Dota 2's 7.38 Update: Dive into the Game-Changing Wandering Waters!

Summary

Dota 2’s latest 7.38 Gameplay Update deploys a tsunami of changes and improvements to gameplay.
The update invites players to explore Wandering Waters, where currents impact traversal.
Several updates were also applied to a range of heroes.

In February 2025, Dota 2 developers have rolled out an update, version 7.38, which invites players to traverse the Wandering Waters. In this area, swift currents allow for quick movement to the safe lane. Moreover, players now have the opportunity to shape their own journey with craftable Neutral Items. The patch introduces various tweaks and enhancements to gameplay mechanics, and it appears the Dota 2 community is quite pleased with these changes thus far.

Initially launched in 2013, the multiplayer online battle arena game, known as Dota 2, is a follow-up to the Defense of the Ancients (DotA) mod created for Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft 3: Reigns of Chaos. Dota 2 stands alongside gaming giants like Final Fantasy 14, Apex Legends, and Helldivers 2 in terms of popularity, and it also has a significant presence in the esports world.

In version 7.38, significant changes have been made to key game mechanics: Players can now allocate skill points towards all attributes from level 2 onwards, enhanced spells take into account all bonuses of their original casting, and increased slow resistance boosts minimum movement speed according to the slow resist percentage. The Wandering Waters update has resulted in the outer rim areas being filled with streams, causing watchtowers, camps, and paths within this zone to be relocated to accommodate these waterways. In Dota 2, teamwork is essential when engaging Roshan, as the latest update places him back in the river and aligns his movement with the day/night cycle. Lastly, Tormentor spawn points have been adjusted across the map.

The massive update, much like the significant Crownfall Event update for Dota 2 released in April 2024 with four acts and 24 Treasure sets among other features, also incorporated various terrain modifications such as regional map buffs and adjustments to the sources and targets that grant Lifesteal. Moreover, players can discover updates related to Neutral Creeps, Items, and Heroes in this patch.

Dota 2 is another highly popular multiplayer game that rivals the likes of Fortnite, League of Legends, and Fall Guys in terms of quality skins and cosmetics. Like these other games, customizing characters with eye-catching skins is a fun aspect of Dota 2, but what sets it apart is the recent patch update to its extensive roster of heroes, from Abaddon to Zeus. This update has focused on enhancing Facets, Talents, and Abilities for each hero, aiming to create a smooth in-game experience while also maintaining engagement for both veteran players and newcomers.

Dota 2 7.38 Gameplay Update Patch Notes

Major Mechanics

Universal Heroes’ damage per attribute decreased from 0.7 to 0.45
As a result, many heroes have had their Base Damages and attribute gains changed
Skill points can now be spent on All Attributes starting at level 2 instead of level 6
Reflected spells now benefit from all bonuses the original cast had, including the following:
Caster’s facet upgrades
Bonuses from talents
Aghanim’s Shard and Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades
Upgrades used to depend on Aghanim’s items the reflecting unit had
Slow Resistance now also increases minimum movement speed by the slow resist percentage
20% Slow Resistance increases your minimum movement speed from 100 to 120
Glyph of Fortification: Creep duration decreased from 4s to 3s
Units no longer gain bonus movement speed during the night
Items that have entered a Hero’s backpack for the very first time now have a 3 second grace period where they can be swapped into the main inventory without any cooldown. This can only happen once per item per Hero

Wandering Waters

The top and bottom outer rim areas are now flooded by streams of traversable water
These streams have a current, starting near the T3 towers (right before the medium camp location), down to the T1 towers (former Twin Gate location)
Going downstream increases current and max movement speed, while going upstream inflicts no penalty
Streams are separated by two zones: ones with a ‘strong current’ which provides up to 150 bonus movement speed and ones with a ‘moderate current’ which provides up to 100 bonus speed. The current is ‘strong’ from stream beginnings near each base up to the waterfalls near T2 towers. All other stream sections are considered to have a ‘moderate current’
Bonus value depends on the faced direction, ranging from 100% while going downstream to 0% at 90 degrees
Watchers, camps and pathways in the areas have been slightly adjusted to give way for the stream
Radiant and Dire main jungles now also have a stream with moderate current, starting near the easy camp close to the mid T1 towers. They join the outer streams, crossing the safelane near the T2 towers

Map Objectives

Roshan

Roshan is back in the river, with one pit located near each sidelane:
Top lair is slightly closer to Dire’s jungle entrance, and bottom one is closer to Radiant’s
Only the active Roshan pit will show as a minimap icon
Roshan initially spawns in the Bottom Pit
Starting at 15:00, Roshan will follow the day/night cycle, walking across the river towards his designated pit: Top at night and Bottom at day
Roshan no longer has bonus movement speed while moving between pits
Roshan now has basic 25% Slow Resistance and an additional 25% Slow Resistance when running between pits
When running into a hero while moving between pits, Roshan will stop and grab them before violently throwing them away. Upon landing, heroes are stunned for 1s and take 200 pure damage + 0.5% of target’s current health per minute of game time. Each time Roshan throws a hero, he gains 70 bonus movement speed and increases throw damage by additional 100 until he reaches his destination pit. After 5 throws Roshan ignores heroes on his way
Throw distance: 1500. Max bonus movespeed: 300. Can be blocked by spell-blocking abilities and items, like Linken’s Sphere, but can’t be reflected. Heroes will be thrown away from Roshan based on their relative position to him
Added a Roshan icon near the minimap that shows Roshan’s state (alive, dead, maybe alive) and location:
If Roshan is dead, the status will also include a timer until his possible respawn
Since Roshan’s respawn takes between 8 to 11 minutes, during this window the status will say that he may be alive, but also include a timer until the guaranteed respawn
If a team gains vision over Roshan or Roshan’s Roar of Retribution is heard during this status, the timer will be updated to inform that Roshan is alive
Templar Assassin’s Third Eye Innate will cause the icon to display exactly when and where Roshan will respawn
Roar of Retribution:
Now also applies a 2s Disarm on all affected units
Radius decreased from 900 to 600
Cast point increased from 0.1s to 0.5s
Cooldown increased from 20s to 60s
Roshan’s knockback now has a 2s cooldown before it can be applied to the same unit again
Added a unique attack animation for Bash, as well as new animation and particles for Roar of Retribution

Tormentor

Tormentor spawns repositioned to the corners of the map
There is only a single Tormentor active at a time
Tormentor now spawns for the first time at 15:00
Tormentor now grants 250 gold to each team member on death
Tormentor is also dependent on the day and night cycle, so it’s at Radiant side at night and at Dire’s side at day. As a result, it will always appear at the Radiant side first
Due to this Roshan and Tormentor are always on opposite sides
Tormentor’s abilities now scale with game time instead of the number of deaths
Unyielding Shield: Damage absorb rescaled from 2500 + (200 per death) to 1900 + (20 per minute of game time)
Unyielding Shield: Barrier regeneration rescaled from 100 + (100 per death) to 30 + (5 per minute of game time)
Reflect: Damage percentage rescaled from 90 + (20 per death) to 50 + (2 per minute of game time)
The Shining: Damage per second increased from 30 to 60
The Shining: Radius decreased from 1200 to 1000
Alleviation: New ability. After dying, the Tormentor leaves behind a 900 radius aura that increases health regeneration of all units in the area by 2% of their Max Health. Lasts 15s

Lotus Pools

Changed the way Healing Lotuses are collected from Lotus Pools:
Lotus Pools now have three entrances and an empty region in the center
Heroes will automatically gather lotuses when within 350 units of the center of a pool as long as they have available space in their inventory
The first Lotus takes 1.5s to collect, and each subsequent lotus in a row takes 30% less time
The timer only counts down when all heroes within range are on the same team, pausing if an enemy hero enters the area, and resuming when enemies leave
If multiple allied heroes are all within range, the Lotus will be granted to a random hero
Lotus Pools will now spawn Great Lotuses after Tier 4 Neutral Items are available
Lotus Pools will now spawn Greater Lotuses after Tier 5 Neutral Items are available

Shrines of Wisdom

Wisdom Runes removed and replaced with new buildings: Shrines of Wisdom
Shrines of Wisdom are located in the offlane side jungles between the Tier 1 and 2 towers where the Ancient camps used to be
The Shrines will activate every 7 minutes, glowing and filling with experience
To gather the experience from an activated Shrine, a hero must stand within 300 units for 3s
Like Lotus Pools, the Shrine will not count down time if an enemy hero contests by standing within the effect radius, and will resume only if the enemy hero leaves the area or is killed
Experience will be granted to a random hero within 300 units of the Shrine and also to their teammate with the lowest experience

Bounty Runes

Spawn interval increased from 3 minutes to 4 minutes
Gold provided after the initial set rescaled from 36 + (9 per 5 minutes) to 40 + (6 per 4 minutes)
Other Terrain Changes
The region specific map buffs (Mighty Mines, etc.) have been removed
Corner outposts have been removed
The Twin Gates have been repositioned to the corners of the map on a new high ground area near Tormentors
Touched up the map in general. Slightly adjusted neutral camps, trees, and cliffs
Lifesteal
Individual abilities no longer have special rules about how lifesteal works in different situations (heroes vs creeps vs illusions, damage types, etc.). Lifesteal mechanics are now consistent across every ability:
Lifesteal applies to physical damage from attacks and is reduced by 40% when damaging non-heroes
Spell Lifesteal now applies to physical damage from spells and magical damage from spells or attacks and is reduced by 80% when damaging non-heroes
Neither Lifesteal nor Spell Lifesteal applies to pure damage
Holding Alt while looking at items that provide Lifesteal or Spell Lifesteal will show the lifesteal percentages for attacking and casting spells, and targeting creeps vs heroes
The following sources and targets do not provide any lifesteal
Attacks that do not proc Attack Modifiers
Attack damage against wards, buildings, or couriers
Spell damage against illusions, wards, buildings, or couriers
Reflected damage
Spells that remove Health instead of dealing direct damage
Any damage dealt to self or allies
A small number of abilities that do not use Lifesteal or Spell Lifesteal still result in healing and can benefit from Lifesteal Amp:
Lifestealer’s Open Wounds heals attackers for a percentage of the damage done
Lifestealer’s Feast heals for a percentage of the target’s max health
Meepo’s Ransack heals all Meepos a flat amount for each strike

Other Terrain Changes

The region specific map buffs (Mighty Mines, etc.) have been removed
Corner outposts have been removed
The Twin Gates have been repositioned to the corners of the map on a new high ground area near Tormentors
Touched up the map in general. Slightly adjusted neutral camps, trees, and cliffs

Lifesteal

Individual abilities no longer have special rules about how lifesteal works in different situations (heroes vs creeps vs illusions, damage types, etc.). Lifesteal mechanics are now consistent across every ability:
Lifesteal applies to physical damage from attacks and is reduced by 40% when damaging non-heroes
Spell Lifesteal now applies to physical damage from spells and magical damage from spells or attacks and is reduced by 80% when damaging non-heroes
Neither Lifesteal nor Spell Lifesteal applies to pure damage
Holding Alt while looking at items that provide Lifesteal or Spell Lifesteal will show the lifesteal percentages for attacking and casting spells, and targeting creeps vs heroes
The following sources and targets do not provide any lifesteal
Attacks that do not proc Attack Modifiers
Attack damage against wards, buildings, or couriers
Spell damage against illusions, wards, buildings, or couriers
Reflected damage
Spells that remove Health instead of dealing direct damage
Any damage dealt to self or allies
A small number of abilities that do not use Lifesteal or Spell Lifesteal still result in healing and can benefit from Lifesteal Amp:
Lifestealer’s Open Wounds heals attackers for a percentage of the damage done
Lifestealer’s Feast heals for a percentage of the target’s max health
Meepo’s Ransack heals all Meepos a flat amount for each strike

2025-02-20 15:10

Dota 2’s 7.38 Update: Dive into the Game-Changing Wandering Waters!