Home Gaming Dota 2 Patch 6.87 – Defense of the League of Starcraft II

Dota 2 Patch 6.87 – Defense of the League of Starcraft II

3 min read
5

gaben pls

Last night League of Lege- Sorry, Starcraf- wait, no, Dota 2 released its latest gameplay patch, which interestingly enough when detailed will explain my confusion. Dota 2 patches are common enough that players normally look forward to bug fixes, balance updates and new heroes (not really). This time, however, Valve offered their own Kansas City Shuffle, and while everyone was looking left, Valve slipped in one of the most controversial patches of all time. Let’s just head straight in.

Jim Raynor sends his regards

If you’ve played Starcraft II you’d recall the Scanner Sweep, which is used by the Terran race to scan the map and scout tech buildings and cloaked units. Dota 2 has now introduced its own version of Scanner Sweep where a team can scan the mini-map to reveal their enemies in perhaps the most crucial of times. No longer do you have to fear the night against an Aghanims Nightstalker.

“Scans a targeted 900 AoE for 8 seconds. Indicates whether there are enemy heroes in that area during the 8 seconds.

Starts on cooldown and has a global team-wide cooldown of 4.5 minutes

Note: Does not consider units inside the Roshan Pit, but does consider Smoked units. Does not show how many heroes there are, just if there are any enemies. Enemies do not know when your team casts it.”

scan
Korean schoutcasters called it. Video source for reference

Feelings so far are mixed regarding Valve’s decision. Vision has always been a crucial part of Dota 2, ward placement is an art, and smoke usage has become more prevalent than ever, so for now we will accept this gift you have thrust upon us, Lord GabeN.

Entering the League of Legendary changes

Intelligence heroes have always played a crucial role in Dota 2. Often taking the role of support, a number of intelligence heroes take up the crucial role of solo mid, Queen of Pain and Puck being the most common. This new patch introduces a change some of us are far too familiar with, Ability Power. In League of Legends your items either increase your Ability Power or your Attack Damage. With this in mind, this latest change sounds all too familiar:

“Intelligence now increases your spell damage by 1% per 16 Intelligence points.”

That’s not the only thing our beloved MOBA has adopted from its biggest rival. There’s also the tower change, which again sounds a bit too familiar:

“Towers now grant an armor aura to allied heroes”

A famous quote from the Dota 2 Subreddit: “We League of Legends now, boys.”

The Lazy Gamer Leveling Guide

New items are Valve’s way of saying “Sorry about not release all the heroes four years after beta, guys.” But, we always enjoy new items as they change the way the game essentially is played, introducing sometimes meta defining changes. One such item, which will receive a special mention, is the Tome of Knowledge, or Tome of Pub Ruining.

“Costs: 150 gold

Use: Grants you 425 experience.

Starts out of stock, increments stock every 10 minutes”

Tome of Knowledge is not a new feature, it has existed in many Warcraft III mods, and even some of the newer Dota 2 custom maps. However, this means some heroes can simply do nothing, but receive experience at the cost of a ward. It’s easy to understand how this is going to ruin public match making.

A tribute to Kobe Bryant

KOBE

Valve have also paid tribute to the recently retired Kobe Bryant in their latest patch by offering rework to the original Dunk Master himself, Earthshaker. A rework of Aghanims Scepter on Earthshaker now grants him the following ability:

“Enchant Totem becomes a 900 range ground target ability. Causes you to jump in the air and land at the target spot, casting enchant totem there.

Self casting the ability will make it behave in the original form, without jumping.”

This means Earthshaker will no longer require his trusty companion Tiny, or a Blink Dagger to produce a game winning dunk.

These are possibly the more exciting changes in the latest patch notes, but of course have a read yourself.

Also, may I shamelessly remind you of the day I asked the question whether mainstream media is making eSports a lot simpler? *clears throat*

Last Updated: April 26, 2016

5 Comments

  1. Admiral Chief in New York

    April 26, 2016 at 10:03

    These words, they are supposed to makes sense, I know it!

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

      April 26, 2016 at 10:15

      YARRRRRR

      Reply

  2. hairyknees

    April 26, 2016 at 10:29

    Oh Dota <3 you've changed!

    Reply

    • Pariah

      April 26, 2016 at 12:32

      I think we’re just in different places. We’re going in different directions.

      It’s not you, it’s me.

      Reply

      • hairyknees

        April 28, 2016 at 12:07

        </3

        Reply

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