Dota 2 Patch 7.38 Notes – General Updates, Neutral Items & Item Changes

As expected, the latest Dota 2 update brought tons of changes to our favorite game. The Wandering Waters update includes all sorts of new stuff that will change the game as we know it. Alongside the general changes, the Dota 2 Patch 7.38 also brings a lot of new stuff, so Blix.gg’s team is about to reveal the general updates, as well as the changes related to neutral items and the regular items. Before we dive in, remember to check the full changelog before you start playing.

General Updates

If you look at the Dota 2 7.38 Patch Notes, you will find all sorts of information about what’s new. We won’t go through everything because this will make the article incredibly long, so let’s focus on some of the more intriguing changes.

Major Mechanics

There are several major mechanic changes you must be aware of:

• You can now spend your All Attributes skill points from level 2 instead of level 6.
• If you reflect a spell, the latter will benefit from everything that the original cast had.
• The Glyph of Fortification now lasts 3s on creeps instead of 4s.
• The items in your backpack can be swapped into the main inventory without any cooldown during a 3-second grace period. Keep in mind this can only happen once per item for a given hero.

Wandering Waters and map Objectives

After the Dota 2 patch 7.38 release date, players will have access to a lot of key map objective changes. Here are the most important ones:

• The new streams in the jungle will provide a 150 MS bonus and a 100 MS bonus, depending on which zone you go to. The bonus itself will also depend on where the hero is facing.
• Since Roshan has two new pits, only one of them will show on the minimap icon (the one that is active).
• Roshan will initially spawn in the Bottom Pit and will follow the day/night cycle after 15 minutes of play. He will walk across the river.
• There are many changes to Roshan’s abilities in terms of damage, cooldown, cast point, and more.
• The Tormentor will first appear on the map after 15 minutes of play and will give 250 gold to each team member when it is destroyed. Once it does, it will have an HP regen aura affecting a 900 radius where heroes will be healed by 2% of their maximum HP.
• The Lotus Pools will now have 3 entrances, and the first lotus will take 1.5s to collect. Those after that will require 30% less time.
• The new Shrines of Wisdom are located between the T1 and T2 towers and will become active every 7 min.
• If you like Bounty Runes, you should know that they will now spawn every 4 min instead of 3. There is also a small rescale of the gold they’ll provide.

Lifesteal, as an effect, also received a lot of changes in the new Dota 2 update. This effect will now be applied to physical damage from attacks, but it’s reduced by 40% when you damage non-heroes. There is also spell lifesteal, but its effect is down by 80% against non-heroes.

Neutral Creep Updates

Among the most impressive changes following the Dota 2 Patch 7.38 update is related to the neutral creeps. There is a lot to talk about here, so let’s start with the Flooded Camps.

Flooded Camps

This new term in Dota 2 is used to describe the Neutral Camps that reside within the stream. There are 3 camps in total, one of which is “Easy”, whereas the other two are “Medium”. 

Unlike some of the other camps, the neutral creeps in these ones will evolve every 5 minutes. Once the game timer reaches 15 minutes, the Easy Camps will turn into Medium, whereas the latter will become Hard. 30 minutes after the start, the Medium will now be a Hard camp, whereas the Hard will turn into an Ancient. 

Keep in mind that each flooded camp has 3 units, and each unit can only get 2 upgrades. In terms of the kind of creeps you will find in these camps, here’s how it works:

• Easy Camp – 3x Pollywog
• Medium Camp – Two Boglets and a Marshmage Apprentice
• Hard Camp – Two Crackers and a Marshmage
• Ancient Camp – Two Croackers and an Ancient Marshmage

Item Changes

The Dota 2 Wandering Waters updates bring TONS of item changes, so it’s impossible to include everything here. With that said, we will try to cover some of the key new options related to the regular and neutral items. 

Regular Items

Here are some of the more interesting changes related to the regular Dota 2 items:

• Orb of Frost is a new item that costs 250 gold and does not give any stats. Instead, when you attack an enemy, the latter will receive a 13% slow (if it is ranged) or 5% if it is a melee. 
• Abyssal Blade now requires Skull Basher, a 1275 gold recipe, and Sange. It no longer adds +250 HP and 10 HP regen. Instead, the item gives +35 damage, +26 STR, + 25% Slow Resistance and +25% Health and Lifesteal Amp.
• Battlefury now requires a 2nd broadsword instead of a Claymore, and the recipe is 600 gold instead of 450.

Heaven’s Halberd, Gleipnir, Khanda, and Ravent’s Brooch received big reworks in terms of their effects and required items, so it’s advisable to check the full change log.

Neutral Item Updates

The Neutral Items are among the most affected aspects in Dota 2 after the new update. As mentioned, you can now craft items using Artifacts and Enchantments. Furthermore, they will require a player to obtain Madstone. 

In terms of the actual crafting process, it works as follows:

• Players will have the choice to pick from 4 Artifacts and 4 Enchantments when crafting and have to pick one of each.
• Once a new Neutral Item is crafted, it will replace the older one.
• Keep in mind the only way to get a Tier 2 Neutral Item is to craft a Tier 1 (you can’t skip tiers, and there are 5 tiers in total).
• You will need 5 Madstone to get a tier 1 Item, whereas the other tiers require 10 Madstone.
• Speaking of the Madstones, you have a limit to the number you can obtain and it will depend on the time interval. For example, you can have 5 at minute 5, 15 at minute 15, and so on.

We recommend checking the full list of Neutral Artifacts and Enchantments to see the available options.

Conclusion

Since this is one of Dota 2’s biggest updates so far, you will probably need a lot of time to adjust. We at Blix.gg will try to play as much as possible and provide you with more details about some of the best Neutral Item combinations. Also, expect to learn more about all of the recent hero changes and the best picks right now.