6.85 Patch Analysis

Nice warlock buff, as the golems no longer die to diffusal blade/other purges instantly.



Slight buff to lane clear for AoE magic users, not a massive deal though.

EDIT I lied, apparently you can midas them, Chen can control them, and presumably you can HotD them as well. Few things to think about.


Mostly a minor Chen buff as far as I can see, and slower ancient farming/more dangerous ancient farming.


Doesn't realllly matter too much, just a bug fix more than anything.

Buff to support abbadon lategame, pretty insane TBH. With Aghanims it's 7 seconds of 50% reduced damage to everyone else on your team.



Meh. Nice buff to taking ancient stacks. Still a bad hero.



Pretty average buff, helps keep AA out of fights a bit in the later stages of the game but doesn't really matter.



Really minor changes, blink is the spell you typically max first anyway and the stun on Mana Void was pretty much only useful as a ministun anyway, the length of time is almost unimportant.



Helps make Bane more relevant, but screw that hero anyway



Still a bad hero. I think. You can't really afford to commit enough farm for blink, forcestaff, AND an agha on this hero.



This is pretty huge, as long as you're above 75% HP you don't give anything to BS passive. And the Bloodrage heal reduction is pretty big too. Screws up pub jungler BS (which is w/e anyway) and makes it still OK to harass him in lane.



Big changes wow, the vision thing is unexpected but the bonus gold reduction is as expected. I think this makes BH a more niche pick now instead of a "we want to first pick this or ban it" pick.



These changes are nice, don't know if it's enough to make the hero relevant though. 3x cast of hurl boulder, and much more handy AoE for dispel magic. I wonder if Brew would fit better as a position 4 in this meta.



Minor but pretty nice buff.



Pretty sick buff I think, helps his laning a lot.



Nice buff, hero is still bad as position 1/2 though.



Combined with the ancient buffs this is really good for Chen. Really really good. I expect to see Chen in competitive a lot more after this.



I like this change, don't think it makes him OP and it does make him more useful. The downtime was ridiculous, now it's just a bit annoying.



Reasonable hero made a bit better. Not a bad change, not going to make a significant difference to the hero though.


Waow!!!!!!!!! literally ded hero now ;DDDD http://dota2.gamepedia.com/Dark_seer even deleted from the evil wiki, may as well remove from game xDDDDDDD

But for real though, makes his early game a little weaker but doesn't significantly impact the hero.



Still don't think I will be skilling this skill early but it definitely helps with Dazzle's mana requirements if he does choose to get Poison Touch. 145 is pretty insane given he will usually also have a glimmer + spamming all his other spells.



Meh. Might be enough to make people pick her more but I really hope this hero doesn't come back into the meta.



Pretty average buff on early harass, the nerf doesn't matter much because anyone of reasonable level isn't going to stand next to their allies while being hit. The reason it's only an average buff on early harass is because of the mana requirements, but it is definitely useful.



Icefraud pls don't buff this hero. Scorched Earth buff is pretty good. ;_;



Pretty nice buff to his laning. He still gets picked a reasonable amount anyway, this will just help him out against the current mids.



Pretty decent changes, won't bring her back into meta though.



He needed a nerf, but this doesn't reduce his viability at all, just makes him perform slightly worse. Mostly a lvl1 fissure change IMO.



Meh. Reduces skill cap a little. A nice change I guess but doesn't actually change the hero in any important way.



Echo Stomp AoE bigger than the moon now. Main change is the mana cost here on Ancestral Spirit, it's really nice. The damage increase also makes him pretty useful. You still need to draft around this hero but I can see him becoming a niche pick again.



Not sure what to think here. MoM Enchantress?



OSFrog dankest of memesters.



This is pretty huge, the rocket barrage damage is aight but the call down slow no longer piercing magic immunity is pretty massive. I think this hero is no longer first pick/ban phase material. He's still reasonably strong though.



Hero is no longer relevant, it was only just becoming a niche pick but he's basically worthless now.



If I understand this correctly then Aghanim's increases the actual damage/effectiveness of all his spells. This is pretty huge. The intelligence growth also helps him a lot. This makes agha an actual useful pickup on the hero again and maybe brings him into competitive meta.


This is pretty good, you can actually hit people with the fire now. Icepath range increase is pretty big as well, I expect to see this hero being picked a fair bit more now.



People were already starting to pick this up over stats a bit in the current fighting meta, but this makes it a much better value-for-levels spell and I really like this change.



This is really good.



I still really don't like the idea of this hero in position 1 or 2 but these changes make him really useful. 8 second cooldown on X marks the spot, and the range increases are really nice.



Laning is stronger, and the spell buffs are very useful.



This actually destroys the hero pretty badly. I could be wrong but I think Leshrac just vanished off the face of the earth here.



Pretty nice changes, enough to bring in some dual lane action again perhaps the mana thief.


The rage cooldown is pretty good, but still bad hero.



This is good because she isn't useless at all here but her combo is quite a bit weaker. I think this just changes her from being a really important pick/ban to a good pick/ban.



Nice for clearing creeps late game.



These are pretty big buffs. Will be interesting to see where the professional scene takes this. With the radiance improvements, the agha upgrade, and these buffs, Lone Druid is just getting better and better.



Luna is now a really good pick I think. Particularly with the Gyro nerf, she will become more popular here.



I don't think this matters in the general scheme of things, other than a general shift towards split push heroes.



With the Lina nerf and this buff, and the Gyrocopter nerf and PA buffs I think PA/magnus just became really really good.



A well placed Mystic Snake pretty much oneshots supports now. In general this is a nice laning buff to medusa. I think she's still too weak in the midgame though to be relevant, particularly with popular antimage.



noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Now there's going to be an increase of carry miranas in my pubs, even more than before.



I think Morph pickrates will go up but he won't be a first pick/ban priority hero.


This is a nice buff to support Naga lategame, and a super strong nerf to early game support Naga.



Icefrog trying to bring back the rat doto but I don't think this really helps NP too much. He's still really easy to counter and his aghanims isn't that great.



LOL RIP Leafeator-bot, but this actually makes me really angry, what an awful hero this hero is and now he's strONGERIFSRYSFSDF



This is a massive amount of increased health regen. I'm not completely sure yet where this puts this hero though. Maybe offlane nightstalker is pretty viable here.



Very cool buffs to the hero, but I'm not sure who you want to pick this hero against if the mana-3 are dead (Lina/Lesh/Storm). His general utility IS pretty good though so who knows.



The tower attack speed thing should be interesting to see, this is a relatively minor nerf which should bring him back into the spotlight I think. He's a pretty good hero still. Plus with tiny maybe coming back it should be fun.


Purification cast point reduction is really nice but the hero is still going to be in much the same niche pick as before.



I think this is a pretty mixed up set of changes which move Oracle up a little bit but not really. I don't know the hero very well though so I can't say for sure. Still not in captain's mode though so it doesn't matter.



Screw that mana change. If what I predict about mid meta shifts is true then the hero MIGHT come back but I don't think he will.



This is really nice. Combined with the Magnus buff and some other changes, I think PA-magnus is going to be a top-tier pick.



The biggest thing here is the doppel cast time, which is pretty massive. In general this hero is a lot weaker now but I think he's still going to be a tier 2 carry pick, common enough but not a must-have.



Further nerf to Huskar, and a reasonable buff to the hero. I think we will see a lot more Phoenix.


I have mixed feelings about this. My instincts say this doesn't matter but I have a sneaking suspicion that with mid meta shifts puck might be somewhat back again.



Pudge mid got even more rekt, please don't play this hero mid people. The slow change is pretty nice though for non-core pudge.



Meh. I don't think this makes pugna get picked up much more than before.



This is the most interesting change because I think this means qop is still just as relevant as before, only a little bit weaker. Probably a tier 1 mid pickup now.



This is a buff but not a major one.



With constant buffs I really think this hero is going to have a good patch competitively soon. I'm not sure if this is the buff that makes it happen but it definitely makes him a lot more survivable in lane.



This is a so-so change, it's a buff but doesn't really impact the hero significantly.



Same as above.



I don't think this significantly impacts the hero.



Excellent, this was a needed fix.



Pretty good buffs to the hero, he was already getting a few picks in competitive play and he's really strong against Ember with his silence, so I think we will see this more often.



Maybe my most hated change so far because I hate playing against Slardar. This helps Slardar a reasonable amount and brings him to people's attention, so I think he will get picked up reasonable amount more. Maybe a tier2 pick at best.



ho ho ha ha



You can farm slightly faster now. With radiance buffs and meta shifts I think Spectre will get a lot more pickups. Dispersion change is a buff I think. It doesn't matter as much with regards to magic damage but because Spectre ends up with a lot of Agility/armour, this basically means that physical damage dealers will get rekt by Spectre without BKB.


Good-bye 170%! On the plus side for Spirit Breaker players, you can now charge up your Greater Bash before charging in (attack a jungle camp a few times without bashing and you will have an increased chance on the next attack proccing the Greater Bash. Then go charge in and you'll almost definitely bash in the next ~2 hits.)



This makes me sad as a Storm picker. I expected the vision nerf to be greater, and the mana costs to be lesser. While predicting the future is fraught with danger, with the Bloodstone changes too this really destroys Storm pretty hard.



I'm not sure how much this matters with PL being nerfed. You only really want to pick Sven against something like PL (maybe with the TB buffs it will be good against TB?), and PL will be picked less now.



This is pretty insane. I don't get the last change at all, and don't think it was necessary. The cooldown and mana cost reductions are pretty good for laning techies though, as you can basically last hit with the mines at will. Land Mines no max count is w/e. Not blocking neutral spawns is interesting if you're playing against melee carries as you can probably just stack a bunch inside the camp and the carry will run into them, ez kills. Laning techies is stronger I think.You don't want to have big stacks of mines for supports to feed off, and you don't really have that much with lane techies. And last hitting with a 60 mana, 150 damage spell is prettyyy good.

It will be interesting to see how it turns out but I think the hero is still viable. It's just much better for people playing against him as they can destroy mines with short-range heroes and quelling blades, and get some gold out of it too. Very good for supports.


Out of captain's mode so I don't care too much. Shadowblade dagon gaming perhaps? ;D



I think Tide needs an ulti cooldown rescaling but this is useful.



Nice buff to the hero, but with bloodstone nerf I think he's still not going to get picked up much.



Pls icefraud stop bringing back the splitpush, it hurts ;_;



This is excellent, really good changes to the hero. With mid changes I think tiny mid will become much more popular. Now you can actually cast two spells at early levels!



Excellent buff, well deserved and should bring this hero back into competitive play some more. ppd will cry salty tears of joy



If I were to guess, this and the Sniper and Juggernaut buffs are somewhat a reevaluation to the big anti-6.83 nerfs. Minor improvements which make the heroes viable but not insane.



Early game weakened, snowball not so good for long term survability, but the big change here is the Frozen Sigil change. The hero is still pretty useful though.



Is this hero just useless now? I think this hero is just useless.



Keep the buffs coming Icefrog, keep them coming! I think this hero is still more or less in the same camp as Lifestealer and Sven though; they're a bit too easy to stay away from and a bit too bad at sticking onto people.



Nice improvements to bring her back into the meta. A lot of supports seem to be getting minor buffs.



Duration no longer increased by Aghanim's Scepter, so this is a nerf more or less I think. I hate this hero anyway so I hope this is an overall nerf. Pre-agha buff though.


I'm not sure how much the Corrosive Skin change matters, but the agility growth is good. The hero is still a niche pick-up though.



Another minor support buff.



Already mentioned above but this is extremely good for warlock, and I think core warlock in particular will see an uprising, inspired by MVP.March.



This is quite good because you can spam the spell now for vision in particular a lot more.



Big nerf. WW is still a good support though but no longer as crucial a pickup as before.


Position 4 midas bkb agha maybe going to become popular? Hard to say. That level 3 damage with aghanims is pretty insane.


The base damage is very good, and the Vampiric Aura is alright. I don't think the agha changes matter.

This will take some getting used to but for consistency's sake I think it's alright.


Aegis of the Immortal
Aegis now provides temporary ground vision near your death area while reincarnating [?]


Massive nerfs. This primarily effects Storm, Leshrac, Lina, and Timbersaw. The best thing about this change, however, is that the mana regen wasn't affected. Very clever not to affect that in my opinion.



This makes bottle crowing constantly a lot weaker. 75 less health per full bottle is quite significant.


Crimson Guard
Recipe cost reduced from 825 to 600




This destroys Omniknight pretty hard, and makes the item pretty good. You can also pick it up on Ember and PL and purge multiple silences with it which is pretty insane. You can purge glimmer cape now so this is a good pickup on more heroes like Juggernaut and others, who may have considered it before but not actually bought it.



Another buff to the active of Drums. If the fighting meta persists then this item will be bought more often on certain heroes. Good for slark.



I don't really have a problem with this. Bounty Hunter nerf in particular I think.


Enchanted Mango
Cost reduced from 150 to 125
Cast range increased from 250 to 400




Morphling buff.



Massive Lina and Leshrac nerf in particular, I'm not sure how badly this affects anyone else.


Guardian Greaves
Mend cooldown reduced from 45 to 40




Alright now this is pretty massive. The mana cost reduction is the only positive here, everything else makes the item significantly weaker. It will be interesting to see how it pans out given that the magic AoE trio of Leshrac/Lina/Storm are weaker too, perhaps this item will see no more pickups at all just about.



Anti-mage buff, spectre buff, an attempt to make the item relevant compared to Skadi. At this stage you can pretty much pick up the item as an alternative to having Slark's passive.


Heaven's Halberd
Can now be disassembled




Buffs to Juggernaut and PA in particular, speeds up timings a little and keeps the critwolf alive longer in fights.


Lotus Orb
Echo Shell mana cost reduced from 100 to 75
Echo Shell cooldown reduced from 17 to 15




Pretty huge buffs, the mana cost reduction in particular is very good for certain heroes. 30 second cooldown for melee heroes is great for Ember, Juggernaut, and perhaps PA.



These are massive changes. I think you only want medallion to build into solar crest now, not as an item in itself.


Mjollnir
Chain Lightning targets count increased from 8 to 12



Moon Shard
No longer requires a recipe



Necronomicon
Necronomicon Warrior and Archer health increased from 600/700/800 to 700/800/900



Octarine Core
Fixed interaction with Guardian Greaves [?]


Pipe of Insight
Insight Aura now works on the carrier




Not sure what to think about this. Phase is now a short-term sprint rather than an almost-constant speed buff. Power Treads are still pretty good but heroes that tossed up buying Treads vs Phase or BoT will now consider the other option much more here.



Kill Techies mines faster, juke a little bit more maybe. Mostly for Techies mine clearing I think.



Buff to lone druid and Spectre in particular, it will be interesting to see how much playtime those two heroes get now. I think Spectre in particular will get a lot more playtime.


Scythe of Vyse
Cooldown reduced from 35 to 30




At this rate, TP will be free and cooldown based. And then you will only be able to TP to fountain. And then Icefraud will take off his mask and reveal he was Pendragon all along!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!



Cheaper battlefury is good for Ember Spirit and Anti-mage in particular. Probably for PA as well but really you want to have a Magnus combo-ed with PA, BF is painful if you have a rough lane as PA.


Veil of Discord
Recipe cost reduced from 1100 to 900

Mid is going to be dominated by QoP/Lina/Ember/SF/TA. Second tier picks will be Tiny, Necrophos, Warlock, Windrunner.

Carry is going to be tier 1: Anti-mage, PA, Spectre, Luna. Second tier will be Slark, Gyro, Razor, and Juggernaut.

Offlane will be Clockwerk, Techies, Bristle, SK. Second tier will be Centaur, Slardar, Phoenix, and Dark Seer.