Dota 7.22—General and Item Changes
The wait is finally over and the patch is here. Dota 7.22 is a massive patch and once again we will be dividing it into several separate blog posts, one focusing on the general and item changes, one discussing the hero changes and one fully dedicated to Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades.
General
- Added new Scepter upgrades for all of the 24 remaining heroes without an upgrade
- Scepter can now be consumed as a buff by purchasing a 2000 gold recipe upgrade. Scepter buffs do not grant secondary stat bonuses
- Roshan now drops a consumable Scepter buff item. The third Roshan will randomly drop either a consumable Scepter item or a Refresher Shard. The fourth Roshan has both. You can select Roshan to see his inventory and find out what items will drop
We will discuss new scepter upgrades in more detail in our discussion of the heroes, but it is interesting to see Valve going for an extra stalemate-breaker for the later stages of the game. Talents introduced new, interesting power spikes back in 7.00 and the new consumable Aghanim’s Sceptre has the potential to do the same.
Not all Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades are even decent, but in the later stages of the game there is now an extra outlet for gold. In most cases, though, players would still want to fill their inventory spaces with items first, before going for Moon Shard or Aghanim’s.
Consumable Scepter from Roshan is a massive support buff. Supports generally had little use for Aegis and Cheese, but both Shard and Scepter can fit them really well. Since the consumable Scepter can only come out from the third or fourth Roshan, core heroes should be mostly six-slotted by this point. Do not underestimate the straight-up power spike from Agh’s Disruptor or how situationally effective Agh’s Shadow Demon can be.
- Added Mars to Captains Mode
- Added Io to Captains Mode
It is surprising to see Mars getting more nerfs going into CM than Io. After the nerfs, Mars looks like he will be an adequate hero in the professional scene, possibly even on the tamer side of things. Io is going to be a 100% contest rate in every single tournament until the hero gets nerfed.
- Deny XP granted to the enemy (the player being denied) increased from 35% to 40%
- Death cost changed from 50 + NW/40 to NW/40
Slowly but surely we are getting back there with trialnes and solo offlaners. From how accurate Valve is with the Deny XP percentage, it looks like they are searching for this magical value, where 2-1-2, 1-1-3 and R-1-1-2 lane compositions are all equally viable at the same time. It is never going to be perfect or ideal, but the extra 5% is a step in the right direction.
- Killstreak XP bounty increased from 200->1250 to 400->1800
- XP requirement to reach level 5/6 reduced from 600/620 to 580/600
- XP required to reach level 19+ increased by 100 each level
- Ranged creeps XP now increases by 8 per upgrade cycle (every 7.5 minutes)
Ultimates are going to come a little bit earlier, while level 20 and 25 talents are going to come a little bit later. A couple of extra creeps per level isn’t going to make much of a difference in most circumstances, but it can result in sieges after taking a lane being more effective, since super creeps in lane award a lot less XP.
Theoretically it should increase the value of taking early set of barracks and make the strategy of having late game-oriented highground defenders, who are typically ok with losing an early lane slightly less viable.
- Siege creeps base attack time increased from 2.7 to 3
- Siege creeps now spawn two units at 35 minutes instead of 30 minutes
- Siege creeps can no longer be dominated, enchanted or converted
A huge change to early game tower-taking. Heroes like Dark Seer, Enigma, Lycan and Chen were often picked for these early Siege units and extra map control before the enemy could react properly. Now they will have to adapt with jungle creeps in their army. Overall, this change should lead to a slightly slower early and mid game and give both teams more time to get to implement their strategies.
- Tier 3+ towers damage increased from 152 damage to 175
- Tier 1 Tower Protection aura armor bonus increased from 2 to 3
- Tier 2+ Tower Protection aura armor bonus increased from 4 to 5
- Tier 2+ Towers now have a multishot attack when glyph is activated. Attacks up to two additional targets. Prioritizes the closest units.
Similar assessment—games should become slightly longer, defending objectives should be slightly easier and Ogre Magi with a glyphed tower can become a thing.
- Roshan: Base armor increased by 2
- Roshan: Attack damage per minute increased from 4 to 6
- Roshan: Last hit gold bounty range changed from 150-400 to 225-325 (average unchanged)
- Roshan: Last hit XP bounty reduced from 750 to 400
Roshan is now slightly tankier, hits a little harder and gives less XP as a reward, but given how third Roshan can now give a permanent upgrade to one of the heroes, it is fully understandable. It shouldn’t change much and should also make level one Roshan considerably less lucrative.
Items
Bloodstone
- Fixed multiple Bloodstones stacking the mana regen amplification effect
Drum of Endurance
- Mana regen reduced from 1.5 to 1.25
Eye of Skadi
- Slow duration changed from 5/2.5 for melee/range attackers to 3 seconds
- Slow amount reduced from 35% to 20% when used against melee heroes
- Slow amount increased from 35% to 45% when used against ranged heroes
- Attack speed slow now matches the movement slow values above
Eye of Skadi got considerably worse at dealing with melee attackers. 20% MS decrease is significant, but it won’t allow for continuous kiting against speedier melee targets. At the same time the item got a lot better for melee heroes, who get kited by ranged attackers with slow effects, pushed out with Hurricane Pike or rooted with Rod of Atos.
Guardian Greaves
- HP regen aura reduced from 4.5 to 3.5
- Threshold bonus armor reduced from 15 to 10
Losing five armor is massive and Greaves are not as amazing as they used to be, though they are still pretty good. It is still an item to build early on one of the utility cores, it is still more or less a necessary aura for both teams in the late game, it is just slightly worse at what it was doing.
Helm of the Dominator
- Now has a 300 gold recipe
With increased cost and no ability to dominate Siege creeps, HotD should become a lot more niche. We are still going to see it on heroes like Lycan and Dark Seer, but maybe not as the first item, at least not in every game.
Mask of Madness
- Movement speed bonus increased from 25 to 30
Mekansm
- HP regen aura reduced from 4.5 to 3.5
Observer Ward
- Cost decreased from 75 to 50
- Gold bounty increased from 100 + 2/min to 100 + 4/min
- XP bounty increased from 50 + 4/min to 50 + 6/min
Sentry Ward
- Cost decreased from 100 to 75
- Now have a stock limit (max limit of 10, starting capacity of 4, replenish rate of 70 seconds)
Vision game got both cheaper and more interesting. There is now no justification not to search for enemy wards and try and keep the vision as much as possible across the map, while looking for enemy wards.
Given how Sentries now have an extended range, we strongly advise to plant your wards either in Smoke or where you are absolutely sure the enemy has no vision of you. Dewarding is going to be very rewarding in the new patch.
Invisible heroes are also indirectly buffed by the limited Sentry stock, but 10 is still plenty and Dusts are sill unlimited, so it shouldn’t be that big of a problem. Though it can get frustrating against heroes who have ways of dispelling Dust or use invisibility primarily as an initiation tool.
Pipe of Insight
- HP regen aura reduced from 3 to 2
Rod of Atos
- Strength and Agility reduced from 12 to 10
Spirit Vessel
- Heal reduction reduced from 70% to 60%
- Current health as damage per second reduced from 5% to 4%
The item is now worse across the board, but to be fair it was excellent in certain games, while being good overall. It is now slightly less of a counter to heavy regen heroes, but is still a necessity and a game-changer against heroes like Alchemist and Morphling. It is just not as good as it was as a general purpose damage-dealing item.
Tome of Knowledge
- The initial 10 minute stock now provides 2 tomes.
- Now has a 5 minute use cooldown.
“Everyone should have their ultimate by minute 10” — IceFrog.
Vladmir's Offering
- Mana regen reduced from 1.75 to 1.5
Wraith Band
- Attack speed bonus reduced from 6 to 5
The single worst part of this patch is going to be people rushing Agh's on heroes that absolutely shouldn't be getting it, like Lycan or whatever.
F...first?
They change it but dota is still dota. Supps life easier, late game more interesting, dk back to meta, necro hc viable if u consume ur aghas and go mael, templar agha op, viper utility nerfed badly
Fhird!
none of the heroes that got ags actually want to build ags before most of their items lol
Rupture is GREAT again!
Yeah I already had some moron rush aghs on lycan, 4200 gold for absolutely zero impact. In fact, it just fed AM more.
So, I'm confused on the roshan scepter buff. Does this mean you get a free aghs? Or do you need to already have an aghs and it's just the 2k recipe? Honestly this patch isnt as huge as everyone makes it out to be.
So, I'm confused on the roshan scepter buff. Does this mean you get a free aghs? Or do you need to already have an aghs and it's just the 2k recipe? Honestly this patch isnt as huge as everyone makes it out to be.
Hes dropping the 2k recipe wich are needed to consume your already bought aghs.
er no... he drops the actual aghs upgrade (you get the aghs upgrade with no stats).
Alr tested it..
I picked it up and i got agha upgrade when I didnt have it initially
Wind is completely insane now.
She just received a buff worth of almost 4k gold - no need to go for aghs. As well, without a need to go for aghs you can actually get an item to skip the lvl 10 mana regen talent, go directly for orchid (which provides more damage, int and mana regen than talent+aghs did) and can have the talent for lower CD. It costs even less than aghs and there is actually upgrade into bloodthorn.
The only downside is in tankiness.
Generally talents offers endless 100% evasion and almost permastun - and if you get octarine, you have endless both with 15 sec CD on ulti.
I think that Morph should be removed from Captain's Mode for the time being until most of the bugs and broken interactions with his ulti are resolved. His new aghs as well as others are just gonna cause even more issues (e.g. with dark willow). Yes it's fun to watch in the pro scene but these issues which were evident in TI8 (not gaining stats while leveling in morphed hero form) and Disneyland Major finals (infinity stones when morph into ES) make the game seem less refined and unbalanced.
first pick mid then rush aghs everyone
broodmother agh is fking broken
Slowly but surely we are getting back there with trialnes and solo offlaners
Yes I too miss trialneses
Rupture is trash again actually
I'm thinking DP might be running under the radar right now, her new aghs gives her parts of other items she could never get fast enough before. There's possibly an argument for fast tracking it ahead of euls or atos, but the fact that it gives an INSANE level of combined lifesteal and damage output, it's hard to imagine not getting it somewhere within her build.
Ouch... the distant cap... yeah...
7.22b will be out soon.
People commenting “first” on this posts are annoying, like what are u guys trying to say ? Your grade ? Oh ooh new post imma let people now im in first grade