Home Gaming What's in the Dota 2 Spring Cleaning update?

What's in the Dota 2 Spring Cleaning update?

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Dota 2 spring clean

Dota 2 is an insanely intricate and varied game, offering players a ton of gameplay options. You could probably play for years and never truly know everything there is to know about the game. Of course, then Valve goes and changes things, keeping everyone on their toes. So, what are some of the latest changes?

Called the Spring Cleaning update, there are inventory changes, interface changes, features, workshop and even new treasures – not to mention a ton of bug fixes. Oh, and that’s to say nothing of the actual gameplay update (6.81) which sees general changes, hero specific updates and individual item changes. So, let’s have a look:

Inventory and Item Changes

The first big change comes in the form of communication – Alt-click on an inventory item alerts your team that the item is ready, in cool down or needs mana. Items that call for a gather, such as Arcane Boots, broadcasts a gather message and pings your location upon Alt-click; Alt-click also works with passive abilities.

Some item changes include: Animal Courier respawn time reduced from 180 to 140 seconds, Clarity mana regeneration upped from 100 over 30 seconds to 135 over 40 seconds, and Eul’s Scepter of Divinity now deals 50 damage to enemy units when they land plus you can now cast Cyclone on yourself while you’re magic immune. Observer and Sentry Wards sharing with allies now requires a Control key override and wards can no longer be placed in the fountain areas. When using the Shadow Amulet, Fade no longer requires the target to remain stationary, but Invisibility still does.

There are changes to many more items, as well as some tweaks to the Quick Buy system. All recommended item builds have also been updated. Two new treasures have been added: Treasure of Sinister Arcanery and Treasure of the Cosmic Abyss. These contain brand new sets with a rare chance to get a new courier or Clockwerk set – no seal or treasure drop is required. These are purchased directly from the Dota 2 store or from within the Dota 2 client. Yes, these can also be traded an listed on the Steam Community Market.

Interface and Feature Changes

The interface changes are generally more about convenience and ease of use – friend requests can be sent to players via the in-game scoreboard and all active battle point (and event point) boosters are show in-game after all players connect. However, I’m most excited about spectating and server selection. The game client will now ping a sample of servers in each region and display the results in the region selection screen – this should help when players are searching for an optimal server for their game.

For those who use the Watch Tab, it now sorts leagues into Premier, Professional and Amateur leagues, with Amateur leagues also sorted by location – this makes it easier to find smaller tournaments in your area. Also helpful for spectators, all interface elements in League Matches now use official player names instead of their Steam name.

Bug Fixes

There are a ton of bug fixes, ranging from interface and audio visual bug fixes to actual gameplay ones. Here is a small sample:

  • Updated various outdated tooltips for items and abilities
  • You can no longer see trees being destroyed if they are hidden by the Fog of War
  • Fixed a bug where if multiple wards (such as Plague Wards) were told to attack a target that was out of range to some of the wards none of the wards would attack that target. Now the in-range wards will attack the target properly
  • Fixed bug allowing heroes that were transformed to attack Roshan from outside of the pit (primarily affects Tiny, Dragon Knight, Terrorblade, and Rubick)
  • Fixed a bug where Radiance could deal damage to allied units
  • Units can no longer be damaged by negative lifesteal

General and Hero updates

Here, again, there are a variety of changes. Captain’s Draft hero selection pool has increased from 24-27 (8 per type to 9) while the hero bans have increased for 4 to 6. Meepo is no longer available in Ability Draft. The hero changes are vast and varied – this means that the upcoming International will probably feature a bunch of new favorite and feared heroes. Some of the changes include:

  • Brewmaster: If you have not attacked for 10 seconds, your next attack will always activate a Drunken Brawler critical hit. If you have not been attacked for 10 seconds, Drunken Brawler will cause you to evade the next attack
  • Gyrocopter: Homing Missile now hits invisible units
  • Naga Siren: Mirror Image illusion damage dealt reduced from 30/35/40/45% to 20/25/30/35%. Rip Tide area of effect reduced from 350 to 320. Rip Tide negative armor no longer goes through magic immunity
  • Visage: Grave Chill cooldown increased from 10 to 16/14/12/10

Of course, there are a ton of other changes. Be sure to check if your favorite hero has been nerfed or buffed. Do you like these changes, or does it just mean relearning how to play the game?

Last Updated: April 30, 2014

14 Comments

  1. UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

    April 30, 2014 at 12:15

    Read my way through it yesterday and I am super excited for the new changes!

    KOTL is baaaaaaaaaaack!

    Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      April 30, 2014 at 12:39

      not so sure, still needs other items befor aghanims, and its not like hes going to be able to afford an aghanims befor 20 mins.

      Reply

      • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

        April 30, 2014 at 12:41

        I forest farm with him and can also lane farm when left alone. He gets A LOT of gold. Taking into account that you obviously don’t steal farm from the carry.

        I think this new update will make it interesting.

        Then again the KOTL change is only a small part of this huge update.

        Reply

        • Matthew Holliday

          April 30, 2014 at 12:46

          i never play kotl, if anyone decides to breath on you, you’re dead.
          then again, i pretty much only play veno nowadays, regarless of role or lineup.

          Reply

          • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

            April 30, 2014 at 12:48

            Well I used play a lot of KOTL, but after the nerf he faded out.

            I mainly play support and have been dabbling in offlane. Like clock and Natures Prophet.

            KOTL is a pretty awesome hero. If you get a team blast off then it can turn a fight easily. I have gotten a 5 man Illuminate off when they try to Rosh and that just turns the fight 100%

  2. Ultimo_Cleric N7

    April 30, 2014 at 12:28

    And just like that, KOTL became a game changer…..

    Reply

  3. Kensei Seraph

    April 30, 2014 at 12:29

    I pretty much always have to relearn how to play.

    Reply

  4. Brendyn Zachary

    April 30, 2014 at 12:39

    What I like about this patch is that it’s more about tweaking than it is about changing before TI4. This years International is going to be something spectacular if the last few tourneys (Starladder, Dreamhack ESL) are anything to go by.

    Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      April 30, 2014 at 12:52

      nows the time where predictions for TI4 start getting tense.
      who does the patch favor more?
      DK wrecking everything, navi and alliance are always solid, Fnatic having a good run and cloud9 are the dark horse.

      Reply

      • Brendyn Zachary

        April 30, 2014 at 13:38

        I’m going to say it will be DK v Alliance in the Grand Final. My rares are (and always will be) on Alliance though.
        That being said I think this patch favours the Asian scene more because it looks like all the changes are geared towards late game and we all know how the Chinese love their late game.

        Reply

  5. Matthew Holliday

    April 30, 2014 at 12:44

    WR aghanims ez gg.

    Reply

    • hairyknees

      April 30, 2014 at 15:27

      Lich Agh + Refresher EZ RARES! 😛

      Reply

  6. DrKiller

    April 30, 2014 at 15:12

    Lich’s ulti is the biggest fear the moment as well as Huskar’s arrows that isn’t a unique identifier anymore

    Reply

  7. hairyknees

    April 30, 2014 at 15:27

    My favourite hero never gets changed ^_^ PUCK 4 LIFE <3

    Reply

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