Valve has released patch 6.85 for Dota 2, ahead of the upcoming Fall Major tournament. After announcing the changes would be ‘minor balance tweaks’ until a bigger patch planned for after November’s Frankfurt showdown, it’s uncertain whether Dota's master of balance Icefrog is familiar with the word ‘minor’.
To name just a few of the changes, Siege Creeps are no longer buildings and are now targetable by spells (albeit with an 80% spell resistance). Gone are the days of supports being able to flash clear an entire wave and then spend the next four days auto-attacking a catapult.
Also blending the spell-immune buildings rule is Ogre Magi’s Bloodlust, which can now target towers to increase their fire rate and somehow cause a hunk of magical rock to grow in size. There are many other hero-specific changes too, the most interesting of which—as always—is the new Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade.
Batrider has been blessed with an upgraded Lasso ultimate when he purchases the 4200 gold item, which now chain lassos another enemy hero within 400 radius, while doing 100 damage per second. Old Bats hasn’t been seen much in the latest patches, compared to his almost 100% pick rate at TI3, so maybe we’ll see a resurgence of the grab ‘n’ run strats of yesteryear.
Other global effects of 6.85’s arrival include summoned units being immune to being purged, meaning Warlock’s Golems can’t be countered by a Diffusal Blade and neither can Necronomicon units. The in-game shop also appears to be having a sale, as a number of recipes and items have been reduced in price by up to 25%—in the case of Town Portal scrolls, which are down from 100 to just 75 gold. YES! 75 gold!
As an attempt to address the current HOT HEROES in the meta, Icefrog hasn’t done too much nerfing. Queen of Pain’s ultimate, Sonic Wave, has had a slight damage bump, and Tusk has 1 second less to hide away from spells in his snowball before he is forced to roll on a chosen target. But the real damage has been done to Leshrac—the jump distance and damage of Lightning Storm is reduced—and Techies.
The suicidal bombers’ mines no longer explode when they are destroyed by wary enemy heroes with truesight, who can now also chop them down with a Quelling Blade or Battle Fury for 10 gold a pop, just like wards. The proximity-activated Land Mines also cannot be stacked directly on top of one another for maximum damage, and their damage is down by a massive 50%. Good night, sweet goblins.
For all the minutiae of Dota 2’s changes, you can visit the blog page. We’ll have a more in-depth breakdown on the meta later in the week.
