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Biggest losers of Dota 2's 7.32 update

Dota 2's 7.32 update introduced massive changes to the game, with new Neutral Items introduced, over 30 new Aghanim upgrade reworks, heavy overhauls for most heroes in terms of their abilities and talents, as well as updates to the map.

Some heroes received some much-deserved love after being ignored in the competitive scene for months, with Slark, Phantom Assassin, and Tinker being among the biggest winners of the update.

But while some heroes are thriving in the new patch, others aren't as lucky.

Let's take a look at the five heroes most negatively affected by the changes in the 7.32 update, and whether these heroes are still worth picking in the pub scene:

Keeper of the Light

Keeper of the Light riding a horse in Dota 2.
A nerf to his ultimate and his farming ability have hurt Keeper of the Light in the 7.32 update. (Photo: Valve Software)

7.32 changes

Spirit Form

  • Cooldown increased from 65s to 85s

  • Illuminate Heal increased from 40/50/60% to 50/60/70%

Talents

  • Level 10 Talent +20 Movement Speed replaced with -2s Illuminate Cooldown

One of the biggest changes in the 7.32 update is the removal of the small neutral camp next to the mid lane.

This change has resulted in a big metagame shift, as heroes with the ability to clear out the camp were able to farm both the lane and the small camp, giving them an extra source of gold and experience in the early game.

Keeper of the Light was hit hard by this change, as he was one of the best heroes at utilising the small camp. He needed that camp to pull ahead, as he is a pretty weak hero when he is underfarmed.

Another big nerf for the hero is an additional 20 second cooldown on his ultimate.

In the previous patch the hero has a 60% uptime on his ultimate that increases to nearly 85% with the level 20 talent. With the nerf in the latest gameplay update, the spell only has a 47% uptime.

With less time in Spirit Form, Ezalor spends more time in his base form, without the extra cast range and movement speed his ultimate provides.

It now takes more time for the hero to move around the map and clear out creep waves.

While Keeper of the Light got some extra healing in his ultimate form, the hero is one of the biggest losers in the patch.

Ezalor is slower now, has less resources to farm, and spends way less time in his ultimate form. All of this contributed to the hero's unimpressive 46% win rate this patch.

Venomancer

Venomancer spewing venom.
The new Venomancer Shard upgrade is one of the worst in the game. (Photo: Valve Software)

7.32 changes

Plague Wards

  • Mana Cost increased from 20/22/24/26 to 21/24/27/30

Latent Toxicity

  • Reworked Shard. Grants new ability: Latent Toxicity. Applies a weak poison that slows by 10% and deals 20 damage per second to its target for 7 seconds. If this poison is dispelled in any way, the target will receive 300 damage and be stunned for 2s. Mana Cost: 75. Cooldown: 20s. Range: 600. Cast point: 0.2s. Projectile speed: 1200

Talents

  • Level 10 Talent +175 Health replaced with +20% Poison Sting Health Regen Reduction

  • Level 10 Talent Venomous Gale Cooldown Reduction decreased from 6s to 5s

  • Level 15 Talent 12% Lifesteal replaced with -1s Plague Ward Cooldown

  • Level 20 Talent -1.5s Plague Ward Cooldown replaced with Gale Creates 2 Plague Wards

The biggest issue for Venomancer right now is that his power spike comes at level 20 instead of being attached to the Aghanim's Shard.

Losing the ability to summon multiple Plague Wards from Aghanim's Shard and replacing it with Latent Toxicity is a big blow to the hero.

The new ability is very lacklustre, as it deals 140 damage to the enemy while applying a 10% slow for seven seconds.

If it gets dispelled, it deals an additional 300 damage and stuns for two seconds.

Another problem with the new ability is that it gives Venomancer three dispellable abilities and none of them pierce magic immunity.

Venomancer's Aghanim's Shard has the eighth lowest win-rate among all Shard upgrades in the game.

The old upgrade gave the hero the opportunity to summon up to 10 Plague Wards with a single cast, basically giving him Shadow Shaman's ultimate with powerful slows added to the ability.

The hero is now in an awkward spot in the game, as his laning presence is solid but falls off as the game drags on. The old Shard provided him with a power spike to remain a threat in the mid-game but that's no longer an option.

7.32 has not been kind to Venomancer and it shows in his pub games, as his win rate hovers at 49% when he used to win 52% of his matches. The hero is still playable but if you're looking to grind MMR, it's better to find other heroes to spam.

Nature's Prophet

Nature's Prophent standing next to carnivorous plants
Nature's Prophet has the (dis)honor of having the lowest pub win rate in 7.32 so far. (Photo: Valve Software)

7.32 changes

Curse of the Oldgrowth

  • Reworked Shard. Grants new ability: Curse of the Oldgrowth. Applies a curse on all non-invisible enemy heroes within 1200 range, revealing them in fog of war, slowing them, and causing damage over time based on how many trees there are within 250 radius. Treants count as trees for this purpose. Each tree reduces movement speed by 7% and deals 15 damage per second. Duration: 6s. Cooldown: 20s. Mana Cost: 80.

Nature's Prophet has the same problem as Venomancer, but to an even greater extent.

The hero lost a powerful Aghanim's Shard upgrade and traded it in for a new ability that doesn't provide him with anything he didn't have before.

The old Shard upgrade was easily one of the best in the game, as Greater Treants were incredibly powerful creeps to have 15 minutes in the game.

They made the hero a split-pushing nightmare, forcing the enemy team to split up and keep their lanes pushed out or take significant structural damage.

Now the hero has Curse of the Oldgrowth, which reveals nearby enemies while dealing damage and slowing them based on how many trees are nearby.

The ability is designed to give the hero some teamfight presence.

The problem is that the new ability has no synergy with the hero's core concept. Nature's Prophet has never been a teamfight hero and spending 1,400 gold to get an incredibly situational spell doesn't change that, especially at the cost of his former upgrade.

Nature's Prophet currently has the lowest win rate among all heroes in the game, winning an abysmal 43% of his matches.

The buff he received in patch 7.32b helps a little but not enough. We recommend ignoring the hero entirely for the sake of your MMR and sanity.

Juggernaut

Despite several nerfs, Juggernaut remains a carry worth playing in the latest patch. (Photo: Valve Software)
Despite several nerfs, Juggernaut remains a carry worth playing in the latest patch. (Photo: Valve Software)

7.32 changes

  • Base Movement Speed decreased from 305 to 300

Blade Fury

  • Shard Bonus Movement Speed decreased from 100 to 75

Healing Ward

  • Heal Radius decreased from 500 to 400

Talents

  • Level 25 Talent +475 Health replaced with +2 Healing Wards Hits to Kill

While Nature's Prophet is looking like the weakest hero of 7.32, there are two other heroes who took bigger hits to their win rate, and one of them is Juggernaut.

The hero took two hits to his mobility, the first being five less base movement speed.

Since most of his early game damage comes from sticking to targets with Blade Fury, losing base movement along with 25 less movement from the Shard upgrade makes it significantly harder for Juggernaut to chase down enemies.

Base movement speed is one of the most important factors in any hero, as it affects everything the hero does.

Chasing enemies, farming creep camps, escaping ganks — these all rely on a hero's movement speed and a small nerf or buff to movement is all that's needed to make a hero dumpster tier or overpowered.

Another nerf that hurts the hero is the reduced Area of Effect for Healing Ward.

It's now significantly harder to get multiple heroes in the healing radius and as teams clump up tighter to heal, enemies can take advantage of that to land a big Reverse Polarity or Black Hole.

Juggernaut is still worth mastering in this patch, as even though he loses 3.6% more now, he still hovers around 52% win rate.

A solid laning carry who scales well into the late-game, Juggernaut is the only hero on this list who hasn't been entirely decimated by the new update.

Marci

Marci's item and skill build vary greatly between core and support roles. (Photo: Valve Software)
Marci's item and skill build vary greatly between core and support roles. (Photo: Valve Software)

7.32 changes

Dispose

  • Now slows for 20/30/40/50% for 3s instead of stunning

  • Throw Distance decreased from 300 to 275

Rebound

  • Now stuns enemies in final area for 0.9/1.3/1.7/2.1s

  • Ally Movement Speed decreased from 45% to 25/30/35/40%

  • Landing Damage decreased from 90/160/230/300 to 75/150/225/300

  • Landing effect radius decreased from 375 to 250

Unleash

  • Pulse no longer slows enemies

  • Each strike now slows movement speed of the target by 30% for 2s

  • Each strike now slows base attack speed of the target by 60/80/100 for 2s

  • No longer applies a dispel on Marci

  • Scepter now also applies a Dispel on Marci when cast

  • Scepter cooldown reduction increased from 10s to 20s

Talents

  • Level 10 Talent +2 Mana Regen replaced with +60 Dispose Damage

  • Level 10 Talent +5 Armor replaced with +125 Rebound Cast/Jump Range

  • Level 15 Talent +200 Rebound Cast/Jump Range replaced with -3s Rebound Cooldown

  • Level 15 Talent +0.5s Dispose Stun Duration replaced with +15% Sidekick Lifesteal

  • Level 20 Talent +30 Movement Speed replaced with +15% Unleash Movement Speed

  • Level 20 Talent +25% Sidekick Lifesteal replaced with +0.7s Rebound Stun Duration

As the sixth most picked her at the PGL Arlington Major and the 10th most contested overall, Marci was definitely going to be hit by the nerf stick.

The silent heroine has been a huge part of the competitive scene ever since she was admitted into Captain's Mode.

There were a lot of big changes for Marci in 7.32.

Dispose no longer stuns enemies but slows them instead, while Rebound stuns enemies now. Both spells have a smaller area-of-effect as well, especially Rebound, which significantly hurts the hero as enemies can Blink or simply move out of the stun radius.

The fact that Dispose no longer stuns makes Marci's laning stage weaker, as her combo involved tossing enemies into tower range.

Marci can still do that, but the enemies will only be slowed now until she reaches level 2 and follows up with a Rebound.

Aside from the nerfs to her basic spells, Unleash also received several changes.

The spell no longer provides a free dispel for the hero — players will need to buy an Aghanim's Scepter for that benefit.

Unleash's Pulse only deals damage now, as the movement slow is now applied on every Unleash hit, along with an attack speed slow.

Essentially, Unleash is now a better single-target ability that allows Marci to fight toe-to-toe with the enemy carry thanks to the massive attack speed slow.

However, the spell loses a lot of its teamfight value without the Pulse slow. Losing a free dispel is another blow to the hero's ultimate.

With all the changes to the hero, it seems IceFrog is trying to make Marci better as a core hero, as the new Rebound is significantly more suited for a core who can jump into the fray rather than a support trying to reposition allies.

Marci's transition into a core has not been easy, as the hero lost a massive 6% win rate on the first day of the patch and now sits at an abysmal 43%.

Thankfully the hero received some buffs in the latest 7.32b patch but Marci is still in a rough spot and the biggest loser of the 7.32 update.

Otomo is a long-time gaming enthusiast and caster. He has been playing games since he was 10 and is the biggest Dota 2 fan.

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