[Update #2]: Dota 2's Patch 7.35d has reworked hero bans and brought in yet more balance changes.

[Update]: Dota 2's Patch 7.35c has arrived with much-needed nerfs to overplayed heroes and items.

With the recent Patch 7.35 Dota 2 has rebalanced a good chunk of its items and heroes, as well as added a variety of new items and neutral items for everyone to mess around with. Unsurprisingly, given the sheer scale of the changes, Patch 7.35 has also brought with it a whole host of balance problems! 

So in order to smash some of these outliers back into place, Valve has now unleashed Patch 7.35b with another sizable batch of changes. The biggest one, and perhaps the most confusing, is the crippling nerf to Bloodstone - "Bloodpact no longer restores mana". Since only a couple of heroes ever bought Bloodstone, and since they did so mostly for the massive amounts of mana regeneration, I'm guessing the item is likely going to remain unused until it gets reworked yet again.

Shiva's Guard and Solar Crest have also been nerfed, and quite significantly at that, but thankfully both items are still perfectly usable. You just no longer 'have' to buy them on every single hero that can even remotely fit them in their build.

Speaking of heroes, Spirit Breaker's Khanda & Rapier combo has been nerfed, Phantom Assassin has received some major buffs, a couple of tanky heroes like Timbersaw have been toned down once more, while Lycan and Beastmaster have recieved some nifty buffs that might just make 'zoo' return as a dominant team composition.

Whatever the case may be, I'm definitely happy to see a brand new patch before the holidays, even if some of the changes do feel a bit rushed. After all, just about anything is better than watching both teams endlessly use Solar Crest on their cores!

Once the next update arrives, probably around February once things have settled down a bit, I'll make sure to let you know. Until then, you can read all about Patch 7.35b over at the Dota 2 website. Enjoy!