Valve adds items, workshop support to free-to-play Dota 2

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A new update just hit Dota 2, and first things first: you do not, and will not, have to pay to unlock any hero in the newly confirmed to be free-to-play Dota 2. If you want, however, you can spend your real-world money in order to unlock neat aesthetic pieces for your favorite heroes. Is Nature’s Prophet’s beard not awesome enough for you? Get a new one! Is Kunkka not enough pirate for your liking? Now he can be! You can mix and match various pieces of equipment to make each character your own.

Battle Points and leveling up have also been added, and it looks like each time you level up you’ll get a random item, similar to Team Fortress 2. Steam Workshop integration has also been added, so if you have the chops, you can design your very own items and they could be included in the game! I suppose it’s only a matter of time now until trading is integrated, right? 

Some Ogre Magi and bot AI fixes are the only real gameplay changes to note as there is no new hero added in this update. There are, however, three silhouettes on the bottom of the update page. The Internet tells me that they are Mortred, Chaos Knight, and Gyrocopter (!!!). Oh man, I can’t wait to play Gyrocopter. 

Official patch notes:

GAMEPLAY

  • Enabled Ogre Magi in Captain’s Mode.

  • Ogre Magi: Fixed Bloodlust autocast interrupting your TP scroll.

  • Ogre Magi: Fixed Multicast Fireblast not extending the stun duration.

  • Ogre Magi: Fixed Bloodlust being castable on magic immune units.

  • Ogre Magi: Fixed Bloodlust Multicast being used up by couriers.

  • Ogre Magi: Fixed Fireblast Mutlicast stopping if you die while it is multicast.

  • Ogre Magi: Added unique effect for unrefined fireblast

  • Outworld Destroyer: Fixed Arcane Orb not working on Illusions recently.

UI

  • Fixed losses and abandons not showing correctly on your own profile.

  • Kill Cam panel now shows any custom items the killer was wearing.

VISUALS

  • Empowering Haste visual no longer shows up on creeps

  • Added new effect for unrefined fireblast.

DOTA 2 BOTS

  • Fixed bug where bots would run out of their base immediately after teleporting to it.

  • Fixed bug that could cause bots to prioritize a temporarily invalid unit (nightmared, reincarnating, etc) over one that is currently valid.

  • Fixed case where bots would prioritize other desires over picking up Aegis/Cheese/Rapier.

  • Fixed a number of bugs that could cause bots to get stuck near Roshan.

  • Easier and Easy bots will now have ability usage lockouts where they’re periodically unable to use items and abilities.

  • Fixed bug where passive bots would get stuck trying to ward.

  • Fixed bug where Dire-side lobby slots would be inaccessible when there were bots in the corresponding Radiant-side lobby slot.

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Patrick Hancock
During the day, he teaches high school kids about history. At night he kicks their butts in competitive games like Rocket League, Dota 2, Overwatch, and Counter-Strike. Disclosure: I've personally backed Double Fine Adventure, Wasteland 2, Dead State, SPORTSFRIENDS, Torment: Tides of Numera, STRAFE, and The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls. I have previously written for AbleGamers.com and continue to support them whenever possible (like HumbleBundle).
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