Tinker gets a massive rework as Dota patch 7.30 arrives

At long last, Dota 2’s 7.30 patch has arrived, and it has brought the extraordinary number of changes that fans have been expecting.

After a bit of a misfire with a premature announcement on Facebook, the patch arrived on Tuesday night bringing significant changes to a long list of characters. It also brought some changes to key mechanics in the game related to how items and talents interact with each another.

The 7.30 Gameplay Update is live! https://t.co/ERMrXgJFNV pic.twitter.com/pCYkSoySaQ

— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) August 18, 2021

Possibly the biggest change overall is the introduction of more neutral items to each individual game. Instead of teams receiving four items for each tier, they’ll receive five. This will ensure that each player on a team can get a neutral item from each tier, and also removes some of the randomness that stems from uncertainty over which neutral items will drop during the game.

Roshan received a significant nerf, with the second Roshan kill no longer dropping cheese. This is guaranteed to slow things down in the mid game, and should make getting the second Roshan kill a less significant power spike.

Percentage-based cooldown reductions no longer stack, which is a big hit to certain heroes. The primary targets are heroes that could have easily stacked cooldown reductions from talents, Octarine Core, and Arcane Blink, such as Enigma. Those reductions no longer stack and with that in mind, Valve removed many of those talents. Flat cooldown reductions to specific spells like Faceless Void’s new level 15 -1.5 second Time Walk cooldown talent can still stack with Octarine Core.

Critical hit probabilities were changed when multiple sources of crit are in play. This will result in something like a random chance of crits, with a lower chance of having multiple critical hits back-to-back and a lower chance of having multiple hits without a crit proc.

On the esports front, a big change is coming to drafting. The second pick phase will no longer alternate. Instead, the side that picked first will choose, followed by two picks for their opponents, followed by one last pick before the next round of bans.

Multiple Neutral Items removed in Dota 2 update 7.30

new favorite item pic.twitter.com/bVKyv2oQGo

— iceiceice (@iceiceicedota) August 18, 2021

A slew of Neutral Items were rebalanced and a number were removed entirely from Dota 2 with the 7.30 update. The most notable removal is Illusionist’s Cape, an item that was unremarkable on the majority of heroes but was OP on some heroes like Axe. Faded Brooch and Imp Claw, two of the more powerful neutral items within their tiers, were also given the boot.

Replacing them are new items with more unique mechanics.

Tumbler’s Toy is effectively a tier-one alternative to Blink Dagger that blinks the hero forward 300 units. The Blast Rig is a tier-three item that delivers 300 damage to all enemy heroes within a 300 AOE. On the higher end, Arcanist’s Armor is a tier-five Neutral Item that effectively works as Blade Mail combined with Pipe of Insight.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, as many other items were added, removed, or changed.

Tinker reworked in Dota 2 patch 7.30

There were plenty of buffs and nerfs to be had in Dota 2’s 7.30 update, alongside some very interesting new abilities being added to the game.

I was already prepared for this pic.twitter.com/RX6vU6VHgy

— Brax (citron risk management) (@braxlikesdota) August 18, 2021

Broodmother’s Aghanim’s Scepter was redone to effectively let her create tripwires that root, damage, and reveal enemies in the fog of war. Dawnbreaker’s Starbreaker ability was nerfed as she received her first Aghanim’s Scepter ability that greatly empowers her Solar Guardian ultimate. Carry Axe was removed from the game, with Aghanim’s Shard now giving a debuff on enemies hit by Counter Helix that reduces attack damage. The list goes on.

But the biggest change of all was effectively a rework for Tinker that turns him into a roaming nuker rather than the frantic pusher players have always known him to be.

March of the Machines and Defense Matrix swapped places, with March now being an Aghanim’s Shard ability while Defense Matrix is Tinker’s E spell. Both were given new mana costs and cooldowns to reflect this change. On top of that, Laser has 100% splash damage in a sizable AOE, allowing Tinker to still efficiently wipe out creep waves.

Tinker also has a new fifth ability, Keen Conveyance, which serves as a second ultimate ability similar to that of Dark Willow. Keen Conveyance effectively serves to replace Boots of Travel, working like a Town Portal Scroll at level six, like Boots of Travel at level 12, and like Boots of Travel 2 at level 18. It has an 80-second cooldown, but this can be reset using Rearm.

It will be interesting to see how the new Tinker works and what role he will fall into.