The biggest hero buffs and nerfs of Dota 2’s 2025 spring update

Luke Warr Published May 23, 2025

Dota 2’s traditional spring update has arrived with the new Spring Forward patch and naturally, there are loads of big hero buffs and nerfs to sort through.

The Spring Forward update has loads to talk about. It’s not stacked with wild changes and major additions like the Wandering Waters Update was, but there’s a long list of tweaks and improvements that should make players happy.

Valve has finally delivered a legitimate performance update to the game; a blessing considering how modern middle-shelf gaming PCs can struggle to load into the first match of a session. There are also improvements that will be appreciated by the hardest of hardcores, like improved graphs in the post-match screen and the ability to queue while spectating. There are also some key map changes to discuss, with the areas surrounding lotus pools being opened up and a new entrance to the high ground near the radiant mid tier-two tower being added.

But of course, the most important thing for players is always what hero changes came through. So which heroes got the biggest buffs, and the biggest nerfs, in the new Dota 2 spring update?

Dota 2 Spring Forward update’s most-buffed heroes

Monkey King, Chen, and Clockwerk are among the most improved Dota 2 heroes after this patch. Two of them received new abilities, while the other was just broadly improved. Here’s a breakdown of what changed.

Monkey King

Feel like Monkey King wasn’t elusive enough? Well, good news! He got more mobility options.

Monkey King got a new facet named Changing of the Guard that interacts with his ultimate. Changing of the Guard unlocks a new ability while Wukong’s Command is active that allows him to teleport and take the place of one of his soldiers. Monkey King cannot move during this and doesn’t do damage, but it provides a great tool for prolonging his ultimate, chasing down enemies, and getting out of sticky situations.

There were some comparatively small nerfs, including a 20% reduction of Primal Spring’s cast range. Jingu Mastery was also nerfed at lower levels. Still, this will make Monkey King even more slippery and will be a big boon for Monkey King players who fall behind in the game.

Clockwerk

Clockwerk can now scale infinitely. Sort of.

The iconic initiator has a new facet named Chainmeal that apparently allows him to eat Chainmail items. This works similar to consuming a Moon Shard or getting an Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade but with one key exception. Clockwerk can eat as many Chainmails as he can afford.

This gives Clockwerk the ability to effectively have infinite armor. It’s easy to imagine cheesy strategies with this, especially in overly long turbo games.

Chen

Chen didn’t get a goofy new facet or some gimmicky Aghanim’s Shard upgrade. He just got made uniformly better.

His base damage was improved, Holy Persuasion was given increased damage, Divine Favor’s buffs can now be applied to all teleporting units, and Hand of God got a major Aghanim’s Scepter improvement. Alongside cooldown reduction, the spell can now be channeled after healing to give all allied units debuff immunity, 60% magic resistance, and even more healing.

Chen is still likely to be a hard support, but he’ll be extremely impactful in team fights if his team can get ahead.

Medusa, Ancient Apparition receive big nerfs

Medusa, Ancient Apparition, and many other dominant pub game heroes received significant nerfs in the Dota 2 spring update.

Ancient Apparition’s Ice Vortex was made smaller and had its cast range reduced, robbing the hero of much of some of his long-range dominance. Ice Blast also had its Aghanim’s Shard Cold Feet effect weakened slightly.

Medusa was absolutely hammered by nerfs. Mystic Snake saw its mana stealing reduced significantly, going from 17% at max level to a flat 15% at all phases. Its base damage was also decreased, which should make her less frustrating to lane against. Gorgon’s Grasp and Stone Gaze both had their mana costs increased, which should make her a bit easier to lock down.

Plenty of other major threats received both big and small nerfs, including Wraith King, Lifestealer, and Spectre. The full list of changes can be found on the official Dota 2 website.