The Latest Dota 2 Balance Update: Patch 7.11
The newest Dota 2 balance update, known as Patch 7.11, is now live on the servers.
Focus on Adjusting Gold Distribution and Buyback Costs
This update brings changes to how gold is given away upon a hero’s death, how buyback costs are determined, and how punishing it is to buy back.
Changing the Bounty System
Previously, losing teams could catch up by picking off easy targets. The winning team’s bounty scaled for each hero, which meant that ignoring carries and bullying supports allowed the losing team to make a comeback.
Now, the scaling bounty is tied to the net worth of the dying hero. This means that heroes who are far ahead in net worth will give away a lot of gold upon death. This change rewards heroes who distribute farm evenly among their teammates.
Consequences for Certain Heroes
This change has negative implications for heroes like Tinker, Alchemist, Medusa, Luna, and Anti-Mage. These heroes tend to amass a lot of resources by farming multiple lanes, so dying now has more severe consequences for them.
Scaling Down the Bounty Multiplier
The bounty multiplier based on a hero’s net worth has been scaled down, with the lowest net worth ranking having a multiplier of 0.6, down from 0.8. This adjustment benefits cores in particular.
Changes to Buyback Costs
The buyback formula now directly depends on a hero’s total net worth, instead of hero level and game time. This means that wealthy cores will have to pay more for buybacks, while supports will find it easier to buy back due to their lower average net worth.
However, buying back no longer penalizes total gold earnings for a duration afterwards. This is good news for carries, as they can quickly farm the gold they spent on buying back. Heroes like Alchemist can buy back in crucial high ground defenses and still acquire key items soon after.