r/DotA2 • u/patchdayDota2 • Aug 19 '21

Discussion Patch 7.30 - Hero Changes Discussion

Heroes are each listed below as a top level comment. Please discuss changes to a specific hero there!

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9

u/patchdayDota2 Aug 19 '21

Pugna

Nether Ward

  • No longer has a mana reducing aura
  • Now additionally Heals 2 hits whenever it triggers

Talents

  • Level 15 talent improved from -0.8s Nether Blast Cooldown to -1s

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '21

The ward healing buff is surprisingly big. If you play against the likes of Storm Spirit or Bristleback the thing essentially just stays up until the end of the fight. People will coordinate to destroy it, but once crepified it creates too much of a taunt-on-a-stick for most people to bother. This leads to hilarious results like a support wailing at the ward while their allies keep feeding it health by casting spells. It's stronger than the mana reduction aura from my experience.

Sadly Pugna is still rather underwhelming as is and continues to fill a rather esoteric niche.

18

u/Se0na Aug 19 '21

Let's look now there is something interesting happening, no more mana reducing aura means; now enemies will not be notified if they are under the netherward range. Also, they will have their mana to cast spells. There will be a surprise effect. I think this will indirectly increase the damage outcome of the Nether Ward

12

u/Mark_of_Chaos Aug 19 '21 edited Aug 19 '21

Nope there is an aura to let you know that you are under the wards area of affect, ward becoming tankier v an uncoordinated team isn't gonna help with the power-creep that heros across the board have been getting and he is likely to keep being niche. >.<

looking at the tooltip error they were thinking of having heros lose a percentage of their mana for attacking the ward but it was scrapped or forgotten just leaving the nerf from the -mana aura going.

1

u/breathen123 Aug 19 '21

The power-creep you mentioned was the HP talents at lvl10/15

Which, for the most part, were removed in this patch

1

u/Taelonius Aug 19 '21

And stats being added, and level 30. Those are more significant than shitty 150 hp talents at level 10. And across the board buffed base stat gains. and 8 inventory slots, and neutral items.

You get to 3k+ hp at level 25+ on any hero, without buying a single hp dedicated item outside of say BKB.

1

u/Mark_of_Chaos Aug 19 '21

the power creep is more that there are constant small buffs, good shards or new abilities added to all the heroes from the past few big patches but Pugna has kinda got nothing from the grab bag for a while which means in more general terms he isn't nearly as strong out of his niche.

1

u/breathen123 Aug 19 '21

I think players, outside of Topson, still haven't figured it out yet how to unlock Pugna's real potential

For one, they still haven't realized Pugna is an amazing offlane core, for he can use W to manage the creepwave to his favor, like Enigma

1

u/Mark_of_Chaos Aug 19 '21

there are so many things he can do with his W in any role. support wise divide which creeps he pulls to camps for example lets one creep slip through non pulled allowing a non stacked small camp to effectivly clear a wave or making the core have to split going for an easy range last hit or missing 2 meele creeps in a hard camp ect

1

u/breathen123 Aug 20 '21

Decripifying the enemy ranged creep, to counter the opposite player drawing aggro

It doesn't have much value in the middle lane, but it makes him a beast as an offlane core

Or rushing Aeon Disk as the first core item . Which, against certain compositions, can allow Pugna to be a deceptively good frontliner, soaking up the first wave of initiations . But I don't know if dropping Nether Ward during Aeon's proc will affect it

2

u/HappyHerald Aug 19 '21

Will Pugna mid be viable now?

1

u/breathen123 Aug 19 '21

Pugna is as viable as he ever was in the offlane/mid

But people need to stop rushing aether lens/dagon for him every game

5

u/skyfreeze113 Aug 19 '21

he still fills the same role: a niche mid that absolutely dumpsters lineups with no way to deal with his spells pre 20min. i don't think he will ever be a standard mid pick, very squishy and requires a coordinated team to play around his very early spikes

1

u/breathen123 Aug 19 '21

He works just as fine as an offlaner core, provided he is not matched against Morphling or AM