Dota 2 News

Majority of Dota 2's heroes nerfed in controversial Aghanim's Labyrinth patch

Just two days into Dota 2's Aghanim's Labyrinth Summer Event, Valve has dropped a huge patch that sees changes made to the majority of the game's heroes - and it's mostly nerfs.

While the reception to the Summer Event has been largely positive, many Dota 2 fans are not happy with Patch 7.27b, which has tweaked over 100 of the game's 119 heroes as well as five items. Fans on the Dota 2 subreddit have rallied to express their disappointment at the patch, saying that the Summer Event should be about having fun and not "struggling to the point of frustration."

With Aghanim's Labyrinth only being live for just a couple of days, fans were surprised to see Valve make such drastic changes so soon into the event. Many believe the changes were made to make it harder for players to try and earn the free weekly Battle Points on offer during the event to level up their The International 10 Battle Passes, which have so far made close to $30,000,000 for the tournament's prize pool.

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Aghanims Labyrinth Gameplay Update

[h2]General[/h2]

Fixed a number of places where players could get stuck in terrain
Fixed an exploit with Aghanim and summoned units
Chance to randomly drop a mana potion from an enemy reduced from 3% to 2%

[h2]Encounters[/h2]

Fixed issues with players getting stuck in Your Friend Grunch, Urn Your Keep, Jungle Hijinx, Chippy Conifers, Rizzrick the Razorsaw, A Bad Trading Post and The Briney Boys encounters
Added lower level arena to Rizzrick the Razorsaw Encounter
Fixed a case where Storegga would not throw the last remaining player
Fixed a case where Badland Bandits encounter did not spawn the last two portals
Fixed issues of multiple splits with ascension modifiers in Splitsville
Fixed an issue with Doom not casting Doom in Urn Your Keep

[h2]Items[/h2]

Bogdugg's Lucky Femur
- When Lucky Femur procs, it is placed on cooldown for the duration of the refreshed ability's cooldown.
Heart of Tarrasque
- Recipe cost increased from 650 to 1400
- Cooldown increased 5 to 10
- Now has a max item stock of 4 that does not replenish
Black King Bar
- Cooldown decreased from 70 to 60
Bottle
- Mana Restore per charge decreased from 12 to 8
Stonework Pendant
- Health Spell Cost multiplier increased from 2x to 3x
Bloodthorn
- Recipe cost increased from 1000 to 2000
- Cooldown increased from 15s to 30s
- Debuff duration increased from 5s to 3s
- Debuff damage increased from 30% to 15%
Orchid Malevolence
- Cooldown increased from 15s to 30s
- Debuff duration decreased from 5s to 3s
- Debuff damage decreased from 30% to 15%
Force Boots
- Gold Cost / Reward Value increased from 4500 to 5500
Slippers of the Abyss
- Gold cost / Reward Value increased from 5000 to 5500

[h2]Heroes[/h2]
Tusk

Ice Shards
- Cooldown decreased from 20/18/14/12 to 18/16/14/12
- Manacost increased 100/105/110/115 to 100/110/120/130
- Damage increased from 80/160/240/320 to 100/160/240/300
- Duration decreased from 4/4.5/5/5.5 to 3
- Decreased duration from common upgrade from 1s to 0.5s
- Icebreaker damage percentage increased from 15% to 30%
Tag Team
- Cool Party lifesteal decreased from 10% to 8%
Walrus Punch
- Walrus Punch can no longer be used on Aghanim's Spell Swap crystals
- Walrus Punch Crit Multiplier upgrade decreased from +100 to +75

Omniknight

Guardian Angel
- Base Duration decreased from 4/5.5/7 to 4/5/6
- Base Mana cost increased from 125/175/250 to 150/200/250
- Base Health Regen increased from 8/12/16 to 10/14/18
- Angelic Flight now grants 30% magic resistance instead of magic immunity
- Heal Life Angel trigger chance reduced from 25% to 12%
- Heal Life Angel cooldown increased from 0.75 to 1.25
- Guardian angel duration upgrade decreased from 1.5s to 0.75s
Purification
- Added Purification cast range upgrade +100
- Stalwart reduction upgrade increased from 0.3s to 0.4s
Degen Aura
- Righteous Path affect allies for 50% of attack and movement speed values
- Absolution restoration increased from 3% to 3.5%
Heavenly Grace
- Judgement damage increased from 100% of Omniknights attack to 150%

Disruptor

Kinetic Field
- Base duration rescaled from 2.6/3.2/3.8/4.4 to 2.8/3.2/3.6/4
- Base mana cost increased from 70 to 70/80/90/100
- Base cooldown rescaled from 20/17/14/11 to 18/16/14/12
- Area of Bliss reworked from healing 4% of max HP to 50% of Disruptor's Intelligence
Glimpse
- Blast In The Past reworked damage from Base attack damage to 150% of Disruptor's Intelligence
- Shocking Travel reworked from 30% Base Attack damage to 50% of Disruptor's Intelligence
- Glimpse Bonus Damage minor upgrade 20->30
Static Storm
- Field of Dreams reworked from 100% chance to do a 140% critical strike to 30% chance to do a 150% critical strike
- Pacific Storm damage reduction decreased from 50% to 30%

Viper

Level 10 talent decreased 8% spell lifesteal to 6% spell lifesteal
Corrosive skin
- +8% magic resist minor upgrade reduced to +5%

Weaver

Shukuchi
- Removed Greater Shukuchi upgrade

Witch Doctor

Death Ward
- Death Ward's primary attack can now damage Aghanim's Spell Swap crystals
- Death Ward attacks no longer bounces to Aghanim's Spell Swap crystals
Maledict
- Blighted Area of effect increased from 250 to 300
- Mumbo Jumbo Heal of Damage Dealt increased from 50% to 60%

Winter Wyvern

Arctic Burn
- Base attack range bonus decreased from 350/425/500/575 to 300/350/400/450
- Split shot no longer affects Aghanim's Crystals
- Split shot secondary target damage decreased from -25% to -35%
- Minor Duration upgrade decreased from +4s to +1s
- Second Degree Burn cooldown increased from 2 to 3.5
- Arctic Splash radius decreased from 200 to 175
Cold embrace
- Base Heal percentage decreased from 2.5/3.75/5/6.25 to 2.5/3.5/4.5/5.5

Mars

Spear
- Shish Kebab upgrade increased from 5 enemies to 7 enemies
Bulwark
- Bulwark Return upgrade increased from 25% attack damage to 35% attack damage
Arena of Blood
- Coliseum attack speed decreased from 50 Damage, 50 attack speed to 25 damage, 35 attack speed

Ursa

Earthshock
- Cannonball now stuns enemies for 1.5 seconds
- Cannonball decreased knockback distance to 125
- Earthshock movement slow upgrade increased from 15% to 20%
- Blunt Their Claws miss chance increased from 30% to 40%
Enrage
- Protect the Cubs now provides allies with all the benefits of Enrage, instead of magic immunity

Sniper

Take Aim
- Range upgrade decreased from 75 to 50
Headshot
- Decreased headshot damage upgrade from 35 to 30

Magnus

Empower
- Damage upgrade decreased from 10% to 5%
- Cleave upgrade reduced from 15% to 10%
Skewer
- Fixed level 2 skewer having 9000 range
- Skewer Slow Minor upgrade increased from 20% to 25%
- Spit Take heal percentage increased from 50% to 60%

Snapfire

Firesnaps
- Raisin Cookies deals 2x damage to cookie eater
- Baker's Dozen radius increased from 250 to 300
- Impact radius upgrade increased from +75 to +85
- Freshly Baked duration increased from 5 to 6.5
Mortimer Kisses
- Movement slow upgrade increased from +15% to +20%

Dota 2 ranked: Ranks, MMR, and more explained

Despite being released nearly ten years ago, Dota 2 still manages to pull in an impressive amount of players day in, day out. While some play a few casual games here and there and log off, the majority of the playerbase are there to prove their worth in ranked.

But as in any online competitive game, there's a high skill ceiling in Dota 2, and with dozens of heroes to wrap your head around, it's not easy working your way to the dizzying heights of Immortal. But it can be done if you're smart and prepared to work hard on your tactical ability.

If you're a new player to Dota 2, don't worry. It can be a pretty daunting task to take to the ranked queue, so to help you out we've put together some answers to the most frequently asked questions about the Dota 2 ranking system, including the different tiers, how MMR is calculated, and more, right here.

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Dota 2's The International 11 might be pushed back to 2022

If you didn't know already, Dota 2's The International 10 is delayed. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many esports events are being delayed or moved to combat the spread of the virus. TI10 is no different, and we're still waiting to hear the official dates for the tournament.

As a result, though, it looks like The International 11 is also going to have to move all the way to 2022 rather than 2021. There is a screenshot of an email where a representative of The International asks about dates in 2022 that the event might be able to be hosted on.

The email reads as follows: "Hello, Thank you for your response to host The International 2021. As we are all well aware the Covid-19 pandemic has forced several adjustments for events worldwide and TI is no different. Valve has postponed The International 2020 in Stockholm. We will be following up with communications in the coming months with your team directly as to what the target dates of the event will be for 2022. Thank you for your participation, The Valve Team."

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Police called to "disturbance of peace" - it was Lacari playing Dota 2

Popular Twitch streamer Matthew 'Mizkif' Rinaudo says that he was paid a visit by his local police department after neighbours heard "screaming" coming from his house - which turned out to be fellow streamer 'Lacari' getting animated at Dota 2.

Lacari, a well-known Dota streamer with over 140,000 followers on Twitch, was in the living room of Mizkif's house playing the popular MOBA, but was seemingly getting a bit too - erm, passionate - about the way the game was going. According to a tweet from Mizkif, his neighbours "called the cops on us because there was screaming and we were disturbing the peace." While we've all been a tad exasperated at video games at one time or another, Lacari must have been having a seriously frustrating game to warrant a visit from the authorities.

Sadly, this incident was not captured on stream by Mizkif, Lacari, or any of the other streamers that live in the house. However, you can imagine the embarrassment of having to explain to an officer of the law that you were simply tilting at Dota...

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