Valve releases patch 7.33 for Dota 2, details inside

Valve company presented a large-scale update of Dota 2 in the patch 7.33. The developers have pleased the fans of the game with many changes, so let's look at them closely.

New map

After the release of the update, the game space in Dota 2 has been expanded by as much as 40%, which opens up many opportunities for finding new resources and coming up with new strategies.

As a result, many new objects and characters can be seen on the map:

• Roshan now has two new homes instead of his river pit. They are located in the northwest and southeast corners of the map. The rewards for killing this character have also changed.
• Twin gates were created. They connect the corners of the map near the safe lane towers and allow players to teleport from one point to another.
• players can now find Lotus pools on the left and right sides of the map. In these places you can restore health and mana.
• Tormentors. Two powerful neutral creeps were added to the game. They appear every 20 minutes. They have megashields that allow them to deflect most of the damage directed at them. After each kill, tormentors become even stronger, so at some point it may take the whole team to neutralize them. The reward for defeating this creep is Aghanim's Shard.
• Watchers. These characters perform as wards. Activate them to get a vision over the Watcher's area for 7 minutes or until the opposing team disables them. If the team kills Roshan, then all the Watchers will turn to their side.
• Defender's gates is a force field at the back of the base that lets your team through, but keeps opponents out. If enemies enter the base from the front, the Defender's gates will help you escape through the back.
• two new runes have been added: Wisdom Runes (grant experience) and Shield Runes (the hero who activated it gets a shield equal to 50% of his maximum health).
• also there are now 4 outposts on the map instead of 2. They no longer give experience or unlock invisibility.

Massive changes in gameplay

The updates affected not only the map, but also many heroes and mechanics in Dota 2. The main ones are worth highlighting:

• the fourth hero attribute type appeared in the game. Universal characters have no base stat and receive a bonus 0.6 damage from each attribute.
• the operating principle of the Black King Bar has been changed. It now applies a basic dispel, and grants 50% Magic resistance and Debuff Immunity.
• barrier strength is now reflected in the health bar.
• the wards' health bar will show the number of hits needed to destroy them.
• the amount of consumed health will be displayed on abilities.
• neutral creeps now have level 4 abilities. The fourth level can only be obtained by Chen with Aghanim's Shard.
• the developers changed the characteristics of all heroes, but the most noticeable updates were given to Muerta, Clinkz, Arc Warden, Ogre Magi, Medusa, Alchemist.
• 14 items were added to the game, 7 of which are neutral.
• the effect duration of all control abilities has been nerfed.
• Tome of Knowledge has been removed from the game.

Matchmaking and new ranking system

Valve announced the transition to a new ranking system. The previously used Elo was replaced by a new algorithm called Glicko. The developers made this decision after comparing the effectiveness of matching opponents with similar skill level in Dota 2 and CS:GO. It is in the second game that Glicko is used.

This system allows you to solve several matchmaking problems at once and find the most suitable opponents by level of play. The algorithm takes into account the number of matches played during a certain period of time. Thus, a player who plays Dota 2 for the first time after a long break will receive more rating points for a win and lose less in the event of a loss.

You can look at the full list of changes in patch 7.33 via the link.