Valve brings the 6.88e patch to Dota 2, and MOBA fans will have to git gud quickly, as the new game meta announces a long series of nerfs.
Insiders from the gaming company note that Icefrog, the artisan of Dota 2's design tweaks, decided to make some characters more balanced by trimming their (sometimes) op abilities. Some changes are insignificant, such as the base strength of Timbersaw that got dialed down by 1, but some are earthshaking.
One example is the Mana Leak ability on Keeper of the Light, which doubled its cost to 150 mana. This will make aggressive pushing in lane harder for the champion.
Until the next Major update — 6.89 patch — rolls out, take note of the current nerfs and adjust your playstyle accordingly.
You may check out the complete list of modifications (read: mainly nerfs), below:
Dragon Lance strength cut down to 13 (previously 14)
Infused Raindrop cooldown bumped to six (previously four)
Illusions have less attack damage against buildings, as the reduction was upped to 30 percent (previously 25 percent)
Cooldown of Diffusal Blade doubled, from two seconds to four seconds
Base armor of Outworld Devourer trimmed by 1.5
The initial damage of Shadow Poison sliced from 50 to 26/34/42/50
Cooldown of Flamebreak expanded to 17 seconds (previously 14 seconds)
Base damage for Drow reduced by four
The damage of Torrent was trimmed to 75/150/225/300 (previously 120/180/240/300)
Channeling time for Echo Stomp upped from 1.2 to 1.3
Oracle base damage cut down by six
Intelligence gain for Morphling sliced to 1.1 (previously 1.5)
Starstorm Scepter cooldown went from eight to nine
Time Dilation currently affects cool down abilities, instead of tampering with abilities cast afterwards
Time Dilation slow per frozen ability expanded from eight percent to 10 percent
Double gold and XP bounty on Tempest buffed from 140 to 160
Base damage of Juggernaut trimmed by two
Damage from Counter Helix nerfed to 75/110/145/180 (initially 90/120/150/180)
Cast point for Repel modified from 0.5 to 0.35
Duration of Repel sliced to 4/6/8/10 (previously 6/8/10/12)
Relocate delay modified to 2.7/2.35/2 (initially 2.5/2.25/2)
The bonus regen threshold for Inner Vitality cut to 35 percent (from 40 percent)
Stifling Dagger cast range taken down to 825/950/1075/1200 (formerly 1200)
Slow from Smokescreen trimmed to 19/21/23/25 percent (previously 25 percent)
Track mana cost bumped to 65 (from 50)
Mana Leak mana cost bumped to 150 (previously 75)
Expanded Illuminate radius to 375, after initially 350
Distance of Blinding Light knockback modified by 125, getting to 525
Movement speed of Sand King sliced by five
Base strength of Timbersaw cut by one
Gamers who are more into spectating and nitpicking competitive games can always head to Twitch, which published its most viewed games list for 2015.
Dota 2 is one of them, alongside rival League of Legends.
