We'd rather discuss the game as a whole and the potential issues that are troubling us, rather than unnecessarily discussing the current pro meta. A small patch is expected to be released soon, which will likely fix some obvious imbalances.

Buffing of leute aspects

Some aspects are too powerful at the beginning of the game, causing a snowball effect that is hard to stop. For example, Tiny's Crash Landing increases his damage from level five, making other aspects on the hero less effective. Similar problems are also seen with Hoodwink and her Acorn Shot, which is too strong on the line against solo targets. The choice between early and late aspects is often an obvious one, given the importance of the early game. We're hoping for a balancing act to improve the situation without unnecessarily slowing down the game and keep things interesting in the new adaptation system in drafts.

Reduced survivability

We have noticed that some heroes are becoming overly dense too early, especially enforcers and some Universals. In the past, such heroes compensated for their stamina with low damage, but now many of them are also significant sources of damage. For example, Centaur Warrunner with its high speed and powerful abilities becomes a challenging opponent. Beastmaster is able to effectively fluff and dominate fights, and Doom gains a significant amount of power and effective DoT effects. These heroes not only become stronger, but also harder to cast. It may be worth revisiting some of the changes from the last patch to achieve a more balanced state.

Conclusion

While balancing a patch with double the number of heroes is a huge challenge, it is worth the effort. Finding the perfect balance in a game like Dota 2 is nearly impossible, but it's important to strive for it. We expect the Aspect system to become deeper and more diverse. The impact of the overall changes to the game's economy could be significant; in our opinion, too much depends on the leyning stage and early game right now.