Never Give Up, Never Surrender: Patch 6.82 Initial Reactions
Galaxy Quest: arguably one of the best movies of all time. Arguably.
RIP Dota
Previously, Kawaiisocks covered in detail some of the biggest hero changes in this patch. We purposely omitted talking about one of the biggest upheavals of Dota in its history: the changes to bounty experience and gold. In short, to summarize the arithmetic, you gain more gold and experience when you are behind. This makes it easier to come back from a deficit than before, and in early 6.82, often times one team fight could excessively rebound your disadvantage to an advantage.
An early 6.82 game of mine with Spectre. An abandon gave the enemy team a significant XP and Gold advantage, but the kill XP/Gold mid game put me in the threshold for some crucial items. One kill rocketed my gold from 3k to 5.5k. Just within reach for that Radiance.
Since then, 6.82 has undergone further refinements, scaling back the rewards for netting a kill from behind. It will take some time before we can make any conclusions about the patch, but it's no question that the spirit of these changes have altered Dota more than any other patch in recent memory. Let's take a look at one of the largest benefactors of 6.82. Take a guess whose these next graphs these belong to.
The Next Faceless Void
Spectre's win rate and popularity graph
Spectre received a minor buff to 
Spectral Dagger's movement speed, but it doesn't account for one of the largest increases in win rates we've seen for any patch. Her win rate has increased from 51 to 62%--at one point being the winningest hero in the game (that position is currently held by Omniknight. More on that later).
Patch 6.82 rewards killing when you're at a deficit. And whether you're ahead or behind, Spectre is one of the best heroes to clean up a team fight. Her ultimate, 
Haunt, allows her to engage in any team fight. Her builds are flexible--you can favor an urn/drums/phase boots build or go greedy for that quick Radiance. But what has changed is that now you have the time and money to get what you need.
With 6.82, there's this omnipresent feeling that if you're in the lead, you're on thin ice. One spoiled team fight can turn a game, and Spectre can take advantage of any opportunity that comes up.
Phantom Assassin's win rate
Phantom Assassin got a rework to 
Blur, but she is not only the beneficiary of the changes to the late game, but also the nerfs to 
Doom and 
Duel, which no longer disable passives. Her win rate has risen from 47 to 52%. Will she be the next Faceless Void?
The New King of Pubs
We'll have to wait for the dust to settle before we stitch together a Pub Tier List for 6.82, but for now I'm sure Sir Action Slacks will be happy to see that Omniknight currently sits as the hero with the highest win rate at nearly 64%.
Again, like Spectre, Omniknight's buffs were minor, like a nudge from Icefrog saying, "remember me? I'm a good hero." Of course, we all know Omniknight is a good hero. In 6.81, he was 3rd in win rate at 56%. But perhaps due to laning dynamics he was rarely seen in competitive play.
If we think about how 6.82 rewards greedy picks and late game heroes, Omniknight is one of the premiere late game supports. His ultimate scales into the late game, barring enemy 
Diffusal Blades, and his kit is always useful. With BKB limited to 5 seconds and unable to be refreshed, Repel becomes one of the strongest spells in the game.
Most importantly, Omniknight keeps your team alive. He keeps your carry alive for that delicious bounty gold and experience. Pubs have always underestimated Omniknight's skills. They're bemused when they cant cast spells on a repelled hero. They try to right click under 
Guardian Angel. And now in 6.82 those errors will become even more disastrous.
The Losers
Post TI4, Tinker got the Morphling treatment after TI3. edit: Morphling nerf was after TI2
He received nerfs to 
Ethereal Blade, 
Dagon, and to cap it off, he can no longer farm ancients. Many pros agreed that he deserved some changes, but he's now in a pitiful state, sitting at a win rate of 40.16%, right between Enchantress and Earth Spirit at the bottom.
Next is another pub favorite: Nature's Prophet.
His win rate dropped by 5% from 46 to 41%. 
Nature's Call received a nerf to magic resistance, but what really happened was that towers got stronger. Less gold for towers, a new fortification after every Tier 1 tower, and stronger Tier 2 towers reduced his potency in the early and mid game.
We also see similar drops in win rate across other pushing oriented heroes, such as Pugna (48->45%), Enchantress (42-40%), and Chen (42-40%).
One final graph that I'm happy to post:
Doom's plummeting win rate
Doom no longer disables passives, and an increase to its cast point makes it harder to hit blinking heroes. KawaiiSocks has talked about how this change to Doom (and Duel) is underestimated. It's an indirect buff to heroes like Anti-Mage, Spectre, Phantom Assassin, Faceless Void....dear god...maybe one day we'll wish we had the old Doom back to slap these heroes around.
Balanced Heroes
We didn't get any new heroes this patch (though Techies may be enough for awhile), but several heroes got complete reworks: Riki, Bloodseeker, and Phantom Lancer.
We'll wait a little to give a more extensive review on their ability builds. However, there is one new, notable mechanic.
There are many combos that can instagib heroes, but few can pop every hero on the map. It seems like an auto win for Zeus+Bloodseeker, but currently Bloodseeker has seen the largest drop in win rate of all the new hero reworks, dropping from 52 to 47%.
New Meta
Whether we like these changes or not, we're still going to play the damn game. In some ways it's more fun to feel like you can win a game that seems lost in the first 10 minutes. Some may criticize the patch as making Dota more casual, more like another game, but Dota did have its moments where a game was lost early, and the rest of the game felt like a slow, excruciating end.
At TI4 we had shorter games than any other tournament. The final game ended before any towers were taken. As a spectator and a player, the best games are the ones that go back and forth, filled with tension throughout. This patch seems to be enabling that spirit. We've yet to see whether these changes will result in safer, farm fests, or whether the rubberband mechanics will result in dynamic, rousing games. Either way, it will be something new, and something to look forward to.
Omniknight and Spectre meta.
Zeus refresher on 21 minute ofc it's gonna be like that. Also look at his hp - probably aghs scepter there. On 20 minutes. He deserves that rampage.
Are you sure chronosphere disables evasion? The 6.82 changelog says that chrono doesn't disable passives anymore and I would consider evasion as an passive.
Chrono doesn't disable passives anymore
You can't miss in chronosphere AFAIK, even if the evasion is a passive. I could be wrong.
Evasion is currently not disabled in chrono :)
Which doesn't make much sense, how can you evade enemy strikes if you're frozen in a time bubble?
The morphling treatment was post TI2 not TI3
When 6.82 first came out, everyone went mad over the bounty changes and there was a LOT more aggression and early-mid fighting from what I've observed.
Now that the bounties have been toned down significantly, it seems to have become a rice-fest until lategame and deathball strats simply don't work unless you totally wreck every lane. With the nerf to bkb and the tendancy for most important plays being made lategame, i forsee Scythe of Vyse and greedy multi-core lineups being much stronger.
I'm predicting mass greed. The return of core Alchemist paired with Wisp, this time in the midlane so Wisp can secure runes and stack ancients. More greed. Enigma. Bounty Hunter. Nature's Prophet. If the current meta means it's nigh impossible to win early, it really makes sense to go as greedy as possible.
Get silencer, and stop ragin :D (on mid lane, if you know how to play it, its so gorgeous - kills every hero easy)
Also games are much longer within this patch. Now much more time everybody needs to win. Before 6.82 it was like 20-30 minutes, and now it's even more that 40 minutes as I can see through out all of my stats page matches.
I've had some of the most intense games in my Dota 2 career in this new patch the last couple of days. The longest and most back-and-forth matches filled with action. It's pretty fun, but it's a bit of a bummer that I can't pick supports that fall completely off in the late game anymore. It's just not as viable.
soon people in lower MMR will realise to pick spectre then the w/r might fall. right now its mostly try hards (like me) picking spec in ranked
You can definetely erase this post, it's no more legit :D
I stopped reading when I saw ''RIP Dota'' , Noob
Go afk when you are losing it's 6.82b now
feeding becomes a tactic now :)
i remeber axe owning early game so hard with 20 kills in 15 minutes then got killed and lost the game
I think Valve is scared of another TI4 15 minute final series coming again, so they are trying to make late game the core of dota again.
Eg. Increased tower strength, refreshing fortification, making it easier to come from behind...
I personally think most of these changes are not bad, but are going to see a much larger change in the meta then in pubs
I went againts Zeus, Furion, Blood, Spectre, AA. Blood's buff makes the build OP. Its unbeatable. over 4500 dmg AOE Global after reduction, if you dont have upwards of 4500 HP and some decent resists,pipe,block , armor, you die instantly in the fountain.
http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/929698140
got zeus bs prophet spec lion combo
http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/930746736
left 1 lane rax and ...
Apparently in this new dota you have to sand bag until you can wipe their entire base at one go otherwise you are facing a comeback almost every time.
In my opinion Zeus's ult should take % of damage, always or when normal spell hits some kind of threshold.
Fear not my friends, our guardian is here! (Referring to Spectre)
Seriously I just had my first game with Spectre and my god is she easy to play.
Love these changes. It no longer feels like a pointless slog-fest if you lose early game, and the rubberband effect is really exciting now.
Personally I prefer playing Medusa in this patch. Although she doesn't have a global ult, the fact she can instagib illusions with her ult on a 60 second cd means that PL's and Spectre illusions just go away.
My biggest peeve with pub matches is when people abandon a game because they don't feel they can come back and win. I hope these changes get people to stick it out.
Thanks for the article.
potato
since that new lol patch came, i have played few games...dominating all the game and then their carry appears farmed...no kill as usually, he was just farming and everything that we have done 25' destroyed in 2'...are you fk kidding me? this isnt dota at all :D
nice article, thanks!
and forgot tp ? deny in ancient free tp [ kappa ] got 5kills ? ramapge to megakill ? and die not a problem kappa goldsplit+4 noobteamates .
ZEUS+BLOOD? not so op
SPECTRE+BLOOD? hmmm maybe?
well how about fucking
ENIGMA+BLOOD
CRY KAPPA
^[TRYIFUWANT]
P.o
-smurf-
actually VegETTA that is exactly dota, there are neutral creeps on the map for a reason ... farming is part of the game, shut down their carry if you dont want them to become a monster. and if you were dominating all game its because you were doing it 5v4 so it was to be expected.
if u cant adapt ur a moron