Sando's 6.89

I know it's not as much, but what about Juggernaut? He has sustain from Healing Ward and his Blade Dance is a pretty good steroid too.

You don't get HotD on Juggernaut, like, ever.

Templar Assassin is also pretty handy for clearing ancients, and she has access from mid to make stacks without HotD. Sven is probably still the best though, you just need HoTD, the damage and cleave are free.

Personally I think Undying is a pretty decent Sven counter, afaik cleave doesn't work on zombies and even a BKB doesn't stop them from making you easy to kite. Obviously depends on them being able to stop you just killing the Tombstone quickly, but Sven's attack speed isn't great without more items.

Your 6.89 is missing the best thing.

Armpit Lord.

Also, the list has no changes to the heroes that need buffs:
Sniper, OD, Razor, Phantom Lancer, Techies, Bristle, Gyro, Tusk

Possibly Arc Warden, but his winrate in 5k+ is actually really high right now, much higher than it was through all of 6.86.

Edit: Bristle, that's one hero that can clear ancients pretty decently pretty early on. Still not a contest with Sven, but still.

i can't comment on many things, but Phantom Lancer, for god's sake. his damage output is so pathatic right now, and yet osfrog nerfed diffusal for him. i mean, i would rather see a phantom lancer than a riki, invis isn't a problem, but it sure as hell is annoying. please, find some way to increase phantom lancer's damage without buffing all the single target diffusal buyers.

Sniper -> full rework

Techies -> full rework. Personally I's remove Remote Mines from the game because that skill is stupid, make Stasis Trap his ultimate (massively buffed of course, like a portable black hole with 0 activation delay) and give him a skillshot that allows him to push enemies back in a small AOE as his W. The issue of that hero is that he's all about AFK mining when he should be an initiator.


Outfrog Dankmemer -> slight buffs to his early game, but you can't overdo it, he's actually not that bad.
- Astral Imprisonment mana cost reduced from 120/140/160/180 to 120 at all levels


Razor
- Eye of the Storm cast point reduced to 0
- Eye of the Storm always targets heroes in priority over creeps
- Eye of the Storm cooldown reduced to 60 at all levels. Mana cost reduced to 100 at all levels.


Phantom Lancer -> Diffusal change was stupid and completely unnecessary, personally I'd just revert it but since you postulate that you never make mistakes and never go back on them you're on your own OSFrog.


Bristleback -> Break makes this hero unplayable, you made this stupid mechanic so you're on your own OSFrog.
- Warpath now reduces the mana cost of Bristleback's skills bu 2/3/4 per stack
- Aghanim's Scepter now causes Quill Spray to damage buildings


Gyro -> Doesn't need buffs. I mean you can rework his aghs to make him a good support (his current aghs is just useless) but that's it.

Tusk -> Rework Snowball to not be the lamest cheese ever and buff the rest of his skills to scale better

Silencer (absolutely needs a rework)
- Arcane Curse mana cost reduced from 75/95/115/135 to 105 at all levels
- Arcane Curse damage per second rescaled from 14/21/28/35 to 15/20/25/30 + 10% of Silencer's intelligence
- Last Word initial debuff is no longer purgeable
- Last Word applies a disarm (again)


Arc Warden
- Primary attribute changed to intelligence
- Magnetic Field no longer gives evasion. Instead gives 4/8/12/16 armor to all heroes in the AOE on top of the attack speed bonus. No longer has any special rules for enemies in the AOE.
- Base attack time upgraded to 1.55
- Ability and item cooldowns on the double are now displayed on the skill/item tooltips of the main hero


Independently of that, I really hope Kunkka and Pudge get nerfed. This would increase my respect for Icefrog drastically, because it would clearly show that heroes are balanced around their actual strength, and once and for all shut up all the skeptics that affirm that dota is only brainlessly balanced around the competitive pick rates of the moment. Because the almighty god of dota clearly has a deeper understanding of the game than short term trend following and usage of small number statistics that can mathematically be proven to be irrelevant. Right?

Yeah, OD is only a little bit underpowered, just enough for me to complain about. He's still stronger than he was in 6.85 and 6.86a (when orb was 0/1/2/3 stolen int), his late game is pretty damn good, and he's quite good against Slark, Terrorblade, and Timber. However, since he takes forever to activate and BKB still massively screws up his item build, so in his current form, he is only strong together with Omniknight (similar to 6.86).

This guy is really damn hard to last hit with, since with the nerf to int gained and mana cost of orb, you can't just get the missing damage by attacking the enemy heroes. This is a hero with 15 damage spread, a huge frontswing, and a slow missile speed. Give him some real ability to contest last hits, and it will fix his completely unplayable mid and his semi playable safelane. 7 more damage or something would help him greatly and would be all he needs.

As for PL, I really want to see this hero be playable, I like the idea of him a lot, but unless he's against a Viper, Huskar, or WK, this hero is just underwhelming. Something like an increase in his Juxtapose damage dealt, reduction in damage taken, an increase to his AGI perhaps to boost his fighting, maybe a reduction of Spirit Lance mana cost to help his ability to gain momentum.

Phantom lancer is really hard to play, simply because he doesn't have enough damage. To buff him, you need to make his illusions deal a bit more damage, and make an item for him since diffusal has been nerfed

???

Really?

An interesting buff I think would be increasing the duration and effectiveness of illusions spawned from Doppelganger. Maybe increase the damage to 30%/0%, and the duration to 20 seconds. This way, he gains some farming speed if you're good enough to micro, and a bit of damage. On top of this, either increase the damage of Juxtapose illusions to 18% or decrease his BAT.

(Also, he still does 2k DPS to a target with mana. The only problem is that you tend to drain everyone of mana really quickly, but then they can't cast **** so it balances out.)

I don't think PL really needs much, he's pretty well balanced. A definite improvement on the old frustrating one. His escape is also really good for both dodging and moving across impassable terrain.

OD maybe slight tweaks to his skills, again he's quite strong and doesn't need that much help.

And we all know the rework Techies needs...

ROCKET JUMP!!

:)