Dota 2 released its latest update with 7.22h. There were only five heroes that received changes, but all of them were pretty much nerfed. Some items were nerfed as well. This latest update is pretty interesting considering that the new season starts in a month or so.
Before we go to the hero changes, the general change that came with the update is that Basic Neutrals now give 5% less XP. If you recall in Update 7.22g, Basic Neutrals were changed so that it gave 5% less bounty. It is likely that Valve wants players to focus more on fighting instead of farming. This is going to pose a problem for heroes like Anti-Mage and Alchemist, among others.
The biggest changes were done on Night Stalker. For one, his attack speed under Hunter in The Night has been lowered to 20/40/60/80 from 30/50/70/90. In addition, the duration of his Crippling Fear has been reduced as well and is now 4/5/6/7 instead of 5/6/7/8. That's not all, as his Talents also received some changes. One of his Level 20 Talents has Damage reduced to +40 from +50. Further, the additional attack speed to Hunter in the Night for Level 25 was lowered as well to +110 from +140.
Mirana's Leap attack speed has been lowered to 25/50/75/100, which is a rather large decrease from 60/80/100/120. The Scared Arrow projectile speed is now 900, down from 950. Kunkka's cooldown increased for two skills. Ghost Ship cooldown is now 70/60/50 with X Marks the Spot cooldown now at 34/26/18/10.
Tiny's damage for his Avalanche was lowered to 75/150/225/300 with the cooldown of Toss increased and scaled from 11 for all levels to 17/15/13/11. This change is going to affect his roaming ability.
If you've been playing Dota 2, the changes to these four heroes are not surprising considering that they remain to be the most popular in a number of tournaments.
The fifth hero that got nerfed is Windranger, who had her Level 10 Talent for Mana Regen now offer +2 rather than +3.
The other changes are for items that had their armor reduced. These are Medallion of Courage, Solar Crest, and Phase Boots. What is interesting is that the Ring of Protection is no longer available in the side shop. What this means is that this is going to alter how some players make their builds.
Overall, these changes point to one thing we mentioned earlier: Valve is still hoping players will focus more on fighting as this results in shorter games.
