On September 24, 2015 Valve Corporation released Patch 6.85 for Dota 2 in connection with the upcoming tournament in Frankfurt, taking place on November 16-21. The new patch affects the mechanics of the game and the balance of weapons and characters. Many of the characters and objects have been improved, while others have been nerfed. The last group includes the previously popular heroes, such as Leshrac, Lina, and Storm Spirit.
The home page of Dota 2 has also been completely redesigned for this event. There you can learn about every single change that came with Patch 6.85.
This top 10 is specifically for those who were too busy last week, but still want to learn about the most important changes in the new patch, so that enemies don’t catch you by surprise.
Certain heroes became much stronger
Phantom Lancer, Anti-Mage and the like received a number of indirect improvements due to changes in Heart of Tarrasque and Manta Style. Heart of Tarrasque’s restoring power increased from 3.25% to 4%. Thus, the possibility of the above-mentioned characters pushing back into the fray has increased significantly. In addition, the Manta Style cooldown for melee heroes reduced from 50/35 to 45/30 seconds respectively. Mana cost has been reduced from 165 to 125, as well.
All of this opens certain opportunities for Anti-Mage and Phantom Lancer, although later it became clear that the characters themselves also got nerfed. Now, together with the lower cost of Ring of Health and Void Stone (minus 25 gold each), these characters will have much better laning possibilities.
Leshrac isn’t that scary anymore
Leshrac has been nerfed, especially his Lightning Storm ability, which directly affects the hero’s laning. Lightning Storm’s jumping distance has been decreased from 650 to 475. This means that from now on it will be much harder for Leshrac to harass his opponents. The damage from Lightning Storm has been reduced from 80/140/200/260 to 50/100/150/200, which also makes farming harder. In connection with this, items like Bloodstone, Glimmer Cape and Eul's Scepter have been nerfed, as well.
Undying with Aghanim’s Scepter is “bad news”
Undying has suffered an even greater change. By having an Aghanim's Scepter, his ultimate ability - Flesh Golem, will no longer increase the damage and restore health. Instead, Decay will steal 10 Strength from each hero, while without Aghanim's Scepter this measure equals 4 Strength.
One of the joinDOTA editors - Gorgon, quickly calculated the number of health, which can be gained by Undying with Aghanim's Scepter for the whole duration of the Flesh Golem ability. You can read about his discovery on his twitter page.
Undying w/ Agh's & Level 4 decay: max 7125 health gained With Octarine: max 9500 health gained. Average HP growth: around 1700 - 1900. Wow
— Ryan 'Gorgon' Jurado (@TheWonderCow) September 25, 2015 
Lina became much weaker
The new patch nerfed another strong character, this time it’s Lina, the Slayer. Her nukes now deal less damage - Light Strike Array now has only 200 damage points, while before the patch that number was 280. Laguna Blade had 950 - now the damage has decreased to 850. Thus, the ability of Lina to put out a huge amount of magic power reduced greatly.
In addition, the hero is now indirectly affected by the changes to Eul's Scepter. The distance of Cyclone effect reduced from 700 to 575, which complicates her abilities to initiate a gang fight or lift an opponent into the air and burn it.
Techies are disappointing
Nasty Techies has also undergone significant changes, which has particularly touched their Land Mines ability. Although the restrictions on the number of mines were lifted, and the cooldown and mana cost reduced by 50% - the damage of Land Mines also dropped by half.
However, be prepared to step on Land Mines more often, as setting them up is much faster and cheaper from now on. Another change doesn’t allow the mines to explode after their destruction. This means that all melee heroes playing against Techies can breathe a sigh of relief and not worry about Remote Mines anymore. But keep in mind that if the game drags on, then an unlimited number of mines can transform an enemy base into a very “exciting place.”
Storm Spirit has problems with mana
IceFrog, the lead developer of Dota 2, increased Static Remnant ability’s mana cost to 100, which makes farming at the early stages of the game a real problem for the hero. Static Remnant’s visibility has been decreased from 800 to 600, which turns your map into a really dark place, especially at nighttime. Ball Lightning’s mana cost has also been increased from 15+7% to 30+8%.
Lone Druid’s early game got better
A rare visitor from the previous meta is back! With the decrease of Spirit Bear ability's cooldown to 120 seconds, the early game for Lone Druid became much easier. This means he will be able to summon the bear much faster now if he suddenly dies.
Significant changes have also made the Battle Cry ability gain more damage bonus, which is now increased from 60/90/120 to 90/120/150, and an additional armor stats increased from 06/12/18 to 10/15/20 points.
Bounty Hunter’s Track ability got nerfed
With the new patch Bounty Hunter’s Track ability allows the hero to see the target, but not the surrounding area as before. This is a huge change, as Bounty Hunter and his crew mostly survived due to the True Sight provided by Track.
Also, the bonus reward for killing an enemy under Track decreased from 50/100/150 to 40/80/120 gold. Now it’s not so easy to become fabulously wealthy by winning a fight.
Glimmer Cape went down to 10%
Glimmer Cape's Fade time is now increased from 0.4 to 0.6 seconds, and magic resistance bonus is reduced from 55% to 45%. And most importantly, the effect of the Glimmer Cape can be removed by using Purge. Despite the fact that mana cost was reduced from 130 to 110, Glimmer Cape is still pretty well balanced. Other changes include the distance parameter that got reduced from 900 to 800 and the visual effect has become more prominent.
Medallion of Courage and Solar Crest aren’t worth buying
They can no longer be used on the units that are immune to magic, so characters with active Black King Bar shouldn’t be afraid of these effects anymore. Moreover, the nerf made them half as effective against Roshan (armor reduced to 3 and 5 for Medallion of Courage and Solar Crest, respectively). This is a really big change, as the mentioned artifacts have been usually used for a quick kill of Roshan.
Tell us in the comments section below what you think about the massive new Patch 6.85 and what changes you like/dislike the most.
Published: Oct 6, 2015 04:38 am