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We’re in the early days of a Major, and it’s just past 7 AM Valve time, but a patch is a patch and the bi-weekly gameplay balance patch has gotta happen.
Except 7.12 is a lot to wake up to.
The first thing that’s pretty easy to pick up on is the inclusion of Pangolier in Captain’s Mode. He and Dark Willow have been controversial picks in pub matches since their release, as many believe they’re pretty overpowered. However, it’s Dota 2, and Icefrog is fully capable of doing whatever he wants.
But that’s not all by any means. A bunch of items got minor tweaks that may let anyone who was thinking of picking them up move on either side of the fence. Spirit Vessel, for instance, has been given a massive nerf, being changed from Direct HP to Magic Damage. The Heart of Tarrasque, meanwhile, has been buffed a few points, which may be the difference between life and death for tanks. And Refresher Orb has a massive buff, with mana regeneration kicking up from 3 to 5 per second.
And that’s before we get into hero changes: Over 50 heroes are seeing some gameplay changes, and literally none of them are Talent changes this time. (Seriously. Control-F this page. That’ll be the only mention of it in this article.)
Slark players, who were often struggling in the offlane, are finally going to survive a bit better, as HP regen and turn rate have been drastically improved. Shadow Demon’s Demonic Purge got retweaked enough to require some re-reading, as did Riki’s Tricks of the Trade, and Drow Ranger’s Precision Aura got a pretty solid buff.
Leshrac, Io and Dark Seer also got some much-needed changes, and Warlock’s Golem hits a bit harder. (And, yes, Dark Willow get some minor nerfs, but nothing too damaging to her power.)
So did your favorite heroes get changed — and for better or worse? See for yourself, because we’ve got the full, organized patch notes below.
General Gameplay
- Enabled Pangolier in Captain’s Mode
- Neutral Creep Stack bounty increased from 15% to 20%
Items
- Clarity: Mana Regeneration reduced from 3.2 to 3.0
- Heart of Tarrasque: Strength increased from 40 to 45
- Moon Shard: Attack Speed increased from 120 to 130
- Nullifier: Projectile speed decreased from 1200 to 900
- Refresher Orb: Mana regeneration increased from 3 to 5
- Satanic: Duration increased from 4.5 to 5 seconds
-
Silver Edge:
Break duration decreased from 5 to 4 seconds
Cooldown reduced from 24 to 22 -
Skull Basher: Bash duration increased from 1.4 to 1.5
—> Abyssal Blade: Bash duration increased from 1.4 to 1.5 - Spirit Vessel: Enemy current health based damage changed from 3% Direct HP modification to 4.5% Magical Damage
Heroes
Anti-Mage:
- Mana Void damage increased from 0.6/0.85/1.1 to 0.8/0.95/1.1
Arc Warden
- Flux cooldown reduced from 18 to 16
- Magnetic Field AoE increased from 275 to 300
Axe
- Battle Hunger duration increased from 10 to 12
Bounty Hunter
- Shuriken Toss manacost increased from 120/130/140/150 to 150
Bloodseeker
- Thirst linger bonus duration increased from 2 to 4
Chen
- Holy Persuasion can no longer target non-player allied creeps
Clinkz
- Strafe duration increased from 3 to 3.5 seconds
Crystal Maiden
- Base damage increased by 3
- Arcane Aura self mana regen increased from 1/2/3/4 to 1.3/2.2/3.1/4
Dark Seer
- Vacuum AoE increased from 250/350/450/550 to 400/450/500/550
- Vacuum cooldown rescaled from 32 to 60/50/40/30
- Vacuum cast range rescaled from 500 to 450/500/550/600
- Vacuum Pull duration increased from 0.5 to 0.3/0.4/0.5/0.6
- Vacuum damage rescaled from 40/80/120/160 to 25/50/100/200
- Wall of Replica incoming illusion damage reduced from 400% to 300%
- Wall of Replica width increased from 1000 to 1300
Dark Willow
- Terrorize cast time increased from 0.8 to 1.0
- Bedlam cooldown increased from 40/30/20 to 40/35/30
Dazzle
- Poison Touch damage increased from 10/20/30/40 to 10/24/38/52
Death Prophet
- Spirit Siphon charge restore time increased from 45 to 60/55/50/45
- Silence manacost increased from 80 to 80/90/100/110
Disruptor
- Static Storm no longer lingers on your hero for 0.5 seconds after walking away from the AoE (it already ends immediately once the spell is over)
- Kinetic Field cooldown increased from 13/12/11/10 to 19/16/13/10
Drow Ranger
- Precision Aura attack damage bonus increased from 10/18/26/34% to 10/20/30/40%
Elder Titan
- Echo Stomp Initial Stun duration reduced from 0.8 to 0.2
Ember Spirit
- Base armor increased by 1
Enchantress
- Untouchable slow rescaled from 40/70/100/130 to 20/60/100/140
- Enchant cooldown rescaled from 30/24/18/12 to 55/40/25/10
- Enchant slow increased from 2.25/3.5/4.75/6 to 3/4/5/6
- Enchant dominate duration rescaled from 80 to 50/60/70/80
- Impetus manacost rescaled from 55/60/65 to 40/55/70
Gyrocopter
- Flak Cannon cooldown increased from 30 to 40
- Homing Missile hits to destroy reduced from 3/3/4/4 to 3
Io
- Tether now sets your movement speed to match the tethered target’s speed
- Relocate cooldown increased from 120/100/80 to 130/110/90
- Tether no longer has a duration
- Tether movement speed rescaled from 10/12/14/16% to 7/10/13/16%
- Tether regen sharing rescaled from 1.5x to 1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5
- Base damage reduced by 4
Leshrac
- Base movement speed increased from 325 to 330
- Lightning Storm damage rescaled from 50/100/150/200 to 80/120/160/200
- Lightning Storm slow duration rescaled from 0.7/0.8/0.9/1.0 to 0.4/0.6/0.8/1.0
- Lightning Storm cast point reduced from 0.45 to 0.4
Lich
- Sacrifice mana conversion increased from 30/50/70/90 to 55/70/85/100
Lifestealer
- Open Wounds manacost increased from 140/130/120/110 to 140
Lion
- Earth Spike manacost rescaled from 100/120/140/160 to 70/100/130/160
Magnus
- Skewer AoE increased from 125 to 135
- Reverse Polarity stun duration increased from 2.25/3/3.75 to 2.75/3.25/3.75
Mirana
- Base attack damage range from 39-50 to 43-48
Monkey King
- Wukong’s Command soldier attack rate improved from 1.4 to 1.3
Necrophos
- Heartstopper Aura increased from 0.5/1/1.5/2% to 0.5/1.1/1.7/2.3%
- Death Pulse manacost rescaled from 125/145/165/185 to 100/130/160/190
Ogre Magi
- Multicast no longer increases Fire Blast manacost
Omniknight
- Repel manacost increased from 50 to 85
Phantom Assassin
- Stifling Dagger can be targeted on Spell Immune (the slow won’t have any effect, but the physical damage will go through)
Phoenix
- Supernova radius increased from 1000 to 1300
- Supernova now turns night into day for the duration (has highest priority)
Razor
- Static Link cast range reduced from 600 to 550 (break range still 800)
- Unstable Current damage reduced from 100/130/160/190 to 60/100/140/180
Riki
- Tricks of the Trade reworked. Instead of hitting every hero in the AoE once per second, it hits a random hero once per 0.5/0.45/0.4 seconds.
- Tricks of the Trade will hit creeps if there are no heroes available
- Tricks of the Trade duration increased from 3/4/5 to 4/5/6
Rubick
- Telekinesis cooldown increased from 22 to 28/26/24/22
Sand King
- Burrowstrike stun duration rescaled from 2.17 to 1.9/2.0/2.1/2.2
- Base movement speed reduced from 295 to 290
Shadow Demon
- Demonic Purge slow now always scales linearly with time from 100% to 20%
- Demonic Purge cooldown increased from 40 to 60 (affects charge replenish)
- Demonic Purge duration increased from 5 to 7 seconds
- Demonic Purge no longer roots non-hero units for 3 seconds
- Demonic Purge now continuously dispels the target
Slark
- Base HP regen increased from 1.5 to 2.75
- Turn rate improved from 0.5 to 0.6
Slardar
- Guardian Sprint no longer has a 15% damage amplification
- Guardian Sprint duration reduced from 12 to 10
Sniper
- Assassinate manacost reduced from 175/275/375 to 175/225/275
Spectre
- Spectral Dagger damage increased from 50/100/150/200 to 90/140/190/240
Spirit Breaker
- Empowering Haste active no longer reduces your movement speed afterwards
- Empowering Haste cooldown increased from 12 to 20
Templar Assassin
- Movement speed increased from 300 to 310
Timbersaw
- Chakram manacost per second reduced from 20/25/30 to 16/23/30
- Chakram initial manacost reduced from 100/150/200 to 80/140/200
Tiny
- Base Health Regen reduced from 2.5 to 1.5
- Avalanche cooldown increased from 17 to 20/19/18/17
Treant Protector
- Base intelligence increased by 3
Troll Warlord
- Berserker’s Rage base attack time improved from 1.5 to 1.45
Tusk
- Ice Shards cooldown increased from 19/16/13/10 to 21/18/15/12
Undying
- Undying Zombie critical health attack speed boost increased from 50 to 75
- Flesh Golem hero kill heal increased from 10% to 15/20/25%
Warlock
- Golem’s attack damage increased from 75/100/125 to 75/125/175
Windranger
- Fixed some clunkiness with how Windranger attacks the target during Focus Fire
Winter Wyvern
- Arctic Burn attack range changed from 275/375/475/575 to 350/425/500/575
- Base intelligence increased by 1
Zeus
- Attack range increased from 350 to 380
- Base damage increased by 5