6.78 Dissection and Discussion

Rubick's gonna have a hey day with all the aghs upgrades :D

Which is why it feels slightly pointless. ;P

Well, carries shouldn't be dewarding in the first place. I don't see much of a difference with this change.

Icefrog really does hate them it seems. This allows carries to kill wards that's out of melee range?

I think the BKB nerf was because IceFrog wants to see more Omniknight?Lol,and not quite sure about the necro buff,but I was expecting that Slardar change for ages.Thanks.now I can deal damage to magic immune targets.

I.M.O ghostwalk is a slight buff, it increases the slow on hostiles, not invoker.

The sentry nerf, I think, is because dust got buffed.

The sentry nerf is kind of weird. I heard that now, to fully deward radiant pull camp, you need 4 since it won't cover the magic bush and the other ward spot on the opposite side (forgot name). For dire pull camp, only 1-2 are needed now. This was on reddit.

Direct and indirect buffs to Axe through Counter Helix and Blademail, these will make him have that added aggression he needs for late game because currently Centaur Warrunner is overall the dominant late game tank.

Ancient Apparition gets wildly unbalanced buffs, but at the cost of what? Your teams 5-role? He can be a late-mid game and late game pain if the user can play safe and try to avoid ganks to save up for that Agh's.

Batrider through Bounty Hunter are all appropriate and agreeable changes.

Bristleback can now hold that constant 150-180 bonus damage that most players don't realize is a big impact, might see less defensive Bristles overtime and more aggressive right-clickers.

Doombringer...stop it. Drum or Phase Boots with his Scorched Earth will ensure his ult decimates someone before the timer on it starts. The caster Doom role might see more play now, as an Agh's/Refresher build will enable even MORE teamfight control and will have that extra bonus to take the tier 3s and possibly rax.

DK gets a much needed change, before you had to choose if you wanted to be a mid game team fighter or a siege monster. Now you're both at level 11, and the playstyle is more redundant.

Drow's added 2% is not that big, that's 8 more bonus damage on someone swinging for 400. I'd say its the equivalent of adding one or two more auto-attacks from a support in a prolonged fight. Nothing crazy.

Earthshaker.Navi.Puppey, GG. Fissure is now much more effective in blocking and quicker reaction timing will be rewarded. All illusion heroes will be getting a little more punished, we're looking at PL, CK, and NS here.

Ench now even more of a sniper, great buff. Gives her that extra ability to avoid confrontation while poking in a big fight or a chase.

Enigma gets a meh change, while we see Shredder and Gyro getting some much needed changes. Goblin Shredder is a mid-game hero at core, but previously he had such mana issues that even good management really wasn't the solution and didn't really come online until late-mid game, now he can be effective on the dot of midgame, needed buff. Gyro on the other hand gets the nerf we were all anticipating. Now the time gap for Flak Cannon being down is something you can jump on, indefinitely.

Huskar gets a strange and surprising edit, he's now no longer hard countered by nukes while low on life, his ability to 1v1 is nerfed a bit, but his new insane IAS will promote building proccable items. Looking forward to see what this changes in pubs, probably not much since a BKB is still needed for disables which will shut him down hard, I anticipate easier early games when tackling most mid heroes and supports with hard damage spells.

Invoker doesn't see much action tending to his weaknesses in the current meta, we probably won't see him anymore than we see him now competitively. For those wondering about why Ghostwalk was a nerf and not what looks like an apparent buff or balance; though more spammable, late game the extra 10% plus the new Dust of Appearance changes gives the enemy that much more time to react, where in the late game the supports will have the gold to buy counters to the change.

Two big, but subtle changes to Wisp. The first actually does hinder his ganking, without the extra vision a badly placed gank can result in you not seeing oncoming enemy reaction and even get you killed. The second makes it that much more vital to take your targets down quickly and know when to toggle Overcharge on or off.

Jugg basically just got a fix, and now Undying will no longer be a nuisance when picking someone off.

KotL loses 38 HP, Wooo!

A possible 250 damage buff to Kunkka and the ability to actually use X marks the spot without realising you don't have enough mana to force them into the position of X when you want. What looks like a tedious difference in vision is actually on-par with Wisp's nerf, play safe, have awareness on the map.

Lich gets an unneeded buff when we needed a rework, now scaled from a max damage of 1960/2590/3220 (2590/3220/3850)* to 2800/3700/4600 (3700/4600/5500)*.

The range on Open Wounds is actually a huge change in the playstyle of Lifestealer and hampers his ability to lane and chase. An overall great change, the reign of Lifestealer is now done, we'll still see him but I no longer think he's S-tier, more of an A-tier hero.

Lina can now harras even more to no end, a minor bonus like this can be a real nuisance.

Lion is now a support eating vampire, good thing KotL is 40 HP smaller. Let me snipe you all with Mana Drain after I kill your 5-role and then come back after I wipe my mouth for your 4-role. Big presence if ran as the mid lane during the mid game.

Lone Druid bumped down from A-tier to about a C-tier. If bear is not off-cooldown to resummon before the kill then your team will be very angry that you just threw 300 gold to someone, probably a melee hero with big presence. Not only that, but those cheap Armlet tricks that you guys loved are now gone. Good thing Medallion got a range buff though, that'll probably be a good help to this drastic change, not enough to keep LD in the meta though. So long bear.

Lycan gets a nice buff to help his early jungle not enough to make him a dominating presence though, just a minor buff, still susceptible to jungle invading. This could help in his laning though, able to trade very effectively with his wolves and take more hits from the ranged supports.

Magnus doesn't receive the rework we're looking for, he's still an S-tier pick. Max damage nerfed from 750/1125/1500 to 250/625/1000. The damage isn't the issue, its an almost instant non-channelled AoE magic-immunity penetrating 5 second stun from a hero that already has his own aggressive initiating ability.

I very much agree with the change to Medusa, I was suggesting something similar not too long ago involving a stun with her ult, and this is equally if not a greater change than I thought was needed. I still think an MS buff is needed to bring her into the meta. Still won't see a whole lot of her, but she just bumped up from a D or C-tier to about a C or B-tier.

Meepo now has a buff that really helps in defending against single-target nukers which were a big problem, but he's still susceptible to single target auto attackers, still a D-tier hero though. His clones need a rework to be a really viable pick.

Mirana really gets that buff that pushes her up a tier, might see quite a bit more of her. A 20 second buff is a big deal and 460 damage arrows really makes her seem like a leaping spear throwing cat we know from a very similar game.

Morphling and Naga Siren each get buffs to their laning phase. Morphling gets a minor last hit advantage, while Naga Siren becomes a farming monster. I suspect we might see Naga building Medallion or Arcanes more, the Int from Diffusal Blade really helps her now.

Icefrog has taken it upon himself to make sure Necrolyte becomes the ultimate kill steal, and the ability to take towers without fear of specific buy-backs, two really big changes. I don't think we'll see much high-tier competitive Necrolyte, but we might see him in more CM matches.

We continue on with the nerfs to the versatile insect known as Nyx Assassin. The nerf to his Mana Burn really isn't that big of a deal, he still hard counters large mana pool heroes the same in the late game. We just see some suppression coming out to his early game, I think the concept is to force Nyx to be more of a midgame hero. The ability kit itself is strong though, so unless he gets a rework, the value balances to his abilities themselves aren't that big of a deal. This is verified by his indirect buffs with the Dagon and Null Talisman prices.

Nightstalker receives minor bonuses to help his early game. I think his overall pick is still the same though, no tier swapping, but we might see more of him because LD is out of the meta and we'll be seeing squishier off laners.

5 Bonus MS is actually a really big buff for a hero, especially when they're ran mid. This is good, but unless Skywrath dies down to nothing, we won't see much more OD.

We see a small DPS buff for Ogre Magi. I always felt it was pretty weak and the bonus max damage is welcome for his Ignite. Reworked from 104/160/228/308 to a max damage of 104/170/256/350.

Omniknight receives a wild buff assisted with an Agh's. As an off laner it was always iffy about what he should really be spending his gold on, and I think this definitely solves it. He'll be a real nuisance to pushing strats, and with all the buffs and recent plays of Treant we might see some tier 3s and 2s at the 40 minute mark.

If Brewmaster wasn't a pain to kill before, he is without a doubt one of the most survivable heroes now. These are some buffs for him, more damage and more defense, a real pain in teamfights. If you see that his ult is down, force a fight, without a doubt. A-tier Panda?

Phantom Assassin gets a buff, but not the rework I was looking forward to. Still, 5% is a big deal, that much more of a survivability when taking heavy hits.

Even though PL is no longer that S-tier carry we've been seeing, we're still gonna see some much needed nerfs with the reduction of his damage and an indirect nerf through the rework of Dust of Appearance, making him that much easier to shut down in the early game. He still holds one of the best Qs in the game, which is very overlooked when thinking about balance changes. A large nuke/slow/illusion making ranged ability is insanity.

Pudge gets an unexpected buff that rewards you for playing more aggressive and drags him a little further into the late game scaling.

A big and minor change to Pugna, he's now a formidable pusher and now has a little synergy with Undying, allowing the Tombstone to be invulnerable during the time of decrepify as the only two spells to affect it are Decrepify and Soul Rip. Really gives those two free waves of ZomBs that will make the enemy back off and let you take the tower.

Razor gets big buffs. Originally the max damage was 1000/1924/3410 (1154/2273/4167)* and 27/38/55 (31/45/67)* armor reduction. Unfortunately I did not realize that Dota 2 Wiki had the values in their notes, for future reference there are the exact rounded values as Dota 2 Wiki is off a bit. So the exact rounded values of the max damage buff are: 1607/2500/3750 (2045/3333/5357)* and the max armor debuff is 43/50/60 (55/67/86)*. He also receives a bigger ability to chase with a percentile MS buff with each level of unstable current.

Riki is now able to fade quite quickly now, this'll help his early game, but this is so a reaction to the reworked Dust of Appearance is a little easier.

Sandstorm on Sandking gets a nice buffer that allows him to be a little slipperier and the fixed ticks really helps getting that damage off before escaping.

Shadow Demon receives a flat Int nerf, but gets a huge ability nerf; this will really affect his vision control which really controlled the fight previously. He will be bumped down a tier because of this, but is still a high tier pick.

Shadow Fiend on the flip side gets a buff and a balance for his ultimate, he now has a steadier slow throughout his levels but his ability to suppress right click heroes is doubly. A real presence, and with the 2 seconds cooldown reduction from Blink Dagger he gets bumped up a tier because of his ability to be a bigger teamfight presence.

I'm not going to formulate the max damage for Rhasta's ult changes, but its pretty clear that he's received a buff to his ability to fight and push with his wards.

A big fix for silencing sleeping units and a most beneficial Agh's ability is very welcome for this minimally picked hero. Might see a few more pick ups in team fighting and ganking line-ups. I'm interested to see how this will change Silencer's build and if his upgrade becomes popular or not.

A few changes for the old boring hero known as Skeleton King, the changes in Ankh will allow him to react after respawning without being bash locked or able to chase after the respawn since they won't be able to immediately run away after popping the Ult. The change to his crit is pretty...neat. Its a 5th HP removal, which can be paired pretty well with an Orb of Venom as a finisher, as the duration is quite low.

We see Slardar get a very beneficial change, he's now able to rotate more and less susceptible to ganks as well as able to gank in succession. His Bash, great, now BKB can't block those bonus damage procs.

Sniper can now escape a little easier with a well placed Shrapnel as well as hit a full wave.

The change in Charge of Darkness now makes Spirit Breaker a very reliable ganker. I think he'll become a B tier hero, and like Balanar maybe an A-tier since the offlane is left with Treant and Omni as the off lane beefcakes.

Minor balance/buff to Storm Spirit will limit his early game a little and make his late game a little more spammable.

Elder Titan now has an even more limited initiation but has a bonus as a melee aggressor, but his change in playstyle will remain relatively the same.

Tide's buff on Ravage is really a big deal, getting off a level 1 ult required good placement or basically walking in the middle of everyone, now he can get those level one ults off pretty easily and be an impact without a Drum or Blink Dagger.

These two changes to Toss make me think that Tiny/Wisp mid might become a thing, especially with the drastic nerfs to bottle-crowing. Sure thing rune control with minimal leaving of the lane will be real important, and these two will really be able to pull it off and will respond well to the Wisp changes, having the bottle will allow early Overcharge. Toss to rune, tether back to lane, sure kills.

More healing for Treant from Leech Seed, makes his off laning easier, a sure replacement of Lone Druid.

The main concern with Troll Warlord was that pushing was a constant, with only 10 second downtime between fights and pushing, winning a teamfight and a easy tower was all too easy, these nerfs will enable the enemy team to respawn and TP in in response during the early and midgame.

Tusk through Ursa are the opposite of Batrider through Bounty Hunter. These were unneeded and random changes.

Vengeful Spirit always had a problem of being squishy, and as a roamer and an initiator that's a problem, now she gets a little more survivability, and the ability to get a little more range for swapping for high ground and obstructions.

Venomancer's passive is buffed from 30/70/120/180 to 20/80/150/240, which is quite a large amount to harass with early game. Veno now has superior lane control against any melee lanes.

Viper gets two cool buffs, now any source procs his passive slow, which means that chasing is THAT much more difficult, and now Slark can't purge his Strike and Kraken passive won't block the ticks. More kill potential.

Last but not least, Witch Doctor gets two range buffs to allow him to be very aggressive without being caught out as easily and allow him to set up in a fight without being picked off that much more easier.

Overall, I actually dislike the changes, especially the item changes, but mostly the mechanic changes with wards and such, IMO the only good thing to come out of this patch is about a 1/4 of the hero nerfs and the new hero Nerif, the Oracle.

Bump. Just since the original post doesn't make it into the news feed. :)