Dota 6.86c patch notes released

This time around plenty of heroes gets to feel how the business end of the nerfstick feels like, with Invoker taking maybe the biggest hit with the nerf to his Alacrity in the early game. Another major nerf is the huge increase of CD on Walrus Punch. On level 6 Tusk players now have to wait 36 seconds, instead of the old 20 seconds, before he can get into another barfight.

The biggest buffs in this patch all comes to the heroes who were re-worked in the original 6.86. It seems like IceFrog wasn't too happy with the changes made and he'll keep on buffing these heroes until they're balanced/useful once again.

Valve did not waste any time since the release of the highly anticipated 6.86 update. In the newest balance patch, they continue the trend of buffing the new skills as well as nerfing the most popular picks of the current meta. The likes of

Dazzle and

Tusk are continually being weakened, while Faceless Void, Riki and Death Prophetwelcome buffs to their spells.

Faceless Void

Time Walk cast range increased from 550 to 625
Faceless Void strength gain increased from 1.6 to 1.8
Time Dilation duration increased from 5.5/7/8.5/10 to 6/8/10/12
Time Dilation cooldown increased from 34/28/22/16 to 36/30/24/18

Riki

Tricks of the Trade cooldown reduced from 70 to 40
Tricks of the Trade AoE increased from 475 to 500
Blink Strike cast range increased from 700 to 800
Blink Strike cast point reduced from 0.4 to 0.3

Death Prophet

Death Prophet base intelligence increased by 3
Spirit Siphon HP Drain increased from 1/1.8/2.6/3.4% to 1/2/3/4%
Spirit Siphon slow rescaled from 6/10/14/18% to 5/10/15/20%
Exorcism duration increased from 30 to 35 seconds

The new patch has already brought several changes among competitive players, with the likes of Invoker and Oracle appearing more frequently. The former became a really popular pick and was even played as a support in recent games, raising some concerns that the hero might be too strong. Valve decided to nerf Invoker’s early game, but in return made the hero stronger in the mid to late-game. This is not the first time that the company decides to re-think the powers of a hero instead of just brutally nerfing it.

Invoker

Alacrity damage/speed rescaled from 30/40/50/60/70/80/90 to 10/25/40/55/70/85/100
Invoker base strength reduced by 2

It is natural to see balancing patches come after an update with the magnitude of 6.86. In addition to the hero skills tweaks, the Radiant small camp was also shrinked. No additional heroes were enabled in Captains Mode with 6.86c, meaning that Arc Warden and Riki are still out of the pro scene. It remains to be seen when will Valve decide to include these heroes.

For the complete list of changes, please refer to the Dota 6.86c patch notes released