[Update #2]: Patch 7.35c has now launched with some much-needed nerfs to overplayed heroes and items.

[Update]: Dota 2's Patch 7.35b has arrived to fix some of the freshly introduced mistakes.

In an effort to prevent the meta from getting too entrenched, the Dota 2 team has now unleashed Patch 7.35. As you might expect, the update brings with it an absurd amount of balance changes to both items and heroes, a plethora of quality of life improvements, numerous new items and neutral items to toy around with, and since this is the holiday season we're talking about, some festive new cosmetics as well!

First and foremost, jungle creeps now offer less money, thus incentivizing a more active playstyle among core roles. Keeping with the theme, super creeps and mega creeps are now a fair bit stronger as well, so destroying an enemy team's base should be more than a simple inconvenience. And in order to give the dominant team a better chance to push, Roshan can now also drop a banner that greatly amplifies one lane's worth of creeps for 300 seconds.

As for the heroes, it should come as little surprise to hear that some of the more annoying ones like Dazzle, Grimstroke, Lone Druid and Slardar have received nerfs, while a wide array of previously weak heroes have received a couple of buffs. Some of them might not seem all that impressive as they are mostly minor number increases, but as is often the case with Dota 2, even a couple of extra stats here and there can make a hero go from mediocre to menacing.

The items themselves have also undergone a ton of reworks and tweaks, so much so that even attempting to summarize all of the changes is basically impossible. What I will say is that there is a fair bit more magic damage going around in Patch 7.35, Arcane Boots are now slightly better for supports but can't be disassembled, and Bloodstone now grants a brand new stat - AoE Radius increase!

It's hard to judge how balanced anything truly is right now given that the patch has thrown the game into complete disarray but, on the positive side, testing all of the new builds and synergies is a ton of fun! So if you can, I'd heartily recommend playing some games before things settle down as right now pretty much anything can work.

Have fun, and you can check out the full patch notes over at the Dota 2 website.