Dota 2 Releases Update 7.38

Valve has released a February 2025 patch for the MOBA Dota 2, encouraging players to explore the Wandering Waters in the 7.38 Gameplay Update. Dota 2 fans can utilize currents to arrive in the safe lane with haste within Wandering Waters, and players can also carve out their own destiny through craftable Neutral Items. The update makes several changes and improvements to gameplay, and the community seems very happy with the patch so far.

The multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) was first released in 2013 and serves as a direct sequel to Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a community-based mod for Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft 3: Reigns of Chaos. Dota 2 is one of the best live-service games on the market, sharing fame with the likes of Final Fantasy 14, Apex Legends, and Helldivers 2, and the title also boasts a large esports presence.

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Update 7.38 brings revision to major mechanics, as players can now spend skill points on all attributes starting at level 2, reflected spells benefit from all bonuses the original cast had, and slow resistance now increases minimum movement speed by the slow resist percentage. The top and bottom outer rim areas have been flooded by streams in the Wandering Waters update, and watchers, camps, and pathways in the area have been repositioned to accommodate the stream. Roshan counters have to be performed as a team in Dota 2, and the new update puts Roshan back in the river and will follow the day/night cycle. Additionally, Tormentor spawns have been repositioned to the map corners.

The mammoth update, similar to Dota 2’s substantial Crownfall Event update that was released back in April 2024 and included four acts and 24 Treasure sets to name a few features, also included other terrain changes like region-specific map buffs and changes to which sources and targets provide Lifesteal. Furthermore, players can also find Neutral Creep, Item, and Hero updates in the patch.

Dota 2 is also one of the top multiplayer games with the best skins and cosmetics, joining Fortnite, League of Legends, and Fall Guys in the ranking. Customizing heroes with eye-catching skins is one of the perks of the game, but the Dota 2 heroes list also received a substantial update within the recent patch. From Abaddon to Zeus, each hero received improvements regarding Facets, Talents, and Abilities, and these details are designed to tailor a seamless in-game experience while also keeping gameplay engaging for veterans and newcomers.

Dota 2 7.38 Gameplay Update Patch Notes

Major Mechanics

• Universal Heroes’ damage per attribute decreased from 0.7 to 0.45
• As a result, many heroes have had their Base Damages and attribute gains changed
• Skill points can now be spent on All Attributes starting at level 2 instead of level 6
• Reflected spells now benefit from all bonuses the original cast had, including the following:
• Caster’s facet upgrades
• Bonuses from talents
• Aghanim’s Shard and Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades
• Upgrades used to depend on Aghanim’s items the reflecting unit had
• Slow Resistance now also increases minimum movement speed by the slow resist percentage
• 20% Slow Resistance increases your minimum movement speed from 100 to 120
• Glyph of Fortification: Creep duration decreased from 4s to 3s
• Units no longer gain bonus movement speed during the night
• Items that have entered a Hero’s backpack for the very first time now have a 3 second grace period where they can be swapped into the main inventory without any cooldown. This can only happen once per item per Hero

Wandering Waters

• The top and bottom outer rim areas are now flooded by streams of traversable water
• These streams have a current, starting near the T3 towers (right before the medium camp location), down to the T1 towers (former Twin Gate location)
• Going downstream increases current and max movement speed, while going upstream inflicts no penalty
• Streams are separated by two zones: ones with a ‘strong current’ which provides up to 150 bonus movement speed and ones with a ‘moderate current’ which provides up to 100 bonus speed. The current is ‘strong’ from stream beginnings near each base up to the waterfalls near T2 towers. All other stream sections are considered to have a ‘moderate current’
• Bonus value depends on the faced direction, ranging from 100% while going downstream to 0% at 90 degrees
• Watchers, camps and pathways in the areas have been slightly adjusted to give way for the stream
• Radiant and Dire main jungles now also have a stream with moderate current, starting near the easy camp close to the mid T1 towers. They join the outer streams, crossing the safelane near the T2 towers

Map Objectives

Roshan

• Roshan is back in the river, with one pit located near each sidelane:
• Top lair is slightly closer to Dire’s jungle entrance, and bottom one is closer to Radiant’s
• Only the active Roshan pit will show as a minimap icon
• Roshan initially spawns in the Bottom Pit
• Starting at 15:00, Roshan will follow the day/night cycle, walking across the river towards his designated pit: Top at night and Bottom at day
• Roshan no longer has bonus movement speed while moving between pits
• Roshan now has basic 25% Slow Resistance and an additional 25% Slow Resistance when running between pits
• When running into a hero while moving between pits, Roshan will stop and grab them before violently throwing them away. Upon landing, heroes are stunned for 1s and take 200 pure damage + 0.5% of target’s current health per minute of game time. Each time Roshan throws a hero, he gains 70 bonus movement speed and increases throw damage by additional 100 until he reaches his destination pit. After 5 throws Roshan ignores heroes on his way
• Throw distance: 1500. Max bonus movespeed: 300. Can be blocked by spell-blocking abilities and items, like Linken’s Sphere, but can’t be reflected. Heroes will be thrown away from Roshan based on their relative position to him
• Added a Roshan icon near the minimap that shows Roshan’s state (alive, dead, maybe alive) and location:
• If Roshan is dead, the status will also include a timer until his possible respawn
• Since Roshan’s respawn takes between 8 to 11 minutes, during this window the status will say that he may be alive, but also include a timer until the guaranteed respawn
• If a team gains vision over Roshan or Roshan’s Roar of Retribution is heard during this status, the timer will be updated to inform that Roshan is alive
• Templar Assassin’s Third Eye Innate will cause the icon to display exactly when and where Roshan will respawn
• Roar of Retribution:
• Now also applies a 2s Disarm on all affected units
• Radius decreased from 900 to 600
• Cast point increased from 0.1s to 0.5s
• Cooldown increased from 20s to 60s
• Roshan’s knockback now has a 2s cooldown before it can be applied to the same unit again
• Added a unique attack animation for Bash, as well as new animation and particles for Roar of Retribution

Tormentor

• Tormentor spawns repositioned to the corners of the map
• There is only a single Tormentor active at a time
• Tormentor now spawns for the first time at 15:00
• Tormentor now grants 250 gold to each team member on death
• Tormentor is also dependent on the day and night cycle, so it’s at Radiant side at night and at Dire’s side at day. As a result, it will always appear at the Radiant side first
• Due to this Roshan and Tormentor are always on opposite sides
• Tormentor’s abilities now scale with game time instead of the number of deaths
• Unyielding Shield: Damage absorb rescaled from 2500 + (200 per death) to 1900 + (20 per minute of game time)
• Unyielding Shield: Barrier regeneration rescaled from 100 + (100 per death) to 30 + (5 per minute of game time)
• Reflect: Damage percentage rescaled from 90 + (20 per death) to 50 + (2 per minute of game time)
• The Shining: Damage per second increased from 30 to 60
• The Shining: Radius decreased from 1200 to 1000
• Alleviation: New ability. After dying, the Tormentor leaves behind a 900 radius aura that increases health regeneration of all units in the area by 2% of their Max Health. Lasts 15s

Lotus Pools

• Changed the way Healing Lotuses are collected from Lotus Pools:
• Lotus Pools now have three entrances and an empty region in the center
• Heroes will automatically gather lotuses when within 350 units of the center of a pool as long as they have available space in their inventory
• The first Lotus takes 1.5s to collect, and each subsequent lotus in a row takes 30% less time
• The timer only counts down when all heroes within range are on the same team, pausing if an enemy hero enters the area, and resuming when enemies leave
• If multiple allied heroes are all within range, the Lotus will be granted to a random hero
• Lotus Pools will now spawn Great Lotuses after Tier 4 Neutral Items are available
• Lotus Pools will now spawn Greater Lotuses after Tier 5 Neutral Items are available

Shrines of Wisdom

• Wisdom Runes removed and replaced with new buildings: Shrines of Wisdom
• Shrines of Wisdom are located in the offlane side jungles between the Tier 1 and 2 towers where the Ancient camps used to be
• The Shrines will activate every 7 minutes, glowing and filling with experience
• To gather the experience from an activated Shrine, a hero must stand within 300 units for 3s
• Like Lotus Pools, the Shrine will not count down time if an enemy hero contests by standing within the effect radius, and will resume only if the enemy hero leaves the area or is killed
• Experience will be granted to a random hero within 300 units of the Shrine and also to their teammate with the lowest experience

Bounty Runes

• Spawn interval increased from 3 minutes to 4 minutes
• Gold provided after the initial set rescaled from 36 + (9 per 5 minutes) to 40 + (6 per 4 minutes)
• Other Terrain Changes
• The region specific map buffs (Mighty Mines, etc.) have been removed
• Corner outposts have been removed
• The Twin Gates have been repositioned to the corners of the map on a new high ground area near Tormentors
• Touched up the map in general. Slightly adjusted neutral camps, trees, and cliffs
• Lifesteal
• Individual abilities no longer have special rules about how lifesteal works in different situations (heroes vs creeps vs illusions, damage types, etc.). Lifesteal mechanics are now consistent across every ability:
• Lifesteal applies to physical damage from attacks and is reduced by 40% when damaging non-heroes
• Spell Lifesteal now applies to physical damage from spells and magical damage from spells or attacks and is reduced by 80% when damaging non-heroes
• Neither Lifesteal nor Spell Lifesteal applies to pure damage
• Holding Alt while looking at items that provide Lifesteal or Spell Lifesteal will show the lifesteal percentages for attacking and casting spells, and targeting creeps vs heroes
• The following sources and targets do not provide any lifesteal
• Attacks that do not proc Attack Modifiers
• Attack damage against wards, buildings, or couriers
• Spell damage against illusions, wards, buildings, or couriers
• Reflected damage
• Spells that remove Health instead of dealing direct damage
• Any damage dealt to self or allies
• A small number of abilities that do not use Lifesteal or Spell Lifesteal still result in healing and can benefit from Lifesteal Amp:
• Lifestealer’s Open Wounds heals attackers for a percentage of the damage done
• Lifestealer’s Feast heals for a percentage of the target’s max health
• Meepo’s Ransack heals all Meepos a flat amount for each strike

Other Terrain Changes

• The region specific map buffs (Mighty Mines, etc.) have been removed
• Corner outposts have been removed
• The Twin Gates have been repositioned to the corners of the map on a new high ground area near Tormentors
• Touched up the map in general. Slightly adjusted neutral camps, trees, and cliffs

Lifesteal

• Individual abilities no longer have special rules about how lifesteal works in different situations (heroes vs creeps vs illusions, damage types, etc.). Lifesteal mechanics are now consistent across every ability:
• Lifesteal applies to physical damage from attacks and is reduced by 40% when damaging non-heroes
• Spell Lifesteal now applies to physical damage from spells and magical damage from spells or attacks and is reduced by 80% when damaging non-heroes
• Neither Lifesteal nor Spell Lifesteal applies to pure damage
• Holding Alt while looking at items that provide Lifesteal or Spell Lifesteal will show the lifesteal percentages for attacking and casting spells, and targeting creeps vs heroes
• The following sources and targets do not provide any lifesteal
• Attacks that do not proc Attack Modifiers
• Attack damage against wards, buildings, or couriers
• Spell damage against illusions, wards, buildings, or couriers
• Reflected damage
• Spells that remove Health instead of dealing direct damage
• Any damage dealt to self or allies
• A small number of abilities that do not use Lifesteal or Spell Lifesteal still result in healing and can benefit from Lifesteal Amp:
• Lifestealer’s Open Wounds heals attackers for a percentage of the damage done
• Lifestealer’s Feast heals for a percentage of the target’s max health
• Meepo’s Ransack heals all Meepos a flat amount for each strike

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Released

July 9, 2013

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