A new patch for Dota 2 debuted over the weekend, following the conclusion of a tournament in Xiamen, China, and the latest balance adjustment for Dota 2 v6.88 delivers another round of nerfs for the game’s existing roster. But there’s still no word on Dota 2 v6.89, the update many assume will introduce the Monkey King; the first new addition to the Dota 2 roster since the popular MOBA made the transition from Warcraft 3 mod to standalone game.
It’s not often that we see new patches for Dota 2 materialize outside of normal business hours, given the chance for catastrophic failure that technically accompanies each new patch, but a small balance update for Valve’s beloved MOBA debuted on Sunday. The new patch emerged just hours after the conclusion of MDL Autumn 2016, which saw Newbee defeat Evil Geniuses, two games to none, in a Best of Three series that capped a three-day playoff event. And the changes included in this week’s Dota 2 update might end up generating more headlines than the MDL event, which included a total prize pool of $250K.
According to patch notes, Dota 2 v6.88e doesn’t include any bug fixes. Instead, this week’s update is the latest in a series of balance patches that will likely continue until the heat death of the Earth or (in a more apocalyptic scenario) Valve stops supporting Dota 2. More than a dozen heroes received adjustments this week, including Arc Warden, Axe, Faceless Void, Keeper of the Light, Outworld Devourer and Phantom Assassin. Most of the changes this week reduce the combat effectiveness of heroes that have been deemed too powerful, at one or more stages of the game, but we also saw changes to items available to the entire Dota 2 roster.
Here are all the changes introduced in Dota 2 v6.88e, via Valve:
- Dragon Lance strength reduced from 14 to 13
- Infused Raindrop cooldown increased from 4 to 6
- Illusions attack damage reduction against buildings increased from 25% to 30%
- Diffusal Blade cooldown increased from 2 to 4
- Outworld Devourer base armor reduced by 1.5
- Shadow Poison initial damage reduced from 50 to 26/34/42/50
- Flamebreak cooldown increased from 14 to 17
- Drow base damage reduced by 4
- Torrent damage reduced from 120/180/240/300 to 75/150/225/300
- Echo Stomp channel time increased from 1.2 to 1.3
- Oracle base damage reduced by 6
- Morphling intelligence gain reduced from 1.5 to 1.1
- Starstorm Scepter cooldown increased from 8 to 9
- Time Dilation now only freezes abilities that are on cooldown, rather than also affecting abilities cast afterwards
- Time Dilation slow per frozen ability increased from 8% to 10%
- Tempest Double gold and XP bounty increased from 140 to 160
- Juggernaut base damage reduced by 2
- Counter Helix damage reduced from 90/120/150/180 to 75/110/145/180
- Repel cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.35
- Repel duration reduced from 6/8/10/12 to 4/6/8/10
- Relocate delay increased from 2.5/2.25/2 to 2.7/2.35/2
- Inner Vitality bonus regeneration threshhold reduced from 40% to 35%
- Stifling Dagger cast range reduced from 1200 to 825/950/1075/1200
- Smokescreen slow reduced from 25% to 19/21/23/25%
- Track manacost increased from 50 to 65
- Mana Leak manacost increased from 75 to 150
- Illuminate radius increased from 350 to 375
- Blinding Light knockback distance increased from 400 to 525
- Sand King movement speed reduced by 5
- Timbersaw base strength reduced by 1
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