Bugs Fixed and Balance Changed in Dota 2 Patch 7.39b

It’s been exactly one week since Dota 2 developer and publisher Valve Corporation dropped Patch 7.39 on us, which they titled Spring Forward. Aside from a big set of balance changes, the patch itself included a ton of quality of life improvements, many of which were features that make this extremely complex game more streamlined. Also, bug fixes. A smorgasbord of bug fixes.

Today, they put out Patch 7.39b, fixing even more bugs and tweaking the new metagame further as we get closer to The International 2025 (TI14) regional qualifiers. Interestingly, the changelog itself doesn’t include any of the bug fixes, but rather the full list can be found on the Steam website instead of the Dota 2 website.

But anyway, here’s what you need to know about Patch 7.39b in terms of balancing.

Core Omniknight, Gone Too Soon

Omniknight truly can never catch a break in this game. He was given a much-needed set of buffs to Hammer of Purity (E) in 7.39, after he had been completely out of the metagame for so long. The removal of the ability’s mana cost gave him a free ride in the early game, and the burst potential was so crazy that he could basically 100 to zero the enemy carry from the offlane as soon as he hit level 3. A lot of pub players don’t even realize that Hammer of Purity deals pure damage, which catches them by surprise.

But alas, it seems that Omniknight flew too close to the sun. Hammer of Purity now has one more second of cooldown at max level, and the damage output prior to max level is now significantly lower. Honestly, even with the nerfs, this thing might still be low key broken, because Omniknight still enjoys the slow and additional attack range on hit.

He just doesn’t get immense value out of each skill point invested into Hammer of Purity now, at least before he can get it to level 4. Where he is now as a result of Patch 7.39b is probably healthier for the game, and it’s great that Valve recognized his insane potential as a core.

Undying, but Only Sometimes

You know how Wraith King’s Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade to Reincarnation (R) is really annoying? Well, how about having to contend with that twice? Yeah, that’s every bit the nightmare it sounds like. In relation to that, new neutral item Helm of the Undying has gotten thrown into the garbage bin, or at least placed next to it with a big nerf to its cooldown. Instead of being ready every 50 seconds, Valve have doubled this to 100 seconds, which is just right for an item with this kind of late game impact.

If I’m being brutally honest, this thing is the most irritating addition to the game in quite some time. It being available to all 10 heroes in any given Dota 2 match is just too much to deal with. Wraith King having the ability to delay heroes’ deaths is thematically sound, and adds a lot of flavor to the hero’s kit — but it just becomes nauseating when everyone has access to it. I want dead heroes to stay dead when Wraith King isn’t around, thank you very much.

The Number of the Beast

Doom’s health regeneration has been decreased as part of Patch 7.39b, as it is now down to 0.66 from 1.25 per second. The joke here is obvious: Doom is basically analogous to the devil; his name in Dota 2 lore is even Lucifer. So, the devs have turned his health regen into number of the beast (666), because having it at 6.66 per second wouldn’t be balanced in the slightest.

This is a pretty harsh nerf to his laning, which has been rough to say the least over the last several months. The change adds up to 180 potentially missed HP in the first five minutes of the game, which amounts to one Tango’s worth of health. Not great for Doom players like Neta “33” Shapira and Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf, especially after all the nerfs to Scorched Earth (W) and how it no longer provides health regen by itself.

Troll Warlord Catching Strays

I swear to Gaben, the devs truly don’t know what to do with Troll Warlord anymore. Battle Trance (R) now has a lower cap on the number of max Fervor stacks it can have, which is just a straight up nerf to what is already one of the worst ultimate abilities in the game. You already have to surrender control of your hero just activating this in the first place, and now you get rewarded for it even less?

A full rework of Troll Warlord is long overdue, but at this rate I’m not sure it’ll ever happen. It’s a shame, because Troll Warlord is one of the oldest and most iconic heroes in Dota, and he deserves so much better than this.