Friday, April 21st 2023
Valve's DOTA 2 Becomes Jumbo-Sized with New Frontiers Update
Sometimes Dota gameplay patches are small. Sometimes they can get pretty big. This one... is huge. It's got all the things you were probably expecting - balance changes, new items, hero reworks, UI improvements. But we also included a few changes you probably weren't expecting, like a new hero attribute type and - brace yourself - the map is now 40% bigger.
But all these new gameplay features won't matter if the match you get into isn't a good one. So we're also shipping some much-needed matchmaking improvements. Excited? Confused? Head on over to the New Frontiers update page for all the details. But don't head over just yet, read this sentence first: The Berlin major is on April 26th, and Fantasy/Player Cards are now available. Okay, now go. Here's the link again.
A new map, major gameplay changes, and so much more. The New Frontiers Update is live, with a whole new world to explore. Watch the trailer now:
The New Frontiers Update is shipping a new map, major gameplay changes, matchmaking changes, user interface changes, and - we're not kidding here - so much more. How much more? So much that it actually got hard to remember it all, and we started to panic for a few days until someone remembered we could just write it down. So we did. Now we can read it any time we like. And you can too! Start scrolling to read on.
NEW MAP
The Dota map has been massively expanded. The core objective of the game remains the same — your lanes aren't further away from each other, and everything you need to win is still in the center of the map. But with 40% more terrain, there's plenty of room to reap new resources and discover new strategies. Both main jungles have also been fully reconfigured, shaking up vision placement, juke routes, farming and more.
MAJOR GAMEPLAY CHANGES
The New Frontiers Update introduces major changes to your favorite heroes and systems. In fact, our legal department advised us to tell you that this gameplay section is so densely packed with meta-defining new features that you should read them slowly, over the course of the next few weeks, so you don't get overstimulated and have to call the fire department.
BALANCE CHANGES
That's a huge list of stuff up there. The only thing that could possibly make it better is two huge lists of stuff, but where are we gonna find hey would you look at this! Read on for all of the other balance changes this update has in store. Or just jump right into the game and play. Believe us, we don't need you to tell us how fun reading technical manuals about video games is, but man, playing them is a pretty close second. This list'll still be here when you get back.
Sources:
DOTA 2 Official Site, DOTA 2 Steam Page
But all these new gameplay features won't matter if the match you get into isn't a good one. So we're also shipping some much-needed matchmaking improvements. Excited? Confused? Head on over to the New Frontiers update page for all the details. But don't head over just yet, read this sentence first: The Berlin major is on April 26th, and Fantasy/Player Cards are now available. Okay, now go. Here's the link again.
The New Frontiers Update is shipping a new map, major gameplay changes, matchmaking changes, user interface changes, and - we're not kidding here - so much more. How much more? So much that it actually got hard to remember it all, and we started to panic for a few days until someone remembered we could just write it down. So we did. Now we can read it any time we like. And you can too! Start scrolling to read on.
NEW MAP
The Dota map has been massively expanded. The core objective of the game remains the same — your lanes aren't further away from each other, and everything you need to win is still in the center of the map. But with 40% more terrain, there's plenty of room to reap new resources and discover new strategies. Both main jungles have also been fully reconfigured, shaking up vision placement, juke routes, farming and more.
MAJOR GAMEPLAY CHANGES
The New Frontiers Update introduces major changes to your favorite heroes and systems. In fact, our legal department advised us to tell you that this gameplay section is so densely packed with meta-defining new features that you should read them slowly, over the course of the next few weeks, so you don't get overstimulated and have to call the fire department.
BALANCE CHANGES
That's a huge list of stuff up there. The only thing that could possibly make it better is two huge lists of stuff, but where are we gonna find hey would you look at this! Read on for all of the other balance changes this update has in store. Or just jump right into the game and play. Believe us, we don't need you to tell us how fun reading technical manuals about video games is, but man, playing them is a pretty close second. This list'll still be here when you get back.
6 Comments on Valve's DOTA 2 Becomes Jumbo-Sized with New Frontiers Update
I will never understand why people like MOBA's
What my friends I used to do was game to troll. If you haven't played LoL (not sure about other MOBAs), you have 3 lanes and jungle position. Top lane used to be a 1v1 (I think we may be the reason it's a lot more common to see 2v2 on top, at least when I used to play the game), middle lane was 1v1 and bottom was 2v2, leaving 1v1 to roam the jungle. My friends and I would change things up and screw with people - pissing them off to no ends.
We'd go 2v1 on top, forcing the jungle to play the top and putting them at a disadvantage because the jungle character is mostly designed to jump in fast on an unsuspecting person to take them out quick. When you take away their ability to sneak around and stalk and gank people, they're generally really weak until they can reach level 6. The idea here is to hope that the weaker team you're going against, you can feed on them by wracking up kills. We'd also pick more tanky characters, but do mutant builds with them so instead of being tanky, they'd be fast attack with life steal - coupled with the ability to pull targets back to you when they try to run, you could usually dominate and people would get so mad they'd rage quit. Our favorite tanks to use up top were Blitz (he's got a pull ability to pull a player to him) and Nautilus (he's got a pull ability to pull himself to his target) - people couldn't run from us, it was hilarious. I would use Nautilus and do my pull to pull myself to a target and as soon as I hit him with my pull, my friend would be behind us and he would then use his pull to pull the player back to him....it was a mean, vicious way to control the player in the top lane, but it was funny as hell to watch them rage and scream in the chat.
After we controlled the top lane, one of us would break off and jump to mid or bottom lane to help push, while also going through and taking out the jungle creatures for buffs that the jungler would normally be trying to get for advantages to try and gank kills.
Our other favorite thing to do would be to build a handful of characters that have natural bonuses to magic damage on normal attacks do attack speed, life steal and boost magic damage on normal attacks. My two favorite characters to do this with were supposed to be support classes, Nami and Soraka, and not DPS. If I got enough time/kills to get a full build on them, they could out DPS characters that are designed to be DPS and because these two also heal it became that much harder to take them down.
I've played LoL maybe half a dozen times in the past 3-4 years (been a long time since I actually really played the game) and they've changed so much I don't even know what items do what anymore so it's too much of a hassle trying to relearn the game.
We play cause we love a challenge, MOBA's are all about finding satisfaction in stuff thats very complex and deep.Yes, you will notice that Dota 2 has consistently maintained the 2nd most popular game spot on Steam for the past few years. Its only beaten by CSGO.