The new patch introduced some small, but key changes to the game. It might not be a complete meta overhaul, but the effects are noticeable and today we would like to take a look at the biggest winners and losers of the current patch and how it influenced the overall pub environment.
Toning down magic burst
This is perhaps the biggest thing the patch did. 
Revenant’s Brooch was the go to late game DPS item on many characters, including some counter-intuitive heroes like 
Templar Assassin. Without the ability to crit, the potential burst has been toned down significantly across the board, while also dealing with problematic concepts like 
Phantom Assassin’s non-interactive playstyle.
This is not heavily influencing the pick and win rates of heroes a lot, but it is changing the playstyles. 
Desolator is suddenly a lot more popular, as is 
Pavise and 
Ghost Scepter. Consequently, 
Nullifier is also seeing more play.
Dark Seer ended up the biggest winner of the whole ordeal, according to stats. Without any direct changes, the hero now finds himself in a position where his Wall of Replica is relevant once again. Agility cores are more likely to build stat items and there is less emphasis on damage from abilities, hence Dark Seer illusions are much stronger across the board.
Slowing down the farm
Another big change of the patch involves the 
Maelstrom family of items. They all received a 5% decrease to proc chance and while it might seem trivial, it is really cutting into farm speed of heroes like 
Faceless Void and 
Juggernaut.
Is it enough to start considering 
Battle Fury? We don’t think so. The meta shift wasn’t drastic enough to allow for a greedy acceleration item, so unless you are playing 
Anti-Mage, going for a lightning build is still a better play in most cases.
That said, meta can shift even without direct changes to the game and each game has its own conditions, so if you see the enemy going extra greedy, or have an incredibly strong start, going Battle Fury is an option to consider. Otherwise be prepared to have a slightly lower farming speed.
No more support Terrorblade
Another thing the patch did was clean up the support pool slightly. It felt like supports, especially position four supports, have been getting greedier in the current patch.
While we are not necessarily against supports having late-game DPS impact, it felt like it became the go-to strategy for a lot of high level lobbies, making the game feel a bit imbalanced in its utility and damage ratio.
Current high level meta for position four is a return to norm, in our opinion. Dominated by heroes like 
Hoodwink, 
Tiny, 
Bounty Hunter and 
Rubick it is a healthy mix of initiation, utility and damage that makes for a unique role experience and doesn’t just mirror other roles.
Closing thoughts
The patch was relatively small and tame, resulting in very minor changes to the meta. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the game was in an ok place previously, but it definitely feels like a small placeholder patch before the Crownfall update we’ve all been waiting for.
We also feel like there is very little “OP” left in the game. There are definitely extremely underpowered items like 
Silver Edge and 
Crimson Guard, but nothing really stands out as too powerful or too obnoxious. Depending on your point of view it can be considered a good, or a bad thing, so share your thoughts in the comment section below.
