6.84 - This could be the end

Many famous members on Dotafire already stated their comments on the newest update and it is really detailed and interesting. I also watched Merlini's analysis on this update. He did beautiful job.

I'll put that all aside. I want to share my concerns with you people.

We were playing previous patch that had some unbalanced heroes such as Troll Warlord in first place and some followers that only needed minor nerfs such as Sniper, Storm Spirit, Axe and Juggernaut. I was waiting so long to see them balanced same as I waited so long to see some strength carries being buffed (thinking about Alchemist, Dragon Knight and Lifestealer) or being completely reworked, Huskar for example. Also some buffs/nerfs on other heroes were welcomed only if would make them more including in meta/balanced. Hero changes are so important in this game and that should be used to make game more balanced and interesting.

General game changes are always fine but that is the place when you should be really careful. Remember that team Newbie? Deathball pushing strategy? That was bad. Nobody enjoyed watching TI4 and short matches where one team finish game so fast with minor skill efforts. Then we got Comeback mechanism as new thing. To be honest I wanted from Valve to reward Pushing just a little more in 6.84 same as to make Comeback mechanism less dangerous than it was.

Item changes are having average impact on meta game and it is fine whatever change is coming with new update. Crimson Guard was nice refresh for a game and it found fine use in game with balanced results. Why it was fine? Well that was already existing item with just average buff modification. But now we got some crazy hybrid items that move and shake all core things in gameplay. It won't be so scary thing if it was one or two new items but this might be too much.

So summary of my concerns from pub player point of view:
1. Heroes will stay unbalanced and there is so many people that will abuse that fact (Who cares for fun in ranked anymore? I want win.),
2. New items comes from nowhere and they could change set in stone styles and roles of many heroes which could end up in very confused community (Hmmm, what should I buy in this match for my Legion Commander? Damn, I wasted 5k gold for that item and I don't need infinite Duel when I'm able to kill anyone in 3 seconds with focus fire from my team.) or ( Weaver Scepter looks nice. Wait, I can't kill anyone now but I'm carry...)
3. Will Dota2 be able to recover after TI5 finishes like the last time? (Why games are not so thrilling like before? You remember that time when Dendi hooked Gyro? I felt magic while I was watching finals, now every time I'm like meeeh.)

For the first time after few years, I'm thinking will this changes kill interest and joy to play this majestic game. Might be that my time has come to finish Dota2 journey.

People say the same thing over and over, everytime a new patch is out. This patch is bigger than the others? Yes, it is. Should we be worried? Just a bit. We are in patch 6.83c man. We had two minor balance patches to "fix" the major imbalances of 6.83. If imba things start to appear (and they will), Icefrog will probably pull out 6.84b, and so on.

The patch seems fine, if anything it looks like it fixes imbalances of the previous one. Namely he rubberband. As for the point on items, there are more. It's a good thing. If you cant notice what is good and bad in certain situations, that's your problem you need to work on.

Also:



If you build Aghs on Weaver, you aren't a carry.

Edit: TRIPLE POST!!

Just remove all of these new items. Ok, at least that ******** shield that reflects every skill on the caster in similar way how Spiked Carapace works. Also that stupid spell lifesteal and 25% cooldown reduction. That needs to be removed.



...please

Stop whining and be scared of new things. Octarine Core is 5800. It's very very expensive, don't expect to see it in all the games you'll play. Most of the new items are 4k + gold, and they give new alternatives. Ofc some of them will become core on some heroes, but still.


THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE REMOVED.

As for the issues about hero balance;

It's true that Troll Warlord was barely touched this patch (And arguably gained as much if not more than what he lost), but this is not the first time seemingly overpowered heroes have only been lightly touched in the initial patch.

We still have 6.84b and 6.84c to come yet, one of which I'd wager will be out within two weeks of the patch will definitely do major things to Troll if he stays massively relevant,

Likewise the new items will probably get minor tweaks if they turn out to be over powered or under power.

People aren't respecting how huge a nerf to his laning phase removing the damage from Berserker's Rage is. It means you can trade hits, you can zone him, you can compete.
I know he didn't get Sniper nerfed, but this is big.

This patch was really friggin' weird. But really that's the case for every single patch. People complain for the first 2 weeks but everybody will continue playing on. Everything will be fine, it is strange but I still have some faith in Icefrog. I think people in the dota community (me included) are not adjusted to "radical" changes. But somehow I have good feeling about this patch.

Thing is, I dont know how it will turns out in the future. Maybe it will became too big. I dont know, let us see how fate unravels.

I honestly think that[Octarine Core isn't gonna be a big trouble. Sure, when people get it they'll be much more powerful but i think the only one that actually gain the most of it is Zeus only. Leshrac is pretty weak early and cannot really farm hero that well and like most other intel heroes, he can't farm creeps that well. Of course i think the lifesteal will still need to be nerfed with AoE abilities. Zeus is the only one who has the most advantage of it. He can easily gain gold with his ultimate kill steal and his main damage ability is a single target (which is pretty hard to nerf the lifesteal component) and he can ult more frequently. Others are too squishy, can't farm that good and can easily be hit with nerf if the octarine core lifesteal is nerfed to reduced heal on AoE damage. After all this adds this unique taste of ability focused carries

Leshrac melts everything with ult and diabloic edict. If you think he's weak, you're doing something wrong.