IceFrog released 6.52 last night with some noticeable changes. It is unknown when leagues and tournaments will use the new map, but one thing is certain; they are very different from 6.48b.

* Increased AutoQuills release requirement on Bristleback from 200 to 300
* Reduced Reverse Polarity AOE a little
* Lowered Sand King's base armor
* Lowered movement speed on Beastmaster's Hawk
* Increased Primal Roar cooldown by 10 seconds
* Changed Fatal Bonds from damage to HP loss
* Sonic Wave cooldown no longer improves per level in non-scepter form
* Improved Faceless Void's cast animation time
* Decreased Timelapse cooldown

These are heroes that are considered core picks in hero selection. Beastmaster was heavily nerfed, Sand King was already nerfed in 6.51 and now he's even weaker. For one, it will require all teams to re-consider their strategies and force them to pick different heroes. Also, by changing the metagame so much, it could keep the community more interested. Maybe for once the same old heroes will not be seen repeated every game!

Here are some notable item changes:

* Items now have muted form when carried by non-owner (aside from a few exceptions like regeneration and leaver items)
* Flying Courier cannot carry Observer Wards from enemy base
* Lowered transmute bounty on previously untransmutable creeps (lvl 6)
* Change Sange and Yasha recipe costs and bonuses it gives as well as fixing some minor inaccuracies with it
* Flying Courier can no longer carry Aegis
* Increased Diffusal Blade's agility bonus by 5 (carries through to Manta Style)
* Lowered Black King Bar duration slightly

The biggest change would be the nerfs put on the flying courier. In 6.51, it takes two upgrades until the courier can place wards and now it seems that it was nerfed even further. Aegis/ward stealing is no longer possible. The second biggest change would be the BKB nerf, BKB has become a necessity for a few heroes and it's duration was already a bit short, and now it will be even shorter.

Other notable changes:

* Fixed World Tree and Frozen Throne towers not sharing bounty with allies
* Fixed Centaur's Return from triggering off on ally attack order
* XL Mode changed to have 4 hero removals per side instead of 3
* Fixed all CustomKey problems. All hotkeys in the game can now be properly remapped to any other hotkey

Complete changelog