The Nerf
Once again, Icefrog nerfed the popular heroes to change the meta:
Core: Gyrocopter, Huskar, Phantom Lancer, Bloodseeker
Mid: Leshrac, Lina, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Viper
Offlaner: Tusk, Dark Seer
Support: Bounty Hunter, Earthshaker, Winter Wyvern
Almost no hero is nerfed, unless it is popular in the current meta. However, there is one hero: Viper.
Now Viper’s Corrosive Skin no longer pierce magic immunity, possibly shifting his role to Offlaner. (Good survival, good last hit, good harass, need exp, need quick ulti)
The Balanced
No change for the following heroes:
Core: Faceless Void, Meepo, Slark, Windranger
Mid: Ember Spirit, Shadow Fiend, Templar Assassin, Zeus
Offlaner: Axe, Beastmaster, Broodmother, Clockwerk
Support: Io, Rubick
The classic mid hero, Shadow Fiend, is not changed, seems that he reached the optimal point of balancing after proven itself in the current meta.
Also some of the “unique” heroes such as Broodmother, Clockwerk, Rubick, Io, Zues, and Meepo. They each have a unique playstyle, making them the constant variables in the current meta.
The Offlaner
The Offlaner of the current meta now have more impact towards winning the game. Most of the powerful Offlaners are getting buffed instead of nerf. Even Tusk and Dark Seer to be the only Offlaner being nerfed, yet, retaining his powerful impact nonetheless.
Most of the buff for Offlaners are meant to pull back these “obsolete” heroes, examples:
• Timbersaw’s Whirling Death, now more devastating against Strength hero (stacking effect on reducing stats with the lower cooldown).
• Elder Titan’s Ancestral Spirit >> better last hits.
• Sand King’s Caustic Finale >> harassing enemy melee lineup.
The most significant changes among Offlaners will be the Scepter upgrade for Batrider and Undying, now having more potential in late game situation.
Also, jungler & pusher is getting buffed, such as Nature Prophet, Lone Druid, Enchantress & Chen.
For the “Admiral Bulldog effect”, there is a small buff on Lycan & Death Prophet.
The Core
Most of the versatile core heroes (can be carry, offlane, mid or support), are getting significant buff, making them more ganking oriented. Examples:
• Slardar’s Sprint can phase
• Night Stalker has 8 times better base hp regen
• Vengeful Spirit has better movement & Agi
• Jakiro has better spells
• Pugna has better spells & movement
• Kunkka has better spells
• Legion Commander has better spells
• Alchemist’s Acid Spray deals more damage, plus better Bounty Rune gain.
• Lifestealer can Infest into Ancient Creep and help push
Hero such as Legion Commander, not only have good snowball effect, but a permanent gain upon each winning fight, similar to getting extra gold to invest into attack damage, making the hero a powerful core pick.
The Carry
Aftermath of TI5, some of the hard carry heroes are surfacing on the pro scene, such as Luna and Sven. So, Icefrog decided to give them a lift to speed up the shifting towards the new meta.
Also, hard carry from previous TI are returning as they are buff in ways that its more convenient to play these heroes. Example:
• Tiny, now have better Int growth, which he can now combo both of his spell with total 240 mana cost.
• Chaos Knight or any of his illusions procs a Chaos Strike will cause more physical damage, making it more reliable.
• Outworld Devourer now constantly cause mana loss along with magic damage.
• Phantom Assassin’s Stifling Dagger now behave similar to normal attack.
• Terrorblade with experimental changes.
A special mention on mechanic buff on Spectre’s Dispersion. Comparing it with the previous patch, now it reflects more damage when you have better damage reduction. (For example, when Huskar casts Life Break on Spectre with 100% magic resists, now Dispersion will cause the reflected damage to Huskar even when Spectre takes no damage, previously it reflects no damage). Plus, Spectre’s Desolate also gives better last hit.
The Supporter
The less-popular supporters, such as Bane, KotL, Lich, Ogre Magi, Warlock, etc, are getting greater buff than the popular ones.
Also a slight buff along with mechanic fixing for consistency, example:
• Necrophos’s Heartstopper Aura
• Witch Doctor’s Death Ward
• Venomancer’s Poison Nova
• Disruptor’s Thunder Strike
• Oracle’s spells
Significant changes would probably be:
• Ogre Magi using Bloodlust on Tower (better high ground defense)
• Necrophos’s Death Pulse have higher damage at early level (mana cost still same)
• Lich’s Sacrifice no longer share exp with enemy (better support)
On the other hand, , most of the popular supporters in the current meta are getting a small buff, such as Dazzle, Crystal Maiden, Witch Doctor, Visage, Ancient Apparition, even the Techies as well.
Techies is now becoming more inclined to the anti-map-hack strategy back in the old DotA 1. Making players to have more quantity count of land mine is forcing the player to play Techies in “spreading” its map control, rather than offering nuke power on laning. The mines bounty will also force Techies player to invest in controllable Remote Mine, its no longer risk free to recklessly drop Land Mine and Stasis Trap, or slow reaction in detonating Remote Mine before being destroyed.
The fake carry, such as Naga Siren and Abaddon, they are starting to shift into hard support role.
The Mid
Old popular heroes, such as Tinker and Invoker, they are getting some serious buff. The pro scene may need to take them into consideration when choosing their line-up.
Some unconventional mid heroes, such as Pudge and Medusa, may even becoming a replacement for the nerfed mid heroes in this patch.
Others
Heroes that receive no care nor grace from the almighty Icefrog:
• Puck, being outshined by other hero with nukes
• Weaver, having no ability to flash farm or team fight impact
• Morphling, slightly better but not enough
• Doom, should improve ultimate cast time
Conclusions
Making no change at all on the come-back mechanic, it can be assumed that the current meta will keep pushing the hard supports into making big play to impact team fights.
Offlaners will become more important from winning lane to dominate the whole game.
Carry and Mid will start to shift along some of the popular heroes in the past, adding into the mix of the current meta with small situational unorthodox Core picks.
More teamfight-oriented, better wombo-combo.
