At long last, the 7.07 patch notes for Dota 2 have been released. It’s been a long time coming, too. While there is usually a meaty batch of balance tweaks in the immediate aftermath of The International, Valve has been remarkably slow to roll anything out over the last few months, much to the chagrin of regular players left reeling by (more or less) overpowered pubstar heroes.

The 7.07 patch won’t just bring everyone’s least-favorite magicians back down to earth, though. It will introduce two new heroes, a massive set of balance tweaks and many changes to the overall game.

There are a massive number of tweaks that can be found on the official Dota 2 blog, but for anyone that doesn’t want to bother figuring out what all those changes mean, here are the Cliff’s Notes of the changes.

New Heroes: Pangolier and Dark Willow

The most obvious change for most players will be the two new heroes. First is Pangolier, a melee nuker with new mechanics built into his spells.

- Swashbuckle: Pangolier dashes from one spot to another, then does an AOE attack in a long rectangle, angled at the player’s discretion.

- Shield Crash: Functionally similar to Earthshaker’s Echo Slam, except it grants a stacking damage reduction debuff based on the number of targets in the AOE.

- Heartpiercer: A passive skill that allows Pangolier to ignore enemy armor during attacks.

- Rolling Thunder: Pangolier’s ultimate allows him to curl into a magic immune ball and roll into enemies, damaging and stunning them. He can use Shield Crash while rolling, giving him free movement on top of the ability’s normal effects.

The other hero is Dark Willow, an evil caster with a fairy-like appearance. Willow is unique from most other Dota 2 heroes as she has five different spells at her disposal:

- Bramble Maze: A spell that creates multiple impassable thickets in an AOE that root and damage enemies who touch them.

- Shadow Realm: Willow becomes untargetable and gains bonus magic damage.

- Cursed Crown: An enemy hero is marked with a timer and, after a few seconds, is hit with an AOE stun that can also hit nearby teammates.

- Bedlam: Willow summons an ally that circles around her, dealing damage to enemy units that it passes through.

- Terrorize: Willow uses this same ally to cast an AOE spell that forces enemies to flee towards their fountain for a time. Bedlam and Terrorize cannot be used at the same time.

That’s just the start with this update, though!

Changes to Drafting

In addition to adding new heroes and rebalancing old ones, there are many changes to how these heroes are selected by players across multiple game modes. There are many nuances to this, but the key notes are as follows:

- All Pick draft order has been changed from ABABABABAB to ABBAABBAAB.

- Captains Mode now has an extra ban in the first phase (bringing the total to 6 bans per team).

- Each player now has a pool of 10 heroes per day that grant a free, unsellable Enchanted Mango when chosen as a bonus.

- Randoming now chooses a hero from those 10, granting an additional Ironwood Branch on top of the Mango, but offers no bonus gold. Repicking after randoming is now removed.

New Items and Changes to Support Items

A slew of changes have come to items as well. Costs, recipes, which shop they are purchased in and many other things have been changed. The biggest changes came to basic support items, though.

- Courier cost has been increased from 100 to 200, but Courier now upgrades to flying passively at 3 minutes. Move speed has been increased but the Haste ability has been removed, and replaced with a Shield skill.

- Observer Ward cost increased from 60 to 80. Wards now grant more EXP from dewarding.

- Tangos now cost 150 to purchase, but offer five charges instead of four.

- Bottles can no longer be purchased at the side shop, but can be purchased (with full charges) at the secret shop. Bottle crowing has been removed.

Many “equipment” type items have been changed in different ways, but there are also five brand new items to consider when building your hero:

- Meteor Hammer: A relatively cheap item that grants an AOE stun that can also damage buildings.

- Aeon Disk: A passive item with a long cooldown that grants a damage reduction buff when hit by an enemy hero while under.

- Spirit Vessel: An upgraded Urn of Shadows that reduces healing and regeneration when used on enemies, and amps heals when used on allies.

- Nullifier: A new upgrade to the Sacred Relic that slows, mutes and dispels the target.

- Kaya: A sister item to the (reworked) Aether Lens, it builds from a Staff of Wizardry and Robe of the Magi to increase spell damage and reduce mana cost, while offering some protection against attacks that reduce mana.

The other big note is that many basic and early game items, particularly early stat items like Mantles of Intelligence and Bracers, have been made cheaper. There are far too many granular tweaks to go over here, though, so make sure to check out the full patch notes.

Notable Hero Balance Changes

Of course, the centerpiece to any update are the balance tweaks to heroes, and literally every single one was changed in some way. Everyone’s Skill Tree options have been changed, but a number of other heroes have been shaken up in more substantial ways. Here are the highlights:

- Beastmaster: Call of the Wild is once again a single spell, with Hawks (which no longer have passive invisibility) only coming at level 3 and a free random neutral coming at level 4. Whirling Axes also now has a reduced cost and cooldown, with a stacking debuff similar to Batrider’s Sticky Napalm.

- Broodmother: Webs no longer grant invisibility and Spiderlings stats have been reworked. More charges for Spin Web can be stacked, allowing quicker changes between lanes.

- Mirana: Leap has been reworked, with three charges that replenish every 30 seconds. The teammate buff has been removed, and now only effects Mirana.

- Morphling: Replicate has been replaced by Morph, which allows Morphling to transform into a copy of an enemy hero.

- Necrophos: Ghost Shroud has been nerfed, with a weaker AOE slow and a bigger magic damage amp debuff. Scythe’s cooldown has been increased and mana cost has been rescaled to be more expensive early.

- Shadow Fiend: Shadow Raze damage has been reduced but has an extra effect that increases damage taken from multiple Razes within a certain time.

- Wraith King: Mortal Strike is...completely different and now builds charges off creep kills that allow him to summon Skeleton minions.

- Viper: Non-ultimate spells have been heavily reworked. Corrosive Skin’s damage is increased while its move speed debuff is removed. Nethertoxin is now an AOE spell that does damage over time and applies the Break effect.

The list keeps going! But once again, make sure to check out the full 7.07 patch notes on the official Dota 2 Blog for more information.