The Dota 2 community, like any other competitive game community, likes discussing the good old golden days. Those were the days when the grass was greener, the balance was better, and there was less crayfish. The farther away the release date is, the more often such topics appear on Reddit or questions arise in the Steam community. But is that true?
Are there fewer events?
The most legendary event, Diretide, was first held in 2012. Frostivus 2012 was also held at the same time. These two events gave birth to a lot of positive emotions and were loved by the community. In 2013, these were held again, but not in 2014. Since then, the messages
like “つ つ ◕_◕ ༽ つ Give DIRETIDE” annually occupy almost any place where there are doters.
Other events don’t come to the rescue. Chinese New Year’s New Bloom or Nemesis Assassin Event, timed to coincide with the release of the Arcana on Phantom Assassin, could not repeat the success of Diretide. The worst happened in 2015 when the players had only one event available, and, to make matters worse, it was New Bloom again. After that, Valve began preparing two or three events a year. At the same time, a part of events is available only to owners of a combat pass to The International.
Conclusion and what to do:
yes, there are fewer events. To the credit of the development team, all new in-game events differ from each other. The players beat off tidal waves of opponents, then they are looking for Roshan’s cheese, or even complete the whole campaign in two acts! In this situation, we can advise two things.
First, custom games allow for a good time.
Second, get ready to pay for combat passes.
Has the balance collapsed?
Changing the balance with each major patch is a common phenomenon in the history of Dota 2. In all this time, there were only two major updates: moving to a new engine and changing the economy at patch 6.82. The new engine did not influence the gameplay all that much, but the patch 6.82 did change the game very much.
Prior to this patch, a strong Ganker, for example, could single-handedly “drag” a team behind him, quickly gaining experience and gold. In case of death, the enemy team received about 1000 gold and not so much experience. In patch 6.82, a new formula was introduced, and with it, the punishment for dying was increased to much harder for the farmed hero.
After that, the mechanics of the reward for the kill and the mechanics of the comeback were edited several more times, but they were never the same.
In general, the update has shifted the potential gains focus from strong single players to cohesive teams (making it easier for cohesive teams to get ahead than for single players). Even a 10–12 thousand total cost advantage could be lost in one really disastrous 5 by 5 fight. At first, this led to extremely “heavy peaks”, like the Specter carry and lengthening of matches, but after six months and a few patches, everything got a little faster.
Conclusion and what to do:
The global balance of the game has changed markedly. The release of patch 6.82 turned Dota 2 into a full-fledged command MOBA. Not everyone liked it. However, the game has gained from this. The fights have become more intense, cohesiveness and the concept of macro games have gained weight. If patch 6.82 spoiled the game for you, then most likely in these two years you have already abandoned it.
Are sets not the same sets we knew?
Cosmetic items allow you to change almost all aspects of the game. If you wish, you can change: the interface, the music, the subject of the map, the commentator, the weather, the appearance of the characters, the couriers, the wards, the boot screen and the appearance of the cursor.
Such customization is great, but all the way through the existence of the game many items accumulated. Two dozen voice-over commentators, more than 150 couriers, nearly eighty kinds of interface and wards. If we’re talking sets there are hundreds. 17 sets for Sven, 15 for Anti-mage, 18 sets for Axe, and all this is without individual items.
This amount is confusing, but what’s even worse, experienced players have become hard to surprise. Given the relatively strict design code of the characters from Valve, developing fundamentally new looks for the characters is very difficult, which means all new works have much in common with the old ones. In such a situation, they lose the “wow effect” and acquire the status of consumer goods.
Conclusion and what to do:
The sets are still the ones! True, there are a lot of them, it is easy to get confused, and because of the company’s new policy regarding the sale and transfer of items, they are difficult to present to a friend.
In this situation, it is difficult to think of a way out, because the sets are the source for The International prize pool, which means Valve will not give them up. All that remains is to create a petition for the return of a command that disables cosmetic items.
Is the game not getting better?
Avid players’ main complaint is the low pace of development of Dota 2. Over the years since the introduction of this MOBA, it has not really evolved. The player selection system has not yet learned to filter obvious smurfs, the system of punishment of toxic players is lame, the search by roles works as if to just tick the box.
Valve is trying to make the conditions better. For example, the introduction of rating seasons helped to better divide the players according to the level of their game, but this is a half-measure. In addition, while in one place the game is growing, in another everything can be at the level of the swamp. Especially acute is the problem with testing new versions and fixing errors. Some bugs exist for months and get fixed only after they appear in pro-games.
Conclusion and what to do:
Dota 2 is developing terribly slowly. It still does not even have decent training because the user base is almost not growing at all. Third-party services, like FACEIT, are trying to fix some flaws, but they have far fewer tools than Valve. The best escape route from toxic foresters and smurfs are team gatherings and playing in amateur tournaments.
With Dota 2, everything is not great. Although the problems are exaggerated in the community, and some of them are caused by the tiredness of the game, this MOBA from Valve is far from being in an ideal state. What a pity.
