Instead of doing every single thing, I’m only going to be doing big things. For example Crystal Maiden lost 3 intelligence, but because this is so simple to understand the effects of, there’s no reason explaining her change, because you should already be able to work out 100% of that. There were a lot of good changes, but some of them just simply don’t need to be talked about because they are too simple to understand. The only funny thing about CM is that her base damage is even worse now.

Gameplay is first, then Hero Changes, Then Items.

You now lose one gold per second if you haven’t picked a hero after the selection timer runs out in All Pick

The AP changes were long over-due, and this was the best way to do it. The worst way would be to random picks, this just fucks up team compositions and lanes. Gold penalty makes it disadvantageous to wait, but not to the point where your team is screwed over. It’s the fairest way for all to do it.

Roshan

Roshan no longer stops upgrading his hp/damage/armor at 45 minutes

Roshan upgrade rate increased by 20%

Roshan bounty rescaled from 105-600 to 150-400

You should be able to tell why this occurred. The important thing is that is now upgrades every 4 minutes, so your key rosh timings are before 8/12/16 minutes. This primarily matters to heroes who solo rosh. Such as Ursa, or those much rarer Engima/Invoker/etc ways. I think teams will always be able to bring rosh down, it will just take longer.

Alch, AM, AA, Axe and Batrider are very straight forward. Alch should stun himself more now too.

Beastmaster Call of the Wild Hawk duration reduced from 60/70/80/80 to 60 Call of the Wild Boar duration reduced from 70/80/90 to 60 Call of the Wild no longer destroys previous summons on cast

Beasts have a 40 second cool-down at all levels. This allows beastmaster to always have vision over something. For example, he could have a hawk over Rosh, and every 50 seconds he summons a new hawk, and sends it there.Also, this would make rune controlling against a good Beastmaster an even bigger pain.

He can also have 20 seconds where he has two bores, which asks the question: “Do Bore Slows Stack?“. As the update hasn’t been deployed yet, only announced, I can’t test. But it’s a question that never really mattered before, but now 2 bores alive can be common place. I feel that it shouldn’t stack, but it’s possible that its the first oversight of the version.

Brew, Bristle, Brood and Bloodseeker are very straight forward. Brood is less annoying, and Brew is much more viable now.

Centaur Warrunner

Stampede cooldown reduced from 120/90/60 to 90/75/60

The problem here is that CW has a 54% winrate in 6.79 pubs, but is rarely picked in pros. And the cooldown reduction is an huge buff to his early game. I feel like the buff is needed, but perhaps he should have been re-balanced by also nerfing the damage on Hoof Stomp.

Clockwerk, CM, DS, Dazzle, DP and DK are very straight forward. DP’s winrate should drop, While Dazzles quite High Pub WR should continue to rise.

Drow Ranger

Reworked Silence to a Knockback Waving Silence, scaling by distance.

First off, this doesn’t interrupt, so TPs won’t be canceled, but this is a nice change. I imagine that the intended usage, is to simply silence people who are attempting to turn off your ultimate by being near you. They get too close > you knock them away. 350 units at close range, going for a much smaller knockback further away. For reference, Force Staff is 600 units.

The intended usage is an example of something that people tend to overlook when reading change logs. Also Kudos for making a rather boring skill not only better, but making it synergise with the hero’s kit more.

Earth Spirit is a major change, but it is so well deserved I’m just going to relax and be happy. The important thing to note is that the Silence and the Stun has been swapped. AKA if you pull a rock through an enemy, they are now silenced, not stunned. He was basically just rebalanced and nerfed in so many ways.

Earthshaker, Enigma and Enchantres are straight forward. Shaker is starting to become a very very good support.

Faceless Void

Chronosphere cooldown reduced from 120/110/100 to 120/100/80 You now have 1000 movement speed and phase while you are in Chronosphere Timewalk manacost reduced from 120 to 90

The Classic Case of buff their strengths, ignore their weaknesses. The phase part should only go through units, not through terrain, but I could be wrong. The mana cost reduction should result in him farming slightly faster – so long as he has mana. Faceless Void really needs to kill at least 1 person in a Chronosphere, and this should allow him to do that with a higher frequency.

Huskar is straight forward, while Invokers is the best thing I’ve ever read. Forged spirits are heavily nerfed (thank fuck), but it’s now MUCH easier to combo EMP with another skill. If you euls someone, and then cast EMP, it will explode about .2 seconds after the tornado ends.

Jakiro Breath was re-balanced, but very similar over-all. Jugg, Kotl, LC are all to the point

Leshrac Lightning was re-balanced, he’s a much better counter-pusher now. Lina and LDruid are simple.

Lion

Aghanim’s Scepter now causes Finger of Death to hit units within a 200 AoE of the primary target

We all know that this is going to be hilarious on the rare occasions that it does occur (5 man RP into a finger). And is the sort of change that people go nuts over, ignoring some of the more valid but less humorous/interesting changes.

Lycan

Wolves Fade Time decreased from 3 to 1.7

Level 3 Lycan Wolves now have Invisibility

Level 4 Lycan Wolves now have a passive ability that gives them 15 HP regen

Lycan and his amazing 54.5% 6.79 pub winrate is going to go up even more. I hate this change too. A good lycan just but-rapes supports with his wolves. It’s just often too much damage for a support to deal with early on, especially with their 80% magic resistance. I’m really not lycan this change.

Magnus and Medusa are straight forward.

Meepo Divided We Stand level requirement reduced from 4/11/18 to 3/10/17

Divided We Stand now passively reduces your revive timer by 10%/20%/30%

You could probably solo offlane a Meepo in a pub. Do a nice block, quickly sap 3 levels out before they can do much, and then you have a clone that you can work with and make everything so much easier. That might be unlikely, but it’s the way all Meepo players should be thinking, rather than doing the same-old, they should be exploiting the level 3 clone the best they can.

For example, a Level 3 clone could be well used sapping XP from a jungling LC, hide him at the back, run him around being a pest. You could also scout rune with clone for your mid. These are more team-oriented plays though, some players might just want to focus on themselves and their XP.

Morphling is slowly and slowly going back to TI2 morph.

NP, Necro, NStalker, Nyx, OM and Omni are simple. I can forsee Omni winning so much more now (Aura Stickness).

OD, QoP, PA, Riki, SD, SK, and Shaman are easy to understand. Scepter QoP is now a MUCH better first item.

Silencer, Skywrath, Slardar, Slark, and Sniper as well. Sniper’s range is now an amazing 950 when maxed. Sniper still cannot outrange towers with level 1 Aim.

Spirit Breaker, Storm, Sven, Tide and Timber are simple. Kraken Shell scaling is interesting, might be worth getting more levels now. Sven is VERY TANKY against physical damage now.

Tinker Added Aghanim’s Scepter: Doubles Laser cast range and Heat-Seeking missile count

That’s a 1100 laser range, and 4 missles. This just makes him an even more annoying counter pusher. I honestly think it just makes things more tedious and annoying, but whatever…..

Treant, Troll and Tusk are simple. Some really nice buffs all round though. Tusk is going to be so much better to play now.

The rest of the patch is fairly minimal for heroes. Familiars are now magic immune, Focus Fire doesn’t use all your mana, and Witch Doctor heal is actually really good now.

As far as items go, most of them are fairly minimal, with the attention seeking Iron Branch cost decrease means just fixes a couple of starting builds that were a few coins short.

Blink Dagger Blink no longer has a manacost (was 75)

I honestly think this is the biggest change of the entire patch. I think this is a Major Buff to all strength heroes (also Ursa). A lot of strength heroes often struggled with mana when they got blink. Slardar is an example of a hero who just improved through the fucking roof. Centaur as well, especially since he ults more now. You may even see it being picked up on carries like Naix and Wraith, which, 2/3 years ago, happened more than it does now.

I wonder if more people will skip Arcane Boots for a straight blink now. Its more viable, but puts you in a different position. I think this will become especially more commonplace on underfarmed supports in pro-games (Some were already doing this before).

Observer Ward

Can be targeted on allies to transfer one charge

Works with sentries as well. I think the best way now is that you can send 1 ward to the offlane, and 1 ward to your mid/safe. It should result in supports not having to run around the map at the start of the game placing wards. They can just split them up to the designated lanes, and I’m all for anything that makes it better to be a support.

Shadow Amulet

Fade delay improved from 1.8 to 1.5

Can now be used on allies (to make them invis, goes on CD)

IF is trying so hard to get this item to work. It seems like such a bizarre thing though. But sure, can’t wait for videos of MLG plays with it.

Teleport Scrolls

Stacking delay decreased from 3/5/6/7/8 to 3/5/5.5/6/6.5

Max targeting range increased from 525 to 575′

How often do you have 5 teleports to one tower? The 3/4th changes slightly, but I’m skeptical the 5th one will happen very often.

Smoke and Necro also got some nerfs. Necro were well over-due, but all in all good changes for the items.

Bottle is just makes something people were already doing, easier to do.

Overall I’m happy with this patch, but disappointed with some lack of buffs. I think there are some heroes down the bottom of the pool that need more than what they received. I mean just look at how unhappy ember is!

I’m honestly going to call this the Patch of Slardar though. He’s a hero who has long been snubbed from the pro-scene, but with blink mana-cost, and increase to bash damage. He will be my favourite hero of the patch. Interesting to see how he goes in the pro-scene, but as far as pubs go, I think he’s now one of the best pub-stompers in the game. He’s been buffed patch after patch, and in 6.80, I won’t be surprised if his winrate ends up in the top 5. Wraith King, Lycan, Omni and Centaur will also be top tier for pubs.