Dota 6.63b - my thoughts & possible implications
Posted by The DS Prince on September 24th, 2009 | Visited 11629 times, 8 so far todayIt’s a joy to write this post as I take some time to reflect on the new version. In fact, the new version gives me a lot of encouragement to write this very post.
Would you believe me if I said that I think the collided map could have been an inside job? It’s not to say I am very certain that’s the case - I don’t have proof and I’m not keen to explore the possibility, but somehow I just have a suspicion. For a lot of people, Dota is the only reason why they play WC3, and coincidentially, for a lot of Dota-ers, they just do not have enough reason to upgrade versions (and perhaps weed out some piracy as well, since pirated games always have trouble upgrading).
Interestingly too, 1.24 was made to be only compatible with 6.62 and above, and it also does not work with other custom maps (thus I heard). Then we had Icefrog implement (as is his habit now) bombloads of changes, effectively forcing players to either upgrade or be satisfied with s**t in the collided map. Last time I checked the local cybercafe in the Dota-crazy country of Malaysia, I was pleasantly horrified to see nearly everybody who is playing Dota being able to see enemy heroes in the fog, or checking their skill upgrades, or have Sand King unleash his global ultimate (lol).
So I’m happy. I don’t have to play with f**king cheaters anymore, and I simply hate the version switcher. And I want to thank whoever did the collided map, whether it was simply a hack or really an inside job - you just made things so much easier for me. 
________________________________________________________________
WRT Dota itself I was surprised to see the frog actually undoing some of his “balance” changes, most notably Bristleback, Blink Dagger and Mask of Madness. Previously I held a now-mistaken belief that the frog would never backtrack on his actions, presuming that he is now actively trying to find the “perfect balance”. So I laid low for some time and waited to see what would happen. This is one reason why I blogged so little about Dota recently. Observing what changes he has been implementing have led me to gradually believe that:
1. There is actually no perfect balance. As I said before, what constitutes balance is very subjective and open to debate.
2. The frog does not intend to find the perfect balance.
3. Reforming the map again and again introduces a sense of freshness to leaguers, and that is the real purpose of changelogs.
4. No changelog will last beyond a few months. You call it the economics of gaming.
5. Constant bombardment of changelogs also gives immense pressure to competing games - either they also follow suit, or be called old. Either way, the frog leads the way, as does Blizzard’s WC3 cashcow.
________________________________________________________________
I said that creativity can be born out of chaos, and that is certainly true for the myriads of changes in Dota now. So in this spirit, I will share with you my personal opinions about 6.63b.
If you’re used to my writing, I’ll just say in a nutshell that whatever nerfs that you find in the changelog, is purely caused by leaguers using them very often. Most notably, the nerfs to Tauren Chieftain and Batrider. It was simply just to avoid my prophecy *lol* that Dota would become the Tauren Chieftain’s map from becoming true. One special case, raising Bane’s ultimate mana cost to 200/300/400 was amply justified, because the ultimate now sucks mana instead of costing extra mana per second, so you can’t allow the purple punk to go wild with unlimited mana. However, in far too many versions, heroes like Nerubian Assassin and Chen have been banned too many times, so I was just genuinely puzzled why Chen was given an Aghanim upgrade while Mana Burn was reworked. It just simply felt like a buff. I have this nagging feeling that the frog’s favorite heroes are in fact both NA and Chen. 
In the same way, whatever buff in the changelog, is also to encourage leaguers to use them. The most notable for me, in particular, is heavily buffing Queen of Pain. The huge cooldown reduction to both Shadow Strike and Scream of Pain - you will do well to take notice of this b**ch for now, those buffs are nasty along with her Blink. Notice that Scream has an almost similar cooldown to Blink level 4 - that alone tells you volumes about the b**ch’s mass destructive potential. Second place goes to Chaos Knight - the frog finally saw the light of reason and buffed that s**t cooldown on Phantasm. I just hope that this one will not be backtracked, because this one is too important for CK. Personally I’ve never understood why the need for an ultimate which just spawns images to be so severely punished. Notable for me too, is Furion’s almost global reach. Although not a big improvement, every little ones count. The frog should have finished the act by even allowing Forces of Nature a global cast range too.
League-wise, I don’t expect changes to be seen quickly. Leaguers have a habit of being slow to adapt to change, usually being content with time-tested strategies and going with the flow. Kuroky admitted just as much - I quote him:
“Finding out the real strengths of heroes within the period of one version takes some time, and sometimes it takes a couple of months until heroes get played on their edge.”
So you see people. Leaguers are like the mainstream media - initially they set the trend and the masses follow like the herd, but time will prove me right (as I have been proven right before), that it’s only a while before their judgement on certain issues are wrong. This is also another reason why changelogs are published - to enable the leaguers to continually “set” trends. Yes, a bias on the part of the frog.
________________________________________________________________
So if you take my word for it, my attention will be on the following heroes in 6.63b:
Bristleback -> Warpath giving damage = easy last hits = easy items
Drow Ranger -> range bonus is minor, but damage bonus from extra agility and aura = f**king OP. Remember too that Vengeful was also buffed in recent versions, and she can be easily paired up with Drow.
Magnus - Empower buff, early levels of ultimate stunning for longer durations, Blink Dagger buff. Remember, Empower is a bonus damage skill and bonus damage = easy last hits. So don’t come telling me that Magnus cannot farm well.
Nightstalker - yeah yeah I know Loda has used him to great effect. So there you have it, from a leaguer himself.
Queen of Pain - the banshee still requires much skill to be pwning, but because many many leaguers went to bed with her before, you can be assured that buffs her way will be massively welcomed by the league community. Also what I said above.
So until the next version, or my fingers itch to type, adios and I’m off to catch Skandar Keynes and Ben Barnes in action for the next installment of the Narnia series.
September 24th, 2009 at 9:34 am
New patch totally improves upon the cheating problem. I sure hope to get less people asking me about bugs & hacks.
I totally agree with you that Icefrog modifies the map according to competitive matches mainly and he wants all heroes to see competitive light.
About NA, I feel he’s ‘nerfed’ not buffed actually. Why? coz he’s a big problem to STR casters who could not regen mana quick enough and therefore had no mana to use some spells against NA. Now, str casters don’t have much stats in intelligence (like tiny, earthshaker, etc.) and so he won’t be able to burn too much of their mana. Also, he’s more likely to damage int heroes which generally regen back their mana. Inspite of the nerf, I still feel NA’s a permaban materia.
About the heroes, I strongly disagree that bristleback will see more competitive than he’s at the moment the reason being magic wand completely ruining his quill spray. Anyways, THE BLINK ERA IS BACK AGAIN and I suppose the following heroes will see more usage in competitive gaming:
1. Broodmother
2. Centaur Warchief
3. Quee of Pain <— A definite comeback
4. Tiny
I’m a little tatty about Magnus and Traxex… but Traxex’s gonna be r*ping pubs I suppose.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:34 am
If what you say about Bristleback is true for leaguers, then I’d say that they are really very mistaken. One thing about the new mana burn is that it’s hurts int casters a lot. They may be able to regen the mana back (if at all), but the hp damage really hurts. And what a coincidence that leaguers are so fixated on playing intelligence.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:36 am
a few things
first, undoing previous “balance” changes does not mean that the Frog made a mistake or that he is undoing it, it just means that the metagame changes and he has to change with it, so that whatever thing he is changing was nerfed so much that it didn’t see much play, and since new strategies have evolved and the metagame evolves, he is now buffing that thing back to a point where it can and might be used, a perfect example of this is QoP, she was queen of the leagues, but she was hit with the nerf stick a lot, and even though the mategame has switched to a faster, more ganker oriented metagame, she still did not see much play, but now that she was buffed she should see a lot more play
while I would agree with your analysis of BB, I still think leaguers will go for Radiance rush on him, he is still a good tank and a good chase so radiance makes sense, the only difference in build I could see is a MoM/Hyper to cheaply replace the attack speed that he lost, that being said, I don’t think his ult change will buff him back to a top tier status, as far as tanks go there are others that have good nukes/slows/aoe disables
Drow has always had that bonus dmg from aura and ult, yet she still doesn’t see play, this is due to a lack of disable and being item dependent and having low hp, and the extra range is imo a nerf, when you are orb walking you want to be closer than 625 as it makes it easier for the enemy to juke you, so I would say she isn’t going to see much play
Empower buff isn’t really relevant until late game/pushing, I don’t know of any good Magnus who get Empower early to help with last hitting, that being said it is a buff, and his ult being buffed is also very nice, I would expect to see more of him
I think Balanar will be used more, he fits into the ganking metagame well, in addition Void slows 2 sec during the day so he isn’t completely useless then, then come nightfall he can gank with the best of them, not being item dependent (during night) helps as well, and the Aghs buff is very nice
@NA discussion, I agree with Phoenix it was a nerf, burning less early game reduces his lane control, it also reduced his overall combo dmg, and seeing as NA is primarily a ganker, he now deals less so he isn’t as effective, also it now costs more to mana burn so he needs more mana, and while you could say that it’s a tradeoff for slightly better late game potential, he is an early-mid gamer, not a late gamer, that and the primary carries are usually agi heroes so it won’t do much against them, the Dagon buff will help him and imo only encourages it as a rush item, but since he is still an awesome ganker I expect him to get banned a lot
@Brood yes, nice buffs, BKB still a core so she can wreck
@Cent I disagree, sure removing the mana cost is nice, but taking away his ability to suicide is horrible, now whenever he gets low he will get killed by the other team instead of suiciding, this I think will cause leagues to overlook him
@Tiny Toss buff is nice, and due to previous buffs to Craggy exterior I can see him seeing more play
other changes that are important (imo) are:
Enchant str gain being nerfed, now Chen is the much better jungler/ganker/team player, leagues are heaving in disables and nukes, and since Untouchable can’t do anything about that she will be much easier to kill, a severe nerf
Furion’s tp buff is nice, now he is much more mobile, global range on his ult doesn’t mean anything (since you want it to bounce for more damage, and you can always tp close and then hit so it’s kinda moot), also his spells mana cost and cds were buffed as well, still not good enough for leagues since he doesn’t have hard disables, I would only pick him for the Global Strike Combo
HoT rework, since it doesn’t work in combat now, it is much weaker, sure if heals faster out of battle but that doesn’t matter as much as during team clashes where the extra hp really matters
Treads/Phase reworks, the entire point of getting Treads was for attack speed and stats over some ms, but now Phase gives that attack speed and the phase chasing ability whereas treads gives stats and 5 more ms, this is a severe nerf to those slow ms caster heroes such as Rylai/Rhasta etc who needed the ms, now their only really good option is BoT but that is expensive and not always viable in league environments
September 24th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
You should write a book. Seriously. Not even Cracked.com articles don’t keep me this hooked
GJ on the 6.63b review.
September 24th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Great read. I agree on just about everything because my observations were similar. But I do have to agree with points made by Phoenix. BB will still remain in the same status with League games - used every now and then but not a definite pick.
But for me, another thing that League really needs to see is the helpfulness of the Force Staff buff. I don’t really know how well it has been buffed, but i would really like to see it in action more now. It’s a neglected yet useful item imo.
September 25th, 2009 at 5:29 am
Actually, Force Staff could be used on a supporter hero, to make heroes like CM rush something else instead of Blink Dagger…Like, CM could rush BKB, Magnus Bfury for more AoE damage, Enigma Radiance and similar…Only downside is the 700 distance loss, so FS will still need some buff to be seen in Leagues more imo…
September 25th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
“The frog does not intend to find the perfect balance”.
What’s that supposed to mean?? That he causes unbalancing changes on purpose???? WTF anyway???
Don’t give me thoughts like that, ’cause it REALLY MAKES ME MAD!!!!!!!!
September 25th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
hmmmmm……………
seeing the size of the post i’d never thought id lay my eyes in it
but yet i continued to read it ……………. and i thought it was pretty good
i apriciate u takin time to make dis post ………………………..
“adios and I’m off to catch Skandar Keynes and Ben Barnes in action for the next installment of the Narnia series.”
ur just caspian not prince caspain
O_o
September 25th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
@mat
Whatsoever “balance” changes is not really intended towards the perfect balance. Rather like fole says, it is only an expedient measure to accomodate leaguers. Honestly can anyone say that troll and huskar are underbalanced? In leagues perhaps.
September 25th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
bweh..
in my city, Warcraft patch 1.24 is not famous yet
all cyber cafe use 1.22 patch, so we just play 6.61 version
I already talk to cyber’s owner, but he don’t care. F**k him, some one please help me to f*ck this guy
September 27th, 2009 at 2:56 am
First of all before continuing my rage,I would like to apologize to Icefrog
Back to the topic,I agree with the topics above,if Nerubian Assasin Mana burn is Int*4-magic resist
This guy should be better than Anti-mage to fight Intelligents(before they will be stupid after mana burned)
September 27th, 2009 at 2:56 am
Err..wrong typing
(They will be stupid after mana burned)
September 29th, 2009 at 8:00 am
i dare say, some of your analysis overlooks the leaguers great dependency on early game phase. the change to mana burn is a nerf despite being more lategame oriented. the trade-off between mana spent and burnt is horrible, plus the strength of mana burn was actually its capability of giving you with a great early game edge
i see the change to double edge is insignificant, except to item build. since you’ll spam them now, hood is a must in any case. i cant tell for sure if he’s going to be in the scene, but the dagger buff, magic wand, change to double edge, there is definitely potential for this guy
i am being horny on tiny. fuck yeah
September 29th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Could be, but I still gotta feeling that I’m right on NA.
I always thought CW always had that potential, buff or no buff on double edge. Plus so many of the new items especially Blademail and Pipe fitting CW (and Bristleback) so well. Leaguers just drag their feet many times where reform is concerned.
So you went to bed with tiny? Eeeuu
September 30th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
im a mommy in fact now
October 1st, 2009 at 3:51 am
QoP’s buffing definitely takes the cake in this set of updates. Magnus, Huskar, and CK get honorable mentions … Tiny’s Toss cooldown reduction is funny though.
Worse nerf of all time has got to be on Enchantress with the 2.0 -> 1.0 Strength gain. Really didn’t see it coming, but I support it. NA has been ruined by the reworked Manaburn, I haven’t seen one get a spree since this calamity.
What is really alarming is how Icefrog went and and buffed a few of the more notoriously overpowered heroes … Troll, Mortred, Spider, Luna, Nightstalker, PL. Oh because they all needed buffs, they weren’t already super-threatening. Silly…
October 1st, 2009 at 7:46 am
Haha whatever
October 1st, 2009 at 7:47 am
I expect even more buffs for the notoriously overpowered heroes, the way leaguers are conducting themselves now.
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Shim is a pubber irc… His analysis makes sense in a pubbers point of view, so icetoad just made the arrogant 1 click hero picking noobs expand their already enlarged heads after those mentioned buffs. But frozenfrog doesn’t care about pubbers…
October 5th, 2009 at 6:53 am
i disagree on that. troll is already an overpowered hero, pub or not. not everyone plays pub, and making a hero that has a 90% definite chance to win in pubs is just stupid
October 7th, 2009 at 12:53 am
Yes I do only play public games and not pay any attention to league happenings… but CF[X] is right, Troll is now decidedly annoying in leagues (unless I totally do not get what goes on in those games) due to them being coordinated and working as a team… if anything Troll is more dangerous in league games than in pub games.