"The Most Powerful Hero of 6.85" Thread

It's been over a week since 6.85 came out. We've had some time to experience it, see what's happening and all. When 6.84 came out, Hamstertamer had a thread where we discussed who we thought was gonna be most powerful hero of 6.84 (Most of us said Leshrac). I thought this is something that we've all thought about and should share. I've picked 9 that I think could all be candidates, but left the 10th slot for anyone who wants to explain.

Alright. Let's look at some of these.

Doom: Because Scorched Earth, like Thirst in 6.84 got super overbuffed. Doom now comes online in about half the time he used to. It's a Radiance of damage and a level 1 alch ult of regen once it's maxed out, it's insane. The nerfs to Bloodstone also buffed him too. Out of all of these, I nominate Doom, he seems the strongest out of all the heroes of this patch to me.

Spectre, because the change to Dispersion made it so that Spectre is now no longer countered by just getting a BKB, and it deals quite a bit more damage to supports now. This means Spectre's late game is even stronger and she may become number 1 hardest carry now.

Necrophos got some handy buffs too, The Sadist buff makes him quite a bit tankier in mid-game, and the death pulse buff gives him much more lane presence, so he can come online earlier, before Glimmer Capes are attained, and Glimmer Cape got quite a nerf too.

Slardar got a massive sprint buff, with Phase and a 5 second downtime. He can snowball even more easily now and has presence in the offlane for this.

Terrorblade got remade, with more presence in non-solo vs solo lanes, has a much better Sunder, and is just a more impressive fighter altogether. Question is, if Icefrog had to take him out of Captain's Mode, did he go too far? I don't really think so, Terrorblade's weaknesses are still very present and crippling.

Earth Spirit did not receive any really big buffs, but the meta slowed down, which means he actually have enough stones for fights again. I only put him here because his winrate in the highest skill bracket is really high (54-56%). Indeed, is he still super OP?

Shadow Fiend is probably the dominant midder this patch, and the whole "this hero has never been nerfed" thing makes him deadlier now than ever, as now his power has really freaking crept. Templar Assassin and Windranger are also applicable here, however, I think SF stands out the most among them.

Night Stalker has been seeing some competitive play, due to his buffed roaming and early game in general with his small buff that turned out to be a rather large one. With the Big bounty hunter nerfs, Night Stalker is now the top dog for vision based Dota-play.

Nyx Assassin is a rather overlooked hero that got superbuffed this patch. Not only did low levels of Vendetta get a duration buff so he can terrorize the enemies before level 11, but the buff to his Aghs makes it really powerful now. Did he get buffed into the strongest hero in the game?

Other options that come to mind:

Strong heroes that barely got nerfed: Queen of Pain, Earthshaker
Strong supports that were barely touched: Lion, Witch Doctor, Winter Wyvern
New Possible Cancer Mids: Windranger, Templar Assassin
Snowballing Carries that got their laning way buffed: Wraith King, Riki
Massive buffs due to changes in the game itself: Warlock, Chen
WTF is that Aghs: Undying, Naga Siren
Heroes who have not been nerfed for years (Power Creepers): Sand King, Pudge, Invoker, Pugna, Sven, Chaos Knight
Ogre Magi: Ogre Magi

And whatever else. Who do you think is the Strongest Hero of 6.85?

The list is a bit awkward...since in the list only Spectre got a huge buff and Doom and Nyx Assassin got important buffs. The other heroes I wouldn't even call them minor buffs, more like convenience changes that change very little.

Where is Abaddon? Literally Guardian Angel except that it works on magic damage as well and it can't be purged. Oh and Abaddon wins any lane easlily. That's a great idea to massively buff one of the 10 best Aghs upgrades in the game. That 50% reduction ult sounds balanced boys.

Where is Witch Doctor? He was already one of the top supports in last patch, almost ES/Wyvern tier. Now he was buffed, and quite a bit at that...Icefrog must be high or something.

Where are Earthshaker and Winter Wyvern? They're still broken first pick material supports and weren't changed in any way, and personally I still think that Wyvern has no place in CM until her E skill gets balanced.

Where is Slark? All his counters were massively nerfed. No more Bloodcyka. Less Lina. Less Storm.

Where is Windranger? All her counters were massively nerfed and more or less kicked from the meta.

And...where is Anti-Mage? I think people should stop watching the direct changes and actually read between the lines like "oh hey bfury is now 100 gold cheaper and manta doesn't have a mana cost anymore, ez +100 GPM and infinite rat with manta spam, maybe the stun time on ult and the blink range before you max it change literally *nothing*. I mean, I despise that hero and hate farming creeps and the patch makes *me* want to play him :)
Oh and did I mention no more Lina and no more Bloodseeker? Ez AM games.

I don't actually think there's a most OP hero right now, or at least nothing on like Leshrac levels.

Lina is still crazy good so I guess she could count? Windranger is probably there as well i some regards.

Otherwise it's either the meta's become pretty diverse in 4 of 5 roles, or it's just a little too early to call anything yet.

Earth Spirit might be, but that's only because the hero is inherantly unfair.

EDIT; Because even though Spectre is the nominal winner of the patch notes, she's still a situational pick because she's a situational hero.

Invoker is broken. Big magic dmg? Yes. Big physical dmg? Yes. Mobility? Yes. Push? Yes. Laning? Alacrity.
All bases covered? Yes. Underutilized in the pro scene? Sadly yes.

The list is not the focus Hamster. It was just something created based on heroes I see often in high level ranked games (from front page of spectating) and heroes that got a massive winrate increase. It's just a starting point so everyone can talk about whoever they think is the hero of the patch.

And yeah, there were many options, I considered most of them (except AM and Slark). It probably means this patch is significantly more balanced like Sanvitch suggested.

I think Templar Assassin is also really good now. As well as VS and the likes. Armour reduction got nerfed a lot last patch, and now the abilities work almost double as effective.

Invoker is also really good with the Agh's buff.

Ogre. Because Ogre.

Oh Venomancer is another hero worth mentioning competitively. Whilst it was a lot of minor buffs, the change to his ulti is noticable early, his laning options are better due to a nicer mid, he's really hard to naturally counter, and he's kind of viable in a support role again.

Sooo... Alchemist has caught us by surprise. Is he worth a look?

yes

So Alchemist. Seems like the real power creeper wasn't SF or Wind, but this guy. Radiance buffs. Slashing rubber banding, a playable mid environment for more than 5 heroes with nerfs to Storm Spirit, the guy who can easily pick him off, and probably everyone saying that he was garbage probably made it so that Icefrog was more willing to go overboard with the buffs to his laning. As a bonus he counters the other top contenders for most powerful hero of this patch, Spectre and Doom.