Valve launched the huge New Frontiers update for Dota 2 yesterday, which exceeded all expectations for what would come subsequent for the nearly 10-year-old, free-to-play MOBA. The most notable change (amongst many others) is that the map is now 40% larger than earlier than, and Valve has retooled the structure of the map’s jungles. This will drive gamers to adapt their methods for juking to interrupt line of sight with opponents, farming for XP and gold, and extra. It has enormous implications for shaking up aggressive play, since professionals know the ins and outs of the map — a minimum of, because it was.
The patch notes for many Dota 2 updates are notoriously lengthy, as the recreation has dozens of heroes and numerous issues to steadiness (and generally, bans to put down on gamers). However, the notes on New Frontiers are, ahem, a new frontier when it comes to size and depth. In case you had been questioning, sure, folks do learn all of what’s in the patch notes. For occasion, PurgeGamers on Twitch streamed for 14 hours straight simply to learn by means of the patch notes and get first impressions on the exhaustive quantity of adjustments.
Animation: Valve
Along with the enlargement, there are different main adjustments to the map that returning gamers will discover. Valve claims to have made enhancements to its matchmaking, so expert gamers will be evenly matched. There’s additionally a very new hero kind, known as Universal, which a few of the recreation’s heroes have been re-assigned to.
As for what’s modified on the map, Roshan, one in every of the recreation’s impartial creeps that both workforce can tackle, can spawn in one in every of two new pit areas in the northwest and southeast corners, and he’s a lot stronger than earlier than. And there are twin gates: portals that can be utilized to zip throughout the map (Roshan can use them, too — thanks, PC Gamer). But that hardly scratches the floor.
Looking by means of the patch notes, it’s a delight to see the joking, self-aware tone that Valve takes in its notes to introduce fan-requested features and quality-of-life fixes that it’s solely simply now getting round to placing in. For occasion, the capacity squares in the HUD will now present a well being price, if they’ve one, not only a mana price. The copy reads: “Not bad, huh? Actually kind of crazy nobody thought to put it there before. Anyway, it’s there now.”
On the Dota 2 subreddit, it’s clear that followers are pleased, or a minimum of , about what’s in New Frontiers. And final night time, the recreation peaked at over 1 million gamers, its highest concurrent participant depend since March 2019. As somebody who has appreciated Dota 2’s progress, but doesn’t play the recreation, I’m at all times tempted to leap in when an enormous patch like this arrives. Perhaps, I’m prepared for new frontiers, too.
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