Ace on the Dota 2 7.41f patch: “It’ll be harder to farm lanes, and games will be shorter.”
Former Team Liquid offlaner Markus Folke “Ace” Helgard Christensen broke down Dota 2 Patch 7.41f in a video on his YouTube channel.
On the main idea behind the patch
Everyone focuses on the nerfs and says, “Look, there are nothing but nerfs here.” But take a look at exactly what was nerfed. …> Valve decided that healing, lifesteal, and regeneration were too strong across the entire game, so they went through items and heroes, cutting back on each of these sources.
If you take away one thing from this video, here it is: it’ll be harder to hold lanes, and games will be shorter. Builds designed to sustain health in prolonged fights are weaker than they were yesterday. On top of that, everything has gotten more expensive.
On the Nerf to Treant Protector
He was either picked or banned in every game at The International 2026: 140 bans and an 87% win rate when he made it through the draft phase. No other hero at the tournament was feared more by teams.
He received six changes, all of which target his laning phase. Leech Seed now costs mana, healing at early levels has been weakened, and Living Armor’s minimum damage block has been halved. …> Valve didn’t just want to nerf the hero; they wanted to prevent him from single-handedly deciding the outcome of lanes. I think they succeeded.
On Ursa’s Buff
The biggest winner of this patch is a hero who didn’t even appear at The International 2026: Ursa. The health-to-damage conversion rate has increased from 1.25% to 1.75%. That’s a 40% increase, and no other buff in this patch comes close. <…>
Yes, he still needs the right conditions: the opportunity to take down Roshan, a lane he can survive in, and not getting kited. But look at the patch he’s in. The lifesteal from Mask of Madness and Satanic has been nerfed. All heroes who relied on healing to survive fights have gotten weaker. But Ursa converts her health pool into damage, and that multiplier just went up by 40%.
About Dark Seer
There’s one hero who wasn’t touched at all, and I think he’s now the best offlaner in the game. Look at what happened to his competitors: Centaur, Underlord, Necrophos, Slardar, and Undying were nerfed. But Dark Seer—nothing, not a single line.
At The International, he finished with a 13–13 record—exactly 50% wins. Based on the numbers Valve was looking at, he was perfectly balanced. But before the patch, he had a 53% win rate across more than 7,000 ranked matches. That’s the difference: professional stats showed he was fine, so he remained untouched in a patch that nerfed everyone else. If you’re playing in the third position, I’d pick him this week.
Earlier, members of the HULIGANI roster shared their thoughts on the Dota 2 7.41f patch. “A good ‘letter’ patch for the competitive scene, where they really shook up the meta,” noted the team’s coach, Alexey “TheChosenOne” Karanevich.
Photo: Valve.
