Valve unveiled the Dota 2 7.07 Dueling Fates update back at The International, teasing the arrival of two new heroes to the game. Months later, the update"s changelog is finally out in the open, and it brings some bulky gameplay changes with it.
The full changelog can be found here, but be warned, it is incredibly lengthy. It may be a good idea to wait until popular Dota 2 community figure Purge gets around to deliver another long-winded first impressions video.
Looking at the highlights, the two new heroes are at the forefront, Pangolier and Dark Willow. From the two, Pangolier is a melee carry hero with decent mobility and has the ability to curl up into a magic-immune ball to barrel through enemies as his ultimate. Dark Willow is a range support hero with mainly area-of-effect based abilities, and as her ultimate, she can make enemies run back to base.
Meanwhile, Dota 2"s Matchmaking Rating system (MMR) is changing into a seasonal system that resets every six months. Players will earn a medal depending on the peak skill level they reached in a season whenever one comes to an end. The very first of these new Ranked Seasons will begin two weeks from now.
A new game mode that should be familiar to players of the original Defence of the Ancients or Heroes of Newerth is arriving for Dota 2 with this update; dubbed Turbo Mode by Valve, it is very similar to the regular All Pick mode, but heroes get more gold and XP, towers are weaker, and respawn times are reduced, all to allow for quicker and more lenient matches.
Since the list of changes coming to the map, heroes, items, and other areas, is way too long to detail here, we have compiled a smaller list of changes that we found interesting below:
- Each day 10 heroes are selected automatically as bonus heroes for the day. Bonus heroes provide you with a free mango on selection (cannot be sold).
- Removed repicking
- Heroes now start with a TP Scroll. TP scrolls start on cooldown at the beginning of the game.
- Glyph now causes your creeps to be invulnerable for the glyph duration.
- Third Roshan kill now drops a single-use consumable refresher orb. Cooldown is independent from Refresher Orb
- Neutrals now sleep at night. They have zero aggro range while sleeping.
- Removed the remaining Unique Attack Modifiers
- Flying Courier upgrade can no longer be purchased. Courier now upgrades automatically at 3 minutes.
- Iron Talon has been removed from the game.
- Poor Man"s Shield has been removed from the game.
- Pudge: Meat Hook can pull Runes back to you. Mana cost is refunded if successful.
The update also includes five new items, an Ancient Apparition remodel, along with some modifications to the ping wheel, guide system, ability draft, and more. A lot more.
The Dueling Fates update is currently available in the Dota 2 test client, with it slated to launch for everyone tomorrow, November 1.
Source: Dota 2
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