Morphling’s identity crisis headlines Dota 2 patch 7.41d

A new lettered patch for the big 7.41 gameplay update aims to balance the current meta while seemingly embracing the high-risk, high-reward playstyle.

Three meta flavour heroes have been significantly hit by the nerf hammer. Tiny, Kez, and Invoker’s presence in competitive and public matchmaking might see a drop, as all three are now weaker.

Patch 7.41d losers

Tiny

• Insurmountable: Strength to Slow Resist decreased from 20% to 15%.
• Tree Grab: Cooldown increased from 15/12/9/6s to 16/13/10/7s.
• Tree Throw: Cast Range decreased from 1200 to 1000.

Kez

• Switch Discipline: Katana Bonus Agility Base Damage decreased from 16% to 12%.
• Kazurai Katana: Cooldown increased from 20/15/10/5s to 24/18/12/6s.
• Shodo Sai: Cooldown increased from 20/15/10/5s to 24/18/12/6s and Parry Duration decreased from 2s to 1.5s.

Additionally, Kez’ level 10 talent +12% Magic Resistance got replaced with +6% Switch Discipline Swap Bonuses, which is a nerf to his survivability in exchange for slightly better stance dancing.

Invoker

• Ghost Walk: Cooldown increased from 32s to 40s.
• Chaos Meteor: Contact Damage decreased from 55/80/105/130/155/180/205/220/235 to 55/75/95/115/135/155/175/195/215.
• Ice Wall: Movement Slow rescaled from 20/40/60/80/100/120/140/160/180% to 30/45/60/75/90/105/120/135/150%.

A few more heroes received significant nerfs. The currently most picked hero at BLAST Slam VII, Hoodwink, got her Scurry movement speed reduced, while the Arcon Shoot cooldown got increased.

Patch 7.41d winners

The patch highlight is without a doubt Morphling, who got a big attribute shift, losing 7 Strength at level 1 but gaining 9 Agility. That makes him significantly squishier through the early laning stage, but his base damage and attack speed get stronger.

His Ebb and Flow now scales better with Agility and Strength, all getting amped from 20% to 25%.

Ancient Apparition, Leshrac, Spectre, and Sven have all received buffs this patch, which might see them back in the competitive meta.

Item changes

Dagon just got more accessible with a modest but welcome 50 gold discount to the recipe. The recipe cost decreased from 1150 to 1100 gold, reducing the total cost of all five tiers. Meanwhile, Mage Slayer got nerfed (again) with its bonus damage decreased from +15 to +12.

The more substantial item tweaks happened, in fact, to Neutral Items, with plenty of those getting significant buffs

Witchbane

• Cleanse: cast range increased from 500 to 700
• Cleanse: mana cost decreased from 150 to 50

Flayer's Bota

• False Flight bonus evasion increased from 25% to 35%

Fallen Sky

• Building impact damage increased from 75 to 110

Idol of Scree'auk

• False Flight bonus evasion increased from 25% to 35%

General changes

Two changes stand out this patch when it comes down to quality of life and general updates: self-cast teleport now places the hero slightly closer to the Ancient, and Smoke of Deceit now broadcasts a chat message to allies when a player is popping it up.

Quartero new gifts

While the Dota 2 community is anxiously waiting for an update on The International 2026 in-game content ( つ ◕◕ ༽つ Summon the Battlepass ༼ つ ◕◕ ༽つ), Quaretero has three new sets to offer for Broodmother, Venomancer and Nyx Assassin, with the Venomancer one coming in two tiers. All new Quarter sets can be unlocked for free by playing Dota 2 matches until September 4.