The conclusion of another Dota Pro Circuit related event means a new big patch for Dota 2 is now out so teams can start practicing before the next wave of tournaments.
With this update, most characters got some small buffs. But the more serious changes came to towers, costs, and the upgraded implementation of Aghanim’s Scepter.
Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades
Before the update, there were 24 heroes without an upgrade available for Agsh. Now every hero has some variant of upgrade available for the Scepter and, more importantly, it can now be used as a consumable.
By purchasing a 2,000 gold recipe upgrade, Aghs will no longer take up an item slot, freeing another space up for players. Once upgraded, Aghs won’t give stat buffs or bonuses, but heroes will still have access to their abilities provided by the upgrade.
Abilities such as Templar Assassin allow players to teleport to any Psionic Trap after a set, two-second channel. Tiny’s Tree Volley summons a group of trees around the hero that will be thrown at a targeted enemy and deal 120 percent of your damage to enemies in that area.
On top of adding these upgrades, Roshan now has a chance of dropping Aghs when defeated for the third time. Upon the third defeat, Roshan will randomly drop either a consumable Aghs or a Refresher Shard. If defeated a fourth time, it will drop both.
Teams can check Roshan’s inventory before attacking to gauge the priority of fighting it. Roshan has always been a power play that’s one of the most important objectives available in the game. With this added incentive, teams might prioritize Roshan even further or put more of an emphasis on breaking up opponents’ strategies based on it.
Deny XP and Killstreak Bounty changes
Valve is shaking up the Deny mechanic once more by increasing Deny XP percentage from 35 to 40 percent. This makes laning more beneficial for the losing side, which will potentially extend that phase of the game.
Players who are having their creeps killed in lane by the opponents will still suffer when it comes to resources like gold and in positioning, but they’re no longer going to be forced to completely abandon laning due to XP degradation.
Along with that, the bounty reward for killing any player on a killstreak has increased significantly from a base of 200 and max of 1,250 up to 400 and 1,800, respectively.
This increase, especially on the higher end, will give teams who are being beaten badly in kills a better chance at coming back in the late game. A few tactical retreats, baits, and picks could flip the narrative of a match.
Death Cost and Towers
Support players, rejoice. The cost for deaths has gone from being 50 gold plus the player’s net worth divided by 40 to just net worth divided by 40. This means players who aren’t gaining resources, like back end supports or heroes running between lanes, will have a little less pressure, especially early on.
As the game progresses, the usefulness of this change fades, but having the ability to buy back into a fight when you play support and haven’t gained a lot of net worth could be key in a few early runs.
And while the cost decrease on death makes the early game a little less stressful, the changes on towers make the late game slightly harder.
The highgrounds are much better defended with the damage output for Tier Three+ towers going up from 152 damage to 175. Tier Two+ towers all gained an aura armor bonus, going up from four to five and now have a multishot attack when the glyph is activated. That glyph attack can hit three different targets but will prioritize the closer units. Even the Tier One towers got a small protection bonus, with aura armor going up from two to three.
While the death cost is down, many of the changes Valve has made in this patch lean toward elongated matches. This isn’t a new discovery considering some work done in the past patches, but this might have a greater impact in the post-EPICENTER Major patch.
Io returns and Mars enters Captain’s Mode
ESL One Birmingham just got a lot more interesting as the newest hero added to Dota 2, Mars, will finally be available in Captain’s Mode. He was pretty much nerfed across the board before being added with an extreme focus on his base damage, which was reduced by four.
By slightly modifying his moves and talents, like Arena of Blood getting rescaled from 150/200/250 to 120/185/250, Valve has made Mars look viable, while still providing a nerf from his initial burst into the game.
Io, on the other hand, is likely going to take up a ban slot for teams again starting in Birmingham. Valve pulled the character months ago, and fans had high hopes that the developers would rework him to be fairer.
The only listed change to the hero is the Tether ability now being interrupted if Io is stunned while performing it. Don’t expect to see much (if any) of Io even though the hero is back and available.
Slight changes and fixes will be altered, but this update will likely be what players can expect to be using in the EPICENTER Major, which takes place from June 22 to 30. Following the final DPC Major, Valve will likely wait a week before releasing the final patch of the season, which will be used at The International 2019.
Published: May 25, 2019 05:46 pm