posted by NanaKrustofski,
The new and long-awaited gameplay update 7.30 finally hit the servers. The patch features a range of changes, including eight new Neutral Items where one of them can turn you into a speedy little pig. For three months, the brave and loyal players had to fight the never-ending battle between the two Ancients in the same patch over and over again. The last update 7.29d was implemented on 24 May, but now Valve finally brought the new update to revive the stale meta and bring some fresh action to the game.

Gameplay update 7.30 was released this Wednesday and features a quite extensive list of changes. Let's take a look at some of the biggest adjustments and new additions.



Eight new Neutral Items introduced



The Neutral Items received a major rework. First off, Neutral Creeps now drop five neutral items per tier instead of four.

Additionally, seven Neutral Items were removed from the game: Faded Broach, Ironwood Tree, Imp Claw, Illusionist's Cape, Minotaur Horn, Orb of Destruction and Ballista.

Their place is taken by eight new Neutral Items which can do the following:


  • Pig Pole (Tier 1):
  • Grants +6 to all stats and when activated turns the owner into a pig for 4 seconds and grants +10% movement speed.

  • Tumbler's Toy (Tier 1):
  • Grants 200 Mana and when activated propels your unit forward 300 units. Goes on a 3s cooldown when receiving player based damage.

  • Brigand's Blade (Tier 2):
  • Grants +10 Damage and +10 Attack Speed. Its Passive deals +7 additional damage when attacking for each 10% HP the enemy is missing.

  • Fae Grenade (Tier 2):
  • Grants +20 Movement Speed and when activated throws a Bomb to an enemy within 900 range dealing your attack damage and applying a debuff that provides vision of the unit and deals 20dps for 7 seconds.

  • Blast Rig (Tier 3):
  • Grants 8 Armor and has a Passive that when being attacked, it explodes and deals 300 damage to all enemies within a 300 radius and applying a 100% blind for 2.5 seconds.

  • Ascetic's Cap (Tier 4):
  • Grants 300 Health and 10 Health Regen, has a Passive that grants 50% status resistance for 3 seconds whenever a debuff from a player controlled source would be applied to the owner.

  • Witchbane (Tier 4):
  • Comes with Passive that causes the hero to deal extra magic damage to its target equal to 4% of its max mana on attack.
  • Active: Dispels all enemies and allies within 300 radius.

  • Arcanist's Armor (Tier 5):
  • Grants +5 Armor and +20% Magic Resistance. It passively grants the same buffs to all allies in a 900 radius.
  • Active: Gains a 35% damage reflection aura in a 900 radius affecting allied units for the next 5 seconds.




Tinker and Winter Wyvern receive heavy nerfs



Apart from the heavy rework on the Neutral Items, the heroes also underwent a plethora of nerfs and buffs. Most notably, Tinker has been altered to a huge degree. March of the Machines is now a shard ability, Defense Matrix has been turned into a basic skill, the Laser now does AoE damage and a new rearm sub-ability got introduced. Keen Conveyance lets the player teleport to a friendly building on level 1, then to friendly units and then to heroes.

Players are currently discussing how the new Tinker can be played. The dawn of the support Tinker might be ahead.



After Leon 'nine' Kirilin made the Winter Wyvern-mid strategy popular, the hero now received some nerfs as well. For example, Winter's Curse cast range got reduced from 800 to 700, Artic Burn effects were reduced and her talents were also altered to make her less strong.

Which hero rework do you think is the most interesting?



Photo credit: Valve

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