Continuing the string of nerf heavy patches since 6.88d, 6.88f contains significant adjustments to several heroes, hitting hard both Phantom Assassin and Omni Knight.
As the Dota2 season starts back up, Valve has released yet another sub patch for 6.88. 6.88f targets the heroes that have been raising in popularity in recent professional matches. Some of the larger changes include a rescaling of Onmiknight's Repel and the reduction of Phantom Assassin's dagger range.
Notable changes in 6.88f: (Full patch notes can be found here)
Batrider:
- Flamebreak knockback no longer interrupts channelling spells (behaves like blinding light)
Kunkka:
- Torrent cooldown increased from 10 to 16/14/12/10
- Ghostship Rum damage reduction changed from 50% to 40/45/50%
Outworld Devourer:
- Outworld Devourer base damage reduced by 6 (53 to 47)
Omniknight:
- Purification cast range reduced from 700 to 575
- Purification cast point reduced from 0.25 to 0.2
- Purification cooldown reduced from 10 to 9
- Repel duration rescaled from 4/6/8/10 to 5/6/7/8
- Repel cooldown reduced from 14 to 20/18/16/14
Phantom Assassin:
- Stifling Dagger cast range reduced from 825/950/1075/1200 to 525/750/975/1200
Shadow Demon:
- Shadow Poison manacost increased from 40 to 55
According to both Dotabuff and Gosugamer's database, Omniknight has been doing very well as of late, holding a 56% win rate over 80 professional games last month and a 59.5% win rate in 5k+ pubs this week. On the other hand, Shadow Demon and Kunkka seem to have been nerfed partially due to their popularity in professional games, appearing in 38% (2nd highest) and 34% (4th highest) of all official matches.
Whether 6.88 will be the patch of the Boston Major in still unknown, however, historically speaking, all majors have been played on different patches. It may also be worth noting that no patch has received a g version, meaning that 6.89 may be arriving in the near future.
Source: Dota2.com
