The omg version is finally here. Changelogs below, with my comments inserted. Discussion in the comment box below.

666 Changelogs (copied from http://www.playdota.com/changelogs/6.66)

Batrider
- Flaming Lasso cooldown decreased from 130/90/50 to 90/70/50

We say: Yes the buff is definitely welcome. We think that 130 sec for a level 1 ultimate that disables only 1 person without any damage is simply too poor a meal for bats.

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Was in a holidaying mood yesterday and was quite (pleasantly) surprised to find out about the frog’s Christmas gift. Who wouldn’t find it cool to see chickens, raccoons, penguins, vultures, Pudges, the Techies, the giant Rosh et al wearing Santa hats?

But beyond the Christmas spirit, here are some of our initial thoughts about the new map. Mind you this is initial - it isn’t meant to be conclusive. We can’t say anything definitive until later, most probably after the New Year, when we can make enough sense of all these Christmas goodies. For now:

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…has been released, you can download it here.

A full changelog can be found here

Info + Discussion on the 2 new heroes can be found here

and please discuss the map and changes in general here

New Heroes in the DB!

Kaldr the Ancient Apparition

Slark the Murloc Nightcrawler

New Item in the DB!

Urn of Shadows

Discuss!

The whole DotaStrategy community wishes everyone Merry Christmas!

Yes, It’s Christmas ! Time to enjoy, wait for Santa Icefrog and get loads of gifts heroes maps updates surprises! So play dota with all your friends, enemies & unknowns and show them Who’s their Daddy?

For those who don’t know, Icefrog has planned to surprise us with Christmas Dota gifts! The wait is almost over as he gave his statement yesterday,

All set now, thanks for everyone’s input

The gift unwrapping has already begun with the teasers that have started to show up on getdota.com. Everyone presumed there would one new hero in 6.65 but it turns out there are two of them! (more…)

Download it HERE

6.61 Changelog:
===============

###############
## Heroes & Items ##
###############

* Batrider: Lowered Strength gain from 2.5 to 2.0
* Bloodskeer: Bloodbath no longer regenerates from images
* Bone Fletcher: Improved Searing Arrows damage from 10/20/30/40 to 20/30/40/50
* Bone Fletcher: Rebalanced Strafe from 20/40/60/80 IAS with 30 seconds cooldown to 50/60/70/80 IAS with 60/50/40/30 seconds cooldown
* Centaur: Reduced Double Edge cooldown (25->12 seconds)
* Faceless Void: Improved base Strength (17->23)
* Furion: Lowered Sprout cooldown from 11 seconds to 11/10/9/8 seconds and manacost from 115/140/165/205 to 100/120/140/160
* Magnataur: Reverse Polarity now pulls units slightly infront of you instead of all around you
* Medusa: Lowered Stone Gaze cooldown (70->35 seconds)
* Medusa: Minor improvements to Mystic Snake speed , cast range and cooldown
* Medusa: Improved Mystic Snake’s damage from 60/100/140/180 to 80/120/160/200
* Meepo: Rescaled Geostrike from 4/8/12/16 to 5/10/15/20 damage per second
* Nerubian Weaver: Reworked Watchers [details below]
* Nerubian Weaver: Lowered Shukuchi cooldown from 13/11/9/7 to 12/10/8/6 seconds
* Night Stalker: Improved Intelligence growth from 1.25 to 1.6
* Ogre Magi: Reduced Multicast from 30%2x/45%2x+22.5%3x/60%2x+30%3x+15%4x ->25%2x/40%2x+20%3x/50%2x+25%3x+12.5%4x
* Pandaren Brewmaster: Increased Drunken Brawler critical from 1.8x to 2.0x
* Razor: Lowered Intelligence gain from 2.2 to 1.8
* Rooftrellen: Casting Nature’s Guise on an allied unit (or other spells) will no longer take you out if you have it on you
* Silencer: Transferred Glaive of Wisdom’s secondary effect of +1/-1 Intelligence from hero kills to Last Word. If an enemy hero dies under the Last Word effect, that hero will lose 1 intelligence and you will gain 1 intelligence.
* Silencer: Increased Last Word AoE from 700 to 900
* Rebalanced Curse of the Silent from 10/20/30/40 HP and 5/10/15/20 mana per second for 10 seconds to 50 HP and 25 mana for 2/4/6/8 seconds.
* Sniper: Increased Take Aim range from 55/110/165/220 to 65/130/195/260
* Spectre: Decreased Spectral Dagger cooldown from 25 to 16 seconds
* Tauren Chieftain: Lowered base damage by 10
* Tauren Chieftain: Lowered Strength gain from 2.7 to 2.3
* Tauren Chieftain: Decreased Natural Order percentages to 20/40/60/80%
* Vengeful Spirit: Improved base Agility (22->27)
* Viper: Nethertoxin now only works on enemy units
* Witch Doctor: Increased base Intelligence from 19 to 24 (base damage adjust to remain the same though)
* Aghanim’s Scepter (Queen of Pain): Restored original cooldown improvement
* Aghanim’s Scepter (Shadow Shaman): Undid part of the nerf on Mass Serpent Wards. It now gives +3 (up 1 from 6.60, down 1 from 6.59d)
* Buriza-Do Kyanon: Improved the critical value from 2.2x to 2.4x
* Helm of Dominator: Converted creeps now gain the Resistant Skin ability, making spells duration on them the same as heroes or Spirit Bear.
* Quelling Blade: Minor reduction to bonus damage (36->32)

########
## Bugs ##
########

* Fixed natural regeneration on rax
* Fixed an area where you could get stuck using TP scroll on the minimap.
* Fixed -ns mode
* Fixed a chance for duplicate heroes in -CD

* Batrider: Fixed Radiance from triggering Sticky Napalm
* Medusa: Fixed Splitshot triggering Essense Aura
* Razor: Fixed an error in the damage calculation method for Plasma Field that caused it to be slightly off sometimes
* Rooftrellen: Slightly increased Eyes in the Forest cast range (+25) to fix some order issue bugs
* Rooftrellen: Fixed Living Armor not regenerating structures properly
* Tauren Chieftan: Fixed bug with Natural Order sometimes instantly killing Forged Spirit summoned units

* Aghanim’s: Fixed minor incorrect sell value on some versions of the item
* Khadgar’s Pipe of Insight: No longer places the buff on units that already have it
* Bottle: Usage no longer removes Curse of the Silent.
* Linken Sphere: Fixed to properly block Mana Void and Nasal Goo
* Poor Man’s Shield: Fixed bug with -swap
* Quelling Blade: Fixed bug with -swap
* Quelling Blade: Fixed triggering Curse of the Silent
* Rune: Fixed Regeneration sometimes not being removed when you are full if you use bottle at the same time
* Rune: Fixed Double Damage visual effect to properly show when the user is using low graphics mode

####################
## Gameplay & Cosmetics ##
####################

* Removed the int/agi/str distribution in -CD. It is now like RD in its hero distribution.
* Bottle: Now autorefills at fountain if it isn’t fully used (2975)
* Reduced FPS drops when using Shiva’s Guard and Plasma Field with some custom import files (PGRu-Unexpect3D)
* Sound Effects: Removed the “Allied hero has fallen” (heavily requested for removal due to annoyances)

* Invoker: Added a new Icon for Sun Strike (5312)
* Juggernaut: You no longer lose control while using Omnislash. You can use items like Dagger while Omnislashing (4938)
* Slardar: Added a new icon for his Bash (3587)
* Tidehunter: Added a new Anchor Smash visual effect (4393)
* Gem of Truesight: Changed hotkey from T to I to help against some common misbuys
* Increased the transparency a little more for the Circle Of Powers that aren’t yours.
* Fixed -SP moving your camera away from taverns
* Fixed various minor inconcistences between sentinel and scourge units/buildings
* Fixed some very minor inconsistencies with acquire ranges on some heroes
* Observer Board colors now alternate between white and grey to make it a little more readable

Old Watcher’s:
==============
Cooldown: 30/20/10/5 seconds
Movement Speed: 522
HP: 1
Bounty: 10-13
Vision: 1400/1400
Invisible

Urna Swarm:
============
Summons scarabs from corpses. The Scarab can burrow and become invisible.
While it is unburrowed, it is visible to the enemy and has an Infestation
ability. Has collision when unburrowed.
Magic Immune.

Cooldown: 14/11/8/5
Movement Speed: 450
HP: 200
Armor: 6
Bounty: 26-38
Burrowed Vision: 400/400
Normal Vision: 1400/1400

Infestation: Can suicide to Silence enemy units 275 aoe around it for 3 seconds and deal 20 damage per second (non-stacking).

Enjoy.

If you have being living under a rock for the past year or so, you would not know that the DotA concept has been taken by a  number of game companies, had the wc3 elements and restrictions removed then revamped into a whole new game.  So far the only one of these that was sold to the general public is Demigod which sadly enough was a bit of a flop in my opinion.

Do not fret, there are more on the way which look quite promising, I am (naturally) talking about League of Legends. While browsing this site in recent times you will probably have noticed the same two ads flashing at you relentlessly. On the topic of LoL, I can’t say much more than this: yes there is beta, and I am participating.

Riot staff (the makers of League of Legends, including the maker of DotA Allstars – ‘Guinsoo’) have taken a very open approach to the development of the game throwing the doors wide and asking the question: What would you like to see in this game? Thus far this has being highly successful and LoL has gained popularity (definitely helped by the witty internet meem abbreviation.)

It is no surprise, perhaps that the secret S2Games project ‘Heroes of Newerth’ was announced, not only that, but you can get a beta key if you are willing to try. This covers the 2 new games that are cited as being DotA-like (and thus largely denied a wiki page on the topic of MOBA genre) and now it is time to try and draw comparisons without breaking the NDA I signed… or ticked the box really, but it is still a legally binding document.

A quick comparison or two…

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* Remade Invoker as promised in 6.49
* Added a new game mode -singledraft or -sd (swiss)
* Improved Sentinel creep pathing on top Sentinel lane
* Adjusted starting gold between all game modes like ap/xl/rd/sd to be the same (all the same as xl) and for randoms to be like ar. Gold is now give at the start and income starts with the first creep wave.
* Income is now distributed in 1 gold intervals instead of in 8 gold intervals (same total gold)
* Added a new experimental command -ah
* Added a new system to detect replays used in -ah and other future applications (thanks PandaMine)
* Changed how the secondary shops work. You can now see their location and click them while in fog.
* Added new visual effect for Orchid Malevolence’s Soul Burn (JetFango)
* -roll now shows the range the person entered (188889)
* Added a new command -clear to clear game messages from your screen
* Reduced model size and changed the look of the non-ancient Golems
* Added a new command -apm to show your actions per minute
* Couriers can now disassemble items (161180)
* Added text descriptions for power ups (68307)
* Delayed the creep spawn time by 30 seconds in -vr
* Made “Helm of Iron Will” item name consistent between recipes and core, using Helm instead of Helmet.
* Centered swap request notice is given to a player (182779)
* Added -afk that displays how long each player has been idle for
* Added a conditionally available -kickafk command to boot players that have been idle for more than 10 minutes (171984)
* Necronomicon icon now changes per level (190183)
* Changed durations of some power ups (Haste 45->30, Illusion 60->75, Regen 45->30)
* Moon Wells now gather water during night and get drained during day. This has no gameplay impact (60920)
* Added new tooltip text on items showing if they can be disassembled
* Improved tooltip for observer wards to detail the stock mechanics
* Added a new command -courier that toggles idle courier icon on and off (Ro-Coco)
* Added a new command -swapall to request to swap for any hero (175040)
* Improved Shackles caster effect
* Added an additional constant (7) Mana regeneration to Fountains
* Removed replenish interval from buying Clarity Potion (like tangos now)
* Changed Heartstopper pure damage type to HP loss (not a nerf or a buff, just works with things like dagger in a more desirable way)
* Improved Electric Rave icon (169997)
* Improved Luna’s orb warning message (113338)

* Recoded impale based effects completely, fixing various ramp bugs, stacking issues and a lot of rare problems. (Burrowstrike, Impale (Lion), Impale (Nerubian Assassin), Ravage)
* Fixed Land Mines to properly detect floating heroes
* Fixed a problem with Huskar’s Burning Spears that would cause him to swing incorrectly when the enemy is moving
* Fixed some bugs with Wild Axes
* Fixed some color issues on the load screen (kunkka)
* Couriers can no longer use Scroll of Town Portal to make buildings invulnerable
* Fixed Dark Rift from initiating cooldown when cast incorrectly
* Fixed a bug introduced in the recent Aghanim’s Scepter changes on Crystal Maiden
* Fixed Last Word triggering off of Linken’s Sphere’s usage
* Fixed Berserker Rage triggering Essence Aura
* Insatiable Hunger, God’s Strength and Rampage are no longer removed by Cyclone
* Fixed Javelin’s odds being slightly off
* Fixed an issue with the Cheese drop from Roshan
* Fixed an issue with Forest Troll High Priest’s pathing scale
* Fixed some text display problems when viewing replays (thanks DonTomaso)
* Fixed a very minor bug with Elder Form’s duration
* Fixed Armlet of Mordiggian’s recipe cooldown
* Fixed typo on Psi Blades
* Fixed some creep death time discrepancies (188461)
* Fixed a very minor bug with the damage mechanism on Shukuchi
* Fixed a display bug with Mode Random
* Fixed a possible abuse with Helm of the Dominator
* Fixed Overload from using its charge when attacking an allied unit
* Fixed Last Word from turning off Electric Rave

Change some of the Scourge’s top left forest area
* Changed the locations and distribution of neutral creep camp groups
* Fixed neutral spawn times in various modes
* Reworked the trees and pathing near the small Sentinel creep camp
* Increased neutral creep Centaur’s aura by 5%
* Added an Alpha Wolf with a command aura in the wolves’ creep camp
* Added a new creep camp group (1 Ghost with Frost Attack + 2 Fel Beasts)
* Added a new ancient creep camp group (Jungle Stalkers)
* Added a new creep camp group (1 Enraged Wildken with Tornado + 2 Wildkins)
* Added a new creep camp group (1 Dark Troll Warlord with Raise Dead and 1.5 sec Ensnare + 2 Dark Trolls)
* Changed the Furbolg’s Stomp to a Clap
* Improved Satyr Hellcaller’s Unholy Aura
* Neutral Ogre no longer autocast Frost Armor
* Changed the location of some of the Scourge creep camps
* Redid neutral creep spawner code for some optimizations

* Redesigned Eul’s Scepter of Divinity
* Redesigned Orchid Malevolence
* Redesigned Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse
* Added cooldown to Bottle usage and reduced its sell cost
* Bottle is in full state at all the side shops once again
* Changed how Dagger of Escape works. It cannot be activated if you took damage in the last 3 seconds.
* Added Hyperstone to the Goblin Shop
* Changed Unholy Rage’s lifesteal type to be the same as regular lifesteal
* Reduced price on Ultimate Orb
* Added Ring of Health to the Goblin Shop
* Added Quarterstaff to the Goblin Shops
* Increased Perseverance’s damage from 7 to 10
* Added Javelin to the Goblin Shops
* Removed the stack restriction on Shiva’s Guard
* Improved Vanguard a little
* Changed Lothar’s Edge’s recipe and stats
* Reduced Vladmir’s Offering recipe cost
* Reduced Linken’s Sphere’s cooldown
* Removed stacking restriction from Bloodstone and improved its stats
* Improved Helm of the Dominator damage from 10 to 20
* Improved Oblivion Staff mana regen by 25%
* Quarterstaff price reduced
* Hand of Midas can now target level 6 Neutrals (Satyr Hellcaller and Dark Troll Warlord)
* Reduced Void Stone’s cost by 25 gold
* Improved casting range per level of Dagon upgrade
* Improved Sange and Yasha
* Removed Flying Courier Mana and gave it a Mana base upgrade ability
* Wards now require 5 mana to be placed
* Reduced animation time and cooldown on Manta Style
* Ring of Health’s regeneration increased by 1