The map had needed an update for quite some time, but it was untouched in 7.31, which confused almost everyone. There have been more and more talks that farming the jungle for the Dire is much easier than for the Radiant. Valve has heeded the fans and made the required updates, so now the map is more balanced.
Map changes
The following list of map changes is as follows:
- Reworked the trees around Dire main jungle's rightmost medium camp.
- Dire ramp is now deeper within the jungle (same position as before, but there's less high ground near Roshan).
- Removed Small Camps near Mid Lane.
- Moved Bounty Rune further away from the river (to adjust for the ramp being deeper).
By the way, the third point significantly nerfed KEEPER OF THE LIGHT who had got a big advantage in the mid by farming small camps in the early stages.
In general, there is nothing to complain about: the updates are good.
Creeps
There were no complaints about the mechanics of the creeps after 7.31 when they were redesigned. Everybody got used to the new mechanics. But in 7.32, a new creep was added, though not neutral.
"Added Flagbearer Creep. Starting at minute 2 one of the melee creeps in every second creepwave is replaced by a Flagbearer. It has 40% magic resistance and an Inspiration Aura, which gives +3 Health Regen to all allies within a 700 range. Killing an enemy Flagbearer will grant you and each allied hero within 1200 radius bonus gold equal to 100% of a Melee Creep's bounty. Does not grant gold on deny and cannot be denied by hero abilities, e.g DEMONIC CONVERSION."
It's an interesting change, and the supports will be especially happy with this opportunity to earn some extra money.
Economics
Valve has slightly changed the experience required per level and Rescaled Streak Experience, now there is a different formula.
Passive Gold per minute has been decreased by 15%. Supports won't like it for sure, but this is compensated by the new Flagbearer Creep. The updates are minor but not harmful.
Buildings
- Ancients Armor has been increased from 13 to 23.
- Ancients Backdoor protection HP Regen has been increased from 90hp/s to 180hp/s.
- Fountain Invulnerability now applies on respawn regardless of whether there's an enemy hero nearby.
- Glyph of Fortification is now refreshed whenever the first tower of each tier falls for that team (i.e: once after the first Tier 1 falls, once after the first Tier 2 falls, and once after the first Tier 3 falls).
- Outpost base teleport channel time has been increased from 5s to 6s.
The Ancients have been buffed a lot which will probably make games' ends more captivating. Glyph of Fortification mechanics has been also reworked which looks interesting, too.
Neutral items
We should note that EX MACHINA hasn't been removed, as many expected. But now its Mana Cost is 350.
And these are the removed items:
- CHIPPED VEST
- KEEN OPTIC
- OCEAN HEART
- ESSENCE RING
- FAE GRENADE
- QUICKSILVER AMULET
- SPIDER LEGS
- THE LEVELLER
HAVOC HAMMER has been returned, and seven more new items have been added. They are interesting, but there is nothing special, as six of them are of tier 1 and 2.
Items
We will highlight the most interesting items:
BLACK KING BAR is nerfed from patch to patch, now Avatar has a 50 Mana Cost.
HAND OF MIDAS - TRANSMUTE: when used on a Neutral Creep, it will secure a Neutral Item drop if any is available. It's very useful when your team is stuck at the base and has no opportunity to go into the jungle for neutral items.
MORBID MASK: lifesteal has been increased from 15% to 18% on heroes, but lifesteal now affects creeps by 50% of its value (9%). It's not so pleasant for many heroes.
SHADOW AMULET - FADE: now has a 15s duration. Yes, now you can't go AFK in the amulet.
REFRESHER SHARD and REFRESHER ORB have been also fixed, now you will have to spend much more mana to use them. Basically, all the necessary changes have been made.
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PRIMAL BEAST is added to Captains Mode. His AGHANIM'S SCEPTER and talents have also been changed.
But who should have been fixed first of all? BRISTLEBACK, JUGGERNAUT, ZEUS. Half-dead heroes like ANTI-MAGE, SLARK, or PHANTOM ASSASSIN required improvement.
And Valve managed to make quality changes. The win rate of the first three heroes started to decrease, while the second group started to win much more often. At this point, ANTI-MAGE's win rate is over 50% which sounds fantastic. Let's run through the main changes to the characters:
| ALCHEMIST | To get bonuses from the given AGHANIM'S SCEPTER, you don't need to have it yourself; his talents have also been updated. |
| ANTI-MAGE | There is nothing global: Mana Cost for several abilities has been decreased and Blink has been improved greatly. |
| ARC WARDEN | FLUX slow is now always applied (damage is still applied only if there are no allies nearby). |
| BATRIDER | STICKY NAPALM now additionally deals 6/12/18/24 damage when applied (also increases with damage per stack). |
| BLOODSEEKER | Several small fixes; in general, the hero has gotten nerfed. |
| BRISTLEBACK | WARPATH: Attack Damage Bonus per stack has been decreased from 25/30/35 to 20/25/30. And, roughly speaking, that's it. This is clearly not the fix everyone expected. |
| CENTAUR WARRUNNER | HITCH A RIDE ability from AGHANIM'S SCEPTER has been added. Centaur tosses an ally into a cart hitched behind him. While in the cart, the ally can still cast and attack normally, but cannot move independently or be targeted by opponents. Non-targeted effects can still affect the hitched ally. Increases the attack range of hitched melee heroes by 200. Mana Cost: 75. Cooldown: 60s. Duration: 8s. Cast Range: 300. So far, it is this update that has attracted the most interest. |
| CLINKZ | A great update on BURNING BARRAGE. |
| DOOM | DOOM: reworked AGHANIM'S SCEPTER. Enemies within 325 radius from target also suffer the effects of Doom. Also allows it to be self-cast to affect enemies around caster. Thus, you can hit even BLACK HOLE. |
| JUGGERNAUT | BLADE FURY: AGHANIM'S SHARD Bonus Movement Speed has been decreased from 100 to 75; Base Movement Speed has been decreased from 305 to 300. |
| LINA | FLAME CLOAK: reworked AGHANIM'S SCEPTER. Grants new ability: FLAME CLOAK. Lina gets flying movement, increases her spell damage by 30% and magic resistance by 35%. Cooldown: 25s. Cannot be dispelled. |
| LUNA | LUCENT BEAM: reworked AGHANIM'S SCEPTER. Every time an enemy hero is hit by a LUCENT BEAM, Luna's attack damage is increased by 15 for 12s. |
| MARCI | Valve has slightly updated almost all her skills and talents. The hero has changed a lot. |
| NATURE'S PROPHET | CURSE OF THE OLDGROWTH: reworked AGHANIM'S SCEPTER. Grants new ability: CURSE OF THE OLDGROWTH. Applies a curse on all non-invisible enemy heroes within 1200 range, revealing them in fog of war, slowing them, and causing damage over time based on how many trees there are within 250 radius. Treants count as trees for this purpose. Each tree reduces movement speed by 7% and deals 15 damage per second. Duration: 6s. Cooldown: 20s. Mana Cost: 80. Cast Range: 800. |
| OMNIKNIGHT | HEAVENLY GRACE: now dispels both Omniknight and his target when cast. |
| PHANTOM ASSASSIN | PHANTOM STRIKE: now grants 10/15/20/25% lifesteal for its duration. |
| PUDGE | ROT: AGHANIM'S SCEPTER Bonus Radius has been decreased from 225 to 200; FLESH HEAP: Mana Cost has been increased from 35/40/45/50 to 35/50/65/80. PUDGE is also too strong, but it hasn't been made much worse. |
| RAZOR | Base Movement Speed has been decreased from 290 to 280; STATIC LINK: buff duration has been decreased from 15/16/17/18s to 9/12/15/18s; now can be cast on a target that already has STATIC LINK debuff. The ability still cannot be cast on an enemy currently linked to Razor. |
| SHADOW DEMON | SOUL CATCHER has been replaced with DISSEMINATE; DISSEMINATE: whenever the target takes damage, all enemies, including the target itself if it is an enemy, within 600 range of the target also receive 20%/25%/30%/35% of that damage. Can target enemy and allied units. The effect is paused if the enemy is hidden by DISRUPTION. Duration: 6s. Cooldown: 30/26/22/18s. Mana Cost: 100. Cast Range: 700/800/900/1000. |
| SHADOW FIEND | Base Damage has been increased by 2; SHADOWRAZE: debuff now also applies a stackable 30% turn speed slow and 15% movement speed slow per consecutive stack (i.e: starting with the second one). |
| SHADOW SHAMAN | Base Damage has been decreased from 71-78 to 65-72. |
| SILENCER | Base Attack Speed has been decreased from 115 to 100; Base Attack Time has been improved from 1.7s to 1.6s; GLAIVES OF WISDOM: reworked AGHANIM'S SCEPTER. Now causes every 4th glaves attack to silence an enemy for 1.75s. Additionally, increases Intelligence stolen on attack and on kill by 2. |
| SLARK | POUNCE: no longer deals direct damage. Now applies 0/1/2/3 stacks of ESSENCE SHIFT; SHADOW DANCE: Health Regen per second has been rescaled from 5/6/7% Max Health to 60/90/120 Health. |
| SVEN | STORM HAMMER: now AGHANIM'S SCEPTER adds an autocast. If it's enabled, Sven does not travel with the Storm Hammer. |
| TIDEHUNTER | TENDRILS OF THE DEEP: reworked AGHANIM'S SHARD. Grants new ability: TENDRILS OF THE DEEP. Releases a wave of tentacles in the targeted direction. The tentacles deal 50% of RAVAGE damage and stun and travel 75% of RAVAGE radius. Cooldown: 20s. Mana Cost: 80. |
| TINY | GROW: no longer reduces attack speed by a flat value; now reduces attack speed by 30%. This affects all item and spell bonuses as well. This reduction does not scale with the level of Grow. Bonus damage has been increased from 30/70/110 to 50/100/150. |
| UNDYING | DECAY : debuff/buff no longer modifies your health when expiring (enemies no longer gain health and Undying doesn't lose health on expiration). |
| VENOMANCER | LATENT TOXICITY: reworked AGHANIM'S SHARD. Grants new ability: LATENT TOXICITY. Applies a weak poison that slows by 10% and deals 20 damage per second to its target for 7 seconds. If this poison is dispelled in any way, the target will receive 300 damage and be stunned for 2s. Mana Cost: 75. Cooldown: 20s. Cast Range: 600. Cast point: 0.2s. Projectile speed: 1200. |
| WARLOCK | SHADOW WORD: AGHANIM'S SHARD no longer provides Movement Speed modifier. |
| WINDRANGER | WINDRUN: AGHANIM'S SCEPTER no longer makes WINDRUN undispellable, AGHANIM'S SCEPTER now grants invisibility that doesn't break attacking/casting spells. A light WINDRUN effect is created around the Windranger position whenever she attacks from invisibility. |
| ZEUS | Minor fixes of HEAVENLY JUMP and STATIC FIELD. |
Is everything as expected?
The patch is very interesting. It's an extremely rare case when negative comments from the Dota community haven't flooded the Internet. Some things still need to be fixed, but so far that's good enough. The meta hasn't changed completely.