Embracing the Change: 7.00 Impressions
The wait is finally over. 6.88 was an amazing patch, filled with different strategies and a very wide pool of viable heroes, but it started to feel rather stale by the end of its lifecycle. Dota 7.00 is almost here and it will introduce an unparalleled amount of changes to the game.
Going over each change at this point isn't going to be productive—there are simply too many of them, with massive changes to the core mechanics, and their interaction is guaranteed to be unpredictable. Embracing these changes might be hard, especially for veteran players and especially after what a gem of balance 6.88 was. Naturally, next several days and, possibly weeks, will be filled with overpowered and underpowered heroes, abilities and items.
To make at least some sense out of the ensuing chaos, we will look at some of the core changes to the game and speculate on their potential impact on the overall Dota 2 gameplay.
New HUD & UI-related features
Many of the new HUD elements are a part of the newly introduced features, but there is also a sizeable amount of quality of life improvements. There is an increased amount of visible space, ability to cast abilities on teammates through the top bar and general improvements to the user experience.
Backpack
Each hero now has 3 extra item slots. You cannot use item actives from the backpack and they do not provide attributes and bonuses. However, they can be freely rearranged with your regular inventory, with a 6 second “mute” on the items after hot swap.
Items cooldown twice as long while in the backpack, but it still allows for certain degree of extra freedom. Hot swapped 
Refresher Orb and 
Black King Bar can definitely become a thing. Patch notes also include this line:
- Items can always be moved out of backpack with no Inactivity timer when near a shop.
Late-game fights near the fountain, side shops and secret shops theoretically might have an added layer of depth to them.
The general life of supports will also become easier, since they can now have dedicated ward, smoke and dust slots.
Pre-game
Each game now starts with a 30-second period, where you can discuss the laning stage, the initial ward placement and even pre-purchase starting items. The last part is especially important, since it allows for a level playing field for people with slower PCs and weaker connections. Several lost seconds at the beginning of the match might not have been overwhelmingly impactful, but in certain cases they might mean the difference between making it out of the enemy jungle on time or getting in a better position with your team.
Gameplay Changes
Map
The Map has received a massive overhaul. Roshan pit is now in the middle of the river, putting an end to the Dire/Radiant advantage discussion. The pathways to it are numerous, with almost identical distances from the T1 and T2 Dire and Radiant Top and Middle towers.
Shrines have been added to the map, next to the secret shops and in the Primary (safelane) jungles. They provide a massive AoE boost to regeneration, but have a 5-minute cooldown.
Bounty Runes now spawn in specific locations in the jungle. There are also four of them, two for each side.
Finally, there are more neutral camps, with an extra ancient camp in the primary jungle and an extra medium camp in the Secondary (offlane) one. However, neutrals now respawn only on odd minutes (0:30, 1:00, 3:00 etc.)
Overall, the map now contains more resources, but they replenish much slower. It will undoubtedly be a nerf to the regular stack-farming heroes such as Luna and Sven and will also lead to some changes to split-pushing with heroes like Anti-Mage.
Contesting the enemy jungle will become a lot more important—making a sweep around it will prevent the enemy from getting its resources for longer. Leaving a single smaller creep in each jungle, if the odd minute is approaching, can also become a viable course of action.
Stacking is still possible, but it a lot less effective and is associated with higher risks—losing a stack is a bigger deal now. Passive jungling is also nerfed—there is not enough sustain in the jungle to afford a steady XP progression. Most likely it will lead to semi-jungling heroes, with heroes who can sweep the jungle relatively fast, but will also come out during the creep respawn to gank or push.
Shrines are a major boost to sustain and map control—they can be used as teleport points and grant massive regeneration over a short period of time. However, in proper games, it is unlikely they will be used as a way to quickly heal up during the laning stage—the opportunity cost is simply too high. Getting a healing salve is generally advised, while shrines should be primarily used for regeneration of multiple heroes.
Overall, the defense of the outer towers should be a lot easier. An extra teleport location means TPs will take less time and are less likely to result in a chain-feed. Having a massive regeneration advantage can also turn the fights around or prevent the enemy from chasing.
Levelling and Talents
A completely new core mechanic is introduced to the game, along with some changes to the levelling system.
Levelling is now slightly faster, with current level 25 requiring the same total amount of XP earned as previous level 23. The changes mostly impact the later levels and your hero will reach level 12 at the same time he would previously reach level 11.
You can no longer use a level up to get an attribute boost. Ultimates can now be taken at levels 6, 12 and 18. At levels 10, 15, 20 and 25, instead of using a skill point to upgrade an ability, you can get a choice from two hero-specific, mutually exclusive talents:
These talents are quite powerful, potentially rivaling some Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades. However, they also come relatively late into the game, so it is unlikely we will see a fully developed talent tree on each hero in every game.
The most probable outcome of the talent tree introduction is going to be timing pushes: teams, who managed to get ahead in levels in the early game, will try to use their advantage to push and force the enemy to fight. Stronger defensive capabilities, coming from shrines, should allow the losing team to have some sort of a counter-play or at least a choice, between farming up XP and Gold or engaging.
Overall, there is now more incentive to press the advantage your team might have gained in the early game, potentially resulting in higher action density. Snowballing might become a problem, with some talents granting massive boosts to DPS, making the drafting stage even more important.
Extra customization, often very unique to specific heroes, should further facilitate the viable hero pool, at least in the beginning. However, there is a high chance the meta will converge on a single “anchor” hero or heroes, so it is very important the changes to the patch are frequent.
Illusions
Illusions have also received a major change—they now grant XP and Gold for the killer. It is a relatively small amount, however it should prevent silly things from happening unpunished.
The amount of damage illusions deal to structures has also been reduced, but their potential DPS has been significantly increased—they now get full benefits from the bonus Attack Speed items. It means that certain items are no longer completely wasted on illusion-based heroes, most notably the 
Assault Cuirass and 
Mjollnir.
General Mechanics
Root, Dispel and Cleave mechanics have been slightly reworked. While for the latter two it will probably go largely unnoticed and has more to to do with quality of life and consistency improvements, the former one has received a major buff:
With the root mechanic now preventing the majority of mobility spells, certain heroes will re-emerge. Most notably, Crystal Maiden and Lone Druid might become very viable picks against certain lineups.
Hero Changes
With the introduction of the talent tree, every single hero has been significantly changed and, as we stated in the beginning of the blog, going over each of them will not be too productive—there are simply too many variables in place. But there are definitely ones that stand out even in the changelog as radical as 7.00.
Chaos Knight
The Aghanim's Scepter upgrade coupled with the proposed talent tree opens up a way for a support Chaos Knight. Reality Rift has received a rather massive nerf, losing a lot of extra attack damage, but the hero can now consistently reduce the armor of the target. Extra 7 intelligence at level 10 with a potential massive DPS boost/spell dodge for a teammate makes the hero one of the scariest roaming supports who can eventually snowball his team out of control.
Leshrac
Core Leshrac has a chance to become a massive nuisance once again. The slow from the Lightning Storm is incredibly powerful and extra 2s on it essentially means a 200% increase in duration. Granted, reaching level 25 might be problematic, hence as a support, the hero might not be as powerful, but in his former core role, he will definitely be a force to be reckoned with.
Riki
Riki will probably retain his popularity as a position 3.5 support and is likely to see more play. The "pocket riki" meme has actually resulted in a very powerful ability upgrade. Granted, the stats on the item do almost nothing for the hero, but the ability to reliably deal respectable amounts of damage should not be underestimated, when coupled with highly mobile heroes, such as 
Storm Spirit.
Rubick
Core mid Rubick has seen some play during the last major and while the landscape will be very different in the new patch, the trend might actually be bolstered with the introduced changes. There are a lot of great abilities in the talent tree for Rubick, but come level 25, he can once again become a very powerful initiator—the last talent more than doubles the displacement from Telekinesis for up to 775 units. This value is larger than what Batrider can do with a single use of 
Force Staff.
Treant Protector
The reworked ability makes the hero a rather capable offlaner but, more importantly, it gives the hero a stun. Even more importantly, it is classified as a "bash" and comes from the auto-attack, possibly meaning that it pierces spell immunity. The hero has already proved to be quite strong against certain strategies during the major, but with an extra reliable disable he can become a very powerful ally and a very annoying foe.
Zeus
The talent tree for the hero pales in comparison to other ones, but the reworked Aghanim's Scepter upgrade should definitely put the hero on the radar. It majorly increases the teamfight presence of the hero, allows flashy sniping plays and can completely destroy the back-line counter-initiators and supports. Granted, you will need vision for this tactic to be effective, but playing Zeus, vision is rarely an issue.
Closing Thoughts on Hero Changes
The addition of the talent tree will definitely shake things up a bit, but it will probably have a much smaller impact, than expected from the community. Yes, the leveling in the game will become slightly faster, but consider how many times you have actually managed to get level 16 on a support hero, let alone level 25.
When evaluating your support pick, take into account only the first and maybe the second talent upgrades. The level 20 and 25 ones should be an afterthought, a plan B and not a general gameplan. With the timing pushes that are almost guaranteed to come the games will become faster and the early game advantages will become more meaningful.
That said, as farming cores, keeping in mind the first three talent upgrades is a must. Knowing what talents your opponents have access to is also advised. And, as we stated numerous times in our previous blog posts: if you have an advantage—use it. The comeback against a lazy opponent is possible and the power levels of each team are more likely to fluctuate more frequently and to a higher degree.
Item Changes
We will take a similar approach to how we discuss the item changes in the patch, since most of the changes are cost/minor stats related. There are a couple of very interesting reworks, however.
Bottle
Bottle and most other regenerating items are no longer dispelled with creep hits. The damage source has to be a hero or a Roshan, for the effect to stop. It makes lane regeneration a lot easier and tower dives slightly more possible. It will also make jungling a lot faster, but with the reduced respawn rate of neutrals, jungling will probably be very different.
Helm of the Dominator
The item went from the core category to semi-core/support one. The MS increase on the dominated creep can make for some very scary plays with the Centaur and Ursa neutrals. With the stacking nerf, it is also quite likely that these creeps will be used actively for fights and pushes, making the game slightly more varied.
Mask of Madness
The item has turned from an absolute mess it was for almost a year into a very scary early game upgrade once again. With typical "pre-buff and jump in" heroes, it can become a strong tempo play—Sven doesn't need to press any buttons after using Warcry, God's Strength and Storm Hammer and he doesn't really mind losing 5 armor either. But he will certainly like +100 Attack Speed and +17% Movement Speed. Same can be said about a lot of heroes and the item will probably become one of the most popular pickups on the auto-attacking cores.
Rod of Atos
For the first time since its introduction, the item actually does something useful! We have already discussed how the Root-effect has become a lot more powerful and Rod of Atos will definitely become an incredibly strong situational pick. However, the fact that it uses a projectile will make timing it properly slightly harder. On the other hand, it will leave space for counterplay, so it doesn't push the item into the OP category.
Satanic
Finally, the weird relationship between Satanic, Helm of the Dominator and the Heart of Tarrasque has been broken. Satanic is now in a category of its own, as well as the HotD and both items turned out to be very interesting. Satanic is now a major DPS increase for Strength heroes with survivability coming in the second place, as it no longer grans armor, but increases the attack damage by an extra +35.
Closing Thoughts
This patch introduces the biggest changes to the game since its Warcraft 3 days. Map overhaul, new buildings, new mechanics—there is so much new about the game, it will definitely take a lot of time to process and understand. The game will be very similar, yet very different.
At this point a lot of people are probably freaking out and it is understandable. But there are certain things we would like everyone to understand:
The game was definitely not "dumbed down". If anything, the introduction of talents has only made it even more complex. It should also tighten the action and promote active play, resulting in better viewing experience.
The shrine system increases the strategic depth, since they can be used as teleport locations. They are also high impact-high opportunity cost, as is everything in Dota. With that in mind, comparison to other games is irrelevant—yes, the concept might be similar, but the amount of options it provides is a lot higher and varied.
The changes to the jungle do not mean that every team now needs a dedicated jungler. As with everything in Dota, it is an option. Sometimes this option will be viable, sometimes not, and it will all depend on how well you can read the strengths and weaknesses in the enemy draft. There is a chance the meta at some point will converge on dedicated junglers, but there will be a team who will try something different and succeed, starting the ever-changing meta cycle once again.
Finally, it is still the game we love and will play a lot.
I see so many people saying RIP Techies. Why? Look at it, he is potentially competitively viable now! His new "suicide squad" deals a good bit of damage, PLUS a silence. His 1st deals crazy damage, it's just a matter of positioning it so they don't see it until it's too late (side shops, behind the trees of the bounty runes)-also helped by all the new highground-lowgrounds. Stasis trap got a massive buff. A 5 second root? Harder to set up in the middle of fights because of 2 second activation time, but no expiry means that the enemies have to tread lightly or risk a long root into getting initiated. Then his ult's faster cast time allows to be dangerous in team fights, the detonation delay is minimal. He may no longer fit the set style, but he fills a new style. Potential 4/5 support in pro games, I can definitely see it.
i have been playing this dota when i was 18..... now i m 30 yr old.... only i liked about this patch is new septer updates.... They have fucked all old players....... Bullshit update look like LOL now
rest in peace dota2, welcome LOL! it's terrible
League of Dota. I'm done with this game.
Honestly, I was not aware of this patch until the day it came out. I have been playing this game since it came out as a map on TFT Warcraft 3. More or less.
I was always aware that new changes will have an impact of the play style, hero-build, choices and was always prone to change, and of course there were some bad ones, and really good ones.
So, with an open mind I entered into my first game in 7.00 patch. It made me really sad and disappointed, as a support (5) player 5.5k mmr.
Why would you make a complex game as DOTA is with stats/tactics etc., to a simple game where you can basically chose from a single talent tree? I mean seriously, I feel as if all the roles are lost, everyone can play as a single hero without focusing on the team game, ganking, planning map awareness...
The new HUD, it is truly a disaster. Why? Well, since it is completely different and as an old player you lose the complete map awareness. Why would you change something when it works as it should?
What about the rosh pit? I mean, at least you could be more imaginative then placing it in the middle of the river.
Yes, you will say now the new players could get into the game way faster, but then again why do we want that? What is wrong with learning the dynamics of the game by time. It looks like time does not matter anymore, it is always about the money and influx of new players who are here just for the single game, not team play.
As an veteran player, who is not prone to big changes anymore, I made a decision to stop playing this game yesterday. I know that I am not the only one who made this decision to stop, but I cannot deal with this no skill future.
It really feels that it is not DOTA 2 anymore, and that I entered a completely new game, which I was not ready to do so.
Thank you Icefrog for all the bad, and good updates... And finally thank you VOLVO for destroying my favorite game. Goodbye DOTO, the toxic community will be truly missed.
I think that I will need to find a new hobby, maybe collect stamps, learn how to knit... :-)
yeah time to leave dota.... Thanks for change now i can easily leave this new shit
No one talking about Monkey King being broken af? He destroys your lanes with 5 attacks.
hello game "lost in maze jungle "
I feel like there were a lot of things changed that just didn't need to be. CHANGE FOR THE SAKE OF CHANGE IS POINTLESS. Games I have played and watched over the past few days have all been VERY one sided as well. No more close games because of snowballing.
EXTRA RAMPS EVERYWHERE (especially too many in jungle. Very unnecessary and makes locations for teamfights smaller and annoying), SUPER SMALL UI (please give us the option to scale the UI like we can scale the map, or even better, an option to revert to the old one if we choose to), AND MOST OF ALL.... Talent trees should not change the game more than an item. If it does, then nerf that please. Examples being a tree talent that replaces an item. Like alch getting 30% lifesteal at lvl 25. Any talent point that replaces or becomes stronger than an item is garbage and changes the game too much. We already get 3 more backpack slots, no need for talents like this.
Worst Update, Epic Fail from Valve. Hope they fired up UI-Designer and that idiot who developed map with a lot of losing FPS.
the only things i truly liked about this patch were the pregame changes. the animation for loading in with the dota logo is very smooth, the fact that you can buy your items pregame, choose your lanes and ward spots is great and the hero interface is WAY better than the scrolling one from before
that said, a lot of the new stuff they added is unappealing for me, an existing player. the pace of the game has changed immensely thanks to the combination of talents and map changes, so the power spikes are irrecognisable and everyone just pushes mid or fights constantly. nobody needs to farm anymore. maybe that's just because of how new the patch is, but i worry otherwise.
thanks to the bounty runes and constant fighting, it doesn't matter how well you play early game.
as for the UI changes, they really weren't needed. nobody really complained about the old UI, so this new UI kind of just alienates people, especially so because there's no legacy option.
adding ALL of this new stuff at once makes the game very difficult to enjoy. I wish the patch was simply a normal 6.89 with hero/item buffs and nerfs, plus the new pregame. they could have added some of the good ability tree ideas to normal dota as aghs upgrades or straight up ability buffs.
The thing here is, techies now become more useless. You won't be seeing another match with a techies. I guarantee it. And also, the tricky riki can no longer diffusal himself when he encountered dust/track/ampilfy dmg because you can no longer target allies with diffusal. The laner and early farmer will also now have a little headache, heroes like ursa and stuff, due to the massive increase of morbid mask. There are a lot to complain about this patch, but hey, look at where we are? Discussing the game that we have loved for decades. I just really, really, really hope that some of it will be 'reworked' into something similar to the old one.
When will they stop messing around with illusions and not just fix it. They changed radiance to deal less damage if "held" by an illusion. Why not just keep with that mindset? Make illusion deal a % effect of their "held" items or passive abilities equivalent to their % damage. Ex: Antimage gets Manta with level 4 Mana Break and creates illusions. These illusions deal 33% of Antimage's damage so they will only have 33% of the Mana Break, meaning that instead of both illusions dealing 64 mana break they will only deal 21.33... Seems like a fair way to balance out the illusion meta to me, and before anyone starts saying that this would destroy heroes, just buff their illusions or other aspects instead. Thanks for reading :D hope to hear your thoughts.
Three things about the new patch that are good:
1. Interface
Just about everything about the new in game interface is amazing. Things have been moved to better places, such as the stun meter or the shop button just telling you your current gold on the button. The battle log has been spiffed up and is far more informative as to what is happening, which is good. Information that is not intended to be secretive should be shown in such a way that those that don't use it have nobody to blame, and almost every change made to the interface reflects that mission.
Most important, however, is the new pregame stage. Being able to purchase items, mess with the minimap in depth, suggest heroes, purchase items, plan your first steps and overall timing windows with strangers after they last pick a second carry, and PURCHASE ITEMS is amazing. Everything about this makes me wonder how I lived without it before.
2. Talents
Talents could have been a terrible inclusion had every talent level been like the level 25 talents. In fact, many heroes have a rather tame level 25 talent. They aren't new abilities, either. Just augmentations to current abilities. They also are well suited to the overall theme and mission of each hero, appropriately matching their peak stregnth timings and allowing for different roles etc. Some of the level 25 talents do seem strong out of context, but in practice, 200 movespeed on shukuchi in the late game is pretty unimportant when weaver is unlikely to be too far from the rest of the team. Had it been earlier, that would be devestating. It's added complexity, and that's a good thing. It feels like deciding what your next item should be.
3. Backpack
Finally I can stop worrying about that recipe cluttering up my inventory. I can be a carry with wards. And unless I'm Oracle, it's fine to get a refresher orb.
Three things about the new patch that are bad:
1. The shop.
During the pregame, the shop doesn't show you everything. I want to set up my quick buy, but Ring of Aquila isn't shown. I could give more examples, but it sucks that not everything is at your fingertips, and it's hard to locate what you are trying to buy if it isn't part of the suggested items. I actually feel more stifled for time even though it's a free 30 seconds because I have to plan, purchase, and communicate with my team but I spend most of that time searching for that stupid sages mask.
It doesn't get better in game either. Suggested items gets its own tab now instead of being always on. I will gladly give up screen space to have the expanded interface. On top of that, the icons are tiny, and things are moved around. Some of that might be a short term problem, but it seems like less info is at my fingertips.
2. Experience
I played League for a year before joining the master race. It was common, nay, expected, nay, commonplace, nay, natural for every hero to hit max level and fill 4 or 5 slots, if not all six, by the end of the game. I had never even heard of the idea of early and late game strats (although I'm sure they had them). By shortening the amount of experience needed for 25 by two levels and talents that allow fast tracking your levels, we are seeing a system that leans towards expecting everyone to make it to level 25.
This is a problem because early game heroes have a smaller window of opportunity to be effective. Going this direction means a simplification of strategy. When everyone's timing window is level 25, the game loses strategy diversity. Game length is predictable. Heroes can't be used in new and exciting ways.
I looked at two games I played with Weaver. One before the patch, one after. Similar game time, similar KDA. Both offlane. Before the patch, I was level 18. After the patch I gained level 23. Some of that could be attributed to how well the game went, sure. But not enough. It's far too easy to get gold and experience with the new patch. It removes choice, stifles experimentation, and overstimulates to the point of boredom.
3. Attributes
Drow needs early points in stats. You can't do that now. Why not? There are still levels where stats could be leveled. There are four talent levels, 15 skill points for the regular hero. That leaves six levels open for attributes. By removing the option for attributes completely, you are removing a choice in builds. To me, that's a cardinal sin.
Here is the thing though:
The game still feels like Dota. For all the changes, I haven't felt a HUGE change yet. Communication, planning, execution, evaluation, etc are still super important. The talents do make me feel a bit artificially superpowered, but I expect that to just be something that I get used to and plan for in my builds and timing windows.
I fully expect all of these problems to be corrected too. I foresee the pregame to be improved upon. It's great already, and it can easily get better. I see no reason for them to ignore it. Valve clearly desires complexity in their game, and I think the next patch will either reintroduce attributes, redo the methods of gaining xp, or add something completely new yet again. I actually wouldn't be surprised to see those extra levels become extra skill points. I could even see Valve introduce level 30.
The future may be uncertain, but I gotta say, the patch has only revived my interest in Dota. That alone gives me hope.
fucking shit update
Наконец-то оптимизировали и сделали минимальный интерфейс игры!
Великое и лучшее обновление в Dota ЗА ВСЮ ЕЁ ИСТОРИЮ!
Браво!
Но где патчи 6.89? И 6.90-6.99?
Или я считать разучилась? (