Who are the big winners in Patch 7.32c? We take a look.
Dota 2’s newest patch, 7.32c, was released a couple of days ago. We didn’t expect Valve to come up with something new because The International is just around the corner. However, it seems like the people behind Dota 2 decided that 7.32b was not balanced enough, which is why they came up with the “final version”.
Similar to every other minor patch, this one includes small changes to certain heroes. We’ve already covered some of the nerfs and the fact that certain heroes won’t be as good as before. That said, it is time to take a look at some of the big winners of the new patch. Needless to say, we expect to see them at TI which starts around two weeks from now.
Silencer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhB-L_SEGxQ
Judging by the stats that we have access to from the first couple of days after 7.32c was released, Silencer is one of the best heroes in the game right now. The hero gained an impressive +5.29% pick rate and + 3.50% win rate, which means he is one of the best heroes right now.
Silencer is one of the interesting picks because the hero can take on a couple of roles. Many people prefer to put him in the support position because he doesn’t need a lot of items to have an impact. However, others prefer to go to the mid-lane because Silencer is really strong in a 1v1 matchup.
Although the hero didn’t receive a lot of changes in the new patch, it seems like they were enough to make him famous. Silencer gained 1 extra base armor, allowing him to be tankier early on. On top of that, the hero’s Arcane Curse now deals 40/60/80/100 instant Burn Damage when used. In other words, Silencer now has a nuke that allows him to farm faster and harass his enemies even more.
Drow Ranger
Although Clinkz and Arc Warden have a higher win rate than Drow Range, these two heroes did not receive and changes in Dota 2’s latest patch. That’s why we want to include one of the popular ranged carries on the list.
Drow Ranger is a hero that teams get when they want to focus on pushing. Despite not being the tankiest hero in the game, Drow is easily one of the best at doing damage from a distance. She deals insane amounts of damage, and her aura allows all ranged heroes to be way more dangerous. Hence, teams often combine her with the likes of Templar Assassin and Windranger.
Interestingly, the Dota 2 patch 7.31c only introduced one change. Drow Ranger now has a 300 base movement speed instead of 295, allowing her to be slightly more mobile. Another thing that may impact her is the neutral item called Dagger of Ristul. The latter now provides 15 AS instead of 10, so Drow can do even more damage.
Riki
Speaking of minor changes, the next hero on the list is Riki, one of the go-to options for PUB games. Sadly, this is not a hero we will probably see in professional games because most carry players to focus on other options.
Riki has always been a pub monster and a hero that can easily carry his team. Despite the slow farming speed, Riki has enough damage to kill most heroes, even if he has just a few items.
7.32c only includes one buff, and it is related to the hero’s Smoke Screen. Instead of having a smaller radius that increases with each level, Riki now has a 375 Smoke Screen radius across all levels. This allows him to keep his targets slown for longer, even from level 1.
Aside from being a carry, some players pick Riki to roam and gank their opponents. Thanks to the buff, the Riki support meta might be back yet again.
Meepo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agDkPbB15FE
The next big name on the list is one of the best heroes to gain MMR with. Meepo is probably the best option you can get if you want to gain MMR fast and effortlessly. Even though the hero is hard to master, those who know how to take advantage of him can easily dominate their opponents.
Although Meepo received a couple of buffs in the last couple of patches, it seems like Valve really wants to see the hero at The International. There are a couple of well-known Meepo players, so we wouldn’t be surprised if some players decide to test him.
With that said, Meepo is one of the few heroes that received significant buffs in 7.32c. Valve finally fixed the annoying issue where his illusions didn’t gain the item stored in the Rat Pack neutral slot.
The hero itself also received three buffs, two of which are for his ability called Divided We Stand. Shard Fling now has a 60% slow (up from 50%), and the damage is increased from 100 to 120.
The final change is to Dig, which now has a max health restore of 50% (it was 40% before). All those things make Meepo a viable option, so expect to see more from him in the future.
Slardar
The next name on the list is a hero that always had a role in PUB Dota 2. However, he was never that popular in professional games, except for patches that focus on right-clicking midders, such as Templar Assassin.
Slardar is one of the offlaners/position 4 with the highest win rate after the arrival of patch 7.32c. For starters, his Guardian Sprint now gives +18 bonus movement speed when the hero is in the river, which is 3% more than before.
As for Bash of the Deep, the stun duration on all levels is 1.3, whereas before, it was 1.0/1.1/ 1.2/1.3. This means that Slardar will be way more annoying in the laning stage and will be able to harass the weak safe lane carries.