There was an item in Dota 2 that instantly killed summons

Before 2016, Dota 2 had an item that was considered a real threat to heroes with summoned units - Diffusal Blade. Its active Purge ability could instantly destroy Summons, including powerful Warlock golems, illusions, and other controlled creatures. It used only one charge, making it an extremely effective and almost mandatory choice against heroes like Warlock, Chen, Enigma, and Nature's Prophet.

The mechanics were inherited from the original DotA and remained unchanged for a long time. But everything changed in patch 6.86 (December 2015) when Valve removed the ability to instantly kill sammons. Instead, Purge became just dealing damage to summoned creatures, which drastically reduced the item's versatility.

How the game changed after this patch:

• Diffusal Blade was no longer collected as a counter to Summons, and it remained primarily an item for heroes with illusions or those playing against mana-dependent heroes (like Medusa).

• Heroes with AoE damage, such as Earthshaker or Ember Spirit, began to appear more frequently in drafts to combat Sammon armies.

• Players began using Battle Fury, Maelstrom, and Radiance to deal mass damage, making up for the loss of instant-kill mechanics.

• Teams shifted to an early aggressive style, trying to run over Summoners before their power peaked.

This change was an important step in the evolution of Dota 2 - the developers made the game deeper, but also more demanding for strategic thinking. Previously it was enough to buy one item to solve a problem, but now players need to coordinate, take into account the draft and flexibly change builds.