Dota 2 has come a long way since its release in 2013. From featuring nothing more than hero abilities and their respective stats, the game’s formula has evolved to include Talent trees and other features, alongside the recently-added Innates and Facets—and players are now wondering what’s coming next.
“What’s next in Dota‘s evolution,” asked a player in a July 14 Reddit thread, where they highlighted just how far we are from the game’s original design. Aghanim’s Scepter now works on essentially every hero in the game, Neutral items can give heroes game-changing abilities, and the Innate abilities and Facets introduced in Update 7.36 have completely reshaped the Dota experience. Dota 2 is no stranger to drastic changes, and its chief designer IceFrog is a lot more reckless than developers at Riot Games, for example, leading players in the thread to theorize what wild updates might come next.
“Lane creep upgrades,” one player suggested, will be the next big thing in Dota 2. Come to think of it, that would make some split-pushing heroes such as Nature’s Prophet become a true nightmare. Imagine them teleporting around the map to spawn Treeants while simultaneously sporting a legion of upgraded lane creeps. “That would be pretty cool,” one player thought, saying these upgrades could be purchasable for lots of gold so players in the late-game would not have to hoard all the money with nothing to spend it on.
Another player said “a new hero” might come along. Others were quick to point out they were “asking too much” since Dota 2 rarely receives any new additions to its roster. Valve did tease a new hero, Ringmaster, several months ago, though when it will be released is anyone’s guess. The company is quite secretive when it comes to anything they’re working on (except for Deadlock; they let that into the wild scot-free), and Ringmaster is no exception.
Whatever IceFrog and the developers at Valve decide, it’s bound to be a chaotic, dramatic, and controversial addition or update that will reshape the face of Dota 2. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time.
