Dota 6.88b

courtesy of steamcommunity.com

Three weeks before the International 6 kicks off, we get another small, balance patch. The most notable changes consist off:

* Timbersaw strength gain reduced from 2.1 to 1.8

Our favourite tree-hater has seen a lot of play since 6.88 was released; not only that, but a late game Timbersaw with a few items is not exactly easy to bring down. 0.3 less STR gain means 150 less HP at level 25, which isn’t a lot at that point. I don’t believe this nerf will affect his potential too much.

* Metamorphosis mana cost increased from 50 to 100
* Metamorphosis no longer lingers after reincarnation/death

This, on the other hand, will hurt Terrorblade a bit more. Carries are generally quite dependent on how well they can use a second life, through buyback or Aegis. Not having his real ult (as people sometimes refer to Metamorphosis) after respawning gives the opponent more options to deal with the Hero.

The extra mana cost may not seem huge, but a couple less spells during the laning stage can mean a lot more than expected.

* Beastmaster Boar XP bounty increased from 59 to 60/70/80/90

The nerfs to Beastmaster continue. He’ll now have to be more careful with his summoned pigs; don’t forget he can have two at a time, so killing them both will result to up to 180 XP. Despite, he’s still a pretty reliable Hero to ignore.

* Lane Creeps now give 20% of XP when denied by neutrals rather than 0% (normal player denies give 50% XP)

An interesting buff to offlaners. Enemy supports denying their creep waves to neutrals will still give some XP. Perhaps now we’ll see attempts to completely zone the offlaner out rather than pulling the waves.

* Astral Imprisonment damage increased from 75/150/225/300 to 100/175/250/325
* Arcane Orb intelligence duration increased from 60 to 80

Outworld Devourer went from being zero to Hero then back to zero during the previous two major patches. I believe he still has good potential, but people tend to overreact to certain changes. The extra 20 seconds on the Arcane Orb duration will boost both his lane control and his overall fighting capabilities.

Going back and forth in nerfing and buffing a certain Hero is mostly due to the community’s reactions to the Hero. I don’t think he was that broken back in 6.86, and I don’t think he was that useless before these buffs either; hopefully, this will bring him to a point where he’s be considered valid. I don’t believe he’ll be considered overpowered again, due to his inability to damage spell immune units.

Full patch note can be found here:

http://www.dota2.com/news/updates/22824/

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