Dota 2 gets brand new items in patch 7.27 as zoo meta gets nerfed

Dota 2 update 7.27 has arrived and while designer IceFrog previously hinted that the update would be a relatively small one, it instead brought sweeping changes to the game.

No heroes were touched but almost every facet of Dota 2’s XP and gold bounty system was changed, as was a number of different areas of the map. It’s a long list of changes that will likely delight fans at all levels and should end the “zoo meta” that has dominated the pro scene over recent weeks. Many have been left frustrated by the state of the game in 7.26, which has seen the pace and aggressiveness of games slowed significantly, which should be remedied here.

The biggest change is that team fighting in Dota 2 is now much more lucrative than it has been for some time, and teams have even more reason to do so.

Gold and XP bounties for killing enemy heroes have both been increased significantly, with a higher base value and stronger scaling over time. Assist bounties were also rescaled slightly, with lower base values but stronger scaling.

The jungle was also overhauled in a number of different ways in Dota 2 update 7.27. A large selection of camps had their spawn boxes tweaked, making it either easier or harder to stack. In this vein, the dreaded Ancient Prowler camp was also removed from the game entirely. 

A number of camps were also changed. The medium camps by the mid lane tier-one towers were replaced with small camps, hindering the ability of mid laners like Shadow Fiend and Storm Spirit to snowball. Alongside this, the camps in the Radiant’s side jungle were shuffled around.

Towers were also changed to have increased attack speed, but decreased attack damage. While that’s the same overall DPS for units standing under the tower, cheeky harassment within range might be a bit trickier.

Interestingly, another change that was added was the removal of players’ ability to cut the creep wave. Lane creeps will no longer aggro onto heroes unless they are within a certain range of enemy creeps or the tier-one tower. This will make it significantly harder for heroes with summonable units to tear down creep waves to apply non-stop pressure to enemy towers.

New items added, Necronomicon nerfed in Dota 2 update 7.27

Judging from IceFrog’s previous comments stating that the rollout to 7.27 would be relatively similar to that of 7.26, which saw a small handful of significant changes to the economy followed by several other patches that then changed heroes and items, there’s much more to go over in 7.27 than players were initially expecting.

The biggest changes overall come in the form of a pair of new base items in Blitz Knuckles and the Voodoo Mask. Blitz Knuckles offers 35 attack speed for 1,000 gold while Voodoo Mask gives 12% spell lifesteal for 900 gold.

Blitz Knuckles was added to the recipes for Shadow Blade and Monkey King Bar, changing their properties significantly. Voodoo Mask can only be upgraded in Octarine Core, making it a bit less impactful.

A number of other base items also saw some major tweaks. The biggest note is that Sage’s Mask was nerfed alongside its price being dropped, with its mana regen being dropped to 0.6 from 1. Ring of Regen underwent a similar change, with its regen being dropped from 1.75 to 1.5. Early game items that are built from these such as Ring of Basilius and Headdress had their recipe costs increased, making them the same price as before.

Various items used in split pushing by heroes such as Chen and Lycan were hit with significant nerfs. 

First and foremost, Necronomicon received a number of changes that make it generally less effective for pushing including significantly reduced damage on creeps and the removal of the Archer Aura. Its passive value was also reduced through the decreased power of Sage’s Mask, with its mana regen being reduced.

Drum of Endurance no longer bestows an attack speed aura. Its passive bonuses were reimagined to still provide very strong value including good stats, mana regen, and movement speed. Its attack speed bonus for the user was also improved from +35 to +45.

Helm of the Dominator no longer has an aura effect, and instead further empowers dominated units. Once again, this should make it slightly less devastating for solo pushes.

Vladimir’s Offering was also given a big change. The armor aura and passive stats were removed and lifesteal aura was nerfed. Offsetting this is an attack damage aura and slightly increased mana regen.

Low-tier neutral items nerfed, high-tier items buffed

Alongside the numerous changes to regular items were changes to a wide variety of neutral items. Generally speaking, this made for a clearer divide between each tier of neutral items with low-tier items being nerfed and high-tier items receiving buffs.

Arcane Ring’s armor, Faded Broach’s movement speed, Clumsy Net’s stats, and so on, were all worsened. On the flipside to this, Flicker’s blink active ability was improved, as was Magic Lamp’s healing effect and Havoc Hammer’s active effect, and Prince’s Knife’s cooldown.

This pattern wasn’t entirely rigid however, as Philosopher’s Stone had its attack damage debuff lessened and Illusionist’s Cape’s illusions now take increased damage.

Dota 2 players will also notice that each tier of neutral items will only drop one consumable item now. Previously, teams could be burned by being dropped Mango Tree and Royal Jelly for tier-one items, as this would ultimately leave just two heroes with actual items in their inventories for the first 17 minutes of the game.

This was changed so that if a team has a Royal Jelly drop, it will no longer receive a Mango Tree and vice versa. This also applies to Repair Kit and Great Faerie Fire in tier three.

This is actually just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the changes introduced in Dota 2’s 7.27 update. Make sure to check out the full patch notes on the official Dota 2 blog.