Dota 2 Patch 6.85–The Winners and losers

The first major Gameplay Update has arrived for Dota 2, and just in time for the Valve Dota 2 Majors. Naturally with every patch, there are winners and there are losers. Popular heroes get nerfed, unpopular heroes get buffed, and IceFrog still tries to figure out what Oracle’s role in Dota 2 really is.

Today we will look at who’s going to benefit, and who will be forgotten ahead of the Majors. Naturally, the greater Dota 2 minds at work will really nitpick when it comes to professional games and tournaments, but today I’ll point out the obvious victors from Patch 6.85.

General

• Purge no longer deals bonus damage to summoned units
• Siege Creeps now behave like normal lane creeps for spell targeting rules
• Siege Creeps now have 80% Magic Resistance
• Ancient Thunderhide has a new ability: War Drums Aura – provides +15 Attack Speed and +15% Attack Damage
• Ancient Black Drake has a new ability: Dragonhide Aura – provides +2 Armor, stackable
• Ancient Dragon Camp units now have 2 less armor
• Fixed the following passive abilities not being disabled by Break: Nethertoxin, Tidebringer, Essence Aura, Hunter in the Night, Poison Sting and neutral ability passives

A buff to neutral creeps is not as common as you’d think. What this does indicate is that Valve are pushing more towards jungle play, enabling the resurrection of heroes like Chen and Enchantress who are to take control of jungle neutrals. The buff to siege creeps leads me to believe we’ll see a bit more pushing, as opposed to all-out team fights from the get-go.

Heroes

Naturally there are a ton of hero updates/changes, so to save time I’m going to pick a few key Hero updates which may change the current meta.

Batrider

• Flamebreak damage over time reduced from 50 per second to 25/30/35/40
• Flamebreak damage duration increased from 1/2/3/4 to 3/4/5/6
• Added Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade: Flaming Lasso grabs its target, as well as the target’s nearest allied hero within 400 range. The secondary target is tethered to the first. Also causes Lasso to deal 100 damage per second.

Chaos Knight

• Chaos Strike now lowers the target’s armor by 5 for 8 seconds whenever it crits
• Chaos Strike critical damage reduced from 150/200/250/300% to 125/175/225/275%

Chen

• Penitence slow/damage amplification increased from 14/18/22/26% to 15/20/25/30%
• Test of Faith (Damage) mana cost reduced from 175 to 90/100/110/120
• Test of Faith (Damage) cooldown reduced from 24 to 16

Drow Ranger

• Precision Aura bonus damage increased from 18/24/30/36% to 20/26/32/38%
• Precision Aura cooldown reduced from 120 to 100

Enchantress

• Nature’s Attendants wisp count increased from 3/5/7/9 to 4/6/8/10
• Impetus is no longer a Unique Attack Modifier

Jakiro

• Dual Breath’s fiery wave now moves at the same speed as its icy wave: 850 to 1050
• Dual Breath damage increased from 16/26/56/76 to 20/40/60/80
• Ice Path range increased from 1100 to 1200

Legion Commander

• Base damage increased by 4
• Overwhelming Odds cooldown reduced from 18 to 15
• Press The Attack cast time reduced from 0.3 to 0.2
• Fixed Legion Commander sometimes auto-attacking nearby units after Duel ends instead of continuing to attack the dueled target

Lich

• Sacrifice no longer splits XP with enemies
• Chain Frost projectile speed increased from 750 to 850
• Chain Frost attack speed slow increased from 20 to 30

Pudge

• Rot damage rescaled from 35/60/85/110 to 30/60/90/120
• Rot move slow increased from 20/22/24/26% to 27%

Spectre

• Desolate now works on non-hero units if they are alone
• Dispersion now reflects damage before reductions and returns it as the same damage type

Terrorblade

• Temporarily removed from Captain’s Mode
• Reflection now affects all enemy heroes in a 900 area of effect [?]
• Reflection attack and move slow reduced from 60% to 25%
• Reflection cooldown rescaled from 22/18/14/10 to 22/20/18/16
• Conjure Image illusions are known as illusions to enemies [?]
• Conjure Image cast point reduced from 0.5 to 0.15
• Metamorphosis now emits a 900 range aura that affects his nearby illusions, causing them to match his current form
• Sunder cast range increased from 325 to 550
• Sunder minimum health increased from 20 to 25%

The heroes displayed above didn’t necessary feature in the pre-6.85 meta, while the heroes listed below received nerfs.

Anti-Mage

• Blink distance rescaled from 1000/1075/1150/1150 to 925/1000/1075/1150
• Mana Void stun rescaled from 0.1/0.2/0.3 to 0.15

Bounty Hunter

• Track now provides vision only of the target rather than the area around it
• Track allied bonus gold reduced from 50/100/150 to 40/80/120

Gyrocopter

• Rocket Barrage damage per rocket reduced from 8/13/18/23 to 7/12/17/22
• Call Down slow no longer pierces Spell Immunity

Leshrac

• Base damage reduced by 4
• Lightning Storm jump distance reduced from 650 to 475
• Lightning Storm damage reduced from 80/140/200/260 to 50/100/150/200

Lina

• Light Strike Array damage reduced from 120/160/200/240 to 80/120/160/200
• Laguna Blade damage reduced from 450/675/950 to 450/650/850

Queen of Pain

• Sonic Wave damage reduced from 290/390/490 to 290/380/470 (Aghanim’s Scepter damage reduced from 325/450/575 to 325/440/555)

Storm Spirit

• Static Remnant mana cost increased from 70/80/90/100 to 100
• Static Remnant unobstructed vision reduced from 800 to 600
• Ball Lightning base mana cost increased from 15 + 7% to 30 + 8%

Techies

• Techies’ mines are no longer triggered when destroyed
• Techies’ mines can now be destroyed using Quelling Blade/Battle Fury
• Techies’ mines now provide 10 Gold for destroying them
• Land Mines cooldown and mana cost reduced by 50%
• Land Mines damage reduced by 50%
• Land Mines no longer have a max count
• Land Mines and Stasis Traps no longer block neutral spawns
• Land Mines no longer stack exactly on top of each other

Items

Ethereal Blade

• Ether Blast cooldown reduced from 30 to 20

 

Heart of Tarrasque

• Health restore per second increased from 3.25 to 4%

Manta Style

• Mirror Image range/melee cooldown reduced from 50/35 to 45/30
• Mirror Image mana cost reduced from 165 to 125

Radiance

• Recipe cost reduced from 1425 to 1350

Final Thoughts

It’s been a while since I applied any form of critical thinking to Dota 2, but from a brief overview of the latest patch it’s pretty obvious that the game might shift to a more push-orientated gameplay style. Buffs to heroes such as Chen, Enchantress, Nature’s Prophet as well as Neutral and Camp creep buffs emphasise this thought.

Overall the biggest winner of this patch is Spectre by far. Reduced cost for Radiance as well as the change to Desolate on non-hero units means her farming is going to go through the roof with the proper composition.

The Dispersion buff as well means all you basically need is a vanguard to be over powered meaning her entry into early game might be an option should she need to fight.

It’s a pity that Leshrac and Storm Spirit got a sizeable nerf, as Storm Spirit has been around for a long time.

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Last Updated: September 25, 2015