Patch 7.38 sets new trends

The long-awaited patch 7.38 brought many changes to the game, significantly affecting the character's relative popularity. In this article, we will review the hero trends set by the update.

Let's start with the biggest winner of the new patch - Dragon Knight. The character was previously well-balanced, with a win rate of about 48%. Now the hero boasts a win rate of about 54% (which is not even as high as it was in the first days since the patch!), propelling him to become one of the top four most successful public match characters, behind only Wraith King, Lifestealer, and Abaddon.

However, a big reason for Dragon Knight's success was likely a bug, which allowed him to deal double magic damage in dragon form, which the developers have now fixed.

Another character with a significantly increased performance was Mirana. Compared to a week ago, the hero's victory percentage went up by more than 6% to a relatively balanced win rate of just over 50%. It's now similar to Nature's Prophet's numbers, also at about 50%.

As for the previously mentioned three characters with the highest win rate, the patch even improved their positions a bit. That said, we expect Wraith King, Lifestealer, and Abaddon to get somewhat nerfed by the developers in the next update.

But where there are winners, there are also losers. Kez's win rate dropped by 7% after the update's release, making him one of the hardest characters to play. A similar fate also befell Lina and Morphling, who are now at the bottom of the victory percentage figures alongside Phantom Lancer (who had a win rate of about 47% even before the patch).

The update probably hit Bloodseeker and Lich the hardest. Both heroes a week ago could boast a win rate of around 56%, whereas currently, they are at a rather large but hardly as impressive 51%. The characters are still strong, but now you can't say their power is excessive.

Lastly, it's worth looking at the stats of top heroes. Pudge is the king of the game regardless of the patch and is always in the top three most popular heroes. Lion and Phantom Assassin, who were actually ahead of Pudge in the pick rate a week ago, are still right next to him.

As for the bottom of character popularity, the situation is also stable. Chen remains the least favored public match hero, with Brewmaster and Naga Siren only slightly above him. Notably, Chen also fails in terms of his win rate, being both the least-picked and worst-performing hero at the moment.

How has the new patch affected your games? Share your experiences from public matches in 7.28.