If the rumors are true, a new patch is supposed to come out very soon. This is supposed to be the big one, so all gloves are off and today we would love to discuss some of our most anticipated potential changes.
Last time we did a patch wishlist, we talked about how the map doesn’t really need change for the sake of change. Back then it felt good and balanced enough, but right now some of the issues are clear.
Dire has a massive advantage at the higher levels of play. Between better map control, better Roshan setup and a seemingly better protected Ancient creeps area, playing Dire is objectively easier, leading to very high discrepancies between factions winrate.
There are many ways to solve this issue and we’ve heard rumors of a potential second Roshan pit or another, mirrored objective on the map. Alternatively, some form of new structures could be introduced to the game.
At the very least they can be used as a teleport point. We feel like the problem with Shrines back in the day wasn’t that they gave a TP spot, but rather they provided too strong of a burst heal. Some limited utility building could be an interesting addition.
The laning stage in Dota right now consists of constant brawling between supports for the ability to pull creeps to the neutral camps. As it has such a strong and pronounced impact on the lane equilibrium, playing and counterplaying around it is what 70%+ of support laning consists of. And it’s just not fun.
Fighting and trading against enemies is great. Pulling off well-coordinated moves with your lane partner is awesome. Spending 150g+ on Sentries to constantly block or deward the block in the neutral camp isn’t. At some points it turned into a necessary tedium and it doesn’t feel good at all.
Perhaps the mechanics of blocking camps could be changed somehow, or the interaction between the spawn box and sentry wards could be more interesting or meaningful: maybe neutral camp would still be blocked, but in doing so it would damage or reduce the remaining duration of the Ward.
Right now the whole dance around the neutral area is limiting the pool of viable supports at the higher levels of play and it also makes playing support different from what it used to be. In many cases it is a 1v1 against enemy support at a time when supports are supposed to shine the brightest.
BKB is a cornerstone of Dota. At least it was for the last several years, once players got really good at the game. Second item BKB is getting stale though and we would love to see some changes to defensive options.
If 
Muerta release is any indication, we might see a return of the “transformation = disjoint” mechanic. For heroes like 
Terrorblade, 
Lycan, 
Alchemist and 
Lone Druid it could be a way to play without BKB for a bit longer in certain matchups. Or play without BKB at all.
There are also multiple Status Resistance items, but they don’t really combine into anything meaningful. We don’t want to see the return of triple 
Satanic, but getting to a higher level of status mitigation should be possible.
Maybe it could also work with the applied effect in some cases. For example, with slows it could not only reduce the duration of the debuff, but also its strength. With a 50% status resistance, turning a 40% slow into a 20% slow won’t really break the game, but it could provide a way to play certain matchups without hard-committing to a BKB early on.
Right now we have amplification for pretty much every single stat in the ability descriptions. Cast range, damage and debuff duration can be altered with items, effects and talents. There are no ways to increase their AoE outside of specific talents, and it could be the new, big mechanic of the patch.
Truthfully, we are not sure if it is a good idea. Imagine a bigger than usual Black Hole or Tornado from 
Invoker being wider. The adjustment period alone would take ages. The thing is: after playing the same patch for the last year and a half, it might be fun to be clueless and confused for a long period of time, when Dota is at its wackiest.
Sooner or later pattern recognition and learned instincts will once again get into a close relationship with muscle memory and we will get back to complaining about the game feeling stale, so hoping for something potentially game-changing is only natural.
Or do you disagree with us and think we might be going too far? Share your thoughts and your own wishlist in the comment section below.
