Dota 2 7.06c patch launches, offers yet more rebalancing

Dota 2‘s 7.06 patch has seen enough sub-patches that I’m honestly running out of interesting headlines. Yes, it’s another patch. Yes, it rebalances things more, nerfing the more dominant heroes and giving buffs to some of the lesser-used ones. Surprise!

Firstly, Blademail’s damage return is no longer increased by spell amplification, which… honestly seems like a bug fix rather than a balance thing. The only other item to receive any changes is Solar Crest, with its Evasion reduced from 25% to 20% and its Accuracy (formerly known as “chance to proc true strike”) buffed from 25% to 35%.

What else have we got for this latest Dota 2 iteration? Well, Ancient Apparition’s Cold Feet now stuns for a bit longer at lower levels, while Bloodseeker has higher base damage. Clinkz moves faster when using Skeleton Walk and gets more health and damage from Death Pact at higher levels. Doom’s Infernal Blade stun is slightly longer, Gyrocopter has a wider Flak Cannon radius and a longer Homing Missile stun, Lich can Sacrifice more frequently, Lone Druid’s bear has a slightly faster base attack time… lots of buffs, basically. Also: Mirana, Monkey King, Necrophos, Oracle, Pugna, Underlord, Venomancer, Viper, Winter Wyvern, and Zeus. I’m not going over all of them.

That said, I will make special mention of Skywrath Mage and Shadow Demon in the buffs department. Shadow Demon’s level 10, 15, and 20 talents have been pretty heavily boosted (level 10, in particular, now offers either +20 movement speed or +20 strength), while everyone’s favourite dweller of the Ghastly Eyrie has a longer Arcane Bolt range and can now get a +40 movement speed talent at level 20, moving him into Ferrari range.

There are also nerfs, of course. Crystal Maiden’s movement speed has dropped to 275, making her “swift as the wolves of Icewrack” line even more ironic. She’s not alone in this, mind: Treant Protector is also a bit slower, although still faster than her, because she’s slower than a tree. Io loses more health and mana from Overcharge, and Troll Warlord’s Battle Trance has a slightly longer cooldown. Perhaps more interestingly, Ember Spirit is getting a bit of rebalancing, with a reduction to his level 10 Spell Amplification talent but a buff to the contrasting Attack Damage talent.

You can read the full change log for Dota 2 7.06c over here. The patch itself appears to be about 40MB and should download the next time you log into Steam.