6.87 is right around the corner, and we cant wait for update to come for so many reasons. But until then, here is a list of things that Valve will certainly do, if history is any indication.
10) General Gameplay and UI Changes
Remember the good old times when we had to predict whether a ward would block an NC by imagining a rectangular area or when we had to predict the tower range while pushing, Or the time when Random Draft had only 24 heroes? While all of these were taken care of, we can expect more gameplay changes to make our experiences better.
In 6.84,
- We saw the change in Silencing and Passive Disabling behaviour and addition of Mute and Break mechanics.
- We saw Valve introducing a new Arcane rune, And also introducing the patrol command among other noteworthy changes.
So It will be safe to say that we can expect some UI and general gameplay changes coming from valve in 6.87
9) Follow-up patches to do some damage control
Valve has a knack of stirring things up with a huge update and then follow it up with patches to make up for the damage, the patch does.
In 6.86, We saw Riki got a new skill set, Permanent invisibility no longer gave him that ridiculous hp regen, and invisibility included backstab and together it formed cloak and dagger. Amongst all these changes was a huge change, A new ultimate.
Then in 6.86b, valve pseudo nerfed the ultimate by increasing the range, decreasing the cooldown and also changed the ultimate to affect only heroes realising how op the ultimate was there was a big creep wave.
Then again in 6.86c valve buffed riki’s ultimate by decreasing the cooldown and also increasing its range.
So as you can see Valve doesn’t shy away from releasing multiple patches to even out some of the imbalance it creates, so when 6.87 releases, you can expect more sub patches to come.
Well let’s just hope we don’t have to keep downloading updates every other day this time.
8) Dramatic announcement
We all know Valve loves its theatrics,
This picture was released before the 6.86 release, marking the release of the patch where the heroes in the picture are going to be completely changed for better or worse.
So we all expect Valve to do another dramatic announcement for 6.87.
7) Minor Changes to already out of meta heroes
This is probably one of the most annoying thing valve does in every update,
Valve gives these small buffs to heroes out of meta which more often than not is insufficient for the hero to return.
Like in 6.86, these out of meta heroes got insignificant buff
Skywrath Mage
Concussive Shot mana cost reduced from 110 to 95
Storm Spirit
Electric Vortex mana cost reduced from 100/110/120/130 to 85
Venomancer
Venomous Gale cooldown reduced from 22 to 21/20/19/18
Now do you see what I’m trying to say?
6) Changes to Neutral creeps.
This is one of my favourite things in a patch. To look forward to the changes in the changes in the Neutral creeps, be it physical changes, or NCs getting new skills or the bounty it gives.
In 6.86 we saw some major changes in NC:
Centaur Courser now has a stacking magic resistance aura (20% for units, 5% for heroes)
- Hellbear now has a stacking magic resistance aura (20% for units, 5% for heroes)
- Dragonhide Aura’s stackable armor increased from 2 to 3
- Ancient Dragons armor reduced by 1
- Ancient neutrals now behave like normal neutrals and split experience with all heroes in the AoE
- Hill Troll Priest’s Mana Aura increased from 2 to 3
- Satyr Banisher’s Purge cooldown reduced from 5 to 3 seconds
- Satyr Tormenter’s Unholy Aura HP regen increased from 4 to 6
- Satyr Tormenter’s Shockwave distance increased from 800 to 1200
- Satyr Tormenter’s Shockwave speed reduced from 1050 to 900
So don’t be surprised if 6.87 also brings out some amazing NC changes, hopefully some new camps too.
5) Arrival of Abyssal Pitlord or Abyssal Underlord?
Over the few months and updates, valve has been flirting about the arrival of the very popular Dota 1 hero Pit Lord.
For all those who don’t know the skill set of Pitlord, Here is
something that might help
PIT LORD
Azgalor is one of the heroes that focuses his powers on multiple enemies or even friends. Everything he does, he does it on a large scale. He can trap many foes at once, rain fire on them and make their bodies explode after. He’s a deadly combination that satisfies the devil’s love for fire and death, but he can also instantly transport every ally and himself to another battle field, making him a valuable leader of the undead, always present where he is needed.
Here are his skill-sets
Firestorm
Calls down 6 waves of fire that damage enemy units in an area and continue to burn them for 2 seconds.Number of Waves: 6, Damage per Wave: 25/40/55/70, Damage per Second: 5/10/15/20, Radius: 400
Pit of Malice
A deadly pit is conjured at target location. Any unit that enters it becomes corrupted with malicious forces and is unable to move for some time.
Damage: 100, Disable Duration: 1/1.5/2/2.5, Pit Duration: 7, Effect Radius: 275
Atrophy Aura
A 900 range aura that makes the might of an enemy leak out in the presence of the Pit Lord. If an enemy unit dies, you temporarily gain 5 bonus damage and 30 for heroes. Radius: 900, Attack Damage Reduction: 18%/26%/34%/42%, Attack Damage per Hero Death: 30, Attack Damage per Non-Hero Death: 5
Dark Rift
Opens rifts that pass through the netherworld at his present position and a target unit simultaneously. Teleports your hero and nearby allied heroes through the rift. Cast Range: Global, Radius: 450, Teleport Delay: 5/4/3
So, Will 6.87 be the patch in which we finally see the arrival of Pit Lord?
4) Nerfing OP heroes to the ground.
This is also another Valve classic in any patch, killing off a hero by nerfing it very heavily.
Remember ti5 when Leshrac and Gyrocopter were heavily contested and often first picked/banned? I mean, Fear played Gyrocopter all the games in ti5 finals! And then valve did this:
Gyrocopter
- Rocket Barrage damage per rocket reduced from 8/13/18/23 to 7/12/17/22
- Call Down slow no longer pierces Spell Immunity
- And also again in 6.86
- Call Down’s first missile damage reduced from 250/300/350 to 220/285/350
Leshrac
- Base damage reduced by 4
- Lightning Storm jump distance reduced from 650 to 475
- Lightning Storm damage reduced from 80/140/200/260 to 50/100/150/200
Well not just that, but Sniper, Tusk, Troll all in meta heroes at the time got a huge hit in 6.84.
So it is typical of Valve to just send off the op heroes of the patch. So it is strongly advised that you play all the op heroes in the patch before valve sends them off into the group of forgotten heroes.
3) Introduction of new and game changing items.
If this list were to be made a couple of years ago, I don’t think this point would be ever brought up because there was no concept of new items introduction that would come to mind. But over the recent patches, Valve has shown us that the things once we thought was impossible are now introduction.
For example, remember the time when cooldown reduction was something we could not imagine, well in 6.84 we saw the arrival of new item Octarine Core. Octarine core which was made of Soul booster and mystic staff had a passive which among many other things reduced the cooldown of a skill by 25% and 25% spell lifesteal. 6.84 saw the introduction of many more items like upgrade to boots of travels, moon shard, silver edge, lotus orb and many more.
Another example of a game changing item would be the introduction of Aether’s lens, this item, for a very less cost increases the cast range of skills and also gives it additional 8% damage bonus.
Well Valve has not failed to surprise us so far, item introduction wise. So 6.87 should be no different in that regard. And who knows, Maybe we’ll see something like a magic damage crit or something even more ridiculous.
2) Crazy Aghanims Updates
This is also a thing that many people are looking forward. It seems like Valve has made it its mission to include Aghs upgrade to all the heroes, here are some ridicoulus Aghs upgrade in the recent patches
Centaur Warrunner
Added Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade to Centaur: Stampede reduces all incoming damage by 70% and allows allies to run through obstructions (trees,cliffs, etc). Destroys trees.
Alchemist
Alchemist can now cast Aghanim’s Scepter to directly grant any allied hero all Aghanim’s Scepter bonuses as a buff (the hero upgrade and the stat upgrade). The scepter is consumed in the process. Multiple instances of this buff do not stack. Alchemist can target himself as well.
Weaver
Added Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade to Weaver: reduces the cooldown of Timelapse to 20 seconds and allows Timelapse to target allied heroes. 1000 cast range.
Shadow Fiend
Requiem of Souls waves now return back to Shadow Fiend dealing 40% damage on the way back.All of the damage the Requiem does to heroes on its way back heals you.
So you see adding Aghanims ugrade to heroes is a thing valve seems to take a liking to. Lets hope 6.87 bring some more crazy Aghanims upgrades to heroes like Storm spirit, Mirana, Riki etc
1) Creating Imbalance and chaos
With every Valve update, there will always be a hero, strategy that will be OP and will destroy the scene.
Valve never fails to make a hero so Op that it will literally own the pro scene and the pub scene.
We saw that happening with Gyrocopter and Leshrac in 6.83 making it ridiculously unbalanced.
However in the more recent times we have seen Valve go out of the way to make Outworld Devourer the hero of the patch.
Outworld devourer in 6.87 is a classic example of Valve over buffing a hero that was literally forgotten over the years.
This may seem to play a big impact in the pro-scene, but the real damage however is in the pub scene, people just spam out heroes like Ursa, OD, Spectre, Invoker etc. and more often than not end up winning the game only because the edge it has over the other heroes and this will force others also to pick the heroes in meta or else they are most definitely be outpicked.
So more than anything else in the list , this is the most annoying and certain thing to happen in a patch
What do you think about the list? Is there something you disagree upon? Comment your feedback below and do visit next week for another top 10. Click here to read more on Dota 2.
