It’s been months since we last saw a major Dota 2 patch released by Valve, but it looks like the wait is almost over. The Spring Cleaning update comes with lots of bug fixes, interface and inventory changes, and a ton of gameplay balance. A lengthy changelog was posted a few days ago on the official blog in preparation for patch 6.81 that’s scheduled to go live this week. We’ll talk a little about some of the most important changes that come with the update, but if you want to check out the whole thing you can view the full patch notes here.

Axe: “Counter Helix now uses Pseudo Random chance”. This means that you are less likely to get those massive lucky streaks where Counter Helix procs four or five times in a row, it also means that you are less likely to get the unlucky streaks where it doesn’t proc at all. Counter Helix proc chance still 17%. Legion Commander‘s Moment of Courage was changed the same way.

Chaos Knight: “Phantasm now has a 50% chance to create one extra illusion when cast”. CK hasn’t seen that much play ever since the IO nerf so I’m guessing this buff is aimed at bringing him back into the spotlight as a late game carry that doesn’t require a combo with Wisp. Phantasm summons three illusions at level 3, now there’s 50% chance that it will summon four, and if you have a Manta that means you can go up to six. Without AoE, there are very few heroes that can deal with something like that late-game.

Earthshaker: 1. “Creeps no longer try to path around Fissure; they will wait for it to disappear”. ES wont be doing the famous creep wave stacking anymore, it was fun while it lasted though. 2.”Echo Slam no longer ignores units that are invisible or in Fog of War”. Finally some common sense! Any unit in the ulti’s area should be affected, visible or not, a very welcomed change.

Huskar: “Burning Spears is no longer a Unique Attack Modifier” Ursa‘s Fury Swipes was changed the same way. Seeing either of the two heroes with something like a Desolator or Satanic will be incredibly scary.

Keeper of the Light: “Added Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade: Provides permanent Spirit Form. Additionally, the following effects are active during the day: Keeper of the Light gains unobstructed vision and Illuminate heals allies for 75% of the damage values”.

Lich: “Aghanim’s Scepter Chain Frost no longer has a bounce limit”. This might turn out to be a little unbalanced, I assume they will tweak it some more in future updates.

Shadow Demon: “Added Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade: Demonic Purge cooldown replaced with two charges that have a 40 second replenish time”.

Vengeful Spirit: “When Vengeful Spirit is slain, her killer is inflicted with a negative Vengeance Aura, which decreases the damage of her killer and their nearby allies, until she revives”. You now have an excuse for feeding with VS! The damage reduction of the negative aura is based on the normal Vengeance Aura and has a 900 range aoe.

Other changes include: Roshan base armor increased by 1, Meepo no longer available in Ability Draft, health regen aura for the Pipe of Insight, new treasure chests and much, much more. In related news, The International 2014’s Regional Qualifiers are less than two weeks away so stay tuned as we bring you updates on the teams and upcoming matches.