A new Dota [6.79 update]

When the recent 6.79 Update Notes were published, many realized that the game they love has changed extremely once again. This article will briefly explain and summarize the effects of the changes on certain heros, items and the metagame overall.

6.79 Gameplay Update

GENERAL

Buyback nerfs:

* Buyback prevents gaining unreliable gold (creeps, neutrals, etc) until your normal respawn time finishes
* When buying back, 25% of the remaining respawn time will be added to your next death

Undoubtebly buybacks were quite OP and abuseable especially in competitive games. If one team wanted to push your base and won the clash the defending team could just buyback and rejoin the fight instantly to turn the tides. This is still possible, however a lot more risky and buybacks won’t be used as often anymore. Also for example a Furi can’t farm the gold anymore in the time he saved by buying back. That is why every kill is worth a lot more now.

Offlaning Changes:

* Creeps now meet a bit closer to the tower in your offlane
* Ranged Heroes now get the same denied experience as melee heroes (instead of less)
* XP AoE increased from 1200 to 1300

Offlaning just got a little bit easier with the creeps closer to your tower and a increased xp aoe of 1300. In many cases you can stand at save spots and still leech experience. Additionally we will see a lot more ranged heros on the offlane as the now get the same xp as melee heros.

click here to see a slideshow of the new offlaning creeplanes

Woods changes:

* Non-Ancient Neutrals now split XP with all heroes in the AoE instead of just the team that killed them
* Swapped the medium pullable Neutral Camp with the small camp
* A neutral creeps camp will no longer spawn the same set of neutral creeps twice in a row
* Small reduction to the pull timing duration of the mid Radiant and mid-top Dire camp
* Satyr Mindstealer XP bounty reduced from 88 to 62
* Satyr Tormentor XP bounty reduced from 155 to 119
* Mud Golems XP bounty reduced from 119 to 88
* Mud Golems armor reduced from 4 to 2
* Dark Troll Summoner bounty XP reduced from 155 to 119
* Hellbear Smasher HP reduced from 1100 to 950
* Hellbear armor reduced from 5 to 3
* Satyr Trickster’s Purge cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.2
* Dragon Ancient Neutral Camp now have flying movement capability
* Fixed Neutral Envenomed Weapons debuff dispelling regen items

To see a slideshow of the other camps click here

Overall jungling got nerfed as it brings less xp and gold reward. However killing neutrals got easiert due to their reduced armor and hp, which makes stacking even more necessary and farming the woods with aoe skills/dps even faster.

Additionally the new Medium camps have had their pull durations significantly reduced. You can no longer pull the old dire small camp to the Dire safe lane. The radiant mid lane pull doesnt work either. Overall the safelane pull camps are are more difficult to stack and pull times are some seconds earlier than before.

You can still kill a complete wave with the new pull camps, if you start attacking your own creeps asap. [thanks 450925 reddit user for the information]

Pulling through is now easier. Pull the medium camp through, nuke the remains of the small camp with a aoe nuke and its successfully done.

Day/Nighttime changes:

* Day/Night length decreased from 6 to 4 minutes
* The following heroes now have the standard 800 night vision: Drow Ranger, Mirana, Puck, Leshrac, Enchantress, Ancient Apparition, Meepo and Treant Protector

This changes the metagame in a big way and brings difficult tasks to the support players among us. Due to less Nighttime vision earlygame ganks have bigger chances to succeed. The strong roaming supports like es, vs, sven, sd and even tusk might see a comeback. Of course this effects NS a lot as well.

Roshan changes:

* Roshan will respawn at a random time between 8 and 11 minutes after death
* When Aegis expires unused, it heals the hero fully over 5 seconds (regen dispels on damage from players or buildings)

A nice change which affects the competitive szene mostly and prevents waiting for roshan the second before he respawns and killing him instantly again. This change has deeper effects on the professional games than you might think and will cause very interesting situations. Imo it favors Dire as it is much easier for the to check Roshan, which has to be done all the time.

Gold changes:

* Starting gold increased from 603 to 625
* Random Gold bonus reduced by 50 (still cooler than instant Antimage pick!)
* Gold for ending a spree changed from 75->600 (3x->10x) to 125->1000
* Your gold income is now 1 per 0.6 seconds, up from 1 per 0.8 seconds (All supporters are happy now, easy mode enabled?!)

* Tower last hit bonus gold increased from 100-200 to 150-250
* Melee Barracks HP regen increased from 2.5 to 5
* Ranged Barracks HP regen decreased from 2.5 to 0
* Ranged Barracks HP reduced from 1500 to 1200 and armor increased from 5 to 10 (same EHP vs physical damage)

Evasion changes:

* Evasion now stacks diminishingly; This is a huge buff the Butterfly and therefore Agi carries and also Heavens Halberd  (Imagine that PA with more than 1 Butterfly; MKB is a must item in most of the games)

Orbwalk changes:
* Can no longer orb-attack while attack restricted (such as Ethereal or Frostbite)à this hits i.e. Huskar and is a needed fix imo because it felt broken to me.
* The following abilities no longer automatically ignore backswing time by default: Rupture, Malefice, Venomous Gale, Stifling Dagger, Flamebreak, Wave of Terror, Shadow Word and Power Cogs

HEROES

 Batrider
– Base damage reduced from 48-52 to 38-42
– Vision reduced from 1400 to 1200
– Flaming Lasso cast range reduced from 175 to 100

As expected he got hit hard by the nerfhammer. He is still very versatile and can jungle very fast though. However laning gets a lot harder with his reduced base damage. We might see some desperate tries to Lasso someone who is not in the new 100 range.

 Meepo
– Base armor reduced by 1
– Turn rate improved from 0.5 to 0.65
– Earthbind cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.3
– Divided We Stand leveling rebalanced from 6/11/16 to 4/11/18
– Removed 30% stat sharing on non-aghanim Divided We Stand

Before his lvl 4 he is even more killable due to his reduced amor, but at lvl4 you get 2 meepos already?! That’s ridiculous and speeds him up a lot. He can snowball a lot faster now and needs much less time to get highlevel and the items he needs. We get the third meepo at level 18 which is not the hugest deal because we call level faster a lot earlier. I am very curious to see if competitive teams exept Fnatic (N0tail ftw) use some meepo strategies in the near future.

 Alchemist
– Chemical Rage no longer provides 250/500/750 bonus HP
– Chemical Rage HP regen increased from 15/30/60 to 50/75/100

The chemical Rage nerf hurts him a lot. He will be ganked more often now and die very quickly.

 Pudge
– Can now use Blink Dagger
– If you hook a unit onto an unpathable ledge, the unit gains free pathing for 5 seconds
– Flesh Heap magic resistance reduced from 4/8/12/16% to 6/8/10/12%
– Dismember Scepter strength multiplier increased from 0.75 to 1.0
OMG its happening! Finally Pudge will be able to use Blink dagger. This will be so much fun. And it’s a very nice idea to give units free pathing if hooked to unpathable ledges. Pudge was always about hooking and dismembering anyway so I don’t know if the 5 seconds are enough though. You just need another 2 second disable to get a unit stuck somewhere. However I think Pudge will still be able to hook units into trees and chop them to death. Hooks will also fly from a lot of new places where people just don’t expect it. Big Buffs. Maybe we will see him even in competitive games a lot more.

 Vengeful Spirit
– Can now use Blink Dagger
– If you Netherswap a unit onto an unpathable ledge, the unit gains free pathing for 5 seconds

Dagger also for Venge. She gets so much better with this: You swap someone in and immediately dagger out. He is fucked and you are fine GGWP. IMO this is a very good and fun change because she was too weak and now gets a lot more versatile. However it will still take aegis to farm a Dagger as support Venge. She can now reach targets from 2400 range, which is as far as lvl2 clockwerk hook!

 Broodmother
– Spin Web AoE increased from 650 to 900
– Spin Web cast range increased from 600 to 1000
– Spin Web cast point nerfed from 0.2 to 0.4
– Spin Web no longer destroys trees
– Broodmother now has completely unobstructed movement when under the web (can walk over cliffs, trees, etc)
– Removed buffer time when leaving Spin Web (you now immediately lose your regen/movement/pathing/invis bonuses)

The queen got the rework she might have needed. She now will be a valid offlaner again and own quite hard in the hands of people who know how to treat her. I am eagerly waiting to play her finally in dota2. To see a slideshow of her new web click here
* Broodmother is temporarily disabled from CM, they will be added back shortly.

 Ancient Apparition
– Ice Vortex cooldown reduced from 5 to 4
– Ice Blast cooldown reduced from 45 to 40
– The Chilling Touch buff is now always applied to Ancient Apparition even if he is not within the target area
– Chilling Touch cooldown reduced from 50/46/42/38 to 50/42/34/26

Chilling touch gets buffed and buffed and buffed. Maybe we will see some nice tactics around chilling finally.

 Axe
– Berserker’s Call AoE increased from 275 to 300
– Battle Hunger duration reduced from 10/13/16/19 to 10/12/14/16
– Battle Hunger damage reduced from 15/21/27/33 to 15/20/25/30
– Battle Hunger movement speed slow/bonus increased from 8% to 10%
– Battle Hunger is now dispellable
– Counter Helix cooldown reduced from 0.55/0.5/0.45/0.4 to 0.45/0.4/0.35/0.3
– Counter Helix now hits siege units
– Culling Blade no longer goes on cooldown if it successfully kills a hero
– Culling Blade threshold reduced from 300/450/625 to 250/350/450 (Aghanim upgraded version is still 300/450/625)
– Culling Blade speed bonus increased from 25% to 40% and AoE from 600 to 900
– Culling Blade 40% speed bonus now applies to attack speed as well
– Culling Blade Aghanim allied buff duration increased from 6 to 10
– Culling Blade manacost reduced from 150/200/250 to 60/120/180

The annoying Battle Hunger gets slightly worse, all other spells nice buffs! This man is ready to fight!

 Beastmaster
– Inner Beast AoE reduced from 1000 to 900 (standard aura AoE)
– Inner Beast attack speed rescaled from 18/26/32/40 to 15/25/35/45
– Call of the Wild now has two abilities for summoning each unit independently
– Call of the Wild manacost reduced from 25 to 15 and cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.3

With the new inner Beast he scales better into late game. His new Call of the Wild is quite cool.
 Rubick
– Telekinesis cooldown increased from 18 to 22
– Rubick can no longer steal the Aghanim upgrade of the enemy if they have Aghanim and he doesn’t
– Added Aghanim’s upgrade: reduces cooldown from 20/18/16 to 5, increases cast range from 1000 to 1400 and makes all stolen spells be considered to have their Aghanim’s upgrade

YES! The long awaited Aghanims version for Rubic has finally arrived and it sounds awesome. 5 Sec cooldown is just too good. Additionally giving all stolen spells the aghs upgrade sounds a litte op, but we will see. A lot of fun is granted however if you are able to farm that aghanims.

 Bloodseeker
– Base movement speed reduced from 305 to 300
– Thirst is now global instead of 6000 range
– Thirst bonus now stacks for each unit that is low HP
– Thirst HP threshold increased from 20/30/40/50% to 50%
– Thirst movement speed bonus reduced from 15/25/35/45% to 7/14/21/28%
– When Thirst is active, movement speed cap is removed on your hero
– Thirst no longer provides armor bonus
– Thirst provides bonus 7/14/21/28 damage
– Thirst no longer grants full hero vision around low HP targets, it only shows their model
– Thirst no longer lasts for an extra 3 seconds when the target is dead
Thirst stacks? The Ferrari_420 is born! Due to the new hero vision we will see some ferraries crashing into walls all the time though.

 Brewmaster
– Base agility increased from 16 to 22
– Drunken Haze affects a 200 AoE around the target
– Thunder Clap is now dispellable
– Primal Split selection order is now Earth/Storm/Fire
– Reworked Primal Split Aghanim upgrade.
No longer upgrades any stats, cd, duration, etc on Aghanim.
Instead, it now grants Thunderclap to Earth, Drunken Haze to Storm, and Drunken Brawler to Fire.
The skills granted are at the same level as Brewmaster’s skills.
Cooldowns are independent of the original Brewmaster.

Overall small buffs and an awesome Aghanims rework, which makes more sense.

 Bristleback
– Attack point improved from 0.4 to 0.3
– Viscous Nasal Goo is now dispellable
– Viscous Nasal Goo cast point improved from 0.4 to 0.3
– Warpath max stacks increased from 5 to 5/6/7
– Warpath stack duration increased from 10 to 14

This boxer got a new pair of gauntlets! He is now perma hasted and does a lot more Damage. Prepare for getting owned by this furious pig.

 Witch Doctor
– Death Ward cast range increased from 400 to 600
– Voodoo Restoration AoE increased from 350 to 500
– Voodoo Restoration manacost over time reduced from 8/14/20/26 to 8/12/16/20 (50% of the heal amount)
– Paralyzing Casks now lasts 5 seconds on illusions (same as creep duration)

Big Buffs for the doctor because he has nearly vanished completely despite from some Pub games. The doctor is in!OHYA!
 Clinkz
– Searing Arrows damage increased from 20/30/40/50 to 30/40/50/60
– Searing Arrows manacost increased from 8 to 10
– Searing Arrows is no longer blocked by magic immunity

The searing Arrows now hurt even more, which makes him a real killer. The real buff however is that Searing Arrows are no longer blocked by magic immunity. This makes him a lot stronger as a carry and enables him to man up against that BKB carry.

 Dazzle
– Weave duration rescaled from 12/18/24 to 20
– Weave armor per second rescaled from 1 to 0.75/1/1.25 (scepter is 1/1.25/1.5)
– Poison Touch damage increased from 8/16/24/32 to 14/20/26/32 (7 seconds worth)
– Poison Touch is now dodgeable
– Poison Touch slow timings reworked
Previous Poison Touch:
Lvl 1
Slow target by 33% for 1 second
Lvl 2
Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second
Lvl 3
Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second, then stun target for 1 second
Lvl 4
Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second, then stun target for 1 second
Ministuns for 0.01 seconds at the start.

New Poison Touch:
Lvl 1
Slow target by 33% for 3 seconds
Lvl 2
Slow target by 33% for 2 seconds, then slow target by 66% for 1 second
Lvl 3
Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second, then slow target by 100% for 1 second
Lvl 4
Slow target by 33% for 1 second, then slow target by 66% for 1 second, then stun target for 1 second
Ministuns for 0.01 seconds at the start.

Mr. Pinkman’s waeve and poison touch got buffed a lot to make him stronger early on and let him do his job as a support better. I can’t wait to play him in a pubgame!I still doubt pros will pick him.

 Death Prophet
– Exorcism Spirit damage increased from 43-48 to 53-58

This change looks gives her very much. She will be able to kill many more enemy heros if she will be able to stay alive and push a lot faster. She is still not valid for competitive games though.

 Disruptor
– Kinetic Field AoE increased from 300 to 325
– Glimpse cooldown reduced from 60/50/40/30 to 65/50/35/20
– Static Storm AoE increased from 375 to 450
– Static Storm max damage increased from 170/220/270 to 200/250/300
– Added Aghanim’s upgrade: Static Storm silences items, and lasts an extra 2 seconds

A seemingly big buff for this forgotten hero.The items silence is crucial, however you will not be able to farm an aghanims  in most of the games. Overall his teamfight was improved, but he is still to weak in my opinion.
Doom

– Doom cooldown reduced from 110 to 100

– Doom now removes positive buffs on the target before applying the debuff

– Doom Aghanim AoE requirement increased from 550 to 900

This is the AoE that is considered when freezing the duration of Aghanim upgraded Doom.

“You are doomed” now hurts a lot more often with Aghanims. Although I don’t think people will realize it, Aghanims should be bought a lot more often on him now. He now also is a direct counter to Huskar, Spirit Breaker and Abaddon.

 Drow Ranger
– Precision Aura damage ratio increased from 16/20/24/28% to 18/24/30/36%
– Precision Aura no longer affects creeps
– Precision Aura can now be manually casted to affect creeps globally for 30 seconds (120 cd)
– Marksmanship attribute negation AoE increased from 375 to 400

Nice damage buffs for ranged units especially with the active precision aura. This grants very many interesting possibilities and gives drow a nice strategic touch.

 Earthshaker
– Enchant Totem damage increased from 75/150/225/300% to 100/200/300/400%
– Fissure range increased by 100

Like fissure wasn’t already long enough.

 Elder Titan
– Ancestral Spirit damage reduced from 120/160/200/240 to 80/120/160/200

After finally realizing the OPness of ET his ancestral Spirit got nerfed by 33%Dmg which doesn’t look like a lot but in fact makes a big differences.

 Enigma
– Midnight Pulse dps increased from 3/4/5/6% to 4/5/6/7%
– Added Aghanim’s upgrade: Adds Midnight Pulse damage to your Black Hole. This damage stacks with Midnight Pulse.

Cool Aghanims upgrade. Midnight Pulse will still be not too usefull if not casted before a good Black Hole. You should see the damage of double midnight pulse!

 Invoker
– EMP restores Invoker for 50% of the mana it drains from heroes (excluding illusions)
– Invoke Max Spells rescaled from 1/2/2/2 to 2

Needed Buff to the nerfeed-to-the-ground QW Invoker. Hopefully we will see more of this skillful magician.

 Io
– Tether now does a -100% MS/AS slow instead of a stun

 This hurts the Imbaball a lot, but is deserved as the stun was just too stronk. Maybe he will now finally be balanced.
 Jakiro
– Liquid Fire is now a castable Attack Orb (same cooldown, no mana cost)

Cool change to make this boring dragon more interesting. This improves his pushing power a lot as it reduced the tower attak speed immensely and opens a lot of possibilities to dive towers.

 Juggernaut
– Healing Ward movement speed increased from 300 to 450
– Omnislash Scepter cooldown reduced from 110/100/90 to 70
– Omnislash no longer stops if the target is Ethereal (it still doesn’t do damage)
– Fixed not being able to use items during Omnislash
Finally we can use that MOM/Dagon again during Omnislash. The Aghs cd gets reduced just because. Now almost every Jugger will get Aghs because its just that good.

 Lich
– Frost Armor has half effect against ranged heroes
– Frost Armor slow now stacks with the slow from Frost Nova
– Sacrifice cooldown increased from 35/30/25/20 to 44/36/28/20
– Sacrifice mana gain increased from 15/30/45/60% to 25/40/55/70%
– Sacrifice no longer denies enemy XP
– Sacrifice now converts your own creep for XP (shared in AoE as normal creep xp bounty)

Big changes for the IceMan and although sacrifice no longer denies enemy xp I still think he was buffed especially now that it turns your own creeps into xp! To deny the enemy carry xp you can just go back when you see your creepwave coming and sacrifice out of xp range.EZ

 Luna
– Moon Glaive can now bounce back on the same units if it already hit all other units nearby
– Moon Glaive bounce damage reduced from -30% to -35%
– Eclipse Scepter beam count limit per target removed

Great buffs for Mrs.Moonfang to make her even stronger. Now its too much imo and she slightly too strong again.

 Lycanthrope
– Armor increased by 1 (Shapeshift total armor is still the same as before)
– Base damage increased by 5
– Howl bonus damage for non-hero units increased from 4/8/12/16 to 5/10/15/20
– Wolves magic resistance increased from 50% to 80%

buff hard, nerf hard, buff hard again that’s the lycan way of life. Now he will be very strong once again and even see some more competitive play.

 Nature’s Prophet
– Treants’ XP Bounty increased from 20 to 30
– Treants’ Gold Bounty increased from 12-16 to 14-20

Very nice small change which will make furi players think a litte more before they use treants to block pullcamps for the enemy supports.

 Night Stalker
– Darkness causes enemy vision to be reduced by 25% (affects heroes, creeps and wards)

This is actually a Huge deal as vision in many cases wins wars, especially if it is already night. The most important change for NS however is the Day/Night length decreased from 6 to 4 minutes. This will give him a very different gameplay rhythm with faster changes between fighting and farming. Nighttime action granted!

 Ogre Magi
– Ignite duration increased from 4/5/6/7 to 5/6/7/8
– Ignite is now dodgeable
– Ignite can now multicast to cast at a random enemy unit in 1400 AoE (prioritizes ones that do not already have the debuff)
– Unrefined Fireblast cooldown reduced from 10 to 6

The even advanced new ignite randomness is hilarious and will give you some wodota moments for sure if you play that hard to master hero!

 Phantom Assassin
– Stifling Dagger shares the same crit chance/factor as Coup de Grace
– Stifling Dagger is now dodgeable
– Stifling Dagger damage rescaled from 50/100/150/200 to 60/100/140/180

Stiffling Dagger Crit LOLWUT? Now she is a true assassin, throwing daggers that do ~540 critical dmg. Now you can just throw a dagger and if it crits you blink in and kill.
She also got a huge indirekt buff due tot he recent evasion change: Evasion now stacks diminishingly.

Dagger Crit:

 Riki
– Smoke Screen cast range increased from 425 to 550
– Riki is no longer revealed out of Permanent Invisibility when he casts spells or uses items

When he starts his attack from Blink Strike, he will be revealed

The biggest buff is that he is no longer revealed out of Invisibility by using items or casting spells. However this does not make him a better teamfighter, but a better ganker and gives him some more escapeability. 

 Shadow Shaman
– Mass Serpent Ward count increased from 8 to 10
– Changed Mass Serpent Ward placement structure.

More Snakes on the plane! Yay! The new structure looks terrible though.

Also: ”8 to 10 wards, that isnt 25% — thats like 16% or something” – bone7 discussing rhasta

 Silencer
– Intelligence Steal is an innate part of the hero rather than an element of Glaives of Wisdom

 Skeleton King
– Base Intelligence increased by 5
– Removed Mortal Strike active
– Vampiric Aura now provides full effectiveness on ranged units
– Reincarnation slow increased from 30% to 50%
– Reincarnation slow AoE increased from 700 to 900

This makes him the most braindead hero to play again (q+rightclick). However: lifesteal auto for ranged units? Lvl 1 rosh drow SK? Expect to see some creative things with his new aura at least. Huskar and SK are now best buddies.

 Skywrath Mage
– Int growth increased from 3.2 to 3.6
– Added Aghanim’s upgrade: reduces Mystic Flare’s cooldown from 60/40/20 to 20/10/0

Prepare for the fireworks ! However he will most likely still be oom after using all his spells once.

 Slardar
– Amplify Damage armor reduction increased from 8/14/20 to 10/15/20
– Sprint speed increased from 20/27/33/40% to 20/28/36/44%
– Sprint manacost removed (was 50)

 Spirnt 0 mana costs and more ms and ulti buff? Nice! The grumpy fish needed these buffs however.

 Slark
– Shadow Dance duration reduced from 5.5 to 4
– Shadow Dance cooldown increased from 25 to 65
– Shadow Dance can no longer be revealed by Truesight

All detections are now completely useless against him. Therefore Shadowdance duration got reduced and cooldown increased but it is still a very interesting change and time will tell if he is balanced this way.
* Slark is temporarily disabled from CM, they will be added back shortly.

 Sniper
– Take Aim attack range bonus increased from 75/150/225/300 to 80/160/240/320

Dat sexy range

 Spectre
– You can now continuously use Reality on your illusions
– Reality cast point improved from 0.3 to 0
The real Haunt begins! She will be able to get a lot more kills if a teamfight goes her way and hunt down several targets if you can kill them fast.

 Spirit Breaker
– Base attack time nerfed from 1.7 to 1.9
– Greater Bash no longer works while doomed
– Nether Strike now uses 1.2 Cast Time instead of a 1 sec magic immune delay (can be interrupted as a result)

The interruptable ulti weakens + the slower attak time hurt the Spacecow a lot. He needs that BKB even more now. Too bad, I somehow liked that dumb cow.
 Tiny
– Craggy Exterior chance increased from 6/12/18/24% to 10/15/20/25%
– Craggy Exterior stun duration increased from 1.2 to 1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5

Improved his Passive a lot to grant him some more Carry-play and maybe funny szenes when he escapes low hp and the enemies get stunned by his passive and die under the tower.
 Treant Protector
– Leech Seed damage per pulse reduced from 30/45/60/75 to 24/36/48/60
– Leech Seed number of pulses increased from 4 to 6 (duration from 3 to 4.5)
– Living Armor cooldown rebalanced from 15 to 32/26/20/14
– Living Armor manacost increased from 25 to 50
– Nature’s Guise cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.3

As expected another nerf to the living amor, but a nice buff to leech seed. His own laning presense will be stronger now.

 Troll Warlord
– Berserker’s Rage movespeed bonus rebalanced from 20/20/20/30 to 10/20/30/40
– Whirling Axes (Melee) damage reduced from 125/175/225/275 to 75/125/175/225

Good nerf to the very spamable Axes. Due to the Berserk rage rebalance he is weaker early on and a stronger DPS lategame.

 Tusk
– Frozen Sigil now requires a constant number of hits (3/3/4/4) instead of 200/220/240/260 HP (heroes hurt it for 1, others for 0.25)

Good chance to the underused Sigil.

 Pugna
– Decrepify damage amp on allies reduced from 40% to 25%
– Decrepify damage amp on enemies increased from 40% to 50%
– Nether Ward now requires 3 hits to kill instead of 75/150/225/300 HP (heroes hurt it for 1, others for 0.25)
– Life Drain restores mana if it tries to heal you while you are full hp when targeting heroes

Very cool new drain animation! Also nice small buffs for the little green skeleton who is not seen too often anymore. To see the animations click here and here

 Venomancer
– Poison Nova no longer ignores invis/fogged units
– Venomous Gale no longer ignores invis units
– Venomous Gale damage over time rebalanced from 15/30/45/60 to 0/30/60/90
– Poison Sting duration increased from 6/8/10/12 to 6/9/12/15
– Poison Sting dps no longer dispels healing or disables dagger
– Plague Wards now have Poison Sting for 50% of the damage at the current skilled level (When both Venomancer and a Plague Ward affect a target, only the highest dps is applied)
– Plague Wards XP bounty increased from 12/12/25/25 to 20/25/30/35

Big Buffs: His harass hot a lot stronger with the new poison sting. Also the new gale with 0 dmg at lvl1 and 90 at lvl4 is very interesting. He now scales a lot better into lategame.

 Viper
– Poison Attack cooldown reduced from 4/3/0/0 to 0
– Corrosive Skin no longer works while doomed

Best early game orb ingame! A lot more Vipers will be killing in Pubs and Pro matches as he got a lot more viable due to his new orb.

 Visage
– Base armor reduced by 1
– Base magic resistance reduced from 25% to 10%

 Warlock
– Fatal Bonds now links the closest units to the initial target, instead of randomly choosing targets in its AoE
– Upheaval cast range increased from 700 to 1200
– Upheaval duration increased from 10 to 12
– Removed Chaotic Offering 100 impact damage
– Chaotic Offering Golem armor increased from 5/7/10 to 6/9/12
– Chaotic Offering manacost increased from 200/250/300 to 200/300/400

 Weaver
– Base attack time nerfed from 1.7 to 1.8

 Omniknight
– Degen Aura AoE increased from 315 to 350
– Degen Aura stickiness increased from 0.5 seconds to 1.0

 Outworld Devourer
– Base damage reduced by 3
– Items no longer trigger Essence Aura

 Necrolyte
– Base armor increased by 1

Fking OP! Here you have the proof!

 Windrunner
– Focus Fire remains sticky on the target you cast it on

This annoyed me a lot. Finally it remains sticky any mabe people will skill ulti now earlier than lvl 13.

 Mirana
– Leap AoE AS/MS speed bonus is granted at the cast location rather than the destination
– Leap AoE AS bonus increased from 4/8/12/16 to 8/16/24/32
Makes her a little more viable as a offlaner, especially as the so many projectiles are dodgeable, which makes her leap a lot stronger.

 Morphling
– Morph level 4 shift rate improved from 0.25 to 0.2

 Phantom Lancer
– Spirit Lance is now dodgeable

 Queen of Pain
– Shadow Strike manacost rescaled from 80/100/120/140 to 110

 Naga Siren
– Rip Tide AoE reduced from 450 to 350
– Ensnare manacost increased from 75/85/95/105 to 90/100/110/120

 Centaur Warrunner
– Stampede slow duration increased from 1.25 seconds to 1.5

 Chaos Knight
– Chaos Bolt damage and stun values are now inversely related

Very cool change, which reduces the luck factor for CK a little bit in a trade-off between damage and stunduration.

 Nyx Assassin
– Spiked Carapace no longer stuns your hero when your summoned units proc it (the summoned units get stunned instead)
– Impale no longer has unit targeting, it is now only a point targeted spell

Finally fixed the carpace stun. The changed stun makes him a little more skill intensive than before.

 Chen
– Test of Faith teleport is now dispellable
– Hand of God cooldown increased from 140/130/120 to 160/140/120

Abaddon
– Base armor reduced by 1
– Myst Coil self damage increased from 50/75/100/125 to 75/100/125/150
– Aphotic Shield is now dispellable
– Borrowed Time no longer activates while Doomed

 Sven
– Stormbolt cooldown reduced from 15 to 13
– Stormbolt is now dodgeable

 Tidehunter
– Kraken Shell damage block increased from 7/14/21/28 to 9/18/27/36

 Timbersaw
– Chakram manacost increased from 75/125/175 to 100/150/200

 Undying
– Decay steal duration increased from 25/30/35/40 to 40

 Clockwerk
– Units knocked back by Power Cogs destroy trees in 100 AoE around where they land

 Crystal Maiden
– Freezing Field AS/MS AoE slow increased from -20/-30 to -30/-30
– Freezing Field Scepter AS/MS AoE slow increased from -50/-30 to -50/-50

Another small buff to the Freezing Field! Gotta get that rampage.
 Enchantress
– Untouchable attack speed slow increased from 20/50/80/110 to 30/60/90/120

 Faceless Void
– Timewalk slow rescaled from 25/30/35/40% to 20/30/40/50%
– Chronosphere AoE increased from 400 to 450

 Huskar
– Agility reduced from 20 + 2.4 to 15 + 1.4
– Berserker’s Blood is now disabled by Doom
 Dark Seer
– Vacuum cooldown increased from 24 to 28 (As in every new dota version)

 Keeper of the Light
– Blinding Light now destroys trees in a 150 AoE around where the target is pushed

 Kunkka
– X Marks The Spot cooldown reduced from 16 to 13
– Ghost Ship damage increased from 350/450/550 to 400/500/600

KUNKAAAA. Small but nice Buffs to make him more viable. Not like he needs it.

 Leshrac
– Diabolic Edict cast point improved from 0.7 to 0.5
– Pulse Nova scepter damage increased from 88/133/177 to 100/150/200
 Lifestealer
– Rage cooldown increased from 17 to 19
– Open Wounds and Infest cast points increased from 0.01 to 0.2

 Lina
– Attack range increased from 635 to 650

 Lion
– Mana Drain duration increased from 4 to 5
– Hex cooldown increased from 15 to 30/25/20/15
– Hex duration increased from 1.75/2.5/3.25/4 to 2.5/3/3.5/4

 Lone Druid
– Base movement speed increased from 315 to 325 (still 280 in True Form)
– Spirit Bear XP bounty increased from 196 to 300

 Magnus
– Turn rate improved from 0.5 to 0.8

 Medusa
– Mystic Snake now does Pure damage to units in Stone Form

 Sand King
– Sand Storm dps increased from 20/40/60/80 to 25/50/75/100
– Epicenter attack speed slow is now same as movement speed slow (10%->30%)

Even more Darude- Sandstorm

 Shadow Demon
– Shadow Poison AoE increased from 180 to 190

ITEMS

Observer Ward
– Duration increased from 6 to 7 minutes
– Killing Observer Wards now grants a 50 gold bounty

As a support Play the 7 minute duration is something you have to get used to fast. If you are a good support play who can predict enemy ward spots you now get a small reward for each killed ward.

 Sentry Ward
– Duration increased from 3 to 4 minutes
– No longer gives permanent vision around it
– Gives ground vision in a 150 area around it for 12 seconds when placed

 Shadow Blade
– Shadow Walk cooldown increased from 18 to 28

Finally nerfed this annoying item by increasing its way too short cooldown by almost 50%. Finally we will see more manly items on Heros like Alchemist etc.

 Shadow Amulet
– Fade delay reduced from 2.4 to 1.8

Buff useless item by decreasing its fade time. Are we now going to see some sweet ninja ganks from invis people standing somewhere waiting until the victims comes around? I don’t think so, it is still a useless item when not built into a shadow blade.

 Smoke Of Deceit
– Smoked units are now always hidden until the buff is removed (rather than being hidden only from minimap and partially from world).

Buff one of the most important items even more ? Prepare yourself to see even more smoke ganks and action in pro matches. Now you cant see the units at all even if they are close to a observer and sentry !  LemonLymeSprite postet a threat on reddit  where you can see what this means ingame.

 Tango
– Charges increased from 3 to 4
– Gold cost increased from 90 to 125
– Is no longer shareable
– Tango can be targeted on an allied hero to create a 1 charge non-stacking tango item in their inventory. If the inventory is full, the item will be placed on the ground. This item has a 60s cooldown.

60 sec cooldown? No more eating a fast way through the woods ? Sad thing. Slightly nerved imo and got a little bit more expensive (1.25gold each charge)

 Healing Salve
– Gold cost increased from 100 to 115
– Is no longer shareable (but can still be used on a target ally)

 Clarity Potion
– Is no longer shareable (but can still be used on a target ally)

Consumables like Healing salve Tango and clarity are no longer shareable. This is a indirect nerfs to heros who like to get pulled regen items like a offlane clinkz. It prevents the massive pooling shown by some support players like EE-sama in his NoTidehunter days. Another great update note!
 Tranquil Boots
– Reworked Tranquil Boots

Previous Tranquil Boots
Active Boots:
+ 75 Movement speed
+ 3 Armor
+ 3 HP Regeneration
Ability: Heal – Restores 250 HP over 20 seconds while out of combat. 60s cooldown. 25 mana cost.
Broken Boots:
+ 25 Movement speed
Restores when the last 10 seconds don’t have 3 instances of damage.
Can be disassembled

New Tranquil Boots
Active Boots:
+ 85 Movement speed
+ 4 Armor
+ 10 HP Regeneration
Broken Boots:
+ 60 Movement speed
+ 4 Armor
Restores when you haven’t attacked or been attacked in the last 13 seconds.
Cannot be disassembled

On the one hand they made tranquil boots a lot stronger by increasing its movementspeed bonus unbroken und broken immensely and decreasing the ms of arcane, Pt and Phase boots, buffing the amor boots and giving it a high regen of 10! However, as it can not be disassembled anymore I think it won’t be seen anymore on a lot of heros like Abadon, AM, Ursa etc. when you could make a vlads out of it and get another boots upgrade of your choice. Tranquil boots are now the choice for roaming/ganking heros, as they have a high ms and always keep you full hp.

 Arcane Boots
– Movement speed bonus reduced from 60 to 55

 Boots of Travel
– Now prioritizes nearby structures first within 325 AoE from targeting position (when ground targeted)

 Power Treads
– Movement speed bonus reduced from 55 to 50

 Phase Boots
– Movement speed bonus reduced from 55 to 50

 Urn of Shadows
– Soul Release cooldown reduced from 10 to 7

Get this item every game! Buffed again so you can use its charges even more often.

 Vanguard
– Damage Block chance increased from 70 to 80%

Much needed Buff; Still won’t be seen much in competitive play.
 Veil of Discord
– Now uses Null Talisman instead of Robe of the Magi (from +12 int to +6 int, +3 str, +3 agi, +3 dmg)
– Magic weakness duration increased from 20 to 25 seconds

Underrated in my opinion anyway, now has a better build-up and longer Duration! It might even be viable on viper.

 Armlet of Mordiggian
– Unholy Strength STR gain is provided over 0.7 seconds
– Unholy Strength has no toggle on or off cooldown

Toggle erryday
 Flying Courier
– Cannot be purchased until 3 minutes after creeps spawn

What a change ! Now we will see so many couriers die before 3min and enemy supports camping in mid to kill the courir with bottle in it. However…

 Animal Courier
– Movement speed increased from 300 to 350
– HP increased from 45 to 75

It is a little harder to kill the animal courier now. We will see some funny kills on supports who die trying to kill a courier very soon!

 Bottle
– Gold cost increased from 600 to 650

Another nerf to bottle Crow and buff to slower regen items like Linkins.

Gem of True Sight
– Gold cost increased from 850 to 900

Minor Nerf because the new undestroyable Gem is too stronk. Still imba.

 Dust of Appearance
– Slow increased from 10 to 15%

Because invis heros still too stronk obviously. Hell yea!

 Maelstrom
– Chain Lightning AoE increased from 500 to 900

 Mjollnir
– Static Charge radius around attacker increased from 300 to 450
– Static Charge hit count increased from 3 to 5
– Chain Lightning AoE increased from 500 to 900

Huge buff to this items (+80%aoe for chain lightning) and bigger radius will make this item a better farming and fighting tool.

 Necronomicon
– Summoned units duration increased from 35 to 40

Indirectly buffed by the Hotd and Midas nerf and a little more duration. We will see a lot more of these guys especially in pro matches! Yay 🙂

 Helm of the Dominator
– Dominate can no longer control Necronomicon units

 Hand of Midas
– Transmute no longer works against Necronomicon units
 Linken’s Sphere
– Linken’s Sphere can now be cast on an allied hero to transfer the buff

When on cooldown it does not work on you. Goes into cooldown when cast and once the buff is used up.
If the cooldown ends and the buff has not been used up, the buff ends and does not trigger another cooldown.
700 cast range

Huge Buff! Now we will see a lot of Linkin Spheres Not only on Heros like Dusa, Weaver or Morph against single target spell heros. Many big plays and saves will be made with this item now.

 Eul’s Scepter of Divinity
– Cyclone cooldown reduced from 30 to 25
– Movement speed bonus increased from 35 to 40

Big Buff for this cheap item. Hopefully we will see more eul stun dodges soon especially as so many skills are now dodgeable.

 Pipe of Insight
– Barrier AoE increased from 500 to 900

Huge aoe Buff for the smokers choice. Makes it even more need for every team.
Bloodstone
– Now gives the +10 damage from its components

Needed buff for this item. We will see it more on other heros than Timber.

 Eye of Skadi
– Eye of Skadi MS/AS slow increased from 30/20 to 35/35

Good buff but still wont be seen much in competitively matches except on dusa/morph (and SingSing QoP!)

 Black King Bar
– Recipe cost increased from 1300 to 1375

 Blink Dagger
– Damage disable no longer ignores self damage

A Change mostly for Pudges new ability to use Blink Dagger! This will be so much fun!

 Radiance
– Burn Damage AoE increased from 650 to 700

 Refresher Orb
– Now gives the +10 attack speed from its components

I like this item a lot, so seeing it getting buffed a little bit gives me hope to see more usage on any hero.

 Rod of Atos
– Cripple cooldown reduced from 16 to 12.

I like this item a lot, so seeing it getting buffed a little bit gives me hope to see more usage by pros on i.e. Skywrath or maybe Storm.

 Sange and Yasha
– Movement speed bonus increased from 12 to 16%

Another try to make SnY a more usefull items outside of Pubs. Still worse than many other choices like manta.
 Hyperstone
– Gold cost reduced from 2100 to 2000

Conclusion:

Looks like a great update with a lot of new tricks and twists and a more action oriented metagame.2-1-2 has become a lot more attractive , but I expect to see many solo offlaners still (especially as it is more viable for ranged heros aswell). However I expect many changes for the supports: They will roam more and gank all the time to gain gold and xp since the pulls can’t nourish them as much anymore. I also expect more aggressive trilanes, as they are less “risky”.GG VOLVO

Here you can watch a very nice video-analysis of the recent Update by Luminous & Fluff.

I Am very pleased with the recent update and see a lot of reason behind it. For all who dont have a look at this.

If you think something is wrong or not complete please write me and I will change it immediatelly because I see this as a community project not just mine.

Best regards and have a nice days

Sir.Derpington