New DOTA 2 update includes two new heroes, four new features, brand new player items, new unlockable treasures and, of course, the annual Diretide event–that’s quite a lot, and there’s a whole load of general changes and game fixes on top of that.
The new heroes included in the update are the Earth Spirit and Ember Spirit, each with their own original abilities such as “Rolling Boulder: Earth Spirit becomes a boulder, rolling forward to damage enemies” and “Searing Chains: Unleashes fiery bolas that anchor enemies in place and deal damage every second.” I’m particularly looking forward to Coaching Mode, a new feature that parties up an experienced player with a student or number of students to help them through DOTA mechanics. This feature includes a number of tools for the coach, including the ability to see from the students’ point of view, draw on the ground and mini-map as well as ping elements on the HUD.
The new crafting tool allows you to transform unwanted items of equal rarity into a new item, and you can also combine duplicate items to create a single item “of a higher rarity.” By the looks of things you unlock crafting recipes whilst playing or by opening Ancient Scroll Cases. The Socketing feature allows you to personalize your items by adding sockets and gems, including adding unique animations to your favorite weapons or adding gems to generate new colors and effects. This new feature kind of feels like a bit of a “hat” feature, but we’ll see how it plays out.
As for Diretide, the announcement doesn’t give us any information other than it will run from November 14 through to November 28. Perhaps it’s a surprise, eh? The whole list of changes can be found here.
(image courtesy of http://www.dota2.com/threespirits )