For the final two years Dota has been getting large, elementary updates within the early Spring and this bought us spoiled. After a drastic map measurement enhance two years in the past and the Aspect replace final 12 months, we hope for one thing comparable in scope this 12 months as nicely, and at the moment, as a substitute of concentrating on minor stability points nonetheless current within the recreation we wish to dream large and begin a dialog on what this 12 months’s updates might deliver to Dota.
The Nice Confluence was teased for nearly six years at this level and the final consensus throughout the group on the time was that it alluded to the introduction of heroes from the Heroes of Newerth universe into Dota. This concept could be very… optimistic, however we’re dreaming large at the moment, proper?
There are good causes to imagine that it might realistically occur, although. IceFrog did work on HoN again within the day and it’s full of attention-grabbing designs that might work in Dota with minor changes.
There may be after all the issue of turn-rates and cast-points, which had been a lot quicker in HoN within the early 2010s, nonetheless it’s one thing that may be tweaked through the transition. Furthermore, Dota itself bought considerably quicker through the years and turn-rates have been steadily rising since 2015, culminating in a full hero pool flip fee buff again in 2021.
It’s not like Dota gamers are starved for brand spanking new heroes, at the least not within the final 12 months, however when there are dozens of Dota-fitting designs already playtested in circumstances much like Dota, one has to marvel why at the least a few of the fan-favorites, like Puppet Grasp, didn’t make it into our favourite recreation already.
Lastly, the explanation we even remembered in regards to the Nice Confluence and the way it might be, theoretically, associated to Heroes of Newerth is that this very latest tweet. One thing is going on with HoN universe and as a fan of it again within the day and an enormous fan of Dota at the moment, I do hope these two universes are going to get much more intently associated.
The final talks in regards to the Nice Confluence began with the introduction of Void Spirit into the sport, as it’s his voice strains that began teasing the idea. Dota has many various, attention-grabbing storylines and since we bought a really lore-focused Crownfall this 12 months, it’s maybe cheap to imagine that we’re going to get one thing comparable this 12 months.
Possibly “assume” is the flawed phrase, “hope” might be extra apt, as Crownfall was good and we are able to’t get sufficient of lore-dumps, although we realise it was most likely a whole lot of work to do, between all of the writing and all of the mini-games (no extra sand-fishing, although, please).
A Crownfall-style epic journey revolving across the Spirit Brothers might be the one we would like essentially the most. All 4 heroes are persistently performed whatever the patch, as they’re simply too enjoyable to play in pubs, whereas having robust design identities to at all times discover themselves situationally viable within the skilled scene.
Arcanas for at the least a few of the Spirit Brothers are additionally long-overdue, with my private hope that we are going to see the return of the chubbier Storm Spirit from earlier than his beauty rework. One way or the other he feels significantly extra relatable to me personally.
We’ve talked about potential new beauty content material and potential new hero content material, however these are simply the spice on high of what makes Dota nice. The rationale most of us love Dota is as a result of it’s an infinitely-replayable, deep and interesting recreation. That isn’t going anyplace and the meta retains evolving regardless of there being no large patches for a protracted whereas.
Nonetheless, we wouldn’t thoughts one other large shake-up. Naturally there’s nonetheless a whole lot of work to be performed with the Aspect system. It’s nice, however the greater the extent of play will get, the extra cracks begin exhibiting: most often there’s a “good” and a “unreliable” side, versus them being situational and permitting for adaptation. Nonetheless, getting one thing that can basically change the strategy to the sport, versus stability tweaks, is one thing we hope for this 12 months.
Right here lies the issue, although: Dota is already an extremely complicated and deep recreation and altering its fundamentals is at all times going to be onerous. There are most likely lots of of assorted variables to tweak and techniques to transform, so guessing what Valve might be cooking is unlikely to yield correct outcomes.
So we’re going to ask you, the group, what concepts and adjustments you wish to see in Dota. Personally, some map adjustments and a few extra factors of curiosity might be good, and, maybe, one thing might be performed about Impartial Camp blocking, since as a help participant I’m simply uninterested in continually paying the Sentry tax through the laning stage.
