Patch 7.22 has arrived and it’s brought with it new Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades for the remaining 24 Dota 2 heroes. While some of the upgrades were a bit meh, some have now become core items on a lot of heroes. We’ve ranked the top 5 best new Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades in patch 7.22.
We should mention right off the bat that only the new upgrades are eligible for this list. Reworked Scepter upgrades on heroes that previously had an upgrade do not count.
5. Alchemist
The number 5 spot on our list goes to the king of sharing Aghanim’s Scepters himself, Alchemist. Prior to 7.22, giving was its own reward with Alchemist. The only time the hero would buy Aghs for other players was when he was already 6-slotted. Now, however, Alchemist is incentivized to buy it for others as doing so (assuming he himself gets the item) confers a bonus to attack and spell damage.
This not only makes his attack damage higher, but an Alchemist who buys Radiance will benefit from the increased Spell Amp conferred by the new Aghanim’s Scepter.
In addition to this effect, an Aghanim’s Scepter given by an Alchemist will still confer the stat bonus. A Scepter bought and cast (using the new effect) by the hero themselves will only benefit from the additional effect, not additional stats.
4. Templar Assassin
Templar Assassin is already a hero who, if left unchecked, can right click down even the toughest enemy carry. While she is incredibly item dependent, the addition of a new Aghnim’s Scepter into her arsenal adds lots of utility.
The ability to teleport to any Psionic Trap on the map provides some incredible gank utility. In addition, Templar Assassin with Aghs can now become a split-pushing monster. Expect to find Psionic Traps hidden in trees and Templar Assassin’s playing more like Ember Spirits and Nature’s Prophets.
While not necessarily core, the new Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade for TA should enable an exciting new playstyle.
3. Clinkz
One of our personal favorite new team fight abilities in patch 7.20 was Burning Army. On a 110 second cooldown, Clinkz could summon 4/5/6 Skeleton Archers to attack enemy heroes. The ability is really fun to use and makes Clinkz a hidden nightmare in team fights when his ultimate is up.
The only problem with Burning Army is the cooldown. For a hero that wants to be moving around and ganking a lot, 110 seconds is a long time to wait for that extra damage.
The new Aghanim’s Scepter ability changes this. Now, when Skeleton Walk ends or is canceled, Clinkz will summon two skeletons at his location. At max level, Skeleton Walk has a 17-second cooldown. This means that Clinkz can spawn two skeletons pretty much every time he wants to gank.
Expect Clinkz players to be rushing this item pretty frequently.
2. Broodmother
Prior to this upgrade, Broodmother could have difficulty transitions from the early game. Winning your lane is the easy part. Being limited to eight webs shrinks the areas of the map in which Brood can be truly impactful.
With the new Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade, Broodmother now has the potential to chase a fully Thirst-buffed Bloodseeker across the map. The removal of the movement speed limit allows a Broodmother with increased base movement speed to achieve some crazy speeds.
In addition, having twenty webs instead of eight allows Brood to cover a larger portion of the map with webs. This maximizes the area in which Brood can fight, push lanes and generally be a nuisance.
1. Dark Willow
Those of you who follow the Dota 2 at a professional level might have seen some of the comments regarding this new Aghanim’s Scepter floating around the internet. Team Secret’s Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng had some fairly strong opinions on Twitter. Directing his tweet at Dota 2’s lead designer, Ice Frog, MidOne had the following to offer:
HEY MR @IceFrog TRY PLAYING DARK WILLOW AGHS AND WISP AGHS IN PUBS AND SEE HOW U FEEL BRO ITS SO BRAINDEAD
— MidOne (@midonedota2) May 26, 2019
Having seen Dark Willow in action, we can kinda see where he’s coming from. The new Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade allows Dark Willow unlimited attacks during her Shadow Realm ability. Each attack benefits from the incremental bonus damage and none of the attacks take you out of Shadow Realm.
Combine this with her level 25 talent with gives 200 attack speed and Dark Willow turns into a machine gun. Expect this item to become core in almost every Dark Willow game, and expect Valve to nerf it before too much longer.
Edit: Valve has now released 7.22b, which, as expected, nerfed Dark Willow. They have lowered the max attack speed for the level 25 talent to +175. In addition, they have increased the base attack time to 1.5 and added a second to the Shadow Realm damage ramp up. With that said, Dark Willow is still at the top of our list. These nerfs were needed, but she still has the best new Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade in patch 7.22.
Final Thoughts
Having an Aghanim’s Scepter available for every hero adds a great bit of flavor to the game. While not every new Aghanim’s Scepter is a core (or even useful) addition, the option is still there. Expect to see the pros experimenting with the new Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades in the build-up to The International.
Tune in later in the week as we go over the top 5 worst Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades in patch 7.22. And as usual, if you disagree with our list then head over to the comments and shout as loud as you can.
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