Dota 2 7.33 hero changes – The New Frontiers’ biggest winners and losers 

With the release of Dota 2’s 7.33 patch, every single hero in the game was tweaked and changed to the point where it feels like an entirely new game. And while some of these changes are small, many of them are drastic and game-changing. 

For one, there’s a whole new type of hero, Universal Heroes, which bucks the trend of Agility, Intelligence, and Strength Heroes. Many heroes had their stats gutted and changed, and now they gain overall stats as they level up.

Arc Warden’s clone has been given a whole new variety of abilities. The Tempest clone now casts enhanced Tempest abilities. At least when you’re on the Radiant… on the Dire this is switched so the original Arc Warden casts Tempest abilities. This is apparently temporary but is still a big buff.

Clinz now summons skeletons on almost every ability. His Burning Barrage, what players were using to melt people in pubs, is moved to Aghs shard, making it a little harder to pull off the “Stay invisible and then blow someone up” strat. There are just a lot more skeletons now and they’re all on fire.

Even with the reduction in Stone Gaze duration (due to all stuns being reduced), Medusa feels buffed by the changes to Mana Shield. It’s now a passive, starts with one level, and makes her much more of a bruiser in lane. In theory… Although some testing shows she basically has no health unless she has mana!

Meepo’s scepter now makes all his other Meepos stand on his shoulders and fight together, increasing his stats. He can also throw Meepos at people, gets more nets. It doesn’t cost mana, lasts up to 20 seconds, and he can throw a Meepo every half a second. This is fun, good, and crazy. 

Muerta got her Aghanim’s Scepter and Shard. We talk more about it here.

Ogre Magi was always a bit strange as an intelligence hero. Obviously, they cast spells, which use the intelligence stat, but now Ogre Magi is a Strength hero with a cool new innate ability called Dumb Luck. Every 20 points of Strength also increase Multicast Cast Chance by 1%, so building up this tanky dude makes a lot of sense.

Techies got a crazy Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade that turns the previous only-used-for-mind games Minefield sign into something more active. Once you have Aghs, when an enemy hero gets within 200 units of the sign, the entire 1000-radius area becomes a minefield for 10 seconds. Enemy units will take 300 damage for every 200 units moved. Absolutely broken.

Tinker escaping major changes or Nerfs means he’s still a pub menace. Even with reduced stats and cast range changes, a hated hero abused by scripters that escaped outright removal from the game for some reason. Old Techies died but this hero remains? A travesty.

Veno got Poison Nova moved to Aghs, changed to a Universal Hero, and a new Ultimate. Noxious Plague is a huge nuke and damage over time on a single enemy. Honestly, this is how most Venomancer players used Poison Nova, so it makes a lot of sense. 

Many of the heroes changed to Universal Heroes have completely been transformed, for the better. It’s a great change that we massively endorse.

Stuns and disables got absolutely nerfed this patch, with almost every stun in the game reduced by at least half a second. If you relied on this, you’re going to have a bad time.

Brood had almost all the things that made her annoying reduced and became a Universal Hero which might not bode well for her, given that she now scales much worse. It’s made her much more of a generalist than an oppressive lane bully.

Even though most players struggle to make Kunkka’s abilities even work, the hero got some nerfs from the stun reductions and some of his abilities being changed. Also, in a patch where almost everyone is getting their stats changed around, Kunkka got nothing, so might not be in a good spot.

The Morphling changes don’t fundamentally alter how the hero is played, but the addition of Universal Heroes will likely affect Morphling a lot. The changes to Attribute Shift, moving the bonus strength and agility to Agh’s shard, means the hero is going to feel weaker no matter what.

They’ve killed the rat. Again. After several patches of being broken, a hard carry, generally a menace, they’ve completely neutered NP. Taking away Wrath of Nature’s bonus damage from kills means his scaling is absolutely tanked, and everything else got hit with numbers nerfs. Teleport now has stacks, and overall, this hero is now relegated to just ratting again. Sad days for NP enjoyers.

We don’t think many people will be sad to see the Pango nerfed. Damage reduced, stuns reduced, and spell immunity taken off the Roll Up ability. Talents also got shifted or removed, and he’s now a Universal Hero. Fundamentally the same, but worse.

We really thought this would be a Vengeful Spirit patch. Instead, the stun nerfs, change to Universal Hero, and messed with stats make us worried this is a dead hero. Maybe it’s favoritism? Muerta is the new spooky ghost lady in town and so Venge has to ride the bench. And after she got such a prominent position in the patch trailer…

The Universal heroes SEEM great, but we worry that many of the heroes affected could have been hit with a nerf just by becoming Universal Heroes and getting less benefit from their traditional item builds. Dota 2 patch 7.33 has made many a hero take up the Universal mantle, but it may not be for the best. 

We're just hours into the massive 7.33 Dota 2 patch, but stay with esports.gg for more coverage!