The Dota 2 community was hoping for a little stir up in the meta with the arrival of Dota 2 patch 7.34e, but that isn't what the patch will be doing.
Last year, when The International ended, Valve released Battle Pass Part II which brought with it Diretide and the Crystal Maiden persona. It was a good move, as it helped the Dota 2 community cope with the post-TI blues.
The stage was set for this year. There was no Battle Pass and The International Compendium was underwhelming, but Valve had mentioned they were working on some exciting stuff for after TI. The release date of Dota 2 patch 7.34e had been announced – it had to be something reasonably sized, right?!
Wrong. The Dota 2 community has received a patch that could have been written and perhaps even worked on in a day, and if there was no announcement, most players wouldn’t have even realized there had been any changes. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point. Dota 2 patch 7.34e is an extremely underwhelming patch.
The game was screaming for some major nerfs to specific items and heroes. Let’s take a look at what we have been blessed with in patch 7.34e.
Items
There at least were four items asking to be nerfed – Blade Mail, Hand of Midas, Heart of Tarrasque and Solar Crest. Two of them have been nerfed.
- The Hand of Midas GPM will reduce from 96 GPM to 87.3 GPM
- Heart of Tarrasque’s HP increase will be reduced from 800 HP to 700 HP
The nerfs are not big enough to shelve the items, but at least their impact will be slightly reduced.
Heroes
Let’s start with Bristleback and Chaos Knight. No crippling nerfs for either, but at least something to dampen their win rates. Bristleback’s Quill Spray has been his main artillery since his new Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade in Dota 2 patch 7.34, and the nerfs will affect the damage output.
For Chaos Knight, his survivability in lane will take a hit. The previous lifesteal numbers for creeps on Chaos Strike were 18%/24%/30%/36%. CK could play extremely aggressively in lane and then hit creeps to heal up. Those numbers are now down to 9%/12%/15%/18%. This is probably one of the biggest nerfs of patch 7.34e.
Kunkka also will be seen a lot less, at least in the caster role he has been played in recently, due to nerfs to Ghost Ship, Tidal Wave and Torrent Storm. Right click Kunnka might see more play in pubs in the days to come.
Necrophos’ sustainability, tankiness and AoE damage output will take a hit. This hero is one of the best ones suited for Heart of Tarrasque, and the nerf to the item will pile on to the nerfs to his abilities.
But perhaps the most obnoxious hero of the patch, Spirit Breaker, has gotten away with a slap on the wrist.
And Nature’s Prophet has gone completely untouched. Dazzle and Spectre have been subject to extremely minor nerfs.
There are no prominent buffs that will bring in new heroes to the meta. Dota 2 patch 7.34e will just make the broken heroes a little less broken. Considering there was an announcement about this patch on social media and in game, this patch is extremely underwhelming.
A couple of hours after the patch was released, Valve released a cryptic blogpost about Frostivus and the path ahead.
Frostivus
“But hark! What's that sound in the festive distance? No, that jingling of sleigh bells you hear isn't early onset tinnitus. It's the magical year-end event we call Frostivus — looming large on the December calendar, and arriving with a sack stuffed to bursting with new features, new cosmetics, and some surprises.
"...and the Arcanas?" little Timmy asks hopefully, holding up his tiny Dickensian gruel bowl. Phew, this is awkward. No, Timmy, not yet. All cards on the table, the event surrounding the Arcanas this year has gained a few more moving parts than we initially planned. Enough that we haven't finished everything yet, and won't this year, but we're looking forward to releasing it in the next few months. And that's not even getting into all the other updates we've got planned, like...
Hark again! We almost said too much. Suffice it to say, with TI2023 safely in the books, we've got a ton of stuff our Frostivus elves are furiously polishing to get ready for the new year.”
‘We’ve almost said too much?’ No you haven’t, Valve! All this is saying too little, and like most recent blog posts, it is all about big things in the future. Hopefully, they deliver this time and Frostivus is an event everyone can enjoy as 2023 comes to a close and we welcome 2024.
