Dota 2’s newest hero, Hoodwink, gets revealed ahead of schedule

With the postponement of The International 10, Dota 2’s yearly, meta-defining patch was also pushed back to a later date. Though Valve initially promised a November release for the game’s new hero, it was delayed to December. The developer announced that the next patch would be going live on Dec. 17, but it looks like the new hero couldn’t wait any longer to show her face to the Dota world.

Hoodwink is the next hero coming to Dota 2. The agility hero looks oddly familiar to Windranger regarding her sense of fashion. Dota2.com labels the hero as a “ranged, nuker, escape, disabler,” which are the basic characteristics of a core hero.

Hoodwink’s skills are as follows:

• Acorn Shot: Fires Hoodwink’s attack with an acorn at the target unit. The acorn bounces to nearby targets, slowing them and dealing bonus damage. If point targeted, a tree is created at the target position, and the acorn will bounce to nearby targets.
• Bushwack: Hoodwink tosses a net trap that stunts enemy heroes if they are near a tree in the area. Affected enemies take damage and are pulled towards the tree nearest to them, and have their vision reduced to 0 for the duration of the stun.
• Scurry: Hoodwink passively has a chance to evade physical attacks while near trees. When activated, Hoodwink gains bonus movement speed, phased collision, and tree-walking for a brief time.
• Sharpshooter: Hoodwink charges up and fires a deadly bolt from her crossbow, dealing heavy damage, slow and Break to an enemy hero. The damage and debuff duration scale up to max as you charge Sharpshooter, and the bolt is automatically fired after five seconds. Hoodwink is knocked backward for a distance of 350 from the force of the shot.

Hoodwink’s spell-kit shows that her hood isn’t the only thing she has in common with Windranger. Both Acorn Shot and Scurry are somewhat similar to Windranger’s Shackleshot and Windrun. Her ultimate resembles Sniper’s Assassinate, but it seems to be a more teamfight-defining ultimate.

Judging Hoodwink by her kit, it looks like she may be a tough ganker to deal with for fragile support heroes. Her abilities provide her with both mobility and lockdown, meaning camping runes may be essential to keep her under control during the early game.

Patch 7.28 is scheduled to drop today. More details regarding Hoodwink’s mechanics and other changes, like nerfs and buffs, will be revealed in a few hours.