/220/270 to 200/250/300

- Added Aghanim's upgrade: Static Storm silences items, and lasts an extra 2 seconds

Once a hero that made you face palm everytime you saw your allies pick him, Disruptor is now a legitimate threat throughout the entire game. While it's still not easier to hit a well timed Glimpse, Disruptor's larger Kintetic Field makes it more forgiving to have a bad Glimpse while still getting crowd control in. The biggest change to Disruptor is his increased mid and late game presence. With major buffs to Static Storm and a very useful Aghanim's upgrade, Disruptor can keep entire teams locked down and unable to use BKB's, making him a powerful support later on in the game. Disruptor has went from a middle of the pack support hero with a 49.85% win percentage to being one of the best supports.

5. Lich

6.79 Changes:

- Frost Armor has half effect against ranged heroes

- Frost Armor slow now stacks with the slow from Frost Nova

- Sacrifice cooldown increased from 35/30/25/20 to 44/36/28/20

- Sacrifice mana gain increased from 15/30/45/60% to 25/40/55/70%

- Sacrifice no longer denies enemy XP

- Sacrifice now converts your own creep for XP (shared in AoE as normal creep xp bounty)﻿

As was the case with Veno, this is a good hero getting a lot better. Lich faced a major identity crisis before 6.79 and while he was a strong hero, it was nearly impossible to fit him into a lineup. Now Lich can do a lot, either as an offlaner or as a support, Lich can get levels much easier thanks to his Sacrifice change. That's really all there is, Lich's increased mana gain off Sacrifice is very nice as well and means extra harass from a hero that can provide a lot of laning phase damge with his Frost Blast. Lich is so good thanks to all those extra levels he's getting that competitive teams are first pick and first banning him every game and he's now got the highest win percentage in the game. How strong is he though?

Overall this patch has looked like a big buff for supports. More pushing, fighting, and more passive gold means more than brown boots and wards at 25 minutes. Expect to see different supports and look for an upcoming blog on what heroes have been hurt the most by 6.79.