The First Trends: Biggest Winners
We had several days to get more acquainted with the patch and gather some stats and we are eager to share our findings with you. The shake up was massive and there are a lot of unbalanced heroes, and they are the ones we want to talk about today.
Phantom Lancer
Phantom Lancer feels a little too good stat-wise, in our opinion. The biggest buff the hero received was the universal attack range increase and getting ~10% win rate off the back of that feels wild. Perhaps there is an undocumented change doing some work, or perhaps we are underestimating his new Aghanim’s Scepter and Shard.
The latter is a frequent purchase in higher level pubs. Sometimes players also get it from the Tormentor and it is probably the better way to go around it. Having old Doppelganger back is a nostalgia trip for sure, though spending money on it feels a bit wasteful.
For the most part players simply follow the old progression: optional 
Hand of Midas into 
Diffusal Blade, optional 
Vanguard and 
Manta Style. There is way too much farm on the map to completely shut down Phantom Lancer, so a good player should always manage to progress.
Having a decent Diffusal upgrade in 
Disperser is also nice, though it is better reserved for the later stages of the game.
Alchemist
Starting with level two Greevil's Greed for free is huge for Alchemist. The latest trend for the hero was quite aggressive: a lot of players would get a couple of points in Acid Spray and Unstable Concoction early on for the laning stage. Now Alchemist gets to be aggressive and farm well at the same time.
We and most professional players also agree that Corrosive Weaponry isn’t that good. It is ok as a laning stage value point, but even that is entirely skippable. Instead, getting Acid Spray maxed out is the priority. Skyrocketing net worth-wise through an early 
Radiance is still the name of the game for Alchemist and it is unlikely to change any time soon.
Bristleback
Bristleback received a massive buff. Having the ability to stack Warpath for “free” while also getting more consistent with passive Quill Sprays was more than enough to breathe new life into the hero.
It seems the new 
Eternal Shroud is also huge for the hero. Between it and Vanguard, Bristleback can become close to unkillable, while having almost infinite sustain. Though most of the time concentrating on one of those items is preferable, at least until after you get your Aghanim’s Scepter.
Riki
Riki is just silly. The hero is supposed to be this trickster-type character, but this is getting ridiculous. Reading patch notes you get to be excited about Valve finally removing Sleeping Dart only to be greeted with one of the strongest new mechanics: ally untargetability.
This means no teammate saves and no defensive items. Between this, the seven armor reduction on Smoke Screen and extra experience from kills, Riki is the strongest snowball hero in the entire game.
Venomancer
The hero received multiple buffs, but the biggest one is probably the BKB nerf. Having the ability to deal damage through debuff immunity is a game-changer for Venomancer, since now he gets to be exceptionally flexible and potent even in the later portions of the game.
Becoming a Universal hero without losing much Strength gain is also pretty huge and there are attempts to make the hero a decent right-clicker, though we don’t necessarily agree with them. Instead, playing the regular magic damage and teamfight Venomancer through tankiness auras and potential Spell Lifesteal seems like the best way to go.
Getting 
Guardian Greaves and 
Pipe of Insight seems like a good idea in most games, while getting 
Aghanim's Scepter and perhaps 
Bloodstone should allow Veno to be a decent frontline tank that can’t be ignored, but who won’t go down quickly. And even if he does: post-mortem Poison Nova can be terrifying.
Closing thoughts
The new patch is definitely fun, but what is even more surprising is that despite all the changes, we don’t really have a lot of OP heroes. The only two that truly stand out are Phantom Lancer and Riki, with most other biggest winners still having sub-55% win rate.
That said, there are a lot of very underpowered heroes and we are going to discuss them in our next blog post. Stay tuned to learn more about the new patch.
Also interesting to note is that PL can solo Tormentors, at least when I play him in my pubs
No nyx assassin ?
Riki can also solo Tormentors: get a couple of hits in from Blink Strike without dying and then finish off with Tricks of the Trade
I find it funny, how biggest losers of the patch are mostly misunderstood heroes at first, and they usually get 5% of winrate back in a month or so, but biggest winners are always super apparent.
how about clinkz?
well the best heroes are still in secret heehee
Ye I’m just gonna wait until bugs r patched out before playing again
Go penetrate yourself along with your rigged matchmaking system scumbag.
When can we filter stats by patch 7.33?
I regularly solo tormentor with riki trick of trade as soon as i get scepter plus level 15 agi increase
What they did to Dazzle is criminal
They just fixed PL a bit in 7.33b, now he can't take Tormentor solo, as well as he is weaker early
No mention of bounty hunter? Hero feels broken!
Cannot wait for them to nerf cancer lancer into the ground. Honestly every other strong hero on the list is fine/some small tweaks here and there. But PL is just stupid. Its nearly impossible to contest or do anything against him because of the map. Not only that but the hero is just annoying to the max to play against in general. Hope it gets nerfed to oblivion. Literally the biggest aids hero in the game.