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1) Which updates in "general" do you like and why?

[A]kke, Alliance - I think the changes to the jungle made it a bit more interesting, I will have lots of fun trying new routes and see how "valid" the new jungle is. I also like that they made it easier for the supports with the 0.8 gpm instead of 0.6 and also that you get 50 gold per ward. It was a needed change.

Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz - The changes on the day/night cycle and the new Roshan timing are my favorites, because they'll change the whole landscape and general timings of Dota. The game will continue to be fresh and lots of new stuff are going to be discovered and experimented with. The creeps meeting closer to the offlaner's tower will also cause a lot of changes and I love it, the more complex and multifaceted the game is, the better.

WinteR, Orange e-Sports - I like changes to the neutrals , as it would encourage more laning and more fighting early on. Laning supports will be preferred over jungle supports, I love the changes to invoker and the courier /bottle prize etc. Invoker, Beastmaster, and NS can be more effective mid lane heroes now, they won't get bullied too hard by other heroes. When tempo controllers can have a better early game, I feel the game pace can be more aggresive and faster. This patch is great for LGD.CN's play style - because off laners can get levels and farm more easily now , so if you run two tempo controllers like LGD.CN, it could be very effective.

Aui_2000, Speed Gaming - My initial reaction to the patch was pretty negative because I’m terrible with change, but I’ve come to enjoy a lot of the changes. The thing I like the most about the patch is how a lot of heroes were only slightly tweaked to either tone down or bring up their competitive viability. The creep equilibrium as well as pull camp changes were the changes that I was the most hesitant about, but I think that they might actually freshen up a lot of the game. I do however think that the Alchemist and Spirit Breaker nerfs were a bit overboard and I’m actually scared about the Necronomicon buff. Also the new queue sound freaked the crap out of me while I was writing this.

2) What hero and item updates do you personally like and why?

[A]kke, Alliance - I liked the nerf to Treant, it just felt like it was too strong and mostly boring last patch. Now I think he still is valid but depends a lot on the lineup. Venomancer is also one of my favorite heroes so I liked the buff to him with the wards and also the buff to Undying's Decay.

Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz - I like Invoker's buff. It might be enough to bring him back to the competitive scene (just imagine, Invoker can now have Forge Spirit to have some rune control while having Sunstrike or Cold Snap in the very early laning stage). A hero like Invoker is too good to be this absent from the scene. In terms of items, Necronomicon is back. Luna is also excellent with this new cycle of day/night and Nightstalker's buff.

WinteR, Orange e-Sports - My favourite item update is Blink Dagger being usable on Pudge, not to mention the various nerf on popular items such as BKB.

Aui_2000, Speed Gaming - First and foremost, Rod of Atos is now even better which is good. I also enjoy the change to Maelstrom and Mjollnir because I think that those two items are often overlooked. I haven’t fully tested the new Armlet change, but conceptually it seems quite solid. As aforementioned, I’m actually quite terrified about the Necronomicon change. Although something definitely had to be done about the Helm of the Dominator counter, I really don’t want to see the game devolve into Necronomicon Minion spam.



Heroes wise, I’m excited to see heroes like Witch Doctor and Dazzle get buffed because some of their spells are just so cool and I want to see some more mlg 360 no scope wubwubwub videos. I enjoy the fact that Treant and Outworld Devourer got nerfed because I sort of hated how they forced the game into a laning phase dependant Dota. I’m a bit scared about Lich though; the hero seems insanely powerful because of how important early exp has become (there seems to be a lot of early engagements surrounding the middle lane).

3) Which heroes will we see a lot more of, and which less?

[A]kke, Alliance - More Shadow Priest, Venomancer, Undying, Earthshaker, Invoker, and Lich. At least it's heroes I see more viable with this patch.

Less Treant and Io. Treant will still be viable but less picked and same with Io. The 100% slow instead of the stun makes it harder to play it against blink heroes and such.

Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz - It's early to say which heroes we are going to see more or less, but teams will definitely enter a period where they'll try a lot of new offlaners/supports/dual lanes. Earthshaker might become as popular as in WC3 DotA. Lycan might also feature a return. Batrider will definitely lose some of his popularity. And fnatic will pick Meepo more frequently for n0tail.

WinteR, Orange e-Sports - Heroes that can scout Roshan easily like Invoker with Sun Strike, Clockwerk with Rocket Flare, and Templar Assasin with Psionic Trap will be very good.

4) What are your thoughts on the Roshan timer change? How will it affect team's strategies?

[A]kke, Alliance - It will just make it more difficult for the team that wants to kill Roshan, thereby helping the team that is behind. It's still better for Dire with the Roshan since they can check it more easily and will make it even harder for Radiant to keep on checking if it has spawned for 3 minutes, so I'm not sure how it will turn out. Heroes that have scouting abilities will be more important like Templar Assassin, Clockwerk, Furion, Venomancer and such.

Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz - It adds more chaos to the game and makes heroes with vision advantage (Beastmaster, Visage, Vengeful Spirit, Clockwork) stronger because they can scout Roshan's pit. In the current version, the game will suffer a big transformation once the first Roshan is killed. Once it happens, the whole game spins around his respawn timing. With the new one, this will naturally be affected.

WinteR, Orange e-Sports - The Roshan timer change is a great and one of the best changes in the patch. The Roshan respawning time adds yet another dynamic to the game as you always have to check instead of it constantly being tracked by both teams due to knowing the respawn time.

Aui_2000, Speed Gaming - I actually am not completely sure how I feel about the Roshan change. It’s going to be incredibly hard for a team that is behind to push out the waves properly and be able to contest Roshan when they don’t even know when he spawns. I really don’t want to see a game decided because Dire took one Rax, has something like a Furion, and the Radiant team can’t properly scout Roshan so they just lose. It seems like vision via spells like Beastmaster Hawk or Clockwerk Missile or via items like Helm of the Dominator have become very important for Roshan control.

5) We are seeing a big change in the jungle, including lower exp from neutral camps, shared exp, and a pull camp change. How will this change the metagame?

[A]kke, Alliance - I think the shared experience from the neutral camps will mostly only affect the aggressive trilane vs safe trilane since in the 3 vs 1 situation the supports will still be able to zone out the offlaner. It will be more balanced and easier for the team that goes aggressive now since they can now share the exp with the team that pulls, which I think is good. It's not gonna be decided on how many pulls the safelane team will get of but rather on good execution and coordination.

Regarding the jungle change I actually think it's not as much of a nerf but rather making it easier and better to jungle. You will have better rotation with the small camp being switched out for a medium one but since I haven't tried it yet I'm not sure. Will know more after I try the patch but it doesn't feel like it would be worse to play jungle heroes now or anything like that.

Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz - In some cases, it'll be easier to contest the pull from a safe lane. This means it'll be easier to go with aggressive lanes.

WinteR, Orange e-Sports - This change will result in laning supports rather than sticking them in the jungle or exclusively in pulling situations. 2-1-2 lanes will be more rewarding due to the experience nerf.

Jungling heroes will create much more passive games due to taking a longer time to farm necessary items and levels before they become active.

Aui_2000, Speed Gaming - I don’t think that the jungle change has as big of an effect as people think. Junglers will now use 2 hard camps and a medium camp instead of 2 hard camps and a small camp which helps to nullify the exp difference. The gold farmed by the jungler is actually higher than the previous patch--especially with the extra 25 gold/minute passive gold. The small camp pull is actually better at denying your own creeps than the old medium camp pull and on Radiant uncontested pulling should yield similar amount of exp because you can triple pull easier.

6) Every role (1-5, carry to support) has been impacted by this patch. Which roles suffered the most, which roles have gained?

[A]kke, Alliance - In my opinion one of the biggest changes is the raise of the gold per minute and the gold award for killing the opponents wards. Most games the supports lack gold, so by getting a more stable income you will get your core items easier. It won't affect the other roles, maybe a bit for the offlaner, but the carry and midplayer will still get the majority of their gold from creeps so it's a really good change for the 4-5 roles, I love it!

As mentioned before, I don't think jungle has been impacted at all, maybe even buffed. Also that the wards last longer means that the support players will have more gold over for other stuff, and that change also makes "dewarding" more important.

Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz - The offlaners will have more experience and the supports will have more gold. This means they'll be able to hunt the enemy carry earlier and more effectively.

WinteR, Orange e-Sports - I think support heroes were buffed due to tranquils being so good on them now. It used to be so good on carries as well because you can disassemble it later on, but now you are stuck with it and you have to sell them in order to purchase different boots later in the game (a big investment for the carry).

I also believe players like icex3 and Mushi will become even stronger in the new patch as it is more difficult to bottlecrow. Winning in lane comes down to skill, and I believe both players are the best solo players in the world. The new patch will give their team a significant edge against their opponents.

Lastly, The buyback change will make a lot of situations different from before. I personally don't really like that particular change as it takes away from the fun of buying back.

Aui_2000, Speed Gaming - I think that the game has become a lot harder for carry heroes and possibly easier for offlaner heroes. This is because it’s really hard to guarantee your safelane completely uncontested farm and on the same note, the offlaner can usually always get a few levels early on. The support pool has also broadened which is quite nice, and the ability to dual lane aggressively further expands support options.

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About KiLLiN's Korner

KiLLiN's Korner is a GosuGamers.net series that focuses on popular topics and events in e-Sports. KiLLiN asks professional gamers and e-Sports personalities what their thoughts are on the subject. To receive updates on the feature follow @GosuGamers and @KiLLiNDota2