BWAAAARM. The audacious horn/bong/bwaaarm noise that loudly announces that you've been slotted into a game in Dota 2 is also a fitting one with which to introduce the two new heroes added by the latest weekly patch. Look, an Orc riding a Tauntaun with a backpack made of tesla coils! It must be Thrall the Disruptor, here to mess up your Dota 2 strategies with a combination of electrical strikes and forced teleports. But woah, what's that awful smell? Has that Tauntaun let off a banger again? Oh, no. That's just Dirge the Undying dragging his fetid carcass to the party. Welcome to the party Dirge, just ... try not to touch anything.
But what can these new heroes do, and what changes have been made in the latest patch? Let's find out.
Thrall the Disruptor
Tesla-mad nuker
Dota 2 heroes often combine magic and science in interesting ways. I can sort of buy the fact that Thrall has a powerful battery pack that electrifies his hammer letting him through lightning about with gusto, but there's very little explanation for his ability to call forth a perfect circle of tesla coils from the earth to trap his foes. Nonetheless, the ability to layer his damaging static storm ultimate template directly over that fizzling ringfence makes him a significant threat. What's more, his comedy forced teleport can throw foes back to the location they occupied a few seconds ago. Just when you think you've escaped that electrified ring of tesla coils, Thrall keeps pulling you back in.
Dota Cinema's Sunsfan provides a nice visual overview of The Disruptor's techniques in this video.
Dirge The Undying
Decomposing pusher
Dirge the Undying is a walking zombie apocalypse that can draw strength and health from enemies. He also has an alternative monster form that's even more monster than his ordinary form. His flesh golem form comes with its own charming plague aura that amplifies damage depending on his proximity. That only lasts 30 seconds, so he'll also spend a lot of time raising his undead friends to gnaw on enemy ankles, slowing them a little and freaking them out a lot.
See those abilities in action in this Dota Cinema overview.
Dirge and Disruptor should make interesting additions to Dota 2's ever-expanding lineup, slotting in nicely alongside last week's new heroes, Luna and Wisp. The latest patch has also fixed a few bugs, as highlighted in the latest patch notes.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Added Disruptor and Undying!
- Enabled Rubick, Wisp, and Luna in Captain's Mode.
- Fixed a number of issues that caused effects to be delayed and in some cases not show up while watching Tournament games.
- You can now select your favorite hero and gear to showcase in your profile.
- Tournaments you have passes for are now shown in your profile.
GAMEPLAY
- Bloodseeker: Fixed Bloodbath not properly healing from enemy heroes dying in an AoE.
- Invoker: Fixed DPS burn from Chaos Meteor not stacking per tick.
- Luna: Fixed Eclipse ending if you get Cycloned.
- Outworld Destroyer: Fixed astral indicator to only show for hero and allied team.
- Rubick: Fixed stolen Persuasion not killing stolen creeps when lost.
- Rubick: Fixed stolen Relocate not teleporting teammates who are linked with a stolen Tether.
- Rubick: Fixed Toggleable spells not being stealable.
- Rubick: Fixed not getting flying vision or flying height when stealing Firefly.
- Rubick: Fixed Fade Bolt stopping when Rubick dies.
- Rubick: Fixed stealing Morph Replicate and Replicate not working correctly.
- Rubick: Fixed Invoker's Spell Stolen abilities having broken hotkeys sometimes when using Legacy Mode.
- Rubick: Fixed Telekinesis land AoE triggering Linken's Sphere.
- Wisp: Fixed Magic Stick interaction with Tether.
- Wisp: Overcharge and the two spirit control sub abilities no longer proc magic stick.
- Wisp: Spirits no longer don't retain their vision after they explode.
- Wisp: Fixed Relocate's return not interrupting other channeling spells (like TP Scroll).
- Wisp: Fixed heroes continuing old movement orders after returning with Relocate.
- Wisp: Fixed Soul Ring not working with Tether.
- Warlock: Fixed the burn aura from Warlock's Golems so it stacks correctly.
- Small fix to creep aggro reaction time.
VISUALS
- Fixes for guardian spirits rendering with pops and such when entering/leaving FoW.
- Added 'Telekinesis Land' effect marker for Rubick.
- Added new screen effect while the game is paused.
- Fixed Wisp's voice lipsync getting stuck on with random noise.
- Fixed ranged display stomping on ambient effects, including Wisp's.
- Fixed Unusual Flying Couriers losing some of their effects when transitioning fom walking to flying.
- Fixed Wisp's Tether being left behind when an enemy teleported into the fog of war.
- Changed Guardian Wisp Explosion Effects.
- Added a more obvious Wisp's Tether Boundary Effect.
UI
- When someone buys back, an icon is now displayed on the top bar for 5 seconds.
- Wisp's Tether now shows the amount that it heals it's target.
- Wisp's spirits no longer show up on the minimap.
- Wisp and his tethered unit move their camera when they Relocate and Relocate back.
- Right clicking an upgradable item in the shop will attempt to upgrade any (fully combined) version of that item that the player already owns. (Right click on necro 1 will actually buy a necro recipe if the player has a necro 1 or 2, etc)
- Fixed shop closing when other players' selections change.
- We now show the upgraded info in the ability itself if you're holding an Aghanim's Scepter.
- You can now select your favorite hero and gear to showcase in your profile.
- Tournaments you have passes for are now shown in your profile.
NETWORK
- Fixed a number of issues that caused effects to be delayed and in some cases not show up while watching Tournament games.
AUDIO
- The Relocate sound stops correctly now.
BOTS
- Fixed a bug were all bots would disable themselves if a human on the other team disconnected before picking a hero.
- Changed how bots use Glyph, they should no longer use it when their buildings aren't being attacked.
- Made Crystal Maiden bot even more timid.
- Made bots go to the lane front when defending in-base rather than cowering behind the innermost towers.
- Fixed bug where bots weren't correctly parsing their roles, which would lead to bad hero picking/randoming.
- Fixed case were bots could "cheat" and have knowlege of where their target was when blinking.
Source: PC Gamer (opens in a new tab)