Dota 2 News

Dota 2 and League of Legends are often compared to one another. They both trace their origins back to the same Warcraft 3 custom game, they both have an enormous roster of playable characters, and they're the two biggest MOBAs in the world, so these comparisons are inevitable. But it's like comparing a Thanksgiving Day parade balloon to a giant blimp. Dota 2 is compared to League. League is not compared to Dota 2, because League is so big it blocks out the sun.

As I gaze, forlorn, into the mirrored plating of my replica Dota 2 Aegis of Champions, a single tear rolling down my cheek, I lament Dota's relative lack of recognition. It's a magnificent multiplayer game, with a skill ceiling so astronomical that ten-year veterans still have plenty of room for improvement, and still some prodigy can just wander in with a completely unorthodox approach and blow everyone out of the water.

Unfortunately, you need to learn several dusty tomes' worth of gubbins to truly appreciate things like this, which isn't an appealing prospect to many people. But you know what is appealing to lots of people? Virtual K-Pop girl groups. I'm dead serious. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, and League has gallons of high-fructose premium skins, pop songs, merchandise, and premium tie-ins on tap to help wash down their convoluted MOBA. Meanwhile, us Dota players are the flies rolling around in vinegar, screaming and vomiting.

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RELATED LINKS:

You can now play Dota 2 with any controller supported by Steam Input

Dota 2's Aghanim's Labyrinth mode is back with a new battle pass

DOTA: Dragon's Blood Book 2 hits Netflix in four weeks

• Ascension Scaling: creature bonus hp per ascension reduced from -5/20/40/60/80/100% to -5/18/36/54/72/90%
  
• Ascension Scaling: creature bonus damage per ascension reduced from -5/20/40/60/80/100% to -5/18/36/54/72/90%
  
• All melee heroes' base armor increased by 1
  
• Fixed several exploits used to skip trap rooms
  
• Fixed certain creatures not reacting when damaged from far away
  
• Fixed Ash's Pulse triggering while silenced or muted
  
• Panda Potion Pub and Arcane Archives events can now appear at depth 1
  

• Dark Symbiosis: When an ally is Enfeebled, it now lasts 2x the duration
  
• Dark Tendrils: Fiend's Grip Percent increased from 35% to 50%
  
• Dark Tendrils: Latch Range increased from 90 to 100
  
• Dark Tendrils: Creation interval improved from 2.5 to 2.0
  
• Cloud of Frailty: Now also grants 2 charges of Brain Sap
  
• Black Ichor: Channeling no longer ends if the primary target dies after taking Black Ichor
  
• Driven to Delirium: Now also grants 200 Fiend's Grip cast range
  
• Mind Fracture: Radius increased from 250 to 275
  
• Mind Fracture: Heal Percent increased from 25% to 35%
  
• Mind Fracture: Movement Slow increased from 40% to 50%
  
• Shared Torment: Spill Width increased from 175 to 200
  
• Shared Torment: Non-captains targeted with Enfeeble after taking Shared Torment are 20% larger
  
• (Minor Shard) Brain Sap Cast Range increased from 150 to 175
  
• (Minor Shard) Nightmare Invulnerability Duration increased from 0.4 to 0.5
  
• (Minor Shard) Nightmare Tick Damage increased from 15 to 20
  

• Strafe: percent of Skeleton Walk movespeed used for attack speed buff increased from 300% to 400%
  
• Strafe: duration increased from 6s to 7s
  
• Burning Barrage: fixed arrow damage display value appearing as 40% instead of 65%
  
• Burning Barrage: fixed damage percent minor upgrades not working
  
• Splitshot: now also increases Burning Barrage's arrow damage by 10%
  

• Hammer Time: Celestial Hammer charges increased from 2 to 3
  
• Sunforge: Celestial Hammer bonus time in world increased from 2 to 3
  
• (Minor Shard) Celestial Hammer Damage and Burn Damage are now combined in the same upgrade
  
• (Minor Shard) Celestial Hammer Range increased from 200 to 250
  
• (Minor Shard) Celestial Hammer Fire Trail Duration increased from 0.8 to 1.0
  

• Glimpse bonus damage upgrade increased from 30 to 40
  
• Loaded weapon Thunder Strike chance increased from 50% to 60%
  

• Crosswind: magic damage increased from 500% to 600% of Frost Arrows Bonus Damage
  
• Shifting Shots: movespeed reduction reduced from 20% to 10%
  
• Marked Reflexes: time required to fire reduced from 7 seconds to 5 seconds
  

• Tidebringer damage changed from 20/30/40/50 to 15/30/45/60
  
• Dread Pirate: Now also triggers a Tidebringer attack on X gained and lost on the enemy
  
• No Quarter: Now also grants Tidebringer 2 charges
  

• Death Dealer's Discount: Cooldown reduction increased from 75% to 100%
  
• Death Dealer's Discount: Now also increases area and primary target damage to the initial target by 50%
  
• Sinister Spire: Move slow increased from 30% to 50%
  
• Sinister Spire: Duration increased from 15 to 18 seconds.
  
• Life Leech: Mana stolen as life increased from 100% to 150%
  
• Skeletal Summoning: Skeleton Duration increased from 7 to 10 seconds
  
• (Minor Shard) Frost Nova damage increased from 70 to 80
  
• (Minor Shard) Frost Shield damage increased from 15 to 20
  
• (Minor Shard) Sinister Gaze mana steal percent increased from 5 to 7%
  
• (Minor Shard) Added Chain Frost Jumps 2(4)
  

• Over the Moon: Damage multiplier increased from 2 to 3
  
• Over the Moon: Leap range reduced from 1000 to 750
  

• Over-Empower: Allies also receive Magnus's self damage and cleave multiplier
  

• Blast Wave: impact damage from Icarus Burn dps increased from 300% to 400%
  
• Flame Revenant: percent of Fire Spirits' damage as flame revenant damage reduced from 100% to 75%
  
• Focus Point: the tip of Sun Ray's beam now also heals 150% more
  
• Savior: multiplier of Sun Ray's base heal as heal increased from 8x to 10x
  
• Spirit Balm: now also increases Fire Spirits' travel speed by 450
  
• fixed Supernova DPS talent not updating tooltip
  

• Discordant Force duration increased from 7s to 15s
  
• Fervent Assault duration increased from 2s to 4s
  

• Leash duration upgrade increased from 0.5s to 1s
  
• Death Pact with Brackish Bath upgrade now deals 150% damage
  
• Fish Food attack bonus increased from 50 to 60
  

• Local Cooling cooldown reduction increased from 0.5s to 1s
  

• Flesh Golem base damage amplification reduced from 25/30/35% to 15/20/25%
  
• Rotting Mitts: Chance to trigger decay increased from 20% to 22%
  
• (Minor Shard) Soul Rip max units increased from 2 to 3
  
• (Minor Shard) Tombstone zombie base damage increased from 4 to 5
  
• (Minor Shard) Flesh Golem duration reduced from 8 seconds to 5 seconds
  
• (Minor Shard) Flesh Golem Bonus Strength reduced from 5% to 4%
  

• Relentless: Overpower stack generation increased from 2 to 3
  
• Relentless: Now causes Earthshock to slow for an additional 2 seconds
  
• (Minor Shard) Earthshock damage increased from 75 to 90
  
• (Minor Shard) Earthshock radius / distance increased from 50 to 75
  
• (Minor Shard) Earthshock movement slow increased from 12% to 16%
  

• Resonant Pulse: base shield absorb increased from 60/120/180/240 to 80/140/200/260
  
• Translocate: Dissimilate damage per translocated ally increased from 50% to 75%
  
• Expanse: now also reduces Dissimilate cooldown by 2s
  
• Inverted Force: Aether Remnant damage dealt to collided enemies increased from 150% to 200%
  
• Inverted Force: push distance increased from 500 to 550
  
• Triad Echo: now also increases Aether Remnant pull duration by 0.7s
  

• Diamondize: Units can no longer attack and cast spells while embraced
  
• Diamondize: movement speed while embraced increased from 150 to 225
  

• Strange Boon Heal percentage increased from 50% to 60%
  

• Magma Golem Projectile: impact damage reduced from 300 to 250
  
• Magma Golem Projectile: slowed cast point from 0.25s to 0.3s
  

• Pinecone Sniper: Acorn Shot: projectile speed reduced from 1400 to 1100
  

• Acid Blob Jump: land damage reduced from 350 to 300
  
• Acid Blob Jump: stun duration reduced from 1.25s to 1.1s
  

• Phantom Lancer Illusion: health reduced from 1200 to 1000
  

• Eimermole Burrow: aura dps reduced from 75 to 40
  
• Eimermole Emerge: stun duration reduced from 1s to 0.9s
  

• Shatter Blast (Ground): reduced projectile start radius from 150 to 120 and end radius from 200 to 180
  
• Shatter Blast (Ground): reduced shatter damage from 350/425/500/575/650 to 300/370/440/510/580
  

• Elder Tremor Smash: cast point rescaled from 1.212 to 1.299/1.237/1.178/1.122/1.011
  
• Elder Tremor Smash: radius reduced from 265/275/285/295/305 to 265/270/275/280/285
  
• Elder Tremor Fissure: cooldown increased from 8/7.6/7.2/6.8/6.4 to 8.3/8/7.7/7.4/7.1/6.8
  

• increased armor from 12 to 15
  

• Crypt Gate: max skeletons reduced from 45 to 40
  

• Batrider: health reduced from 4000 to 3000, magic resistance reduced from 33 to 15
  

• Giant Amoeboid Jump: stun duration reduced from 3 to 2.5
  
• Large Amoeboid Jump: stun duration reduced from 2.5 to 2.1
  
• Medium Amoeboid Jump: stun duration reduced from 2 to 1.7
  
• Small Amoeboid Jump: stun duration reduced from 1.5 to 1.3
  
• Large Amoeboid: health reduced from 10800 to 9500
  
• Medium Amoeboid: health reduced from 6480 to 5700
  
• Small Amoeboid: health reduced from 3888 to 3420
  
• Large, Medium, and Small Amoeboids: armor reduced by 3
  

• Tinkwerk Polymorph: projectile speed reduced from 820/840/860/880/900 to 820/830/840/850/860
  
• Tinkwerk Polymorph: transform duration reduced from 3.5/3.8/4.1/4.4/4.7 to 3.5/3.7/3.9/4.1/4.3
  
• Tinkwerk March: machine movement speed reduced from 400/415/430/445/460 to 400/410/420/430/440
  
• Fixed Keen Minions being spawned after Tinkwerk was dead, and all existing Keen Minions are removed when Tinkwerk dies
  

• Wraith Warden: health increased from 55,000 to 60,000
  

• Storegga: increased hp from 50,000 to 60,000
  
• Storegga: increased armor from 32 to 37
  

• Thunder Squire smash damage increased from 1750 to 2000
  
• Thunder Knight smash damage increased from 3500 to 4000
  
• Zoos lightning bolt damage increased from 1400 to 1750
  

• Camp Bully (small Nightstalker) HP reduced from 9000 to 7500
  
• Camp Assistant (Bane) HP reduced from 15000 to 12000
  

• Walrus Pudge: armor increased from 0 to 10
  
• Land Mine Detonate: damage increased from 1200 to 1400
  

• Smashy Slithereen Crush Cast point reduced from 1.6 to 1.5
  
• Smashy Slithereen Crush damage increased from 6000 to 7500
  
• Smashy armor increased from 15 to 25
  
• Smashy movement speed increased from 375 to 400
  
• Smashy HP increased from 40000 to 50000
  
• Bashy damage increased from 225 to 275
  
• Bashy attack point improved from 0.55 to 0.5
  
• Bashy HP increased from 30000 to 35000
  
• Crabby damage increased from 550 to 775
  
• Crabby HP increased from 1800 to 2500
  
• Crabby movement speed increased from 350 to 375
  
• Crabbies now spawn on a cycle related to the health of Smashy and Bashy
  

• Fixed a Linux crash on CPUs without AVX support.
  

• L1 + D Pad will inspect and move the camera to allied heroes.
  
• Pressing in the left stick will now inspect your target. If you can control the target, it will select it like a normal left click with the mouse.
  
• Fixed a bug with double-press orders on some spells not working, notably Invoker's Aghanim's Scepter Sunstrike and Underlord's Aghanim's Shard Firestorm.
  
• Locking onto runes or dropped items will show the tooltip for the item or rune in the world, similar to a mouse hover.
  
• Targeting a creep with L1/L2 + X Button will now select the lowest-health creep first.
  
• Fixed target selection of breakables in Aghanim's Labyrinth to not select through the fog.
  

Dota 2 has a new event mode and battle pass. Aghanim from last year's Aghanim's Labyrinth event has returned, and this time a "multiverse-melding mishap" has split him into several doppelgängers players must rescue. The event mode is free, but it arrives alongside a new battle pass that'll cost money to enter.

More strangely, today's update also introduces experimental gamepad support.

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