The Weekly CourierValve Releases Patch 7.21b, OG Qualifies For Kiev Minor, Katowice Group Stages Set
Valve Releases Patch 7.21b
Ahead of ESL Katowice, Valve released patch 7.21b, which brings minor tweaks across a wide range of heroes. The only changes outside of ones to heroes is one to XP earned from denial increased to 30% (from 25%) and the gold bonus from Midas reduced to 180 (from 200).
Quite a few Agility heroes received minor buffs, as a corrective from 7.21's global change that removed 25% attribute bonuses. Agility, as a stat, gives survivability and damage, and Agility heroes were hit the hardest from the change, as they depended on items to scale through the late game.
Anti-Mage, Slark, Sniper, and Spectre all received minor survivability buffs in either base armor or Strength. While other Agi heroes received buffs to their skills, such as Weaver's Geminate attack now dealing a bonus 10/20/30/40 damage on its second hit. His win rate has increased by nearly 2% and continues to rise.
Lifestealer, Visage, and Night Stalker so far have suffered the worst in terms of win rate. They were by far some of the strongest heroes of 7.21, with Visage being a mainstay for mid-spamming smurfs and boosters. We'll learn more about the impact of 7.21b as the dust settles in a week, and as the Katowice Major unfolds.
OG Qualifies for Kiev Minor
Blessings on blessings 🌻
— Johan Sundstein (@OG_BDN0tail) February 17, 2019
Read: https://t.co/AZ4wCsY78M
OG swept Alliance 3-0 to qualify for the sole European slot at the Kiev Minor. The TI8 champions have had a rough road during this year's Pro Circuit. After their post-TI break, they've been clawing at the fringes of both Major and Minor qualifiers. They missed out on the Chongqing and Stockholm Majors, and at the Bucharest Minor they finished 5-6th place.
In past TI's, before the advent of the Pro Circuit, the defending champions were often favored in gaining an invite for next year's event. Now, OG will need to catch up to be on pace if they wish to defend their title. They're currently in 26th place (24 DPC points).
Grabbing the Kiev spot seems to have invigorated the team. In a twitlonger post, OG captain, NoTail, wrote a paean reflecting on his love for Dota and his gratitude for his teammates and fans. "I always loved the beauty in how a team would become successful, a group of people coming together with the purpose of winning the war, but there's no getting around the human aspects. In other words, to succeed you need to become a better teammate and a better human, and trust that everyone else will. The will to win is powerful and I've seen people change themselves chasing the DotA dream."
Katowice Major Group Stages And First Round Matches Set
🇵🇱⚙️ These are your Groups for #ESLOne Katowice 2019!
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) February 13, 2019
Only the top 4 teams of each will progress to the playoffs. Who will make it and who will be going home?https://t.co/GqzYOC4zZ3 pic.twitter.com/2wGmqDN0sZ
With Katowice around the corner and patch 7.21b setting the stage, ESL released the groups and the first round matches. The event will open with a must-watch match between Secret and OG. Secret will be heading into the event as clear favorites, but OG has been gaining momentum since their sweep of Alliance during the Kiev Minors. Absent from the event are VP, Liquid, and EG, who will be participating at MDL Macau the next day.
First XD
2nd (^_^)
I see Icefraud is continuing with his policy that the best way to get Bloodseeker to be picked in competitive while he is currently one of the most ignored and unpicked heroes in the game is to do nothing.
Interesting strategy.
7.21b is finally here, thanks god
@Murranji As a supportplayer, I really, really don't mind BS being gone. I am having the best time with Storm, BS and Slark not being favorite picks anymore.
Muranji keep ur bullshit to urself . Honestly now crying about an average hero not being picked . U fucks will never be satisfied .
I hope NiP makes a good showing
SECRET SECRET!
I try to read whole post but didn't find the date Major begins!
At least Ursa isn't completely dead, but RIP Naix.
Yeah, I was mainly happy about storm being nerfed to the floor as well as a support main. Bs can stay right where he's at. I played him recently and he feels strong just not op which is how he should be.
Naix nerf was needed. Ursa i felt was still ok
Fuck Naix.... was a little bit OP to be honest
Ursa still runs like crazy hitting people, minus armor had no difference since no one will try to man fight him anyway.
^^He still has pretty high base armor,high base strength, high strength gain, and decent enough agility gain to where the armor nerf isn't really that bad.
This Murranji guy is posting here too?
Muranji guy is like replica of one of my fri bs 1 hero puddle lol. but more whiny in public
dota sucks tho
Ursa still sitting at 57%+ wr in divine bracket with lifestealer not far behind. Bloodseeker has a whooping 56% wr in divine bracket and people are asking for buffs. How are you exactly going to buff him without breaking pubs?
Meanwhile, picks like techies are auto lose.
Stop nerfing Visage please 0-0
Visage is played by smurfs to stomp low MMR
Nerf more plz
Use Crystal maiden photo in the article,but don't even talk about her Freezing Field 10+ Armor buff, Keep it up boyz
@Creepy think they'd need to add a free linkens to the ability before anyone really cares.
Patch 7.22 :
Casting freezing field now grants 25/30/35 armor, 4/5/6 seconds magic immunity, 1/1/2 charge of spell block, and 25%/40%/55% spell lifesteal.
Crystal Maiden aghanim upgrade now immediately apply frostbite instead of 2.5 seconds delay.
*Wake up noises* CM realized it was just a dream
CM : "I knew it, there is no way icefrog would make that OP"
10/10 g/262861 i actually smiled more thant expected
Bloodseeker has 55% WR because he shits on a particular pool of heroes like Alch, Dark Seer and Lycan. Hes only picked in 1% of games because he is very niche, and any more buffs would blow this hero out of the water the same way they did with Naix and Ursa. Just accept that he is a very niche pocket pick that is strong in pubs but weak in the pro scene.
Honestly even if CM is immune to physical damage during ulti it would still not be considered OP. It needs to pierce magic immunity or something.