Valve released a balance patch mere hours before ESL One Berlin Major giving decent nerfs to numerous heroes, and made changes to a few mechanics and items.
7.33b was released around 03.00 am for the teams that are in Berlin for the Major that starts today, and it might give them a headache in the morning. In the general gameplay area, Twin Gates got slightly nerfed by adding one more second to the channelled time, which now means it will take 4 seconds to get to the other side of the map.
If they weren’t strong enough already, Tormentors got a bit buffed. Illusions don’t count now when dividing up the damage taken. Illusions still take damage but do not reduce the amount of damage taken by other units in the area. Additionally, after the first kill, Tormentors Unyielding Shield base barrier amount now increases by 200 every time they respawn.
Chen and the helm of the Dominator builders have been indirectly nerfed as a few of the jungle creeps received some adjustments to their abilities.
Ancient Granite Golem
- Granite Aura Bonus HP Percentage decreased from 15/16.5/18/21% to 15/16/17/19%
Centaur Courser
- Cloak Aura Magic Resistance (Heroes) decreased from 15/17/19/23% to 10/12/14/16%
- Cloak Aura Magic Resistance (Creeps) decreased from 30/34/38/46% to 20/24/28/32%
Kobold Foreman
- Speed Aura Movespeed reduced from 12/15/18/24% to 12/13/14/16%
Ogre Frostmage
- Ice Armor Armor Bonus decreased from 5/6/7/9 to 4/5/6/8
- Ice Armor Move Slow decreased from 25/28/31/37% to 22/24/26/30%
- Ice Armor Attack Slow decreased from 25/28/31/37 to 22/24/26/30
Neutral items and some of the newly added items have been also tweaked, with some getting nerfed, and some receiving slight buffs. For supports, a life quality update allows you to stack the Blood Grenades up to 3 times.
With the New Frontiers 7.33 patch some experienced a huge surge in popularity given their reworks. Most of them have now been hit by the nerf hammer in the 7.33b update.
Chen
- Base Strength decreased from 25 to 23
- Penitence
- Bonus Attack Speed decreased from 25/50/75/100 to 20/40/60/80
Riki
Smoke Screen
- Aghanim's Shard Armor Reduction decreased from 7 to 6
Blink Strike
- Slow Duration rescaled from 0.2/0.4/0.6/0.8s to 0.4s
Cloak and Dagger
- Backstab Agility Damage Multiplier decreased from 1.4/1.8/2.2 to 1.2/1.6/2.0
- Tormentors are now immune to being backstabbed
Talents
- Level 10 Talent Smoke Screen Radius decreased from +60 to +50
- Level 15 Talent Smoke Screen Cooldown Reduction decreased from 4s to 3s
- Level 15 Talent Tricks of the Trade Agility Increase decreased from +50% to +40%
- Level 20 Talent Backstab Multiplier decreased from +0.5 to +0.4
Phantom Lancer
- Base Movement Speed decreased by 5
- Agility gain decreased from 3.2 to 2.8
Spirit Lance
- Damage decreased from 100/160/220/280 to 70/140/210/280
Doppelganger
- Cooldown increased from 19/16/13/10s to 22/18/14/10s
Void Spirit
- Base Movement Speed decreased from 295 to 290
Resonant Pulse
- Base Movement Speed decreased from 295 to 290
Among the heroes that got changed in the 7.33 patch, Medusa seems to have suffered a lot. In today’s update, she got a few considerable buffs, but even so, she might not be back to the meta anytime soon.
Medusa
- Base Intelligence increased from 23 to 27
Split Shot
- Outgoing Damage increased from 45/55/65/75% to 55/65/75/85%
Mystic Snake
- Main Gain increased from 11/14/17/20% to 16/18/20/22%
Mana Shield
- Damage Per Mana increased from 2/2.3/2.6/2.9/3.2 to 2/2.5/3/3.5/4
- Illusions now benefit from Mana Shield
There are plenty of heroes who got nerfed, including Oracle, Omniknight, Silencer, Spirit Breaker and Alchemist, however, they might still feel overpowered. The Berlin Major will tell which ones are truly broken and what mechanics are busted, so make sure you watch the tournament beginning today!
