6.76b Patch Has Arrived!

Patch notes are taken from the DOTA 2 Dev forum.

- Added Centaur

- Implemented 6.76b gameplay changes

UI

- Fixed XP going the other way if you're leveled up with a command.
- Fixed scoreboard not updating properly after a hero swap
- Added party invite ignore options to the party invite dialog and settings screen
- Visual updates to spell button states

VISUALS & AUDIO

- Fixed several "missing lane" line bugs for Puck, Mirana, Meepo, Lina, Keeper, Shadow Demon, and Windrunner.
- Fixed spell button sounds triggering on mouse clicks only and not hotkey press
- Fixed certain effects on workshop items that were incorrect or missing

GAMEPLAY

Alchemist
- Unstable Concoction now explodes around you if you are killed while charging it up
- Goblin's Greed cap increased from 26 to 30

I guess Alchemist wasn't farming fast enough? Fun change to Unstable Concoction, pop it if you're about to die in a fight and hopeful you can take some poor saps with you.

Ancient Apparition
- Chilling Touch attack count increased from 2/3/4/5 to 3/4/5/6

Bane Elemental
- Enfeeble cooldown decreased from 12 to 10
- Bane can now wake himself up from Nightmare with a subability

The only real downside to using Nightmare has been removed with this buff. Bane can effectively remove Nightmare from an enemy when his team is ready to attack.

Batrider
- Strength gain decreased from 2.7 to 2.4

Centaur
- Strength growth increased from 2.6 to 3.8
- Replaced Great Fortitude with a new skill (Stampede)

Grants you and all allied player units on the map max movement speed and zero unit collision for a short duration. Any enemy units you or your allies come into collision with take some damage and get stunned. Enemies can only be affected by stampede impact once.

Duration: 3/4/5
Damage: 100/150/200 + 2x your str
Stun: 1.25 seconds
Stampede Collision AoE: 120
Cooldown: 65
Mancost: 50
Note: Does not affect magic immune enemies

The strength growth increase compensates somewhat for the loss of the strength bonus from his old ultimate. This new ultimate is very interesting, creating a great tool for chasing, escape, initiation, and teamfighting. I can see all sorts of juicy combos springing from this, give it some time to see what the community cooks up.

Chen
- Hand of God cooldown increased from 120 to 140/130/120
- Penitence damage amplify increased from 7/14/21/28% to 8/16/24/32% (matches the slow values now)

Clockwerk
- Hookshot now pulls Clockwerk to allies instead of getting blocked by them
- Hookshot Aghanim's upgraded cooldown decreased from 15 to 12

Pretty cool change to his ult, this really ratchets up (pun intended) his ability to jump into a teamfight, or save allies from a gank.

Crystal Maiden
- Brilliance Aura has twice the effect on Crystal Maiden

Nice buff, increases her ability to spam spells to control the lane, and also her ability to roam/gank.

Dark Seer
- Vacuum cooldown increased from 19 to 22

Poor Dark Seer, I guess his "head's roundness offends" them, as they keep smacking him with the nerf bat. Not too major of a nerf, but it will hurt a bit.

Doom Bringer
- Doom duration increased from 13 to 15 (and scepter from 14 to 16)

Drow Ranger
- Trueshot Aura mechanics reworked
Global Aura. Gives you and all allied ranged units a portion of your agility as bonus damage.
Bonus Damage: 14/18/22/26% of your agility as damage
Note: Can be toggled on and off to affect creeps or not

- Changed how Marksmanship bonus agility is granted
Passively provides bonus agility. If there are no nearby enemy heroes, your focus improves and the bonus agility is doubled.
Bonus Agility: 20/30/40 Agility
AOE: 375 (for double bonus)

Wow! Not only does her Aura now scale off of her agility, but it's global as well! She now has some utility, providing pushing power and extra damage to allies. The scaling on Marksmanship has been normalized, and now doubles when an enemy is not nearby. The changes seem to be a step in the right direction, whether they are enough to push her into competitive relevance is still up for debate.

Gyrocopter
- Homing Missile distance required for max damage reduced from 2000 to 1500
- Homing Missile stun duration rescaled from 2.5 to 2.2/2.4/2.6/2.8
- Rocket Barrage damage increased from 11/14/17/20 to 11/15/19/23

Jakiro
- Ice Path creation delay increased from 0.4 to 0.5
- Ice Path manacost increased from 75 to 90

Considering Jakiro's popularity and dominance since 6.75, seeing nerfs below his name shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. A noticeable nerf, but I don't think it will affect him too much.

Krobelus
- Exorcism base ghost count increased from 4/10/18 to 4/12/21

Kunkka
- Tidebringer level 4 AoE increased from 500 to 600

Lina
- Laguna Blade cooldown rescaled from 90/70/50 to 70/60/50

Nice buff, encourages frequent ganks and engagements right when you hit level 6.

Lion
- Mana Drain break threshold range increased from 850 to 1100
- Finger of Death cooldown rescaled from 170/105/40 to 160/100/40
- Finger of Death cast range increased from 700 to 900

Really trying to make Mana Drain usable in the lane or during fights. The ult changes will make it a little easier to land as well.

Luna
- Lunar Blessing bonus damage increased from 14/20/26/32 to 14/22/30/38

Magnataur
- Shockwave distance increased from 700 to 1000
- Shockwave cooldown decreased from 11/10/9/8 to 10/9/8/7
- Shockwave cast range increased to match its travel distance (visual thing only)
- Skewer AoE increased from 95 to 125
- Skewer range increased from 800 to 1200
- Skewer now only considers heroes a valid target for dragging in consideration with its unit cap

Quite a few good buffs here. Shockwave has a 43% increase in range as well as a second lopped off it's CD, which should make harassing with it or finishing off fleeing enemies much easier. Skewer has been made much more forgiving with increased range and AoE, as well as now ignoring creeps (so you can charge right through a creep wave and still land Skewer on the enemies behind).

Meepo
- Poof cooldown decreased from 14/12/10/8 to 12/10/8/6
- Divided We Stand Aghanims upgrade now gives clones 100% stat sharing

Mirana
- Elune's Arrow cooldown decreased from 20 to 17
- Moonlight Shadow manacost decreased from 175 to 75

Even more buffs in the same vein as 6.75. Further reduced the CD on arrow, and dropped the mana cost on her Ult by a whopping 57%. It seems Valve and IceFrog really want Mirana to be very effective as a roaming, ganking, semi-carry.

Morphling
- Cast animation time improved from 0.45 to 0.4

Step back from the ledge, everyone. I know it's technically a buff, but Ol' Morph isn't going to see a return to glory just yet.

Naga Siren
- Rip Tide cooldown rescaled from 10 to 19/16/13/10

Ouch. At level 4 the cd will end up the same, but Naga loses a lot of laning presence with this one.

Necrolyte
- Heartstopper Aura damage increased from 0.6/0.8/1/1.2% to 0.6/0.9/1.2/1.5%

Nyx Assassin
- Vendetta damage increased from 225/375/525 to 250/400/550

Weaver
- Base Damage increased by 4

Outworld Destroyer
- Movement speed increased from 300 to 310

Ogre Magi
- Multicast now increases cast range of Ignite by 150 per level, this is in addition to the existing AoE increase

Omniknight
- Purification cooldown decreased from 12 to 10
- Movement speed increased from 300 to 305

Phantom Lancer
- Collision size decreased from 24 to 8

Many people seem to view this as a possible nerf, due to the fact that it will make body-blocking with your images more difficult. However, the largest impact this will make is preventing the images from blocking themselves, and allowing more images to beat on your opponents, and buffing your DPS.

Puck
- Base Damage increased by 5

Pugna
- Life Drain break threshold range increased from 900 to 1100
- Nether Ward AoE increased from 700/1000/1300/1600 to 1600

Razor
- Eye of the Storm strike interval decreased from 0.85/0.75/0.6 to 0.75/0.65/0.55 (Scepter 0.65/0.55/0.45)

Rubick
- Fade Bolt damage decreased from 75/150/225/300 to 70/140/210/280

Silencer
- Global Silence cooldown decreased from 160 to 140
- Global Silence duration increased from 3/4.5/6 to 4/5/6
- Base Intelligence increased by 6
- Base Damage reduced by 6
- Curse of the Silent duration rescaled from 5/6/7/8 to 6
- Curse of the Silent hp drain rescaled from 20/30/40/50 to 20/35/50/65
- Curse of the Silent mana drain rescaled from 10/15/20/25 to 8/16/24/32
- Int Steal moved from Last Word back to Glaives of Wisdom
- Glaives of Wisdom now steals Intelligence from outside of the AOE if Silencer gets the kill
- Int Steal aoe increased from 850 to the standard 900 aoe range
- Last Word replaced with new active skill

Targets an enemy unit placing a debuff on it. While the debuff is active, casting any spell causes the target to become silenced and take damage. If the duration of the debuff runs out without the target casting a spell, it will still take damage and be silenced but also be disarmed.

Debuff Duration: 5
Damage: 150/200/250/300
Silence/Disarm Duration: 3/4/5/6
Cast Range: 900
Cooldown: 36/28/20/12
Manacost: 100
Note: You have basic vision over the last word target while the initial buff is on them

Obviously a pretty major rework. His ult received a pretty nice buff in both CD and duration. The changes to Curse of the Silent very slightly nerfed the HP/mana drain, however at level 4 it is draining it 2 seconds faster, which is a plus. I'm undecided how to feel about the change to last word, however.

It certainly will be a very useful ability; it can be used in ganks, frustrating a carry during a teamfight, or forcing an opposing laner to either waste mana or miss CS. However, one of the most annoying things about facing a Silencer in the past was the fact that he completely shut down combo based heroes. Nyx Assassin, Storm Spirit, QoP...all these heroes were renedered helpless with a nearby silencer. Considering he was rarely picked, in pubs or competitively, it was certainly time for a change of some sort. Time will tell if this is a step in the right direction.

Sniper
- Assassinate cast range increased from 1500/2000/2500 to 2000/2500/3000
- Headshot procs cannot be evaded (the entire attack gets through)
- Headshot chance from 25/30/35/40 to 40
- Headshot damage from 30/45/60/75 to 15/40/65/90
- Headshot ministun from 0.01/0.1/0.2/0.2 to 0.25
- Shrapnel provides vision in the targeted area
- Shrapnel cast range increased from 1200 to 1800

Not to be outdone by Drow, another squishy ranged carry that is alergic to ganks got a pretty sizeable buff. The range increase of Assassinate and Shrapnel help Sniper to stay even further from the fray (which is the only way to keep him alive), and the vision on Shrapnel add a bit of utility to the skill. The Headshot buff is huge, and make him much more dangerous (and annoying) to lane against in the early levels. He still is susceptible to ganks, but definitely came out of this one a winner.

Templar Assassin
- Psionic Trap now requires a buildup time to reach it's maximum slow. Starts at 30% and increases by 5% each second until it reaches 50%

Tidehunter
- Ravage damage decreased from 250/350/450 to 200/325/450

Treant Protector
- Strength growth increased from 2.8 to 3.3
- Living Armor HP regen increased from 4/6/8/10 to 4/7/10/13

It seems to me that with all the hype that the changes to Treant Protector brought after the 6.75 patch notes were released, he fell a little flat. These buffs seem to be pushing him further in the same direction.

Venomancer
- Venomous Gale manacost rescaled from 90/105/120/135 to 125
- Venomous Gale initial damage rescaled from 50/70/70/100 to 25/50/75/100
- Venomous Gale damage per tick increased from 10/20/40/50 to 15/30/45/60
- Poison Sting duration rescaled from 7 to 6/7/8/9

It will be harder to spam Gale early on with the increased mana cost, but once you get some levels you actually end up better of. The TOTAL damage on Gale, including DoT ticks, was changed from 100/170/270/350 to 100/200/300/400, so all in all it received a decent buff. Poison Sting now scales a bit better into late game.

Warlock
- Infernal attack damage increased from 50/75/100 to 75/100/125

Witch Doctor
- Death Ward Aghanim's upgrade changed from 3 target split attack to 5 target bounce
- Death Ward multi attack bounce AoE increased from 550 to 650
- Death Ward cooldown decreased from 90 to 80

If you have a way to force the enemy into a tight grouping, WD ult can cause some serious damage. Since it is a bounce, it also has the potential to chain off of enemies and hit someone farther away than it previously might have.

Zeus
- Thundergod's Wrath damage increased from 210/335/460 to 225/350/475
- Thundergod's Wrath Aghanim's damage increased from 400/500/600 to 440/540/640

Boots of Speed
- Price decreased from 500 to 450
- Move speed bonus from 55 to 50

And Crystal Maiden's across the world rejoice! To go hand in hand with the 50g price drop of Observer Wards, we now have a 50g drop in the price of boots. The movement speed nerf is across the board, so everyone will be slowed down the same amount. If anything movement speed boosting abilities (Surge, Clinkz's wind walk) all received a small buff as a result.

Arcane Boots
- Move speed bonus decreased form 65 to 60

Phase Boots
- Move speed bonus decreased from 60 to 55

Power Treads
- Move speed bonus decreased from 60 to 55

Tranquil Boots
- Move speed bonus decreased from 80 to 75

Armlet of Mordiggian
- Armlet cooldown increased from 1 to 2 seconds

Force Staff
- Recipe reworked

Old Force Staff:
Requires:
Staff of Wizardry (1000)
Quarterstaff (900)
Recipe (500)
Total: 2400
Grants:
+10 Intelligence
+10 Damage
+10 Attack Speed
Force (600 units forward, 25 mana, 20 cd, 800 cast range)

New Force Staff:
Requires:
Staff of Wizardry (1000)
Ring of Regeneration (350)
Recipe (1000)
Total: 2350
Grants:
+10 Intelligence
+3 Regeneration
Force (600 units forward, 25 mana, 20 cd, 800 cast range)

I like the changes to Force Staff. The +10 damage and +10 attack speed were stats of little use to a majority of the heroes that would want to purchase it (supports, initiators, utility...basically non-right-clickers in general). Swapping these stats for +3 regeneration, which is much more useful to any hero, makes a lot of sense.

Although the recipe will be twice as expensive to save for, the overall cost has dropped by 50g, and you can now buy a Ring of Regeneration while in the lane for some sustainability. Alternatively, you could build tranquil boots then disassemble when you are ready to build Force Staff.

Null Talisman
- Recipe cost decreased from 155 to 145

Rod of Atos
- Cast range increased from 800 to 1200
- Slow increased from 50 to 60%

Decent buff to a seldom seen item. Not sure if it's enough to work it into most players' builds, though.

Shadow Amulet
- Fade time decreased from 2.75 to 2.6

Updated vision values on these abilities: Unstable Concoction, Phantasm, Waveform, Storm Bolt, Mirror Image, Spirit Lance, Requiem of Souls, Spectral Dagger, Venomous Gale, Earthbind, Dream Coil, Shackleshot, Wall of Replica, Flamebreak, Deafening Blast, Ghost Ship