After pushing back the latest update for Dota 2 to December, Valve has a lot of pressure to deliver a bunch of new content and changes to the game before the end of the year. And with today’s Mistwood update, it seems like the developers have delivered, adding in a new hero, items, and more.
The two main focuses of the update are Hoodwink, the newest hero introduced to the Dota 2 roster, and Aghanim’s Shard, a new item that grants heroes an upgrade that can either add a new ability to their loadout or improves an existing one.
Hoodwink is a ranged hero that’s built to be evasive and disruptive to enemy teams through stunning them and using a host of tricky abilities to impact the battle. With a multi-hit projectile in Acorn Shot, a net trap to stun enemies with her Bushwhack, and Scurry giving her the ability to move faster, travel through trees, and increase her evasion, she’ll be a nuisance to deal with, especially in most situations.
She even has a long-range attack that will deal heavy damage, slow, and Break to an enemy that it hits. The longer Hoodwink charges up her Sharpshooter, the more damage is dealt and the longer the debuff duration lasts.
As for Aghanim’s Shard, they cost 1,400 Gold and will give players new ways to augment or add an ability to their favorite heroes. They become available to purchase at 20 minutes in every match and are consumed immediately, just like Aghanim’s Blessing.
Alchemist, for example, gets a new ability called Berserk Potion, which puts a basic dispel while granting plus 50 attack and plus 40 HP regen for 10 seconds to an ally or yourself. You can also check the Aghanim’s Scepter and Shard upgrades in the Hero UI next to their abilities, as well as which ones are active.
Other new items have been added too, with 12 specifically being listed outside of the Shard. This includes three new variations of Blink Dagger that can be built by using other resources in combination with the base item. These are called the Overwhelming, Swift, and Arcane Blink, which all grant you a boost to a specific stat along with other buffs.
Updates have been made to a large portion of the game’s regular items and Neutral items, including the addition of lore to all items that didn’t have them already—along with the usual balance changes. Outworld Devourer has also been renamed Outworld Destroyer, which is the original name of the hero prior to a change that was made seven years ago.
You can read the full list of general patch notes, along with how the new Aghanim’s Shard affects each hero, on the official Dota 2 blog.
