Added Dawn Breaker to Captain Mode, reptiles nerfed, meta heroes and items adjusted.
Less than a month before The International 10, Valve continues to keep gamers on their toes.
The 11c Dota 7.30 update on September 2, a little less than a month ago, brought some sweeping changes to the meta that evolved after the 7.30 patch. The newest hero, Dawnbreaker, will likely debut on the main stage in Romania without any changes to her gear before being added to competitive Captain Mode.
Many of the patch's defining hard carriers like Sven and Clinkz have been nerfed, both directly and indirectly. All stacked neutral reptile gold and experience rewards are nerfed by 15 percent, but whoever made the stack will still get the bonus, making the hypertransport farming strategy less efficient.
Sven's selections will also be delayed by adjustments to several item options. Echo Saber was one of the most popular items of the patch, often taken by melee cores, thanks to its effective stats that are more than the sum of its parts and can be disassembled for the Black King Bar. Sange and Yasha, along with Sange and Kaya, have weakened their stat resistance and increased Silver Edge's cooldown.
Beastmaster and Lycan, proponents of the zoo strategy, have both been nerfed. Summoners also saw the Overlord's Helmet slightly changed, now giving less efficient stats, and his controlled creep now grants 200 gold instead of 250.
New to the meta, Omniknight has probably taken the hardest hit. Hero's Heavenly Grace can now be dispelled, making Eul's Scepter of Divinity and Nullifier higher priority items against the hero buff.
Keeper of the Light's Illuminate spawned three Null Talisman builds that could possibly restore one-shot creep waves and reduce their effectiveness in teamfights, taking light nerfs to its damage, cooldown, and travel speed.
Other nerfs for popular heroes include changes to Pangolier, Batrider, Night Stalker, Bane, Monkey King, and Vengeful Spirit. While the patch mostly focused on tweaking popular heroes and items, many received minor buffs in hopes of showing up in TI10.
With little time left for the leading Dota 2 event, this will likely be the last sub-patch unless something breaks.