It looks like Dota 2 is serious in slowing down the game with the latest 7.26b update. For one, denies no longer grant gold. However, deny XP given to enemies has been increased by 50%. This means it’s now focused more on levelling up.
The new update also introduced some interesting changes to Towers. Tier 1 Towers, for instance, now give +1 HP Regen Aura. Meanwhile, Tier 2/3/4 Towers now grant +3 HP Regen Aura. In addition, the health of Tier 2+ Towers have been up by 500 with damage increased by 25.
So why did we say Dota 2 wants things to slow down? Back in 7.25, both Gold and XP hero kill sprees were increased greatly. For example, Gold was increased to 480 from 60. You can read more on that here. However, by 7.25b the XP bonus was lowered.
Then came 7.26, which lowered not only the gold bounties by 10%, but also the kill streak gold by 50%. This likely was a result of seeing some games finish rather quickly. If that’s not enough, 7.26a lowered the XP bonus kill streaks even more. In addition, actual speed was tweaked with Boots now adding specific speed instead of a percentage. Read more about 7.26a here.
So what else is changing with Update 7.26b? The base bounty of Melee Creeps has been increased by +5. Meanwhile, Neutral Creeps base bounty values is now back to 10%.
What is interesting though is that talents are now 20% weaker. However, Dota 2 clarified that this only applies to talents that have numerical values. This means it also doesn’t have any effect on talents that are on or off.
There’s also a change with reliable as it’s now only from passive income. Those interested in numbers, players typically receive one gold every 0.7 seconds. Speaking of gold, the AoE Gold is now 45 + 0.033*NW.
A bit of good news though, the neutral item drop times for Tier 1 to Tier 4 have been changed from 7/15/25/40 to 7/17/27/37.
Other changes aside from the ones already mentioned focus mainly on items. These are:
- Healing Salve
- Duration increased to 10 seconds
- Same overall heal
- Gloves of haste
- Cost increased to 450
- Blades of Attack
- Cost increased to 450
- Ring of Basilius
- Recipe cost increased to 200
- Hood of Defiance
- Now has a recipe worth 200 gold
There were no hero changes this time around, but expect some changes arriving sooner rather than later.
What do you think about this latest update? Do you think this will slow down Dota 2 matches? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
