6.86c — hero change analysis
Smaller, more frequent patches are not exactly in line with the Dota 2 ideology — major patches were usually followed by extremely small tweaks afterwards, but this time around the changes are a lot more numerous and a lot more significant. The current patch seems to be shaping up very well for both competitive and pub play and while these tweaks do address some of the bigger issues, they do not seem to stray too much from the idea of carefully making the meta more diverse and increasing the pool of competitively viable heroes.
At the same time, some of the changes do feel like they cater for the community too much. It makes for a rather dangerous precedent. And while some community control over the game is needed and expected, too much of it might have a negative effect in the long run on both competitive and pub levels. But enough of that, without further ado — 6.86c analysis.
- Alacrity damage/speed rescaled from 30/40/50/60/70/80/90 to 10/25/40/55/70/85/100
- Invoker base strength reduced by 2
There were a lot of posts on forums about this hero being overpowered and while the changes are not exactly a "nerf-hammer", they are very detrimental to the laning stage of the hero and take away a lot of his appeal as a mid-dominating character. Even though the ability now scales slightly better, effectively losing 20 damage at level 2 is a big deal. Moreover, it is not like this change was completely justified — it is clearly visible from the last week trends that people have learned to play against the hero and the graphs were already slowly going down, before the nerfs have sped up the process.
While it is agreeable that 
Invoker should not become a comfortable mid as heroes like 
Viper, which naturally falls off slightly harder, the degree to which the nerfs have been implemented seems too high and they also potentially discourage people from Quas/Wex Invoker — getting a second level of Exort might be necessary against certain heroes and it will have a very long-lasting impact regardless of the player's choice.
Faceless Void- Time Walk cast range increased from 550 to 625
- Faceless Void strength gain increased from 1.6 to 1.8
- Time Dilation duration increased from 5.5/7/8.5/10 to 6/8/10/12
- Time Dilation cooldown increased from 34/28/22/16 to 36/30/24/18
The reworked Void seemed to be among the worst heroes the world of Dota 2 has ever seen. To a large extent it was the fact that the community was trying to play him the old way, which seems to not work out well at all. His new ability — Time Dilation seemed to be way too situational to be exceptionally effective, while "merger" of Backtrack and Time Walk has left both skills heavily crippled.
Without the strongest survivability passive skill, Void has plummeted in terms of win rate — the new 2 second "rewind" simply doesn't work against burst damage and disables and the hero can longer be as hard of a carry as he used to be. In fact, it seems can no longer be played as a main carry at all, except for very specific situations.
The new changes do address the issue but in a too mild way. The 0.2/lvl strength gain increase translates into extra 60 HP at level 16, which is a much bigger deal on a hero with a 6 second cooldown "rewind", yet falls short in practice to have a meaningful effect. The range increase is a much stronger buff, yet it also seems to have very little impact on the actual win rate of the hero. Finally, Time Dilation can't be even considered a buff. It does last longer, but due to cooldown increase its effective uptime is the same and for an already rather gimmicky ability it doesn't seem to do a lot. Overall, his win rate did increase by 2.5%, yet it is not until people will figure him out that we shall see him come back from the sub 45% club.
Gyrocopter- Call Down first missile damage decreased from 220/285/350 to 200/275/350
I feel like the community and professional players will need a stronger incentive to finally give up on a hero, which has been a top pick for three patches in a row. The hero is just extremely solid and reliable in the early and mid game and he also has a 
Divine Rapier option, if he starts falling off against better scaling heroes. If anything, it is more of a public message to the players, rather than an actual nerf.
Tusk- Walrus Punch cooldown increased from 20/16/12 to 36/24/12
Almost doubling the cooldown on an ability will make any hero weaker, but Tusk is probably not that worse off. In fact, his win rate did not even bother to change with this nerf — it is currently at 46% average and 50%++ in 3k+. The reason is that the ability went from twice in a fight in one out of three fights to once in a fight in almost any case. 20 seconds after initiation the hero would generally be running away, chasing the last remaining fleeing opponent or dead — in neither case is the second Walrus Punch so direly required, except for TP counter-measures.
Bane- Nightmare cooldown increased from 16/15/14/13 to 22/19/16/13
Again, this change had almost no effect on a win rate of a hero, because it was usually once in a gank/teamfight type of ability in the first place. And again, we shall call it a public message, rather than a substantial nerf.
Riki- Tricks of the Trade cooldown reduced from 70 to 40
- Tricks of the Trade AoE increased from 475 to 500
- Blink Strike cast range increased from 700 to 800
- Blink Strike cast point reduced from 0.4 to 0.3
Even before 6.86b nerfs, the new Riki ultimate has been an ability that seemed exceptionally powerful on paper, but very weak in practice. The current changes do not necessarily address this problem, though the +25 AoE is quite a buff, but rather make this ability have an appropriate cooldown for the effect it offers. Overall, it is quite a substantial buff on its own, while the Blink Strike improvements are a decently sized cherry on top. In fact, these changes combined have resulted in a very impressive 3% Win Rate increase, putting the hero at a very comfortable ~50%. It is probably not long before we are going to see him picked in a competitive match and flood our pubs, so be prepared.
[missing hero: outworld-devourer]
- Arcane Orb int steal increased from 1/2/3/4 to 2/3/4/5
- Arcane Orb int steal duration increased from 40 to 50
With these changes, the hero has finally crossed the 50% line, but it is high level pub matchmaking and competitive scene we should be worried about the most. The hero is notoriously known for being one of the most obnoxious mid laners and his return will make a lot of people, myself included, extremely salty. And by the looks of it, the hero is very close to crossing this fine line between balanced and OP heroes. In fact, he might already be OP, it is just we haven't noticed it yet.
Dazzle- Shallow Grave cast point increased from 0.35 to 0.4
- Shadow Wave manacost increased from 80/90/100/110 to 90/100/110/120
A very minor nerf, yet another public message. The 0.05s increase in cast time is almost negligible and will only have an effect on players who are too used to the hero having a lower cast time, while the mana cost is not going to be an issue early in the game, due to rather high cooldown on Shadow Wave, and later in the game extra ~50 mana required in a teamfight is not going to have much of an impact.
Winter Wyvern- Winter's Curse attack speed bonus increased from 50 to 70
An extremely situational hero in the current form, she does slowly get back into a more playable state, with a very different concept in mind. The buff itself is nothing to scoff at and it is going to increase damage dealt substantially — the sooner we forget what the hero was, the sooner we will be able to embrace her new form and this change is certainly helpful.
Undying- Tombstone cooldown increased from 60 to 70
More of a public message, but with a twist. While the cooldown increase will have no effect on any given teamfight, it will prevent the Tombstone from pushing the lanes as much. With a 40s downtime, compared to previous 30s, it is no longer as efficient in terms of putting it on one lane to secure an objective on the other lane in the later stages of the game.
Dark Seer- Surge manacost increased from 20/30/40/50 to 50
The change is going to be extremely impactful early game, especially on experienced Dark Seer players, who are used to the old mana cost. The hero is also a lot worse against anything with mana burn/drain abilities. Overall, however, it is unlikely to influence his pick rate, but may influence his pick priority in the professional scene. The effect on win rate is negligible/unpredictable.
Death Prophet- Death Prophet base intelligence increased by 3
- Spirit Siphon HP Drain increased from 1/1.8/2.6/3.4% to 1/2/3/4%
- Spirit Siphon slow rescaled from 6/10/14/18% to 5/10/15/20%
- Exorcism duration increased from 30 to 35 seconds
A multitude of small buffs which make for a better scaling hero. It also reverts the "all spirits out" ultimate decreased uptime at level 3 which was introduced with the increase in spirit spawn rate time. The ultimate is actually a bit stronger at levels 6 and 11 then it previously was as well, which might put the hero back into the game, at least in some pushing lineups. Her win rate has actually increased by 2.7% since the patch and it is going to be interesting to see whether the hero will find herself in competitive play as well.
yayyay
I do hope and pray that OD will not become OP otherwise he will be a MMR grind tool and my favorite hero will be ruined.
The change to surge on DS won't significantly change how he is played, it just might change some people's builds. 3-4 clarities, tangos, and a stout, go straight to soul ring, then aether lens (with the ring being the first item you purchase), and then boots. Aether lens makes him just as good as he was before or better.
Surge was once 50 mana at all levels... so no one gives a damn. As for Obnoxious Dementor, once people discover he's a safelane carry & not a midlaner anymore -- people will cry salty tears while they await their respawn.
Fuck Invoker.
Currently the Enchanted Mango only has a 31.43% win rate. Together, we as a community, have the ability to fix this problem and end this horrific tragedy. Please help. It is our duty as gamers to give this item the respect it is due.
Rikimaru's ultimate is probably one of the worst in the game. He is now basically the same as Ember.
Since it is a flat 1 attack per second if you build any agility items the attack speed is wasted. So riki either has to just build flat damage increasing items like Daedalus (basically becoming a shittier ember with a 40 second cooldown), or go the old agility items build and only get a single point in his ulti at 6 and then skipping it until level 24 (like ember). People were starting to adopt a battlefury build to make it viable to crit off creeps like Ember as well, but Icefrog nipped that in the bud right away - "he's not ember spirit guyz!".
Any hero who is not otherwise slowed or stunned can walk out of the field in 2 seconds. Making the hero reliant on lockdown like RP, black hole or disruptor's field thing to have a good ultimate is just bad game design, you are rarely likely to have one of those heroes in your game and half the time they will be on the enemy team rather than yours.
You realize it's mad strong to dodge stuns & various other things? Also helps in a 1vX situation. If you can't put it to good use it's your own fault.
It's probably one the best skills in the game in the Rosh pit or any choke.
- embrace her new form - you sneaky devil
Haha this is like redditor's analysis.
my first immpression on winter wyvern was that she is a counter for majorly physical reliant team. People are just too used to the lockdown component of her ultimate that they forgot that what she really is. With this change she will do what she really is supposed to do amd that ultimate can still kill someone if there are enough hitters in enemy team. 'embrace her in new form' well said
I agree that invoker's change was an overreaction. At most it should have just dropped to pre-6.85 levels, or just increase the mana cost.
With full range, and a load of viable builds and spells for both laning, ganking and team fighting, I'd say weakening his laning presence early game is justified.
He has a high win rate even in low mmr pub matchmaking games despite being one of the "hardest" (or at least, most finger-requiring) heroes should tell something about his power and prowess.
OD is OP.
дота уже не дота а кусок говна ебаного
i like that
RIK Ulti= EMBER
Pugna Ulti= Death prophet
this dude's posts are garbage
why invoker why!!!
@Gin, at least it gives us some different perspective from us :3. I find it helpful as a support player :) xd
I did expect more numbers from statistics here. Have to agree with Gin.
WOW... very low level analysis.
It isn't an analysis at all... just his "redditor" opinion.
Shame.
Faceless void seems abit more viable now,because he was quite crappy in both initiator and carry role last in 6.86b
cool stuff
Rip timeguy
just play void like am, battlefury then flash farm
"At the same time, some of the changes do feel like they cater for the community too much. It makes for a rather dangerous precedent. And while some community control over the game is needed and expected, too much of it might have a negative effect in the long run on both competitive and pub levels."
Couldn't agree more.
They changed invoker to his old form- an useless, weak hero...
Now he can't kill pudge or viper/windranger at beginning of match, because he is too weak for str heroes and too slow for agility heroes...
Why you need kill them at beginning of match, dota is teamwork, just gank with your teamate. Now invoker still strong if have good teamate.
For me invoker is really good for Strength and Agi hero. Just need to choose his skill wisely. for strength play Quas Exort for agi play Quas Wex. Thats All.. ;D never fail played with pudge or viper at mid. xD its FOOD.
The end of shadow fiends era. Sad.
Meh riki
Meh riki
My 'ex' main hero silencer got rid of UAM stuff which is great op shit, I wanna see Magina get rid of UAM mana break, what do you think?
Shameless Void...
I'm so sad at what they've done to DP. I loved that hero so much prior to all this re-work non-sense.
i'll spamming od
Luck that if i got riki pick in my team, my team always win
дота 2 хуйня,
Я на 1 опять перешёл .
I will spam OD for easy mmr
Od is broken icefrog really need to highlight strength hero also