A comprehensible new Dota 2 patch guide

A perfect way to figure out the global game update.

Let's summarize. What are the key changes?

A reworked Dota 2 rating system
Global game and map mechanics changes
Two new heroes and revisions of the current hero pool
Five new items and changes to the existing ones

Now in detail. What is the most noticeable upon opening the game?

Farming creeps on lanes is now more profitable

Removed an additional ranged creep on the midlane
Ranged creeps now reward 67 experience, down from 90
Gold reward for a ranged creep increased to 12
Melee creeps now reward 57 experience, up from 40
Gold reward for a melee creep increased by 4
Overall experience reward for a creep pack increased to 240, up from 210
Denying a friendly hero now rewards your opponent 25% of experience (down from 70%)
Denying a friendly creep now rewards you only 25% of experience (down from 30%)

Early game hero kills are nearly useless now

Basic experience reward from kills on levels 1-5 decreased from 100/120/140/160/180 to 30/60/90/120/150
Experience needed to level up from 1 to 2 decreased to 200, down from 240
Experience needed to level up from 3 to 4 increased to 400, up from 360
All heroes now spawn with a TP scroll. It is put on cooldown at the beginning of the game
Respawn timers for levels 1-5 changed from 8/10/12/14/16 to 5/7/9/13/16 seconds

Neutral creeps are now even more neutral

Neutral creeps now sleep at night (like in the first Dota)
The radius of experience gain increased to 1500, up from 1300
First neutral creeps now spawn a minute into the game (before – 30 seconds)
Deleted some special interactions with kiting neutral creeps (Chaos Knight's, Earth Spirit's, Morphling's, Pudge's, Clockwerk's, Rubick's and Tiny's)
Neutral camps aggro range now changes according to their spawn position (mainly for camps that are traditionally kited to easylane/offlane)

Roshan and structures are now tougher to kill

T1 towers' HP increased from 1400 to 1600
Armor formula changed from 0,06*Armor/(1+0,06*Armor) to 0,05*Armor/(1+0,05*Armor)
Armor gained from agility changed to 1/7 from 1/6
T1 towers' Armor increased to 17, up from 14
T2 and T3 towers' Armor increased to 19, up from 16
T4 tower's Armor increased to 29, up from 24
Roshan's base Armor increased to 18, up from 14
Structures' Armor increased to 14, up from 12
Shrines' Armor increased to 24, up from 20
Thrones' Armor increased to 18, up from 15
Melee barracks' Armor increased to 18, up from 15
Ranged barracks' Armor increased from 12, up from 10 (these changes are accounted for the aforementioned structures' Armor increase)
T4 towers no longer regenerate health
Thrones' health regeneration increased to 8, up from 3

New heroes: what are their abilities?

Pangolier is a melee carry hero, resembling "Puss in Boots." He's well suited for engage and disengage. He's very mobile thanks to his base movespeed (305), but his basic attacks only deal 50 damage.

Attributes:

Health: 520
Mana: 251
Movespeed: 305
Attack: 49-55
Armor: 4

Abilities:

Swashbuckle: Pangolier dashes, dealing damage in the target direction and applying on-hit effects.

Dash range: 1000
Slash range: 900
Damage per hit: 24/42/60/78
Number of hits: 4
Cooldown: 20/16/12/8
Mana cost: 10/80/90/100

Shield Crash: Pangolier soars before crashing down and smashing his back on the ground. Enemies around him are damaged and grant Pangolier a temporary damage taken reduction – which scales with the number of enemies hit.

Damage: 75/150/225/300
Damage taken reduction per enemy hit: 8%/10%/12%/14%
Damage taken reduction duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 13 секунд
Mana cost: 90/100/110/120

Heartpiercer: Panglier's attacks have a chance to slow down the enemy and fully negate their armor after a brief delay.

Chance: 15%
Duration: 2/3/4/5 seconds
Slow: 35/40/45/50%
Debuff's delay: 2 seconds

Rolling Thunder: Pangolier curls into a magic-immune ball and thunders forward, dealing damage and stunning enemies he hits. Shield Crash can be used to jump over obstacles. The ultimate can be interrupted during its brief channeling period.

Cast time: 1,2 seconds
Roll speed: 550/575/600
Radius: 150
Stun duration: 1/1,25/1,5 seconds
Knock-back distance: 150
Duration: 6/7/8 seconds
Damage: 200/250/300
Cooldown: 50/45/40 seconds
Mana cost: 100

Talents:

10^th level Talent: +25 movespeed or +2 mana regeneration;
15^th level Talent: +30 attack speed or Shield Crash now recharges in 2 seconds when the Ultimate is active;
20^th level Talent: +20 Strength or +30 Swashbuckle damage;
25^th level Talent: Rolling Thunder's cooldown decreases by 12 or Shashbuckle's cooldown decreases by 3.

Dark Willow is a new ranged support with an appearance of a forest fairy. She is ideal for an early-game aggression that is so popular in the current pro-scene.

Attributes:

Health: 560
Mana: 295
Movespeed: 295
Attack: 45-53
Armor: 2

Bramble Maze: Dark Willow

creates a Bramble Maze on a target location. Enemies are damaged and rooted upon stepping on the Maze.

Number of traps: 8
Maze's active duration: 15 seconds
Root duration: 1/1,5/2/2,5 seconds
Damage: 100/150/200/250
Cooldown: 40/35/30/25 seconds
Mana cost: 140/150/160/170

Shadow Realm: Dark Willow enters a Shadow Realm, briefly becoming untargetable. Her next attack receives an increased range and damage. Attacks interrupt the duration of the Shadow Realm. The attack modifiers increase the longer Dark Willow stays in the shadows, reaching their max limit after 3 seconds.

Duration: 5 seconds
Max damage: 120/200/280/360
Range bonus: 600
The attack bonus duration: 3 seconds
Cooldown: 30/24/18/12
Mana cost: 70/80/90/100
Cursed Crown: Dark Willow curses her enemy. After a 4 seconds delay, they and their closest allies are stunned.
Delay: 4 seconds
Stun duration: 2/2,5/3/3,5 seconds
Stun radius: 325
Cooldown: 18/16/14/12 seconds
Mana cost: 100/120/140/180

Bedlam: Dark Willow's companion, Jax, circles around her for a brief period of time, damaging nearby enemies. Can't be used together with Terrorize.

Untargeted ability
Affects enemies
Deals magic damage
Doesn't pierce magic immunity
Damage per attack: 70/150/225
Delay between attacks: 0,25 seconds
Attack radius: 300
Number of targets hit at once: 1
Move radius: 200
Move duration: 4 seconds
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Mana cost: 100/150/200

Terrorize: Dark Willow unleashes Jax on her enemies. After a brief delay, the companion strikes fear into his enemies, forcing them to run towards their spawn-pool. Can't be used together with Bedlam.

Fear duration: 4 seconds
Cooldown: 100/80/60 seconds
Mana cost: 150

Talents:

10^th level Talent: +125 to ability range or +20 to ability damage
15^th level Talent: +40 movespeed or +90 gold per minute
20^th level Talent: +300 to Shadow Realm's max damage or 10% spellvamp
25^th level Talent: +1 second to Terrorize's duration or +200 to attack speed

Ranked seasons: what's that?

Patch 7.07 brought Dota 2 ranked seasons – each season lasts 6 months. Every season's start players will play calibration series, and the level of their opponents is determined by their previous historical results. The first season will start two weeks after the patch (after the 1^st of November).

MMR is now replaced by the visual representation of the skill level – medals representing 7 ranks, 5 divisions each. This rank can be seen by the teammates at the start of the game. MMR can still be seen in a player's profile. The rewards for the ranked season's will also be displayed there.

What will those with 10k MMR do?

Nothing changed for players with high MMR. The calibration mechanism will quickly match them with players of their skill level in the proper division. You have to recalibrate after each season's start.

Sergei “Smile” Revin: "It's not the end of boosting. Nothing will change in that regard. Those who boost quickly will still reap their rewards," - from the GameInside.ua interview.

One of the update's main goals were changes to the matchmaking system and an effort against MMR boosting.

Now those who are content with buying high-MMR accounts will have to do it every season. It doesn't change the situation much but at least makes it costlier for these players.

Anything else?

Drafting:

All Pick drafting order is now: A-BB-AA-BB-AA-B
Each day 10 heroes are selected automatically as bonus heroes for the day. Bonus heroes provide you with a free mango on selection (cannot be sold).
Randoming no longer gives bonus gold. It instead selects a hero from the set of bonus heroes and grants an extra iron branch (in addition to the mango).
Removed repicking.

Misc:

Creeps now have a cap on their upgrade but are affected by the Glyph
Introduction of five new items and changes to the existing ones
Introduced Turbo Mode. In Turbo Mode, heroes earn gold and experience faster, can buy items from every location and respawn quicker. Turrets are weakened compared to other modes
Updated the Guide System. Each guide calls out its gameplay patch and which role it covers.
Players can now swap the hotkey order of abilities and chat with their teammates during the draft in Ability Draft.
Introduced a ping wheel. Now you can use the ping wheel to convey your hero's movement objectives, call out ward spots, and give the classic attack/retreat commands.

Will the patch turn Dota around?

The 7.07 update already did just that. The gaming community has been asking to do something with the undesirable matchmaking system that was simply badly functioning. As a result, we also received a massive balance and mechanics change list as a bonus.

The patch's mechanic changes were met with a mixed reception from analysts and players.

Team Secret's coach Lee “SunBhie” Jeong-jae shared his opinion on changes in his blog: "I have plenty of friends that used to play Dota before. When we gather together to watch tournaments, they don't recognize the game they once loved. I don't think that FIFA would suddenly say that the game would now be played with two footballs."

Played a little Dota-test. So far all of my feedback can be boiled down to swear words.

Pro-players' reactions to the mechanic changes of patch 7.07 are understandable. Not so long ago there was another major balance redesign. It changes again now, and dramatically.