Welcome back, everybody. The 7.41 patch has just dropped, and if you’ve read through it, you know there’s a lot to unpack. After spending hours breaking this down, I’m here to cut through the noise and give you the most important changes that will actually affect your games.

Let’s get into it.

The Biggest Change: Facets Are Gone

0:32 The headline of this patch is that facets have been removed from the game entirely. After reading through all the hero changes, which took me a solid few hours, my conclusion is that most of the useless facets were effectively removed, while many of the commonly picked ones were integrated into default abilities. But Valve also removed some facets that were widely used.

For example, Necrophos no longer has a way to gain AoE from his facet, even though that was the commonly taken one.

1:09 Personally, I think facets were a really nice addition for testing different abilities and features on different heroes. But giving heroes the ability to be two separate heroes, or in Dragon Knight’s case, three separate heroes, raised the complexity of the game too much. It compromised the integrity of the picking phase because you could adjust from game to game based on counters.

1:48 Overall, facets were good while they lasted, but I honestly think this will be a positive for the game moving forward. There were also a lot of heroes receiving nerfs to their general kit because one facet was too good, which made the other facet even more unplayable. This is one of the first times Valve has actively lowered the complexity level of the game, and I’m happy with that.

Map and Objective Changes

Lane Equilibrium Shifted Toward Offlane

2:20 The meeting point of lane creeps has been adjusted toward the offlane. Offlane creeps are slightly slowed upon leaving the base for the first couple of seconds, while safe lane creeps are slightly accelerated. These changes last until the 7:30 mark.

The new equilibrium point isn’t drastically different, it’s only slightly further up than before. But this is a bit better for the offlane considering safe lane was heavily favored last patch.

Tormentor and Roshan Swapped Positions

2:58 Tormentor and Roshan have swapped positions on the map. Tormentor now spawns bottom at 20 minutes, while Roshan starts top.

Tormentor has effectively more HP now and reflects the same amount of damage, but gives slightly less to the team that takes it. 3:16 My read is that Valve is making it harder to take and giving less reward, trying to make it not a default objective for every pro match.

4:06 The Tormentor is now on low ground, while the Twin Gates are up on high ground and more isolated than before. This is a significant tactical disadvantage for the team taking Tormentor. In the past, teams would camp on high ground protecting it, but now it’s much more precarious.

Wisdom Shrine Nerfed

3:28 The Wisdom Shrine gives about 33% less experience on the first round at 7 minutes, making it a much less significant swing. One of my biggest issues with the game before 7.41 was how formulaic everything was, there was always an objectively correct thing to do. I don’t mind that these objectives remain in the game as long as they’re less valuable, which they are now.

Safe Lane Camp Changes: Huge for Carries

5:30 One of the biggest changes on the map right now is the camps behind your safe lane tower. They’re now a medium camp instead of an ancient camp, alongside a small camp. This is massive.

Before, carries could only farm a small camp early on because most couldn’t take medium or ancient camps at low levels. Now you have a medium camp right there, making recovery farming way better. Heroes that can farm both these camps efficiently are going to be prioritized. This is honestly why Beastmaster carry became a thing, because he could clear ancients. Now the field is wider open.

Mechanics Changes

Health Restoration Unified

6:27 Health restoration now applies to all forms of life gain, heals, HP regen, lifesteal, they’re all the same thing now. So if you have something like Skadi, it reduces all health restoration. This simplifies the system.

Lifesteal and Damage Manipulation

6:48 Lifesteal now factors in damage reduction. Previously, if you were hitting an Ursa with Enrage active and used Satanic, you’d get full lifesteal. That’s no longer the case. This is a nerf to Satanic and makes it more difficult to use effectively.

Item Updates: New Items and Reworks

7:05 There are several new small items we’ll need to get used to, and a few new big items worth discussing.

Consecrated Wraps

7:15 This is a new hybrid offlane item, kind of like the old Eternal Shroud but cheaper and better for the early game. It gives a movement speed bonus after taking damage and not taking more for 3 seconds, giving you 20% movement speed to help you survive.

Crella’s Crozier

8:12 This is an upgrade to Ghost Scepter that effectively takes Necrophos’s old facet, stealing speed from people around you and lowering their health restoration. It’s an expensive item but has a unique niche.

Essence Distiller

8:28 A new support item upgrading Urn of Shadows. It gives true sight and vision on opponents, or you can place it on the ground as a miniature ward. Lots of utility here.

Specialist’s Array and Hydra’s Breath

8:44 Specialist’s Array brings back the old neutral item effect, 30% chance for attacks to split. Hydra’s Breath is a Dragon Lance upgrade on top of it, adding magic damage based on max health.

9:04 My initial impression? These aren’t very good. Most ranged heroes would prefer Dragon Lance over Specialist’s Array, and most heroes that need Dragon Lance also need survivability like Hurricane Pike or Manta. I’d recommend never buying Hydra’s Breath by itself, it’s a Dragon Lance upgrade for games where you don’t need Hurricane Pike.

Mask of Madness: Massive Buff

10:16 The biggest buff in all of items is Mask of Madness. It now gives:

• 30% Slow Resistance
• 8% movement speed for ranged heroes, 12% for melee
• Reduced armor penalty from 8 to 7

10:32 Any hero that rushes Mask of Madness, especially melee, and farms the camps behind their tower is going to be stronger. Luna and Sven come to mind immediately. This might become the new default item for a lot of carries.

Refresher Orb: Major Nerf

11:00 Refresh Orb no longer refreshes items. They did make BKB a minimum of 7 seconds instead of 6 to compensate, but this makes Refresher way worse. Most heroes that used Refresher, Enigma, Faceless Void, Primal Beast, Mars, needed BKB to effectively use their spells again. Many of these heroes can no longer justify purchasing Refresher Orb.

Other Item Changes

• Dagon now provides cast range rather than spell lifesteal
• Harpoon can target trees to move yourself away or close gaps
• Heaven’s Halberd is completely reworked, no longer Vanguard-based, now uses Talisman of Evasion
• Mage Slayer is more of a damage item now, dealing physical damage instead of magic
• Shiva’s Guard is reworked, armor and attack speed slow only, no stats or health regen
• Bloodstone includes Veil now, but likely still not very good

Neutral Item Changes

12:56 Neutral items now drop starting at 0 minutes instead of 5 minutes. I’m theory-crafting that supports like Venomancer or Chen will jungle right at the 1-minute mark, laning for a few seconds then farming the two camps behind the tower to get neutral items quickly.

13:32 My prediction: Medallion of Courage as a Tier 2 neutral is absolutely broken. Four minus armor for free on opponents. Heroes like Visage or Clinkz could be really nuts with this.

Enchantments No Longer Randomized

13:51 Enchantments are now based on your hero’s primary attribute. You’ll know exactly which options you’re going to get, allowing you to actually map out builds. I like this, it makes it more like a roguelike and less RNG. Adjusting to RNG wasn’t a good mechanic for neutral items.

Hero Highlights: Who to Play

14:39 I’m only about 10% through the hero changes in my video, so let me give you the heroes I’m most excited to try.

Crystal Maiden

14:52 Her new innate gives a physical barrier based on mana spent. I want to try her as position 5, but also mid. This scales with level, at level 20, your ultimate gives you like 600 barrier. A hero that was previously squishy now has a physical barrier. I’m almost certain we’ll see Topson playing Crystal Maiden mid.

Death Prophet

15:27 Her level 25 talent now extends Exorcism duration by 8 seconds for every death during it, both allied and enemy. If six people die in a fight, you have an 80-second-long Exorcism. She’s one of the few heroes that used to buy Refresher Orb that effectively doesn’t need one anymore. With Octarine Core, you could have almost 100% uptime.

Dragon Knight

16:24 He’s effectively reverted to old DK, but with the red dragon’s Wrath effect. Most notably, he has a level 20 talent for Breathe Fire with 200 damage. With one spell amp item, this one-shots creep waves. I want to try him mid as a spellcaster, all his stuff goes through debuff immunity, he has free pathing, magic resistance, and scales really well.

Faceless Void

17:08 Void got a lot of his items buffed, and his shard now increases attack/movement slow per cooldown while providing him with that same attack and movement speed. This works during Chronosphere, and Chronosphere prevents it from ticking down. With Mask of Madness and MKB, you’re just going to kill people.

Legion Commander

19:48 Aghs Scepter is completely reworked, no more magic immunity during Duel. Instead, Press the Attack becomes a 500-radius AoE strong dispel with bonus move speed and heal. Her innate gives bonus armor, stacking when she casts spells. At level 25, Duel refreshes cooldown on victory. This sounds like a really fun meme build.

Lich

20:55 Lich got Sacrifice back! He can’t use it until 2 minutes in, but he’s going to be one of the first supports I try.

Lifestealer

21:04 Feast and Ghoul Frenzy have been swapped, with lots of bonuses to base stats in lane. I’m not sure what the build is yet, but I’m excited to try him.

Rubick

22:34 His new innate Curiosity gives permanent scaling, base damage, buff/debuff duration, and AoE. He gains stacks permanently from kills, and temporary stacks when he sees enemies cast spells. Mid Rubick could be legit.

Tidehunter

24:38 His new innate makes enemies affected by his debuffs drop fish when they die. He eats them to gain max health, attack range, and bonus damage block. He also gets these by default when leveling up. I will be collecting my fishies.

Vengeful Spirit

27:04 Her Aghs illusion no longer refreshes abilities on death, but the aura is stronger and the illusion benefits from it fully. The illusion hits like a truck now. I’m curious to see if Vengeful Spirit carry becomes a thing, build agility items and hit like a truck. She’ll also be good at using the camps behind the tower with Wave of Terror.

RIP Heroes

• Huskar — His dispel moved to shard makes him pretty useless
• Jakiro — Lost base damage, now has mana costs on Liquid spells. The hero’s purpose was to win lane, and now he sucks at that.
• Juggernaut — Lost his 12% bonus damage innate
• Kez — Read the nerfs yourself. Lots of them.
• Windranger — Both facets removed, Aghs no longer makes her invisible during Windrun
• Razor — His popular facet is now a shard, hurting his early farming

Final Thoughts

This patch simplifies the game in meaningful ways. Removing facets lowers complexity, and the map changes make laning and farming decisions less formulaic. The Mask of Madness buff and safe lane camp changes are going to define the carry meta.

I’ll be trying Mask of Madness on heroes like Luna, Sven, Ursa, Troll Warlord, and Shadow Fiend. The camps behind the tower are just too valuable now.

That concludes my speedrun version of patch 7.41. I’ll see you guys in the future meta updates.