Dota’s New Items And Mechanics Continue To Change The Game
Patch 6.87 introduced 7 new items to Dota, bringing the total count to 152. That’s 152 unique items, consisting of consumables, attributes, weapons, armor, artifacts—most of which are produced by combining several of these items together. The rhythms of a Dota game are dictated by item choices and timings—a midlaner’s
Orchid Malevolence, a surprise 
Divine Rapier, or a support’s early 
Blink Dagger that aims to threaten every opponent’s lane. These items are powerful, and they pace and control the game as much as the heroes picked in it.
What kind of impact have these 7 new items had on the community and the competitive scene? The usual reaction is an overreaction, such was the case with 
Octarine Core, when it introduced the mechanic of Spell Lifesteal. It was still a powerful item, but not to the extent of everyone’s protestations. 
Bloodthorn may follow the same path of community acceptance. It’s a strong item, but the second most costly one in the game. Then there’s the change to the Intelligence attribute and how it amplifies spell damage. Was it all too much? Everyone has had a few weeks to tinker around with the new items, move them up in their item build queue, and discover their impact to the shifting meta.
Bloodthorn
Bloodthorn is now the second most expensive item in the game, and its impact should reflect it so. It presents itself as a natural upgrade for Orchid carriers, such as 
Queen of Pain, 
Windranger, or 
Invoker, who need to transition to physical damage in the late game. The only issue is that its active skill—granting 1.35x crit, True Strike, and Orchid’s Amplify Damage for all attacks on the target—has common, late game counters in Manta Style and Black King Bar (and even Eul’s). Yes, it’s still a good item to pick off supports, but did you really need Bloodthorn for that?
Bloodthorn is in a tough spot in the competitive scene. Late game, Int carries would most likely exchange Orchid for a Scythe of Vyse, when BKBs run rampant. Most recently, Newbee did build Bloodthorn on their Gyrocopter, as a means to counter Secret's Halberd on their Huskar. It's still in question how much impact the item had, as EternalEnvy did have BKB and Hao eventually built MKB as his next item. The active is certainly powerful, but Bloodthorn isn’t an ideal item to rush, so for the time being it’ll be stuck as a utility item that’s a little too late.
Blight Stone and [missing item: infused-raindrop]
Blight Stone did have some interesting prospects in the early game, such as the unpleasantry of dealing with a roaming Bounty Hunter equipped with both Orb of Venom and Blight Stone. But, as the meta has shifted, and as Roshan’s bounty was nerfed, Medallion of Courage has fallen out of the item builds of its natural carriers, like Vengeful Spirit.
Infused Raindrop is a passive “consumable” that fits best against early magic harass, except that it has a 3 minute buy timer. It does have a potential of blocking 600 damage, and for 225 gold, it could be a decent slot filler for a core in the mid to late game. Team Liquid has also been using it on several of their heroes. But best use scenario may be on Wisp, as DC’s Misery showcased during their qualifying run for the Manila Major.
Echo Sabre
Team Ad Finem running their safelane Sven with Echo Saber
Everyone can be Weaver now, but the item works best, intuitively, on slow, hard-hitting cores and cores with passive procs. That brings to mind heroes like 
Slardar and 
Spirit Breaker—slow base attack speed and game changing procs, when they happen. Practically, however, the item has been used on 
Sven and 
Slark throughout the Manila Major Qualifiers. Though the main advantage of the item is its double attack and slow, the 10 intelligence, 75% mana regen is a welcome bonus for your typical mana-starved, strength hero.
Again, it’s never one change that tips the balance scales of Dota. The reign of strength cores we’re seeing can also be attributed to the global changes to the Strength attribute, the buffs to Armlet, Sange, and Heart of Tarrasque, or the targeted buffs to Strength heroes, like Lifestealer. Echo Sabre is just another nudge in that direction.
Tome of Knowledge
Out of all the new items, Tome of Knowledge perhaps has the most impact overall, only because it’s now a necessary purchase in every game. Like wards, you buy it whenever it’s off cool down, and anyone other than the buyer can also consume it. 425 experience gets you 70.8% of the way from level 5 to level 6. The item forces players to readjust their intuitions about the level 6, ultimate timings of support heroes. And especially for those who habitually check the score screen to keep tabs of enemy hero levels, that Tome-assisted level 6 can come as a surprise.
Wind Lace
Despite all the reactions to the new items, Wind Lace was the first to get the first minor change. Patch 6.87c increased its cost by 10 and removed it from the Side Shop, where it was a convenient pick-up for supports to then rotate and roam. 20 movement speed for cheap is a non-trivial amount, where patches often calibrate hero movement speeds by 5-10 (see: Sven, from 295 to 290, and Earth Spirit, from 305 to 295). An early Wind Lace, with or without boots, let supports zone offlaners with impunity and increases their chances of successful rotations in other lanes. Before the nerf, it was common to see 3-4 players in the early game carrying Wind Lace just for its cheap utility and convenience.
Hurricane Pike
Despite the active’s implications, the item seems to steer towards being a defensive one than an offensive one. It seems tailor made for a kiting 
Drow Ranger, whose Marksmanship buff is negated at 400 range—the same as Hurricane Pike’s active. It was built a few times during the Manila Major, in both winning and losing efforts. But on first impression, the item appears extremely niche, and its uses so far in the competitive scene hasn’t justified a larger role.
Intelligence Buffing Spell Damage
Are we that game yet? “Intelligence now increases your spell damage by 1% per 16 intelligence points.” To put it into perspective, the change adds .0625% spell damage per point of intelligence. For Invoker—the hero with the highest Int growth of 4 and a commonly picked for his spell damage—this change buffed his spell damage by 7% at level 25, not counting any additional items. Compare this to 
Luna at level 25, where her near 97 Agility results in 97 damage and attack speed.
It’s not a significant enough change that would dictate new item builds. Aether Lens, recently nerfed, gives a spell damage bonus equivalent to 80 intelligence. The change is just another perk for intelligence heroes, who were often expendable and relegated to utility roles in the late game. For a few patches now, Valve has sought to change this balance, with spell caster favored items such as Octarine Core and Aether Lens. The intelligence buff is small, but as we’ve seen with heroes who’ve received incremental, minor buffs, these changes can compound.
Everything is connected to everything else. Dota is so expansive that it's a futile effort to theory craft the context in how these changes, these new items impact the game. It will be through experimentation, through play, both casual and competitive, that the new landscape of Dota will slowly come into focus.
First
Hurricane pike ruined normal skill
first
e: fuck 9 minutes refresh time
Quite some typos in there..
Echo sabre is also extremely good on PA and Wraith King
Imo, the best new item is "infused raindrop" for Slark for the following reasons:
1. He lacks burst-damage-resistance.
2. At Lvl.7, with maxed "Dark Pact" he can finally flash farm without going to base to refill mana.
Ring of Basilius (0.65 mana regen) + Infused Raindrop(0.85) = 1.5 mana regen !
For a mana-starved heroes like Slark, It is a must in every game.
What do you guys think?
i keep building echo sabre on LD's bear. good for chasing and for +proc on entangle and basher
imbalanced Slark need fix
Actually....no.....As a very high skill player who mostly mains slark. You DO NOT get infused rain drop..Heck, a lot of the time I don't even get an aqua because rushing sb into silver edge should be the #1 priority. (Like AM and BF) Delaying the most powerful item on slark atm is foolish regardless of mana. A support can just buy a boots or u buy a mango.
yes a high school player i am too, i am senior :P
l am a grade 7
first lulz
Slark and AM completely different lul, AM need bf for flashfarm yet slark just need some stats or mana regen for flashfarm, 2nd rushing SE = Enemy will stick or ready for counter you while your health still too small mostly u only get a couple kills and boom you'll feed like c**t
silver edge gives +15 stats and survivability in the invis. Also skadi should be 2nd item almost in anytime (if not bkb is needed DESPERATELY) Feeding is the players fault not the hero. A slark with only a shadow blade 10-15 mins in the game should rape any enemy team/pick offs. If the team bunches up like you said, can't there just be a team fight??? Also, like I said, any support with arcane boots or a mango should be all the emergency mana u need. Silver edge and Skadi ultimate orbs (early in game) should really give you all the mana u need.
U no build Midas?
No one mentioned enchan+track+HP+tp?
U no build Midas?
No one mentioned enchan+track+HP+tp?
Midas is situational mostly. But yeah, if you have 100% uncontested free farm you should def force midas after poor man's shield. Enchant is countered by bkb and bh should NEVER be the cause to not going silver edge. You can just easily purge his ult off. Also, the most core item on slark lol is magic wand. Im serious it gives the small mana bursts that slark needs between escaping/killing. HP gaining can be countered by orchid (unless that team/hero has a lot of debuff spells) TP's are a nuisance to slark, but basher should be the 4th/3rd item to get
Slark hero for cowArds and puss. ies
>:I u wot m9?
echo sabre with silver edge for slark can kill all tankers
As I know, Raindrops stack. I have seen supports with 2x Raindrops on the pro scene
Raindrops are notable because they can negate the fall damage from Euls, allowing you to instantly blink away.
"scan" is also from "that" game.. so yeah..
Bloodthorn is the second most expensive? What's the first? I thought the bloodthorn took the cake.
^ level 5 dagon
If you know how to tread switch, there is no need for raindrop on Slark.
1rd :)
Slark, an incredibly strong hero with lots of skills built-in 4. I can count 9 or 10 skills. The first is damage and debuffs reset (2), the Second is the escape and disable (4), the current passive ability even through magical immunity(5) and ultimate giving invisibility, insane regeneration on the battlefield, beyond the battlefield, the ability to "detect" the wards and invisible heroes, and fast movement speed (10). Too much for one character
About Echo Sabre. It is very cheap artifact, very-very-very cheap artifact, but too much reinforcing some of the heroes, buy them this artifact immediately win the game. It needs to cost more.
Чё вы пиздите рики имба ребята, вы чё
Чё вы пиздите рики имба ребята, вы чё
i think aquila is still the best most cost efficent item for slark .
BEST PATCH
I love it (NO)
slark heroes for heroes and hc carryes
we need more OP carrys on this game to make this game better ,we also need more carry items for this game to make this game better ,new carry hero is joke ,admins should put something much better one ...and ofc everyone loves carrys and remember their favourite carry team carrys name ,i dont know any supports and not interested them ,supports are players who cant carry .
And none of these can explain why elder titan is back
i can support good ,buts is so boring ,i love get kills ,killsreaks etc,even pro teams could change their support every month to get new ,supp is ez,carrying much harder,so lets give all respect to carrys ,ty.
elder is back ? who cares that hero,playing it randomly almost always with idiot team no effect.
Fucking slark players everywhere ...its really op when u r playing in 3k and teammates r braindamaged
ez for Madara Uchiha
@VeveRka, you forgot about extended night line of sight, which is the same as in the day. Like built in Nightstalker buff. Seems pretty broken for me.
I hate to be that guy, but that invoker stat saying he gets 7% magic damage increase with no items at level 25 is kinda wrong. Assuming you have maxed exort by level 25 it's slightly over 8%.
Furthermore, the statement that Invoker has the highest int growth is also kinda shaky. Yes he gets 4 int per level, same as Pugna, however Pugna gets more int from stats than Invoker does from Exort, so at max level Pugna's average int gain per level is 4.8 and Invoker's is 4.56, making Pugna Dota's most intelligent hero.
None of this detracts from your point though- even a max level Pugna, who starts with a whopping 10 more int that Invoker, ends up with a slightly over 9% increase with no items, so it's not a huge deal. Int still scales way less than other attributes into the lategame, but now they at least get a little something. I think it's a good change.
infused rain drops good item for a techies, paired with clarities and soul ring , techies never gets OOM
i feel like with the blink dagger an echo sabre sven doesn do solid damage, i was excited about the echosabre on sven but now i feel him weaker replacing the fast crystalis and deadalus