Dota 2 Patch Round-Up
Dota 2's "New Bloom Festival" has arrived. Make sense of it here!
New Game Modes:
Dota fans got treated to some very unique modes in this patch as well. The first addition was on Day Two of the event and it is known as “Random Ability Draft”. In this mode, players draft heroes and then take turns picking skills from a pool of the heroes drafted. As the community is already beginning to find out, this leads to often hilarious outcomes as heroes prance around with abnormal kits which range from OP to just straight “Rat Dota” picks. This mode adds a bit of comic relief to what is normally a very tense teamplay experience.
The second mode is called “Replay Takeover”, or as I like to call it, “Game of Throws”. This mode allows players to watch a replay and “takeover” the replay from any point and play out the game from whichever player they decide to takeover.
Think you can pull off Clockwerk hooks better than Bulba? Well now you can take over for Bulba, and with your superior skills, you can change the tide of games that Team Liquid would have lost! Of course not everyone will make even close to the proper play (people such as myself) and then we enter the match and begin the “Game of Throws”. This mode allows for unique opportunities not only for leisure, but for coaching and improvement as well.
Largest Buff/Nerf:
The patch also had an assortment of buffs and nerfs for a large chunk of the Dota 2 roster and items. The most significant nerf this patch clearly goes to “Earth Spirit”. Here is the list of changes for the hero:
- Stone Remnant recharge timer increased from 25 to 35
- Geomagnetic Grip now does a 2/3/4/5 second silence instead of a 1/1.5/2/2.5 second stun
- Geomagnetic Grip damage rescaled from 125 to 100/150/200/250
- Boulder Smash damage rescaled from 100/150/200/250 to 125
- Boulder Smash now does a 0.75/1.25/1.75/2.25 second stun instead of a 3.5/4/4.5/5 second silence
- Boulder Smash radius from 225 to 200
- Rolling Boulder now also gets interrupted if disabled during the initial 0.6 rolling charge, instead of only while its moving
- Geomagnetic Grip now kills trees along the path of a dragged allied hero
- Targeting someone directly with Boulder Smash will now be blocked by Linken's Sphere
- Fixed being able to cast Geomagnetic Grip on magic immune allies
- Fixed Boulder Smash being able to target Magic Immune units
- Fixed Rolling Boulder travel distance going further than intended if you use a Stone Remnant near the end of the roll
It is pretty clear from these notes that the chants of “Ban Earth!” will finally subside as what was a blatantly overpowered hero has been hit with a rather large nerf hammer. The percentage of people playing him has already begun to drop according to multiple statistic sites that monitor Dota 2 trends. The nerf seemed like it was all but certain, as a large number of players were groaning due to his skills offering him way to much flexibility and an unbelievably strong presence in every phase of the game (except for the very early laning phase).
In my opinion, the largest buff of the patch went to “Sven”. He was the recipient of two buffs:
- Base armor increased by 3
- Warcry cooldown reduced from 36/30/24/18 to 32/26/20/14
The big buff here is the base armor increase. This allows for Sven to be much more durable in the early game, and this opens up all sorts of avenues for aggressive pressure during the early game, while also giving him greater survivability throughout the match. I think it wouldn’t be out of the question to see aggressive trilanes with Sven in the mix after this buff, his survivability is too high to ignore, although it may take some time for him to find himself back in the pro meta.
Store Updates:
The store has been updated with many themed sets, HUDs, and items. More sets are on the way as many of the sets advertised on The New Bloom Festival announcement page have yet to make it to the store. This includes the arcana item for Terrorblade which is scheduled to be released on February 6th. I will update with more news if new items are released through the course of the event.
Overall Patch Thoughts:
This patch added a great amount of new content. The flair such as a themed map, new custom sets, and the gathering mechanic for the festival all play well together and add a great amount of fun ways to play the game and unlock new, themed content over the course of the event.
It will take time to see how all the buffs and nerfs change the competitive playing field (as was also the case with patch 6.79). So far everyone, including myself, seems to be enjoying all the new content and it is hard to argue with the quality considering the game is free!
Note:
There is also a countdown timer that is supposed to unveil something new in about three day’s time and I will update this article with whatever that may be (let us hope it is Pit Lord!).