Oct 19, 2018

Dota 2 starts showing odds of rare bonus items in loot boxes

Dota 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alice O'Connor)

Valve are starting to clearly disclose the odds of receiving a rare bonus wizard costume in your Dota 2 loot box of wizard hats, adding an in-game pop-up stating your chances. This is for the “escalating odds”, which go up as you open more and more of a certain loot box, and will always track your current chances. The odds were vaguely available before in a roundabout way, as Chinese law requires companies to disclose loot box odds, but seeing it in-game is easier than tromping across the Internet in search of translations of Chinese blog posts.

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Oct 12, 2018

Dota 2 Update - October 12th, 2018

Dota 2 - Valve

7.19d:
==

* Drow Ranger: Marksmanship agility bonus reduced from 40/60/80 to 35/55/75
* Earthshaker: Base armor reduced by 1
* Grimstroke: Ink Swell max damage reduced from 220/280/340/400 to 160/240/320/400
* Grimstroke: Ink Swell movement speed bonus reduced from 18/22/26/30% to 18%
* Grimstroke: Phantom Embrace latch duration from 4/4/5/5 to 5
* Grimstroke: Phantom Embrace DPS rescaled from 12/18/24/30 to 6/14/22/30
* Necrophos: Level 10 Talent reduced from +40 Damage to +30
* Necrophos: Level 20 Talent reduced from +80 Attack Speed to +70
* Phantom Lancer: Spirit Lance cast range rescaled from 750 to 525/600/675/750
* Riki: Smoke Screen slow rescaled from 10/15/20/25% to 8/12/16/20%
* Riki: Smoke Screen miss chance rescaled from 40/50/60/70% to 10/30/50/70%
* Riki: Tricks of the Trade AoE reduced from 500 to 450
* Riki: Tricks of the Trade duration rescaled from 4/5/6 to 4/4.5/5
* Riki: Level 20 Talent reduced from +900 Blink Strike Range to +700
* Riki: Level 25 Talent reduced from +400 Tricks of the Trade AoE to +300
* Silencer: Last Word damage reduced from 120/180/240/300 to 75/150/225/300
* Terrorblade: Conjure Image manacost increased from 70 to 70/75/80/85
* Terrorblade: Reflection slow reduced from -25% to -20%
* Terrorblade: Sunder manacost increased from 200/100/0 to 200/100/50
* Terrorblade: Level 15 Talent reduced from +300 Health to +250
* Treant Protector: Leech Seed heal reduced from 15/30/45/60 to 12/24/36/48
* Undying: Tombstone hit count reduced from 4/5/6/8 to 4/5/6/7
* Ursa: Fury Swipes duration reduced from 20 to 8/12/16/20
* Weaver: Shukuchi Manacost increased from 60 to 70
* Zeus: Arc Lightning manacost increased from 65/70/75/80 to 80

Oct 2, 2018

Winter 2018 Call to Arms

Dota 2 - Ward

As the calendar nears its annual renewal, and a hint of winter merriment sweeps across the lanes, it's time for the heroes of Dota 2 to think about cold-weather wardrobe changes. To help get them bundled into fresh winter garb, we invite all Dota 2 Workshop creators to kindle the fires of their imaginations and dream up new item sets to unveil in this year's Winter Treasure.

We are now officially accepting submissions based around the themes of winter and all of its trappings to be considered for inclusion. Make sure to mark your submissions with the "Winter 2018" tag when tendering items to the Workshop. All submissions must be on the Dota 2 Workshop by Monday, November 26, 2018. As usual, we would like to ask artists to avoid the use of any concepts that involve human skulls, blood, and gore.

Additionally, all Dota fans should remember to regularly visit the Workshop and vote through the Queue to ensure your voices are heard in the selection process.

Oct 1, 2018

The 25 best multiplayer games on PC

Dota 2 - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Matt Cox)

Multiplayer games are the best type of games, because they’re built around the most interesting components known to humans: humans. Men, women, and an awful lot of children.

Internet strangers aren’t always the friendliest bunch, but they can surprise you in ways that a static system can’t. People form the living, beating hearts of the gaming moments I value the most. Join me, then, as I point at the games that encase those beating hearts best. (more…)

Sep 27, 2018

Dota 2 Update - September 27, 2018

Dota 2 - Valve

Fixed an issue that caused Morphling to gain incorrect levels of certain stolen abilities.

Post-Game Scoreboard:
- Added total time spent dead and total gold lost due to death to the scoreboard.
- Added the raw (pre-reduction) hero damage received and the overall hero damage reduction percentage to the scoreboard.
- Fixed a bug where wards that were bought and then sold back within the sell-back window would incorrectly appear in the Support Items section of the scoreboard.
- Fixed Lone Druid's Spirit Bear scoreboard inventory positioning.
- Fixed a consumed Moon Shard showing the wrong night vision number in the scoreboard tooltip.

Alt-clicking an unlearned skill (or Ctrl-Alt clicking an already learned skill) now has the following behavior:
1. When you have available skill points will now alert allies with the skill being "Ready To Learn"
2. When you can earn it at the next level, it will alert to allies how much XP required for you to level up.
3. If you can't learn it at the next level, it will alert with how many levels you will need before you can skill it up.

Sep 15, 2018

Valve adds Dota 2 Ranked Roles queue for Dota Plus subscribers

Dota 2

One of the Dota 2 community's favourite aspects of the battle pass for The International 2018, which wrapped up in dramatic fashion last month, was the Ranked Roles matchmaking queue, which let players pick a specific role that they couldn't stray from before they jumped into a game. The queue is now being added to Dota Plus, the game's subscription-based service.

In Ranked Roles, each player picks a role—support, mid lane, safe lane, etc—before queuing for a match. The matchmaker will then put five players together so that each team has one safe lane, one mid lane, one off lane, and two support players.

It ensures more balanced, structured games in which you can rely on your teammates to do their job. If you stray from your role, you can be reported by your team—but I reckon most players using it want to take it seriously. Valve didn't say in its blog post whether Ranked Roles is a permanent or temporary addition to Dota Plus.

To kick off the new queue, any players that win five games will earn 5,000 shards.

If you missed The International 2018, then one of the highlights was a match between self-taught AI bots and human players—read all about it here.

Sep 14, 2018

Dota 2 Update - September 14th, 2018

Dota 2 - Valve

7.19c:
==
* Blade Mail: Cooldown increased from 20 to 25
* Blade Mail: Bonus armor reduced from 6 to 5

* Clinkz: Base strength reduced by 2
* Clinkz: Searing Arrows manacost increased from 10 to 12
* Clinkz: Level 20 Talent reduced from +20 Health Regen to +16
* Clinkz: Level 25 Talent reduced from +4s Strafe Duration to +3s

* Crystal Maiden: Arcane Aura allied mana regen reduced from 0.8/1.0/1.2/1.4 to 0.7/0.9/1.1/1.3

* Dark Willow: Brambles total damage reduced from 140/180/220/260 to 125/150/175/200
* Dark Willow: Shadow Realm cooldown increased from 30/24/18/12 to 32/26/20/14
* Dark Willow: Cursed Crown stun duration reduced from 2/2.5/3/3.5 to 1.75/2.25/2.75/3.25
* Dark Willow: Bedlam damage reduced from 60/120/180 to 60/110/160

* Earthshaker: Root now disables his Scepter ability

* Enchantress: Strength rescaled from 19 + 1.3 to 16 + 1.5
* Enchantress: Base movement speed reduced from 325 to 320
* Enchantress: Base intelligence reduced by 2

* Grimstroke: Ink Swell no longer makes the target immune to attacks
* Grimstroke: Ink Swell no longer silences and disarms the target
* Grimstroke: Soulbind duration increased from 4/6/8 to 6/8/10

* Phantom Lancer: Agility gain reduced from 2.8 to 2.6

* Phoenix: Level 15 Talent reduced from +50 Fire Spirits DPS to +40

* Silencer: Last Word damage rescaled from 150/200/250/300 to 120/180/240/300
* Silencer: Arcane Curse manacost increased from 105/115/125/135 to 125/130/135/140
* Silencer: Global Silence manacost increased from 250/375/500 to 300/450/600

* Spectre: Desolate radius increased from 375 to 500
* Spectre: Dispersion rescaled from 10/14/18/22% to 7/12/17/22%
* Spectre: Haunt manacost increased from 150 to 150/200/250
* Spectre: Level 10 Talent changed from +15 Desolate Damage to +4 All Stats
* Spectre: Level 15 Talent changed from +8 All Stats to +15 Desolate Damage
* Spectre: Level 25 Talent reduced from +8% Dispersion to +6%

* Storm Spirit: Static Remnant damage reduced from 140/180/220/260 to 120/160/200/240

* Ursa: Fury Swipes damage per attack reduced from 15/20/25/30 to 12/18/24/30
* Ursa: Earthshock damage reduced from 90/140/190/240 to 50/100/150/200
* Ursa: Enrage damage multiplier rescaled from 1.5/1.75/2.0 to 1.4/1.7/2.0

* Vengeful Spirit: Movement speed reduced by 5
* Vengeful Spirit: Magic Missile projectile speed reduced from 1250 to 900

* Weaver: Base intelligence reduced by 2
* Weaver: The Swarm cooldown increased from 35/30/25/20 to 44/36/28/20
* Weaver: Time Lapse cooldown increased from 60/50/40 to 70/55/40
* Weaver: Level 10 Talent changed from +20 Mana Break to +7 Strength
* Weaver: Level 15 Talent changed from +12 Strength to +20 Mana Break

* Wraith King: Wraithfire Blast stun duration rescaled from 2 to 1.1/1.4/1.7/2.0
* Wraith King: Wraithfire Blast base damage rescaled from 50/100/150/200 to 100
* Wraith King: Wraithfire Blast DPS rescaled from 20/35/50/65 to 10/30/50/70
* Wraith King: Vampiric Aura is now a melee only ability

* Zeus: Strength gain reduced from 2.3 to 2.1
* Zeus: Level 25 Talent reduced from +170 Arc Lightning damage to +155

Sep 13, 2018

Dota Plus End-of-Summer Update

Dota 2 - Ward

In the wake of the thrilling conclusion to The International and the culmination of the Battle Pass season, today's update is focused on bringing some of that summer fun into the perks of Dota Plus.

Leading the way, the Ranked Roles matchmaking queue has been added to Dota Plus. To mark the occasion, we’ve added a welcome quest where players who win 5 times in the Ranked Roles queue will earn 5000 shards.

We've also moved In-Game Tipping into Dota Plus, letting you celebrate the joyous moments of battle by sending some free Shards an ally's or enemy's way in recognition of their contributions to the game.

Express yourself year-round with select Sound Effects, which are now unlockable with Shards. Once unlocked, you’ll have access to these sounds while your Dota Plus membership is active.

Finally, as a special end-of-summer bonus, any Dota Plus member who plays 4 games this weekend can claim an extra 10,000 Shard reward.