NAVI Analyst — on patch 7.27

Vitaliy «Sword_Art» Petkin 

My first impressions of the patch are quite positive. As a 4-5 position player, from the first games, I was pleased with many improvements for supports. In terms of the team play it's cool that the devs in each major update introduce new features and tasks for the drafting and the macro games. 

Vitaliy «Sword_Art» Petkin 

We haven't played scrims yet, we have taken some time off and are waiting for the second half of the patch, so it is difficult to give an objective assessment of the new system. There is an additional hero to ban from each side, so it's +2 more bans.

Dota is headed in the right direction when players/teams with weak pool/flexibility will suffer. Other than that, they have removed the double pick, and overall the second pick looks more preferable.

Vitaliy «Sword_Art» Petkin 

These changes are nearly the best in the patch. Dota returns to rewarding players for their action, resourcefulness, and risks. That's what we love it for.

In the last patch, for example, the mid laner could go at 4-6-8 minutes, pick up a rune, make some kills on the map, go back to the lane and stand against an opponent who, just by farming the lane and the jungle, would get much more. What is the beauty of such a game, where is the logic? They encouraged to make kills, to roam around — I'm all for the active playstyle.

Vitaliy «Sword_Art» Petkin 

Well, the idea of taking down the tier-2 tower before 10 minutes looks too optimistic. The changes with the outpost will make it easier for the teams to defend the Tier 2 tower on the easy lane. And the experience, which (in the previous patch) could have been gained by the team that captured the outpost before the 10th minute, will now be replaced by active actions such as kills/Attacks on tier-1 towers/farm.

In other words, if previously the position 4 players spent time capturing the outpost, now he can spend this time on another important action. The early pushes(and fights) can be more affected by changes in Drum of Endurance, Vladmir's Offering, or even Veil of Discord, and obviously, the changes in heroes in the next patch.

Vitaliy «Sword_Art» Petkin 

In addition to the farm, the item serves another important function - pushing out the lane. In professional Dota, this is extremely important. It's always nice to have heroes in your draft who push the lane from the safe spot while the cores are farming — Grimstroke/Rubick/Keeper of the Light/Sniper, etc. (often the supports).

And so, there's the Necronomicon, which performs the same function on the core heroes, and you do it with no real consequences. Besides, the bounty for Level 1 Necronomicon is too insignificant. And the items that you build to make Necrobook give nice bonuses to the core. And devs are trying to fix that, but as a result, they buffed even more strong heroes such as Beastmaster and Lycan. Abuse it while you can if you want.

Vitaliy «Sword_Art» Petkin 

Yeah, we should have done something with Kaya a long time ago. The item is relevant to a very small pool of heroes, compared to the same Yasha and Sange. If we are not taking it to the extreme, then in the last patch it was bought in professional Dota on Storm Spirit, Zeus, Skywrath Mage (and the last two are rare guests in official matches). Earlier it could have been Outworld Devourer, Leshrac and even less often Tinker, Lina.

As for Storm Spirit, apart from Kaya, Bloodstone has been changed as well. But at the same time, Orchid Malevolence is now cheaper, which is nice for Storm Spirit. Returning to Kaya, it will be obviously relevant for the heroes who will purchase Octarine Core: immediately Leshrac comes to mind, Queen of Pain with the talent. Well, if I got the mechanics right from the description, I haven't tested it myself yet.

Vitaliy «Sword_Art» Petkin 

I'm not so sure about Shiva's Guard. I think it's been buffed in the last few patches before, this Spirit Vessel aura is super nice too, but the items are still sagging because of the components.

So you buy armor for 1400, it's nice, and then you save 2700 gold for items that don't give you much, and you end up farming for the scroll as well. And you probably reach a point where you need gold for the buyback. That old Spirit Vessel was super cool, I wanted to buy it every game.

It's a typical situation where you have to fix one thing and buff the other, that's the result. Maybe, the scenario when Shiva's Guard becomes more relevant due to changes in other items of the same category, like Octarine Core, Bloodstone etc.

Vitaliy «Sword_Art» Petkin 

I doubt anything's gonna change. The buffs are cool, but you're spending about 2k on this besides the magic stick. Even on the Oracle, you want to take something more useful. And then again, the problem with components. By the way, the item has barely been picked up on the professional stage since it was introduced.

Vitaliy «Sword_Art» Petkin 

All these things are definitely got buffed, and they'll be more relevant. I would especially like to mention the Helm of the Dominator. Most likely, it will be a frequent pick up for heroes of positions 3 and 4. Neutrals with piercing damage looks sweet.

Vitaliy «Sword_Art» Petkin 

I would say Cloak: now we have 15% resist for just 450 gold. I remember a time when it was bought on supports just for that simple reason, then we switched to Bracers. Reminds me of the reverse process because Bracer has been tweaked more than once.

The new attack speed stuff is a nice bonus for cores. They removed the neutrals disliked by all (Marauders) — people predict a slow return of the Tidehunter. And a lot of cool bonuses for support players, which I mentioned in the beginning. For example, the new Veil of Discord, lower prices for Tome of Knowledge, and Smoke of Deceit. Most likely, now the supports will actively buy Smoke so that they do not idle in the shop, and previously it was not very common.