Here's everything you need to know about the new patch for Dota 2.
AFTER ALMOST A month of waiting, Valve has finally breathed new life into Dota 2 with the massive 7.33 New Frontiers update that dropped earlier today.
The update brings much-needed gameplay changes thanks to crucial map changes, as well as heroes and items balancing.
A much bigger map in Dota 2
The biggest change in the patch is the much larger map. In a blog post for the patch, Valve noted that the map is now 40% bigger.
Valve has added new locations on the map as well as major changes in the topography and locations of previous landmarks.
The side lanes are now extra bigger technically having another “hidden” lane within the previous tree lines. Inside the extra lane are new creep camps as well as other new map features.
The offlane and safelane are now easily distinguishable thanks to the addition of new defender gates. These gets can be found on the offlane and functions similarly to a backdoor, wherein the defending team only has access to it allowing for more maneuverability in case of sieges.
Dota 2 Roshan's location
Roshan was relocated from the river to two new spawn points: at the top left and bottom right of the map. Now both Dire and Radiant have equal control of the Roshan pit. That said, they also have an equal chance of losing control as Roshan constantly shifts which pit he stays. If it is daytime then he’ll be at the radiant pit, if nighttime, then he’ll move to the dire pit. You can actually see him transfer via the teleport if you stay at the Rosh pit every time the day and night cycle.
His drops also vary depending on which pit he stays, third Roshan now guarantees either a refresher orb or an Aghanim’s scepter depending on which pit he was taken down. Other changes to Roshan drops also include the removal of Aghanim shards, instead, Cheese is now guaranteed in the second Roshan.
Additionally, besides the Roshan pits are teleport gates that connect to each other. Teams can use this to quickly get to the other Roshan pit to avoid any potential sneaky Roshan takes.
Other map additions on Dota 2
Another great map addition is the Watchers, a new neutral objective that functions similarly to wards by offering a vision of an area. Though these offer a smaller range than the normal vision, they are nonetheless crucial if you want to control the map. There are 8 scattered around the map and will offer vision around the area for 7 minutes. If a team kills Roshan, all the watchers will be theirs until the other team sabotages them or until Roshan respawns.
There is also the new Lotus pool, a nod to the Dota 2 Dragonblood series, these pool produces Healing Lotuses as the game goes on. The lotus functions similarly to a Mango but instead of just mana, the lotuses recovers both HP and mana. Getting three lotuses will combine them into a bigger lotus which recovers a lot more HP and mana, combing three of those gives a you bigger lotus.
The lotuses spawn every 3 minutes and each pool has a maximum of 6 lotus spawns. Six lotuses combined would make a Greater Healing lotus which recovers 900 health and 400 mana. Do note that consuming a lotus has a 5-second cooldown so you might want to time taking a lotus in case you’re beating chased or ganked.
Finally, there’s the addition of a new neutral boss, the Tormentors. These spawn near the base on each team’s offlanes. They don’t fight back but are extremely tanky and reflect back damages to the heroes attacking it, so best take your team with you when taking them down.
The tormentors start spawning at the 20-minute mark and grant Aghanim’s shards to the two lowest networth heroes of the team if you beat it. If all five members of the team have an Aghanim shard, it will instead grant 280 gold and XP, making it a sure great resource for the starving position 4 or 5.
Speaking of starved supports, the new update also removes your beloved Tome of Knowledge. Instead, XP starved heroes now have a free alternative, the Wisdom Runes which can be found at two new rune spawns near the Tormentors. The new wisdom runes spawn at the 7-minute marker and every 7-minutes thereafter.
They grant 280 XP to the hero that grabs them. Also added was a new power rune, the Shield Rune which grants the hero who gets it a shield equal to 50% of the User’s max HP that lasts for a staggering 75s.
Finally, the last crucial map change comes in the form of the outpost. There are two new outpost locations in the map one near each Roshan pit. The updated outposts no longer grant XP and vision. They’re now essentially just a TP target in case teams want to gank or move safely around the map.
A new hero attribute
After almost two decades of Dota, Dota 2 has introduced a new hero attribute, the Universal heroes. Unlike the Intelligence, Strength, and Agility heroes, the universal heroes do not have any primary attribute to scale off, but instead, gain 0.6 damage per point of each of the three other attributes. With the addition of the fourth attribute, Valve has reclassified 31 heroes to fit the category.
Hero Balancing, and reworks
Of course, included in the new patch are hero changes, most notable of which were from Arc Warden whose double now has a situational change, if you’re playing on Dire his abilities have ‘tempest’ while if he’s on Radiant it will be on his double.
Orge Magi is finally a strength hero instead of intelligence which matches his lore. Clinkz can now summon skeletons on each of his abilities.
Greevil’s Greed is now an innate ability for Alchemist and his passive is replaced by a new skill Corrosive Weaponry which applies a stacking movement speed reduction to his enemies.
Finally, Muerta gets her Aghanim Scepter and Shard abilities. Aghanim Scepter grants Muerta a new ability, Parting shot, allowing her to shoot allies separating their soul from their body for 4 seconds. In this state they are untargetable, muted, disarmed, and invulnerable and once they return they are given a strong dispel removing debuffs and stuns.
Aghanim shard meanwhile upgrades her third skill, Pierce the Veil. It grants 30% Spell Lifesteal during the duration. Additionally, she gets a 2% spell amp every time she kills an enemy hero or if any hero dies within 925 units during the duration of the spell.
Bye bye BKB
Another massive change for gameplay is the rework of the controversial Black King Bar. Pros live by it, pub players dread it, but your typical SEA carry just won’t buy it. But for the first time, the SEA carry may be on to something, as Valve has removed BKB’s spell immunity, changing it to Deduff immunity.
Deduff immunity is a bit more complicated by Valve did provide a great explanation on the patch page which every player should read. A TLDR version is that you can be damaged by spells even if you have BKB, however, you won’t be stunned or slowed if the spell does not piece immunity. An example would be Vengeful Spirit’s missile still won’t stun you if you’re trying to TP away, but you will be damaged. But spells like Bane’s Fiend Grip which pieces immunity can both hurt and still debuff you since it pierces immunity.
Other gameplay changes
Other massive gameplay changes include reworks to the neutral items (teams now get neutral item tokens which can be converted to items.), minion and neutral scaling changes, and finally assist gold calculation changes. Creep farming is now less profitable especially in the late game while kills now reward more even for assists.
We’ll be able to see the new patch in action as DPC Division II Tour II continues this week. The patch will take the center stage beginning April 26 when the Berlin Major starts.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
