Valve launched the Massive New Frontiers update for dota 2 yesterday that surpassed all expectations of what was to come next for the nearly 10-year-old free-to-play MOBA. The most notable change (among many others) is that the map is now 40% larger than before and Valve has revamped the map’s jungle layout. This forces players to adjust their strategies for juking to break line of sight with enemies, farming XP and gold, and more. It has huge implications for shaking up competitive play, as pros know the ins and outs of the map – at least the way it used to be.
The patch notes for most dota 2 Updates are notoriously lengthy as the game has dozens of heroes and countless things to balance (and sometimes bans to be imposed on players). However, the Notes on New Frontiers Are, Hm, a new frontier in length and depth. In case you’re wondering, yes, people read everything that’s in the patch notes. For example, PurgeGamers streamed on Twitch for 14 hours straight just to read through the patch notes and get a first glimpse of the exhausting amount of changes.
Alongside the expansion, there are other key changes to the map that returning players will notice. Valve claims to have made improvements to its matchmaking so that veteran players can be evenly matched. There’s also an entirely new hero type called Universal, which has been reassigned some of the game’s heroes.
As for the changes on the map, Roshan, one of the game’s neutral creeps that any team can take on, can spawn in one of two new pit locations in the northwest and southeast corners, and he’s much stronger than before. And there are twin gates: portals that can be used to zip around the map (Roshan can use them too – thanks, PC gamer). But that hardly scratches the surface.
Looking through the patch notes, it’s a pleasure to see the joking, confident tone Valve uses in its notes to introduce fan-requested quality of life features and fixes that are just beginning to be incorporated. For example, the ability fields in the HUD now show a health cost, if any, not just a mana cost. The copy reads, “Not bad, isn’t it? Kind of crazy actually, no one thought to put it there. Anyway, it’s here now.”
On the dota 2 underreddit, it’s clear fans are happy or at least interested in what’s in New Frontiers. And last night it was game over 1 million playersthe highest number of concurrent players since March 2019. As someone who guessed dota 2growing but not keeping up, I’m always tempted to step in when a big patch like this arrives. Maybe I’m ready for new frontiers.