Patch 7.41f Overview
Welcome back, everyone. Valve dropped Patch 7.41f, and yes, this is a small patch. I would call it the laziest patch in the last year. No map rework. No new item circus. No mechanic that requires a university degree to understand. Just direct nerfs to many of the heroes and items that were OP at The International 2026. The update went live on September 15 alongside several gameplay bug fixes.
Let’s talk about the changes that actually matter.
The Big Nerfs
Treant Protector
Melee · Support, Initiator, Durable
StrengthFinally, the tree has to pay mana for something.
Treant loses three Intelligence, Nature’s Guise keeps him invisible for only one second after leaving trees instead of two, Leech Seed now costs 35 mana, its early healing is worse, and Living Armor’s minimum damage block is cut from 20 to 10. Even the Level 10 healing talent is gone.
This is exactly the nerf Treant needed.
The biggest change is not one individual number. It is the combination of lower starting mana and Leech Seed finally having a cost. Treant can no longer spam Living Armor across the map, walk into a lane, cast Leech Seed for free, win the trade, disappear into the trees, and act like resources are something other supports worry about.
He still has Overgrowth. He still protects buildings. He still gives absurd vision when the game develops. But his lane is now punishable, and that alone should stop him from automatically eating the first ban in every serious draft. Thank God.
Bounty Hunter
Melee · Escape, Nuker
AgilityBounty Hunter’s entire business model just got audited. (IRA fellas came after him)
Track’s self bonus gold drops from 130/225/320 to 80/160/240, while the allied bonus falls from 50/90/130 to 40/80/120. His Shuriken slow talent is weaker, and Track’s shared vision has been pushed from Level 20 to Level 25.
The allied gold reduction is annoying. The personal gold reduction is a big nerf.
Position four Bounty Hunter was not only creating vision and finding pickoffs. He was turning every successful move into his next utility item. One Track kill became Boots. Another became half a Force Staff. Win two fights and suddenly the roaming support had an economy that made the enemy offlaner look unemployed.
That snowball is much slower now.
Bounty was not the most popular hero at TI (shoutout to Saksa) , but he went 11–4 when picked and reached a 73.3% win rate. Teams that understood him were using the scouting, Track gold, and early movement to build an entire game plan around him. He can still scout. He can still break smokes and ruin positioning. But if you draft Bounty now, the hero needs to create real strategic value. You no longer get a free team economy just because somebody died with a Track icon above their head.
Lina
Ranged · Support, Carry, Nuker
IntelligenceLina got hit in the lane, the jungle, and the long fight.
She loses two base Intelligence and therefore two starting damage. Fiery Soul’s attack speed drops at every level, and its duration falls from 18 seconds to 16. These numbers look small. They are not.
Less starting damage means weaker last-hitting and trading. Less Intelligence means slightly less mana to keep the spell cycle going. Lower Fiery Soul attack speed means slower farming and weaker sustained damage. The shorter duration makes it harder to carry maximum stacks between a wave, a camp, and the next engagement.
That is basically Lina’s entire rhythm.
Lina is not dead. Her spells still clear waves, her stun is still a stun, and Laguna Blade did not suddenly become useless. But she is less efficient everywhere, and efficiency was the reason pro teams kept picking her.
Shadow Fiend
Ranged · Carry, Nuker
AgilityShadow Fiend
Shadow Fiend’s farming machine finally lost a few gears.
Necromastery now scales more slowly, Shadowraze’s bonus damage per soul drops from 3 to 2, and the Level 15 Presence of the Dark Lord armor-reduction talent falls from +2 to +1.5.
The Shadowraze change is the important one. SF was already one of the best heroes at converting lane control into a completely stupid net-worth lead. Once the souls and Raze stacks started adding up, he could clear waves, flash-farm camps, threaten kills, and arrive at fights with more damage than anybody was ready to handle.
This patch does not remove the hero’s farming pattern, but it lowers the reward. SF should still dominate good matchups. But the laning isn't that strong anymore. And if you take Mask of Madness nerf, he becomes less relevant.
Invoker
Ranged · Carry, Nuker, Disabler
IntelligenceCold Snap getting one extra second of cooldown is whatever.
Ghost Walk’s Aghanim's Shard no longer damaging non-hero units is the real nerf. That change kills the invisible farming routine. Invoker could move around the map under Ghost Walk, pressure heroes, stay difficult to catch, and collect creeps along the way. It was mobility, safety, and farming efficiency inside the same upgrade.
And I believe this is directed mostly for PUB players. In my bracket every griefing Invoker was buying Radiance and Shard and just cut waves.
Now the Shard actually has to be used against heroes. Imagine that.
The Big Winners, Who Gets Stronger?
Ursa
Melee · Carry, Durable, Disabler
AgilityThe big, bad bear is back. Ursa gets the clearest real buff in the patch.
Maul’s health-based damage increases from 1.25% to 1.75%. Nothing complicated. Ursa becomes better at hitting people, particularly the large frontliners he already wants to stand beside and repeatedly punch.
I like this change because it does not ask Ursa players to discover some new build. The hero simply gets more damage from his existing game plan.
Does this suddenly make him a first-phase carry? No. Calm down. He is still kiteable, and the cheaper Eul's Scepter of Divinity's is not exactly good news for a hero whose strategy is “please stand still while I attack you.”
But as a later pick against tanky melee lineups? Absolutely. Ursa now deserves another look.
Anti-Mage
Melee · Carry, Escape, Nuker
AgilityMana Break now deals damage equal to 65% of the mana burned instead of 60%. It is a clean buff xD. Man, what is this change? Are you kidding me? This is going to be the laziest change I've seen in years. Even +1 DMG or +1 agi increase would've been better. I'm speechless with this kind of change. Am was a weak core, and it will remain a weak core.
Honorable Mentions
Lifestealer gets a longer Rage cooldown, one second less enemy Infest duration with Aghanim's Scepter and a weaker movement-speed talent. I still feel that he needed a bigger nerf.
Necrophos gets less Sadist reward from hero kills and 10 percentage points less Ghost Shroud restoration amplification at every level. With Heart of Tarrasque also becoming more expensive, this is worse than it looks.
Keeper of the Light loses base attack speed (I don't even want to comment on this change), Chakra Magic provides less cooldown reduction, and non-Shard Spirit Form healing drops from 70% to 60%.
Earth Spirit loses base attack speed and gains Stone Remnants more slowly. The talent reshuffle is more complicated, but overall this is another tax on the most complete hero from TI 2026.
Centaur Warrunner loses damage, movement speed, and Hitch A Ride range. He was the most-picked-offlaner at TI, so Valve clearly wanted to make his lane and positioning less comfortable. But I believe he is still OP.
Important Item Changes
Satanic and Mask of Madness
Valve is still going after sustain.
Satanic’s passive lifesteal drops from 30% to 25%, with creep lifesteal falling from 18% to 15%. Mask of Madness drops from 24% to 22%, and creep lifesteal falls from 14.4% to 13.2%.
Remember, Satanic already had its active cooldown increased from 30 to 40 seconds in 7.41e. Now its passive sustain is worse too.
The active still saves carries. The item is not dead. But between fights, carries recover less HP from waves and camps, and during fights they receive less passive healing when Unholy Rage is unavailable.
Dragon Lance, Hurricane Pike, and Manta Style
**Ranged cores are paying another small tax.
Dragon Lance and Hurricane Pike cost 100 more gold, and ranged Manta illusions deal 25% damage instead of 28%.
None of these changes destroys a build. Pike still provides positioning and Manta still provides a dispel, stats, and illusion utility. But ranged heroes now reach their safety item later, and their ranged illusions contribute less damage after they get there.
That matters for heroes that want one item to provide farming speed, survivability, and fight impact. Valve is making them pay separately for those privileges. I feel like this change is directly affecting Windranger, Drow Ranger and Shadow Fiend.
Octarine Core, Heart of Tarrasque, Daedalus, and Shiva's Guard
Octarine Core costs 200 more. Heart and Daedalus cost 100 more. Shiva’s Arctic Blast loses 35 damage. This is directly pointed at beefy cores (aka: Earth Spirit and Necrophos).
The change is simple: late-game luxury transitions are slower.
For heroes like Necrophos, the item nerfs stack directly with the hero nerfs. Less Ghost Shroud amplification, weaker Sadist, a later Octarine for Earth Spirit, a later Heart, and less Shiva’s damage is not one small adjustment. It is an entire build becoming less efficient.
My Take
I feel like the patch (a very small patch; I'm going to double down on that) is directed to the sustain bullies. I think that 7.41f will not create a completely new meta, but it should widen the draft. We will start seeing more and more people drafting around mid-game and not rely on the solo late-game scenario. Let's see what teams will prepare for PGL Wallachia season 9.
