Patch 7.41: Community Reaction

On March 25, Valve released a major patch 7.41, the main feature of which was the removal of all facets. Active members of the Dota 2 community have already shared their thoughts on the update, and we’ve compiled their opinions in this post.

Former professional player and analyst Brian BSJ Canavan noted that removing facets reduces complexity and makes the balance more stable:

“I honestly think it'll be a positive for the game moving forward that there's no longer kind of that balancing nightmare of facets in the game. And there were also a lot of heroes that were receiving nerfs to their general kit because one of their facets was too good. And I never liked that. Useless facets were effectively removed from the game. Most of the commonly picked facets were left in the game by adding them to default abilities.”

PARIVISION`s midlaner Vladimir No[o]ne Minenko discussed which Tier 1 teams this patch benefits:

“I think we were mainly talking about how Tundra got a buff because all of Neta’s [33] heroes are very strong right now. The changes in the game suit fast-paced teams like Liquid and Tundra more than they do us. But what might help us is that the game feels fresh — no one really knows what to do yet, so we can come up with our own strategies. I think Dota will become much faster. Maybe by the 17-minute mark, it’ll already be clear who’s going to win.”

OG carry Rolen Andre Skem Gabriel Ong did not appreciate the hero reworks and considers only the changes affecting map objects — the Tormentor, Roshan’s timing, and the twin portals — to be significant. Streamer Kamil Koma Biktimirov also commented on the macro changes in the game:

“The fact that they removed a camp of ancients — that definitely changed the game. There used to be too much of an advantage to farm rather than go fight. Now there’s less gold; it’s unclear how much this will affect things. The Tormentor has been made stronger and it gives less gold. This means there will either be intense fighting over it, or players will just ignore it because it’s hard to take down and the gold reward is low. A lot has changed, and it’s interesting to figure it all out. The new items are good.”

Content creator Yaroslav NS Kuznetsov shared his thoughts on the new items in Dota 2, noting which ones he considers weak or extremely effective:

“I don’t know if people will buy Hydra’s Breath, because it looks cool in theory, but in practice — it’s unclear. The item is expensive; you just have to test it. Essence Distiller is definitely broken. That’s 100%. Crella’s Crozier is a mystery. It might be brutal on certain heroes, maybe Leshrac or some Necrophos. Consecrated Wraps is definitely broken trash. It looks like an item for supports, but I think offlaners and even carries will buy it.”

Members of the Team Spirit roster — Nikita Panto Balaganin, Ilya Yatoro Mulyarchuk, and Magomed Collapse Khalilov — listed the heroes likely to be in the meta. Panto considers Phoenix, Oracle, and Lich to be strong supports. For carries, Yatoro highlighted Lifestealer, Terrorblade, and Morphling, while for offlaners, Collapse named Bristleback, Doom, and Lycan as effective picks. According to the esports players, Jakiro, Warlock, Treant Protector, Windranger, Techies, Storm Spirit, Largo, and Jakiro will fall out of the meta.

You can find detailed information about all the changes in Patch 7.41 on the game’s official website or in the Dota 2 client.

As CyberScore previously reported, Sikle discovered a critical bug with Invoker and Tormenator in Patch 7.41.