Patch 7.38’s Biggest Winner? How to Dominate with Broodmother in Dota 2

Today, the Blix team will provide an in-depth look at how Broodmother has become one of the strongest heroes in the mid-lane after patch 7.38. This patch transformed her mechanics from a versatile hero into an agility catcher, and her innate abilities received a significant buff.

What does this mean for gameplay? What items should you prioritize? How can you counter her weaknesses and effectively collaborate with your teammates? Let’s break it all down, from the early minutes in the lane to the final push towards victory.

Dota 2 hero: Broodmother

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Broodmother in 7.38: Primary Attribute – Agility. What’s Changed?

Dota 2 hero: Broodmother

Before patch 7.38, Broodmother was classified as a universal hero, which allowed her versatility in gameplay. Her damage output was influenced by all three attributes: Strength, Agility, and Intelligence. However, to avoid these types of heroes becoming overly powerful, their attribute gains were typically low. In the case of Broodmother, for instance, she had an agility gain of only 2.8 per level, which limited her potential in longer games.

Things have changed significantly. In patch 7.38, she became an agility hero with a 3.4 boost, as noted in the patch notes. This increase has enhanced her base damage, attack speed, and armor. As a result, she has become more reliant on farming and agility items, but this has greatly improved her performance in the current meta, where mobility and physical damage are critical factors. 

She is no longer spread thin across multiple attributes; instead, she is now focused on an aggressive playstyle. For comparison, her arm damage at level 6 used to be around 60–65, but now it is closer to 70–75 with the same starting items. This represents a significant improvement for a mid-laner.

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Abilities

Dota 2: Broodmother Stats

Insatiable Hunger

Dota 2: Broodmother Insatiable Hunger

A violent lust for vital fluids increases Broodmother’s attack damage and gives her a vampiric attack.

Tips

• Grants flat base attack damage bonus based on Broodmother’s current base attack damage. Does not further increase bonus attack damage.
• Stacks additively with other lifesteal sources.

Spin Web

Dota 2: Broodmother Spin Web

Spins a large web that grants Broodmother a passive movement speed increase and increases her Turn Rate, while in its vicinity, as well as giving free movement.

Spin Web can be cast from anywhere as long as the new web touches an existing web. Webs never expire, and can be manually destroyed. When the maximum limit of webs is exceeded, the oldest web disappears.

Tips

• Can regenerate up to 120/300/480/660 health in one minute.
• The effects are provided by an aura and its buff lingers for 0.15 seconds.
• Has a Global cast range when there is another Spin Web within 1200 range of the targeted point.
• Upon learning, Broodmother instantly gains 4 charges.

Incapacitating Bite

Dota 2: Broodmother Incapacitating Bite

Broodmother’s venom cripples enemy units, causing her attacks to slow and giving the affected unit a chance to miss its attacks and extra damage from attacks.

Spawn Spiderlings

Dota 2: Broodmother Spawn Spiderlings

Broodmother injects her young into an enemy unit, dealing damage and slowing them down for 4 seconds. The spiderlings will hatch if the target is killed while under this influence.

Tips

• The projectile travels at a speed of 1200.
• Spawn Spiderling first applies the debuff, then the damage.
• Multiple instances of Spawn Spiderlings on the same target fully stack, with each cast placing a separate debuff.

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Leveling priority and Skill Build

Dota 2: Broodmother Most Popular Ability Build

• Level 2-3: Get the Incapacitating Bite (3rd skill) instead of Insatiable Hunger (1st skill). The first skill is weak at early levels, dealing only about 70-80 damage, and the vamp from creeps offers only 10-15 HP per wave. In contrast, Incapacitating Bite causes a 30% slow down and has a 35% chance to miss, making it more advantageous in exchanges.
• Level 4: Learn the Insatiable Hunger skill to gain an additional opportunity to restore health.
• Exception: If you are playing against Viper or Huskar, consider taking Insatiable Hunger earlier for its lifesteal benefits.

Dota 2: Broodmother Point Choices By Level

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Aghanim’s Shard and Aghanim’s Scepter

Aghanim’s Shard

Insatiable Hunger

Dota 2: Broodmother Insatiable Hunger

Increases duration. While Hunger is active, the bonus damage is increased by 4% every 1s.

• Insatiable Hunger now additionally grants a flat 4% base attack damage bonus, stacking additively in 1-second intervals, starting 1 second upon cast.

Aghanim’s Scepter

Spinner’s Snare

Dota 2: Broodmother Spinner’s Snare

Broodmother may create up to 5 invisible web lines touching any existing web. Enemy Heroes that cross the web line will spring the trap, becoming rooted, revealed in fog, and take damage over time.  Multiple Heroes can trip on the same line until it’s destroyed after being initially triggered.  Broodmother’s team is alerted via the minimap when an enemy has triggered the snare.

• Ability: Point Target
• Affects: Enemy Units
• Damage Type: Magical
• Pierces Spell Immunity: No
• Dispellable: Yes
• Formation Delay: 2
• Root Duration: 3
• Damage Per Second: 100
• Web Line Width: 900
• Cooldown: 0
• Manacost: 100
  

• Has a Global cast range when there is another Spin Web within 1200 range of the targeted point.
• Upon learning, Broodmother instantly gains 4 charges.
• Can regenerate up to 120/300/480/660 health in one minute.
• The effects are provided by an aura, and its buff lingers for 0.15 seconds.

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Talents

Dota 2: Broodmother Talents Stats

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Facet Details

Dota 2: Broodmother Facets

In the new patch, the Broodmother facets appear exceptionally strong. We suggest taking a closer look at the Necrotic Webs facet.

Dota 2: Broodmother Facet Stats

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New Facet: Necrotic Webs — Next Level of Map Control

Dota 2 hero: Broodmother

A significant change has been made to the new facet of Necrotic Webs. It now reduces the health regeneration of enemies by 70%, instead of the previous 30%. This makes it 2.5 times more effective, transforming Broodmother into a powerful pressure tool.

How Does it Work?

Necrotic Webs does not block direct healing, such as Vampirism, ultimates like Omniknight’s Purification, or Dazzle’s heals. However, it does affect basic HP regeneration, including HP Regen.

• Fountain reduces health regeneration from about 200 HP/sec to only 60 HP/sec.
• Alchemist’s ultimate ability, Chemical Rage, maintains roughly 60 HP Regen out of the initial 200 HP.
• Consequently, consumables like Bottle, Flask, and Tango become nearly ineffective.

In practice, this means that enemies will struggle to recover quickly. For instance, a hero with 1,000 HP standing on a fountain will regenerate not 200 HP per second, but only 60 HP, making full recovery take 16 to 17 seconds instead of just 5 seconds. Now, imagine placing webs from the mid lane to the enemy fountain at level 7 (using 9 webs). Enemies will either have to spend half a minute regenerating or emerge with only half HP, where your spiders will be waiting for them. This is not just a buff; it’s a whole new level of map control.

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Broodmother in the Mid Lane During the Early Levels

Broodmother has always been strong in the middle lane due to her spiders and ability to maintain pressure on the line. With the changes in version 7.38, her potential has increased even further. Here’s how to get off to a good start:

Creep Control and Positioning

• Keep your creep pack near your Tower. If an enemy hero, like Invoker, is pushing the lane, use your creeps to engage his and try to stop them on the high ground. This strategy provides several advantages:

• A 25% miss chance for the enemy due to the low ground.
• An additional +3 armor from the tower and health regeneration.
• Safer farming opportunities under the tower’s defense.

This approach is especially important against mobile heroes like Puck or Queen of Pain, as they will be at risk if they try to harass you.

Up to level 6

• Broodmother rarely dominates mid to late game with Spawn Spiderlings. Focus on farming, avoiding death, and waiting for level 6. If the enemy is melee-oriented (like Kunkka or Ember), consider attempting a kill at level 4.

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Item Build: What to Buy in a 7.38 Meta?

Patch 7.38 emphasizes meta agility and affordable, practical items. Broodmother aligns perfectly with this trend.

Starting Items

• Starting items: Tango, 3x Iron Branch, Circlet, Magic Stick. against difficult match-ups (Viper, QoP) — buy Flask.

Dota 2: Broodmother Starting Items

Early Game

• Wraith Band: +7 agility for extra damage and armor.
• Corrosion: A crucial item for 925 gold. It provides +8 agility (+8 damage, +1 armor, and +attack speed) and applies a debuff (-3 armor and -15% regeneration to the enemy). The synergy with Necrotic Web makes it essential.
• Power Treads: It provides increased attack speed and greatly improves both combat effectiveness and farming efficiency.

Dota 2: Broodmother Early Game Items

Mid Game

• Orchid: Provides you with greater control and is essential against mobile heroes like Storm Spirit. It also enables you to achieve solo kills.
• Manta Style: Greatly enhances the hero’s survivability and removes debuffs by enemy heroes.

Dota 2: Broodmother Mid Game Items

Late Game

• Bloodthorn: A crucial item for battles. It greatly boosts damage and facilitates killing Roshan.
• Black King Bar: It is an essential item in the later stages of the game. It enables you to evade control and deal damage freely during battles.

Dota 2: Broodmother Late Game Items

Situational Items

• Eye of Skadi: To reduce the health regeneration (Morphling, Necrophos).
• Butterfly: Against heroes with a lot of physical damage. (PA, Sven).
• Linken’s Sphere: Against target abilities (Legion, Bane, Doom).
• Basher: Additional control (Storm, AM).

Dota 2: Broodmother Situational Items

Final Item Build

Dota 2: Broodmother Final Item Build

Neutral Items

• Essence Ring (Tier 2): +2.5 mana/sec and 150 HP activation — endless spider spam.
• Gale Guard (Tier 3): A 400 damage barrier saves you from enemy ganks.
• Mind Breaker (Tier 4): Additional Silence

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Game Tactics: From the Lane to the Throne

Dota 2 hero: Broodmother

Early Game

• Objective: Destroy the mid-tower on the 6th level. Start pushing with Insatiable Hunger and 2-3 spiders. Use webs to scout runes and provoke creeps, finishing them off with your spiders.
• Ganks: If the enemy leaves the middle lane, head to either the bottom or top lane. This usually results in 1-2 quick kills.
• 7th Level Strategy: Use 9 Spin Webs. Place them strategically from the mid lane to the enemy fountain to block their regeneration. This will demoralize your enemies and grant you better control of the map.

Mid Game

• After destroying the mid-Tower, farm the jungle and push T2. By the 16th minute, with a Bloodthorn, you should be ready to kill Roshan solo and claim the Aegis.
• Important: Do not dive under T3 without a Black King Bar (BKB), and avoid giving away streaks. Patch 7.38 is a comeback patch, meaning that one death can change the entire game.
• If five enemies are roaming around, avoid engaging in fights and focus on farming instead. They won’t gain any experience or gold, while you’ll be five kills ahead.

Late Game

• To gain an advantage, use BKB and Bloodthorn effectively. Spiders are best utilized for exploration, while the primary focus should be on killing supports. If the game extends, consider acquiring Skadi or Butterfly based on the situation.
• Avoid dying: Losing an advantage during a comeback patch can be disastrous.

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Counter-Picks: Strategies for Addressing Challenges

Dota 2 hero: Axe

Broodmother is powerful but not unbeatable. Here are the main threats and ways to counter them.

• Earthshaker: Echo Slam is effective against spiders. Instead of trying to gather them in one place, focus on split-pushing to achieve your goals.
• Axe: Battle Hunger and Counter Helix can eliminate spiders efficiently. The key is to avoid direct confrontations and instead push down other lanes that are affected by the webs.
• Storm Spirit: His mobility and area-of-effect damage are significant advantages. An early Orchid or Bloodthorn can help secure lockdown against enemies.

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Synergy With Teammates

Dota 2 hero: Shadow Shaman

Broodmother became up even more with the right team:

• Shadow Shaman: Shadow Shaman uses Hex and Shackles to control enemies while the spiders destroy the towers.
• Underlord: Underlord’s Firestorm pushing creeps the lanes, and Broodmother destroys the enemy base.
• Disruptor: Disruptor’s Static Storm and Glimpse catch mobile heroes for easy kills.

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Macro Game: The Key to Victory

• Split-Pushing: If all five enemies are in one lane, use your spiders to push the other lanes. This will force them to split up.
• Farming in the Jungle: If a lane is too dangerous, farm in the forest. However, make sure to use your cobwebs for vision.
• Exploration: Use your spiders to break enemy wards, check on Roshan, or distract opponents.

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How to Use Spiders Effectively

1. Spider Separation: Enable “Selection Groups: False” in the settings. This will make the spiders stand out one at a time, which is ideal for scouting against heroes like Tinker or Zeus.
2. Spin Webs and Wards: The branches can obstruct the view of runes, so place the wards higher to improve visibility. Avoid taking the Quelling Blade, as there isn’t enough inventory space for it.
3. Fountain Block: The webs can overlap across the map if their radii touch. Ensure you block the fountain without leaving the middle.

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Tips and Tricks

• To benefit from Broodmother’s Spider’s Milk innate, Brood herself has to kill the unit. If your Spiders get the last hit, you won’t get the heals.
• You can destroy specific Webs by selecting them and casting their Destroy Spin Web ability. Otherwise, casting new Webs past the cap will always destroy the oldest Web.
• Shove yourself into the back corner of jungle camps when farming neutrals. This allows you the quickest escape to path yourself down a cliff or behind the trees if an enemy spots you and tries to smash you with a newspaper.
• Multiple casts of Spawn Spiderlings on a single target stack. So you’ll get more spiders on a target’s death if they have several Spawn Spiderling debuffs on them.
• You get new Spiderlings on Spiderling denies. Heck, you don’t even need to get the deny, just poke an allied creep (including your own Spiders) with a Spiderling and have them die with the Spawn Spiderling debuff. Infinite Spiderling hack.
• Spiders can be used to block or stack camps.

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Counters

• Try to sneak up with your AoE spells. Broodmothers will immediately call their Spiders off as soon as they see Keeper of the Light trot into their lane. Cast something like Illuminate from the fog, however, and you’ll be making that paper.
• Spirit Vessel, Skadi, and Shiva’s heal reduction aspects can reduce the amount of HP she’ll gain from Insatiable Hunger.
• Ghost Scepter can buy you a few valuable seconds of not getting eaten alive by spiders.

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Conclusion: Why is Broodmother Imba in 7.38?

Dota 2 hero: Broodmother

A new Roshan in the middle lane, along with a neutral items buff (Essence Ring and new items) and a primary attribute is agility, makes Broodmother an ideal hero for this patch. She excels in the mid lane, dominates her opponents, and can finish games within 20 to 25 minutes.

Our statistics show that in just 20 minutes, she dealt 14,000 damage to heroes and 13,000 damage to buildings. This performance can lead players to the top 10,000 MMR, and with the right skills, potentially even the top 1. Good luck in Dota 2! We also recommend visiting the Reddit thread for more Dota 2 content.