Snapfire and Lone Druid receive nerfs 14 days before The International 2026

With two weeks to go before The International 2026, the 16 teams heading to Shanghai, China, get new homework from Valve, as hero and item changes are plenty in the 7.41e balance patch.

Hero nerfs

A total of 56 heroes received tweaks, but more importantly, the hot meta choices have all been impacted.

The nerf hammer hit Snapfire the hardest.

Played in almost every role through the last few weeks, Snapfire became a menace in both pub and competitive matches. Her point-blank damage, cookie damage and lockdown, along with Mortimer Kisses' impact damage, were simply over-tuned. She received nerfs on all the above and then some.

Necrophos, Earth Spirit, Axe, Clockwerk, Hoodwink, Lone Druid and his Spirit Bear, Zeus have all been toned down. The latter has received direct and indirect nerfs, as Valve has just killed the Divine Rapier stacking strategy as well.

Divine Rapier's spell amplification no longer stacks in patch 7.41e, so at least in public matchmaking, you are less likely to get killed by a Fountain “AFK” Zeus refreshing his ultimate.

It’s not all nerfs in the latest balance patch. Some heroes received minor buffs and might make their way back into the meta. Among those are Morphling, Gyrocopter, and Queen of Pain.

Along with the balance patch, Valve has also released a long list of bug fixes. You can find the full patch notes and bug fixes here.