Hey, what is up guys, it’s Librarian Husky, and today we got gameplay update 7.35D. On top of that, we have this new feature where you get to ban four heroes before the match even starts, and one of them is guaranteed to get banned.

Introduction to the Gameplay Update

What I think I’m going to do is I’m just going to be banning carries. I’m an offlane player, and so I’m just going to completely target some of the carries that I just don’t like playing against.

I think in this new patch with the Helm of the Dominator change, which we’ll get into in a bit, some of the unit heroes are going to be good. Banning out heroes like Sven, Naga Siren, and then I think my last one will be Terrorblade. Maybe I’ll just do Batrider; we’ll do Bat, we’ll switch it up a little bit, and those will be my four bans.

Deep Dive into Patch 7.35D

Alright, let’s get into patch 7.35D. This is just a letter patch, but it’s still a pretty big patch nonetheless.

First thing first, we have BKB is 5 seconds worse in terms of cooldown. I don’t think this means that you shouldn’t buy BKB; you definitely still should buy BKB.

One of the biggest nerfs to the patch was to Rapier. The item now gives, instead of 350 damage, 100 damage. It no longer provides 25% spell amp by default, and you have to toggle it between either getting 250 damage or 25% spell amp, which is frankly just terrible. I don’t know if the win rate of Rapier was really broken or something. Maybe they felt the item was just too strong. I didn’t see a lot of Rapiers in my games personally. I don’t get why they would absolutely destroy the item in terms of its effectiveness. It’s way worse now, so be less enthused to buy Rapier, I guess.

Scotty is slightly better. I don’t think it’s a big deal. Here’s one of the big changes of the patch: Helm of the Dominator now grants the cast for the bonus goal.

Helm of the Dominator Changes

Of the dominated creep, and this is just nice, right? It’s a really big quality of life change for Lycan and Beastmaster. These heroes that are just not too popular right now are going to shoot back up in the meta for reasons like this. Let’s say you’re just farming with Helm, and keep in mind Helm of the Dominator is only a 45-second cooldown now. People are going to compare this, I know immediately people are going to be like, “This item is Midas.” It’s not Midas.

Okay, is this item very good now? Like way better than it used to be? Yes. Is this item definitely going to shoot into the meta, in my opinion? Yes. The unit heroes, this is huge. Is it broken? I don’t think it’s broken. Don’t quote me on that. I’m not 100% sure, but what I will say is it’s not like Midas because you don’t get the XP. It grants the caster the gold bounty of the nominated creep. If you got the XP, completely really stupid strong, right? Even supports would likely buy because it’s just gold. Yes, still insanely good, not broken. That is what I’ll say about the item. It’s going to be massive. This change is massive.

However, it does mean that you have to switch creep and creep and creep a lot of the time. You just want to keep the same creep; now you got to switch to switch. I think you should do that, but like especially when you get Helm 2, you don’t really want to switch switch switch. You usually get the dragon, or you get like the golem, and you’re like, “Alright, I’m chilling.” So it’s a bit weird, but definitely with Helm 1, you’re going to be spamming this off cooldown.

Item Adjustments in the Update

Next up, Maelstrom got a 5% nerf in terms of its proc chance, which definitely is significant. I still think the item is going to be good on the heroes that like it but definitely worse.

Stick is 4 seconds cooldown worse, Magic Wand 2 seconds cooldown worse. I don’t think this will play a massive part. I don’t really see this ever being much of a problem. Occasionally comes into play, but generally not a big deal. I would not stray away from these items.

Manta 4 seconds cooldown worse. What I’d say here is this furthers the gap between S&Y and Manta. I’m a big fan of Sange and Yasha because a lot of the heroes that buy Manta also have the option to buy S&Y, and S&Y is a great item right now, and they’ve nerfed Manta now by 4 seconds cooldown on the Manta. And yeah, that matters quite a bit. It does hurt the heroes that like to buy this item quite a bit, slows down their efficiency, it slows down their ability to farm, it slows down their ability to dodge stuff. It’s definitely worse.

Talisman, a super unpopular item, got a slight buff to the mana regen, but it’s good, you know? Mana regen is not easy to come by usually, so it’s nice, but I don’t think it makes the item super popular or anything.

Oblivion Staff and Orchid Adjustments

I can’t imagine it; it just will shoot into the meta now. Oblivion Staff, a little bit worse on that note, Orchid, which builds from Oblivion Staff, a little bit worse in terms of the mana regen, a little bit worse in terms of the intelligence, and it costs more mana. So, trying to make Orchid not such a good mana item.

I think Orchid is still very good in the current meta. Yeah, I think the buildup is still incredible, even though they did nerf part of the buildup. The buildup is still incredible, you know, it just builds from these two really great items, Oblivion Staff and Cornucopia. It’s just super solid for a lot of heroes, and then a cheap recipe, you know what I mean? It’s just a good item, so if you were buying it in the past, I wouldn’t really shy away from it now.

Intelligence Item Nerfs

Perasma’s intelligence damage has decreased by 25%, a major nerf to Perasma. This is obviously a targeted nerf at the preeminent level, Puck I would primarily say. It also hurts QoP and Storm in particular, but it was mainly targeted at Puck, I’m pretty certain. One of the weirdest nerfs of the patch, in my opinion, and I actually dislike it. I personally don’t understand it, like, I really don’t understand it.

Phantom’s Province and Shadow Blade Changes

Phantom’s Province, which is Revenant BR’s active, can no longer apply crits. So, PA would buy this item so she could kill high armor heroes, but now you just can’t buy it on PA because you just can’t crit when it’s turned on. Like, why? This item was not broken. It was cool that it was finally good for a bit, you know, it’s a cool item that you could buy, and now you just can’t buy it. Either the win rate must have been insane for them to do this, ’cause I would imagine that’s why they did this, but just weird to me.

Shadow Blade, 3 seconds longer the duration of the active, it’s nice. I don’t think it makes the item broken, but it’s definitely good, right? Just helps you get around the map. The main thing about Shadow Blade is that it makes you move 20% faster, so it would end, like a lot of the time, you just run out of duration. When I would buy the item, it’d be like, “Wow, this does end a bit short,” and so this change is actually really nice for Silver Edge and for Shadow Blade.

Neutral Item Changes

Now we have some neutral item changes, not a lot, but a few. Royal Jelly, a little bit worse. So this is a buff to, you know, items like the bubble. This is a buff to Seeds of Serenity. This is a buff to a lot of the other regen items because, oh, I’m sorry, they didn’t, oh no, it’s not because the restoration duration is shorter, but it gives more HP regen and more mana regen, and it seems to come out to about the same.

So, alright, so the item’s probably about the same. Grove Bow attack range bonus decreased from 100 to 75. I still think if it’s a hero that really benefits from this item, you should absolutely take it. Grove, in my opinion, even with this nerf, I do believe Grove Bow needed a nerf for being a tier 2 neutral item.

Item and Hero Changes

I still think you should hate it, Light Collector, one of my favorite items in the game. A lot of you guys probably know that I’m a fiend for movement speed. Half the movement speed now, however, if you’re close to trees, the mana bonus reduction, oh, I’m sorry, no, it’s worse now. The bonus reduction when near trees increased from 50% to 75%. That’s the reduction. This item is way worse.

Can you take it? It was so far above and beyond the other items, like if I saw Light Collector on any hero, I just take it. So, I get why they nerfed it. I don’t know, do you even take it now? It’s so much worse. 5% movement speed is not terrible. I’m going to have to get back to you guys on that one. I’m honestly not sure. This is a huge nerf; it’s like literally okay.

D Bloon Adjustments

D Bloon, this item, when in M mode, gives mana regen, now it gives 50% more, same thing for the HP regen, which is nice. This item was gigon popular; it was very situational on like super specific heroes, and it was just hard to use. So, I mean, it gives a lot of mana regen now, but it’s tier three, so it’s okay. It gives a lot of mana regen. Like, I’ll give this item that. It’s a decent regen item, but then you compare it to old Light Collector, and you’re like, wow, this is a tier three neutral item, it’s trash.

Neutral Creep and Hero Adjustments

Neutral creep changes: stacking gives 5% less XP. I still highly recommend stacking. I’ve been talking about how broken I think stacking is, and yes, this is a nerf, but at the end of the day, I don’t think it makes stacking that much worse, and I would still highly suggest stacking when you get the chance.

Okay, gold bounty and mud golems three less, that’s not the mini golems, it’s just the big ones, so make sure you kill the small ones. Gold bounty decreased on the Satyr Mindstealer by two, must be like the total gold stat on these camps or something. I couldn’t exactly tell you, this whatever.

Specific Hero Changes

AA mana cost decreased on Cold Feet at all levels, so level one Cold Feet for trading is better. It’s nice, and typically you leave this at a value point until you get the W maxed out, so it definitely helps AA’s mana problems, which he does have. Arc Warden lost 50 HP on his level 10 talent, and they nerfed his level 20 talent, which is one of his most important talents, from 8 seconds to 7 seconds.

Still probably a good hero if you spam it. Flame Break on Bat Rider, instead of doing 10 damage per second, does 25 at level one, so it does 50 damage in two procs. Okay, I see what they did, so basically Bat Rider Flame Break does the same damage now but in fewer instances until you get to max level; at max level, it does five instances at level one.

Adjustments to Flame Break and Bloodseeker

It only does two, and this nerfs the value point of Flame Break. So now, it’s basically saying if you don’t max Flame Break, then it’s not nearly as good with max Sticky Napalm. So, you kind of need max Flame Break and max Sticky Napalm. Definitely do not take your level 10 talent if you play this hero. They also nerfed the 15 talent. Movement speed’s good, man. I think you can take either 15 talent; they’re pretty equivalent in terms of power, in my opinion.

Beast Master and Bloodseeker Enhancements

Inner Beast on Beastmaster, so he got the big Helm buffs, and he got a direct buff, not by some crazy amount, in Beast bonus attack speed. It’s six more max, not going to change the game, but you know, they buffed Helm, they buffed the ability that buffs Helm, it’s going to be good. He’s going to get a big increase in win rate due to these. Bloodseeker base agility increased by two, that’s pretty nice. It’s damage, and self-healing is now classified as lifesteal and is amplified by lifesteal amplification. So, this is obviously saying, “Hey, Bloodseeker, buy Sange and Yasha, this item is insanely good on Bloodseeker now.”

Centaur and Chaos Knight Adjustments

I remember when Hoof Stomp did 100 damage at level one, now it does 70, it’s 20 less at all levels. I was already not a fan of Centaur. I mean, the hero’s win rate’s good, so I feel like playing Centaur, I don’t think these changes kill the hero but 20 less damage on the stun, and the 10 regen is one worse. Chaos Knight chaos increased on Reality Rift by 50 at all levels, which is actually quite nice, and his creep damage multiplier was increased by 10%, helping him farm faster. So, nice changes overall. I don’t think this hero is terrible, and it got buffed in the previous patch as well. The W is way better now.

Chen, Clockwerk, and Crystal Maiden Changes

Chen, overall nerf to Penance and Divine Favor, but nothing crazy. I guess it’s six less armor on Divine Favor at max level, which is pretty damn significant, but I still think if you’re a Chen spammer, you can just spam the hero, it’s fine. Power Cogs now, 50% of mana burn is added to the damage, which at level one is 50, so you get 25 damage.

I mean, hey, that’s nice, right? And at max level, you’re getting an extra 70 damage. Sure, you know, it’s good damage at level one, nice extra, extra 25 damage. It can matter; it can be the difference. Crystal Maiden, no, my CM, no, Crystal Clone, my favorite shard in the game, mana cost increase from 50 to 150. It was a bit crazy, now basically, this is saying that you have to max, so I would recommend you.

Crystal Maiden Shard Strategy

If you want to still buy the Shard, which I still honestly would recommend, it is advisable to buy clarities and take two points in your Q so it kills the clone, as that’s the breakpoint. Then, max your E, don’t max Q, max E. So, 2-4-4 should be the build.

Dark Willow and Disruptor Updates

Dark Willow’s roaming duration on Bedlam is extended by an extra 0.5 seconds. Sure, that’s an extra 140 damage. This is going to make a difference in a lot of scenarios, so it’s actually a nice size buff. Disruptor’s slow regeneration on Thunderstrike is now 4 flat, so it went from 4 seconds of slow to 1.6 seconds of slow at level one, making this ability a way better trading ability in terms of its ability to kite, chase, or disengage. A nice size buff to Disruptor, and I actually think this hero doesn’t get as much credit as it deserves. It’s a decent hero.

Dragon Knight Changes

Dragon Knight, this was a huge nerf. Illusions no longer apply dragon on-hit effects if they have reverted back from melee form. So basically, if they reverted back to melee form, they would still get the AOE slow, AOE damage, and AOE splash damage, even if they reverted to melee. So, you could cast them moments right before your ulti reverted, and it would still work. Now you can’t do that.

Corrosive breath debuff duration decreased from 5 to three, which is a huge nerf because this does damage to heroes. This was a part of your farming tool; this is how you largely split push, this is how you take towers. So, that sucks, and they nerfed his very strong 15 talent.

Drow Ranger Buff

Drow, another buff. This hero’s getting buffed and buffed and buffed. Another buff, a huge buff at that. Multi-shot cooldown, instead of 18 seconds at max, is 15. This is her fighting spell, her farming spell. You know, talk about like massive changes, similar to the corrosive breath duration, you know, this is huge. 3 seconds better on Multi-shot. However, they nerfed the 15 talent to compensate, but obviously, you would take that trade any day because it also gives you the option to take 20% lifesteal at 15. I don’t think you do that. I still think you take Multi-shot cooldown; it’s just too good but still.

Significant Updates in Gameplay

Big buff to Drow overall, really helps the hero. Rolling Boulder on Earth Spirit does 60 damage instead of 30 now. Okay, it’s nice. Fire Remnant on Ember Spirit gets a 3-second cooldown, which is nice because that’s potentially 9 seconds cooldown if you have max charges going, so that’s pretty nice. Time Dilation nerfed again, slow per cooldown decreased from 10% to 7,8,9,10. Mana cost from 60,70,80,90 to 75,80,85,90.

Guys, they nerfed level one Time Dilation again, and I still see Faceless Void players leaving Time Dilation at level one and taking stats. If I see any of you doing that, I will come to your house, rip down the door, literally destroy your computer. You don’t deserve to have a computer, okay, or whatever you’re playing DOTA on, your Steam… What, how can you play on the Steam, the Steam guard, what is it called, Steam Pro? You know what I’m talking about. I’ll destroy it. Max Time Dilation, please, and take the Time Dilation talents.

Minor Adjustments Across Heroes

Hoodwink, they nerfed the 10 Talent a bit, whatever. Kunkka, they slightly nerfed the 15 Talent, whatever. Leshrac, they slightly nerfed the 20 Talent, whatever. Frost Shield does less damage at level one but more at max. Chain Frost can now select the Ice Fire as the initial target. Oh, that’s interesting; that’s probably useful in some cases. That actually probably is very useful because you can chuck it at the Ice SP so you can stay in position.

Lifestealer’s Modifications

Rage Lifestealer, damn, he just came into the meta and down he goes. Movement speed at level one, well, at all levels, he got 3% less movement speed. Yes, that hurts. Aghanim Scepter cast range bonus decreased from 350 to 250, so that’s on his Infest, that’s on his old, which was really annoying. Open Wounds cast range from 800 to 600. Okay, I mean, yeah, it’s annoying because Open Wounds cast range was really high, and it was really nice. Movement speed on Rage was really high and really nice. The Aghs, I mean, it is good.

I don’t think people buy it every game, people buy in a lot of games. A is really good, don’t get me wrong, it’s like insane, actually. I think it works through BKB/span>, like it can disarm BKB/span> carries, at least that’s what it looked like when I played against it. Yeah, pretty rough, honestly. I still think the hero’s probably pretty good because they didn’t touch Radiance, and they didn’t touch Sange, so probably still good, honestly, overall.

Mars and Ultimate Cooldown Adjustment

Mars, I hate this hero. I like it, but I hate it. I just, I don’t know, it’s like so odd and clunky. I’ve been practicing the mechanics, but it still is just a weird-ass hero. Okay, they nerfed the ulti basically, the cooldown 10 seconds to level one, five at two, is the same at max, and they nerfed his broken 15 talent, but by 1 second. So, alright.

Mars and Medusa Adjustments

If you’re a Mars player, you probably still pick it, but you know, nerfs overall because a big part of this hero is that it used to have, I mean, I think Arena of Blood used to be like a 60 or a 70-second cooldown back in the day, now it’s 100. So, okay, they nerfed Medusa’s OP 15 talent by 2%, not the end of the world, but a nerf nonetheless. The Mystic Snake talent, no joke.

Minor Changes to Heroes

Mirana got five less movement speed. Level 10 talent, Rip, high damage decreased from 25 to 20. An AA, not going to kill the hero. They buffed Necro’s both of Necrophos’ 10 talents, okay, it doesn’t seem like anything crazy, but it’s nice. And this 15 talent, but nothing crazy.

Pangolier and Onslaught Modifications

Swashbuckle count decreased from 4 to three. So, what this does is, it’s a primary nerf to Diffusal, right? Because the nice thing is this item pairs well with like Maelstrom, but most importantly, Diffusal. And so, with fewer strikes, you proc Diffusal less. It doesn’t seem like it does less damage; it definitely does less damage at level one. But as you get back to max, it still seems like it’s about the same damage.

Yeah, probably about the same damage at max, but it’s going to proc your Diffusal less, which definitely sucks. And yeah, as I said, it’s just straight up worse at level one by 10 damage. So yeah, another nerf to Pango, and yet, he’ll still be in the meta at the pro level. In pubs, probably don’t pick this hero, it’s like too hard.

Updates to Puck and Shadow Fiend

Onslaught damage decreased. Wow, Primal Beast getting targeted. They nerfed Onslaught damage at level one, two, and three. Agon Scepter damage per line, okay, and they nerfed this a bit. I don’t even think people bought that much, but it was powerful in the right games. Aghanim’s Shard no longer increases enemy search range by 200. This is for Puck on the Phase Shift Attack Shard. Aghanim’s Scepter attack speed decreased from 100% of Puck’s attack speed to 90%. All right, not the end of the world. I’m sure it’s still incredibly good, but you know, I still think Puck’s a very good hero if you’re good at it.

Shadow Fiend gained six base damage, but he lost strength gain. Six base damage, Shadow Fiend got six base damage, what the damn, that’s crazy. Mana cost on Shadowraze is now 75 at all levels instead of 75,80,85,90. So that’s really nice for the high level of Shadowraze when you’re spamming razes. Really going to help you save a lot of mana. So, big buff to Shadow Fiend, pretty damn nice.

Hero Adjustments Overview

I never see this hero. I feel like it’s pretty bad, but I can’t imagine this really will put it in the meta, but eh, maybe in pubs, it’s fine. It’s an okay hero; it can dominate the line.

Silencer, this is a pretty cool change. The intelligence steal on Glaives was 1,1,2,3, now it’s 1,2,3,4. So, it’s the same at level one but is obviously double as good at level two, which is significant. At level three, you get extra intelligence steal, and at level four, you get an extra intelligence steal. So, much better honestly. I mean, it adds up really quick. Big buff to Silencer, especially as a core.

As a support, not a lot better, but I don’t know, core Silencer? Cool. I don’t think it’s very good at a high level because it’s very slow, it’s very gankable, doesn’t push out waves quickly, like it has a lot of flaws as people get good, but I think at a low level or like average pubs, it’s pretty damn strong. Like, you go Pike, Witchblade, I guess they nerf the Witchblade, but yeah, like, you probably still just go Pike, Witchblade.

Additional Hero Changes

Snapfire, attack slow, movement speed slow, slow duration are increased by 50% at point-blank range. So if you hit them with the point-blank Scatterblast, it gets 50% better. That’s kind of nice, and projectile speed on Snapfire’s Cookie is 100 better. Whatever, I don’t like this hero still. Sven lost a base armor, so making his laning worse. Sticky Bomb cooldown on Techies, three seconds cooldown worse at level one. So, just trying to nerf his laning stage, which makes sense because it’s the same at max but trying to nerf his laning stage makes sense, just a very strong laner, way too many sticky bombs, so hurts him a little bit.

Specific Hero Buffs and Nerfs

Templar Assassin actually getting a buff here. Meld damage bonus does 30 more damage at max, but it’s the same at level one, scales up.

Terrorblade Reflection, no, Terrorblade support, already no. They could have left it in the meta for a little bit longer. I mean, come on, it just got good. That’s why sometimes, I don’t know, I feel like Valve should target that. It just got good, like Terrorblade support is cool, and I don’t feel like it’s that broken, you know what I mean? Like, it’s just cool. I kind of like, I like playing with it, I don’t mind playing against it, it’s interesting. So, like, why instantly nerf it, you know what I mean? I don’t really get it. It’s like, maybe I’m biased because that’s just how I feel about it.

Lifestealer, I kind of like to see him get nerfed because I’m an offlaner, but even then, they could have left Lifestealer the same, and I’d be like, alright, sure, he kind of just gained popularity. I’ll figure out what are the counters. Like, I’ve been thinking about how to counter this hero. I just looked, literally just today, I looked at all the win rates against Lifestealer. It’s like, I don’t know, I kind of feel like instantly hitting the heroes that shoot up in popularity is a bit cringe, and they should just do more buffs and nerfs to the heroes around these heroes, you know, and give them a bit more time.

Timber and Tinker Adjustments

Okay, Timber Chain damage nerfed at all levels, wow, does 25 less at level one. Max stacks, so they nerfed. Oh, and they nerfed Reactive Armor, especially at level one, so making the value point of Reactive Armor quite a bit worse. You can get a whole less stack off from heroes, which hurts.

Tinker got two base armor, damn. Cast range on Defense Matrix, which is actually nice because his cast range was kind of mid at 650, is now 700, 750, 800, 850. 200 cast range better at max. Don’t make Tinker good, Valve, don’t do it. Spare us all. It’s miserable in every regard. When it’s on your team, you’re like, “Damn, my Tinker is still farming. He still had no impact. It’s 38 minutes into the game.

Surely he’ll carry me in 5 minutes.” And then when it’s against you, you’re like, “Damn, how did he dominate my mid? Why is he killing everyone?” I don’t like Tinker. I really don’t. Oh God, two armor. Does he need that much armor? Why does this hero have like terrible armor or something? Didn’t Tinker already have good armor?

Various Hero Changes

Tree Grab bonus damage from 20 to 14 at level one, so making his laning stage worse as a support, I guess. That’s every role, okay. They nerfed the max stacks bonus on Troll’s Shard Fervor by one. Interesting choice. Aghanim’s Scepter no longer slows enemy movement speed by 400. Aghanim’s Scepter now increases the radius by 100. Okay, I’ve never seen Underlord Aghs.

Like, bonus damage per creep increased on Atrophy Aura from 2, 4, 6, 8 to 3, 5, 7, 9. The big one is level one, and that’s a big deal because after a creep wave, you know, you’re getting an extra four damage, which is a lot early on. You know, it’s going to be the difference between getting a deny or a CS in a lot of cases, so it’s pretty nice.

Updates to Ursa, Void Spirit, and Weaver

Alchemist has a new 15 talent that slows by 30%. I think Aghanim’s Scepter is just better, so this probably just a nerf. Ursa’s slow resistance rescaled from 15, 20, 25, 30 to 10, 20, 30, 40. Probably about the same but better at max. Sure, I mean, I guess it’s a buff because you’d rather have slow resistance later on in most games. Damage on Dissimilate 20 better at all levels. I mean, sure, it’s good for securing the range creep. Gemini Attack on Weaver, five damage all levels.

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