A Farewell to 6.86

The most recent patch to leave us will left us as the most successful patch to date. While Invoker was in almost every pub, the pro scene was constantly evolving and it wasn't until the end when the most successful strategies were figured out. With that said, 6.87 will replace 6.86 as the most successful patch. As I write this, the open qualifiers are going on for TI 6 and they are some of the most exciting ever and here are a few reasons why.

1. Supports, the most under-appreciated role in Dota, continue to get buffed. At least in the pro-scene, the number of items a support accumulates over the course of a game has increased because of the low cost for getting wards, courier, and other early game essential items. The is also a boon to pubs but most teams can now truly get away with a single support. Earth Spirit, Bounty Hunter, and Enchantress are able to dominate games from the 4 position, if given the opportunity. Ice Frog's decision to open up this avenue of playing the game continues to keep it fresh.
2. Heroes are no longer getting beat down by the nerf stick. At least for heroes available in captains mode, heroes haven't been getting major changes to their stats, skills, or anything else Ice Frog can think of. This means that the relative power level of all heroes is about equal, with small exceptions. The flair that each region and team bring to the Dota continues to be expressed in new and exciting ways. Keep in mind that buffs and nerfs are mainly targeted at professional play.
3. The new items aren't game breaking, but they continue to increase the diversity of play-style and heroes. While Wind Lace pushes everyone toward drums, Raindrops, Bloodthrorn, Blightstone, Echo Saber, and Hurricane Pike all increase the viability of different heroes, play styles and open the game up for more decisions.
4. There are a lot of general strong heroes (Doom, QoP, Io, Chen, Enchantress, WD, Juggernaut, Vengeful Spirit, ES, Bounty Hunter, Natures Prophet, among others) and a lot of situationally very strong heroes (Slark, Slardar, Axe, Spectre, DK, Wind Ranger, Faceless Void, among others). This means drafting matters a lot and the team that can out draft their opponents has a significant advantage.
5. Finally, The terrain changes continue to try to balance dire and radiant. Again, this is geared toward pro play. I won't go into all the details but the big things to note are that radiant now have a better path behind the dire offlane tier one tower and there's a warding spot in the dire jungle similar to what the radiant have. Both changes give the Radiant some map advantage to offset the Roshan being on the dire side and the fact that radiant was more easily warded.

The Manila Major qualifiers just finished and Epicenter is right around the corner so let us bid farewell to 6.86: 6.86, you paved the way for a new dawn of Dota 2 greatness!