As its game continues to grow, Drodo Studios is adding more Dota 2 heroes to the Auto Chess test servers. Zeus and the newest hero in Dota’s lineup, Mars, are the newest additions to the Auto Chess lineup, the developer revealed via Twitter.
Mars slots in as a one gold cost warrior class piece within the new God race. This new race has a very interesting buff—it provides to all allies if there is no other racial synergy present in the lineup. As of now, it looks like having one God present on the battlefield canhalve the cooldown on skills at one gold cost.
If there are two Gods present on the board, that buff is cut again, giving all friendly units a skill cooldown time that is just 25 percent of its original. This looks like it could potentially overpower some combinations, but this is all on the test server for a reason.
It appears Mars will pan out as a tank, especially if he is slotted in next to other racial synergies that eliminate his God bonuses. His ability, Bulwark, makes him a beast against physical damage and his Shield Bash is going to doesn’t cost him any mana to use, which is a huge plus since he currently has a zero damage output.
A Weibo post that broke down some of the specific attributes of the characters stated that Mars entered the battlefield in a defensive form and could not carry out ordinary attacks. When he is attacked from the front or side by any physical attack he will use his shield to block a percentage of the damage. His Shield Bash will lash out every 10 seconds and cause damage to those units in front of him.
The warrior class has received a slight hit to their buff, lowering it from an increase of 7/8/9 to 5/7/9 will make them a little weaker in the early game.
Moving on to Zeus, he is also a member of the God race, but he is being added as a mage. And while Mars is a one cost hero, Zeus reaches the five gold mark. He looks like a late-game pull that can cause some serious damage with his ability, Thunder.
Essentially, Zeus strikes every enemy on the board with his signature lighting bolts regardless of their positioning. There is only a 50 percent chance for each piece, but those that are hit will be dealt a fixed amount of magic depending on their current health. No matter what, a minimum of one enemy piece will be hit.
If you manage to keep Zeus alive throughout the battle, he can deal up to 35 percent damage to the opposing courier if the skill reaches tier three, it scales at 15/25/35 according to the last update.
This introduction of Gods could severely change how the early game is played. There might be a chance players distance themselves from early synergy routes in favor of working with a God in their lineup.
The test servers are also working on rescaling Assasing, Beast, and Naga’s buffs. You can find a full listing of the chances on Reddit. Following Drodo’s usual track of production, players on the normal servers likely won’t be waiting long for these heroes and the included changes to be added fully.
