Valve has released Dota 2 patch 7.41f, the game’s first update since The International 15. Esports.gg reported that the patch mostly adjusts item costs and weakens a number of widely played heroes, with Invoker and Bounty Hunter taking some of the heaviest cuts.
The update is smaller than the patches before it, and Esports.gg said its changes appear aimed at reducing the advantages held by the most popular heroes and drawing off-meta picks back into games. A handful of heroes were buffed, mostly through minor stat increases.
Bounty Hunter’s Track now gives significantly less bonus gold to him and his teammates, and the ability’s shared vision effect moved from the level 20 talent to the level 25 talent, delaying access to its full utility. Invoker’s Ghost Walk Shard upgrade no longer damages non-hero units, closing off the split-pushing and flash-farming use that had made it common in ranked games.
Anti-Mage and Ursa were the clearest winners. Anti-Mage’s Mana Break deals more damage, which Esports.gg said improves his laning against ability-reliant supports, while Ursa’s innate Maul now increases his damage by 1.75% of his current health — a figure that scales further with Enrage and his level 15 talent.
Item and neutral item changes
Most of the item changes raise recipe costs, which Esports.gg said could push core heroes to spend longer farming and to prioritise items that speed farming up, such as Mjollnir, Battle Fury and Hand of Midas.
- Daedalus: recipe cost up from 900 to 1000, raising the total from 5100g to 5200g
- Dragon Lance: recipe cost up from 450 to 550, raising the total from 1900g to 2000g
- Heart of Tarrasque: recipe cost up from 700 to 800, raising the total from 5200g to 5300g
- Octarine Core: recipe cost up from 200 to 400, raising the total from 4900g to 5100g
- Heaven’s Halberd: recipe cost down from 450 to 350, lowering the total from 3400g to 3300g
- Satanic: lifesteal down from 30% to 25%, creep lifesteal from 18% to 15%
- Mask of Madness: lifesteal down from 24% to 22%, creep lifesteal from 14.4% to 13.2%
- Manta Style: ranged Mirror Image damage down from 28% to 25%
- Shiva’s Guard: Arctic Blast damage down from 260 to 225
- Silver Edge: Shadow Walk cooldown up from 22s to 23s, bonus movement speed down from 22% to 20%
- Mjollnir: Static Charge duration down from 15s to 12s
- Battle Fury: Chop Tree cooldown down from 4s to 3s
- Infused Raindrops: mana regeneration down from +0.8 to +0.6
- Essence Distiller: mana regeneration down from +1.75 to +1.5
Hurricane Pike’s total cost rose from 4450g to 4550g as a knock-on from the Dragon Lance increase, and Hydra’s Breath had its recipe cost cut from 1100 to 1000 but stayed at 5900g for the same reason. On the neutral side, Greedy Enchantment’s attack damage penalty increased from 30/60 to 35/70.