A few days after the surprise release of Dota 2 patch 7.35, we take a look at the two new and many reworked items to embrace the game.
Dota 2 patch 7.35 came out of nowhere! Everyone was expecting a Frostivus update, but the new patch was unexpected. The first major patch of the 2022-2023 season arrived in March, which is why Dota 2 patch 7.35 arriving in December was a surprise, but a pleasant one.
Amongst all the changes, there were two new items, Khanda and Parasma. Besides that, a lot of items saw reworks, the prominent ones being Bloodthorn, Blood Stone, Shivas Guard and Solar Crest. Let’s take a look at how each item can be used in the meta that is developing around patch 7.35.
New Items from Dota 2 Patch 7.35
Khanda
The Dota 2 community was expecting a spell based upgrade to Phylactery, like a combination with Aether Lens. But it has gone in a different albeit interesting direction. Phylactery now combines with Crystalys to give Khanda, and it is one of the more intriguing items to have entered the game in the last few years.
Khanda, besides adding the critical strike, upgrades the Phylactery passive Empower Spell to include 75% of the heroes attack damage as well. This is not base damage, this is all attack damage, including items! This has led to some interesting meme builds, like the Khanda and five Divine Rapiers build on either Sniper or Spirit Breaker!
Now it doesn’t have to go that extreme, but it does open up a lot of potential for some burst damage on right click heroes. Sven with an Aghanim’s Scepter does 500 magical damage with Storm Hammer. With just a Scepter and Khanda and God’s Strength active, a level 30 Sven does 780 damage after the 25% magic damage reduction (1040 magic damage). With more items, that is just bound to go up!
According to Dotabuff, the item is popular with most heroes with a short cooldown targeted spell AND right click damage. Spirit Breaker and Nyx Assassin might be the outliers, but Spirit Breaker is in there for the meme build and Nyx thrives with any additional burst damage he can get. Most others are hybrid damage dealers.
(taken from Dotabuff)
Parasma
Parasma is an upgrade to Witch Blade, and like Khanda, upgrades the passive of the base item. In this case, the intelligence multiplier of Witch Blade (which is also the name of the item’s passive ability) is increased from 0.75 to 1.
Parasma is amazing for intelligence carries, and eliminates the need to replace Witch Blade in the late game. The item didn’t scale well late into the game, and the previous upgrade, Revenant’s Brooch, was extremely game dependent. But with the upgrade to Parasma, Witch Blade should be a lot more popular.
Parasma provides additional intelligence for the passive to hit even harder, and also reduces the target’s magic resistance by 20%. For heroes like Outworld Destroyer, Storm Spirit, Queen of Pain and the likes, that is a massive boost in damage. And if we look at the top 10 heroes that are favoring the item, nine of them are intelligence heroes, with the only exception being Invoker, who is a universal hero with an intelligence gain of 4. This is the patch of intelligence right clickers!
(taken from Dotabuff)
In Azure Ray’s win over Gaimin Gladiators in the grand final of ESL One Kuala Lumpur, Azure Ray’s mid laner Guo "Xm" Hongcheng made Parasma on Storm Spirit, Puck and Outword Destroyer in game 3, game 4 and game 5 respectively, and it worked out pretty well.
Reworked Items from Dota 2 Patch 7.35
Bloodstone
A small change to Bloodstone, but one which could have a significant impact. It changes the game for heroes with AoE abilities like Leshrac with Pulse Nova and Underlord with Fire Storm. The Bloodstone active can now be used offensively as well, instead of just defensively.
Bloodthorn
The change to Bloodthorn is a mixed bag. There is more attack speed and damage to be gained, but the loss in magic resistance is huge. Mage Slayer gained more importance since Dota 2 patch 7.33, when Black King Bar stopped providing complete magic immunity. The upgrade of Mage Slayer into Bloodthorn was a great transition. Against burst lineups now, Mage Slayer will have to be prioritized over items like the new Bloodthorn.
Etheral Blade
An upgrade to Aether Lens was something all spell casters yearned for. This is a great upgrade for the likes of spell casting Zeus, Lina and even supports like Lion as the game goes late. A lot of supports make Aether Lens for cast range and Ghost Scepter to save themselves from the wrath of enemy carries (which are mostly right clickers). Etheral Blade saves an item slot, and also adds a small boost to the Aether Lens mana regen (+2.5 to +3) and cast range (+225 to +250).
Revenant’s Brooch
The great thing about Revenant’s Brooch being dissociated from Witch Blade is that now non-intelligence heroes can seriously consider it as well. And like Nullifier, it can be made by disassembling Radiance. In a way, Revenant’s Brooch is a pseudo Nullifier against Ghost Scepter, Muerta and Necrophos.
Solar Crest
Probably one the best reworked items to come out of Dota 2 patch 7.35. The upgrade to Pavise provides supports a natural progression for the item, and also brings Pavise back into the conversation after it got lost in the abyss for the last few months of Dota 2 patch 7.34. Might be more popular with universal heroes due to the +6 to all stats.
Shiva’s Guard
Interesting change for an item that has for the most part remained unchanged since the Dota 1 days. Like Solar Crest, one of the first things that stands out is the +8 to all stats, which sways more in favor of universal heroes. But on the whole, this is amazing for spell casting heroes. The 20 armor assures survivability, and the 15% spell damage amplification aids in outgoing damage.
GosuGamers made a video on how Bloodstone and Shivas Guard can be best used in Dota 2 patch 7.35.
The early signs suggest item changes from Dota 2 patch 7.35 serve two main things – improved upgrades for items that needed it and increased magic damage output. As the patch plays out and things fall in place, we will get a better idea of how the new and reworked items are best used in games.
