Valve and IceFrog did promise not to interrupt Majors with new patch updates. But they didn’t say anything about Minors! So here we are, in the middle of GESC Thailand with a new patch that is bound to raise some eyebrows. Dota 2 Patch 7.15 was released earlier today. It was a mechanics patch where no heroes were touched but the mechanics of the games were altered with. And if you ask me, it’s these changes in mechanics that give me the goosebumps. But that’s just me. Let’s dive into the changes and how they will affect the game.

* Bounty Runes now spawn every 5 minutes

* Bounty Runes now grants gold to each player (40 + 3/min)

Whatttt? This change is going to hit all players with a jolt, and more so position 3 and position 4 heroes. If the offlane is going not so well, you can always turn to the bounty from a Bounty Rune every couple of minutes. Well, you could. Not anymore. This is further bolstering the 2-1-2 laning stage as the roaming is out of the question and putting the offlane hero alone is not the best of ideas. Although it could be done depending on the matchup. Nahaz has this to say:

What in the world — Nahaz (@NahazDota) May 10, 2018

It effectively also is the final nail in the coffin for roaming supports. The roaming support role has been nerfed for the past few patches now and even though Bounty Runes stopped giving experience, a roaming support could collect Bounty Runes and then get the Tome of Knowledge to hit level 6. This ends that line of thought. Moommeander said IceFrog was making the offlane too easy, adding shrines and neutral camps. I think IceFrog took it a bit too seriously and made it the tough lane it was before 6.86.

The bounties now will be:

0 min – 40 gold per rune for the entire team

5 mins – 55 gold per rune for the entire team

10 mins – 70 gold per rune for the entire team and this goes on.

An Alchemist will get thrice as much due to the Greevil’s Greed gold multiplier.

This not only will have an impact on the laning stage, it should slow down the game by a bit. Teams that are snowballing and have control of the map won’t get gold into their coffers every two minutes.

* Bounty Runes now fully fills bottles

* Bottles heal rate increased from 80/40 HP/MP to 100/50



Some love towards the bottel after having nerfed it a few patches ago.

bottles back baby — Ioannis Loucas (@Foggeddota) May 10, 2018

* Melee Creeps base gold bounty reduced by 2

* Range Creeps base gold bounty reduced by 1

* Range Creeps gold bounty increase per upgrade changed from 1 to 3 (With these changes, the total gold difference on the map at 40 minutes is 2052 less gold)

* Melee Barracks team bounty reduced from 225 to 175

* Ground Courier bounty reduced from 175 to 125 (Flying Courier is still 175)

Again, changes that will slow down the game by giving lesser gold as compared to earlier patches. Bounty Hunters sniping couriers before 3 minutes will have less of a reward now.

* Tower denies now remove all gold instead of just half (previously it gave 50/60/70/80 for tier 1/2/3/4 denies)

Another crazy change! You can literally deny the opposition any satisfaction of having taken down a tower. It will surely open up the map for them but no gold whatsoever. That is big!

* Neutral camp stack bounty increased from 20% to 25%

* Ancient HP regen increased from 8 to 12

IceFrog is urging supports to stack for his carries. Why do my supports still not do it? ☹

25% is quite a bit of bounty. Stacking throughout the jungle will get the support quite a bit of bounty.

* Observer Wards restock cooldown reduced from 150 to 135

* Observer Wards cost reduced from 80 to 75

This will have more of an impact in professional games. The ward cost is not a big deal, but the cooldown is. Over the length of a long game, the decrease in cooldown will mean the ability to buy a lot more wards (given that you have the gold!).

* Roshan Slam damage growth increased from 8 per minute to 10

* Roshan base damage increased from 65 to 75

* Roshan base health increased from 5500 to 6000

I’ve said this a lot of times and I’ll say it again. It’s all working towards longer games. Killing Roshan, especially the first Roshan, is going to be immensely difficult. Let’s say the first Roshan is taken somewhere around the 15 minute mark. He will have:

-40 more damage than before

-500 more HP than before

Cannot take an easy early Rosh and get the advantage is fights anymore! I hope this propels Ursa ahead as he still has very strong Rosh taking potential (although long games are not good for him).

* Captains Mode round time increased from 30 to 35

* Captains Mode second ban phase order changed from 2nd/1st/2nd/1st to 1st/2nd/1st/2nd

To be completely honest, I am not sure how much this will impact drafting. It sort of gives the team picking second a better look at the opposition bans and an idea of what they are planning. Teams tend to go for first pick when they win the toss. Maybe this will make them pick Radiant/Dire instead of first or second pick. Like I said, I can’t be totally sure.

They are changes that will have big impacts. Noxville and Graeth were surely not happy the patch was brought in in the middle of a Minor tournament.

Imagine you had a Dota 2 match tomorrow which you desperately needed to win to get a direct invite to TI and the game was fundamentally changed. — Ben Steenhuisen (@followNoxville) May 10, 2018

oh you're trying to qualify for the world cup tomorrow? well let me tell you now that offsides no longer exist, you have to score goals by hitting jeremy the pigeon with your water bottle and your bench has to be 80% pineapples – c u in 2 weeks! :3 — Gareth Bateson (@GarethCasts) May 10, 2018

Some interesting mechanics changes coming in play. They will be on display tonight when GESC Thailand continues. This same bunch of mechanics will go into the next Major, which is the MDL Changsha Major starting on the 14th of May. I will have to do some further analysis on game timings just to see home much the game has really been affected. Yesterday EternalEnvy played Spectre against Evil Geniuses and Fnatic won that game. More of that to come with the longer games!

What do you think biweekly patch system? The system is good and better than the earlier one

The old system of a patch every 6 months was better

Something in between the old and new system should be taken up (like one patch in a month)

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