Rekindling Soul Update Changes Everything You Know About Dota 2

You want change? Then change you will get. Maybe this is what IceFrog was thinking while putting together the Dota 2 6.82 patch, the Rekindling Soul update. We once said that 6.79 was crazy, but if you check out the 6.82 patch notes, the Rekindling Soul update takes the crazy cake right now. Check out some of the major changes that you need to know:

Roshan pit and map terrain changes

Remember how Dire has the advantage over Roshan because of how the map was designed? That’s going to be a thing of the past now, as Roshan’s pit has been moved so that the opening is at a different angle. A lot of different pathways have been opened in the map as well as an increase in juke spots. If you know the map like the back of your hand, well, time to relearn it. Here’s what the new map looks like:

Deathball nerf and tower buff

In a nutshell, the idea of a deathball strategy is to get an early advantage, snowball, push, team fight to hold ground, and never let go. Vici Gaming (VG) made this strategy recently popular during The International 2014 (TI4). The rolling of the deathball may slow down if not come to a halt with the following changes:

• Glyph of Fortification cooldown is now refreshed whenever you lose a Tier 1 tower
• Tier 2 Tower’s armor increased from 20 to 25
• Tower bounty gold for destroying Tier 1/2/3/4 reduced from 264/312/358/405 to 160/200/240/280 (denied is 50%)

There’s also a significant change in how teammates gain extra experience when sharing a kill. It involves math, which may or may not prompt you to just skip this, but in general, what this means is that shared experience for kills is now reliant on the experience of your team and your opponent’s instead of just on the victim’s level. If you’re the type that isn’t deterred by math then take a look at the formula:

OLD:

VictimLevel = Level of the Victim

1 Hero: XP = 120 + 20 * VictimLevel
2 Heroes: XP = 90 + 15 * VictimLevel
3 Heroes: XP = 30 + 7 * VictimLevel
4 Heroes: XP = 20 + 5 * VictimLevel
5 Heroes: XP = 15 + 4 * VictimLevel

NEW:

VictimLevel = Level of the Victim
VictimXP = Total XP of the Victim
EnemyTeamXP = Enemy team’s total XP
AlliedTeamXP = Your team’s total XP
XPDifference = ( EnemyTeamXP – AlliedTeamXP )/ ( EnemyTeamXP + AlliedTeamXP )(minimum 0)
XPFactor = XPDifference * VictimXP

1 Hero: XP = 20 * VictimLevel + XPFactor * 0.5
2 Heroes: XP = 15 * VictimLevel + XPFactor * 0.35
3 Heroes: XP = 10 * VictimLevel + XPFactor * 0.25
4 Heroes: XP = 7 * VictimLevel + XPFactor * 0.2
5 Heroes: XP = 5 * VictimLevel + XPFactor * 0.15

All Pick rework for Ranked Matchmaking

If you’re impatient, this can be annoying, as you have to wait for your turn before you can actually pick a hero in All Pick Ranked Matchmaking. This does, however, allows you to come up with a strategy with picks and counter picks.

• Picking starts after a 35 second strategy period.
• Teams alternate picking. Whenever it is a team’s turn to pick, anyone on that team can pick for themselves.
• Initial starting team is random, but known at the start of the strategy period.
• Teams have up to 30 seconds to pick a hero. If the timer expires, each player that hasn’t selected a hero will lose 2 gold per second. The selection will stay on this team until a hero is picked.
• If a team has not picked and continued losing gold for more than 30 seconds, a player that hasn’t picked will be assigned a random hero and the turn will resume to the other team.
• Once a selection is made, it immediately switches to the other team to pick.

Additional Aghanim’s Scepter

There has been some Aghanim’s Scepter rework and addition for the following heroes:

• Aghanim’s Scepter Fiend’s Grip now also causes anyone who attacks Bane Elemental while he is channeling to be afflicted with Nightmare. So if you’re not going to stun him, leave him alone.
• Aghanim’s Scepter on Elder Titan causes units that are pulled in by Earth Splitter to be disarmed in addition to being slowed. Slow/disarm duration increased from 3/4/5 to 4/5/6. The options left to you are run or tank everything.
• You thought Sven on God’s Strength is annoying? Well, Aghanim’s Scepter on Sven now grants an allied aura (900 area of effect) for 40/60/80% of base damage when God’s Strength is activated.
• Aghanim’s Scepter on Timbersaw gives him a second Chakram because one apparently isn’t annoying enough.
• Aghanim’s Scepter on Treant Protector grants a new ability, Eyes in the Forest, which allows Treant to enchant trees to spy on his enemies and expand the area Overgrowth affects.

Reviewing damage types

Dota 2’s damage types have also been reworked. Some people may not care, but for the meticulous ones, this matters a lot. Here’s the change from the patch notes:

A few abilities and damage type mechanics have been reworked. There are now three primary damage types and a Spell Immunity Piercing status with each. Each ability now carries a notation in the tooltip indicating these.

The three damage types are Physical, Magical and Pure.

Physical is affected by Physical Armor, Magical is affected by Magical Damage Resistance and Pure is affected by neither.

Magic Immunity has now been renamed to Spell Immunity. Spell Immunity only affects whether Spells interact with it, not how damage itself is handled. This means that on its own Spell Immunity status does not reduce any damage.

Black King Bar, Repel, Rage and all other previous forms of “Magic Immunity” now grant Spell Immunity status and a 100% Magic Resistance bonus.

In the vast majority of cases, the interactions are still the same, however an example of a case that would be different is if an ability has both Spell Immunity exception and has Pure damage type. Previously the damage would not have any impact, however now it does.

Rune changes and additional rune

This update also introduces a new rune, the Bounty Rune.

Runes are an essential part of the game especially for solo mid players. Having better rune control can be the deciding factor for winning your lane. This change, however, makes life in the mid lane a lot easier because you will always have a rune at two minutes. Depending on how you enjoy challenges, this may or may not be in your favor. I personally don’t like the Bounty Rune because I like the idea of destroying the enemy in lane and forcing him to rely on other resources to catch up. The Bounty Rune kind of ruins that for mid. On the bright side, it can be very useful for supports because let’s face it, gold and experience is hard to come by when you’re on position four or five.

If you think the aforementioned patch notes are lengthy and surprising, we highly recommend that you read the full patch notes here. It also includes a new item, item reworks, Shadow Fiend model rework with Arcana, and a courier morph feature among other things. Captain’s Mode also loses Bloodseeker and Phantom Lancer (both of which have been reworked) and welcomes Legion Commander and Terrorblade into the hero pool.

Credits: GamesInAsia.com

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