Dota 2 New Patch: 5 Biggest Changes in Patch 7.22d

Dota 2 new patch went live Sunday, as Dota 2 patch 7.22d has now been released. Here are the five biggest changes in Patch 7.22d:

5. Chen Nerfs

Chen is getting a couple of nerfs this patch. First, lower levels of Hand of God restore less HP, and more importantly Diving Favor is having its cooldown extended at Level 1 to a whopping 90 seconds. This should hard cap Chen's ability to initiate early game team rotations for tower pushes and ganks.

4. Batrider Sticky Napalm Nerfs

As long as Batrider still exists in Dota, pros will find ways to take advantage, and Icefrog will come in with the nerfs. Sticky Napalm is Batrider's bread and butter during the laning phase, and it's range now scales from a piddly 550 up to the normal 700 units. It's still the first ability you should max, so this won't change the game past level 7, but it will make it much harder to bully other players in lane.

3. Sven Nerfs

Sven is taking a minor loss to strength, a reduction to the scaling on Warcry, and an increased base cooldown on Storm Hammer. The Storm Hammer nerf is particularly noticeable, as it affects Sven's ability to fight and take lane control together with his support. Opponents laning against Sven will now have a little bit more of a window to play aggressively after Sven fails a kill attempt.

2. Riki Cloak and Dagger Buffs

Riki lost some base HP regen (3 to 1), but had HP regen added to Cloak and Dagger. His level 1 regen is the same, but in the long run this should prove to be a pretty big buff to Riki's ability to roam consistently. The fade time on Cloak and Dagger has also been improved at all levels, so it should be a bit easier to escape after attempted ganks.

1. Warlock Fatal Bonds Nerfs

Warlock is taking some heavy nerfs to Fatal Bonds that will affect all stages of the game — the cooldown is much longer at lower levels and Fatal Bonds now prioritizes units not already affected by a separate cast of the spell. This will sometimes be a huge hit to the damage Warlock deals with a refresher orb initiation, because he can no longer guarantee a double stack of Fatal Bonds on enemy heroes if there are creeps or other targets nearby.

Cover Image Courtesy of Valve Corporation