Valve drastically changed three Dota 2 heroes in patch 7.40: new aspects and abilities

In patch 7.40 for Dota 2, the developers made a major rework for three heroes at once: Slark, Lone Druid and Treant Protector. All of them got updates to their innate abilities, aspects, skills, and new gameplay mechanics were added.

Slark

Slark lost both of his aspects and hasn’t received replacements yet. His innate ability Barracuda is now part of his ultimate. Additionally, the hero got a new ability — Saltwater Shiv. It’s an attack modifier with a stack system: every four seconds at max level, the ability lets Slark steal movement speed, health regen, and a portion of healing from the enemy with his attack. The Essence Shift ability has become innate too, strengthening the hero with every successful hit on an enemy

Treant Protector

Treant Protector received a rework of his abilities. Leech Seed is now an attack modifier: it deals extra damage, applies root to enemies, and heals Treant Protector and his allies. Living Armor now provides a 100-unit shield for 12 seconds instead of bonus armor, the shield’s durability decreases by 20 per activation.

Eyes In The Forest is only available with Aghanims Shard and no longer spreads the ultimate effect to enchanted trees. Aghanims Scepter enhances the ultimate: after using Overgrowth, the hero gains 100% strength, splash attack, and fixed movement speed for 16 seconds, and this buff cannot be dispelled. Like Slark, Treant Protector currently has no aspects

Lone Druid

Lone Druid now has his bear summon as an innate ability available from level one without leveling up. The bear itself is now considered a full universal hero, which changes its interactions with most other heroes’ abilities, for example Duel from Legion Commander. The bear can reveal enemies in Smoke Of Deceit, capture map objects, and deal full damage to targets like Supernova and Tombstone. The root system for Lone Druid has been reworked: it now activates after five attacks, and the attack counter is visually shown. Additionally, the hero got a new ability Entangle, which allows the bear’s attacks to apply roots to enemies.

It’s worth noting that Valve also pleased the Dota 2 community by releasing the global patch 7.40 along with a new hero, Largo.