The New Frontiers Patch 7.33 has brought a rollercoaster of changes and is an complete overhaul. The game is now more teamwork and strategy oriented than it has ever been.
In order to meet new objectives and achieve better win rates, back and forth team communication is now an absolute must.
There is no denying that this patch has been the most exciting thing that has happened to Dota 2 in a long while. And boy, it is a big update !
Here is a quick rundown on everything you absolutely need to know about this update before starting your next game.
General Changes
Disables Have Been Nerfed
No longer can you stun-lock enemies for the entirety of the game as this update has reduced the duration of most disables.
Item such as Basher has its duration nerfed while disables such as Hex or Shadow Shaman’s Shackles have also taken a minor reduction.
Overhaul of Roshan Mechanics
Roshan no longer has a specific camp. He moves towards the Radiant part of the map(bottom pit) during daytime and goes to the top lane pit at night.
He gains additional stats per minute than before which is going to make him harder to kill.
The item drops from Roshan have also changed a bit. Roshan will now drop a Cheese starting his second death.
After the third death, he will drop an Aghanim’s Scepter during daytime and a Refresher Shard if its nighttime.
The pit where Roshan is currently at is highlighted in your mini-map. So no need to check multiple times to find his whereabouts irrespective of the time of the day.
Tormentors – New Mini Boss
There are two new mini-bosses called Tormentors that have been added to the game. They spawn after 20 minutes in a match and respawn after every 10 minutes of it’s defeat.
Tormentors have only 1 HP but are protected by a huge damage reflecting shield which regenerates at a rapid speed. They come with heavy armor and a massive Magic Resistance which makes them a considerable threat.
The Tormentors, however, do not attack or move.
Defeating this mini-boss grants an Aghanim’s Shard buff to 1 randomly chosen ally from 2 of the lowest net worth heroes.
As such, this new objective has huge potential to increase teamwork and synergy between teams.
New Power Runes
There are two new runes that spawns now.
One is called Shield Rune which gives 50% of the user’s max HP as a barrier which lasts for 75 seconds.
The other more important one is called a Wisdom Rune. This rune grants experience over a span of 7 minutes to the hero that activates it. However, it is a special rune that only spawns once every 7 minutes unlike the other power runes.
This addition is going to lessen the snowballing effect of losing early games.
With Bounty runes not giving exp and the removal of Tome of Knowledge, this rune should be very valuable to your lowest level allies to catch up on levels.
This rune also begs the question of who should take the rune since every hero gains an advantage by leveling faster.
Would you want your supports to gain levels quickly or do you want your mid laner to catch up on lost experience after ganking? It is for the team to decide.
More Outposts
The update has added two more outposts to the map taking the total to 4. These buildings no longer grant any experience. They also do not provide vision or True Sight around them anymore.
I don’t think there is any reason to focus on these anymore as these buildings only give a place to teleport to now.
More Neutral Camps
There are now 12 new neutral camps to farm from.
However, more camps does not mean more unreliable gold available to attain in the map since this patch has also reworked neutral creep bounty.
This helps balance neutral creep farming.
There might be more camps to farm from, but they are spaced far and wide.
You could be farming in any of these neutral camps instead of the old limited places, meaning being less exposed to enemy smoke ganks.
Map Changes
Map Overhaul
All edges of the map have increased in size. On top of this, most of the jungle and trees have now been thinned out.
To compensate for such a lack of foliage, there are new paths and changed positions of neutral camps.
This means juking is going to be harder whereas traversing the map is going to take longer.
Watchers (Added)
These are interactable buildings that provide vision for 7 minutes in the area around it. After this time it deactivates itself and becomes neutral.
Any team can activate any of the 8 Watchers that have been added to the map. It is also possible to sabotage the enemy activated watchers. This deactivates them and after 2 minutes of cooldown period a team can turn it on again.
In case a team kills Roshan, all 8 Watchers in the map switches to their side instantly ignoring all cooldowns.
So in other words, Watchers give you vision of certain portions of the map without having to buy Observer Wards. Remember, it does not reveal invisible units so a little bit of caution is advised.
Lotus Pool (Added)
Since the map is now expanded, it also means that players now must find new sources of regeneration if they wish to be active.
Instead of having to go all the way back to the fountain, or get more consumables delivered by the couriers, there are 2 Lotus Pools added to the map that spawns a Healing Lotus every 3 minutes.
These mini fountains can contain a maximum of 6 consumables which regenerate HP and MP. The gimmick of these healing lotuses is that they can be combined to an upgraded version for higher regeneration (automatic).
These Lotus Pools are on each side of the map and its contents are always visible to all players.
Twin Gates (Added)
Twin Gates are teleportation devices that have been added nearby the new Roshan pits. Oh did I forget to mention there are now 2 Roshan Pit in the game? Well now you know.
Roshan uses these twin gates to switch sides depending on the time of day. Players can also use this device to quickly move to the other side and gank enemy heroes.
Item Changes
Shop Item Changes
Most items in the game have had their prices and behavior changed in one way or the other.
Now the consumables like healing salve, mango and clarity have a limited stock that refills over time. Dust also behaves in a different way now. It stays active in a huge radius and also applies a small damage to invisible heroes.
A lot of items have their prices reworked to balance with new items added to the game.
Removed Items
- Tome of Knowledge: The item gave instant XP boost previously.
- Hood of Defiance: A basic upgrade that provided magic resistance and HP regeneration.
- Wraith Pact: The item spawned a totem that boosted allies within its radius.
Added Items
Blood Grenade
A basic consumable item that gives DoT and slows for 5 seconds when activated in an area with a cost of 75 HP. There will be 3 of these items in the shop which restocks every 120 seconds.
Diadem
An upgraded and expensive version of Circlet which provides +6 to all attributes.
Cornucopia
A base item that behaves like a cost-effective Perseverance that gives Health and Mana Regeneration along with some damage.
Pavise
This item needs to be assembled but is a great support item. The item has HP, Mana Regeneration and Armor; all of which are valuable to a support This item when activated on an ally grants them a physical damage barrier.
Disperser
An upgrade to Diffusal Blade that adds a new function to target allies and remove any slowing effect on them.
Harpoon
This upgrade to Echo Sabre is an excellent addition to the game which gives melee users a quick way to close the gap with enemies. It behaves like a targeted hook that pulls two heroes together. However, ranged heroes with this item cannot reel in opponents to melee range.
Phylactery
This item adds a separate 125 damage to your point target spells as a passive every 6 seconds.
Neutral Item Changes
When killing neutral creeps, we now get neutral tokens as a drop instead of a single random item. Each token lets us choose among 5 random neutral items from its respective tier.
Each token can have a different pool of neutral items to choose from. These tokens can be shared with allies before redeeming them, however once redeemed, the item cannot be shared.
So, discuss with your team before converting the tokens into items. Who knows you might have that Timeless Relic which the Queen of Pain in your team desperately needs.
Removed Neutral Items
- Possessed Mask: The item that gave +9 HP lifesteal on every attack.
- Brigand’s Blade: The item which gave damage and attack speed.
- Dagger of Ristul: The item that gave bonus damage after consuming 100 HP.
- Nether Shawl: The magic resistance neutral item.
- Blast Rig: A grenade like item which pushed enemies and yourself a short distance from the point of explosion while damaging enemies.
- Flicker: The item which gave movement speed bonus and an active which let the holder blink a short distance in a random direction.
- Witchbane: The item which purged self debuffs.
Added Neutral Items
Faded Broach
The item that gave additional Mana Pool and Movement Speed bonus.
Spark of Courage
New Tier 1 item that passively adds damage when HP is above 50%. This damage is converted to +5 armor when less than 50% HP.
Duelist Gloves
New Tier 1 item that also adds passive damage. There is also an attack speed increase when no enemies are nearby with this equipped.
Vampire Fangs
This item that gave passive lifesteal is back now. However, the lifesteal from creeps is reduced by 50%.
Gossamer Cape
New Tier 2 item which automatically assists on dodging an enemy hero attack every 5 seconds.
Dandelion Amulet
Tier 3 item that gives a decent magic damage block every 12 seconds.
Defiant Shell
Another Tier 3 item that counter attacks enemies within the holder’s range every 5 seconds.
Vindicator’s Axe
New Tier 3 item which adds passive attack speed. It gains additional damage if the holder is silenced while armor is gained if the holder is stunned.
Martyr’s Plate
New Tier 4 item that gives a nice magic resistance passively. This item when activated redirects damage from all ally heroes within 900 radius to the holder.
Hero Changes
In terms of Hero changes, there have been a lot of rework.
As for the full list of all hero changes, gamers like you should refer to the actual patch 7.33 notes. However, the points below are worth mentioning.
- Zeus with an Aghanim’s Shard applies a passive chain lightning to each of his auto attacks. Now you can build this hero either with agility or intelligence, and both way is plausible.
- Another notable example is that of Medusa having a 98% damage block with her Mana Pool as a passive skill. Instead, she now lost a huge chunk of HP in the process.
- Muerta, the latest hero in Dota 2, has now attained Aghanim’s Shard and Scepter upgrades making her more potent in her death dealings.
- Some of the heroes like Abaddon and Bane among others have now been categorized as Universal. This means, instead of having a primary attribute that dictates their stats, the stat values now come from an aggregation of every attribute.
How can this be balanced you ask? Universal heroes must have their damage numbers off the charts if their stats are now based on every attribute, right?
Lord Gaben, or IceFrog (leave him alone, he wants to be forgotten), has decided to reduce the base damage for each Universal hero under 25. Every 1 attribute added provides a 0.5 damage addition to the hero.
You might see the Patch note for 7.33 saying Lone Druid’s base damage reduced to 4-8, however, it does not mean the hero will have that damage number when starting a match.
Please understand that this number is only their base damage. Since each hero at level 1 comes with a some default value in every attribute, their total damage is not reflected by the base damage.
End Notes
One thing is for sure, nobody has experimented with everything in this latest patch. We are yet to see where the dust settles in a couple of months from now.
I also understand that there are more balance patches yet to come in the future that could rework on a lot of these updates.
But, come on, how is a 1000 range Harpoon, which btw acts like a Clockwerk Hook, pulls enemies to you, WITH 0 CHANCE TO MISS, a balanced item?
Well how about Zeus gaining 100% chance to apply chain lighting on every auto attack? Even if he is a persona of Lightning himself, it’s like a 1400 gold investment for Maelstrom that activates its passive effect 100% of the time.
This feels unbalanced, in my opinion, but the overall patch is a huge deal for every Dota 2 fans.
Let’s wait and see how this meta develops. Maybe gain some experience and watch tournaments to see what top tier teams in the league bring to the table.
Good Luck, Have Fun!!
