Valve kept the community waiting for almost six months but Dota 2 patch 7.36 was well worth the wait: Every hero is getting wild new changes thanks to the introduction of two newly-introduced mechanics—Innate Abilities and Hero Facets.
On top of launching Crownfall Act II: The Deserts of Druud with a new story, fresh cosmetics for the store, and plenty more, Dota 2 gameplay update 7.36 adds multiple changes and new elements to the entire roster. This means new buffs, nerfs, and changes, as well as the introduction of Innate Abilities and Hero Facets.
Innate Abilities are hero-specific, mostly passive abilities present for the entire game. Valve has split Innates into two types, unique effects and ability levels.
For the unique effects, Faceless Void’s Innate will slow projectiles that get within a certain range, while Dawnbreaker’s has the extremely wild ability to reveal the entire map for a time once the sun rises. Meanwhile, the ability level changes will affect something like Kunkka’s Tidebringer, changing the ability to have five levels, giving the hero a free ability point at level one, and letting it be upgraded an additional four times, as per usual.
As for Hero Facets, this a more customizable option Valve added to “better align the playstyle of a hero with a specific match or player preference.” Every hero has at least two Facets they can choose between while in Strategy Time that can’t be changed once the round begins and won’t be revealed until everyone loads in.
This is huge for hero variety and flexibility, as a hero like Batrider can take his Stoked Facet to boost movement speed and Spell Amplification for seven seconds after using an ability or item on an enemy to apply a movement effect or give Sticky Napalm the Arsonist Facet, allowing it to stick to buildings and apply 25 percent damage.
Other Facets highlighted by Valve include the ability for Wraith King to choose between summoning skeletons or dealing more curse damage or Leshrac being able to restore mana with attacks or alter Diabolic Edict to explode faster while dealing no damage to buildings. This fundamentally changes how certain Dota 2 heroes interact with the game and should drastically increase the viability for even off-meta picks in certain scenarios.
On top of these mechanics, you have a full balance patch to sift through including the usual buffs and nerfs for nearly every hero, map changes, and key alterations like Hero Denies now giving experience to any hero who created the deniable debuff or Mana Cost Reduction no longer applying to abilities that drain mana over time.
And, for the players who just wanted more content to enjoy, Crownfall Act II: The Deserts of Druud is live and you can still partake in all of the previous act’s content as well. This update brings a new overworld map, story elements, characters, cosmetics, minigames, and “a few surprises” to discover along the way.
Now we get to see what kind of hell this Dota 2 patch dropping right in the middle of DreamLeague Season 23 will bring to the competitive scene.
