Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes, or: Patch 6.82 and You

On September 24, 2014, DotA 2 received its latest patch -- in other words, it was updated for the express purpose of rendering overly powerful heroes and items weaker, and granting a boost to the parts of the game missing their edge. The latest version of DotA 2 as of this writing is v6.82.

To read up on what exactly has changed, you can find the patch notes bundle alongside the Rekindling Soul Update here.

So, what changed?  For starters, two much-maligned heroes were changed up to alleviate their most glaring flaw: namely, that they were no fun to play as or against.

The first, Bloodseeker, was once a famous "pubstomper." That is, he decimated games played by casual, lower-skilled players, but he was almost useless at pro levels of play. To combat this, two of his abilities were thrown into the blender -- his famously double-edged "Blood Rage" and his health-sustaining "Blood Bath" were turned into a single effect he can place on anyone and cause them to deal and take more damage while healing themselves if they ever get a last hit on a creep or enemy hero. In the space left by Blood Bath's absence, he received a totally new ability: "Blood Rite," which after a short delay deals damage to and denies spellcasting from any enemies caught in its massive area of effect.

The second, Phantom Lancer, once had the decidedly tasteless and unflattering fan nickname of "Phantom Cancer," due to his ability late in the game to spawn nigh unstoppable waves of self-replicating illusions that would endlessly push all three lanes at once, providing little relief to the enemy team as they continuously spawned and beat down any creeps and turrets they came across. Now his illusions last for a much shorter time and tend to strike quickly and without warning. This has given the new "acute" Phantom Lancer the equally tasteless fan nickname of "Ebolancer."

Apart from those two big changes are several smaller ones. New paths are traversable through the trees surrounding the lanes and jungle, and Roshan's had a change of address. A new item, the Crimson Guard, can be purchased in the shop. One item, Aghanim's Scepter, which upgrades the ultimate abilities of most of the game's cast, upgrades just a few more now.

Sprinkle a few handfuls of bug fixes and minor changes and tweaks, and you have Path 6.82.