Dota 2 patch 6.88 launches, because gaming is quiet right now

Since the Manila Major has now ended and there’s definitely nothing elseĀ at all going on in gaming, Valve have decided to release a major Dota 2 patch.

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In fairness, while this is a significant enough patch that it’s got a whole new number, it’s mostly one full of mixed balance tweaks rather than anything new. No new heroes or runes or items, for instance, although practically every hero has received some sort of change to their abilities. Even then, though, they’re not huge changes – although considering something like 95 of the game’s 111 heroes (not all of whom are available in the tournament Captain’s Mode) were picked in the Manila Major, I’d say we’re in a pretty good spot, balance-wise.

Tournament favourite Lifestealer’s only change, for instance, is that his base attack time has gone up from 1.7 seconds to 1.85. Phoenix’s Sun Ray damage has been reduced by 5 at each level. Slark’s Pounce damage has dropped by a cumulative 10 per level (so it’s 40 less than it was, at max level). Ursa… has actually been buffed, with a longer Fury Swipes debuff and significantly better base HP regen. Armlet’s recipe costs 50 more gold. Etc.

Conversely, rarely picked heroes have been buffed a bit: Omniknight has greater strength gain, Silencer has a whopping 6 extra agility, Luna has better movement speed and a longer stun on Lucent Beam, etc. I haven’t fully read over the notes, but Enigma perhaps has one of the bigger changes, with Black Hole now doing pure damage and going through spell immunity.

You can read up on the full Dota 2 6.88 changes over here.


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Tim McDonald
Tim has been playing PC games for longer than he's willing to admit. He's written for a number of publications, but has been with PC Invasion - in all its various incarnations - for over a decade. When not writing about games, Tim can occasionally be found speedrunning terrible ones, making people angry in Dota 2, or playing something obscure and random. He's also weirdly proud of his status as (probably) the Isle of Man's only professional games journalist.