6.84 in action.

http://www.twitch.tv/dreamleague/b/654828824?t=5h41m42s


Team Tinker vs Hellraiser's

what i took from this game.

1. jungle is still highly contested.

- with the nerfs to the jungle i felt it wasnt going to be as LARGE a part of teams gameplans more a secondary farming area with lanes and kills taking precedent, this has been proved wrong by the speed at which you can now clear it. wathng enigma smash through it was a treat and has made me change my mind of its importance.

2. new laning is all over the place expect it to stabilise in coming weeks.

- from the games i watched i can say that it is ALL over the place because of the patch NOT because a new meta is here, i think my prediction of dual lanes and the 1-1-1-R2 will come true.

3. DRAGON KNIGHT IS BACK BABY!!! WOOOOOO

- though he was well taken care of in game 1 i feel he made them work like crazy for it. plus he was able to take the tower fairly early. he definatly took some work to deal with by tinker and if played right/drafted right he can be a game changer.

4.Gyro looks scary early game

- ive always thought gyro was under rated but now there is no cast point on barrage... the **** is scary also with the new items he has the ability to beef up a lot earlier for less gold and still do his damage. as i said before a good mid-late transitional carry with strong early game is how this patch will be made or paid.

5.Magic damage is huge this patch.

- most of these two drafts was FULL of magic damage nearly everyone had a nuke or a DoT or a AoE skill, i think that 6.84 will be called the Magic Meta. Lesh was banned very very late in first draft so maybe the pro's arent jumping on his wagon just yet. but IO was got rid of FIRST so i think that shows hes very strong if they are scared of him more so then anyone else.

6. games are quicker but a lot more rotations and skirmishes.

- the new mechanics means push is good and fights are great. not a lot of mobility in the draft but defs a lot of PRESENCE... dont expect 20 minute games but do expect 30 minute gee geeeees

7. LD and Pheonix are very very very strong i feel.

- ban them if your not picking them ... thats my advice.


What are your guys thoughts?

I was really disappointed to now see the LD aghs in game 2, that item is so sick for him. I agree that mid/early late game is where ggs will be, but with the addition of moon shard and alchemist aghs for everyone I think there is some room for drafts that just want to go ULTRA late and be 7 or 8(!!!) slotted without using the stash.

I don't know about competitive, but in my pubs Alchemist has been a real force to be reckoned with. The amount of gold he generates for a team is amazing, and he's really not as bad as people make him out to be. Plus, with the new items out he's got a lot more options to choose from, and can help take his team into the really late game if need be.

EDIT:
Also, I forgot to mention that Octarine Core is basically the best item on Outworld Devourer. I honestly think he's the real winner of this patch, since he can lifesteal off of Arcane Orb now (plus it makes Sanity's Eclipse even more busted). Combo that with his upgraded Aghs scepter, and he's really strong. I played a low prio match as OD with a friend earlier today and I was able to turtle highground for 30 minutes against a really aggressive lineup with it, despite the fact I had only one other competent player on my team.

Even in high mmr pubs, alc is really strong. Even if the guy doesnt have an aghs, it's still a point booster and +10 stats. It's awesome :D

support alche so strong he's imbalanced.

Just think about a full ganking tiny (blink + dagon, the works) who is trying to get his assault curi*** suddenly jumping into fights with a hyperstone and an aghanim's BUFF which doesnt consume an item slot.

Its gee gee boys

Alch himself is still useless though. You're still playing 4 vs 5 with a hero that does nothing but throw an extremely impractical stun once in a while....and by that I mean get silenced or stunned when that obvious timer is on his head and stun himself.

Support Alch had good ganking power early game but he had literally zero game impact past 20 minutes. And he was completely outclassed by Venge/Naga/Morph. At least give him something to make up for that. And support Naga/Morph got buffed hard so I'm still playing that instead.

IMO, Alchemist is a unique type of hard support: An item provider. If a team can give him the space to afk farm for 20 minutes (by picking 2-3 strong early game heroes), he will provide them with Aghanim's Scepters + aura or buff items like Pipe, AC, Vlads, Lotus, Linken's and so on. He has the potential to farm a Scepter or two for his team, AND get some items himself (provided he has the space to farm freely), while the rest of the team fight early and mid game. A Zeus or AA or whoever can now focus on early game fights and items, and still suddenly have Agh's at 15 minutes! High risk; high reward perhaps, but I have already played some games where it worked very well. Zeus especially, because he can now focus on building Refresher himself and have them both at 15 min... That hurts.
Like with Io, you trade one hero to make the others much more powerful.

From my experience so far, right clickers are still necessary.

But because of the hero gold increase encouraging earlier aggression, midgame heroes are really strong.

So guys like Huskar are great cores for your team, but it also means that DotA's equivalent to AP Carrys like Leshrac and Bristleback are a lot stronger. Especially with the addition of the Octarine Core. Also Slark. The new meta is his meta.

Either way, I think this is a really fun patch. It's definitely not the right click war that was 6.83.