6.87 Patch Notes: The Imbalance of Power

Me too, just sometimes I aim for trees as well :)

Updating with a few more things;

Invoker
- Wex bonus move speed is disabled during Ghost Walk.
- Forge Spirit bounty increased to 60.
- Forge Spirit Melting Strike no longer pierces spell immunity.
- Ice Wall slow decreased to 15% + 5% per Quas level, down from 20% per Quas level.

Enchantress
-Impetus damage cap reduced to 1000 units.
- Untouchable slow reduced to 40/60/80/100.

Faceless Void
- Time Dilation duration reduced to 4/6/8/10 and it no longer affects passive abilities.

Spectre
- Haunt cooldown increased to 150.
I hear everyone saying Spectre's overpowered, but how do you even nerf that hero without making her useless? I really think it's a case of old PL, where she just fits the meta really well and isn't innately overpowered like a certain four legged two armed hero made of obsidian that I'm thinking of.

This haunt cd nerf is really impressive. Can think about making it 150/135/120.

Thing about spectre is that all her abilities are helping her join crucial fights and finishing off stragglers. She can really stick to targets.

I can say that making spectral dagger disjointable or making it purgeable to end your slow and tracking will do good enough.

I really like that dagger change, though I can foresee coding issues depending on how the ability was written in the first place.

And can I just omit the veil entirely

Zeus
-Removed from the game

Come on could people stop with the argument "that hero just fits the meta"? All I read is "I have no idea wtf I'm talking about but that hero is OP, I just *know* it. Besides, I read some tea leaves and they confirm that".
Spec doesn't even match up well against meta heroes.

So explain her sudden surge in the pro scene since 6.86 dropped. She was practically ignored in prior patches and was actually indirectly nerfed by silver edge this patch. She's always been a pub winner but really.

Again, the fact that pro players take several months before realizing things and/or actually practicing and picking them. She was buffed in 6.85, that's it. 6.86 did nothing for the hero, on the contray even.
Besides, that's not really answering my point. Anyone can easily list a lot of reasons why Invo or OD are OP in 6.86 that weren't true in previous patches, yet nobody has any idea of a reason that would make Spec OP in 6.86 and wasn't true before already.
"that hero fits the meta" doesn't mean ANYTHING. If you want to make a point, use actual arguments like what specific change in what specific patch broke the hero...this is directed at anyone on the forum using "fits the meta" a bit too liberally not anyone in particular btw.

Spectre was always a decent hero. I can't remember a time where you can actually say that she was trash. There were always better heroes than her. That is how most "op" heroes work. They were always decent but with nerfing the previous meta heroes and slightly buffing the rest of the pack you get a new op hero generation and that are Spectre, Invoker and [outworld devourer]] now.

Troll Warlord during 6.83 was an absolute beast but he was always a decent hero before that patch. Just during that patch he got a slight buff, the meta changed a bit and booom a new op hero was born.

Sometimes it happens that a total **** hero becomes an op hero in just one patch and an example of that are Sniper and outworld devourer. Those heroes were **** but than they got reworked and it seemed that that rework was just a bit too good.

But in general op heroes are the heroes that were decent in the patch before. Storm Spirit, Bloodseeker, Juggernaut, Spectre, Invoker, Lina, Faceless Void, Bounty Hunter it were all decent heroes and than they got a little buff and others got a little nerf and whoop they where overpowered.

Btw the reason that for exemple Spectre had such a low pickrate in pro-games before 6.86 is just because pros only play meta heroes so if you are not a meta hero you don't get picked even if the hero is actually decent or even good.

Agree with you on almost everything Frosto, but Troll Warlord didn' become OP in 6.83 because of some abstract meta change or a slight buff. You can pinpoint the exact change that made him OP.

December 17, 2014 Patch (6.83)

Fixed Fervor stack count being 1 stack too slow

This was a "bug fix" but in practice it was a massive buff. Fervor stacks took tons of time to build up, and it made them build up a ton faster. This was the equivalent of a hard +34 attack speed buff, even better than that.

I don't think Spectre is broken, but some reasons why she might fit the current meta so well: ability to fight early on (other builds that don't depend exclusively on Radiance), ability to join teamfights globally (all heroes with global presence are greatly appreciated, think Io and Nature's Prophet), ability to, even though joining fights early, continue farming and building for late game. She has also a mix of damage types, which I have noticed is favourable now too ( Enchantress, OD). This meta is one of constant fighting, where the cores that are able to do that And still farm shine - like Gyrocopter or Juggernaut. In pro games (pub games are different for this analysis) she is in a good place right now, picked sometimes but not always on top chart of bans/picks.