Valve’s Latest Dota 2 Patch Is Chock Full Of Nerfs

It’s been more than a month since TI6, Dota 2’s largest tournament of the year. After a number of team roster shake-ups and the conclusion of the MDL Autumn 2016 tournament in China this weekend, which saw the newly formed Evil Geniuses beat Team Newbee 3-1, Valve decided it was time to drop the latest update to the game’s meta with patch 6.88e.

Coming the back of 6.88c and 6.88d, both of which saw nerfs to a number of heroes including Faceless Void and Shadow Demon, Icefrog, the mastermind behind Dota 2’s design tweaks, saw fit to prune the wings of even more. While some changes are very minor (Timbersaw’s base strength is now reduced by 1), others are more dramatic. For instance, Keeper of the Light’s Mana Leak ability had its mana cost doubled from 75 to 150, making it harder for him to push opponents out of lane during the game’s early phase.

Other changes include Faceless Void’s Time Dilation now only affecting the cool down of abilities that have already been used, as well as illusion damage being reduced by 30 per cent instead of only 25 per cent. Counter Helix damage was also slightly reduced, which will certainly contribute to me feeding even more than I already do in pub games. More changes are certainly on the way with the game’s 6.89 patch due out prior to the next Major.

Here’s the full list of changes:

• 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 armour 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