Top 5 broken hero updates in Dota 2 history

Dota 2 has had over 100 patches over the past 10 years. In a game with over 100 heroes and items, a small mistake has the potential to completely break the game.

IceFrog, an unnamed Valve employee, is the person solely responsible for balancing Dota 2. The community and pro players hold him in very high regard as he has managed to keep Dota 2 fresh and exciting for over 10 years.

However, on rare occasions, he has had some blunders producing some of the most ridiculously broken patches in Dota 2 history.

Disclaimer: This list solely reflects the opinion of the author.

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The 5 most broken updates in Dota 2

Some honorable mentions go to Monkey King on launch, Riki from 7.28 to 7.28c, Drow Ranger from 7.20 to 7.22h, and Pudge and Chen being able to hook enemies to their fountain before 6.79.

Patch 7.25 deserves a mention as well. Dubbed the Zoo meta by the community, any hero that made use of controlled units like Lycan or Beastmaster could single-handedly win games in that patch without any help.

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5. Clinkz from 7.27b - 7.27c

In 7.27b, Clinkz's ultimate Death Pact received a rework. This ability was reworked so that Clinkz can consume a creep to gain 60%/80%/100% of the creep's maximum health as bonus health and 6%/10%/14% as damage.

The community instantly figured out that if Clinkz consumed a creep with an enormous health pool, the hero can become unkillable and deal insane damage. Enchantress, Helm of the Dominator, and Lifestealer became the best combos with Clinkz as all 3 had the ability to increase a creep's max health.

For the next month, Clinkz ran rampant all over Dota 2. Even the pros started abusing the hero to win games. Valve nerfed Clinkz in 7.27c, then removed Enchantress' and Helm of the Dominator's ability to increase creep health in 7.27d ending Clinkz's death grip over Dota 2.

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4. Arc Warden 6.75 - 6.86

In patch 6.86, Arc Warden was added to Dota 2. Arc Warden has a unique ultimate, Tempest Double. The ability allowed players to summon a clone of Arc Warden which can cast abilities and use items.

However, Arc Warden's clone also had the ability to use items like Gem of Truesight and Divine Rapier without dropping them on death. This made the hero a broken mess. Since the hero had a very high skill ceiling, the exploit was not widespread and took some time to be noticed.

Players could purchase a Divine Rapier and Boots of Travel, then proceed to sit in the fountain while pushing out waves and killing enemies with the Tempest Double. The Rapier didn't drop if the Double died and no enemy hero could deal with its damage. Valve finally removed this mechanic in 6.86 just as it became popular.

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3. Vengeful Spirit 6.81

In Dota 2 6.81, Vengeful Spirit received a buff for her passive aura. Previously the passive ability, called Vengeance Aura, caused allies to gain bonus damage. In 6.81, a damage debuff was added to the aura that reduced the damage of any enemy that killed Vengeful Spirit.

For some reason, if Vengeful Spirit died to any non-hero unit like a creep or a tower, the game simply crashed for everyone. Reconnecting became impossible and the game was simply abandoned. Griefers immediately began abusing this feature to avoid losing games.

Valve hotfixed the bug a few days after the update after a huge community outrage.

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2. Chen in patch 6.75

Chen received a minor change in Dota 2 6.75. Holy Persuasion, Chen's ability which allowed him to control creeps and send allied heroes back to base, lost the latter part of its ability. The ability to send allies back to base was instead added to Test of Faith, another of Chen's skills.

For some reason, this allowed Holy Persuasion to control Roshan at level 1. The community immediately discovered the bug and started to abuse it. Chen players basically had a free reign over the map from the beginning since fighting Roshan that early is impossible.

Valve hotfixed the bug the same day and the abuse was short-lived.

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1. Centaur Warrunner 6.76

In Dota 2 6.76, Centaur Warrunner was ported to Dota 2 from the original Dota. He received a new Ultimate, Stampede, which gave all allies maximum movement speed. On top of that, if a hero under the effect of Stampede made contact with an enemy hero, they stunned them and dealt a ridiculous amount of damage.

Centaur's 2nd skill, Double Edge, and 1st skill, Hoof Stomp, also had stuns attached to them. Centaur's strength gain increased to insane levels, and the hero became impossible to kill at a very early stage. Centaur had a win rate of 67.5% on his opening day and is one of the most broken heroes in Dota 2 history.

Valve nerfed Stampede just 4 days later, removing the stun and reducing the damage. A month later he received another nerf, removing the stun from Double Edge and reducing his strength gain.