Six reworked Dota 2 heroes in patch 7.07

The Dueling Fates update, also known as patch 7.07, has brought several Halloweens worth of tricks and treats into Dota 2. Already, the patch includes two new heroes, a new game mode, a matchmaking overhaul and a release as soon as it was November first somewhere in the world. It’s also a pretty drastic gameplay patch, with a lot of new details to be weary of.

While there are plenty of visible gameplay changes for all players, a few heroes saw plenty of changes. Some are typical, but six of them have gone under such drastic changes that Valve has deemed them to be “reworked.” Plenty are mere ability shifts, but all are certainly differences that will change how the heroes are practically used.

We’ve summed up all of these official reworks so you can get a quick start back into enjoying playing your favorite heroes—or learn what new tricks to expect when you’re pitted against your new least-favorites.

Beastmaster

Wild Axes, the trademark long-distance damage-dealer of this hero was already a pretty spammable ability. Now, Icefrog has given players a reason to do so even more: damage-increase debuff stacks. Basically, every time you smack an enemy with Wild Axes, it increases the damage done by Beastmaster and his units. The ability has been given smaller cooldowns, lower mana and lower damage to compensate.

Meanwhile, Call of the Wild, which is the ability that summons neutrals, has been merged into a single ability, but with a few new perks. The summons scale with the level of the ability and are as follows:

• Level 1: Boar Level 1
• Level 2: Boar Level 2
• Level 3: Boar Level 3 + Hawk
• Level 4: Boar Level 4 + Hawk + Random Neutral

On one hand, the Hawk is no longer an invisible unit. On the other hand, the neutral is a nice addition to the squad. The random neutral summoned, according to Valve, will be an Alpha Wolf, Hellbear Smasher, Satyr Tormenter, Centaur Conqueror or Dark Troll Summoner.

Plus, Primal Roar gives a movement buff to his whole squad of units. Talk about some serious chase potential.

Broodmother

Right off the bat, the Web invisibility, one of Broodmother’s most prominent features has been taken away from her. The good news is, her other perks remain mostly the same (minus her base movement speed), and the web benefits don’t suffer when she takes hits.

Her Spiders in both forms appear to have taken a pretty tough HP nerf. Fortunately, they’ve been given a massive Magic Resistance buff (from none to 50%) and an equally notable Armor buff (also from none, up to 8). They also have a 1.5 base HP regeneration boost. In other words, they’ll be harder to nuke with area-of-effect abilities—though they’ll still be a bit easier for melees with cleaves to take out.

Morphling

The better news is, for many Morphling fans, that Waveform hasn’t been touched! Zip-zip.

Adaptive Strike was messed with quite a bit, though, as it’s been split into two abilities, one for Agility and one for Strength, each of which do their original portion’s work. In other words the Agility Adaptive Strike still does damage (which wasn’t tweaked this patch), while the Strength one still stuns (and was rescaled), both scaling to their attribute’s numbers. Note, though, if you use one, the other takes a three-second pause.

Dota 2/Valve

His ult was also pretty heavily affected in this patch, even getting a name change from Morph to Replicate. (Meanwhile, his Aghs extra ability got removed.) While some of the basics are the same, it doesn’t feel as much like an illusion—in fact, you’re basically getting a picture-perfect replica of the Replicated enemy, including basic abilities. It’s a pretty powerful way to make your enemy taste their own medicine.

Tiny

Unfortunately for fans of Tiny’s Craggy Exterior and the super-extra Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades, both have been removed from the game. No more RNG stuns against him. Grow has been reworked as well, increasing most stats and adding Status Resistance, but nerfing his attack speed. (Avalanche also has more damage at earlier levels.)

Still, those who love Dota 2’s environmental gimmicks will enjoy his new ability: Tree Grab, which is exactly what it sounds like. You pick up a tree and hit things with it. The tree allows him to hit buildings and units harder with increased damage, as well as throw the tree at a target with some splash damage.

Viper

Everything except Viper’s ultimate has been tweaked enough that it’s certainly worth reviewing. For instance, now Corrosive doesn’t slow movement speed, just attack speed.

Poison Attack does some of that work now, adding a movement and attack speed slow. Plus, with this update, it also does damage per second based on how much damage the target is already missing.

Nethertoxin has also been remade pretty drastically: from a passive into an active. It’s a targeted area-of-effect spell that applies a Break plus damage per second, plus reduces the magic resistance of those affected. If it sounds too good to be true, the biggest catch is that it only affects enemies as long as they are standing in the targeted area.

Wraith King

The Only King That Matters brings a throwback, intentional or not, to his old days with his new mechanics for Mortal Strike. First off, his strike has been rescaled, with lower chance but a flat 300% damage amplifier.

Just in time for Halloween to wrap up, when attacking a non-player or non-ancient unit, he also has a chance to earn a counter point that goes towards a skeleton army. No, the author didn’t jump the shark here—you can literally summon a skeleton army to assist Wraith King. Hellfire Blast also directs the skeletons to the army. All-in-all, it sounds like it’ll be a spooky, fun new way to make the hero have a more lasting impact in-game—as long as you don’t feed the new units to your enemy carry.