DOTA 2 Receives Major Changes Before TI10

Valve recently released a news update regarding the ticket sales for TI10. Along with the release, the developers have also dropped an update for DOTA 2. With The International 10 scheduled from 7th October, one would expect that the update is a fairly simple one and won't have any major impacts on the gameplay.

However, Valve being themselves has chosen to go the complete opposite direction. The update has brought forward various in-game changes that will definitely have a major impact on the gameplay. It will be interesting to see how the top-tier teams adapt and utilize these changes to their advantage at The International 10.

Having said that, let's dive in and take a look at all the changes that Valve has revealed for DOTA 2.

DOTA 2 HUD Changes

According to the update released by Valve, the changes that have already been introduced in the game are,

Status Indicators

• The top bar now shows smoked heroes and if heroes have Aegis or Cheese.
• BKB duration, Aegis timer, and shared Tango timer now show in the inventory. This has been added for both spectators and players.
• Roshan timer now shows a countdown.
• Players can now ping Aegis to broadcast time remaining to allies.
• Added a Power Rune spawn top/bottom indicator.
• The buyback status indicator now shows in the stats dropdown.
• Items panel now includes neutral items and which players have Aghanim's Scepter / Aghanim's Shard.
• Added a combat log entry for when players deny runes.
• Item quantities for sentries/observer wards/smokes now show for spectators when they open a team's shop.

Graph Improvement

• The combo graph shows win probability, gold, and XP all at once, as well as deltas, without needing to select separate graphs.
• Added momentum indicator, pointing out which team's performance is increasing more within the last 2 minutes.

Camera

• Override Cam allows you to move the camera in non-free camera modes when you want to inspect other areas of the map, returning you to your selected camera mode after a short delay.
• Directed Cam lets you click on heroes to temporarily select them as the subject of your focus.
• Fixed the directed camera jumping to origins at times.

In-Game Playback

• Improved 'Next Highlight' feature lets you easily skip to the action (fixed old version).
• Added the ability to skip to the match instead of waiting for the draft phase to end.

Considering the fact that all of these changes have been implemented in DOTA 2, it is safe to say that Valve has bigger and better plans for the game's future. Having said that, the developers have also revealed a bunch of upcoming changes that they plan to implement in the coming months.

Upcoming changes in DOTA 2

In an attempt to keep the Source 2 engine as well DOTA 2 fresh, Valve has decided that the game will be removing support from a bunch of previous-generation platforms. Although these changes have not yet been implemented, it is safe to say that they will be released before the end of 2021.

The list of changes are:

Remove support for Dota on 32-bit systems. You will need to have a 64-bit machine and OS to run Dota.

• Remove support for macOS versions below 10.14.
• Remove support for DirectX 9. Customers using DirectX 9 will instead switch to DirectX 11.
• Remove support for OpenGL. Customers using OpenGL will instead switch to Vulkan.
• Remove support for XAudio (-xaudio) and switch to using SDL Audio (-sdlaudio).

Valve has further stated their motive behind these changes being implemented. The developers have stated,

"Removing these older technologies will let us streamline our development efforts as well as use the newer features of these APIs to provide an even better Dota experience."

With that said, let's hope for a far more immersive and enthralling DOTA experience from Valve in the coming months.

Read More: Biggest DOTA 2 Hero Buffs in Update 7.30