Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: Defense of the Ancients, Defense of the Ancients 2, dota, DotA 2, valve

The Latest Dota 2 Patch Made Death A Bit OP, But Players Don't Seem To Care

The latest Dota 2 patch has just hit the game's servers, and with it came a ton of balance changes meant to address the most pressing concerns with The International 7 tournament looming on the horizon. While working to fine-tune the balance, Valve nerfed the hell out of all respawn talents.

Talents, special upgrades added in patch 7.00, allow a player to invest a skill point into a tree of upgrades for their hero of choice. While some options are fairly low-key (a few extra points of health, or some added intelligence), others offer major changes to the hero's skills or provide large-scale buffs, which then become the main focus of your strategy with that character.

Naturally, heroes with talents that reduce their respawn times have been seeing a lot of competitive DOTA play. Now many will claim that the popularity of those characters isn't solely based on their respawn reduction skills, but let's be honest, being able to shave some time off your respawn timer makes you a major asset in a fight. Because those extra seconds might allow you and your team to turn a fight around because you're able to remain in play longer despite dying. Or maybe you manage to totally crush the competition because your characters are in play for longer.

Because of that, in patch 7.06, Valve and balance master IceFrog did away with all 42 respawn talents in the pool and replacing them with other talents that range from a mild buff, to major upgrades like the wisp Io regaining its tether stun at level 25 (which was patched out years ago for balance) or Warlock summoning a Golem on death.

You'd think, with all those changes, that players would be screaming about the unfairness of Valve's blanket nerf. The moment Blizzard buffed Bastion, players were immediately calling him OP and requested that his abilities be scaled back. The same was done to a few other Overwatch characters shortly after. And we all know how well players took the changes to Marvel Contest of Champions, but DOTA 2 players are proving that gamers don't just hate change. We hate unfair change, as you can tell from the immediate reactions to all parts of the massive patch on social media.

A few highlights are below for your viewing pleasure.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!