Dota 2 patch 7.25 update

Valve has dropped a big Dota 2 patch that would have most likely arrived after their postponed Major, ESL One Los Angeles 2020. Patch 7.25 brings with it a reworked All Pick alongside changes to Power Runes and comeback mechanics. There’s also a whole lot of item and hero changes.

General Changes

The prevalent Dota 2 matchmaking mode, All Pick, has been reworked to reduce the enormous advantage the last picker used to receive. Players will now have five rounds of blind picks in which Radiant and Dire only get to see the selections until the next round. With less information to go on, it’s believed that players will make better guesses in relation to the previous picks and prevents lane matchup counters.

In situations where both players make the same pick, the one who picked second receives additional time to select a different hero. A minimum of 10 heroes will also be banned in each match, with each player picking bans that have a 50% chance of succeeding. If less than ten bans are made, the game will automatically choose the remaining based on the bracket’s ban rate. Additionally, Captain Mode’s bans have changed from 3/2/1 to 4/1/1, which allows teams to ban more heroes in the opening stage. 

Comeback mechanics in the game have also been adjusted into something more straightforward that revolves around the net worth of the dying player. Hero kill sprees gold and XP bounties have received a significant increase. They’re now 200->690 for gold and 500->2040 for XP.

Items

Sixty-four items received changes, with a majority of the neutral items getting buffs. Items include Philosopher’s Stone, Nether Shawl, Enchanted Quiver, Havoc Hammerand Flicker. Faded Broach did receive a nerf though, getting reduced Mana from 225 to 200.

Boots of Travel and Nullifier got the most changes with this update, followed by Buckler and Bloodthorn. Boots of Travel had its active ability removed and will now upgrade Teleport Scrolls. These Scrolls will now set you back 90 gold instead of 50, but Boots of Travel did also receive a boost to movement speed. 

Nullifier will no longer mute enemies but will continuously dispel the target. In return for the loss of mute, the item gained a couple of stat boosts to damage, armor, duration, and cast range. Slow was also reduced from 100% for 0.4 seconds to 80% for 0.5 seconds.

Heroes

Batrider, Crystal Maiden, Ogre Magi, Rubick, and Snapfire all received small nerfs, while dozens of other heroes got buffs and reworks instead. Batrider, Rubick, and Snapfire are popular picks in the pro scene, so their nerfs make a lot more sense than that of Crystal Maiden and Ogre Magi.

Snapfire also receives her Aghanim’s Upgrade along with Void Spirit. The former’s can Gobble Up allied heroes and creeps with no minimum range and a maximum that’s just about the same as Mortimer’s Kisses. On the other hand, Void Spirit’s Resonant Pulse upgrade gives it two charges and the ability to silence for two seconds.

Several heroes received Talent changes while a relatively small number got Scepter upgrades. You can check out the full patch notes on the official website here.