There's only a day left to go before The International's grand finals take place, but Dota 2 fans received a surprise at the end of the tournament's fourth day. Two brand new heroes, Mars and Grimstroke, have been announced for the popular MOBA title, and while the former only received a teaser trailer, the latter is already in the game and is fully playable.
Arriving as a ranged support hero with a number of disables, Grimstroke looks like he will be a very viable ganker. His abilities are described by Valve on the newly established Grimstroke hero page as follows:
STROKE OF FATE
Grimstroke winds up and paints a path of ink with his brush, damaging and slowing enemies in its wake. The damage increases with each enemy the ink strikes.PHANTOM'S EMBRACE
Grimstroke commands a phantom to latch onto his enemy, damaging and silencing it. If the phantom survives the latch duration, it rends the victim for heavy damage and refreshes Phantom Embrace's cooldown.INK SWELL
Grimstroke covers himself or an ally in ink, silencing the target while granting bonus speed and immunity to attacks. The ink damages nearby enemies over time before bursting, damaging and stunning in the area based on how much harm it caused along the way.SOULBIND
Grimstroke binds an enemy hero to its nearest allied hero in range, preventing each from moving away from the other. Unit-targeted spells that hit either hero affect both. If the bind is broken before it expires, the initial target will again be bound to its nearest allied hero in range.
As previously mentioned, Grimstroke is available to everyone right now on Dota 2, although be wary, as there will definitely be some bugs at first. Mars, on the other hand, will arrive to the game this Winter, and judging by the teaser, it looks like the hero has a summoning ability.
The final day of The International will kick off at 10am PST today, and the tournament is currently boasting a massive $25 million prize pool. In addition to Twitch, the entire event will also be streamed on Valve's newly updated Steam Broadcasting service.
