Image: Wykrhm Reddy
With just a week before TI13, the patch to be played during the tournament has been released.
We are exactly a week away from the beginning of The International 2024 (TI13) in Copenhagen, Denmark. But just when it seemed like we had the final patch on which the fight for the Aegis would take place, a new Dota 2 patch braced the game. TI13 will be played on Dota 2 patch 7.37c, a patch which brings nerfs to most of the high flying heroes from patch 7.37b during FISSURE Universe Episode 3.
Considering the patch comes so close to TI, it is not a surprise that there aren’t any massive changes. The entire set of changes can be found here. Let’s take a look at which of the minor changes might be significant enough to warrant not picking certain heroes.
Item Changes
Patch 7.37c has some item changes, and all of them are nerfs. Healing takes a hit with Holy Locked and Mekansm (and with that, Guardian Greaves) both nerfed. Pipe of insight’s damage barrier has been reduced as well. But the item that most needed a nerf was Glepnir, and that has been brought down a notch. It’s a small notch, but it isn’t nothing.
Hero Changes
Ringmaster
Ringmaster was released a week ago, and GosuGamers did a deep dive into all the abilities of Dota 2’s latest hero. After a week’s worth of games, Strongman Tonic has been strongly nerfed, which was expected as it was the best and a slightly broken Souvenir. Wheel of Wonder, Ringmaster’s ultimate, has been tweaked (although the nerf of reduced time is more significant). The final change is a minor buff to his Aghanim’s Shard ability, Spotlight.
The Strongman Tonic nerf is the most significant, and coupled with the nerf the Wheel of Wonder will pull back on Ringmaster’s win rate. This was necessary as according to Dotabuff, Ringmaster’s win rate was going up by the day and had crossed 53%. Gone are the days when IceFrog and Valve allowed new heroes to be broken for a few weeks.
(Taken from Dotabuff)
Omniknight
Omniknight was on the path of resurgence, and now he's being pulled back a little. Omni looked like a meta hero for the first time in many months, and one of the big reasons is the insane heal numbers he is able to put up because of his new Aghanim’s Shard. The Shard heal has been nerfed, as was Repel's duration. Hammer of Purity also plays a major role in trading during the laning stage, and a level 1 damage reduction of 15 will tilt the scales against Omniknight in the lane.
Tinker
Since the release of facets in Dota 2 patch 7.36, Tinker has a new role in the game – a healing support! He has been so strong in that role, that multiple patches of nerfs were necessary. Patch 7.37c does not nerf his healing directly, but nerfs Defense Matrix instead. However, there is an indirect nerf to his healing through Holy Locket and Guardian Greaves, as those are a core part of his inventory in the support role. For a lot of patches, Holy Locket was lost in obscurity. Suddenly with support healing Tinker, the item needs a nerf!
Both Omknight and Tinker won’t be totally out of the equation at TI13, but their contest rate is bound to go down. Here are the other heroes that will see their contest rate as well as win rate take a little bit of a hit because of the small nerfs in Dota 2 patch 7.37c.
Nerfed Heroes
- Doom
- Earthshaker
- Ember Spirit
- Lina
- Nature’s Prophet
- Omniknight
- Pangolier
- Tinker
- Windranger
Based on the changes in patch 7.37c, we can only speculate what will happen at TI13. The real reveal will be after the first few days of games, and even after that when team realize the errors of their ways, the meta will keep changing as the tournament progresses.
