It appears that Icefrog has a lot of time on his hand as a new update for Dota 2 has been released. This comes just two days after Update 7.25 was released. Update 7.25a isn't a large patch, but it makes tweaks, or rather nerfs, for five heroes. Four of these had been adjusted in patch 7.25. Let's look at those changes.
BOUNTY HUNTER
This hero had one of the biggest changes recently, particularly as his Scepter ability got reworked. However, he also had his talents changed, having level 15 focus on the Shurkn Toss Damage and the Attack Speed for Level 20.
That appears to have bee too powerful since patch 7.25a reduces the Shuriken Toss Damage for the Level 15 Talent from +75 to +65. That's quite a significant amount. However, for the Level 20 Talent the new update didn't touch on the Attack Speed. Instead it changed the Jinada Gold Steal from +90 to +65. This is likely an answer to the reworked Scepter Ability.
MEEPO
Meeppo got hit with a nerf in this update. While he was untouched in 7.25, it looks as if there were plans to tone the hero down. The XP gain for the Divided We Stand clone, for example, has been reduced to 30%. The Strength gain to his Level 10 Talent was lowered as well as it's now +8.
NIGHT STALKER
Night Stalker had a pretty good day (or should it be good night?) with update 7.25, as his base stats got buffed. However that may have been too much as he has been rebalanced with 7.25a.
His base intelligence may have been increased in the last update, but in this one this Strength gain has been lowered to 3. The change to his Void skill should give small relief to opponents as damage been reduced to 80/10/240/320. One of his Level 25 Talent was nerfed in 7.25 and for 7.25a it's the other Talent that gets it. Hunter in the Night Attack Speed is now +100 instead of +110.
URSA
Of the five heroes in update 7.25a, it's Ursa that had the biggest change. While his Overpower may been nerfed a bit, it was more than made up for with the changes to Enrage. It's not surprising then to know that when update 7.25 dropped, pick rate and win rate for Ursa increased. It was only natural that he would be nerfed. The question was mainly when and not if.
For update 7.25a, the damage for his Fury swipes was lowered to 9/18/27/36. This is still higher though compared to pre-7.25.
The Overpower cooldown had originally been rescaled and lowered to 16/13/10/7. The latest update rescales it to 15/13/11/9. The changes mean that cooldown is bit longer when Ursa reaches higher levels. Ursa players may also need to deal with the reduction in movement speed by 5. This means it's going to be a bit difficult for Ursa to chase down an opponent now.
VISAGE
Finally we have Visage. One of his skills is known as Gravekeeper's Cloak and it lets him generate a barrier to protect him from damage. In Update 7.25, he had his Level 25 Talent changed from -2s Gravekeeper's Cloak to +6 Gravekeeper's Cloak Stacks. The means at Level 25, Visage can have a total of 10 stacks, meaning it's going to be difficult to kill him.
To address this problem, the maximum damage reduction to his Gravekeeper's Cloak is now capped at 80%.
That’s pretty much update 7.25a. Don’t breathe a sigh of release just yet. The WeSave! Charity Play has just started and we’re going to see how the meta is going to change. If there’s a hero that’s going to be too strong, then we can expect another update in the next few days. To watch the WeSave! Charity Play, read more about it here.
