Dota 2 Patch 7.35d Changes Bans and Matchmaking Analytics

The long awaited Dota 2 patch 7.35d just dropped and while Crownfall is still nowhere to be seen, there are some pretty significant changes to the game.

Credit: Valve

Ban Phase a thing of the past

While no one was hoping for another letter patch, Dota 2 patch 7.35d does bring in some changes to how bans and matchmaking analysis will work in the game.

In a blog post that accompanied the patch, Valve confirmed that it is continuing to take action against cheaters in Dota. This next step will see changes to the ban phase which aim to curb players’ desire to gain an unfair advantage.

Now, instead of selecting a hero to ban before the game, players can select 4 heroes they don’t want to play against on their profile. At least 1 of the heroes is guaranteed to the banned every game. So while you may not be able to just spam ban that one hero you just can’t win against, you’ll still have a bit of a say.

The blog also confirmed that there is no advantage to leaving empty slots. This could result in the slot being banned and so you won’t get any of your choices.

This does make the ban phase simpler and less time pressured. It’ll be interesting to see how this affects match making and whether people will be matched against those with similar bans. This would ensure a bigger hero pool is available but limit the amount of potential matches.

New match making analytics for Dota Labs

Credit: Valve

Recently, Valve introduced Dota Labs to help them test experimental features in the game. Now, for the first time, Dota Plus users will be able to see data about how their match was found before they accept it. The data will include match quality, skill balance and behavior score information.

The focus here seems to really be on player preferences. Previous data has suggested that different players want different things and this will give them the chance to choose.

There is the question of whether the other 9 players will have to requeue if one person chooses not to accept the match and how common an occurrence this will be. But in theory, it could work.

RIP Rapier in Dota 2 Patch 7.35d

Even with all of these changes, there is still no Crownfall patch just yet. The latest update is that we can expect it to drop in mid-April. This isn’t timed particularly well with the ESL One Birmingham Major, due to start on April 22nd. Pros may once again have to scramble to build new strategies with very little notice.

But in the meantime, there are some minor changes in Dota 2 patch 7.35d.

The biggest is arguably that the Divine Rapier has been reskinned and respecced into a very different item:

Damage bonus decreased from +350 to +100

No longer provides 25% Spell Amplification by default

Now can be toggled between two modes: one provides additional +250 Damage, another one provides +25% Spell Amplification. Cooldown: 6s.