Remember 6.78 got released in Dota 1 couple days ago? Now Dota 2 has the parity release in their test client (for debugging). It looks like full 6.78 will be out for Dota 2 by this Thursday at the latest.
New Bara is going to be sick for pub stomping!
Here are some new screenshots of 6.78:
Medusa's Stone Gaze now fully petrifies enemies (before it was just slow).
Omniknight's Scepter also giving god-mode to buildings:
Mirana's new arrow visual: less saturation and 10% smaller to match Dota 1. Lots of people complained Dota 2's arrow was too noticeable therefore played as a nerf.
All credit goes to this OP.
On top of 6.78 parity, there are more Dota 2 specific changes:
BUGS
Earthshaker: Fixed a number of slightly incorrect properties with Echo Slam.
Troll Warlord: Fixed a number of slightly incorrect properties with Whirling Axes.
AUDIO
Ownage sounds now play on the default Mega-kills, Bastion Mega-kills, and Pyrion Flax mega-kills announcers for whenever your team scores 5 or more kills without any heroes on your team dying.
VISUAL
Mirana: Reduced arrow size by 10%
Mirana: Reduced arrow saturation
Mirana: Enemies continue to not see or hear the same effects on the arrow as allies do
Hopefully this helps to bring Mirana back in the pro scene instead of the tried-and-true Windrunner. Her mirror counterpart Windrunner has been better than her in almost every way. Since I'm bored I'll make the comparison and contribute to AT rather than copying stuff from reddit:
Windrunner
+ Solid stat gain, especially str. Not as squishy as other int heroes.
+ Better hitting animation, base damage, and missile speed than Mirana
+ Windrun is a more spammable skill than Mirana's Leap
+ Powershot nuke is much better than Starstorm as it can be shot from afar without danger
+ A 2-man Shackle Shot (3.75s stun on both, wtf) is gamebreaking and match-winning. Mirana's Sacred Arrow is awkward to use and requires a big set-up.
+ Proves to be an amazing utility support/ganker that will annoy the hell out of enemies and pull clutch plays with minimal farm from 0:00 to late game.
- Focus Fire ultimate is an underwhelming skill for both pushing and DPSing. It's a nice filler skill when all other skills are in cooling down.
Mirana
+ Can roam/gank much earlier from level 1 and 2 just with Arrow and Leap.
+ Her Moonlight Shadow ultimate has been buffed again and again with lower mana, CD, & duration. It makes your whole team go invisible. Now it's viable to skill it early as level 6 instead of waiting for 10 & 11. This can be devastating for surprise gang rape. She also forces enemy team to carry dust/sentry at all times later on.
+ Starstorm is buffed last year and can deal a sick damage up to 525 when conditions are right.
+ Sacred Arrow deals damage too, can chain for big damage. It got buffed again just now at 6.78 with extra 100 damage. In perfect condition, level 9 Mirana can dish out 985 damage just with these 2 nukes.
+ Mirana being an Agility hero, she can semi-carry with DPS items and strong nukes. WR cannot.
+ Leap can jump over terrain, but much longer CD than Windrun.
- Atrociously low base damage (43.5 avg vs WR has 50). Easy to be out-last-hit.
- Slower turn-rate, bad for escaping when every millisecond counts. It gets worse when you're constantly turning back and forth trying to harass.
- Slightly mana-thirsty and restricted compared to WR.
Verdict:
In the last 3 years, Windrunner was always an A-list solo offlaner/suicide laner in the pro scene. She has lots of mana and her team-playing skill set is amazing. Mirana was always overlooked except in rare cases (she's still a fine solo mid hero or solo offlaner in pubs). With these continuous buffs, I would love to see her utilized as solo mid semi-carry ganker or adept offlaner abusing team-invisibility.