Today, a major patch has been released for Dota 2, bringing numerous changes to the game. 

Table of Content
  1. Draft Order and Bans 
  2. Alternate Ability Usage 
  3. Abilities with Alternate Usage 
    1. Other Changes Include
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Draft Order and Bans 

In Captains Mode, with the patch's release, the draft order and hero bans have changed. 

Previous Order:

First Pick Second Pick 

Ban Ban Ban Ban 

Pick Pick Pick Pick

Ban Ban Ban Ban Ban Ban 

Pick Pick Pick Pick 

Ban Ban Ban Ban 

Pick Pick  

Revised Order: 

First Pick Second Pick 

Ban Ban Ban Ban Ban Ban Ban 

Pick Pick 

Ban Ban Ban 

Pick Pick Pick Pick Pick Pick 

Ban Ban Ban Ban 

Pick Pick 

During the first ban phase, the time for bans has been reduced to 15 seconds.

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Alternate Ability Usage 

  1. The developers have changed the interface of abilities that had auto-casting for activating alternate effects.
  2. Alternate ability usage can now be toggled on and off, similar to auto-casting.
  3. Alternate ability modes will now have their own icons.
  4. Ctrl can be used to cast the inactive version of an ability; there's no need to toggle it anymore.

Abilities with Alternate Usage 

• Dark Seer — Surge 

• Doom — Devour 

• Elder Titan — Echo Stomp 

• Hoodwink — Acorn Shot 

• Meepo — Poof 

• Mirana — Leap 

• Monkey King — Boundless Strike 

• Morphling — Morph 

• Razor — Static Link 

• Sven — Storm Hammer 

• Templar Assassin — Trap 

Other Changes Include

  1. Added a new stat: Slow Resistance. Reduces the impact of slows on your hero by a percentage.
  2. Status Resistance no longer affects the impact of slows. It now affects only the duration of slows.
  3. Scan now has 2 charges.
  4. Killing Roshan no longer grants control of any Watchers on the map.
  5. Main jungle Watchers for both Radiant and Dire have been moved to different locations.
  6. Adjusted the position of the triangle Watchers.
  7. Moved both Outposts from the main jungle to the triangles.
  8. Mighty Mines buff in Mines area increased from +4 HP/s to +7 HP/s.
  9. Added UI to support self-restoring item charges (e.g., Hand of Midas, Holy Locket).

The full list of changes can be viewed via this link.

Aside from delving into the extensive patch, players had to ponder over the unusual notes released by Valve. These notes were entirely composed of emojis.

Dota 2Image credit: Steam

However, attentive and persistent gamers quickly deciphered the meaning and provided a breakdown across 68 pages on a Google Document. You can read it here. The idea was undoubtedly original, but gamers didn't seem to appreciate it. 

What do you think about the new Dota 2 patch? 

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