Last time, we looked at the biggest winners of the 7.30, but today’s lot isn’t as lucky. Looking at the biggest losers of the patch and comparing their direct nerfs to the actual effects on the win rate often helps identify broad meta trends that can have a disproportionate impact on certain heroes. That is exactly what we are going to do today.

The 7.30 patch left something to be desired for those of us hoping for sweeping changes to the game. However, the number tweaks on most heroes and some item adjustments have done enough to change the trajectory of several heroes. Before we dive into the “biggest winners” of patch 7.30, keep in mind that many of these conjectures are made from looking at the public data.

While waiting for the new data to gain significance and the latest mini-patch to have a calculable effect on the meta, we decided to do something fun: look at the Dota 2 hard disables and arrange them in a tier list. This post is definitely going to be subjective and we are not claiming otherwise, so feel free to share your opinions as well. Without further ado, let’s get started!

New patch — new meta? Today we are discussing our first impressions of the 7.30 gameplay update and share our opinions on what it means for the game.

With a patch coming some time soon, it would be unwise to look at the current meta, so instead, we are going to concentrate on a topic that was directly and indirectly mentioned in a lot of our blog posts. It appeared in complaints, meta recaps, wishlists, and even individual hero showcases, and it made us realize how important the understanding of it is to an average player. Today, we are going to talk about dispels.

In our recent articles we have talked a lot about the powerful influence of the carry role in Dota. We have also discussed how many other roles have showcased heroes meant to capitalize on and enhance this carry-centric metagame. Heroes like Dark Seer, Grimstroke and Winter Wyvern perform digital judo to turn the tides and use an opposing carry against their own team. With all this in mind seems a bit of an egregious oversight at this point to not have talked about Shadow Demon. Currently sitting below 5% pick rate in every MMR bracket below Divine, Shadow Demon checks a lot of important boxes for a support.

There are very few things in the game that are as frustrating as a well-played, late-game Tinker. With the rise of Agility hard carries, it is only natural their equally greedy counter is back in the meta, but in the end, it is all of us who have to suffer. So today we want to take some time to figure out ways of dealing with Tinker.

Is it possible that Dark Seer is the answer to the late game bias and slow pace of Dota's current metagame? With an overall 54% win rate, it may just be time to revisit this classic choice — as unappealing as his popularity suggests that might be!

While the Necronomicon removal was widely celebrated, it is impossible to deny that a sizable strategic layer was removed from the game. The current patch rarely allows for an immediate translation of a lane advantage into tight map control and the absence or low popularity of pushing tools is one of the big reasons. But can heavy push make a comeback without Necronomicon being reintroduced to the game?