Dota 2's expansion gathers pace with the arrival of this week's second update. This one introduces the heropedia, which presents a breakdown of every character's stats, lore background and skills, with short videos of every ability. You can browse it now on the Dota 2 site, or access it via the "Learn" tab in the Dota 2 client.



The grand roster of heroes has also been expanded with two new characters, Luna the Moonrider, who's much more dangerous than she sounds, and Wisp, a glowing ball of light with some unusual abilities. Find out more about them, and absorb the latest patch notes below.



Luna The Moonrider - Moontastic Agility Carry



As titles go, "Luna the Moonrider" isn't likely to instil much fear, until you actually see her and notice that she's riding a giant panther. Then you'll notice that the giant panther is wearing a hat, but while you're busy noticing that, you'll be taking a hit to the face from a rebounding magical chakram. Then as you're trying to pull your senses together she'll be activating her ultimate ability, which turns day to night and starts zapping you with bolts of searing moon energy. "What the hell, moon!?" you'll probably cry.



The ability videos in the updated heropedia were done by Dota cinema, who have also done a couple of overview videos for the new heroes. Here's one for Luna.







Wisp - Utility Glowing Hero Ball Thing



No Warcraft 3 sprite was left unused in the formation of Defence of the Ancients. Even glowing balls of light can become characters, as Guardian Wisp demonstrates. According to his bio, "Wisp occupies all planes at once, the merest fraction of its being crossing into physical existence at any one moment," which sounds grandiose, but it's best thought of as a sentient glowing ball who just wants to help. It does this by tethering itself to heroes, increasing their movement speed and stunning anyone who touches the strand. For its ultimate trick, it can teleport to any point on the map for 12 seconds, taking any tethered hero along for the ride.



See these abilities in action in the Dota Cinema overview of Wisp.







And here are the latest patch notes:



HIGHLIGHTS:



Added Luna

Added Guardian Wisp

Dota 2 now uses the CELT codec for increased voice communication quality.

Added a testing tool to the Workshop tab that allows contributors to see their models on a hero before submitting.

Added Heropedia to the Learn tab.



 



GAMEPLAY



Bloodseeker: Fixed a bug where he could get healed by friendly heroes dying in the area around him that he didn't deny.

Pudge: Fixed a bug that was sometimes causing Pudge's Dismember to do an extra tick of damage

Pudge: Fixed a bug that allowed Pudge to deal damage without hurting himself by quickly toggling Rot.

Rubick: Fixed a rare case where Rubick could get permanently stuck with Telekinesis Land.

Rubick: Fixed a bug where Rubick would gain permanent Spectral Dagger buffs until he died.

Rubick: Fixed a bug with Poison Release that would cause you to steal the wrong ability from Shadow Demon.

Tiny: Fixed Aghanim's Scepter siege damage vs backdoor armor

Fixed being able to use a different player's items in your combine, if that item was in your stash at the time



 

VISUALS



More Rubick spell animations

Various Rubick visual effect improvements and fixes

Haste animation added for Bloodseeker

Adjusted Ogre Magi's sidearm attack animation

Logos removed from waterfall and mid river areas to safeguard gameplay

Tweaked dire banner position left of fountain shop

Roshan timer appear only after 10 seconds have passed from death

Reduced Gyro's model scale a little

Removed ambient effects on Razor and Morphling when hexed



 

UI



Fixed some cases where icons could get stuck on the screen

Fixed new heroes not showing up in the hero picker if you had custom view set (They'll now appear in the top left of the grid view, for you to then place as you like)

Tournament Panel: Fixed game list not refreshing unless you opened a different tournament and then back.

Tournament Panel: Increased the size of the live games and recent games.

Tournament Panel: Fixed details button not working properly for the last few games.

Fixed Spectator label cutting off number of spectators.

Fixed Live games not displaying correctly after opening a Tournament.

Fixed a recent bug with the shop not closing when a unit is selected

Fixed some bugs with losing commentator perspecting when pausing and unpausing

Added backpack preview to couriers

Back button in the loadout takes you back to the backpack if you arrived via a backpack right click

Fixed some slots on the backpack not being right-clickable if they were not on page 1

Fixed the first equip from the backpack sometimes not working properly

Added inspect button near the hero panel for heroes that have custom items

Updated the replay skill filter to have more usefull categories.

Fixed dragging an item onto itself not turning its icon back on.

Cheat commands are now echoed to chat

Added a testing tool to the Workshop tab that allows contributors to see their models on a hero before submitting.

Fixed Mute button on the scoreboard not working.



 

AUDIO:



Dota 2 now uses the CELT codec for increased voice communication quality.