Patch 7.29 didn’t touch hero balance all that much: most of the changes have to do with either economy or item balance. This, however, had a massive impact on the viability of a lot of heroes, with some of them becoming virtually unplayable at a high level. Today we would like to have a look at heroes who, in our opinion, either need some pretty significant buffs or should be ignored by victory-oriented players for the time being.

The first thing you need to realize when picking Dawnbreaker is the hero classification of “carry” is completely wrong. Nothing about Dawnbreaker’s skill set indicates she has any carry potential. So take that word and throw it in the trash. Instead, let’s talk about what Dawnbreaker does well.

While we are still gathering data on the biggest winners and losers of the patch and how the overall meta has been affected, there is one thing that immediately stood out: the potential return of the Support Dazzle archetype. He is among the biggest winners of the patch and a personal favorite as well, so today we would like to discuss his viability back in the support role and how to squeeze the maximum out of it.

The new patch is here and it is filled with new things to explore or re-discover. KawaiiSocks and Elevated are sharing their first impressions on the new hero and what the overall changes mean for the meta.

It is usually much harder to advocate towards nerfs than it is to hope for buffs: making heroes weaker usually makes them less fun to play. Sometimes it is the only solution, however. Sometimes heroes are simply too strong, resulting in them being banned too often in the professional scene and being too obnoxious in pubs. So today, we are discussing heroes who could really use a nerf, perhaps even for their own sake.

When Dota: Dragon’s Blood dropped on Netflix it was pretty obvious that the characters showcased in it would probably see some extra play in the coming weeks. Sure enough, Mirana, Dragon Knight, and Luna all got a small boost to their pick rates despite not being super popular in the meta. For the most part, there hasn’t been a lot of innovation for any of these heroes in a very long time. Then, I tuned into the Singapore Major and saw several Chinese teams running support Luna and winning with it.

The first LAN tournament in what feels like ages is over and we are promised a patch some time next week. While overall it feels like the current meta and hero pool was pretty diverse for both professional and pub play, there are still some heroes who were completely ignored throughout the major and who aren’t too hot in pubs either. Heroes who could really use a buff.

With the release of DOTA: Dragon's Blood this week on Netflix, we thought this was a good time to review some Dotabuff posts that describe and explore some of the basics of Dota 2. Whether you're new to the game, coming back after a break, or are an active player already, we think there's something here for everyone.

Over the last couple of months, Weaver was getting progressively more popular and successful, especially in the higher level brackets. However, this is not the only reason we want to discuss the hero today: Weaver is also one of the invisibility heroes in the game who might not be a bad fit for a beginner player. Today, we would like to look at why Weaver works well in higher-level games while also discussing how he can be a good hero for newcomers.