Today, DOTA2 7.00 goes live, and I had to ask myself an important series of questions, like “What does this mean?” and “Do I care?” and “Why does every single MOBA have Sun Wukong in it?” That one is one of the most important questions. Seriously. Monkey King. Sun Wukong. Wukong. Why is Wukong in every single MOBA? I’m sure he’s even in the defunct DC Infinite Crisis. Are there no other interesting mythological creatures, that we have to resort to him every single damn time? Anyway. . .
7.00 is live, and there are a ton of changes hitting DOTA2! But again, the big questions are “Do I care?” and “What does it mean?” Do I really want to go back to DOTA 2 after about a year of inactivity? It is fun and all, but it’s possibly even more frustrating, gameplay-wise, than League of Legends. It’s not a MOBA that holds your hand, but it does offer all the characters all the time without having to spend money on them. That’s definitely a bonus in my book. But there are some pretty humongous updates coming in 7.00, and they are big enough to get my attention again. Maybe I will play again. . . We have a new talent system, a new character, a backpack upgrade, changes to Illusions, and a variety of character/item changes that you can get the full details on right here.
- Talent Trees: The ability to add points to your attributes is gone! Which is good, because that’s stupid. But now every hero has a series of talents they can invest into, at levels 10, 15, 20, and 25. They are talents that make sense for that hero, too. For example, ShadowFiend at level 25, can gain 150 bonus attack range, or a -7 sec CD on Shadow Raze! You really have to consider what each match will need, how you are doing, and other things. Ultimate levels are now 6/12/18 as well. But I love these, and being able to adjust my gameplay will help, because I’m not known for getting tons of gold in Dota 2.
- Backpack: Players get three more slots for their backpack, but it’s not for things that give buffs, stat points, or damage amplification. Instead, it’s just for items to complete recipes/items and things of that nature. Do you want to buy an item recipe, but don’t want it to take up space, and don’t want to wait on it to be brought to you via minion? I know you don’t. I don’t! You can swap these items to your main backpack with a slight cooldown and will definitely make building items a bit better.
- Map Changes: Rohan was moved! He was in a kind of weird area, anyway. He also became a bit easier to kill, and I can’t help but wonder if there will be more level 1 Rohan ganks like there used to be. But, I’ll have to see for myself. There are now Shrines, which appear in your base, and near your side’s secret shop. They can be teleported to, which will make getting secret shop stuff a bit faster I think, and can give a short buff! Runes have been slightly changed, and the jungles were completely redesigned, The Primary jungle for each team now has 1 Ancient, 2 hard, 2 medium, and 1 small camp and the Secondary jungle for each team now has 1 Ancient, 1 hard, and 1 medium camp. There are tons of changes here too, so please read the patch notes for more details.
- Illusions: Illusions now give XP/Gold bounties! This is a huge change in my eyes.
- Monkey King: Seriously. Seriously? Monkey King? I will never understand the worlds obsession with Monkey King, Sun Wukong, outside of Dragon Ball. That I get. But now the Monkey King has flown down off his cloud to cause mischief in the Arena of the Ancients.
So, tons and tons is happening in DOTA 2 to keep it fresh and interesting. It’s a game that I think desperately needs it, it’s a fantastic MOBA that really doesn’t get enough credit or attention that it probably should, even if it’s on Steam. If you have been away for a while, you owe it to yourself to check out everything that’s going down in 7.00.
