posted by SohNata,
Announced just minutes ago, the 6.81 patch has had it's logs released with a whole host of changes to shake up Dota once again, alongside a plethora of bug fixes and of course - hero changes. There's also a lot of interface and UI news- we pick out the juiciest bits from the patch notes inside! The first major patch in months sees no new heroes, but a long list of changes long demanded by the community, including dozens upon dozens of bug fixes. There's also some brand new features - there are now treasure chests that can be bought directly from the store, while the workshop has received a massive boost as 10 new heroes are now available for work. Also, if you want optimal performance, checking your ping to each server is going to be an option, which is a great boon for all players.

Gameplay changes range from cooldowns to manabuffs but also key fixes - Legion Commander's Duel has been fixed so people are unable to run away, you can't walk out of Clockerwerk's cogs without being hit by them again and you can no longer abuse Magnus and Wisp's interaction on Skewer to bring people to the fountain, busting Na'Vi's TI4 pocket strat. Also, the community rejoices at a simple line - 'You can no longer see trees being destroyed if they are hidden by the Fog of War'.

The fallout from hero buffs are yet to be seen and broken down, but early glimpses see big boosts for Windranger, Keeper of the Light and many others, while Batrider, Ember Spirit and Luna all see small tweaks with the aim of possibly bringing them down a notch. We'll be delving into this more going forward, including this newspost, so do check back!



A look at the new, redesigned settings menu


Items of Interest?
We're also seeing some buffs to lesser seen items - both Shadow Amulet and Shadow Blade have received buffs respectively, with a longer duration on the blade. Rod of Atos has a lower cool down, while Eul's Scepter now does a little bit of damage. On the flipside of that though, Necronomicon sees the warriors get slower move speed, while also providing more gold upon being killed.

Supports get some...support
What about the buffs to supports as a whole? It feels like there's a lot of love for those who have really dropped off, particularly Lich, Windranger and KOTL. Lina's attack range has been increased yet again, with Laguna Blade now going through magic immunity, ergo BKB with a Scepter. Leshrac's Lightning Storm also now provies a massive 75% slow for 0.5 seconds. Omniknight will become even more adored by his allies with Repel no long removing positive buffs when cast, including Guardian Angel.

It's not all good news for supports - Earthshaker has had his fissure creep blocking essentially removed and DK's dominant Centaur Warrunner now has a hefty mana increase, now being 130 at all levels. Batrider's lasso cost has increased by 75 mana, which may see his prominence in the pro scene curtailed somewhat, although trees no longer being shown as destroyed in fog of war should satisfyfans of the bat for now.


An Aghanim's on Keeper of the Light will see this become a permanent reality.


Ex-scepterional Ultimates
How about that buff to Abaddon on his Aganahim's? 'Aghanim's Scepter Borrowed Time now redirects 35% of all damage dealt to nearby allied heroes to Abaddon when active'. It's hard to see in action, but this should make Abaddon even more of a horrible hero to come up against in a teamfight - rumours that Goblak has gone out to party in celebration are unfounded. As mentioned, Lina's Laguna Blade now rips straight through a BKB with Scepter equipped.

Jakiro's Macroypre is now doubled in length by an Aghs, while Keeper of the Light may be the biggest beneficary, with the monster upgrade of a permanent Spirit Form, alongside getting the effects of 'unobstructed vision and Illuminate heals allies for 75% of the damage values' during the day. Shadow Demon now gets two purge charges, while Omnknight gets a longer Guardian Angel.

Evolution, not revolution?

The more we look at this patch, it seems to be more buff than nerf, with leading heroes in the scene seeing small reductions in power, but nothing being totally smashed to bits. It seems Icefrog and company have taken on how positive 6.80 has been in being one of the healthiest patches in a long time and gone for a similar feels - lots of heroes who have been out in the cold have been given some love and it's going to be very exciting to see how teams adapt and what heroes we see come out of the woodwork from now on.

Meepowned!
In a small buff in Captain's Mode, Meepo's movement speed has been upped by 10, but he also finds himself removed from Ability Draft, most likely owing to the impact of Divided We Stand on the mode, which will probably bring more balance to that mode as a whole.

The full patch notes can be found HERE!

What are your favourite changes coming out of 6.81? Let us know below!

This article was written by uk Jamie Donovan, joinDOTA's writer.SohNata first experienced Dota during the TI3 finals and has been hooked ever since. A massive fan of European Dota, he's probably one of the people with more tickets than wins.Location: Warwickshire, UKFollow him on @SohNata.

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