Dota 2 patch 7.41b puts a stop to Meepo's reign of terror as Valve locks in its new meta

Big balance updates can often have long-reaching ramifications, and Dota 2 patch 7.41b is Valve’s second follow-up to the massive overhaul that saw the removal of Facets from the MOBA. Since then we’ve seen the climax of the ESL One Birmingham tournament and had a little more time for the player base to figure out what’s hot and what’s not in the current meta. Among the changes, the new Dota 2 update delivers a much-needed nerf for Meepo, who has been particularly troublesome in the right hands of late.

The Dota 2 7.41b patch notes include quite a few instances of heroes or items being pulled back from buffs or nerfs that were made in the previous update and proved too heavy. Hopefully, each iteration gets us a little closer to the ideal balance point, at least until the next big meta-shifting rework arrives. That means the changes here aren’t nearly so dramatic as those we saw at the end of March, but they’ll still have a noticeable effect. In particular, troublemakers like Meepo and Doom are on the nerf list.

The new Consecrated Wraps item gets an overhaul, with a lower bonus base to attributes, but all three charges handed to you out of the gate. You no longer need max stacks for the speed boost, but those starting charges won’t provide it. The charges also accumulate slower, are all consumed at once when the damage barrier is created, and are no longer affected by cooldown-modifying effects. Elsewhere, the Demonic Warrior from Book of the Dead loses True Sight, and the Ancient Frostbitten Golem neutral creep’s cooldown reduction effect is no longer as potent, making both less useful as allied units.

Everyone’s favorite self-multiplying terror, Meepo, now gets a penalty to his max health and mana bonuses from items based on the number of Meepos created, and Megameepo’s cooldown goes up by 50% to 90 seconds. Those will be the most impactful changes, but his hero health steal on Ransack has been notably lowered, as has his strength gain over the course of the match, and his base movement speeds falls slightly as well.

Among the other nerfs, Doom has his damage scaling lowered on Scorched Earth, lower early output for his Doom ability, and a rework to several talents including less magic resistance from Devour at level ten. Tidehunter’s Innate, Leviathan’s Catch, now only gains a fish on every other level, instead of with all of them, and his starting strength has been dropped a touch, making last hits just a tiny bit tougher out of the gate. Ember Spirit’s base damage is dropped, and the mana cost for Sleight of Fist has gone up at low levels.

There are some winners, too. I’m pleased to see Timbersaw getting some more scaling, with boosts to the power of Whirling Death, Timber Chain, and Chakram as you level them up. Invoker’s Invoke skill now grants him an additional ability point at hero levels six, 12, and 18. Broodmother’s base agility has been boosted, which will make her last hits easier to score at level one and help her out in the laning phase.

Then we have Chaos Knight, who is predictably unpredictable. Phantasm now grants you three clones at all levels, instead of scaling up, but to compensate for this their damage has been lowered to 50% at rank one, 75% at rank two, and the full 100% again once maxed out. The low-level cooldown has also been slightly increased; I’ll leave it in your hands to figure out whether you prefer this new style to his old incarnation.

Dota 2 patch 7.41b is out now. You can read through the full patch notes courtesy of Valve, and there are quite a few smaller tweaks to dig into, so make sure you know what’s new with each of your favorite heroes.

Among the other adjustments, Drow Ranger players will want to take note of her increased starting agility (and thus base damage), but that Marksmanship can now be disabled by enemies in the proximity while you’re on the Glacier created by her Aghanim’s Shard ability. I’m also a little sad to see the duration of Nyx Assassin’s Vendetta cut down, meaning you’ll have less time to skulk around in the shadows, although at least you’ll no longer need to worry about the true sight from Book of the Dead.