General Discussion6.85, what do we have so far

Some important things that I've noticed so far:

Alch now gets even more gold for the rune control and can kill staks easier / zone the offlaner. Both buffs are useful for support and carry alch, though I think he won't be used as carry anyway.

I like how batrider got his decent buff. Aghs kinda situational thing I guess and not always might be useful, but definetely deserves attention.

BH now loses his ability to provide extra vision, not mentioning slight nerf to the gold income. Might impact his pickrate on a proscene.

BS wasnt nerfed much, regardless of how much people cried about it.

Chaos Knight got almost a free deso, which I consider as a significant buff, even though he lost some damage. Should we expect CK+IO back in the future?

Some good buffs for Chen will make it a little easier to play him, but that wouldn't be enough to drastically increase his pickrate.

Couple of extra for Death Prophet could be exactly a thing she needed to become picked again.

Extra vision reduced for 1st Disruptor skill, just for the Track. Looks like Icefrog thought that would make games more interesting, making scouting and warding slightly more important since some skills don't provide vision anymore?

Pretty good buff for Doom. On 4th level it does almost the same damage as Radiance, instead of doing 3/5 of it as it used to before. This is still not enough to make pros pick him more often as a carry, but makes him much more tough as an offlaner.

Extra 3 seconds of that nasty effect on DKs Breathe Fire doesnt sound too threatening, but is so annoying and could be a fight-turning factor if happens to land on a phys dmg carry as PA w/o bkb.

Slight buff for Drow still doesn't much for her cons and won't change anything at all imo.

Same goes for ES - 15 extra damage will not make pros stop picking him, because it doesnt reduce his TF potential at all.

Some small buffs for ET - reduced manacost for spirit and x1.4 increased extra damage from it is pretty cool and perfect for early aggression, not mentioning twice as long duration on his aura. I really like it, it makes him more viable, and I think that might be the reason to start picking him again.

Making Impetus not a UAM makes all difference in the world. Expect tons of Skadi Enchantresses in the future (considering also her own slow, that would be a pubstomp combo for low level matchmaking). She's still not as broken as Leshrac (in a good meaning of this word), but definetely became much stronger.

Is the Black Hole radius still not enough for Icefrog? He keeps slightly buffing it over and over.

A good nerf for Gyros ulti, this hero really needed some changes. He's still exceptionally strong, though, but it will not only make it more difficult for him to fight against carries with bkb, but also will slow him cleaning ancient stacks.

Invoker got a huge buff; now there is actually sense in buying aghs instead of octarine for him. Higher Int growth will make him more viable in early-mid game. It still depends on your skill how you'll utilize these buffs, but they're really good.

Rather small buff for Jakiro, but extra 100 units for Ice path are important, just remember that when you'll get caught right on its tip.

While not making Juggernaut stronger on first levels, Icefrog made his ulti even more deadlier on 7-8 level. 75 additional damage after full duratiin of blade fury isn't crucial in lategame, but might be enough to finish off some squishy heroes in eraly-midgame.

The changes for Kunkka kinda confused me. 5 extra damage for tidebringer is always nice to have, but its clearly not much. And for hero, who isn't being picked like at all? Moreover, XMark on earlier levels is a little bit weaker now, which leaves me wondering what Icefrog was trying to do here.

There goes the reduced casttime for Press The Attack! Just a little bit, but still feels better than before. Reduced cooldown for 1st and increased base damage is also great.

Leshrac will still remain a pubstomper, though with the reduced lightning damage it will be somewhat more difficult for him to snowball. Also with -4 base damage his lasthits will suffer in the beginning of the game. Thats not enough to get rid of him completely, but still very solid.

A very good buff for Lich. A little more AS slow from ulti, more frequent bounces, and on top of that - a great XP reducing tool.

Control on ancients for lifestealer is awesome, I agree, but practically won't make a huge difference. Still a fun thing though.

And there goes this glorious nerf for Lina! Not only her ultimate damage got reduced by 100 on max lvl (100 pure damage is pretty painful), but the stuns damage also was knocked down little bit. Really well deserved nerf, I'd say.

Lion, on the other hand, got his ulti buffed, though its understandable - he isn't picked that often and deginetely doesn't get aghas too often either (in pro plays). 100 extra units of radius on upgraded ulti now is a good argument to buy a scepter.

A very solid buff for Lone Druid also appears to be something, that might get this hero back in a spotlight, considering both his previous and new changes.

4 extra beam strikes on aghs Lunas ultimate is good, but to be honest, who really buys aghs on luna?

Lycan is buffed a little too. Just a little, but still scary. Little more strength over levels plus +10% of critical chance is pretty good for an underrated hero like him.

I also like Mystic Snake buff for Medusa, it will make her more solid during early-mid game - which would be exactly what she lacked.

Slightly more agility over levels won't change much in Mirana's playstyle, but is good as it is.

Same goes for Morph.

The buff for Naga's ulti is awesome. 2% of heal is just great and makes a good point for buying aghs.

Nature's Prophet has got some pretty cool buffs too, though to fully utilize them, players will have to build aghs - instead of rushing more useful necrobook, hex or deso.

No more ancients farm for necro! Fixed. Though he's now more viable on first stages of the game... Not really a fair trade.

A huge increase of base health regen for NS isn't as scary as it seems to be, but is a very solid buff for the laning stage.

Increased AS bonus from Bloodlust AND a possibility to cast it on towers is monstrous. Expect a wave of Ogre Magis on a pro scene.

Regardless of how high the expectations were, OD wasn't massively buffed or reworked, but his changesvare still very decent. Though now his ulti doesn't pierce Spell Immunity, it will remove 40% of max mana from enemies, which is pretty good too. A little more strength gain will also come in handy.

The changes on PA are not lifechanging, but are still interesting. Lifesteal on stiffling dagged? Combined with skadi maybe?

Slight nerfes to PL still leave him in a good position, but somewhat less agility growth is somethink you should be aware of. Thats a pretty good nerf, considering all previous.

Surprisingly, Pudge got buffed too. He's already being picked in pro plays, and this will only increase the rates.

Pugnas ulti is somewhat stronger now too.

Qops nerf to her ulti isn't a surprise either, even as little as this is.

A great buff for riki with no particular reason though. 5 more hp regen is just a lot. Its a gold time for riki pickers, expect a good average wr on him in pubs.

sand king was a good option before and is even better now, with 20% increase for the debuff damage.

A solid buff to shadow shamans shackles will definitely find its place on a pro scene. Easy to abuse after 5 lvl already.

Spectre got some rework too - though now desolate might be used to finish off creeps and maybe ancients (possibly Roshan), the dispersion was significantly nerfed, which won't impact her performance much,but still will.

There's also a huge nerf to storm. Increased manacosts will most likely destroy this hero; still better than let him snowball though.

Techies is destroyed too with his severe nerfs - which noone will regret I bet.

I also like terrorblade overwork, though some extra strength gain would come in handy.

Tiny has got a good starting buff for laning stage, but is still pretty much the same overall, excluding a little fewer mana problems in mid game.

Aghs for undying is great now, and reworked tombstones hp is also terrific.

Golems will now make you cry. No more purge working? Warlock its gonna be a constant pick now,at least in pro games.

Death Ward is buffed and deals more damage. WD was a decent pick before and is even better now.

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Thats just some things that I've noticed during a quick look over the patch notes, and overall I really like how Icefrog constantly buffs supports to make their role more important. Tho they could have give more love to some underrated heroes and add some more aghs.
I remember icefrog wants to give every hero an aghs upgrade. I wonder what would it be for ember or drow for e.x.

So besides having some quite hard-to-deal-with supports as warlock and wd, we also have got some really good buffs for long forgotten carries as ck or brew, which is really cool. Bloodstone nerf affected storm, lesh and timbersaw mainly, though did not completely remove its own potential. And I still wonder how Ench is going to be played know.