Dota 2 7.39 patch overview: Does it alter the game’s meta?

Valve dropped a massive update on May 23, 2025. The Spring Forward update introduces a significant numbered patch with 7.39, which includes several reworks to facets, as well as the addition and removal of many neutral items, and changes to almost all the heroes. 

Aside from that, the update has also brought quality of life improvements to make every Dota 2 game feel more accessible. After a week with the balance changes, the meta has started to settle. Let’s take a look at how the new Dota 2 patch affected the game.

Before going into the gameplay patch, the Spring Forward update has introduced so many welcome quality of life improvements. There are UI improvements to the shop, like streamlining shopping and automating the courier, an enhanced ping system for better communication, and the ability to search specific settings to customise your experience.

With those upgrades setting the stage, Dota 2 patch 7.39 has made impactful changes to map objectives, the terrain, and a clean-up to lifesteal. Moreover, the Tormentor’s first spawn time has been increased to 20 minutes from 15.

Roshan has become a bit more lethal with buffs to its attacks, stat gain, and Roar of Retribution. Additionally, Roar of Retribution’s health trigger threshold was increased to 85% of its health, triggering a message visible to everyone. Expect more fights in the Roshan pit moving forward.

Lifesteal Amplification and Spell Lifesteal Amplification are now united under one umbrella stat: Health Restoration, reflected in relevant items and abilities. Speaking of healing, sources of heal amplification now stack additively instead of diminishingly.

Valve has cut down a few sources of health restoration and effective HP from items. Kaya, Yasha and Kaya lost their Spell Lifesteal Amplification, while the Sange upgrade paths saw reductions to their lifesteal. Sange and Yasha’s status resistance was even reduced to 15%. 

Talisman of Evasion and Radiance saw both of their evasion bonuses decreased to 15% from 20%. But Holy Locket got the brunt of the healing nerfs, as its active effect was decreased by another 10%.

The new Dota 2 patch updated the Neutral Item pool, cycling out old ones and revitalising it with new and returning ones:

For the new Neutral Items, Dormant Curio is a standout tier 1 artifact that has no effect, but increases the next non-curio artifact by 30%. For example, it increases the Tumbler’s Toy jump distance from 300 to 390 or Serrated Shiv’s current health damage from 8% to 10.4%.

Other interesting Neutral Items are the Outworld Staff, which removes the caster from the world for a short period, similar to Puck’s Phase Shift. Divine Regalia increases outgoing damage by 20%, but becomes useless when the wearer is killed, much like Divine Rapier, Helm of the Undying, which lets the user survive for an extra five seconds after a lethal blow, extending its effect when enemy heroes die near the wearer.

Many heroes received reworks to their facets and balance changes. Out of the 126 heroes in Dota 2, only eight were unchanged: Earth Spirit, Luna, Primal Beast, Storm Spirit, Weaver, Sven, Tidehunter, and Tusk.

Batrider has seen the biggest glowup of patch 7.39 due to his two reworked facets. Additionally, Sticky Napalm now applies two stacks on cast, and its stack limit was increased to 20 from 10 for the change. Batrider’s winrate has climbed by 8% in the Immortal bracket, but it still rests at a slightly weak 48%.

Juggernaut has returned to form as one of the best carries of the new patch with a 13% contest rate and a 52% win rate in the Immortal bracket. All thanks to the changing Blade Fury to deal damage in five ticks per second, instead of based on his attack speed. This gives Juggernaut much-needed kill potential during the laning stage.

Nature’s Prophet’s obnoxious Ironwood Treant facet was one of the reasons why he was a contested hero in the recent PGL Wallachia Season 4. Valve has removed it and changed it to Nature’s Profit, where eliminating an enemy hero within range of him causes a money tree to grow in their place, and any hero can pick them up. While the new facet made him less cheesy, it rewarded him for being more active, shooting up his winrate from 44.93% to 52.89% in the Immortal bracket.

Other winners of the patch are Sand King, Lich, Bloodseeker (and his returning eight-second silence on Bloodrage), Broodmother, and Omniknight, who has been seeing more success as a core rather than a support.

On the other side, the patch 7.39 seeks to balance heroes who have been at the top for too long.

Templar Assassin received nerfs to Meld, Psionic Trap, and the removal of her talent that added more attack and split range to Psi Blades. She’s still one of the strongest carries at the moment, but these nerfs toned down her early oppressiveness, lowering her overall winrate by almost 4%.

Dota 2’s newest hero, Kez, has the dishonour of having one of the lowest winrates at 43% in the Immortal bracket. Instead of receiving buffs for this patch, Kez was beaten down with more nerfs, like removing the lifesteal from Grapple Claw and taking away cooldown reduction from Shadowhawk. It seems like Valve is pushing Kez away from the midlane and towards a Hard Carry role, but he needs more help than that if they want to see him in play.

Silencer’s Irrepessible and Reverberating Silence facets were removed, replaced with two new ones that cater towards a core role. Regardless, as long as Silencer has Global Silence, he’ll continue to be a valuable pick in high-level play.

Other significant nerfs include Warlock no longer applying Fatal Bonds to enemies in Fog of War, Beastmaster’s damage nerf to his Aghanim’s Scepter ability, Drums of Slom, Phantom Asassin Fan of Knives ability moving to Aghanim’s Scepter from Shard. Invoker and Ringmaster also received numerous nerfs, but they’re still in a healthy state based on their winrate and contest rate.

Now, for a bit of speculation. Lycan’s Aghanim’s Scepter ability, Wolf Bite, can now be used on allied creep heroes. Lycan can pair up with a competent Lone Druid player to cause hell with a powered-up, speedy bear. There could also be a use case with Warlock’s golem to run down a key target. 

Clockwerk’s Chainmeal facet is the subject of memes for its ridiculous effect, allowing Clock to consume a chainmail to receive its armour permanently. Clockwerk is a slow farmer who would rather search for picks and buy items like Blademail and Aghanim’s Scepter before even considering chomping on chainmails. This facet needs a buff to stay competitive with his better options.

Finally, Chen can upgrade Hand of God with Aghanim’s Scepter to create a field near him with debuff immunity and magic resistance, except for himself. This change, plus the other buffs to his kit, could cause him to appear in more pro matches.

Despite all these changes in patch 7.39, the meta is relatively similar to the last. If you’re looking for heroes to play in this patch, then you’ll find a lot of familiar faces.

Dota 2’s newest update brought a lot of welcome improvements and a huge gameplay patch. While 7.39 brought many balance changes, it didn’t bring drastic ones. The meta, although healthy, is similar to the last few patches regarding commonly seen heroes.

Seeing most of the same faces brings up the question of whether Valve is happy with letting some heroes stay strong while others remain weak. Heroes like Templar Assassin and Wraith King have been dominating the last patches, while Earth Spirit, Phantom Lancer, and Kez desperately need more than a few breadcrumbs to maintain a healthy state. 

Apart from those outliers, patch 7.39 further refines Dota 2 into a healthy, diverse meta, where every hero is viable in the right hands, and flexible too.