Patch 7.32e has been a disappointment thus far as Dota 2 fans were aching for the major update 7.33 instead. While boring, it did bring much needed balancing on the once chaotic and dull Dota 2 patch, when the most picked heroes are Lina Hard Carry and Riki Support. While Lina works well as a hard carry due to her balanced stats sheet, Riki is disgustingly picked for his Aghanim’s Shard ability.
Source: Dota 2
Riki’s Shard
Riki’s Shard ability was a new active skill that came prior to 7.32 patch. It puts a target to sleep for a long duration. Long enough for Riki to set up Meteor Hammer for a follow-up stun, or in most instances, an ally stun works well too.
This leaves no room for counterplay, besides luxury items, such as Manta or BKB to avoid the skill. However, these are expensive lifelines, which have long cooldowns, so most heroes are doomed when Riki is sneakily hunting them down.
With a whopping 63% winrate across 50+ matches in the first Tour of Dota Pro Circuit 2023 (DPC 2023). It’s undeniably broken that such a hero combo passed Icefrog’s skill balance checks. Anyways, the skill is here to stay in 7.32e with a relatively small nerf to its target range.
Lina Hard Carry
We recently concluded Lina is the best carry in Dota Patch 7.32d and for good reasons. Lina has great lane sustain thanks to her utility nukes and stuns. Most heroes that are great counters against Lina in the midgame, often couldn’t hold their ground against Lina’s better lanes.
As such, Lina players get the luxury of midgame dominance, as well as an affordable item build. With only BKB and Gleipnir, Lina can already pose a massive threat against most carry opponents since these items offer survivability, stats, and a strong long-ranged AOE disable.
If anything, perhaps it’s Lina’s staple items, Dragon Lance and Gleipnir that have been overpowered previously, such that it indirectly makes Lina the ideal carry. Boasting 60% win rate across 40 games in DPC 2023 is a feat on its own, considering how heavily Lina gets priority ban.
In patch 7.32e, Lina receives nerfs on every skill and even her primary item, Gleipnir and Hurricane Pike reduced in range and damge.
Source: Valve / Dota 2
Treant Protector Support
Played abundantly in pro games recently, Treant is typically an unpopular support choice for most pub players. Despite that, Treant has always had decent lane potential thanks to his elusiveness and high base attack.
However, what placed Treant among the best supports are his first and second skills. The second skill, Leech Seed offers tremendous healing for your ally carry, while also posing kill potential with its slow. Couple that with Nature’s Grasp in the right position, and an enemy hero will have a rough time escaping.
Unlike Riki, whose Shard skill is too ridiculous to even keep. Treant’s skill set and stats are still reasonable. Well, unfortunately, we never anticipated Icefrog to completely remove his regen passive while in Nature’s Guise. This makes Treant a hero that struggles in the lane, giving his prior role as a lane dominator.
The Dota 2 Patch 7.32e Losers
The DPC 2023’s first Tour sheds light on what are the most broken heroes in the current Dota 2 patch. While Icefrog nerfed the top picks mentioned, here are more losers that you don’t want to pick.
On paper, Naga Siren’s ultimate is already a double-edged sword, so having her other skills get nerfed made her unplayable. Shorter cast range and longer cooldowns only made playing Naga more punishing than rewarding despite her fight-winning abilities.
Rubick is also a popular hero choice, so having his perk of reduced cooldown removed certainly deters players now. Drow Ranger also has a strong passive, her Marksmanship ultimate, which now offers half of its damage bonus. And, perhaps good news for support players is Broodmother’s nerfs on her Spider Web speed bonus and cooldowns.
Even then, supports will be disappointed to know that their favorite support item, Guardian Greeves, receives yet another nerf since its last update.
Mars, similarly, requires timely and fortunate set-ups using his Spear of Mars. In scenarios, where Mars doesn’t have Arena available, his best shot would be to land it on a connecting tree or wall. Even then, it’s a hit-or-miss that many Mars players can relate to.
When is the Dota 2 Patch 7.33 coming out?
With the Dead Reckoning Update, Valve indicated that we can look forward to the Dota 2 update 7.33 by April 2023. When it does, Muerta won’t be the only exciting, new element of Dota 2 in year 2023, but we can expect massive reworks on hero skills, new items, and even mechanics.
Until then, enjoy the Dead Reckoning mini game and stomping your pubs with this Muerta Dota 2 Guide.
