Dota 2 Patch 6.79 Bringing More Changes Than You Can Shake a Stick at

Dota 2‘s upcoming 6.79 patch is bringing more than a few hero tweaks: changes to the jungle, night and day cycles, courier movement speed, and even tangos are coming in this update. And of course, hero changes abound.

If you just want to get right into it, you can take a look at the full patch notes from Valve themselves.

The whole first chunk of the changelog will affect core gameplay, but here are just a few that really change the way Dota 2 is played:

• Buyback prevents gaining unreliable gold (creeps, neutrals, etc) until your normal respawn time finishes
• When buying back, 25% of the remaining respawn time will be added to your next death
• Creeps now meet a bit closer to the tower in your offlane
• Non-Ancient Neutrals now split XP with all heroes in the AoE instead of just the team that killed them
• A neutral creeps camp will no longer spawn the same set of neutral creeps twice in a row
• XP reductions to several neutral creep camps
• Day/Night length decreased from 6 to 4 minutes
• Roshan will respawn at a random time between 8 and 11 minutes after death
• Starting gold increased from 603 to 625
• Gold for ending a spree changed from 75->600 (3x->10x) to 125->1000
• Your gold income is now 1 per 0.6 seconds, up from 1 per 0.8 seconds
• Melee Barracks HP regen increased from 2.5 to 5
• Ranged Barracks HP regen decreased from 2.5 to 0
• Ranged Barracks HP reduced from 1500 to 1200 and armor increased from 5 to 10 (same EHP vs physical damage)
• Evasion now stacks diminishingly

Several items are seeing changes in 6.79 as well, some of which more requested than others. Check out some of the notable changes below:

• Animal Courier movement increased from 300 to 350, and HP increased from 45 to 75
• Armlet of Mordiggian now provides strength bonus over 0.7 seconds and has no toggle
• Black King Bar recipe increased to 1375g from 1300g
• Bottle cost increased to 650
• Dust of Appearance slow increased to 15% from 10%
• Flying Courier cannot be purchased until 3 minute after creeps spawn
• Healing Salve cost increased to 115 and is no longer sharable
• Linken’s Sphere can now be cast on an allied hero
• Several boots are seeing their movement speed lowered to 50 from 55
• Pipe of Insight AoE now 900 from 500
• Observer Wards now last 7 minutes and grant a 50 gold bounty
• Sentry Wards now last 4 minutes, but no longer give permanent vision and give ground vision in a 150 area around it for 12 seconds after placement.
• Shadow Blade cooldown increased to 28 seconds from 18
• Smoke of Deceit now completely hides those affected
• Tangos now have 4 charges, but are seeing a cost increase to 125g. They can no longer be shared, but can be used on an ally to “create a 1 charge non-stacking tango item in their inventory. If the inventory is full, the item will be placed on the ground. This item has a 60s cooldown.”
• Vanguard block chance increased to 80% from 70%

The 6.79 patch isn’t out at the time of writing, but it should be hitting Steam sometime over the coming days. Once it has, we will be playing a completely different Dota. That much is certain.