Dota 2: Who are the biggest losers of the 7.32d patch?

Dota 2 patch 7.32d made some sweeping changes to the metagame, pushing a greater emphasis on the laning stage and more options for teamfight items.

Nearly half the heroes in the game also received balance changes, with most of them being buffs to underutilised heroes.

However not every hero was graced by IceFrog's love, as 20 heroes were nerfed. While some of these changes merely balanced previously meta heroes, others have been rendered almost unplayable by the IceFrog's nerf hammer.

Read on to find out the five heroes that got hit the hardest by Dota 2 patch 7.32d:

Naga Siren

• Strength gain decreased from 2.8 to 2.6

• Base Armor decreased by 1

One of Naga Siren's strengths is her ability to zone out enemy heroes during the laning stage thanks to a combination of Mirror Image and Rip Tide. The changes in patch 7.32d make the hero and by extension her illusions, easier to deal with at all stages of the game.

Naga Siren still has an absurd amount of armor, losing one doesn't make her squishy by all accounts. Neither will one less strength point every five levels. However the two small nerfs do make the hero a little easier to kill, especially against physical damage.

What really hurt Naga Siren and resulted in her dropping from almost a 54% win rate to just above 51%, according to Dotabuff, is her slower farming speed early game.

The nerfs make her Mirror Images significantly weaker, forcing Naga Siren to jungle later in the game. Despite being one of the biggest patch losers, Naga Siren is still worth picking if you like farming cores.

Sniper

Shrapnel

• Mana Cost increased from 50 to 75

• Radius decreased from 450 to 400

Most of Sniper's utility comes from Shrapnel, the spell allows him to slow enemies, provides vision in an area, and pushes out lanes without risking his life.

Of the two nerfs, I believe it's the extra mana cost that hurt the hero. It now takes Sniper 225 mana to use all three charges of Shrapnel, which is expensive for an agility hero that starts with 255 mana at level one.

The mana cost increase is painful at all stages of the game, as Sniper often uses items with mana costs such as Black King Bar, Silver Edge, and Hurricane Pike.

The smaller radius is significant as well. Enemies have an easier time getting out of the spell's effect. On the whole, it's still a fairly large radius for the spell. The two nerfs combined have led to Sniper dropping to an abysmal 48% win rate. Be ready to get reported if you pick Sniper without a plan.

Marci

Rebound

• Cast and Jump Range decreased from 800 to 450/550/650/750

• Jump Speed decreased from 2000 to 1700

Sidekick

• Lifesteal decreased from 35/40/45/50% to 30/35/40/45%

Marci was the most contested hero at The International 11 (TI11), being picked or banned in 223 games and appearing in 96% of the games at Dota 2's world championship tournament.

Such popularity could not go unpunished, and IceFrog handed out some pretty hefty nerfs to Marci.

When Rebound was first introduced, it could be cast on allies and provided them with a 45% movement speed buff for a few seconds, and had an additional 100 radius. The spell has taken several hits since then and patch 7.32d is no exception.

Rebound's range was reduced by nearly half at level one and scales per level now, although it's still more limited than in previous patches.

Not only is Marci's mobility nerfed, but her speed as well has taken a hit, as she moves slower during Rebound.

When Marci is played as a core, the hero usually maxes out Sidekick first and then Rebound, because her Rebound mobility was the same at all levels. Since the hero needs two basic spells maxed out to do what she did before at level seven, it's likely we have seen the end of core Marci.

Sidekick provides slightly less lifesteal now but frankly that nerfs pales in comparison to what Rebound got. Marci is now unplayable in pubs, with her win rate dropping to as low as 46% (sad whistle noises).

Broodmother

Spawn Spiderlings

• Spiderling Vision radius decreased from 700 to 400

Spinner's Snare

• Root Duration decreased from 4s to 3s

Frankly, I didn't think Broodmother's nerfs would decimate the hero as much as they did.

Spiderling's Vision is usually unimportant since Broodmother would charge in with her kids when aiming targets. The vision nerf does hurt when attempting to scout out enemies in the jungle or Roshan's pit but it still doesn't explain the 3.5% win rate loss for the hero.

Spinner's Snare lost a second of root time but it's another nerf the hero can shrug off. A three-second root is still incredibly potent, especially for a hero with high movement speed such as Broodmother.

Neither nerf accounted for the hero losing more than 54% of the time, so what went wrong?

The reason comes not from Broodmother herself, but from the item build introduced late in patch 7.32d.

In the past Broodmother focused on finding solo pickoffs with Orchid. However thanks to Tundra Esports offlaner and TI11 champion Neta "33" Shapira, a new item build came into focus.

During TI11, 33 rushed Wraith Pact and Pipe of Insight in order to severely reduce the enemy's damage output.

This item build was extremely effective, as it allowed Broodmother to contribute to early team fights and remain a threat during the entire game.

Due to the nerfs Wraith Pact received, that item build is essentially dead now. Wraith Pact is still purchased by the hero in 60% of the games she's picked, but Broodmother herself has sunk to the depths of despair with a win rate that got as low as 45%.

Leshrac

Split Earth

• Aghanim’s Shard Radius bonus decreased from +75 to +60

Pulse Nova

• Now has a 1s cooldown after it is toggled off

• Damage decreased from 100/150/200 to 90/140/190

Talents

• Level 10 Talent Mana Regen decreased from +1.75 to +1.5

The biggest loser of the patch is Leshrac, who went from a 51.9% win rate to 48.2%. The hero certainly deserved some nerfs, as he was picked or banned in 150 games at TI11 and won 57% of the time.

Split Earth has a slightly smaller radius upgrade from Aghanim's Shard upgrade that is barely noticeable. The 0.25 mana regen nerf on the level 10 talent is also negligible. Pulse Nova deals slightly less damage at all levels but that nerf is also negligible at levels two and three.

So why did Leshrac lose nearly a 4% win rate when all the nerfs so far seem tiny?

The answer to that lies in a certain trick to using Pulse Nova that comes from abusing the spell's cooldown. Steve "Xcalibur" Ye explains it in the video below.

Pulse Nova could do three instances of damage in 1.1 seconds, by turning it off and on again after its second tick. This trick is no longer possible with the new 1-second cooldown when turned off.

This is a huge nerf to the spell's damage output, Leshrac farms camps slower, deals less burst damage in fights, and is overall a smaller threat than before. In 7.32c Leshrac could deal 300 damage with Pulse Nova in 1.1 seconds, in 7.32d, Leshrac now deals 180 damage in the same amount of time.

Leshrac only wins 48% of his games now, marking the end of his second reign as the killer disco pony. It'll be interesting to see if the pros continue to pick this hero or move on to greener pastures.

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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