Dota 2 Patch Notes: 7.21b Nerfs Hand of Midas, Buffs Crystal Maiden

Valve has officially released Patch 7.21b for Dota 2, only a few weeks after the release of a previous patch.

Patch 7.20 was released in November of last year, which revealed a reworked map and some of the biggest changes seen recently in Dota 2. Valve then released patch 7.21 at the end of January. The biggest change introduced with this update is the launch of the new ranked season. This means players now have a chance to recalibrate with rank medals offering a tier of seven stars instead of five in previous seasons.

This latest patch, 7.21b, makes some rather drastic changes. Hand of Midas has been nerfed and buffed so many times but by 7.21 it had become important enough for players to build it again. Unsurprisingly, this item has been nerfed in the latest 7.21b patch. Gold bonus from Hand of Midas is lowered from 200 to 180. This could result in a decreased use for this item.

The only general change added in the Dota 2 7.21b patch is to XP. The amount of XP earned when being denied has increased from 25 percent to 30 percent. Many gamers agree that this has only a slight effect compared to the changes done on Hand of Midas.

As expected, there are a number of changes in the heroes in patch 7.21b, with some getting nerfed while others getting some slight buffs. Bane, for example, has both Agility and Strength gain increased to 2.6 from 2.4 while Intelligence gain is lowered to 2.6 from 2.8. Anti-Mage has his base agility increased by 2. Interestingly enough, Crystal Maiden received a small buff with the Freezing Field armor now at 20 instead of 10. Weaver users would also be glad to know that under the 7.21b patch, the Geminate attack is now able to deal bonus physical damage amounting to 10/20/30/40 on the second hit.

The biggest change is probably for Io. In the past, as long as Io was tethered, the hero would not slow down. This new patch removes that effect, meaning tether now no longer makes Io unslowable. The patch also increases the manacost for Relocate to 175 from 100. What this means is that Io players will now need to consider boots and mana sources.

Valve is hoping that with this patch, players will come up with a new meta, or at the least, give other heroes a chance.

You can view the complete changelog for the 7.21b patch here.