Dota 2: The 5 biggest winners and losers of Patch 7.29

It has been a week since Valve released the 7.29 patch for Dota 2 and now seems to be a good time to see how the patch affected the game.

In addition to the numerous gameplay and mechanics changes, Valve also released a new hero. The new hero dominated the online forums for the first few days, but people slowly realized which heroes were buffed or nerfed too much as things started to settle down.

As with every patch, some heroes are absolutely broken, while some are totally unusable. This article dives into the five heroes that gained the most from 7.29 and five heroes that lost the most.

Note: This list solely reflects the author's opinions. All the statistics are sourced from dotabuff.com.

Read: Why Dawnbreaker is one of the most versatile heroes in Dota 2 update 7.29

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The 5 biggest losers of Dota 2 7.29

5. Broodmother

Broodmother is mostly played as a cheese, last pick hero. One of the more annoying heroes in the game, Broodmother, has to be countered in the draft, or she will carry the game solo.

People have been critical of her design and it doesn't come as a huge surprise that she underwent a complete rework. She lost her passive ability and was ultimately nerfed to the ground with a basic ability. Her shard upgrade ability got nerfed and turned into a basic ability as well.

Her Spawn Spiderlings basic ability was turned into an ultimate and buffed up considerably. But that wasn't enough to stop her win rate from freefalling from 50.28% to 43.18%. She has the fourth-lowest win rate out of all heroes in Dota 2 at the moment.

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4. Monkey King

Being one of the most popular heroes in Dota 2 means any changes, no matter how small, will have a huge impact. That is exactly what happened with Monkey King, as some small nerfs absolutely wrecked the hero.

His base health regeneration was reduced by 0.,5, and his Tree Dance and Boundless Strike abilities had a 100 cast range reduction. But his Aghanim's Upgraded soldiers were the most nerfed.

These soldiers who spawned around MK no longer attack Roshan, miss attacks, and disappear if MK dies.

These nerfs were enough to reduce Monkey King's win rate from 51.10% to 45.67% for 7.29. He remains one of the most picked heroes in Dota 2, with a pick rate of 12.2,% down from 15.8%.

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3. Death Prophet

This might surprise some people as the hero didn't really get nerfed that hard in 7.29. She received a few buffs, but the nerfs were specifically targeted. She was one of the most picked heroes in the Dota 2 pro scene before 7.29.

Death Prophet played as a mid-laner, an off-laner, and a support in the last patch owing to her amazing attributes. Her base damage was reduced, and she lost 15 base movement speed. Before that, she was the single fastest hero in Dota 2. Her shard also received considerable nerfs.

She also lost her cast range talent but got a movement speed buff in its place. But the nerfs to her base stats were enough to drop her win rate from 49.26% to 44.11%, the third-largest drop among all heroes in Dota 2.

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2. Alchemist

During TI9, Alchemist was one of the most broken heroes in the game. Insanely strong in every aspect, Alchemist was one of the most contested heroes for months. It recently found a new role off-lane as an Aghanim Scepter supply factory.

He received just one nerf to his passive Greevil's Greed reducing bonus gold cap from 18/21/24/27 to 15/18/21/24. This reduction in Alchemist's ability to earn ridiculous amounts of gold basically removed him from the active meta.

His win rate went from 52.63% to 47.28%, the second-largest drop in win rate amongst all heroes in Dota 2.

Related: Top 5 hard supports in Dota 2 update 7.29

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1. Lycan

The nerf to Lycan wasn't really a nerf. In fact, he was buffed a lot in 7.29. His agility gain was increased, the mana cost of his first ability was reduced, his passive damage bonus was increased considerably, and even his ultimate received some buffs.

The only nerf was to his Aghanim's Scepter ability, which affected Lycan's allies. The sole reason for Lycan's fall from grace is the removal of Necronomicon from Dota 2.

Ever since March of 2005, Necronomicon has been an integral part of Dota 2. The item summons two units with their own unique abilities that the user controls.

Lycan's ultimate gave him and his controlled units increased movement speed and a chance to deal bonus critical damage. As a result, no hero benefited more from Necronomicon than Lycan. Removing the item from Dota 2 basically removed Lycan's greatest weapon from the game.

Unlike Beastmaster, who received sufficient buffs to keep the hero still viable, Lycan's buffs aren't close enough to make the hero useful. His win rate plummeted from 50.24% to 35.74%. His current win rate is one of the lowest in Dota 2 history.

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The 5 biggest winners of Dota 2 7.29

5. Drow Ranger

Drow used to be one of the most popular carry heroes in Dota 2 at one point. She fell from grace after several reworks to her ultimate and passive ability. But in 7.29, she received some buffs, and the in-game mechanics were changed in her favor.

Previously, Drow's turn rate was atrocious. However, turn rates improved for every hero in the game in 7.29. Moreover, Drow's Shard upgrade was massively buffed.

Her talent tree was also improved, and she even got buffs to her Gust ability. Another thing that worked in her favor is the nerfs to certain mobility items like Abyssal Blade.

Drow's only weakness is when enemy heroes can get within melee range of her, which has been made very difficult in 7.29. Her win rate jumped up from 48.58% to 53.32%, and she looks to be more viable than she ever was in 7.28.

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4. Faceless Void

Faceless Void is still not the best carry in Dota 2. He was an absolute menace less than a year ago, with him being one of the most picked heroes in the game. But several nerfs later. He is completely ignored. However, with the latest changes, he might make a return.

Void received buffs all over the place. He gained base armor, got buffs to his shard, which buffed his Time Walk ability, the damage dealt by Time Lock increased, and even Chronosphere received buffs. But most importantly, his Time Dilation ability, which was considered a useless ability, received huge buffs.

The pros have started playing Void once again, and he is slowly making a comeback. His win rate went from 45.24% to 49.21%, which is still bad but much better than before.

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3. Meepo

A hero that is hated by the Dota 2 community, Meepo is a smurf's go-to. Capable of single-handedly winning games, several smurfs and boosters exclusively use this hero to ruin games. He had several nerfs over some patches and was off-meta for a very long time.

In 7.29, small changes were made to his abilities, but his Aghanim's Shard upgrade was the biggest change.

With his new shard ability, Meepo can Poof his allies instead of his clones. This allows him to join fights from anywhere on the map and basically removes any movement restrictions he has.

His win rate shot up from 48.8% to 53.21%. His pick rate of 1.8% is one of the lowest in Dota 2, but he is certainly more fun to play.

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2. Phantom Lancer

Phantom Lancer is another immensely popular hero in Dota 2. His inclusion might come as a surprise since he received nerfs in this patch. But being a hero that thrives on not being countered, the small buffs he received were enough to catapult him to one of the best carries of the patch.

Something that worked in PL's favor was buffing every single one of his core items.

The Diffusal Blade was buffed a lot in 7.29, and it is a must-have item for PL. Also, PL received a massive buff to his Aghanim's Shard upgrade. The new Shard coupled with the buffed diffusal blade makes PL extremely strong.

His win rate went from 50.10% to 54.86%, and he made a comeback to the pro scene.

He also saw one of the largest increases in the pick rate, going from 8.52% to 12.22%. Ana from OG also played PL in a very entertaining match recently.

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1. Huskar

The most broken hero in Dota 2 today is undoubtedly Huskar. The 7.29 update almost looks like it was made for Huskar. Already a very annoying hero to play against, he received buffs, and the changes to in-game mechanics favored him, making him even more unbearable.

Huskar has now increased strength gains, increased knock-back duration on Inner Fire, and reduced health costs on Burning Spears.

But most importantly, for some reason, his Shard upgrade allows Huskar to cast Inner Fire while disabled, reduce enemy healing, slowly disarm the enemy, and knock them back.

With a shard, Huskar can cast Inner Fire every eight seconds with a downtime of just four seconds, which is insane.

Finally, two of Huskar's most important items, The Armlet of Mordiggian and Satanic, received huge buffs, making this character even more broken.

Huskar has the highest win rate in Dota 2 as of this moment, with 55.32% up from 48.47%.

His pick rate nearly doubled from 5% to over 10%. If any hero in Dota 2 deserves a nerf immediately, it's Huskar.