Valve have revealed the details about the next update hitting DotA 2, and boy is it a doozy.
I’ve not been playing DotA for as long as many others (only clocked in around 170 hours) but even I can tell this update is going to change everything. It will incorporate new Items, landscape changes, ability reworks and all in a all just an enormous load of buffing and nerfing for a ridiculous number of heroes.
Some of the most important changes in my opinion are as follows:
– Simplification of damage types.
The damage types have been adjusted and now consist of Physical (effected by armor), Magical (effected by magic resistance) and Pure (effected by neither)
– First major map change in years.
The most obvious map change is that Roshan’s pit has upped and moved along, there has also been little changes that will create entire new routes and warding strategies such as the new ward spots and the jungle paths being reworked. You can see in this Video by DotaCinema all of the changes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I988lpod63g
– Courier changes.
The courier has had two changes, the first one is a very nice cosmetic change. depending on whoever the courier is delivering items to, it will morph into that players character for the duration. More importantly its Speed boost has been changed to a 90 seconds cooldown meaning it is far more likely to be caught moving slower by enemy players. its Melee damage threshold has also been decreased so courier sniping could be on the rise.
– New item “Crimson Guard”
There has been a new item added to the ever growing list of expensive toys at your disposal and Crimson Guard is the latest. Crimson Guard is made from a Vanguard, Buckler and Recipe for 3850 gold. The passive ability gives you an 80% chance to block damage, depending on what type of hero you are the damage blocked will be 40 for a melee wielder and 20 for ranged.
– New Rune
There has been a new rune known as the Bounty Rune which will now appear every two minutes at either rune spot whilst a regular rune will spawn at the opposite one.
– Shadow Fiend re-skin.
Shadow Fiend has had his design completely reworked to look a helluva more badass than he ever did before, he has also had some minor ability changes such as having more souls on necromastery at both level 1 and level 4.
– Blood Seeker re-work.
Blood Seeker has also had a lot of his abilities tweaked including his Bloodrage and his Blood bath which has been changed into a completely new ability called “Blood rite”. He has also been removed from captains mode.
– Phantom Lancer re-work.
Phantom Lancer has also had a lot of his abilities tweaked such as: his passive phantom rush, his ability juxtapose which is now his ultimate and an entirely new ability called doppelganger. He has also been removed from captains mode.
You can find out the rest of changes here. As you can tell, there is going to be some drastically different play styles coming out in the coming months. as well as a variety of new builds.