5 ways DreamLeague Season 27 shaped the Dota 2 Patch 7.40 meta

DreamLeague Season 27 showcased the first successful realisation of the Dota 2 Patch 7.40 meta. Several notable heroes have taken the stage once more, influenced by the new gameplay mechanics and a different draft order compared to Patch 7.39. The DreamLeague Season 27 meta is poised to be transitional, with old heroes and new heroes rapidly rising in popularity.

With that in mind, here are five different ways that DreamLeague Season 27 shaped the Dota 2 competitive meta in Patch 7.40.

For many players and viewers, DreamLeague Season 27 was the first true showing of the Dota 2 competitive meta for Patch 7.40. While the laning phase was important in the last patch, with the faster game tempo, securing a lane by minute 10 at most was extremely important. This led to fewer early-game rotations, since supports stayed in their lane to ensure their core not only survived but thrived.

This also led to the sidelanes seeing way more action, with teams routinely securing the enemy’s safe lane tower to deny their carry access to jungle camps earlier in the game. Timbersaw, Centaur, and Axe became especially effective at shutting down carry heroes.

While drafting and bans are never going to be a priority in pub games, getting the right draft is everything in pro games. With the new ban phases in the Dota 2 Patch 7.40 meta, several heroes that could safely be picked later in the draft are now being picked early in favour of universal bans. This is because the new draft order imposes fewer safety bans earlier in the drafting phase, which means not all problematic heroes would be banned out.

As such, the truly egregious heroes like Jakiro, Timbersaw, and Shadow Demon were highly contested early in the draft, either through an early ban or an early pick. This also left them highly vulnerable to counter picks, which made for a lot of interesting drafts.

Towards the start of the tournament, most teams were still picking strong heroes from Patch 7.39, including heroes like Pangolier, Leshrac, Dragon Knight, and Axe, among others.

While Dragon Knight and Axe eventually did better with new builds, Pangolier and Leshrac showed extremely poor performance and low impact until they were phased out.

This paved the way for new heroes to shine in the current Dota 2 competitive meta. Stable heroes like Invoker, faster-paced heroes like Tiny, and tanky walls like Tidehunter have started to thrive, boasting over 55% win rates across the tournament.

While the last patch prioritised core heroes that could utilise farm all across the map to scale into the late game, this patch has favoured faster heroes with early-mid game timings. Heroes like Kez, Ursa, Slark, and Gyrocopter are being picked over slower heroes like Medusa and Spectre, despite the latter of the two receiving major reworks in Patch 7.40.

The one basic rule that dictated a hero pick in DreamLeague Season 27 was whether the hero could fight within 20 minutes. More often than not, teams that picked heroes who could join fights and end games within 30 minutes would be the victors over true late-game teams.

New attribute mechanics influenced the ways that heroes were picked during DreamLeague Season 27. The addition of talent points allowed heroes to skill up their abilities at level 10 and still have a talent point to use on a talent of their choosing. This change benefited heroes like Ember Spirit and Storm Spirit, who needed to max out their skills as early as possible.

Additionally, this also benefited heroes like Batrider, Magnus, Meepo, and Monkey King, among others, allowing them to get the full +7 attribute points instead of +6 depending on their facets. This created earlier power spikes for several heroes, allowing them to come online faster.

The DreamLeague Season 27 meta was highly defined by fast-paced drafts that could find their footing in the first 15-20 minutes of the match. Greedier drafts were punished easily, while the vision game became more important than ever before, with better ward placements and optimal watcher capturing for maximum zone control. 

These factors have led to faster, more exciting games throughout DreamLeague Season 27 and will undoubtedly carry over into future tournaments in early 2026. For now, the Dota 2 competitive meta seems to be in a stable place with no egregiously overpowered heroes.