HYPE!

I agree with you, the impact of the rune may actually be much bigger than it may seem.

I forgot to add "Yes please keep buffing Crystal Maiden for no reason, that makes me happy, I already leveled up these two skills first anyways, thank you" xD

You can just test it all in test client, Sanvitch. It also has a working MM system right now which I hope doesn't affect your normal client account because I decided to try Arc Warden out without knowing what he does even remotely. We started out without courier, then I was adjusting my controls like a lunatic for the half of the laning stage, read skill descriptions etc, got a lovely 18 min Hand of Midas and decided I had enough ad I better l2p first xD

It's definitely worth to learn this hero though, just so I can destroy scrubs with him in every game instead of getting destroyed by this hero myself.

Where even is the test client? I'd have downloaded it if I knew where it was.

I'm looking forwards to learning some of the new mids, namely Invoker and OD, since both sound so good right now. I've not been hyped to play for quite a while now

Inb4 jungle potm, cuz you basically cm now. gg wp no re Kappa
I think roaming potm is actually viable now tho. I didn't like the hero at all for the last 2-3 patches, because her skillset is so underwhelming in comparison to other heroes. Now potm can somewhat scale with that inbuild midas similar to CM. The cd is still pretty long and the mana cost pretty high though.

DK is pretty much immortal in lane with that armor and HP regen and Dragon Lance is pretty nice for him as a midgame push item. You don't get further value from the Quarterstaff, but I think the midgame siege is worth it. Maybe you can pick up Butterfly on him with the Quarterstaff, but I don't really like the item on STR heroes.

Invoker was buffed for the 3rd(?) patch straight now. The laning is now decent since you can invest another point in quas/wex/exort which is a huge deal early on. Level 2 Invoker actually has kill potential with an early rotating support.
Aether Lens first/second item is also so good on Invoker. More range on Tornado, Meteor and Deafening Blast (and Coldsnap for ganks) is such a huge buff in addition to the longer range on Eul's. The components and stats are not so exiting, but the survivability helps a little and the sustain is pretty nice for early rotations to the jungle as was standart for 6.85 mids.

I'm a little sad Jakiro didn't get a buff to his cast points which I find a little too long. Just 0.05-0.1 off Icepath's castpoint would make him so much better already. He's still good for a lane harrass, but since the 8.85 meta favored dual lanes mid and safe, which I don't believe will change, I don't think he'll be back soon.

The Arcane rune is a pretty big buff to caster mids. I think there will be more qop, lina, zeus etc. SF will probably still be good enough to warrant an early pick.

CM got buffed again holy **** icefraud pls.

Dank Seer got nerfed really hard. Oracle was already a decent counter with the purging root, but ion shell being purgable now is really rough.

The changes to Enigma are something I really like. No big buffs, but minor buffs that make the hero a little better.

KOTL buffs? AWWWWW YEAH

Pudka actually viable now. Get Aether Lens + Aghs + Octarine = close to 1k pure dmg + long *** disable time at 1500 range. Seems legit.

New aghs on SK is really good now. Aghs + Aether Lens for essentially double blink range initiation.

Ursa Aghs is pretty legit. Almost unkillable on 18 second cd + purging a stun or root is really good. Might replace BKB against specific enemy lineups I think.

WK laning finally fixed. Thank god.

It should be somewhere in your library, at least it's in mine.

I feel the opposite btw, OSFrog did a lot of **** in this patch and I can only guess what it will amount to. Oh well, at least I am satisfied with a nice Luna buff. Might start going for HotD again with new Satyr Tormentor, 6 Hp regen aura and a spammable 180 dmg nuke is insane for early pushes.

I was clearly just blind xD If only I wasn't at home then I'd actually install it quickly (My home speed is like a 5th of my uni internet).

This patch is just so weird. A lot of buffs that seem arbitrary, but I get the feeling the patch has a lot of potential to be really good. Solely because there's no obvious direction it's going. That also means it has equal potential to be god tier awful.

There's a lot of **** that seems silly, but hey with b, c and d patches this could be really really good.

Oh and DP sounds broken.

I hope so. It's just not what everyone clearly expected and there is a,lot not just strange, but openly stupid stuff, like nerfing Hex into oblivion, buffing Silver Edge beyond reasonable level etc.

Edit: now that I'm not so mad I think I see the reason OSFrog did all that, though this doesn't make it any less ******ed. With all that hype on DOta-related sites, especially on Reddit, Icefraud didn't want to disappoint and just delivered a lot of random content to make an impression of this patch being full of new stuff. Well can't deny, it's really full but most of ASUs, for instance, are fairly situational and hardly any useful. And it can also break the balance easily.

Hex was nerfed again?

Also, I think people who say that some of the best heroes didn't get nerfed are being superficial when reading. WR is probably the one who came out of it best (If not being better than before), but her competitive win-rate wasn't as big as her level of annoyingness.

Like, SF, Ember Spirit, Doom, Huskar Sladar, Dazzle and WW all had fairly significant nerfs, despite them not being obvious ones.

Oh, and Invoker not being the worst level 1 hero makes me happy

Scythe of Vyse
Hex cooldown reduced from 30 to 25

Hex was nerfed? Is there something escaping me?

IMO the " Silver Edge debuff is no longer dispellable" is not that important of a buff, it only affects heroes like Huskar and Slark, but that was the initial purpose I think, what good was the item if you could just purge the effect (it didn't counter those heroes, now it does). It wasn't an OP item before, it isn't one now. So that's not openly stupid. Some Aghs though eheh

Hex was nerfed because Hex counters were buffed. Oracle which will be probably very popular with the pros, Ursa with Aghs, etc. Oracle for most of it. Like, you have an Oracle in enemy team, you can not buy Hex because you wither blow it on Oracle or he blinks in and dispels it from every hero. >Nice. It was already weak, now it's just **** though still usable.

I was mad about WR the most, yea, but also Void and Dazzle. SF was hit very hard, wayyyy too hard, so was Doom and so is WW though her E is still the same pretty much.


Edit: Silver Edge counters a lot of heroes and it could only be got rid of by dispel, what are you even talking about?It's a disaster for a lot of heroes, Spectre, Bristle, Am just from the top of my head.

Edit2: oh also Dazzle was actually buffed, and so were Glimmer and Solar. Nice optic lens Icefraud xD.