As is often the case, The International tournament is quite good at showcasing all of the major balance problems and absurd items that may have slipped under the radar until that point. So with the tournament now over, the Dota 2 team has sprung into action to hopefully fix all of the pain points and really shake up the meta.
With that in mind, it should come as little surprise to hear that the recently released Patch 7.37d has nerfed most of the aura and buff based items like Crimson Guard, Arcane Boots, Pipe of Insight or Solar Crest. The changes are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things so all of them should still see play, but hopefully we won't again end up in a situation where you either have to buy all of the defensive items or get overrun by those that do.
On a similar note, Patch 7.37d has also removed the stat doubling feature from Bracers, Wraith Bands and Null Talismans. These were always meant to be early game items, but due to the doubling effect they ended up being more effective in the mid-game than actual mid-game items, with the notorious example being a support Tusk with a couple of bracers having 4000 health! However, despite this being a rather large nerf, all of these items are still extremely powerful in the early game, so I have no doubts they'll still see plenty of play.
The final big change, and the one I'm the happiest about, is the Gleipnir nerf. The item was simply too good at too many things, and so Valve has now rightly hit it on just about every front. It's now more expensive, deals less damage and offers less stats overall, and yet I'm pretty sure it's still going to be frequently bought. It's wild how strong Gleipnir has been!
You can check out the full list of changes, including all of the hero tweaks, over at the official website.
Oh, and if you haven't seen the teaser, Dota 2 will be getting the long-rumored bird samurai hero Kez in the near future alongside Crownfall's Act IV! When exactly that will happen, nobody outside of Valve currently knows, but I doubt it's going to be a very long wait.
Once we get more information, or Kez just suddenly appears on screen, I'll make sure to let you know. Until then, here's the brief teaser. Enjoy!