Dota Map Changes
Ilona Brownson
Now that I'm a few years past the point of playing Dota 2 nightly, I do still find big patches exciting but they also fill me with a sense of "Oh god, how does Dota even work anymore" - and yesterday's update was a big'un. Version 7.20 has reworked the landscape of Valve's MOBA, fiddled with the workings of core Dota tricks from denying (killing your own wee pals so an enemy can't reap their bounty) to pulling (making your wee pals to fight ambient monsters so... okay, a lot of Dota revolves around sacrificing chums), removed and replaced skills on many of the wizards, changed items, added new items... oh god, how does Dota even work anymore?
Where to even start? 37 heroes have seen some of their skills reworked or replaced, the map has been reshaped with new paths and locations, you now have a dedicated inventory slot for Town Portal Scrolls so YES you absolutely do have room to always carry one you waster, denying creeps gives a reward of partial gold instead of partial XP, the formulae governing armour and regen and movement speed are changed, loads of extra spells and effects no longer pierce spell immunity, five new items are in, the dear old Ring of Aquila has been removed, some items are built differently, and so very much is rebalanced.
A lot. It changes a lot. Some of the changes are obvious and should be quick to learn, while some of the minute and niche interactions will catch me off-guard for ages. See the v7.20 patch notes for more on everything.
Oh, I'd missed doing this: combing through reams of arcane patch notes, jointly audibly reacting as you and your friends stumble across change after change that unravels your understanding of a game you're invested in. Valve are upending Dota Underlords this weekend. Neutrals will be nastier, spells will no longer target (most) summons, over half the heroes are due to be rejigged and - most interestingly of all - re-rolling the hero shop will never cough up a hero that was just on offer.
I like the shop rework because it's a step towards giving me greater control over chance. My thoughts on that have only cemented in the hours I've played since my Dota Underlords review. I still think randomness plays too great a role once you start being matchmade against experienced players. I too often seem to make the right decisions and still lose, but this change potentially threads in another layer of consideration at every turn. (You can read the patch note two ways. If you buy a hero from the shop and then re-roll, will you have a chance of seeing it again, given that you just removed it from the shop? Or does it calculate based on what it initially offers? The first way seems cool, but the other seems to run counter to the point - if the point is indeed to give you more control. We'll see. Let's move on.)
At the moment, being defeated by the neutrals that spawn every five rounds often isn't that big a deal. They just limit your item choices, and you can often land something useful anyway. Once the patch lands, being defeated by neutrals will knock your rewards down a tier, which is potentially huge. The change incentivises you to spend more money early on, which upsets the current generally optimal strategy of saving as much money as you possible can for later rounds. A good change!
I'll be interested to see what happens to mages. They're currently a powerful alliance that vastly increases magic damage output, but one that's hard to build around as many of their heroes don't appear until late. The patch twiddles with that dynamic in all sorts of ways. Razor has been nerfed, but brought down to a tier-one hero, which might make building around mages early more viable. Spells no longer target low-key summoned units like Prophet's treants or Lycan's wolves, so they should fare better in those matchups. The main role of summons is to act as a distraction, and this means they no longer do that at ALL for spells. I don't know how often games hang on that, but I could say that about almost anything in Dunderlords.
The mages are also more affected than most by the Global Item changes, which now come in different tiers. So: Final Flash used to be a solely tier-three item that made mages cast their spell one more time when their health reached a 30% threshold. All of the items that buff alliances can now arrive in three separate tiers, so you might get an earlier but weaker version of Final Flash that only triggers once a mage's health drops down to 10%. It's a neat change, because the big problem with Global Items is that they commit you to a certain path early on. As guidesman Ollie (wisely) says in his Dota Underlords strategy guide, the best players are the most flexible ones. With the patch, you might be tempted to alter your plans if a powerful tier-three item drops into your lap.
Most major patches come with an official changelog, but not all alterations are mentioned. These undocumented changes rely on the community to notice their existence and therefore report them to others. As such, the exact date of undocumented change implementation will be an estimate.
The Dota 2 Crownfall update is finally expected to arrive in the coming days, bringing what many hope will be a massive patch that brings some big changes to the game. Fans are confident that the patch notes will bring some new cosmetics and hopefully the new hero Ringmaster, but other than that there has been little to no information about what to expect.
Perhaps a controversial take to end things, but I think Dota should go back to how it was 10 years ago where the four and five positions would not be fully six-slotted at 30 minutes and would really have to make impactful decisions on what items to buy. In my mind this would fix two issues, one is that it would make itemization for supports mean more, currently one won fight can buy me an entire Force Staff or Glimmer Cape, so I can just casually pick one of those up while building towards a bigger item and rarely have to think about getting smaller items or going all in on a bigger one.
The world of Dota 2 has changed forever with the arrival of 7.33, which seems basically like the biggest content update ever. The map has been reworked pretty dramatically, and there are many changes to almost every aspect of the game. We've handpicked a few changes to explain them and highlight things you may have missed.
Instead, look to the Wisdom Runes, which start spawning at minute 7, by each base. They can definitely be stolen by the enemy, so grab one before it is too long. They will continue stacking their EXP bonus.
A subtle outpost change. They no longer give EXP passively, which probably makes sense, since each team starts with 2 on their side now. There is a new total of 4 outposts on the map. All they do now is provide a spot to teleport. Note that they don't give True Sight anymore, either! Each team has an outpost by one of the Roshan pits for a convenient gank.
Having a Glimmer Cape (base 25% damage resistance, increased by 5% this patch) and Pipe of Insight (another 25% base, reduced from 30%) will make you able to withstand a ton of magic damage when you use the active abilities. Together, they give 750 magic barrier, but that amount is reduced over 60% magic resistance that your hero will have! Buying magic resistance items in the right situations is worth more than ever before.
The Kobold that you can dig up from the Shovel neutral item becomes your controllable unit. Just like his real neutral version, you get a gold-per-minute aura buff! 20 GPM. The kobold only lives for a minute, though.
Something that I was confused about a bit myself. Consumables now come in stocks: Clarities, Mangoes, Tangoes, etc. At first, I thought it was a team stock, but that's just your personal one. So don't worry about "hogging" those mangoes. I suppose this can limit the power of Undying a bit, eh.
I really liked making Octarine Core from my Aether Lens, but that's no longer the case. The item is cheaper overall (4600), but one common way to make it I've seen is from Vanguard, since it has the Vitality Booster.
Refresher Orb now needs two Cornucopias, not Perserverances. Holy Locket enjoyers, adjust from breaking down your Arcane Boots, since now the item needs Diadem. But it will give you a hefty +10 to all stats.
Crimson Guard seemed pretty overlooked previously, but that's no longer the case. I've seen a Keeper of the Light 5 build it the other day, and it seemed quite successful. Giving the team physical damage block helps a ton with survivability.
This video perfectly illustrates a new secret item in Dota 2, Block of Cheese. You need to gather many lotuses and then also the Cheese item from Roshan. It combines into the Block, which a hero can eat, receiving a permanent buff which gives a 500 physical damage barrier. It recharges very quickly, but not while attacked by an enemy hero. You need many Greater Healing Lotuses (made from 9 regular Lotuses), so it's not an easy task.
Tormentors are scary, new neutral creeps/objectives. They reflect all damage dealth to them, so you most often will need a lot of your team to do it. It's really worth it, though; destroying one grants an Aghanim's Shard to one of the two lowest net worth heroes on your team. Rejoice, supports! Also no need to fight over anything, since the process is automatic. I like that.
The first one spawns at minute 20, by both bases. It might be hard to take theirs, but if you happen to be near their tower, do it! This is 1,400 gold, which is much more than bounty runes can give you. If everyone on your team has a Shard, each person gets 280 XP and 280 gold.
The latest major update for Dota 2 includes sweeping changes that massively impact itemization and strategy. Through significant reworks, additions, removals, and neutral item adjustments, Dota Patch Notes 7.35 promises to usher in new eras of build experimentation. Let's break down the item changes in Dota Patch Notes 7.35.
For every 300 magical damage equipped hero receives, it gains a stack up to a maximum of 6. Each stack increases Eternal Shroud's base magic resistance by 4% and lasts for 8s. Stack duration is independent from each other.
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