6.86d

Well this is unexpected given we don't normally getd patches;

Aether Lens now has a 550 gold recipe instead of a Cloak (no longer grants Magic Resistance)
Hand of God cooldown is no longer reduced by Aghanim's Scepter
Invoker's base agility reduced from 20 to 14
Deafening Blast manacost increased from 200 to 300

Good God Chen. I mean I know you were far far too good but good God.

Also yay Aether Lens nerf is justified. Shame that Invoker is the same hero basically (Okay, -1 base armour is the kind of thing that makes a big difference in lane, but it won't change that much).

It is only reduction on ulti CD nerf. His early game dominance is still good. He is the same hero.


I like the aether lens change. It was deserved. Magic nukers getting moar range and more tank, that was disgustingly OP. THey cooul have added a recipe to increase cost but OSfrog remdied it completely

NO DONT TOUCH MY CHEN STOP VOLVO WHY

Nerfs to heroes I don't pay much attention too, alright. 300 mana cost for Deathening Blast seems kind of significant to Voker's early game. The cd thing to Chen seems like it'll make his deathballing a little bit less unbeatable, since I ran into a few Chens this patch and the heals with ancients is so difficult to beat.

Nerf to Aether Lens. Indeed, it was far too strong, and I was sick of all the Pudge pickers. I'll miss the magic resist tho, I would've been okay with a pricier lens to have a Lich with massive defense, or a Necro that was nuke resistant. I guess it's okay to make Leshrac and SK playable again, since they might actually kill the supports now.

Couldn't care less about those changes. My hero doesn't even make use of -1 Invo armor.

Aether Lens nerf is kind of expected, although personally I never thought the item to be that gamebreaking. It's not that the item is bad, it's actually pretty good, it's just that Blink Dagger is simply a better item. Instant low cooldown positionnning is better than cast range increase. And lens already suffered from the Ring of Health component being kind of wasted, supports don't need HP regen after the very early game. So now you pay 1400 gold for the cast range increase, the only thing the item gives over dagger is 250 mana. Well you still go dagger *and* lens on some heroes like Lion or SD, but seriously dagger first.

Massive Chen nerf. Massive. Cooldowns are what this game is all about, and it got multiplied by 4. RIP free 30 second cooldown improved mek.

Invoker gained 4 free levels of XP but lost 38 HP and 1 armor to compensate. Wow, this clearly compensated for that. What a significant nerf, now the hero is clearly balanced Keepo.

And don't forget the only real change because who plays Chen anyways :

* Arc Warden's Tempest Double now grants XP to Arc Warden if it lands the killing blow on enemy heroes.

Don't underestimate this. Yep, that's an AW buff, and not a negligible one. Get solo kills with clone, get faster level 16. Midas used by the clone already gave XP to the main, now kills do so as well. A well-played AW can level up faster than Meepo. What a hero.
Now if you only fixed Track...

Aether Lens is much better than Blink Dagger on some heroes. Even with blink you will often have to get into a position where you will expose yourself. Usually you need to wait for the perfect opportunity to jump and use your skills. With Aether Lens though you can stay far back and still be usefull on the fight. The increased range on Force Staff and defensive abilities such as Shallow Grave, False Promise, Nightmare etc allow for a much better positioning game for supports. The increased placement range on skills like Tombstone and Nether Ward and also wards are very usefull.

They've fixed the Arc Warden Track bug, so BH is no longer super good against AW for silly reasons.

Thought it worth mentioning and there wasn't a better thread than this one

why did they do this to Aether Lens. Honestly didnt see that coming, I thought Aether was pretty balanced. This nerf is gonna hit Zues and Pudge pretty hard tho so I'm not too upset.

The item was becoming the 6.86 version of Glimmer Cape? Little more situational, but it was creeping up there in terms of usage.

That's generally enough of a reason to see an item get nerfed, since Icefrog seemingly hates utility items not called Force Staff or Blink Dagger consitently being built in multiples on teams