The new best heroes of Dota 2 7.34

William Davis Published 09/08/2023

Dota 2 patch 7.34 is finally here, and as with any big patch, the mantle of best heroes must be passed on.

A new patch means tons of things to experiment with and explore in Dota 2. From the exciting new Shard reworks to upgraded abilities, the meta could be turned completely upside down. This patch is especially important since it will be the balance update for The International 2023. If you’re more interested in gaining MMR than earning cold hard cash, now is a great time to jump into the game and find a new hero to spam.

With the match data collected so far, here are the best heroes in Dota 2 7.34 for each role and what makes them so strong. All of the win rate change info was taken from Dotabuff.

The best heroes of Dota 2 7.34 in every role

Carry players may not have realized that Riki got buffed this patch, with losing two armor and 14 base damage. However, 12 more starting agility more than offsets those changes. Backstab is now insane at early levels, with more agility to multiple and much more attack speed to whittle down fleeing targets. Riki’s win rate has surged as a result, going from 52.22% to 57.76% just one day after the patch.

Most mid heroes were left untouched in patch 7.34, but Necrophos may be one of the best mids, thanks to an absurd new buff. Aghanim’s Scepter now converts 60% of Necrophos’ health regeneration into Heartstopper Aura damage. Heart of Tarrasque with Sange and Kaya combined with stacks from Reaper’s Scythe can turn him into a walking death ball, draining tons of HP from enemy heroes while becoming naturally tanky.

Offlaners in every region should now consider Sand King a safe pick in the second phase. Sandstorm now moves at 100-movement speed, making it a stronger escape tool while also increasing its versatility in the laning phase. The Scepter change makes the random stuns even bigger without requiring players to keep it at level one, and the Shard change to time instead of distance traveled is the cherry on top. These changes have granted Sand King the highest win rate of the patch so far at 58.47%.

Earth Spirit is a rare pick in pubs, but the buffs in 7.34 make him a much more attractive pickup for your soft support pool. Rolling Boulder now makes him completely invulnerable during the roll, stalling damage-over-time effects and turning it into a strong defensive option. Boulder Smash’s creep damage multiplier also got buffed, helping him farm during downtime. These two changes have pushed Earth Spirit to a 51.17% win rate, which is absurd for such a specialist hero.

And finally, With Doctor leads the breakout heroes of patch 7.34 with the best win rate change of any character. His win rate has risen 6.21% up to a game-breaking 56.68%, making him the most-winning position five in the game. The change to Paralyzing Cask is no big deal, but changing Death Ward to pure damage has turned its supposed counter Crimson Guard into no big deal. It now scales even better thanks to Aghanim’s Scepter letting it bounce off creeps, making Witch Doctor a lane menace and a serious late-game threat.

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