Valve released a new patch last night with nerfs for two heroes and a big change to Aether Lens.
Only Chen and Invoker have been directly nerfed by the new patch while Zeus, Lina, Vengeful Spirit and all the supports are indirectly affected by the removal of Magic Resistance from Aether Lens.
6.86d patch notes:
- Aether Lens now has a 550 gold recipe instead of a Cloak (no longer grants Magic Resistance)
- Hand of God cooldown is no longer reduced by Aghanim's Scepter
- Invoker's base agility reduced from 20 to 14
- Deafening Blast mana cost increased from 200 to 300
Since the first day of the 6.86 Aether Lens rapidly became one of the most popular items for casters because of the 200 increased spell cast range. And it’s not only that, Aether Lens also provides an 8% spell damage increase and used to give 15% magic resistance.
With the Cloak removal Aether Lens loses the magic resistance bonus and that surely will impact the item prioritization for some of the heroes. The most affected by this change is Zeus, a hero that came back in the mid lane with the introduction of Aether Lens.
Vengeful Spirit was also prioritizing Lens and she was at the recently ended Starladder|i-League, the most picked hero in the entire tournament with a 57.9 percentage win rate ratio.
Since the beginning of the 6.86, Aether Lens was bought 607 times in competitive games before the 25 minute mark, which makes it one of the most popular items of the patch.
In pub games the item was extremely popular among Pudge players and it’s hard to believe that the new change will lower the presence of the hero as he is often picked regardless of the current meta.
