Dota 6.78 Changelog Review

Finally the new patch is up, and what better way to celebrate it ( apart from playing I guess) than discussing it?

Just to be clear though I will only be discussing heroes that are already in Dota 2, not items, not new heroes, just the hero changes for Dota 2.

Now, lets begin.

Axe
- Counter Helix cooldown decreased from 0.65/0.6/0.55/0.5 to 0.55/0.5/0.45/0.4

A small number change for CH but in reality you could be spinning 25% more at lv 4, significantly making axe stronger in the mid game.

Ancient Apparition
- Ice Vortex cooldown decreased from 6 to 5
- Ice Blast base AoE increased from 225 to 275
- Added Aghanim's Scepter
Ice Blast duration increased from 8/9/10 to 17

The first two buffs arent that special, ice vortex is an okay skill so its hardly effective to lower its CD by a second, the ice blast buff is more significant,  particularly when you're using AA in short range engagements.

The biggest buff is having Aghanim on AA, it basically doubles the duration meaning anyone hit by ice blast cannot fight for a very long time or risk shattering, not only that but the no healing effect is huge. I can see AA picked more often now due to how useful he now is in base sieging, anyone hit by this cannot defend, and with only 45 second cooldown its very dangerous and very spammable.


Batrider
- Vision decreased from 1800/800 to 1400/800
- Flamebreak manacost increased from 80/100/120/140 to 140

Not a fan of batrider, so I quite enjoy any nerfs he receives, the flamebreak mana cost is quite a big change for him, particularly in the early game, the nerf to his sight range isnt much since he can just firefly and receive flying vision, still glad he got nerfed a little more.

  Beastmaster
- Greater Hawk invisibility fade time decreased from 5 to 4


This..... changes nothing really, nobody picks BM for his bird, it used to be much stronger with permanent invisibility but reducing its fade time by 1 second doesnt do that much for it. Nothing changes here.


Bloodseeker
- Strygwyr's Thirst now gives you bonus 3/4/5/6 armor when active
- Bloodrage dispels the target before applying its buff
- Rupture damage is now HP loss

Nice, very nice, BS now becomes a bit stronger while chasing, the bonus armor is there to help him tower-dive so its really quite useful, bloodrage now removes positive buffs, its like purge but without the slow, casting blood rage now on enemy heroes is viable even late game ( since you can remove things like bloodlust, empower).

Best buff of course goes to making magic immunity useless against rupture, from now on turning BKB wont save you from taking damage, this is beautiful and I just love it.


Bounty Hunter
- Track manacost from 70/60/50 to 50

Track had too much going for it before, extra gold, 20% movement speed bonus, vision on the hero and it reduced armor by 5, IF nerfed it by removing the armor reduction ( arguably the weakest part of the skill) which balanced track but made it feel a bit underpowered. Luckily this buff is very suitable, in a fight you're going to be throwing off 2-3 tracks and especially in early levels when your mana pool is very limited this is going to help BH a ton in throwing shurikens as well as tracks, mana management isnt the issue it used to be. 


Bristleback
- Quill Spray hit memory increased from 10 to 14 seconds

Hmm... does BB need a buff? thats the question here, regardless he is receiving one, this is more useful in the laning stage as it forces enemy heroes to stay out of lane for an extra few seconds, is it a big buff though? I dont think so.


Broodmother
- Incapacitating Bite miss chance from 10/20/30/40% to 30/40/50/60%
- Spawn Spiderlings unit count increased from 1/2/3/3 to 1/2/3/4

60% chance to miss...60%! how huge is that? in a 1 v 1 fight against almost all carries BM has a massive advantage now, of course IB also has other advantages going for it like more damage and reducing speed but this is huge, plus the biggest effect is that at lv 1 the miss chance is tripled.

Pushing is a little easier as well now, IF wants brood back in the meta game and he's taken a few good steps to make that happen.

Centaur Warchief
- Added to Captain's Mode

Okay...


Clinkz
- Strafe cooldown decreased from 60/50/40/30 to 45/40/35/30

Always felt that strafe had too long a cooldown at lv 1, this fixes that nicely.


Clockwerk Goblin
- Power Cogs no longer knock back magic immune units

This is more significant than it looks, clock had two spells that go through BKB now he only has one, making him a little bit weaker in the late game, to be honest though cogs should have never hurt magic immune heroes to begin with so this is a deserved nerf.


Crystal Maiden
- Brilliance Aura mana regen increased from 0.5/1/1.5/2 to 1/1.5/2/2.5
- Freezing Field explosion AoE increased from 215 to 230
- Aghanim's Freezing Field's attack speed reduction aura increased from -20 to -50

The numbers are nice but in reality, they wont do much as they affect CM's two least used skills. How often does she use her ulti anyways? not much and buffing it wont make it anymore devastating because its barely used anyways, the buff to her aura is better as it doubles its effect on level 1 which is quite wonderful but doesnt really address CM's issues. ( too slow, not enough damage, fragile).


Dark Seer
- Vacuum cooldown increased from 22 to 24

DS was THE premium offlane hero like 5 patches ago. Since then though he has received a lot of nerfs and to be honest he feels over-nerfed now to the point where nobody picks him, this is just another minor stab at the poor guy.


Dazzle
- Shadow Wave target count increased from 3/3/4/5 to 3/4/5/6
- Shallow Grave can now be cast on magic immune allies

Love both buffs, shadow wave usually gets maxed a bit later in the game but now players have a good reason to take it early instead, its an even stronger nuke than it used to be and you can heal 4 people right from level 2. Grave makes Dazzle much more viable as carries know that he can save them even when they use BKB ( well if the Dazzle actually cares about his carries).


Death Prophet
- Movement speed decreased from 285 to 280
- Silence AoE increased from 200/275/350/350 to 350
- Witchcraft move speed bonus increased from 4/8/12/16% to 5/10/15/20%

So you lose 5 ms but gain 4% bonus ms? I'll take that trade anyday. The silence buff is quite big at level 1 as her silence AOE almost doubles, not bad.


Disruptor
- Thunder Strike from 3 strikes over 4 seconds to 4 strikes over 6 seconds
- Thunder Strike damage per strike decreased from 50/75/100/125 to 40/60/80/100
- Thunder Strike AoE increased from 200 to 240
 
Seems like thunder strike got quite a bit of work, firstly its total damage has increased but not by much, 150 to 160 at level 1 and 375 to 400 at level 4 so its barely anything to write about, however the damage increase comes at a cost, 2 seconds more of regen for the enemy, one ring of health gives 5 hp regen a second, pretty much removing any effect the damage buff has, in reality you probably wont do any more damage with thunder strike, strikes will happen every 2 seconds  meaning they can use an urn,salve or bottle for these two seconds to regen.

The buff to AOE is more important, players have to keep a bigger distance now when hit by thunder strike.


  Doom Bringer
- Doom now disables Feast, Backtrack, Dispersion, Juxtapose, Bristleback and Blood Bath
- Aghanim's Scepter upgrade duration reworked
Aghanim's Doom duration doesn't count down while the target is within 550 range of Doombringer

I actually thought Doom disabled every passive before, but its good to know it does do that now, Doom is an even bigger pain now. And the sad part is? if he has Aghanim you wont be escaping, no passives, no skills, and no item works and whats more this big horny beast will be right behind you with his massive movement speed meaning if you're hit by Doom, you'd better pray your allies show up fast.

 In team fights Doomed players are forced to run away if they even want to get rid of it, if they stick around they are completely useless for the entire duration of the fight, it wont time out and allow you to be useful in the end, instead you'll be doomed for as long as you stick around.


Dragon Knight
- Corrosive Breath passive from Level 1 Elder Form now carries over to Level 2 (the DPS)

Its non-lethal damage which means it wont kill heroes but it makes DK a better tower pusher and team fighter, often players must decided if they want to keep their tower pushing ability or get the 100% splash damage for level 2 elder form, now you wont have to make that choice and get to keep both.


Drow Ranger
- Trueshot Aura increased from 14/18/22/26% to 16/20/24/28%

2% more damage is not much to write about, drow hits a little harder. Whats new here?


  Earthshaker
- Turn rate improved from 0.4 to 0.6
- Fissure range increased from 1200 to 1300
- Echo Slam now considers illusions as heroes
This affects Aghanim's Scepter upgrade as it does extra damage for each hero in the area.

Its hard to believe a hero with 3 stuns gets so little attention, but somehow it happens to ES, despite massive team fight potential nobody picks him, well now he is officially a counter to any illusion-generating hero ( Yes I'm looking at you PL).... assuming you can actually farm for Aghanim.


   Enchantress
- Aghanim's Scepter bonus attack range increased from 165 to 190

Just more reasons to get Aghanim on this girl, its only 25 more range but its good stuff, keeps her further away from the battle so she can deal damage.


Enigma
- Malefice scaling reworked

Old Malefice:
==============
Duration: 2/4/4/6 (1/2/2/3 ticks)
Damage: 40/40/65/65 (total dmg: 40/80/130/195)
Stun Duration: 1
New Malefice:
==============
Duration: 6 (3 ticks)
Damage: 25/40/55/70 (total dmg: 75/120/165/210)
Stun Duration: 0.25/0.5/0.75/1

This I like, its a decent damage buff at level 1 ( 40 to 75) but what I enjoy is the 3 procs at every level, while it actually stuns less now at level 1 and 2 and has the same stun length at level 4, the early level procs means that you cant TP away from enigma anymore just because he hasnt upgraded his Malefice.


Goblin Shredder
- Base Strength increased by 3
- Int growth increased from 1.8 to 2.4
- Chakram initial manacost rescaled from 125/150/175 to 75/125/175
- Chakram move speed increased from 800 to 900

 A little more life early game is nice, but the int gain is the bigger factor here, Shredder has very spammable spells and now he can afford to throw them out more liberally thanks to this, its a total of plus 15 int at level 25. Not only does he have more mana but his ulti even costs less early on, thank you IF.


Gyrocopter
- Flak Cannon cooldown increased from 20 to 30

One of the most picked carries gets a deserved nerf, its rather unfair to have flak cannon have such a huge radius and short cooldown, I personally think it should be nerfed a little more by reducing gyro's attack speed a little. Then he'll be balanced since all this does is make teams wait a few more seconds, he might use flak cannon less than before but it is no less devastating than it used to be.


Huskar
- Base Strength increased by 3
- Burning Spears DPS increased from 4/8/12/16 to 5/10/15/20
- Life Break HP cost increased from 35/30/25% to 40/35/30%
- Berserker's Blood Reworked
- Removed from Captain's Mode

  Old Berserker's Blood:
----------------------
Huskar feels each of his wounds and channels the pain, increasing attack speed and damage for each 7% missing health. First bonus starts at full health.

Attack Speed: 3/6/9/12 IAS per stack
Damage: 2/4/6/8 damage per stack


New Berserker's Blood:
----------------------
Huskar feels each of his wounds and channels the pain, increasing magic resistance and attack speed for each 7% missing health. First bonus starts at full health.

Magic Resistance: 4/5/6/7% magic resistance
Attack Speed: 8/12/16/20 per stack

A nice buff to his early HP and damage, small but good on a hero like Huskar who relies on being close to the fight even at early levels. Burning spears gets 25% more damage at all levels which could be a big deal, rather hard to tell but it does look good on paper. In return his ulti takes a bit of a hit but whats 5% more life lost?

 Berserker's Blood is the biggest change, Huskar is now much stronger against magic the lower HP he gets, by huge amounts really14 stacks is 98% magic resistence and 280 more attack speed, he may have lost damage from before but he more than makes up for it by hitting like a madman and being pretty much magic immune now. ( If you're a Lion and you see a Huskar coming your way, get ready to be raped)


Invoker
- Alacrity manacost decreased from 100 to 75
- Ghost Walk slow increased from 20/23/26/30/33/36/40 to 20/25/30/35/40/45/50
- Ghost Walk cooldown decreased from 60 to 35
- Tornado damage rescaled from 70+(Wex+Quas)*20 to 70+(2*Wex+Quas)*15

Minor buff to alacrity, nothing to see there but the changes to ghost walk are more significant, especially the cooldown reduction, it always had far too much to begin with so this is really nice.

Tornado  does 490 damage if both wex and quas are maxed out now and 130 if they are both level one, it used to do 350 if both orbs are maxed and 110 if they arent, big buff in numbers here.


Io
- Spirits no longer provide vision, except temporarily when they collide with an enemy hero
- Overcharge hp/mp cost increased from 3.5% to 4.5%

Now you can actually juke a Wisp, no more hiding in trees and having him see you regardless, this basically means you can TP away from him unless he hits you, good nerf. The nerf to overcharge is a bit more controversial to me but I'll reserve judgement for now. 


Juggernaut
- Omnislash no longer jumps on Tombestone Zombies

I never knew it hit zombies...
So you're not as affected by tombstone now, not much of a buff to jug really but then again he is quite balanced right now being neither too strong nor too weak.


Keeper of the Light
- Base Strength decreased by 2

Kotl has 38 less life now, thats roughly one hit in the early levels ( like 1-3) which isnt much but he will have to be more careful.


Kunkka
- Ghost Ship damage increased from 300/400/500 to 350/450/550
- X Marks The Spot manacost decreased from 80/90/100/110 to 80
- X Marks The Spot vision from 1000 flying to 400 ground vision

Landing ghost ship is hard, but even more worth it now, the buff to X marks the spot isnt much since most players max it way later in the game when mana isnt an issue. The nerf does nothing either.


Lich
- Chainfrost bounce count increased from 7 to 10

Ah Lich, one of my favourite heroes, lets be honest here though, landing a 7 hit chain frost is hard so its not much of a buff to add 3 more hits to it, what this does is make lich able to team wipe his enemies if he has any way of keeping them there for a few seconds ( RP, Black Hole and Chronosphere) get those and watch your enemies freeze. all of them.

In most situations though this just means that creeps wont be as annoying now, wasting 2-3 bounces on them used to be a big deal but with almost 50% more bounces you can afford to hit a few creeps now.


Lifestealer
- Open Wounds cast range decreased from 600 to 200/300/400/500

Lifestealer could charge ahead of his team, turn on rage so no one can stun him and slow one enemy with open wounds, he can still do that now...but not in the laning phase, what this nerf does is force you to max out open wounds early or risk never using it anymore, you cant chase with 200 cast range now, you have to get someone to set it up for you, this also means you cant max out rage early anymore, IF nerfed Lifestealers very creatively I must say.


Lina Inverse
- Attack range increased from 625 to 635

10 more range...uhh... yeah I'm sure this will make her top pick material now, who needs any other support hero when Lina can hit from a milimeter further away?
my best on this though is that Lina will have 650 attack range soon and IF is doing the buffs gradually so people dont think she's broken.



Lion
- Mana Drain break cast range improved by 100 (750/1100 -> 850/1200)
- Aghanim's Finger of Death CD decreased from 160/100/40 to 100/60/20

 Minor buff on break range, nice but nothing to write about. The Massive cooldown reduction on his ulti though is incredible, 20 seconds on lv 3 means you can use it twice a fight, thats right you'll do 1000 magic damage twice in one fight, if you can farm it of course.


Lone Druid
- Spirit Bear now has its HP drained by Armlet when active
- Spirit Bear bounty increased from 100 to 300

Its official now, armlet working on the bear was a bug and should have never happened, not much of a nerf there since you still have tons of item choices remaining for the bear, the bounty tripled though is big, losing your bear is almost as bad as dying as it gives enemies the same amount of gold. 


  Lycanthrope
- Armor increased by 1 (Shapeshift total armor is still the same as before)

Sometimes a hero gets a minor buff just so that people remember he still exists, this is one such buff.


Magnataur
- Reverse Polarity damaged decreased from 150/225/300 to 50/125/200

Big, big change, RP does too much and while I wont say this fixes that its a big change to it, when you compare RP to blackhole you'll find that they do the same thing, except one is channeling and one isnt, massively reducing the damage on RP is a good step towards fixing it, especially at level 1 as its weaker than his normal attack.  This also makes refresher a tad less useful on magnus ( 200 damage weaker)

Medusa
- Removed from Captain's Mode
- Stone Gaze Reworked

 Stone Gaze:
============
Any unit facing Medusa will have its attack, movement and turn rate reduced by 50% until the end of the spell. If you accumulate 2 seconds time (in total) facing Medusa, you will turn to stone.

Stoned units are disabled, have 100% magic resistance and take extra damage from physical attacks.

View Angle Spread: 85

Gaze Duration: 6 seconds.
Stone Duration: 3 seconds
Bonus Physical Damage: 30/40/50%

AOE: 1000
CD: 90
Manacost: 200

Note: Kills illusions instead of petrifying them


Well thats a big rework to her ulti, although in essence using it remains the same, keep them in your sight for as long as you can and they will be slowed, its a major buff to Medusa though since turning them to stone makes her do 50% more damage which is huge, the problem is the 100% magic disable, meaning this skill will become a bit like Song of the Siren from Naga, is you dont talk to your allies and they jump in, they might end up blowing all their spells on nothing.

Manacost is 200 at all levels but thats an acceptable price to pay.


  Meepo
- Innate magic resistance increased from 25% to 35%

Meepo on paper seems too strong, he already had 5 meepos with aghanim and now he naturally has more magic resistance than any other hero? still this just makes him more of a pubstar and nothing else I believe.


Mirana
- Elune's Arrow now deals up to 100 extra damage based on distance the arrow traveled
- Moonlight Shadow cooldown decreased from 160/140/120 to 140/120/100
- Starfall will choose a new target for the second star if the first died before impact
 
 Nice buffs, landing arrows will be even more rewarding ( I cant land an arrow though so this buff has no effect on me) her ulti has a lower CD on all levels which is nice, more escaping and allowing you to use it a bit more liberally, the buff to starfall means you will never will have to see starfall hit a corpse again, this is useful when you dive into a low life creep wave with a hero, since often your starfall ends up hitting a dead creep instead of the hero, POTM got buffed in every spell basically except leap.


Morphling
- Base attack time improved from 1.7 to 1.6

One of the superstars of the last International tournament, Morph dominated the scene heavily before he got major nerfs, this wont solve his problems.


Naga Siren
- Rip Tide cooldown rescaled from 19/16/13/10 to 10

Another superstar from the past, Rip tide actually used to have 10 second cd anyways, then it was made to 19 at level one, this basically allows you to spam it in early fights and doesnt do anything for naga late game.


  Necrolyte
- If a unit dies under Reaper's Scythe, it will be credited to Necrolyte
- Aghanim's Reaper's Scythe causes buyback to be disabled on heroes it kills for that death

Nice, very nice, Necro is a carry unlike what most people believe and sadly often times when playing Necro we save his ulti so we can get the kill, not anymore since we can use it for the stun and hope someone else picks him off, and they should since killing anyone with your ulti while you hold Aghanim means no buybacks for the enemy, this is devastating if you can pick off the enemy carry and means Necro will be seen in the competitive pool again.


Nerubian Assassin
- Mana Burn drain and damage decreased from 5x Int to 3.5/4/4.5/5x
- Mana Burn manacost rescaled from 130/120/110/100 to 100

I despise this hero, and what this change does is allow him to spam mana burn more early at the cost of it being slightly less effective... he's still a massive asshole.


Nightstalker
- Hunter in the Night attack speed rescaled from 30/45/60/75 to 45/55/65/75 (MS remains 20/25/30/35)

Minor damage increase at early levels basically since you'll be hitting more often, doesnt really add much to this hero to be honest.


Obsidian Destroyer
- Movement speed increased from 310 to 315

Minor buff, but this does make OD one of the more speedy heroes in the game which should help him chase and land one or two more hits.



Ogre Magi
- Ignite DPS increased from 26/32/38/44 to 26/34/42/50

Better scaling but sadly it doesnt affect ignite at level 1 which would help you lane a lot more, its a decent buff to its damage later on but I just wish it did 6 more damage at all levels and scaled the same.


Omniknight
- Added Aghanim's Scepter

Guardian Angel AoE becomes global and affects buildings (including regen)

Wow.... with aghanim any team can now hold Two glyphs, this will be incredible for base races. Whether its enough reason to pick omniknight though remains to be seen, its quite a difficult thing to farm aghanim on this guy as he needs so much items to begin with.


Pandaren Brewmaster
- Aghanim's Primal Split units now gain your current level of Drunken Brawler
- Fire Panda no longer upgrades damage with Aghanim's Scepter

It has roughly same damage with Drunken Brawler now

Pandas now scale into late game, woohoo, well with Drunken Brawler but still you can crit and evade now which is good news. I like this buff.


Phantom Assassin
- Blur level 4 evasion increased from 35% to 40%

Now Blur is even better than butterfly, sadly it doesnt change PA but its nice to know that almost half of all physical attacks wont hit you.



Phantom Lancer
- Spirit Lance, Dopplewalk, Juxtapose and Phantom Edge illusions damage dealt decreased from 25% to 20%

Not enough, sorry but while on paper he loses damage in reality this will barely touch him, PL has to get diffusal blade and thats where most of his damage and mana burn comes from. This doesnt change that at all, plus late game when you're being hit by 50 PL illusions, will you really feel this 5% nerf to them? I didnt think so.

A better nerf would be to make them receive more damage as they are remarkably tanky with heart.



Pudge
- Flesh Heap strength bonus increased from 0.9/1.2/1.5/1.8 to 1/1.5/2/2.5

Minor effect early levels, but quite a big one later on, this basically means you get 7 more strength for every 10 kills, thats not bad at all.


Pugna
- Nether Blast structure damage increased from 33% to 50%
- Decrepify can now target Tombstone

Its now much easier to calculate how much you need to last hit towers as well as making pugna a stronger tower pusher, allowing you to decrepify tombstone means we might see pugna/dirge together in teams since you can force teams to either ignore tombstone or waste their spells to bring it down ( assuming you can cast magic on a tombstone with decrepify on it, if not then its essentially invincible)


Razor
- Eye of the Storm duration increased from 20/25/30 to 30
- Eye of the Storm strike interval decreased from 0.75/0.65/0.55 to 0.7/0.6/0.5 (Aghanim's to 0.55/0.45/0.35)
- Unstable Current movement speed bonus increased from 3/6/9/12% to 4/8/12/16%

Good buffs indeed, I personally like Razor a lot but his problems are that he cant chase very well due to lacking a stun and a slow, this doesnt address that much but you do move slightly faster and your ultimate hits more often, allowing you to simply walk next to enemies to kill them instead of attacking them.


Rikimaru
- Permanent Invisibility fade time decreased from 3/2.25/1.5 to 3/2/1

1 second fade time, I like it very much.



Sand King
- Invisibility fade delay when exiting Sand Storm improved from 0.3/0.6/0.9/1.5 to 1.5
- Sand Storm now has a smoother damage interval (1->0.5, total damage is the same)

This hero is largely unchanged with a maxed out SS, but it makes early tp's much easier now since it wont break after half a second like it used to.


Shadow Demon
- Base Intelligence decreased by 3
- Shadow Poison no longer gives vision over the targets with the debuff

This still reveals the projectile path, but no longer locks on vision to units with the debuff on them for 10 seconds

Stacking shadow poison just got a lot harder now, this also means people who have been hit by it dont need to run away from the battle for 10 seconds like they used to, this is big on initators like magnus who if they are hit by poison were forced to keep their distance for a long time so enemies dont see them blink in or skewer.

The minor nerf to int is nice as well.



Shadow Fiend
- Requiem of Souls slow rescaled from 15/20/25% to 20%
- Requiem of Souls damage reduction increased from 15/20/25% to 50%

The minor slow change does nothing but the damage reduction is huge, it doubles at max level meaning you really really dont want SF to be near you when he ulties now, DPS heroes are crippled by this making SF a really good initiator now, Blink in, ulti faceless void, laugh as he tries to hurt people.


  Shadow Shaman
- Aghanim's Mass Serpent Wards damage increased from 53-59/74-79/94-100 to 85-90/105-110/125-130

I always felt underwhelmed by the aghanim upgrade for serpent wards, I felt you could use the money better if you got a hex or shivas instead... I dont feel that way anymore, this is a big buff as 30 more damage to 8 wards is roughly 240 extra DPS.


Silencer
- Global Silence now affects sleeping units
- Added Aghanim's Scepter for Silencer

Applies the current level of Curse of the Silent to all units and increases ultimate duration by one second.

The first effect means you can use silencer with Naga siren and Bane no worries, they make a deadly combo in fact. The aghanim upgrade is good too, as they have no way of breaking global silence meaning they will enter the battle with lower life and mana after they have been silenced.


Skeleton King
- Reincarnation slow now affects attack speed as well
- Reincarnation slow happens immediately upon death rather than after reincarnating
- Critical Strike Reworked

Mortal Strike:
===============
Has a passive and active component. Passively gives you a chance to land a critical strike. Can be cast to temporarily steal HP from a target enemy hero. When the active is used, the critical strike is temporarily disabled for the drain duration.

Passive Crit Damage: 1.25/1.75/2.25/2.75
Passive Crit Chance: 15%

HP Drain: 20% of Max (Not Lethal)
Drain duration: 7
Cast Range: 550
Manacost: 30
Cooldown: 25

Note: This doesn't affect max hp, just temporarily drains then returns it.

Good buffs on his ulti, when SK dies his enemies automatically keep their distance, knowing he will come back with full life and mana as well as slowing them, now it wont be so easy since they are slowed immediately when he dies.

The buff to critical strike is quite nice but I need to test it more to understand it further.


Slardar
- Bash damage type from magical to physical
- Sprint cooldown decreased from 40 to 28

Ahh, bash is now quite the skill isnt it? at first I thought this was a nerf but then I remembered, this guy's ulti reduces armor by what, 20? meaning when you bash it will hurt, and it will hurt Hard. so long as enemies have less than 6 armor ( which is easy to do with Slardar) you'll hit harder. The sprint cd reduction is nice but nothing big there, it basically lasts almost as long as its cooldown, allowing you to be permanently sprinted... hey its a bigger buff than I thought actually.



Sniper
- Shrapnel AoE increased from 360 to 400

small good buff to Shrapnel, nothing to say here.


Spirit Breaker
- Charge of Darkness will now also Greater Bash its target

Instead of only affecting those it runs through, it now also affects the target as well.
The Greater Bash portion of Charge of Darkness will go through BKB, since Greater Bash goes through BKB.

SB now has 3 spells that go through BKB and magic immunity, I dont know any other hero who counters magic immunity as much as he does.



Storm Spirit
- Electric Vortex cooldown decreased from 20 to 21/20/19/18

Vortex is usually the first spell maxed out by most storm players, since at level 3 it will drag them enough to damage by static remnant, this small buff to its CD wont do much but its nice to have and allows you to chase a bit better once the fight ends to catch any fleeing opponents.



Tauren Chieftain
- Ancestral Spirit vision type from Flying to Ground
- Natural Order aura increased from 20/40/60/80% to 25/50/75/100%

Minor nerf to sight range for his spirit but his aura now completely removes any defense you have, it used to do this when he was first released but was considered too powerful, now thanks to power creeping it seems balanced...weird how times have changed.



Tidehunter
- Ravage AoE rescaled from 825/925/1025 to 1025

Good, Ravage got too many nerfs, no longer instant, less damage and lowered AOE, I'm glad at least one of those nerfs has been removed.



Tiny
- Toss cooldown decreased from 10 to 9
- You can now Toss units to Runes

A nuker needs every second he can get on his spells, more toss is good on tiny, tossing units to runes means you can throw an ally to deny enemy runes, its quite nice to think about, enemy hero sees the rune thinking his life is complete now, walks to it when BAM! out of nowhere flying magnus, falls on the rune, takes it ( and its probably DD) and then casts RP and kills the poor enemy hero.



Treant Protector
- Leech Seed slow increased from 24% to 28%
- Leech Seed's healing effect no longer ends when the target dies

Leech seed just got better. Yeah thats all I got.



Troll Warlord
- Battle Trance cooldown increased from 20 to 30
- Battle Trance duration decreased from 10 to 7

Deserved nerfs, an ulti as powerful as trolls should not be so spammable, you could basically have it on half the time before if you cast it every time it went off CD, you cant do that anymore so this is needed.



Tuskarr
- Snowball cooldown decreased from 24 to 21

I enjoy Tuskar and always thought his snowball had too long a CD, you couldnt spam it in lane and you could only use it once a gank, this doesnt exactly fix that ( I wish it were 18 second CD) but its a strong step forward.



Undying
- Soul Rip cast range increased from 650 to 750

You can heal/nuke from further away, not bad at all.



Ursa Warrior
- Fury Swipes duration increased from 6 to 15

A rather odd buff to be honest, if you dont kill someone in 6 seconds its doubtful you will in 15, but what this does is ursa can hit someone once every 15 seconds and stack it, before Ursa had to finish off an enemy the moment he hits him, now you can switch targets knowing full well the other guy will take the same damage when he left, it also means enemies who are hit by fury swipes have to keep their distance from ursa for a long time, since any hit in the last 15 seconds continues to stack on them.



Vengeful Spirit
- Strength increased from 16 + 2.3 to 18 + 2.6
- Nether Swap cast range rescaled from 600/900/1200 to 650/925/1200

Nice strength buff, a total of almost 10 strength at max level, the better base strength and scaling are just lovely, before VS would swap an enemy and die for her team, now she will swap an enemy, last a second longer, then die, its not much of a buff in that regards but you're more tanky.

The minor cast range improvement isnt anything to be impressed by though.



Venomancer
- Poison Sting duration increased from 6/7/8/9 to 6/8/10/12

12 seconds of slow and damage? poison sting keeps getting buffed more and more it seems.



Viper
- Corrosive Skin affects any damage source not just regular attacks
- Viper Strike is no longer removed by Dark Pact or Kraken Shell

Good, very good, now you're slowed no matter what you hit viper with, casters are no longer immune to it, this does make corrosive skin the second best skill to max now doesnt it? after the orb effect I think.

The viper strike buff is nice, tides and slarks beware, you're no longer immune to viper slows.



Witch Doctor
- Death Ward cast range rescaled from 300/350/400 to 400
- Maledict cast range increased from 400 to 525


Finally, for too long Maledict had too short a cast range, now you can actually use it without being forced to hug the enemy, the scaling on death ward is nice too, you can stay further back from now on.



And thats all from me, please comment on what you think are big hero changes and your thoughts, thanks for reading :D