First of all, I would like all my readers to promote dota at World Cyber Games. Click the following link, register and leave a message for the WCG organizers to include dota in their tournaments all around the world. :)
Now, resuming my comments on the new version 6.65, (first post - read first so you understand this one to the fullest) I feel we're gonna see a lot of forgotten faces in competitive scene. As I said in my last post, heroes with teleport based skills are to be seen more often but what I didn't realize at that point was that the new teleport mechanism applies only on teleport scrolls and not boots of travel! This does not decrease the importance of Pit Lord, Furion, Spectre and KotL here, but it does mean that the problem is not as big as it seemed to be. This also means boots of travel would be given far more importance than other boots.
Talking about the push-meta, someone will need to tank enemy spells & damage while pushing, someone to be focus fired. Tankers like Axe, Dirge and Bristleback come my mind here. After being almost completely neglected in 6.64, they seem to fill the void perfectly. Beastmaster, though not a proper tank, will continue to get picked/banned due to 'wild axes' having physical type damage which is far more important than magical in shorter games.
Summon heroes (Furion, Syllabear) will be the call of the day for tanking tower damage, accompanied by AoE healers like Necrolyte, Dazzle & Voljin and tower breakers like Pugna and Krobelus, who got small buffs themselves.
Two changes, introduction of the new item Urn of Shadows and the availability of boots in the side shops support the idea of roaming and reduces the number of fountain trips required. The problem of aggresive supports not having a healing mechanism is solved and teams can just carry on pushing after winning a team fight. Twin head dragon has been buffed several times, now it seems he can easily fill the slot of an aggressive support.
We'll have to wait and watch what new strategies professionals come up for playing the new Visage and Alchemist. I'm expecting a change in play style of both. With the new 'Familiars' having a active spell themselves, only high level players will be able to enjoy his full potential.
Gondar got a nice skill replacement but as I said in my last post, single target heroes are a no no this version. Many people are expecting Chaos Knight to make a come-back with only one skill replaced, but I still think he needs more buffs to get in par with other competitive picks. He's still a single target hero with images that get wiped out with a few AoE spells.
Panda (Mangix) got hit by the nerfstick. Icefrog wants us to kill Fire Panda if we don't like him. Judging by the change in the metagame, he's not going to be picked often now.
Blademail got a nerf and now it's not an item for everyone anymore. But the return of tanks will support this item. Force Staff on the other hand got a small buff, shorter games will lure players to get it as a dagger replacement but it's still not good enough to be seen frequently.
These are my first thoughts on 6.65. Thoughts change with time, new things pop up and I still need to figure out the counter strategies of such a meta-game. So don't take these to be my final verdict on the version and go enjoy some 6.65 action yourself. I would love to listen your views on the map update, so start commenting. :)
I'm yet to publish my views on the new heroes, so subscribe and stay connected. :D
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