Patch 7.31 Predictions and Wishlists: Team Spirit, Aui_2000, Noxville, TeaGuvnor, and more

It is finally time for Patch 7.31! Dota 2 fans have long been sitting in the dark, wondering when this stale months-long meta will cease.  Following Valve’s announcement regarding the next patch, a lot of Dota 2 pros and figures have talked about their expectations for Patch 7.31. Here we have compiled all the different nerfs, buffs, and changes the community wants.

In Team Spirit's YouTube video, the TI10 winners (except for Mira) shared what each of them would like to see in a patch.

Firstly, Collapse wants to nerf the overpowered Weaver by reducing required hits to kill the swarm beetles, increasing Shukuchi cooldown, or increasing its Mana Cost. He wants to change Beastmaster's hawk so it's only invisible when it stops flying. He commented on Mage Slayer's unpopular status, saying that it is better if it gives Agility instead of Intelligence stats. Surprisingly, he also suggested the return of Shrines. Silent and Miposhka agree only if it's reworked or if it can't be used if enemies are nearby.

Miposhka has had enough of the current terrain and map and wants a complete overhaul. He suggests a new uphill slope where you can place wards or hide. Moreover, he came out with a new rune system idea. "One minute before a rune appears, you'd be notified about its location so that you can plan beforehand," said Miposhka. "Such randomness should be minimized somehow." He wants a new neutral item that gives the vision to ease warding. Other than that, he commented on Templar Assassin's Psionic Trap and that it should give minimal or no vision.

Yatoro gave a lengthy set of changes and most of his dissatisfactions are against the current OP offlaners. He dislikes Axe's abilities which provide too many pure spells and said Counter Helix should be physical damage. Beastmaster's boar shouldn't slow down attack speed and not get bonus damage from his axes. The carry player also wants to fix Outworld Destroyer's Meteor Hammer combo and nerf Astral Imprisonment's damage. He added that Mars shouldn't have Hero Attack Damage Bonus. He wants a nerf to Mars' spear to either stun shorter, have slower animation, or deals lesser damage.

These nerfs need to happen because the lanes are reversed, according to Yatoro. "It's an easy lane. Why did the easy lane become the hard one? And the hard lane becomes easy to play? When did that happen?"

Yatoro proceeded to list down more changes. He wants to delete Techies' suicide attack as the mechanic no longer exists in Dota 2. Techies' bombs should also be visible or invisible only with Aghanim's Scepter with a warning sign. For Anti-Mage he wants his +8 armor talent back. He also complained about Juggernaut's Omnislash - many items can counter it easily and it has a high cooldown. So he suggests lowering the cooldown or adding a dispel talent. He wants to buff Phantom Assassin's critical strike. Other than that, he complained that no good items are available for carries that need mana so he suggests to bring back Ring of Aquila. He also wants to remove the neutral item Blast Rig and add a cost or more cost for Observers and Sentries.

Silent did not have much to change about the game. He wants to move Roshan and provide an alternative to defeat him for weaker heroes. Interestingly, he suggested an Auto-Chess-like mechanic to put in the game. Stacking a certain type of heroes provides small perks, such as Timbersaw and Clockwerk getting +1 armor if they're near each other.

TORONTOTOKYO wants to delete or rework the Broodmother so she doesn't have spiderlings. He also wants to delete or rework Techies so he can't kill cores in one shot. In matchmaking, he wants lesser bans because more bans mean players can't practice certain heroes. The report system should also punish game ruiners with more serious bans.

We reached out to TI winner and current Tundra Esports' coach, Aui_2000 for his patch insights. Firstly, Aui_2000 expects the patch to be huge as there hasn't been any patch in a long time. "Something I’ve always admired about Dota 2’s developers is that they aren’t afraid to shake things up and innovate in their game even if they have a winning formula," said Aui_2000.

On the topic of "dead heroes" in Dota 2, he named a couple of heroes that deserve a return in the scene, "I feel like Witch Doctor and Warlock haven’t seen much play and deserve a buff. Chen and Enchantress have also felt a bit weak. Then there are some cheese heroes like Lone Druid and Meepo who haven’t been seen much, but to be honest, I’m not missing them that much," said Aui_2000.

In the current patch, there are some obvious overpowered heroes that he wants to nerf such as Marci, IO, and Weaver. "There are also pub specialist heroes like Spirit Breaker and Tinker who seem a bit imbalanced when your draft is not robust," said Aui_2000. Other than heroes, he talked about one strong item that needs a nerf, "I would also like to see Kaya and Sange get nerfed. I can’t even find when it became 16% spell amp but the numbers on this item are too high."

He also commented on the Mage Slayer, calling it "too niche and hard to use." He said, "Maybe it’s because Black King Bar is so strong, and everyone is also thinking about the potential for a refresher timing, which makes BKB even stronger, but the item just doesn’t fit anywhere."

The latest hero addition in Dota 2, Marci is certainly strong in this patch and according to Aui_2000 she is a tad bit too decorated with abilities. "I feel like some of her spells just do too many things. For example, her second spell could just not give an ally 35% Movement Speed for 5 seconds and it’d still be a good spell. Or her ultimate could not dispel and it’d be a good spell. Having imbalanced spells is not inherently bad for the game in my opinion, but it’s too much together." He added that Marci could be ready to enter Captain's Mode with a few changes.

In the Lyle Show Episode 3, a podcast by Kyle and Lacoste, both the talents talked about many random Dota 2 topics including the upcoming Patch 7.31.

"I think this is going to be it, where you're going to see something big. Because we have been on this patch for so long, I believe a full 6 months," said Lacoste. He expects something gigantic. Maybe a huge change onto neutral items, the addition of Shrines, Outpost rework, and map changes. He even tossed in a wild idea of 2 Roshans or a change in the Buyback system.

Kyle, on the other hand, wants chaos. He said the map has got to change and the warding pattern has gotten stale.

Esports statistician, Noxville expects to see overall nerfs to the top meta heroes like Weaver, Queen of Pain, Mars, Kunkka, Bane, Spirit Breaker, IO, and Puck. Some carries that have been rather weak like Juggernaut, Riki, Slark, and Spectre will be buffed. Weaker supports like the Winter Wyvern, Witch Doctor, Phoenix, and Vengeful Spirit will also receive some helping buffs. He explained that these heroes are not terribly weak but they're mostly niche picks, so they may be nerfed in some ways and buffed in others.

He also expects new neutral items, new items, and maybe a new hero. Other than that, he expects some smaller tree, path, and camp reworks to help out Dire in a very small way.

We had a chat with the Dota 2 streamer Sabi aka INVOKERGIRL and we talked about Patch 7.31 predictions. She pointed out that the obvious meta heroes will be killed. Spirit Breaker and Templar Assassin will receive the nerf hammer. "(Meld) is broken and this is a major reason TA is so popular as a carry. So I think they will kill TA as a carry because Meld has a very low cooldown that is less than the duration of the minus armor that it provides. It's ridiculous." Sabi expects Meld to receive more cooldown, higher Mana Cost, or lesser armor reduction.

Furthermore, she wants to see changes in the midlane. "Water Runes are going to be removed or there will be only one Water Rune on minute 3 or something. If not, they will put the Water Runes further from midlane," said Sabi. She believes the current state of Water Runes makes mid a low-skill lane because players can get infinite HP and Mana with Bottle even if they lost mid.

On top of that, Sabi wants a change on the small camps near the midlane for Patch 7.31. She suggests that the bigger camps replace them or they move further from midlane. This prevents heroes with spell-wave clears from simultaneously farming both the creep wave and the small camp. She added that Bounty Runes might be changed as well as appearing every 3 minutes is a little broken.

Sabi also commented on Miposhka's idea to add notifications before Power Runes appear. "Interesting idea, but to be honest, I find it a little surreal in the context of Dota 2 because Dota has always been and I think will remain a random dependant game." Although she finds it a good suggestion as a new objective to fight around, Sabi believes this might not happen as the game can become more chaotic or less exciting.

In a simple Tweet, TeaGuvnor listed down his nerf wishlist for Patch 7.31. He wants fewer resources on midlane by changing the Water Runes and the small camp. The overpowered heroes that need nerfing are Spirit Breaker, Tinker, Queen of Pain, Medusa, Weaver, Marci, IO, and Outworld Destroyer.

He also listed strong items that need the nerf hammer. The items are Helm of the Overlord, Spell Amplification items (Kaya, Relic, Veil of Discord), Sange, Silver Edge, Armlet of Mordiggian, Helm of Iron, and Black King Bar. Other than that, the neutral items which need nerfing are Fairy's Trinket and Philosopher Stone.

Following Valve's announcement that Techies will be reworked, TeaGuvnor also added an interesting bit about how Techies can potentially be. Since Techies have 3 goblins, he tossed in the idea that the hero is now a micro hero and players need to control all 3. "The rework allows you to place even MORE mines across multiple locations at the same time," said TeaGuvnor. Sounds about balanced!

The Techies hint definitely drove a lot of us to speculate and because of the odd nature of this hero, the speculations went wild. Team Secret's iceiceice even hoped for his mine-planting ability to be global!

Jokes asides (or maybe not) Patch 7.31 is on the horizon and we Dota 2 fans are more than eager to find out. The patch will drop on 23 February so mark the date!

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