Competitive games these days get balance patches pretty frequently, as well as the occasional changeup to keep themselves feeling fresh. And oh buy did Dota 2 get a massive shakeup in its most recent patch 7.36. The patch sees the addition of Innate Abilities for all heroes, as well as a choice between two Facets. Both are pretty massive changes that are sure to shift the meta around team comps, especially any tourney taking place in the near future.
First, let’s talk about the first massive change in Dota 2, the Innate Abilities. As the name implies, these are passives that each hero will have from the moment they are selected. They take effect even without skill points added to them, though some can be leveled up with points investment (they act as a free point for one of the existing skills), or even level up alongside one of their active skills. One pretty good example of the last one is Sand King’s Caustic Finale, which now levels up with Epicenter, as well as being some nerfs overall.
Of course, not all innate abilities introduced in this Dota 2 patch are created equal. Some are simply the streamlining of gameplay, like the aforementioned Sand King. Others, like Silencer’s, makes it so that he is not pigeonholed into maxing out Glaives of Wisdom early game to capitalise on stat stealing. Then there are others are quite literally game-changing, such as Dawnbreaker’s which reveales the entire map to allies for a short moment when the sun rises.
Moving on to the Facets, these look to be for the most part an extension of the talent tree added to Dota 2 all those years ago. The idea is that you are made to pick one of two additional buffs that may affect a specific skill, the Innate Ability, or even serve as another passive. The only difference is that you are made to pick one of the two options at the beginning of each match and cannot be changed.
These two changes added to patch 7.36 of Dota 2 is sure to shake up the meta for the game. And fittingly, another change noted in the changelog is that strategy time is being extended, at least for the first few weeks following a patch. Expect games to be extremely chaotic for awhile, especially for tourneys happening for the rest of the year, at least.
(Source: Valve)
