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Southern Dire ward spot

Northern Dire ward spot

Southern Radiant ward spot

Wards on High

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This lesser-used sneaky ward is done

Viewing the Bounty

The turtle ward

Rune ward spot

The hard camp blocker

The medium camp blocker

Jungle corner (Roshan emphasis)

Jungle corner (jungle emphasis)

Northern stairs (corner)

Northern stairs (bush ward)

Above Roshan

Northern stairs (between trees)

New Ancients and Camp Blocking

Remember: click any image to enlarge it.

The Dire Ancients' spawn box

Southeast block

Southern bush block

The root ward

The root ward (without tree)

Eastern block (without tree)

Southern block (without tree)

The Bottom Lane

The classic push ward

The hidden push ward (without tree)

Rock vision in Radiant Jungle

Notes about map distances

As you can see, the new tier 1 Dire side ward spot has quite extensive vision even though almost a quarter of it is blocked by the Roshan pit. This ward will give vision of all the tortuous pathways to the West of the tier 1 tower as well as complete vision of the Ancients. About 1/3 of the river's width can also be seen to the South, making this ward a decently versatile semi-push or laning defensive ward.The Northern Dire ward spot gives absolutely amazing vision for a tier 2 push, completely covering the path behind the tower almost all the way to the Dire base itself. In addition, it lights up the new paths between the secret shop and tower, which are all linear and horizontal.The Radiant side Southern ward spot is included to show how little of the secret shop path its vision includes. That path cannot be seen by the tower or any ward worth placing. However, there is also no place where a single tree can be cut down to let out gankers. Rotating heroes will have to either leave through the predetermined entrances (the south of which is visible from the Southern ward spot and north of which is protected by the tier 1 tower) or cut down multiple trees.While we're up here, a note about the changes to the trees next to the Radiant top tier 1.Next, we have a ton of new configurations for Roshan and Southeast rune wards. Here are the best ones.The turtle ward still more or less does what it always did: provides rune vision too far away to be easily countered and minimal Roshan security. However, Roshan vision has suffered for the shelled seer with this map change.As the "recommended" ward, this spot delivers: deep vision across stairs on both sides of the river, full Roshan entrance vision, and vision back to the forest marking the easy camp to the South. However, this ward is easily counterable and does not provide rotation insurance for the mid lane. A word of warning: moving the ward farther South on this penninsula truncates vision radically.Against Chen, Doom Bringer, or Enchantress, this ward could be a tremendously useful ally. Full run vision alongside strong Roshan vision and full rotation protection for any movement North of the easy camp. This is very much a Dire-only ward, especially because it gives no vision on the Dire-side of the river. Also, note that due to the pathways by Dire's bottom tier 1 (explained later), Radiant heroes can sneak all the way around this ward from the Northeast to attack the mid lane.This ward, previously rarely used due to extremely limited vision, has been given new life. Not only will it block the medium camp to stop pullthroughs, but it will also give full vision of Roshan's entrance and rotation vision for the river and Radiant jungle north of the easy camp. It is, however, easily counterwardable.This common ward now gives full Roshan entrance vision as well as decent vision of the Northeast jungle pathways. This has always been a reliable ward to defend an offlaner in pub play, but it is too obvious to be truly effective against very aggressive high-level teams.Oh, the difference a few units can make. This small variation on the traditional ward above still gives rune vision, strong Roshan entrance vision (although a careful unit can sneak into Roshan by hugging the wall). However, for that tradeoff, jungle rotations are much more visible to the south and into the pathways on the Eastern side.This ward is too far from Roshan and the rune to be regularly counter-warded, but also provides no Roshan entrance vision. It does, however, see all the way to the ancients entrance and provide fantastic defensive vision for a Dire-side midlaner.This bush ward gives much better Roshan entrance vision, vision far enough into the Ancients to see if a hero is farming them, and even better Dire-side defensive vision (including eyes on the openings in the patch of woods just to the North where gankers sometimes hide). Still far enough from the rune to be somewhat safe--this is an amazing mid-game ward.This ward gives some vision to defend against rotations and also gives full vision of Roshan's entrance. It is also more difficult to counterward because it is on a raised platform.This has much more limited vision than most suggested wards (vision opens up if the tree to the West is cut down), but it does give defensive vision of both Roshan and the Ancients.The spawn box for the new ancient camp is easy enough to remember, and there are several options for warding this camp.This ward is hard to counter without either having both an observer and sentry on the eye OR walking directly into the Ancient camp to do it. Because the Ancients are now enclosed, it could be very dangerous for supports to walk into it alone (especially into vision), meaning this ward could be a strong way to block as a bait, forcing an opponent into a dead-end and engaging him.Just like the previous ward, this is hard to counter unless the high ground ward spot is utilized. While the vision provided is so bad it simply isn't worth an observer, this is an excellent place to hide a sentry ward.By far the best vision for an observer ward which blocks the ancient camp. Not only does this ward view into the camp itself, but also sees a chunk of the secret shop and platform above the river......and the vision opened up by removing the marker tree is amazing. Complete view of the secret shop, plus half of the path leading to Dire's bottom tier 2 tower. The only problem is that removing this tree may signal savvy opponents where the ward is.Of course, you could also block the camp somewhere else and knock down that tree just for fun, then watch as your opponents try to counterward an eye that isn't there.This ward will only block if the top tree in this line is eliminated and replaced with a ward. The vision is decent, stretching almost all the way to the Dire bottom tier 2 and giving unobscured vision of the paths leading to the secret shop; more importantly, a sentry placed on the high-ground ward platform will not detect this ward.Possibly the most difficult ward to remove, this observer gives good vision toward the secret shop and defends mid lane against rotations from the offlane. In addition, it provides a hint of vision to the river (more if more trees are eliminated). Place with care, though, because this wardwithin true sight range of a sentry placed on the high-ground ward spot.The changes made to the Southeast lane are quite widespread, leaving implications for both pro and pub dota equally open-ended. Professional players and commentators don't seem to to fully agree on the impact this will have on the early game and heroes' abilities to juke in this region, but many the map changes seem geared toward increasing the viability of early game tower-diving ganks. This may lead to this patch being a fan favorite, as few dota watchers would disagree with a surge of high-octane early game action!This ward gives radiant pushers tons of vision behind the tier 1 tower while still providing vision south of the river in case Dire reinforcements charge in from the Southwest. Vision is slightly expanded if the tree blocking the hidden passage is cut down.This ward doesn't provide good vision into the East and West side of the lane, which could now host any number of enemies waiting to pounce.This new push ward, however, is an alternative to the high ground ward. Not only does it provide enough vision behind the tier 1 to see some rotations, but it also gives river vision and vision of the pathways next to the tier 1. Inferior to platform vision in most ways, but definitely has its uses.The advantages to this ward should be obvious--absolutely no pathway goes untouched, giving a Dire-side offlaner complete defensive vision. However, in many cases theward would provide complimentary vision while still giving rune vision and some vision of Roshan. Either way, both locations are equally easily counterwarded.Testing has given the approximate new travel distances between towers and the Roshan pit:Tier 1 3600 units (from about 2000)Tier 2 4800 units (from about 3600)Tier 1 3700 units (from about 3600)Tier 2 4800 units (from about 3600)* both of these distances are reduced if blink or force staff is availableTier 1 4800 units (from about 5200)Tier 2 7200 units (from about 7200)Tier 1 5600 units (from about 6800)Tier 2 6000 units (from about 8000)Obviously there is a lot to be said about this new map, the impacts it can have on choke point fights, control, pacing, farming, and rotations. And there will be huge impacts, changes to XP, runes, heroes, and items aside. Keep checking in here at joinDOTA as we continue to investigate the changes.Can't get enough 6.82? Read my 10 things you NEED to know This article was written byGorgon the Wonder Cow, joinDOTA's Elder writer.Gorgon is a freelance shoutcaster and analyst for joinDOTA, CEVO, and anywhere a fast tongue with top insight is required. He is also the resident "new patch" guy. Follow his twitter for updates on his line-by-line analysis with Nahaz and That Phage Guy (coming soon).Location: Ann Arbor, MIFollow him on @GoTCoWDotA.