Besides the obvious exception of Lina, the professional 7.32e meta has the same exact heroes as its predecessor.
When 7.32d was released, there wasn’t a significant change in the meta, but it at least ushered in some changes in the hero picks. When a patch goes on for too long, the least you expect is some letter patches that will keep things fresh as much as possible.
Valve pulled a quick one on everyone and when the entire community expected Dota 2 patch 7.33 to be released, gave us patch 7.32e. Well, you can give them the benefit of the doubt, that they want to do a good job on the big patch so they’re taking all the time to make sure it is a good update. But considering patch 7.32 has housed two DPC Majors and TI11, and will likely host the upcoming Berlin Major as well, shouldn’t there be a good stir up of heroes caused by patch 7.32e? That isn’t the case at all! Except for Lina, the entire set of heroes are pretty much the ones we’ve been seeing for the 2023 DPC Winter Tour. Let’s take a look at what the first eight to nine days of professional games on patch 7.32e show.
All data taken from datDota.
Most Picked heroes in the first few days of Dota 2 patch 7.32e
A look at the top 10 most picked heroes in the first few days of patch 7.32e might make you feel that we haven’t switched patches at all. The only telling factor is Lina’s exception from the list. Other than that, all heroes have been tried and tested since the release of patch 7.32d.
Lina was nerfed heavily, and rightly so. The right click Lina build has taken a significant beating, and she is hardly being picked any more. Considering how dominant she was in patch 7.32d, it is only fair the Slayer gets some time on the sidelines.
Most Contested in the first few days of Dota 2 patch 7.32e
But what about heroes other than Lina? Looking at the most contested list, it’s still the same set of heroes that are dominating the thoughts of professional teams. It seems like heroes like Death Prophet, Batrider and Tiny have been in the meta since the dawn of time. Absolutely no changes seen! When we look at the hero stats from the first three days of the Lima Major, they look very similar to what we see here.
Why is this happening? Because besides Lina and a few other heroes, most strong heroes received a tap on the wrist. And from the set of buffed heroes, no heroes were buffed enough to make a case for them to be picked. Literally not a single new hero is seen in this list. Most of the changes in patch 7.32e seem like they were made just to fill up a page and give the impression that changes were being made. Popular Dota 2 streamer Janne “Gorgc” Stefanovski explained the how the changes from patch 7.32e felt in the best way on one of his streams.
One has to wonder, why this hoodwinking? Making small changes that will rotate heroes in the meta can’t possibly be that big a task, can it? If we are bearing this patch for one more DPC tour, might as well see some new heroes in it. At this point, no one cares if a hero or two is broken as long as it’s a new one.
The last few months have been quite disappointing in terms of patch expectations. From delaying Dota 2 patches to providing significantly subpar ones, IceFrog and Valve are doing themselves no favors. Let’s hope that Dota 2 patch 7.33 arrives on time, and when it does, it makes everyone feel that it was worth the wait.
