[Update #2]: Dota 2's final Summer update has enhanced the visuals and massively improved the report system.
[Update]: Dota 2 is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a bunch of thematic (and free) cosmetic items.
After a lengthy teaser written entirely in emoji format (yes, I'm actually serious about that), Valve have now not only revealed the full list of changes for Patch 7.34, but also launched the update itself! Staying true to tradition, the patch is absolutely massive and filled with all sorts of crazy changes, so the next few weeks should be quite exciting as everyone rushes to figure out what works and what doesn't.
The highlights include additional bans in Captain's Mode, an updated UI for abilities that like Mirana's leap that previously used the auto cast setting to toggle between two different versions, a slight reshuffling of Watchers and Outposts, as well as the arrival of a brand new stat - Slow Resistance. As the name might suggest, Slow Resistance reduces the impact of slows on your hero by a percentage, while the already existing Status Resistance stat has lost this ability.
When it comes to the balance changes, the important stuff includes nerfs to the Blood Grenade, a buff to Smoke of Deceit that allows you to share the disguise buff with allies, a rework of Rod of Atos that has removed almost all of its stat buffs in favor of a health increase, as well as a rework of Spirit Vessel that has basically done the opposite. So if you like playing Universal heroes, forget about rushing Atos and consider going for a Spirit Vessel instead.
The list of hero changes is far too big to even attempt to summarize, but what I do want to briefly touch upon is the Invoker rework. He's not only a Universal hero now, but the way his orbs works is also a fair bit different. They don't provide passive buffs like extra damage or health regeneration anymore, but instead give him powerful buffs like Cooldown Reduction or Spell Amplification when casting spells. Combine that with a couple of minor reworks to his abilities and a chunky buff to Sunstrike's level 1 damage, and I have a feeling that the 'new' Invoker is going to be quite a powerhouse once people figure him out!
But enough of my rambling! You can check out the full list of changes, including all of the bug fixes, over at the official website.
The final thing worth mentioning is that this is not the big anniversary update Valve promised a while ago. That's not only still coming, but it's apparently going to be here sooner than we might think! Once that happens I'll make sure to let you know, but until then I hope you have fun with the current update as it's quite a wild one.