The Rekindling Soul

The long awaited metamorphosis of Shadow Fiend arrives at last. In addition to a completely new look for his form and effects, the update also contains the Demon Eater Arcana. This Arcana provides a fiery reimagining of Shadow Fiend, complete with new effects, sounds, animations, icons, and an altered voice. We also thought it’d be fun to allow you to show off your skill at triple-razing enemies to the ground, so with the Arcana equipped you’ll be see a fiery celebration of your skill. Finally, if you buy the Demon Eater set before October 31st, it will come with an ‘Exalted’ quality. Yet Shadow Fiend isn’t the only one receiving special treatment – this update also contains the much-anticipated 6.82 balance update, which introduces an arsenal of additions and tweaks affecting every part of the game. Major systems have been overhauled, and heroes have been retooled and reworked. Bloodseeker and Phantom Lancer both now sport new abilities, you’ll find a new rune in the river, a new item in the shop – the list goes on and on. And for the first time in years, the Dota 2 map itself has changed, with significant layout changes to Roshan’s lair, base fountains, and more. What are you waiting for? Head over to The Rekindling Soul Update Page. If you’ve never watched Dota 2 played live, you’re missing out. The sword swings, the ancient explodes, and the crowd roars. It’s amazing, but don’t take our word for it. There are two upcoming events for you to check out: if you’re near New York City, check out ESL One in Madison Square Garden on October 9th and 10th. Or, if you’ll be in Yinchuan, China next month, the World Cyber Arena will be holding their LAN finals at the Yinchuan International Convention Centre from October 2nd through the 5th. One more thing: we on the Dota 2 team have a number of updates in the works right now that we’re really excited about, some for the rest of this year, and a big update for early next year. But we’re pretty sure we won’t be able to make enough progress on the larger update if we put it down to work on Diretide – so we’ve decided that we’re not going to ship a Diretide event this year. We know that last year we weren’t clear enough in our communication about this, so this year we wanted to be up front about it early. Next year will bring monumental changes to Dota 2, and we’re confident that when you’ve seen what we’ve been working on, you’ll agree it was worth it.

Time to update my SF guide

So Volvo decided to practically abandon HP Removal rather than fix it?

F.E.A.R. will be FURIOUS! X{D

This is massive.

And to think I thought 6.81 was a meta change. This 'Bounty Rune' may very well see a resurgence of a 4 protect 1 strategy if it works how I think it does. This Bloodcyka and PL rework is interesting - no idea if it buffs or nerfs them. Riki is buffed in high MMR, nerfed in low MMR.

They buffed a lot of hard carries which makes me happy. Except the Terrorblade buff, that was unnecessary and is probably unfair. But... he's in captain's mode!

Anyway, the Heroes most people were thinking about.

VOID: Chronosphere is nerfed. Minor AoE reduction, but... Chronosphere no longer disables passives. I wasn't aware it did, but this could be either trivial or massive.

DOOM: Casual nerfs here. His ult is a lot weaker - it now requires Ags to disable passives (!) and the cast point was increased. Still, Ags was pretty good anyway, so we'll just see more pickups of it. Ags-refresher Doom new meta? It's also worth noting that Duel no longer disables passives either, so they seem to have gotten rid of mutes.

Here is a list of hard carries that got buffed:
Alchemist
Anti-Mage
Chaos Knight
Gyrocopter
Lone Druid
Medusa
Not sure about PA and PL yet. Probably buffs.
Spectre
Sven (this ags is sickening)
Terrorblade

That's 9, possibly 11, of the 17. I'm probably getting too hopeful here, but could we possibly see a meta shift towards hard carries? If so, I'm so ready for TI5. They've nerfed a lot of the Deathball Heroes and appear to have buffed a lot of midlaners, especially 'greedy' ones like Shadow Fiend and Outweed Dankvourer.

New meta!

now there will always b a fight near rune...as they spawn on both sides...plus bottle carrier are at advantage...bottle sales gonna sky rockt

I absolutely love the hell out of this patch. THANK YOU VOLVO FOR FIXING DOTO!!!

Bloodseeker : complete rework and removed from captain's mode. FINALLY. This poor hero design got the full rework it deserves. No more imba perma- Doom on Puck for an otherwise worthless hero. I like his Bloodbath rework, pretty neat teamfight ability, I'm happy that he gets at least some teamfight presence.
I say, support Bloodseeker new meta. Lots of utility in that skillset.

Of course there's the nice buffs to the harder carries : Chaos Knight now officially OP, Medusa snake speed looks really nice too, Clinkz buff looks pretty weird since everyone was going Skadi on him anyways...medallion-desolator Clinkz new meta?

Mask of Madness on Summon Spirit Bear new meta... Necronomicon on Summon Spirit Bear sounds pretty imba honestly for OP ratting with r[A]diance. Or dagon for the lulz.

Support Sven with Aghs FTW. Gyrocopter uses Flak Cannon and does 400 damage a hit...rampage xD

I love the Templar Assassin permaslow, it's a really big buff honestly

Razor link blocked by Linken's Sphere? Nice. Finally you can 1 v 1 Razor ^^

Crystal Maiden burst damage OP. Jungling CM officially viable, Frostbite now oneshots any jungle creep. I WANT TO PLAY JUNGLING/ROAMING CARRY CM WITH BLINK BKB PLS VOLVO GIFF 6.82.

Is that me or was Riki just nerfed to the ground? Has Riki ever been OP? Minus 10 movement speed? And 30 second replenish time for Blink Strike instead of a 5-second cooldown? I think the hero sucks now.

I'm having trouble seeing what this Phantom Lancer rework means. His chasing ability is through the roof now, nobody can escape. A spammy slow + a movement speed burst + a repositioning tool? Is he a ganker now? I think he got nerfed as a hard carry though, that AGI gain nerf + the illusion damage nerf + Diffusal Blade nerf + no more r[A]t possible.

But aren't we forgetting something?

Ah, yes.

FAK YOU Tinker.

FINALLY the most broken hero in DotA got his well-deserved nerf. Finally Black King Bar blocks March of the Machines like it's supposed to ; no more BKB-piercing ********. And he can't farm ancients anymore. And dagon 5 now sucks since the mana cost is no longer improved, worst item in the game confirmed. AND Ethereal Blade no longer turns Tinker ethereal, so say goodbye to your perma-immunity to right-click damage. At last this fcking march, the most cancer spell in all of DotA gets nerfed. ******** = stopped. Ty Volvo.

Oh and...FAK YOU Lycan. 1.5 second transformation time so no more escaping from your rat without blowing your Black King Bar now.

My only regret is that Faceless Void was barely touched. And farewell to re-buying Black King Bar...sad -_-

hamstertamer....i nvr thought abt the possibility of mom n necro on spirit bear...

love the fact tht riki is now trash....3 sec is enough to bring him down..

brood nerfed i guess...fade tym have been increased...n web counts reduced..

spirit brker can have team fyt presence with his new drums like active..

now agility heros can freely buy butterfly...nyc active..speed boost 20%

also i liked bounty hunter buff..track one..and attack his near by allied..lol.....n he can become op with bottle now...more exp more gold

sven ahh my the hero with balls..now makes more team fyt presence...n probably septre will solve his mana pool problems..

plus the hodt...+3 ho regen...i always wondered where did the regen from helm go..hehe...

overall this new patch feels good

lol phantom lancer n blood seeker shown the door...out of cm mode

Doesn't the Clinkz change mean he can't orbwalk to harass anymore without drawing creep aggro?

Here are my reactions..

Terrorblade and Legion Commander enabled in Captain's mode. I can't wait to see these in competitive games. With the push meta going strong, Terrorblade will find his place in drafts, and Legion Commander was always a weird gank-semicarry hybrid that might have hidden potential.

Slight nerf to meta heroes like Death Prophet, Doom, Razor, Faceless Void, etc.

Bloodseeker is no longer a ******ed pubstomper that is not viable against decent opponents. +1 on the reword.

Phantom Lancer's rework is weird. It changes him from an insane ratting carry late game, to a more midgame focused teamfight oriented carry. Although I'm not sure how his squishiness will pan out. Power Treads + Drum of Endurance new core on PL?

Alchemist has been buffed. Both in terms of support and carry. I like it.

Not sure about the change to Culling Blade. Isn't it support to completely purge the enemy before applying the effect, which means ignoring Linken's Sphere was actually intended? Maybe not.. I'm not sure..

Batrider nerfed slightly again. Why am I not surprised. I don't think it'll affect him much in terms of teams picking him though. One of the strongest offlaners, especially on the dire side, decent midgame presence, great late game potential. He is still awesome, in my opinion.

Chaos Knight is back! 40% increased duration to his ultimate.

Clinkz. This is my favorite. I've been a fan of Clinkz for a long time now. Being able to build an orb on him is awesome. Combined with the slight buff to Eye of Skadi, I wouldn't be surprised if teams start picking him more. So far, Empire has been the only ones to consistently pick him as a 1 position.

Nightstalker. I like the changes to him. Makes him more powerful during the early/mid game. I hope we see more of him in competitive.

Neat little buff to Pugna. Aghs pugna seems a little OP now. Maybe a support/pushing hero instead of a 1 position, like some of the Jakiros?

Riki is **** now.. Not that he was ever good. His ultimate is a 5 charge blink? And the bonus regen when invis is kinda meh..

Slight nerf to Sniper. He can no longer stop channeling. Not sure why this was needed.

Sven. Holy **** Aghs upgrade. Support Sven incoming. This is a pretty awesome buff to him.

Tinker. LOL. No more Ancient stacking. Combined with the change to Ethereal Blade, this was a harsh nerf. I wouldn't disagree though. Late game Tinker was pretty much GG.

Yet another Mjollnir nerf, indirectly. I doubt it would reduce its popularity though.

New shield Crimson Guard looks bad, honestly. It is a mid game item that still has integer block.. Personally, I don't think this would be used much, but I'll wait and see..

Flying Courier changes. Welcome to Treant Protector and Bounty Hunter sniping the early bottle.

Ring of Protection. You can no longer start out with a set of Tangoes and a Ring of Basilius.

Neat little cost reduction on the TP scroll. I like it.