Dota 2 updated, two new characters added along with few fixes and enhancements

By: Jason McCarthy

  |   July 4th, 2012   |  

News, Uncategorized

In the latest update for Defense of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2), two more heroes have made their way into the huge cast of characters to choose from.

The new update also introduces a number of gameplay, visual and user interface (UI) fixes and enhancements to the game with the intended motivation of maintaining a balanced gameplay and removing bugs that had sneaked into the action real-time strategy game.

The two new heroes added to the Dota 2 roster include Luna Moonfang the Moon Rider and Io the Guardian Wisp, both of whom have retained their characteristics and abilities from the original DotA game.

Luna is a ranged agility hero capable of dealing massive physical as well as magical damage. Her three basic abilities include Lucent Beam, Moon Glaive and Lunar Blessing, while her ultimate is called Eclipse. Two of these abilities, Lucent Beam and Eclipse, are active while the remaining two are passive.

Her abilities make her a perfect carry, allowing her to deal great deal of damage to enemy heroes in very little time. Her passive abilities also aid her in farming for gold, which is required to make powerful items. With excellent farming skills, Luna is considered as one of the deadliest heroes in game. Her only obvious weakness is her fragility. However, effective farming through the use of Moon Glaives and Lunar Blessing can help her to make strong items quickly and thus minimise her drawback.

The other hero added to the list of playable heroes in Dota 2 last week is Io the Guardian Wisp, more commonly referred to as Wisp. Made of particles with no physical mesh, Wish is indeed a unique ranged strength hero. The three basic abilities at its disposal are Tether, Spirits and Overcharge, while it can use an ultimate spell Relocate after hitting Level 6.

All four abilities of Wisp make it ideal for a support role. Tether allows it to connect to an allied unit or hero, increasing the movement speed of both units and allowing them to share health and mana regeneration. An enemy unit or hero gets stunned after passing through the tether, the link between Wisp and its allied hero. Activating the Overcharge ability during Tether increases the attack speed of Wish as well as the hero or unit it is linked with through tether. Activating Spirits allow Wisp to call upon five spirits that cause damage to enemy units and heroes and reduce their movement speed, making it hard for them to run away. Wisp’s Ultimate, Relocate, allows it to teleport to any location in the map for a short duration, after which it returns to the original point of relocation. An allied unit or hero sharing a tether link with Wisp also gets teleported to the new location, but does not return back if the tether link is missing after the Relocation time runs out. This ability allows Wisp to engineer deadly ganks (surprise attack aided by team-mates).

The addition of two new heroes to the Dota 2 roster will definitely add to the experience of the players, adding significantly to their excitement.

The developers have also made a few gameplay, visual and UI changes in the latest update. Some of the bugs identified through player feedback have been taken care of, while some visual improvements and fixes have been introduced.

An audio enhancement has also been made through the introduction of the CELT codec that would serve to the increase the quality of voice communication.

The latest changes introduced to Dota 2 are a clear indication that Valve Corporation and IceFrog, who is also the current designer of DotA, are working around the clock to ensure that the best-possible experience is offered to players.

Dota 2 is currently in a state of closed beta testing, though the complete version is slated to become available for free download later this year.