Eleven days before The International 10 is set to begin, Valve released a new balance patch that applies nerfs to plenty of heroes and items, but also buffs Clinkz and brings a change to Zeus’ passive spell, Static Field.
Zeus is the only hero that received a significant change while he also got buffed. Aghanim's Shard improved passive was changed from HP removal to actively dealing damage, which means that it now interacts with the enemy hero items, thus putting Blink Dagger on cooldown or cancelling potions. Additionally, his ultimate damage got increased from 300/400/500 to 300/425/550.
Among the heroes that got slightly buffed, Clinkz, who received a rework in the big 7.30 patch only to get nerfed in 7.30c, is now buffed again with the Burning Barrage attack damage increased from 60% of to 65%, while his level 20 talent was changed from +2 Burning Barrage Arrows to +3.
Undying, Ursa, Timbersaw, Riki and Pugna are also among the heroes that received minor buffs, however, Tinker who was also reworked in the 7.30 and it’s deemed to have become too powerful, has now received some nerfs as follows:
- Rearm: Mana Cost increased from 130/210/290 to 150/225/300
- Heat-Seeking Missile: Damage per rocket reduced from 125/200/275/350 to 115/190/265/340
Dawnbreaker, who was added to Captain’s Mode only three weeks ago, on the 11th of September, has received considerable nerfs to both Starbreaker and Celestial Hammer as follows:
Starbreaker
- Swipe attack damage bonus reduced from 25/35/45/55 to 20/30/40/50
- Smash attack damage bonus rescaled from 40/65/90/115 to 30/60/90/120
Celestial Hammer
- Slow rescaled from 35% to 24/28/32/36%
Silencer was also nerfed, Arcane curse Silence penalty multiplier getting reduced from 2x to 1.7x while Last Word Aghanim’s Scepter radius getting reduced from 650 to 500
In the items department, Overwhelming Blink is the only one touched by this patch as the Blink damage got rescaled from 200 & 100% 2100% strength to 100 & 150% strength.
Several neutral items got nerfed, but most notably is the Mirror Shield Attribute bonuses reduced from 15 to 10, Ex Machina armor reduced from 25 to 20, while Nether Shawl received multiple nerfs as follows:
- Armor Reduction reduced from -3 to -2
- Magic Resistance Bonus reduced from 25% to 20%
- Spell Amplification reduced from 8% to 6%
Most likely these are the last balance changes before The International 10. The long-awaited $40,018,195 tournament is set to begin on the 7th of October with the group stage matches. The playoffs are scheduled for October 12th to 17th at the National Arena from Bucharest, Romania.
