Once again, as the seasons change, so does Dota 2 as a radically transformative patch sweeps everything you thought you knew about the game aside. Hero changes, map changes, mechanic changes, and even spectator experience changes--nothing is sacred this time around. These changes have been grouped up into general categories so we could cover as much as possible!


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1) Tinkering, filling voids, and fixing the big dogs

Every hero prevalent in professional meta is about to see their powers of influenced reduced, if not popped. If you don't know all these changes, just know that most popular heroes are receiving a nerf, including Faceless Void, Razor, Lycan, Tinker, Death Prophet, Wraith King, Viper, Shadow Shaman, Tidehunter and Nature's Prophet

Faceless Void's Chronosphere no longer disabling passives, meaning defensive skills such as dodges, damage reduction, and damage return will now help units caught by Chronosphere. His ult's flying vision range and area of effect reduced to 425 as well, minimizing its impact on the battlefield. It will also no longer reveal Slark during Shadow Dance nor stop Stone Remnants.

In addition, Juggernaut's Blade Fury will continue through Chronosphere (also through Toss, Black Hole, Global Silence, and Doom)



Razor's Plasma Field minimum damage has been cut in half at every level, but will still do the same damage at the peak cast range. Static link no longer ignores Linken's sphere and costs 250% its original level one mana at all levels (from 20/30/40/50 to flat 50). Perhaps one of the more subtle but important changes to any prevalent hero is removing Eye of the Storm's ability to persist during Aegis reincarnation. Now, if Razor runs out of HP and falls while using his ult, the spell will expire regardless of circumstance.

Many other popular pro picks are receiving individual nerfs with huge implications. Tinker's March of the Machines no longer impacts any magic immune units… including ancients. Changes to items Tinker typically employes such as Dagon (increase in mana cost) & Ethereal Blade (Can now be disjointed and will only either target opponent or self, not both) are indirect ways to nerf this hero.

Lycan now has a cast time for Shapeshift, which also has a 20 second cooldown increase (from 100/70/40 to 120/90/60) and no longer changes his base attack time. He also now runs at 650 units per second, adding him to a growing collection of heroes who can break the Dota 2 speed limit of 522--the max speed for all heroes except Void/Rubick in Chronosphere or Bloodseeker with sufficient Thirst.

Other popular heroes with individual skill changes are Doom (who no longer mutes passives without Aghanim's), Mirana (Leap speed reduced by 400), Death Prophet (Exorcism cooldown increase), Brewmaster (Drunken Brawler cooldown increase), Tidehunter (Anchor Smash damage reduction reduced to 45/50/55/60% instead of 60%), Jakiro (Dual Breath slow rebalanced), Nature's Prophet (Treant magic resistance removed), and Wraith King (Reincarnation mana cost increased from 140 to 160).

2) Keep Pumping Up the Little Guys

There are a lot of heroes taking changes in this patch, but in particular many heroes who received buffs in 6.81 but were greeted with very little professional play are being granted additional help in 6.82, including Zeus, Vengeful Spirit, Undying, Leshrac, and Lion. Could these small tweaks be what finally puts them over the edge of viability in the eyes of professional drafters?

Zeus, who received numerous mechanic changes last patch, is getting one more little push into efficacy with a 20% increase in Static Field's range. Undying, another hero who received buffs in 6.81, will now have a 200 unit increase in Tombstone's AOE at all levels, as well as a slow aura increase on Flesh Golem.

Earth Spike, Lion's stun, will have increased damage in early game (80/140/200/260 from 60/130/200/260) and Vengeful Spirit will get a little extra reach with Nether Swap (650 925/1200 to 700/950/1200). Leshrac's Pulse Nova also received an activation cost reduction and damage increase.

Changing Up the Classics





3) Ending the Disillusions

Phantom Lancer is being rebuilt from the concept, starting with stat changes.

His base agility has been raised, which increases his starting armor by 2 and gives him the second-highest physical damage resistance to open the game. With an increase to his base strength (from 18 to 21) which means he has the fourth highest starting HP for an any agility hero, his early-game survivability has been greatly increased (except he can no longer Dopplewalk). These changes come at the price of 1.2 agility per level, averaging somewhere around 14 agility by the mid game.

But his new skills are the meat and potatoes of this alteration: First, Phantom Rush will allow Phantom Lancer and all of his illusions to passively gain movement speed and phase when issuing an attack order on any enemy within 300 - 600 range. Levelling this skill will reduce the passive's cooldown (from 16/12/8/4) and increase maximum range (from 600/700/800/900).

[i]Doppelganger[/i] is replacing Doppelwalk for a more combat-oriented type of survivability. Before, Phantom Lancer was able to create a single illusion and go invisible for a short time.

Now, instead of going invisible, Phantom Lancer will be able to gather all illusions with a 900 range and randomly swap their positions with each other and himself, creating two illusions in the process. This switcheroo will make it impossible for opponents to know which Phantom Lancer is real, and which is fake.

One of these new illusions will take 100% damage and deal 0%, while the other will take 600% damage and deal 20%. There is a one-second immunity which occurs upon this skill's cast, allowing Phantom Lancer and all of his illusions to dodge projectiles or avoid spells.

Finally, Juxtapose has been reworked as an ultimate and will allow both Phantom Lancer and his illusions to make copies. The chance for creating copies has skyrocketed from 12% to 40/45/50%, and the chance for illusions to make copies is now a flat 8% (still higher than his previous ultimate's maximum chances).

Maximum illusions starts at 6/8/10, allowing for two more illusions when fully scaled.

4) Blood in the Water

Similar levels of changes are taking Bloodseeker and restructuring him based on the idea at his foundation, removing and remodelling many aspects of his murderous skillset.

Bloodseeker will be chugging about a little slower starting soon, with a slight base movement speed decrease from 300 to 290. For reference, this means he will move as fast as Phantom Lancer, Sniper, or Axe instead of as fast as Clinkz, Faceless Void, or Wraith King.

Bloodrage has been completely reworked: it no longer dispels other buffs and can be dispelled itself. Its duration is 3 seconds longer at all levels and amplifies total damage instead of giving a base damage bonus (meaning far greater returns in the late game). Before, this spell used to not only dispel, but also raised base attack damage and did damage over time.

In addition, Blood Bath has been rolled into this spell: now units impacted by Bloodrage will heal for 25% of dying unit's max HP… or will heal any unit which kills it for 25%. Bloodseeker will no longer have a passive which gives health based on last-hits.

Since Blood Bath is now redundant, this left an ability slot open for Blood Rite, Bloodseeker's new Area of Effect ability which will do pure damage and add a 3/4/5/6 second silence to any enemies in the area 3 seconds after casting. Unlike many other Area of Effect traps such as Sunstrike or Torrent, while Blood Rite is waiting to activate, enemies can see it.

Thirst has also been reworked to always reveal units at 30% HP and show revealed units a debuff indicator. However, now Bloodseeker receives bonuses even from units which are not revealed based on percentage of HP his opponents have. For example. if Bloodseeker's opponents each have 90% health, then at level one Thirst he would recieve 5 movement speed and five attack damage. Late game, this leads to a theoretical maximum of 200 bonus damage and movement speed.

Rupture no longer has initial damage, but its duration has been increased to a whopping 12 seconds at all levels with a new cooldown of only 60 seconds, meaning that starting level six, Bloodseeker can theoretically have a unit ruptured 20% of the game.

Item Changes



5) The Color of Blood

The Crimson Guard, an item many players remember from the Year Beast battles from the New Bloom patch, is now a purchasable item in game. This item gives an additional 250 HP, 6 Regen, a passive Damage Block of 80% (of 40 damage per hit if the bearer is melee and 20 damage per hit if the bearer is ranged), +5 armor AND +2 all stats alongside an activatable defensive AOE ability.

That's not all, though, it also has an activatable ability which gives all allies within 750 units _2 armor and 100% chance to block 50 damage for every hit during a 9 second duration. However, this cannot be stacked with multiple Crimson Guards--the 70 second cooldown will have to be waited in full before another use can affect teammates.

Its components (Vanguard, Buckler, and a recipe for a total cost of 3850 comparable to Heaven's Halberd, Sacred Relic, & Pipe of Insight) may now themselves be more versatile simply because they have upward growth after the midgame.

6) The Little Blue Helper

A few more heroes will be joining the Aghanim's club this patch: Earth Spirit, Elder Titan, Timbersaw, Phoenix, Sven, Treant Protector all have new Aghanim's Scepter abilities, while Bane, Lina, Outworld Devourer, Doom, Shadow Demon, Dazzle, Leshrac, Puck, Undying and Chen have had their ultimate stick mechanics changed.

Earth Spirit's new addition gives him another ability, Enchant Remnant allows him to convert any other hero into a Stone Remant for 3 seconds, making them invulnerable, stunned, and disabled. They can be pushed or pulled by Earth Spirit, and after 3 seconds they do 300 damage in 300 radius to all of Earth Spirit's enemies.

Phoenix will also have the ability to impact other heroes with a new ultimate which will allow him to pull in any ally within 500 cast range to Supernova. If the egg survives, both heroes will be reborn at full health and mana, but if it is attacked down, both heroes will die.

Eyes In The Forest is Treant's revamped skill added when he holds an Aghanim's. This skill will sound familiar to old Dota 1 fans (it used to be one of his skills instead of Leach Seed). This ability allows Treant Protector to turn trees into wards with 800 unobstructed vision... but with added bonus that when he casts Overgrowth, so does every tree he's enchanted. That last part is a new addition to this old skill.

Timbersaw will now have a second Chakram with Aghanim's, while Sven will now give an AOE during God's Strength adding 40/60/80% base damage to all allies within 900 of Sven. Elder Titan's ultimate with Aghanim's will also disarm, and the slow/disarm effect will last one more second at all levels (3/4/5 to 4/5/6).

Bane will now cast Nightmare on any hero who attacks him while he is using his Aghanim's fueled-ultimate. Shadow Demon will have 3 Demonic Purge charges instead of 2. Chen can now target Ancient Creeps with Holy Persuasion if he has Aghanims, potentially a huge increase in his late-mid game push potential and impact.

Sanity's Eclipse will now ALWAYS remove 75% of opponents' remaining mana when cast with Aghanim's. Leshrac will do 160/190/220 per pulse of Pulse Nova (instead of 100/160/200).

The damage amplification from Flesh Golem will receive a 5% increase with Aghanim's in all situations.

On the nerf side of things, Lina's Laguna Blade will no longer do additional damage with Aghanim's, but she will still be able to cast through magic immunity.and now uses pure damage.

7) End of the 5.5 Slotted Hero

Since the change in 6.55 to Black King Bar which caused its duration to decrease with every use, many long games have ended with so called 5.5 slotted carries, or carries with 5 items plus a Black King Bar which was constantly replaced when the charges dropped too low. No more, says Valve. Black King Bar can no longer be replaced in increase its charge duration

Magic immunity duration from BKB is now linked the the hero base rather than the item. Black King Bar uses just became a much more significant cost because they cannot ever be replaced. This could also mean that heroes with innate magic immunity, such as Lifestealer or Omniknight, may become higher-priority picks in some situations. Omniknight, as a sidenote, also receiving a base armor increase of one and a small area of effect increase for Purification (from 240 to 260 units).

Mechanics and Map Changes



8) The Road Not Taken

Many new changes to the pathways around the map have made juking a different game entirely. Paths into and out of the bottom lane from the Radiant jungle have sprung up in multitudes, taking away any requirements to chew through trees in order to run or engage. Radiant top lane has also recieved some changes, although the biggest changes occurred in the bottom lane, by the Dire ancients, and around Roshan.



The Bottom has an official path to the side shop from the north side, removing the requirement to chop down one tree to access it secretly from Dire side. The Dire area around their tier 1 and tier 2 bottom have also found a plethora of new walkways, possibly allowing for more concerted defensive attempts on these towers, but also more gank potential against Dire offlaners. Access to the Secret Shop from the Dire side bottom tier 2 is also a straight line, allowing for slightly faster travel and better vision.

There is also a new path directly from the Western side of the Radiant top tier 1 to their secret shop, allowing for much faster travel during the laning phases to the shop or for gank rotations which plan to dive the tower.

Some new marked ward spots top the changes off.

9) Two Runes Diverge with a Yellow Food

Rune mechanics are also under scrutiny for this new patch, with a new rune's birth: The Bounty Rune. This rune gives a "consolation" pickup (sometimes perhaps the more important of the two, pending game timing) which gives 50 XP and 50 gold upon use (as well as some minor residual payoff in +5 XP and +2 gold per minute). However, now runes will spawn in both rune spots ever two minutes, forever altering the mechanics of rune control and bottle running in the mid lane!

When these changes hit, shutting down mid laners which are powerful with bottles but normally are not strong rune controllers (such as Dragon Knight, Naga Siren, and Brewmaster) will need far more attention from their opposition in order to shut down. A single hero cannot contest both runes (except heroes like Lycan or Nature's Prophet, who could use summonables to deny one), so the burden will land on supports to deny these runes to their opponents.

10) Bent in the Undergrowth

Roshan's position has been changed significantly, now no longer having an entrance from Dire side ancients. This change has removed easy access from the Dire side offlane to their ancients, possibly a large nerf to heroes such as Bristleback or Tidehunter who use their abilities to stack and farm ancients very early. In addition, Roshan is now outside of shop range, meaning Radiant side heroes from the bottom lane will not be able to step into Roshan for some secret shopping without pushing their opponents' high ground.



These changes will make a huge difference to mechanics of Roshan defense, where Dire still appears to have a sizeable advantage. Preliminary estimates show The distance from Dire mid tier 1 to be about 500 units farther from Roshan, while the Dire bottom tier 2 may be as much as 400 units closer (in walkwable pathways).

Attempting to snipe or steal an Aegis is much more functional now from the Dire bottom tier 1 instead of the area around the Dire mid tier 1, making positioning for Radiant side defenses potentially more difficult. For a full analysis of these changes, we'll need to wait until we see some gameplay!



Roshan himself is also a more formidable foe, doing a wider area of effect with his Slam (which he will only perform if there are at least three units near him) and does increasing damage to scale into the late game. Aegis now lasts five minutes instead of six.

There have been a HUGE number of important changes this patch, and we simply couldn't cover it all, even in 10 broad-sweeping bullet points! Hardcore fans should consider these patch notes a must-read!

You can see all the changes on the Dota 2 blog.


This article was written by us Gorgon the Wonder Cow, joinDOTA's Elder writer.Gorgon is a freelance shoutcaster and analyst for joinDOTA, CEVO, and anywhere a fast tongue with top insight is required. He also like pinball and bellybutton lint. Gorgon is not his birth name.Location: Ann Arbor, MIFollow him on @GoTCoWDotA.

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