Dota 2 Patch 7.30d Best Heroes

It seems that IceFrog is feeling a bit pressured by the upcoming TI10 and wants to make sure that all the heroes are viable while none of them is completely overpowered. So to balance things out, he’s released another small patch. Dota 2 patch 7.30d revives Broodmother, nerfs a bunch of heroes (no, not Crystal Maiden) and items but also gives many others the boost they need to make you want to pick them. In this article, I’ll have a look at 5 of the best Dota 2 patch 7.30d heroes.

Bristleback

Bristleback is one of those heroes you hate playing against but also don’t feel like picking yourself. Not anymore. Now you will both hate playing against him and love picking him as often as the matchup allows it. And that’s because his ultimate got buffed significantly.

Warpath stacks now last for 16/18/20 seconds and you can have up to 5/7/9 of them. So at level 18, your hero will be able to gain +35 damage and +5% movement speed every second. Because the cooldown of Nasal Goo is 1.75s and the cooldown of Quill Spray is 3s. What this means is that in the first 4 seconds of fighting a hero you will be able to cast Quill Spray twice and Nasal Goo three times. That’s 5 stacks: +25% movement speed and +175 damage.

On top of that, what you can do if you have a decent mana pool is spam Squill Spray in anticipation of the fight and have around 3 stacks before it even begins. Using this strategy, just 4 seconds after the fight began your hero has 8 stacks: +40% movement speed and +280 damage.

So picture this: your opponent is moving ~60% slower and has -11 armor, while you deal +280 damage and have +40% movement speed. And on top of that, you’re very hard to kill because you can always turn around and run.

These capabilities give Bristleback a huge advantage against a lot of heroes. And all you need to become a menace is a few items and level 12. By the time you’re 18, you’re unstoppable unless you’ve fallen really far behind in terms of gold and experience. There’s almost no hero in the game that can fight you 1v1.

Naga Siren

Dota 2 patch 7.30d has offered Naga Siren a buff that appears small but is actually huge. Her Mirror Image cooldown has been reduced to 40/35/30/25 seconds. Given that her illusions last for 26 seconds, Naga will never be alone again, unless you manage to kill all of her illusions fast enough. And that’s unlikely to happen after the 20 – 25 minute mark.

Naga has great qualities for the current meta. Her stats increase (per level) is amazing (+6.3 in total), her skills are all very useful, and he farming speed is one of the best in the game. If you can keep this hero alive and farming for the first 15 – 20 minutes without losing too many towers in the meantime, you will be set for mid-game and late-game success.

Riki

There’s a reason why Riki’s win rate has increased in recent weeks. The hero is now at 51.74%, which is impressive. The hero has a number of weaknesses that make him weak in the early game, but Dota 2 patch 7.30d has made him more than viable.

The bad part about Riki is that until he buys a few items, he needs to farm the lanes. Another downside is his attribute increase per level: +2.4 strength, +1.4 agility, and +1.3 intelligence. That is considerably less than what other heroes have.

However, Riki compensates by having excellent movement speed (320), health regen (2.5) and a great attack animation that gives him the ability to easily get last hits. What Dota 2 patch 7.30d has done is this: Riki now has a 30% miss chance on his Smoke Screen at level 1. And at level 4, the miss chance is 75%. At every level, the 10% increase compared to the last patch is huge.

The Smoke Screen radius is 375 at level 4 and its duration is 6 seconds. Riki can cast it every 7 seconds after level 15, if you pick the Smoke Screen talent. This makes him unbelievably good in team fights and 1v1 situations during the mid-game. If you combine his ability with any form of slow, your enemies will be permanently silenced and have no possibility to hit you during an engagement.

The key to making good use of this hero is to secure his early game. Treat him like a Slark or a Spectre, even if you play him in the offlane. Ideally, you’ll want your supports to understand what the hero is capable of and invest in his early development. Or, if you’re the one playing support and have a good Riki on your team, make sure he gets a good early game and he will kill everyone on the map after he gets a few items. In lower MMR divisions, this hero is a complete menace.

Vengeful Spirit

Even though Dota 2 patch 7.30d nerfed Venge, this hero is still incredibly strong. The nerf is quite irrelevant (agility gained per level reduced by 0.2) and her skill set is OP. If you get to a point where you have around 6000 – 7000 net worth, you practically have an Aegis of Immortality at all times. Because with an Ags, Venge has two lives at all times. Add to that the small respawn timer (because you won’t be position 1 or 2) and you can immediately see why it’s so annoying to play against her.

The enemy team has to attack you, especially if you play like a tank and threaten to swap a key enemy hero. But they need to kill you twice in a row and that gives your team ample time to react and deal damage of its own. Even if you die twice, the implication is that your opponents have wasted a lot of spells and attacks on you. Plus you will have used all your spells twice.

The ideal role for Vengeful Spirit is position 3. This role allows you to farm your Ags fast enough to have a huge impact for the rest of the game. And after that you can build yourself into a tank or buy support items to help your teammates.

Undying

Dota 2 patch 7.30d gave Undying a stronger Tombstone that needs to be attacked 5 times at level 1 and 8 times at level 4. Needless to say, this change gives the hero enormous strength during the laning phase. His attribute increase per level is 6.8 and his skills allow him to become overpowered really fast. For the first 10 minutes, this is one of the strongest heroes in the game against any lineup. If you play him offlane and have a support with you who knows how to not steal XP and only get involved when necessary, you’re going to destroy the enemy carry.

The key to Undying is to buy regen items (like Mangos) early on, get tanky, and then prevent the enemy carry from getting last hits. If you buy an Orb of Venom, boots, and a wind lace on top of that, whenever you use Tombstone in the laning phase you are bound to kill someone.

 

Photo credit: Valve