We take a look at how good the 14 reworked Aghanim’s Shards from Dota 2 patch 7.31 are.
It has been over a month since Dota 2 patch 7.31 was released. While pub and professional players alike have adjusted to life with the new patch, its many mysteries are yet to be completely unraveled. Patch 7.31 brought with it a plethora of changes, including a significant number of reworks to Aghanim’s Shards. Here, we look at the usefulness of the reworked Shards and rate them on a scale of 0 to 10. The list of ratings starts with the Shard upgrades that are the worst of the lot and proceeds in ascending order towards better ratings.
1) Vengeful Spirit (9/10)
Reworked Shard. Bounces once on an enemy, prioritizing heroes. Increases Cast Range by 100.
Possibly the best Shard to come out of Dota 2 patch 7.31. Magic Missile is one of the higher damage stuns. It deals 360 magic damage, which is just 40 less than a level 1 Dagon. With the level 0 talent, the damage goes to 560 magic damage, which is 40 less than a level 3 Dagon. Having the ability to not only stun, but deal a considerable amount of damage to two enemy heroes every 9 seconds (6.25 seconds with the level 15 talent) is a pretty strong weapon to have in your arsenal. The cherry on top of the cake is, if you have an Aghanim’s Scepter, your illusion benefits from the Shard effect as well. Definitely a Shard worth buying in every game.
2) Brewmaster (8/10)
Reworked Shard. Shard now grants Void Brawler stance: Grants Brewmaster 20% Status Resist and a 25% movement slow for 2 seconds on attack. Effects are tripled if Brewmaster is affected by Cinder Brew.
60% status resistance and 75% movement slow to the enemy being hit (while being affected by Cinder Brew)? Sounds like a strong Aghanim’s Shard to have. The challenge though is to be skillful enough to have the right stance on out of the four different stances!
3) Legion Commander (8/10)
Reworked Shard. Legion Commander gains 4 armor for every hero hit with Overwhelming Odds and 0.5 armor for each creep. Increases Overwhelming Odds duration by 8 seconds.
Legion Commander’s previous Shard upgrade was quite strong and made her a viable support, but the new upgrade isn’t bad either. It more than doubles the duration of the Overwhelming Odds buff (which includes increased movement speed as well) and the additional armor is a good effective HP. Strength heroes typically lack armor, and the Shard helps make up for it.
4) Sven (8/10)
Reworked Shard. Warcry is undispellable and passively grants 5 armor to all allies in a 1200 radius.
Stength carries like Sven, high as their HP might be due to above average strength gain, don’t always have high armor like their agility counterparts. The Rogue Knight makes up for it with Warcry, but if dispelled in the middle of a team fight, can lead to disastrous consequences. The Shard not only ensures that doesn’t happen, but it also bulks up the entire team against physical damage. The armor aura is the same as Assault Cuirass, so a Sven with a Shard and AC will provide his allies with 10 passive armor! That is huge for supports.
5) Abaddon (7/10)
Reworked Shard. Causes Mist Coil to deal Abaddon's attack damage on impact (applying on hit effects) and increases Curse of Avernus base slow by 10%.
Pretty good Shard to have in Abaddon is being played in a core role. Nowadays, position 3 Abaddon isn’t too common, with the most common positions being either carry (position 1) or hard support (position 5). It isn’t too useful for a position 5 Abaddon, as in that role, you’re not building right click damage, and your focus is healing and dispelling allies with Mist Coil and Aphotic Shield respectively. But in a position 1 role, Abaddon with have a right click heavy build, which makes a case for the Shard. And it is attack damage that gets applied, not base damage, so if Abaddon has a Divine Rapier, that +350 damage will fly with the Mist Coil! As it considers on hit effects as well, everything from critical hits to Mjolnir procs and Skadi slows are on the table.
6) Lina (7/10)
Reworked Shard: Lina's spells deal 10 more damage for each Fiery Soul charge.
Lina now has a maximum of 7 Fiery Soul Charges, which gives each spell 70 additional damage. At the maximum levels for all spells, that takes-
Dragon Slave from 310 damage to 380 (22.58% increase)
Light Strike Array from 230 damage to 300 damage (30.43%) increase
Laguna Blade from 900 damage to 970 damage (7.78% increase)
The damage isn’t insignificant, especially considering Dragon Slave and Light Strike Array have pretty low cooldowns. While the increased damage might not be the biggest damage increase against heroes, it is a good way to ensure creep waves are killed off in one Dragon Slave and Light Strike Array combo.
7) Omniknight (7/10)
Reworked Shard: Grants Degen Aura. Slows enemies within 400 radius of Omniknight by 40%
Degen Aura was never an ability that was prioritized on Omniknight. Sometimes it was beneficial to get an early level 1, but it was always maximized after Purification and Repel. The Shard now gives players an option to directly get level 4 of the old Degen Aura for 1400 gold. The radius is the same as well. It’s a pretty strong ability in certain scenarios, and depending on the game and what role Omni is being played in, players now have the option to get the Shard.
8) Puck (7/10)
Reworked Shard: Causes Phase Shift to attack all enemies within attack range +200 radius of Puck.
When this was a talent, it was one of the main enablers for a right click Pucks. Pretty much a necessary Shard when going that route. The Phase Shift attack now has the additional 200 radius, which wasn’t the case earlier.
9) Pugna (7/10)
Reworked Shard. Life Drain can target your Nether Ward, causing life drain to refract to all enemy heroes in range of the ward for 70% of its damage. The effect is interrupted if the ward is destroyed. Increases Nether Ward cast range by 350.
Great Shard to have against illusion heroes like Phantom Lancer. Life Drain gets rid of illusions instantly, and with the Shard, all illusions can be desecrated in blink of an eye to reveal the real PL. This won’t work on a hero like Chaos Knight though, because his Phantasm illusions are deemed as strong illusions, which can’t be instantly destroyed. But other like PL and Naga are extremely vulnerable to it. The only downside to it is, for the Life Drain to refract on all enemies in range, the Nether Ward needs to be placed in the middle of the team fight, and can’t be placed in a hidden location. That makes it easier for enemies to destroy it.
10) Io (6.5/10)
Reworked Shard. Passively grants Io 10% spell lifesteal. Increases Overcharge spell amplification by 10% and causes it to also share Io's current spell lifesteal with any Tethered units.
A pretty decent Shard to get if Io is playing with a hero with high magic damage, like Leshrac. Even carries like Tiny, Luna or Gyrocopter, who are commonly paired with Io, have a good amount of magic damage to benefit from the Shard. But should it be a priority for a support Io? Probably not. It can be a late game item for Io, but not a game changing one that the Wisp will plan to get early.
11) Mirana (6.5/10)
Reworked Shard. Grants +1 Leap Charge. Sagan pounces, dealing 150 damage in a forward cone to units within 500 range of Mirana and slowing them by 30% for 2.5 seconds.
What makes this Shard worth getting is the additional Leap charge, which previously existed as well. The added 150 damage can be nice for helping with wave clear. Nowadays, Mirana is pretty much only played as a position 4 hero, especially in professional games. That makes it beneficial for her to have some extra wave clear. A combination of Leap and Star Storm can nearly take out an entire wave.
12) Batrider (6/10)
Reworked Shard. Flaming Lasso no longer disarms you. Batrider's attacks have a 50% chance to apply 1 stack of Sticky Napalm.
When Dota 2 patch 7.30 arrived, this was the most broken Aghanim’s Shard upgrade in the game. Initially, every attack applied a stack of Sticky Napalm (100% chance instead of the current 50%). The stack of Sticky Napalm got applied by Batrider’s Manta Style illusions as well. Manta into Moon Shard was a devastating build. But not only was the chance reduced from 100% to 50% in patch 7.31b, illusions can no longer apply a stack of Sticky Napalm. The allure of the Shard has since then dropped. It can be a useful Shard, but not the most prioritized item for Batrider.
13) Marci (5/10)
Added Shard. Rebound can be set to autocast to throw the target instead of rebounding off them.
While Marci’s Aghanim’s Shard upgrade may have its uses in very specific scenarios, it will need a lot of coordination to be used effectively; the type of coordination which isn’t seen in pubs. It could be used for initiation or to throw an ally out of harms way, but it could just as likely throw an ally into harms way. The distance of the throw cannot be controlled and the target doesn’t really have a say in it. That makes Marci’s Shard one of the less exciting Shards of Dota 2 patch 7.31.
14) Primal Beast (5/10)
Shard Upgrade: Grants Rock Throw. Primal Beast throws a rock at the target location that stuns and damages enemies. The rock cannot be thrown within a minimum range of Primal Beast.
Rock Throw is another skill straight out of Aghanim’s Labyrinth. The rock he throws can only be targeted beyond a certain radius, so it isn’t really the best follow up to Onslaught or Pulverize. On the whole, it is an underwhelming Aghanim’s Shard upgrade.
The second DPC Season of the Dota 2 year is up and running. Players are in the process of figuring out patch 7.31, and as that process goes ahead, we will get a better idea of which Aghanim’s Shards they think are worth the 1400 gold.
