Patch 7.33c: balance changes, Alchemist and Medusa nerfed
Before the DPC Summer Tour, Valve released the balance patch 7.33c. It's supposed to make life easier for support and stop a couple of unstoppable carries.
The patch contains important general changes as well as revisions to many items and heroes. You can find a full list of changes on the game's official website. We'll look at the key points that can affect gameplay.
General updates
- Picking up a wisdom rune now also grants experience to the lowest-level hero on the team (if the lowest-level hero picks up the rune, experience goes to the second-lowest-level hero)
- Observer Ward experience bounty increased from 50+6/min to 70+8/min
- When a stacked camp is killed, the player that did the stacking receives 30% of the experience gained (the same percentage as a gold bounty)
- Tormentor Reflect now always affects the attacking hero, regardless of distance
- Cleared multiple tree paths that led to dead ends and deceptive-looking terrain
- Heroes bonus attribute points can now be skilled starting at level 6
- Universal Heroes' damage per attribute increased from 0.6 to 0.7
The first innovation in the patch is essential for support. Because of the removal of the Tome of Knowledge and the fact that Outposts no longer give experience, support suffered greatly in terms of experience. But now, when Rune of Wisdom gives experience to the lowest-level hero, it will be a huge help, especially if the rune is picked up specifically by the supports.
Hero upgrades
Alchemist and Medusa got some serious nerfs, which was right. They terrorized teams at the ESL One Berlin Major 2023. However, this won't continue in the final tour of DPC 2023.
Some heroes that haven't shown up well since the patch 7.33 release got improvements. Invoker and Spirit Breaker received particularly significant buffs.
We will see the new patch in action on May 15, when most regions begin the competition. However, the EEU region matches to start a day earlier, so we can form the first opinion on how 7.33c affected the balance today.