Dota 2 Update: Patch 7.41

Valve have released gameplay update 7.41. The patch’s biggest change is that Aspects have been removed from the game, and heroes’ innate abilities no longer depend on the levels of their other skills. In addition, new items have appeared in the shop, the neutral item system has changed again, and Roshan, Tormentor, and the map terrain have all been adjusted.

The main changes in patch 7.41

• Aspects have been removed. Innate abilities that used to scale alongside other skills now provide fixed bonuses or scale with hero level. An interface icon has been added for these stats: holding Alt shows the base value and the gain per level.
• Creeps: the lane meeting point has shifted closer to the offlane — until 7:30, offlane creeps briefly slow down after spawning, while safelane creeps speed up. The first extra catapult now appears at 30:00 instead of 35:00, and another one is added after 60:00.
• Water runes now grant up to +150 movement speed in all lanes.
• Tormentor now first appears in the bottom pit. Its shield is stronger, but it reflects less damage; it also gained 25% status resistance, no longer attacks neutral creeps, and its reward has been reduced.
• Roshan and altars: at the start of the game, Roshan is located in the top pit. If heroes from both teams are present at the Wisdom Rune altar or Lotus Pool, the countdown now resets, and the experience from the altar increases with each use.
• Terrain: Tormentor pits have been moved closer to the Lotus Pools and lowered below lane level, Twin Gates have been shifted toward the edges of the map, and ancient camps at the ends of the rivers have been weakened into medium camps and moved closer to the bases.
• Healing and lifesteal: health restoration now affects any health gained, including healing, and lifesteal takes resistance and damage changes into account. Attacks that deal no damage at all (for example, against a target affected by Combo Breaker from Aeon Disk) no longer restore health.
• New items: Chasm Stone, Shawl, Splintmail, and Wizard Hat have appeared in the shop, along with upgrades for Consecrated Wraps, Crella’s Crozier, Essence Distiller, Specialist’s Array, and Hydra’s Breath. Cornucopia and Eternal Shroud have been removed, while Ring of Health and Void Stone have returned to the secret shop.
• Neutral items from tier 1 are available from 0:00 instead of 5:00, but now cost 6 Madstones instead of 5. Starting from tier 2, players can choose from five artifacts and five enchants, and enchants are no longer random — they depend on the hero’s primary attribute. Older artifacts such as Dagger of Ristul, Cloak of Flames, and Witchbane have also returned.

Improvements and fixes

• When a hero uses a consumable on an ally or hands it to an ally within 1200 range (for example, Tango), an indicator appears above both heroes.
• A new settings option: if you hold the hero select button, you can see their current vision area, taking fog of war into account.
• Recipe components are now ordered from most expensive to cheapest so quick buy works more predictably (except boots, Blink Dagger, and a few other items).
• In Ability Draft, a hero now automatically gets their innate ability, and the ability pool has been updated for 7.41.

In addition, Valve are ending support for graphics cards that are not compatible with DirectX 11 and Shader Model 5: these technologies are needed for future graphical features and performance improvements. Support for outdated hardware will end in one of the next updates; according to Valve, compatible hardware is available to 99.96% of active players.

In total, the changes affected 126 heroes, 68 items, and 51 neutral items. The full list is in the official 7.41 patch notes.

Source: the official Dota 2 blog.