Patch notes here: http://www.dota2.com/684/

I've just finished watching the Dota Cinema three and ahalf hour overview of the new patch - currently in the test client and coming to Dota 2 soon.

The patch includes some major changes; not least:

• 8 totally new items for purchase, with other items significantly changed and new upgrade paths available
• Many (~80) heroes have been changed in some way with a few major nerfs and a few huge buffs
• New concepts, like "using" items to provide permanent changes on your, or other heroes
• "Rubber banding" comeback mechanic reduction, with re-distributions of kill gold.
• More equal gold share to team members involved in a hero kill
• Focus moved towards hero kills and away from farming, by providing less gold for creep kills
• Huge changes to "Mud Golem" creeps
• General increases in abilities to buff and de-buff heroes
• Spell casters and INtelligence heroes generally come off well in the patch

I can't quite believe the extent of this update. It will surely change the game (and in particular the late game); not least in having to think about the 8 new item effects.

I'm slightly worried about one of my favorite heroes - Alchemist - who now can "cast Aghanim's Scepter to directly grant any allied hero all Aghanim's Scepter bonuses as a buff. The scepter is consumed in the process." Will this mean he becomes the Aghs farming slave for the team?

I'm also disappointed by some big buffs to Techies, but some of the other stuff (like the ability to buy single observer wards and being able to store Observer and Sentry wards in one slot) seem like great improvements to me.

These changes have come out just in time for the pro teams to get to grips with them in time for the TI5 qualifiers. Is anyone else concerned by anything they've read in the patch notes? What is the general feeling towards this update? Does it seem too overwhelming?

@diz: based on what you've shared, sounds like a response to Heroes of the Storm.

I've been playing that a bit lately, and many of these concepts are core to that game's experience

I will say I think some of this is a mistake. Part of what makes DOTA great vs other MOBAs is that there are multiple ways to be good at the game. You could be a pusher, you could be jungler or farmer, you could dominate laning phase farm, you could be a ganker, or you could just dominate in team fights etc. This to me sounds like it is turning it into a more one dimensional game focused on Hero kills.

Not a DotA player in the least but I gotta agree with the gentleman above and say that yeah, it looks a shift toward the HotS model.

I only read the patch notes last night and haven't played on the test client yet, but I don't get that impression. I think it's less that and more just trying to push it back towards the middle where multiple strategies are actually viable. 6.83 was full-on rat doto in 90% of the games and was probably one of the least-liked patches by both pubs and pros. The rubberband reduction, creep gold reduction, and slight increase in hero kill gold all seem to be to dissuade teams from farming for the first 50+ minutes of the game without even trying to break high ground (which was partially because rubberband made it too dangerous to try too early). A few other changes (Sillybear Aghs, Furion Aghs, increased rax bounty, decreased tower armor) seem made to try to help bring push strats back too, because push strat was literal suicide last patch due to the rubberband (and the glyph change from a bit before that).

Most of the new items just seem like they were throwing shit at a wall. I'll be surprised if Alch Aghs, Centaur Aghs, and Lotus Orb aren't changed sooner rather than later. I also don't really think Troll/Sniper/Earth Spirit were nerfed hard enough to not still be picked every game, but I suppose time will tell on that one.

That's good to hear, sounds like I really need to read this for myself to really get a grasp on what's changing.

The way you describe it, it sounds a bit all over the place.

Will they be making it fun?

Ahahahahahahahahahahhaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Hahahahaha.

Hah.

Whew. Oh, me.

I think one aim of the patch was to decrease match time (I recently saw a Starladder game (C9 vs SFZ) that lasted 3 hours 20 minutes (and they had to stop the clock and pause for a comfort break half way too!). There is a decrease to tower armour and increasing creep spawn numbers that will help with base pushes.

This patch also aims to blur the positions 1 to 5 slightly, so that supports get more of a look-in during a game. I think the nerfs to Troll, Jug and Sniper (and also to the popular items they usually get) are strong enough so that they will avoid being auto picked or banned every game too and more heroes are potentially viable since there are more ways to play them. Although I don't doubt that some hero and item combos will become the new goto O/P picks.

The skill cap is higher since there are more end-game decisions to make, seeing as most of the new items are late-game items.

I heard from Sunsfan in the patch discussion videos that some of the ideas in this patch were originally in HoN.

The reduction in creep gold does not mean an end to farming. Perhaps some players might place a higher priority on stacking to make up for the percentage decrease in gold from creeps. But creeps will still need to be farmed regardless. To that end, I would disagree about Dota becoming more like HotS. Conversely, I think it has just become even more complex.

But I think the most important change will be to the spectacle of pro games, which I think will have a more action-oriented slant to them. Although I do think there was possibly too much change and novelty in this patch and remember previous patches as not going anywhere near as far as this one has.

I haven't played Dota 2 in about a year and hearing this makes me want to stay even farther away. So much has changed it would be like playing a new game all over again!

It's nuts! It's exciting and kind of scary! That's just so much change. Like, once we get into the patch it will still be Dota but my goodness look at all those new items.

That said, by The International teams will have figured this patch out and people will be crying out for a new patch immediately afterwards. The cycle will continue.

I watched Purge's overview and, honestly, I love DOTA, but I feel overwhelmed. Maybe this is how new players to the game feel, but I just don't have a good handle at all on how all of the new items and abilities interact with each other. I was *just* getting to a point where I felt like I could intuit my item builds and play a game on the fly without a guide. But now, I have no idea and it feels like the game is punishing me, haha. It's like "oh, yeah, so, you figured out how all of the crazy ass mechanics work? How about a bunch of new crap that is completely crazy that you don't understand? Huh?".

Don't get me wrong, the game has to evolve and this makes it a lot more interesting at the pro levels. But it also makes the game a lot more difficult, even for people like me who enjoy it and don't mind how crazy it is.

Additionally, I am really not a huge fan of item abilities. I am mediocre at DOTA at the best of times, but the two things I am *horrible* at are microing and using item abilities properly. Anyway, interested to see the new builds, and I guess I'll go back to being a noob for a while, haha.