Sando's 6.85 Patch

Undying : Tombstone HP removed and replaced with 3/6/9/12 attacks to kill.

The whole point of a lot of this patch is to push heroes out of the jungle, into the lanes and into fights. I also think it helps heroes with less natural flash-farming skills, so opens up the hero pool more.

But if you nerf any form of jungle/ancient stacking, where are the massive buffs to Alchemist, Luna, Sven, and a few other carries who are already almost unplayable right now and that you're forever putting in the garbage bin? :)

By the way just because there's a lot of people stacking jungle and ancients doesn't mean it's a good idea. Personally I die a little every time I see a Templar Assassin stack ancients. Just because the hero can do this doesn't mean that he should...the hero peaks at level 8-10 and should gank not farm, every TA I've ever seen stack ancients just misses his timing window and throws the game as surely as an AFK midas Enchantress does.
All this to say that farming mids who use the jungle are not necessarily overpowered...they take a LOT of space by doing that and often miss their timings. If you hate jungle stacking you could probably get away by simply nerfing early game gold on supports so that they get literally nothing from sitting mid stacking, and stay horribly underleveled with no boots, like what used to be the case in the TI3 times.

Hamster's had his fun, and the post is so long this seemed to merit a separate one...

General Changes:

i) Neutral camps (including Ancients) can now no longer be stacked more than once. Kind of a crazy change dont you think? im never a big fan of removing entire game mechanics.
ii) All heroes now receive a 5% increase in base gold income.
iii) Sentry Wards are now sold in 1's, and cost 85 gold each. yes plz, why do you still have to buy 2?

Otherwise known as the lets go fight each other rather than sit in the jungle patch. uhm, you are balancing 6.84 not 6.83

Hero changes:

Bloodseeker - Bloodrage now costs 10 mana per cast. Thirst scaling reduced from 10/20/30/40 to 8/16/24/32. the thing is he is fine, maybe even a bit weak in pro games, but strong in pubs. not sure i like a nerf like this.

Small nerf for balance.

Broodmother - starting strength and base damage both increased by 5. Spiderlings can no longer blocks hero movement while in web, and do not cause a movement slow on them when they attack.

Bit less ridiculous against heroes without AOE, start is a little less rough.

Dazzle - Poison Touch now inflicts a stun after 3 seconds at all levels. The stun scales 0.25/0.5/0.75/1. Shallow Grave range rescaled to 600/700/800/900. Length of protection scaled to 3.5/4/4.5/5. not looking at specific numbers i kinda like where it is going, he should atleast use all his skills.

Very popular pickup in TI5, yet nobody skilled his offensive power at all.

Earthshaker - Fissure duration now scales to 5/6/7/8. Fissure cooldown increased to 18 seconds. not sure what kind of nerf i would like best on ES

Seems about right, he's benefited a lot from general changes.

Gyrocopter - Missile Barrage total damage rescaled to 240/360/480/600. Cooldown rescaled to 12/10/8/6.

It's too strong at early levels, with his movespeed and a little setup, any positional mistakes are generally fatal.

Leshrac - disco-goat power-pwn Lightning Storm jump distance reduced to 350. yueeeessss

So you can actually lane against him with half decent positioning.

Naga Siren - Mirror Image now produces 1/2/3/3 illusions. Base armour reduced to 4. Song of the Siren now has a 1 second channelling time before activation. Sure, completely destroy a hero, dont like the illusion change at all.

Chance to counter BS ult enabled, minimal skill required to use now. Less cheap stacking, little more vulnerable to harassment.

Queen of Pain - Shadow Strike now deals damage every 3.1 seconds.

Gives you a chance to blink thatttsssss not really the problem though....

Shadow Fiend - Necromastery max souls rescaled to 6/16/26/36. uhhhhhh not sure if i like this way too. he still farms a lot with razes.

No longer auto out last hits everyone quite as soon.

Slark - scaling on Leap changed to 2/2.5/3/3.5. As discussed too many times before. slark is underpowered right now.

Storm Spirit - Static Remnant damage rescaled to 100/150/200/250. personally i would rather have an overload nerf, ganking storm with no points in overload is so weird to look at, that shouldnt happen.

Don't want to overnerf him now he and his greedy mid buddies can't fill up on jungle creeps so easily.

Techies - complete rework. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Templar Assassin - Refraction is now more visible to enemy players while active.

Tusk - I like Hamster's attack the snowball idea. The whole jump in and save thing was getting pretty tiring.

Undying - Soul Rip rescaled to 9/16/23/30. Tombstone HP removed and replaced with 3/6/9/12 attacks to kill. spooky as **** numbers, removal of HP to hits to kill is what made him OP in the first place.

Some small nerfs to this powerful hero.

Witch Doctor - Voodoo Restoration now activates for a 5 second burst, and will only turn off before then if you run out of mana. It now has a cooldown of 1 second after use. Death Ward cooldown increased to 90 seconds at all levels. Aghanim's Scepter now gives 1/2/3 bounces.

Some small nerfs to this powerful hero.

Winter Wyvern - Splinter Blast range reduced to 900. nothing OP about her worst spell. Allies under Cold Embrace now take 50% increased magic damage. eeeeehhhhhhh, i would rather see a range nerf/minor heal nerf. maybe higher base heal and lower percentage? Winter's Curse cooldown increased to 120/110/100.

Various small nerfs to wave clear, embrace more dangerous, and slight increase to ult CD.

Items:

Glimmer Cape - cooldown increased to 25 seconds, fade time increased to 1 second, cloaked allies revealed by true sight lose the bonus magic resistance. seems like a bit too much although i do agree that it is too strong.

Cmon ChiChi you know it has to happen.

Medallion of Courage/ Solar Crest - when cast on allies, only 50% of the bonus is bestowed, the rest is kept by the owner.

While I like the teamwork element, kinda silly/OP how these items are being used.

Rather recite it wholesale, all the previous moans/grumbles/suggestions Hamster and I have had about an item that allows you to restrict enemy mobility abilities/items for a short period. It needs an approx ~3000-4500 gold price, depending on effect.

Summary:

I want a fighting meta that's actually a fighting meta. The amount of jungling/stacking in TI5 badly impacted the pace of the games and lead to a lot of uncontested/uninteresting play.

Few rough edges knocked off some of the most popular heroes to try and even out the pool and lead to more variety. Tried not to hit them too hard as the meta changes here probably effect quite a few of them...

Thoughts?

But if you nerf any form of jungle/ancient stacking, where are the massive buffs to Alchemist, Luna, Sven, and a few other carries who are already almost unplayable right now and that you're forever putting in the garbage bin? :)

By the way just because there's a lot of people stacking jungle and ancients doesn't mean it's a good idea. Personally I die a little every time I see a Templar Assassin stack ancients. Just because the hero can do this doesn't mean that he should...the hero peaks at level 8-10 and should gank not farm, every TA I've ever seen stack ancients just misses his timing window and throws the game as surely as an AFK midas Enchantress does.
All this to say that farming mids who use the jungle are not necessarily overpowered...they take a LOT of space by doing that and often miss their timings.