As promised by icefrog and other DOTA 2 developers, we will be receiving two parts of 7.27 that will bring about major changes and a big refresh to the game. The first part of the major patch covered economic adjustments as well as a ton of item changes, it was then quickly followed by 7.27a which was a minor update for two items: Helm of the Dominator and Monkey King Bar.

Now we get part two and it’s all about hero changes. Honestly, this was quite a long list of change logs. We will be focusing on the biggest winners and losers of the patch and give my take as to which heroes, I think would see more playing time and bump up their win rate and which heroes could probably be sidelined.

Before we go to the highlight of this patch, it is worth mentioning that Silver Edge, Mjolnir, Solar Crest, and Abyssal Blade may no longer be disassembled, while Echo Sabre was granted that option. Monkey King Bar was adjusted again in this patch as it will require you 200 more gold now, while Hand of Midas on the other hand costs 100 less gold.

Biggest Winners

Clinkz
Clinkz probably had the biggest rework in this patch. Searing Arrows now deal more damage and Strafe now grants 100 percent evasion from ranged attacks aside from the attack speed bonus. His Skeleton Walk now provides invisibility that does not reveal even when casting skills and movement speed increase with a duration that is longer than its cooldown! Death Pact is now his ultimate which allows him to consume a friendly or enemy creep, gaining a percentage of its hit points as health and damage, while Burning Army is now a Scepter ability.

Bloodseeker
After this major overhaul to a couple of his skills, he seems to be like a totally different hero now. His skill Bloodrage had the biggest change as it used to be a buff/debuff that lowers the target’s defense while raising damage output and regain health with kills, now Bloodrage saps up to 24% health while offering attack speed and spell damage and can be cast without interrupting movement. Thirst has now gained the ability to restore health upon killing units, it no longer grants increase in attack speed but still offers true sight along with movement speed increase.

Razor
Razor has been buffed overall, he received stat gain and almost all of his spells have been improved in all ways, his Plasma Field’s cooldown has been reduced, Storm Surge movement speed has been increased for all levels, and his ultimate’s damage has been bumped up as well. The change that could have just turned him into a broken hero for this patch though is the rework on his Static Link, this skill no longer disarms Razor while doing invisible attacks through the link, instead it now allows you to attack without interrupting movement.

Chaos Knight
Phantasm’s cooldown has been extremely reduced from 125s to 75s with illusions now back to dealing 100% of his damage, in exchange, the illusions are less tanky and the illusion count has been reduced from min/max 3 it now scales per level 1/2/3. The Chaos Strike has also been changed to being triggered at a 30% proc chance instead of having a cooldown, this just makes this hero scale better with attack speed items. I think this hero is one of the carries that gets a better item build-up, an early Armlet and Echo Sabre grants him damage while solving his mana issues and increases his chance to proc Chaos Strike with the Echo Sabre passive. This makes for a perfect build-up into a Silver Edge which will increase his survivability, mobility and surprise factor, not to mention the Break you gain from the first strike at the end of your invisibility.

Terrorblade
The mere fact that he no longer loses movement speed during metamorphosis is an extremely big change and might be the only change he needed. This makes him harder to kite now especially if he gets Dragon Lance into a Hurricane Pike, this single change is already enough for me to expect more of him even at the pro scene.

Invoker
The Exort Invoker may be back. A slight increase in his base damage, a rework of his Forge Spirits which received an improve attack time of 1.35 from 1.5, more importantly no longer requires mana for Melting Strike, and a change from +50 Chaos Meteor contact damage into +30% Chaos Meteor damage for his level 10 talent plus a cheaper Hand of Midas all seem to be a good look for an Exort Invoker.

Biggest Losers

Wraith King
The Skeleton King lost all of his passive damage and self-bonus from Vampiric Aura which is most probably around 30 damage free, now it’s just gone. Yes, the lifesteal from his Vampiric Aura has been increased but I don’t think it is enough to compensate for the passive damage that he needs for the early game as he farms for his Radiance.

Ursa
The increased cooldown for Enrage and Earthshock is probably gonna hurt him a lot. Also, the change in his level 20 talent that turned the +1.2 Enrage Duration into -3s Earthshock cooldown is just not worth it at all, removing the option of increasing Enrage’s duration while increasing its cooldown as well has made his ultimate a whole lot weaker. Earthshock slows you less now at only 40% from 55% at max level while providing enemies a bigger timing window of not being slowed with the increased cooldown just made this hero a lot easier to kite.

Do you have any other ideas as to who might be considered as winners of the patch considering their reworks in combination with item adjustments? What about other heroes that may be considered as Losers? Let us know!