Last time we discussed items that could definitely use some love and today we are going to concentrate on the opposite. There are several items that feel a little too good: they either cost too little or do too much. While most of them are not necessarily overpowered, they are strong enough to have a restrictive impact on the meta, hence we believe they need a couple of small nerfs.

Good balance and diverse meta are very important. In that regard Dota is, and has always been an undisputed industry leader. Yet for many of us Dota is a lot more than just a game and today we want to discuss how we would love to see the Dota experience improved outside of gameplay mechanics.

There are hundreds of items in Dota and much like heroes, most of them will find their use in an appropriate game. The latest mini-patch also widened the pool of viable items, by making a couple of team defensive options a little bit better, while also nerfing the ever-present Wraith Pact. Today we would like to talk about the items that could receive a bit of IceFrog love and why we believe it is necessary.

This week is going to be a little bit harder to pull off: the amount of quests that can be completed in co-op bot matches has been reduced, so there are no longer one or two-game freebies. That said, there is at least one quest that couldn’t come at a better time.

Last week we discussed a couple of heroes who are struggling in the current meta. Today, we are going the opposite direction. There are always some slightly overtuned heroes in Dota and we will highlight the most egregious examples of the current patch.

The grind never stops, at least for another several weeks. Weekly quests this week are once again quite easy, so they shouldn’t pose too much of a problem. As is customary, some of them even work in co-op bot matches, so playing Diretide is completely optional.

Last week we had a small gameplay patch and while it managed to deal with some of the bigger balance problems and appropriately nerf them, it didn’t help struggling heroes all that much. Today we want to look at a couple of heroes who desperately need a buff in the next version of the game.

The new patch was not a surprise. There were some small problems with the previous version of the game and given how big patches usually take a while after TI to come out, a small, “letter” mini-patch was expected. Today we are going to have a look at how it affected the meta and what heroes are suddenly over- and underperforming.

There is a very distinct trend in Dota: the moment a hero gets more popular, their win rate usually plummets. Dota is a hard game and all heroes have a lot of nuance to them. The exception to this rule occurs when a hero was previously underexplored and underestimated and we feel like it is exactly what happened with Riki.