Dota 2 update 7.30 patch notes: Hero balance changes, item updates and gameplay

The long-awaited Dota 2 patch 7.30 has finally arrived and sees several major changes to the game. These include hero balance changes and reworks, new and removed neutral items, several item balance changes and gameplay adjustments. The patch comes ahead of the Dota 2 International event and is expected to change the meta ahead in a large way.

General updates in Dota 2 patch 7.30

We'll start with some general updates. These updates aren't anything significant for most players but could have a greater impact at Divine or Immortal tiers.

• Captain's Mode second pick phase is changed from Dire/Radiant/Dire/Radiant to Dire/Radiant/Radiant/Dire (assuming Radiant is the first to pick.)
• Multiple Critical Strike procs are now rolled from strongest to weakest and will stop rolling once a proc occurs (this results in the same DPS but is less likely to have multiple crits in a row or multiple attacks without a crit.)
• Cooldown Percentage Reduction no longer stacks (Sources of flat cooldown reduction still stack.)
• Increased HP Regen of all heroes with 0 HP Regen to 0.25.
• Water Rune healing reduced from 80HP to 40HP.
• Second Roshan no longer drops cheese
  Neutral Creeps now drop 5 neutral items per tier.

Item balance changes in Dota 2 patch 7.30

Valve has also made several item balance changes. We've indicated whether the items were buffed or nerfed with the symbols + or -. In cases where the change was negligible, we indicated with the symbol ~.

Significant changes include a severe nerf to Aeon Disk along with recipe changes (and thus also major changes or reworks) to Silver Edge, Mage Slayer and Helm of the Overlord.

• Aeon Disk -
  • Bonus HP reduced from 300 to 250.
  • Aeon Disk Cooldown increases by 20s every time it triggers up to 165s.
  • Cooldown: 105/125/145/165s.
• Abyssal Blade +
  • Bash bonus damage increased from 100 to 120.
• Aether Lens
  • Mana Regeneration bonus reduced from 3.0 to 2.5.
• Arcane Blink +
  • Ability Cooldown Reduction increased from 25% to 30%.
• Arcane Boots +
  • Mana restored increased from 160 to 175.
• Bottle +
  • Health Restored reduced from 115 to 110.
  • Mana Restored reduced from 65 to 60.
  • Restore time increased from 2.5 to 2.7.
  • GINX: Max health restore per charge increased from 287.5 to 297. Max mana restore unchanged.
• Drum of Endurance +
  • Strength and Intelligence bonuses increased from 6 to 7.
• Enchanted Mango +
  • Cost reduced from 70 to 65.
• Eul's Scepter of Divinity -
  • Mana Regen reduced from 3.5 to 2.5.
• Flacon Blade +
  • Bonus Attack Damage increased from 10 to 12.
  • Bonus Health increased from 175 to 200.
• Gleipnir +
  • Bonus Intelligence increased from 20 to 24.
  • Bonus Strength and Agility increased from 12 to 14.
  • Projectile Speed increased from 1750 to 1900.
• Helm of the Overlord +/-
  • Reworked Recipe. Now requires Helm of the Dominator, Vladimir's Offering and a 1000 gold recipe (Total cost increased from 6000 to 6050).
  • Bonus Stats reduced from +20 to +8
  • Now can only dominate 1 creep.
  • Creep Movement Speed increased from 380 to 400.
  • Creep Bonus Attack Damage increased from 25 to 80.
  • Creep Bonus Armor increased from 4 to 8.
  • Now also grants Vladmir's Aura (+3 armor, +1.75 Mana Regen, +18% damage, +15% Lifesteal in 1200 radius).
• Hurricane Pike +
  • Hurricane Thrust duration increased from 5s to 6s.
  • Hurricane Thrust max attacks increased from 4 to 5.
• Mage Slayer +
  • Recipe Reworked: Now requires Oblivion Staff + Cloak + 400g Recipe. (total gold cost reduced from 3250 to 2400).
  • Grants +20% Magic Resist, 20 damage, 10 Intelligence, 15 attack speed and 2 mana regen.
• Rod of Atos +
  • Bonus Intelligence increased from 20 to 24.
  • Bonus Strength and Agility increased from 10 to 12.
  • Projectile Speed increased from 1750 to 1900.
• Sange -
  • Status Resistance reduced from 16 to 12.
• Sentry Ward ~
  • Replenish time decreased from 75 to 70.
  • Duration reduced from 8 minutes to 7.
• Silver Edge +
  • Recipe Reworked. Now requires Shadow Blade + Crystalys + 350g recipe. (Total cost decreased from 5650 to 5300).
  • Now Grants +60 damage, +40 Attack Speed, and a 30% chance of 160% critical damage.
  • Attacks breaking out of invisibility now deal a guaranteed 160% crit with 175 bonus damage.
• Smoke of Deceit ~
  • Increased Max Stock from 2 to 3 (Starting stock is still 2).
• Wind Waker +
  • Recipe reduced from 1600 to 1300 (Total cost reduced from 7125 to 6825).
• Witch Blade -
  • Damage per tick reduced from 1x int to 0.75x int.
  • Duration increased from 3s to 4s.
  • Fixed interaction that caused Witch Blade to give permanent True Strike against magic immune targets.

Mage Slayer could be a new meta item given its drastically cheaper cost in the new patch. At first glance, Helm of the Overlord appears to be buffed and nerfed at the same time but could be particularly good on Chen, Dark Seer or Nature's Prophet as a utility item.

New neutral items in Dota 2 patch 7.30

The new update does not bring any major reworks to any of the neutral items but instead, outright removed Faded Broach, Ironwood Tree, Imp Claw, Illusionist's Cape, Minotaur Horn, Orb of Destruction from the game.

Valve have instead added eight new neutral items, with five neutral items dropping per each neutral item iter.

Pig Pole (Tier 1)

• Grants +6 to all stats.
• Active: Pig, Out! Turns the owner into a pig for 4 seconds and grants +10% movement speed.
• Cooldown: 25s. Mana Cost: 50.

Tumbler's Toy (Tier 1)

• Grants 200 Mana.
• Active: Vault. Propels your unit forward 300 units.
• Cooldown: 30s. Goes on a 3s cooldown when receiving player based damage.

Brigand's Blade (Tier 2)

• Grants +10 Damage and +10 Attack Speed.
• Passive: Dark Mercy. When attacking an enemy, deals +7 damage for each 10% HP the enemy is missing.

Fae Grenade (Tier 2)

• Grants +20 Movement Speed.
• Active: Shadow Brand. Throws a Bomb to an enemy within 900 range dealing your attack damage and applying a debuff that provides vision of the unit and deals 20 DPS for 7 seconds.
• Cooldown: 20s. Mana Cost: 25.

Blast Rig (Tier 3)

• Grants 8 armour.
• Passive: Hair Trigger. The next time you get attacked by a hero within 300 range, explode dealing 300 damage to all enemies within a 300 radius and applying a 100% blind for 2.5 seconds.
• Cooldown: 20s.

Ascetic's Cap (Tier 4)

• Grants 300 Health and 10 Health Regen.
• Passive: Endurance. Whenever a debuff from a player-controlled source would be applied to the owner, grant 50% Status resistance for 3 seconds.
• Cooldown: 30s.

Witchbane (Tier 4)

• Passively causes your hero to deal extra magic damage to its target equal to 4% of its max mana on the attack.
• Active: Dispel. Dispels all enemies and allies within a 300 radius. Cast Range: 500.
• Cooldown: 20s. Mana Cost: 75.

Arcanist's Armour (Tier 5)

• +5 Armor, +20% Magic Resistance.
• Passively grants +5 armour and +20% Magic Resistance to all allies in a 900 radius.
• Active: Mega Shield. Gains a 35% damage reflection aura in a 900 radius affecting allied units for the next 5 seconds.
• Cooldown:20s (Does not affect illusions.)

You can watch this video by DotaCinema to visually see how these new neutral items interact in the game.

In addition to this, the Dota 2 patch 7.30 also brings balance changes, including severe nerfs to Flicker and Spider Legs in particular.

• Chipped Vest -
  • HP regen reduced from 5 to 4.
• Fairy's Trinket -
  • Bonus Health reduced from 100 to 75.
• Possessed Mask -
  • Lifesteal rescaled from 7% to a flat 7HP per attack.
• Trusty shovel +
  • Dig Cooldown reduced from 55 to 50.
• Enchanted Quiver -
  • Bonus Damage decreased from 300 to 200.
  • Cooldown decreased from 5s to 4.
• Ceremonial Robe -
  • Debuff is no longer visible if enemies don't have any vision of its holder.
• Flicker --
  • Cooldown increased from 4 to 5s.
  • Now blinks to the current position if the owner received damage in the last 3 seconds.
• Spider Legs -- 
  • No longer considered a boot.
  • Movement Speed Bonus reduced from 65 to 25.
• Stormcrafter -
  • Stormcrafter no longer triggers if the holder is invisible to the target.
• Fallen Sky -
  • Cast Range reduced from 1600 to 1200.

Major hero balance changes in Dota 2 patch 7.30

The hero balance changes in Dota 2 patch 7.30 are simply too lengthy to include here, so we've touched on only the major changes, including severe nerfs to Axe and reworks to Tinker and Clinkz.

Goodbye Carry Axe

Axe's share has been reworked to now cause Counter Helix to apply a 6s stacking debuff that reduces attack damage by 20% and increases Counter Helix chance by 10% instead of granting Axe an extra chance to proc Counter Helix with his attacks.

This change means that the Manta Style build is no longer viable on the hero and sees the hero transition back to the classic tank offlaner role.

Clinkz Strafe ability has been reworked

Strafe has been removed and replaced with a new ability, "Burning Barrage" that is similar to Drow Ranger's "Multishot". The new ability channels for up to 2.7s at max level and shoots six piercing arrows in the target direction up to a distance of 900 units.

The arrows hit all enemy units in the way and deal 60% attack damage with attack modifiers applied. The Burning Barrage ability still allows Clinkz to deal burst damage and even allows Clinkz to now potentially hit multiple targets in a team fight or to clear creep waves quickly.

The arrow also has a relatively low mana cost and cooldown (16s at max level), which allows Clinkz to use the ability at least two times in a team fight.

Tinker's March of the Machines swapped with new Defensive Matrix ability

In a nutshell, Tinker has been reworked. March of the Machines has been replaced with Defensive Matrix, a new basic ability that grants 50% Status Resistance and absorbs up to 320 damage on an allied target on max level. It has a cooldown of just 12s and has a low mana cost of 100 mana.

Tinker also gets a free Boots of Travel with a new Rearm sub-ability, Keen Conveyance. This allows Tinker to channel for 4.5/4/3.5s and teleport to a friendly Building. Level 2 allows targeting units and level 3 allows targeting heroes.

March of the Machines will also do 30 damage to enemies that it hits on a mana cost of only 190 mana. Since this is now a Shard ability, Tinker will struggle to flash farm which may see the hero become more active later in the game.

This change could also see Tinker more viable as a support or utility hero even, rather than a midlaner, especially given that he can teleport freely to various lanes.

Other significant nerfs that we won't mention here include nerfs to heroes: Broodmother (thank god), Dragon Knight, Terrorblade and Winter Wyvern. There are also several new Aghanim's Scepter interactions which you can check out in the video below.

Be sure to check out the rest of the patch notes on the official Dota 2 blog.

• Read more: The International 10's new location and dates revealed

Don't forget to check out our dedicated Dota 2 section, featuring more news, updates, and more.

Header image via Valve.