The long-awaited Dota 2 patch 7.31 has finally arrived, just in time for the weekend. Now, before you jump into your casual ranked match, here are several highlights that will be important for your game.

Reworked Techies is still bad news

Ah, Techies, plausibly the most hated hero in Dota 2 history, even Techies spammers *cough Slacks cough* are despised of in their matches. For starters, the Techies rework doesn’t cripple Techies as far as its win rate goes. However, Techies players will find themselves needing to be more involved with their allies in teamfights.

Techies new skills include a targeted throwing ability, Sticky Bomb and an AOE disarm skill, Reactive Tazer. The Blast Off skill still launches Techies onto the spot, but he won’t be denying itself anymore. All three skills require relatively close range to execute the skills, which means Techies players can’t be that solo narcissist who lets his team play 4v5 and brags about winning them the game by turtling.

The former Q skill or Proximity Mines becomes the ultimate, which also has few upgrades, such as reducing enemy magic resistance and higher damage (up to 750). Now, here’s a no-brainer Techies combo; channel Reactive Tazer, Blast Off onto enemies in sight, and drop a Proximity Mine plus Sticky Bomb. This combo, when performed correctly, can deal up to 1610 AOE damage and 3 seconds of disarm!

Hence, a Techies picker in your game will likely still keep us up at night.

Techies New Skillset – Sticky Bomb and Reactive Tazer

The Mighty Jungle

In the Dota 2 patch 7.31, a Techies player is the least of our concerns, because micro-based heroes just received a massive buff. Notably, Icefrog added three new jungle creep species into the ecosystem and generally gave minor stats buff for most jungle creeps too. This traditionally wouldn’t be a problem, but Icefrog is letting the jungle creeps run loose with active abilities in the Dota 2 patch 7.31. Expect jungling meta to be harsher than ever, and jungle cramps might become a hazard if the creeps combo their active abilities.

Alternatively, one can leverage on the jungle buff by playing Chen or heroes that can dominate creeps.

For instance, the new Ancient Frostbitten Golem has a passive that grants ten percent cooldown reduction. Cooldown reduction is generally a great buff to have and helps drafts that take objectives during midgame escalate it further. The Kobold Soldier, albeit a weak creep, can disarm a target for three seconds, which is detrimental to auto-attack carries.

Nevertheless, Chen and micro-based heroes, in general, are among the hardest Dota 2 heroes to master, so don’t expect Chen in every match. However, heroes, such as Doom, Enchantress, or carry hero that builds Helm of the Dominator, can benefit from the jungle resource.

While you’re at it, perhaps sing along the song by The Tokens, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”

Introducing new skill mechanics

Cast range reduction

Alongside the jungle buffs, the Dota 2 Patch 7.31 also introduces various new skill mechanics. We see two high-pick rate heroes, Bane and Tinker receive revamped skills that deteriorate an opponent’s cast range.

Specifically, Bane’s Enfeeble, which previously reduce attack speed, now reduces cast range. Whereas Tinker’s new shard skill, Warp Flare, does more than just reduce cast range, where it also ‘teleports’ the target 600 units away. We can certainly see this used against ranged auto-attack carriers, who typically build Dragon Lance, an attack range improvement item.

Persistent buffs

Meanwhile, we see more heroes gain persistent buffs from kills, that were traditionally unique to only Pudge, Slark, and Silencer. These heroes steal attribute stats, Strength, Agility, and Intelligence respectively.

With Dota 2 Patch 7.31, Axe’s Culling Blade kills gives him permanent armor while Necrophos’ Death Scythe gives health/mana regen. These are certainly good additions for mentioned heroes, who traditionally don’t scale well into late game. Despite their midgame presence, Axe and Necrophos aren’t very durable in late game.

These heroes are, of course, popular picks in casual and pro games alike, so expect them to flood your games.

The Primal Beast emerges!

Perhaps the most exciting addition to the Dota 2 Patch 7.31 is the featured new hero, Primal Beast. Fun fact, Primal Beast’s model was leaked earlier last December, but many speculated it’s potentially a ground-breaking upgrade to Roshan. The polished model suggested that it’s too well-made to just be another abandoned character in the Dota 2 files.

The New Hero, Primal Beast

However, nobody anticipated the Primal Beast to make its debut as a hero due to its huge character size, rivaling that of Roshan’s. That said, Primal Beast’s hitbox will likely be standard size, particularly located at its belly side.

Anyways, Primal Beast has a very bold skill design, fitting of its outrageous traits. The Q skill, Onslaught is a channeling skill that launches it forward, knocking both allies and enemy heroes in its way. This makes for great synergy with other initiators or a life-saving skill. W and E skills, Trample and Uproar respectively, make for lethal damage output and durability.

Yet, the most fearsome skill of all is its ultimate, Pulverize, which violently smashes a target like a ragdoll. This greatly resembles the iconic ‘The Avengers’ scene, where Hulk smashes Loki. Jokes aside, Primal Beast will likely be played as offlane, due to its decent damage output and durability.

Other Quirky Changes

Rubick’s Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade will surely be an enticing option for position 4 players, now that it can steal two spells with zero cooldown. We cannot even begin to comprehend how many different combinations of skills Rubick can now pull off. Therefore, we will leave that to notable Rubick players, such as Yazied “YapzOr” Jaradat and Xu “fy” Linsen, to entertain us at the upcoming Dota Pro Circuit 2021-22 (DPC2021-22) Tour 2.

Anti-Mage’s Mana Burn skill now stacks with Diffusal Blade’s Mana Burn passive, which hysterically brings the AM Diffusal Blade meme to life. From a strategical perspective, the double-mana burn build is situational, perhaps against a Medusa or Bristleback carry game.

Lastly, one addition that bid goodbye to fountain farming, invulnerable status in fountain. Heroes that just respawned will have invulnerability so long as they don’t trigger any command and there’s at least another ally hero in the fountain. This is made specifically, to prevent fountain farming after one side already indisputably won the game

In hindsight, Icefrog outdid itself with the Dota 2 patch 7.31, and we can already estimate the surge in player count. There are other heroes with unique buffs, that could be nominees for best Dota 2 heroes to climb rank. Thus, we recommend watching the established pros participating in BTS Pro Series S10 and DPC2021-22 Tour 2 as a more insightful source.

Else, the professionals in Dota 2 ranks are another reliable alternative to studying the Dota 2 Patch 7.31