Dota 2 patch 7.27a features only two changes

Dota 2 7 27a png
Image credit: Valve Corporation

Patch 7.27 was released at the end of June and it changed a lot about the game. The same couldn’t be said about 7.27a which only change two items.

This might be the shortest patch in the history of Dota 2 patches. We didn’t quite check but we’re pretty sure that it’s at least in the top three. Don’t believe us? Here is the full changelog:

Helm of the Dominator

  • Creep damage reduced from +40 to +25
  • Recipe cost increased by 250 gold

Monkey King Bar

  • Now has a 350 gold recipe

That’s all there is. So why these two items?

Helm of the Dominator

Patch 7.27 was a bit weird as it kind of killed aura stacking and Helm of the Dominator. Or so it seemed? The reworked item now grants bonus stats to the dominated unit, effectively turning something into a killing machine. Considering you can rush it without even taking boots first the early game pressure you can apply with it is quite amazing. Most enemy heroes won’t even have anything besides boots. Then imagine a neutral creep with 1500 hp, 425 movement speed, a lot of damage, and health regen coming at you. Terrifying.With the change in 7.27a this will keep happening but at least the damage is now lowered. It won’t be too surprising if we see further changes or yet another rework for Helm of the Dominator.

Monkey King Bar

MKB has always been a great item. According to Dotabuff, it has a win rate of over 61% which is definitely on the higher end. The item is generally looked upon as “the counter to evasion” but lately it’s a lot more than that. With patch 7.27 the recipe for MKB was changed by replacing Quarterstaff with Blitz Knuckles. This increased the overall attack speed granted by the item but reduced the flat bonus damage a bit. A worthy trade, as MKB, will easily increase the DPS of most carries by at least a couple of hundred. The almost constant procs of magic damage make it an excellent choice for heroes with high attack speed like Juggernaut.Adding an extra 350 gold recipe to the equation won’t affect the popularity of the item. It already escaped the role of being a counter to evasion. Now it’s often a better choice than Mjollnir in terms of raw DPS.

We were hoping that patch 7.27a will deliver some of the hero changes that we never got with the big patch, but it seems they’ll come further down the line if at all.Stay tuned for more Dota 2 news and make sure to check out EarlyGame as well as our Youtube channel for more content.

Tasho Tashev

Law graduate from Sofia University turned gaming journalist. Gaming has always been a passion of mine since I was a kid (shocker I know) so it was only a matter of time before I started writing about it. My high-school...