I'm a little bit down because the GB community in DOTA 2 has died down and heres hoping we can get some more people back into this game.

DOTA 2 - Version 7.00 - New Journey

DOTA 2 Version 7.00 has released, featuring a new hero, the Monkey King, a new map, talents at levels 10/15/20/25 (instead of attributes) updated in pre game / ingame UI and more.

I encourage you all to come on back to DOTA2 to try it out, this is a massive update that will completely changed how DOTA is played.

If you want to play some with me feel free to add me: http://steamcommunity.com/id/pubdles - I'm ~4.5k and play on US, and I'll play with you whatever mmr you are.

Talents? Like Heroes of the Storm? That'd be cool.

This new patch is pretty incredible conceptually.

Also so happy for Viper. Looks so much better now.

@theht: I can't remember what HoTS talents were like, so heres how they work in DOTA2

Every hero has a talent tree, and you can put a point into it (instead of into a skill) starting at level 10 - if you dont take the talent you can take it at any other level in lieu of an ability.

For instance Slardars tree looks like this

At level 10 either +6hp/s regen, or 175 Mana

Level 15 +25 attack speed / 200hp

Level 20 +7 Armor / +35 HP

Level 25 +10% chance to bash or +20 str

Lich is interesting because at level 20 he can get +150 attack damage, and at level 25 he can get 30% move speed/attackspeed debuff on hit so you can play core, right click lich. There are many other interesting ones, some are underwhelming some seem crazy.

Also supports got a buff because they've introduced a backpack, so you have an additional 3 slots to carry things around in (but cannot use their actives, and swapping to inventory means they're on cooldown for 6 seconds)

Wow. what a big patch! Some of these changes were long overdue such as minimized HUD and a backpack to help make my new items.

I got into Dota 2 in December of 2013. I downloaded it right after Brad forced it onto the GotY list. I remember at the time being real frustrated because as much as he talked about it throughout the year I just didn't understand what Dota was. Now here we are almost three years later, I'm approaching my 2500 hour of Dota 2. I played three games in the new patch last night and god damn is it different. To the point of actually being a little overwhelming. It's both exciting and scary at the same time. I love Dota, peeps.

I've been following competitive Dota for a few years now and I really enjoy watching it quite a bit. In the last couple months I've actually playing through the tutorial. I get steamrolled every time. That tutorial is straight garbage, btw. It gives no direction or tips or even clear insight into what you should be doing. So, I just end up solo-ing mid until i get ganked, and then the other lanes collapse, and then my team tries to find out who can feed the fastest (which I actually pretty good at), and then they dire bots swarm the base and OH FUCK! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE, and then I turn off the Dota.

I ABSOLUTELY want to play this game be damn if it isn't the hardest thing to actually learn the fundamentals. Not to mention I naturally gravitate to support type characters and the only characters you can solo bot match on are DK and Mirana(? the one riding the lion cat tiger thing). It doesn't do anything to explain warding or who should ward or where to ward. Should I be rotating to help when the dumb bot says "pushing top lane"? Should I be taking a moment to consolidate ancient stacks? Or am I the carry and should be farming in the jungle?

@pubbles: Interesting! It's similar, but most talents in HotS (earned every few levels) modify skills themselves in some way in particular, though some are straight-up stat stuff like more mana or higher attack speed.

This actually sounds kinda rad. Might try it out. Haven't played Dota 2 in years.

These changes look really crazy, in a good way, I think. Not sure I have an opinion about the talent trees, but the strategy phase and pre-match shopping seem like no-brainer improvements. The new UI and hero select looks nice, too. It's a shame that my life doesn't really have room for Dota in it anymore, but maybe someday I'll get to check this stuff out.

@cujoprime: Hey dude the tutorial is total garbage. You don't have to play bot matches solo, you can play humans vs bots which lets you actually support a real human, and watch other supports (if anyone picks it) and where they ward. I'd link to some warding guides but they've been rendered pretty obsolete.

Generally speaking as a carry I want wards that make me feel safe. For instance we're radiant, and our tier 1 bottom tower is down, I usually want some defensive jungle wards so I can watch incoming ganks. Whereas when we're pushing a ward placed between the two towers that gives vision of them possibly coming in is super handy. As I don't play support too often I'm not great.

With supports it's also super important with this new map and how creeps spawn less frequently in the jungle to stack. (Creeps now spawn every 2 minutes, on odd numbers; i.e., they spawn at 00:30, 01:00, 03:00, 05:00 etc etc). Because there is less gold available in the jungle, stacking is waaaaaaaaaaay more important, and with added bounty rune spawns in the jungle it somewhat incentives it.

I'd be happy to play some games with you against bots or people if you wanted to add me: http://steamcommunity.com/id/pubdles and maybe we could go over some of that stuff.

This is a good patch to get in on, because everyones a little off their game.

For those who are new to the game or MOBAs in general. Don't play as a support/carry role but just heroes you think look good and whose description you enjoy (just read a few random descriptions on heroes). You can test every hero before playing in a testenviornment, where you can play around with the skills of that hero and where you have infinite gold to buy items, so feel free to play around with that before starting a game (you can do that while the game looks for a match for you to join).

When you start the game with other people, you're joined by people who're similarly knowlegeable as you are (based of your level). Getting confortable with the heroes and learning about carry and support roles is key to the game. The map itself has indicators which tells you about the most common warding spots. if your team does not buy a courier or wards, feel free to buy them even if you play as a carry hero. You get into the specific heroes roll the more you gain knowlege about the game.

Very, very good beginner heroes are Lich (Support), Dragon Knight (Pusher, Tank, Carry), Lion (Support, Ganker), Wraith King (Tank, Carry) and Viper (Carry, Ganker with a bit of Tankiness). A good hero where you can practise reflexes and is still easy to use is Axe, if you played a couple of matches so you understood what Supports and Carries do, feel free to pick him.

Also while playing, pressing tab opens up the menu which lets you look through items that you want to buy, theres also a way for you to check through item guides if you feel lost or unsure what item you should purchase next.

We really should add each other to have some friendly GB DOTA going :). Heres me, feel free to add me: http://steamcommunity.com/id/This_does_indeed_look_like_a_cat/

EDIT: Should've added a link :D.

i suck at dota but also really enjoyed the daily dota streams, i hope brad does a new one for this.

i played one gb game against bots which was alright, played a second pub game where i picked a random hero out of panic and immediately got shit for why u picked them and also for heading down the wrong lane apparently. quit and didn't go back. i'm thin skinned i know, but you think players at my beginning level would be a bit more accomodating and not all git gud.

probably not for me. would be nice maybe to be semi decent at something multiplayer, though.

@pubbles: I would totally take you up on that. I'm sure I'm just being skidish about the whole thing but I'd appreciate some pointers getting started!

Completely hyperbolic knee-jerk reaction, so here I go:

FUCK THIS PATCH. EVERYTHING IS SHIT. New map is shit, new jungle is shit, new runes are shit, new hero is shit (op), new talents are shit, new xp gains are shit, new UI is shit, client performance is shit, so many bugs all shit, literally fuck everything. New skins are pretty nice though. We fucking League now? Dead gaem. Uninstall doto. RIP Volvo.

But seriously, game will be fine. The pacing is very different now due to the XP redistribution that smooths out leveling. The new shrines are pretty impactful for both lanes and jungle. Not sure how stacking is going to work with the new jungle. New bounty runes are kinda fucked considering tomes give so much XP now. New Rosh pit location up the river instead of down near Dire. Pretty influential patch, fixes definitely coming in the near future for bugs and such, excited about how things will turn out for the pro scene.

@cujoprime: Cool man just message me whenever I'm online, I'm usually game to play some.

@zomgfruitbunnies: definitely need to balance monkey king, as it stands his jingu strike or whatever is overpowered. The charges last far too long on you, making it impossible to lane against if you're melee. His ult also seems super strong, but force staffing him out seems to be okay I guess... Sure does bring down the framerate though :D

I'm very optimistic about this patch and where the game will go from here. The pace is already better

@pubbles: I played around with MK in a bot match last night, hit 25 and picked 200% damage for Boundless Strike, bought 6 divines and proceeded to one shot the enemy team. Good stuff.

And bots are completely busted at the moment. Literally unplayable. Allowing community bots makes perfect sense now.

Loved getting back into it; been gone almost a full year, this update feels good it has a littlee-sporty vibe especially the new intro, but I love that planing sceen. I am still so bad: I still just play with randoms so I dont feel bad letting people down, but I gotta thank GB for getting me into the game :) monkey kings seems pretty broken seeing lots of people jacking his attack speed way up to really take advantage of the consecutive hit bonus. Gonna have to wait and see what comes next. Thanks again hope to get not awful enough to jump into a few games with some of the community!

I had that same knee-jerk reaction but realized most of it was due to the loss of familiarity which is what gave me comfort when playing the game. When I play the game now, no decisions are automatic; I have to put brain power into thinking about where I can go through the jungle with the new layout, and anything that takes brain processing away from other decision making makes me uncomfortable.

Once I realized this uncomfort was just not being familiar, I realized that I could live with the changes. It's just about learning the new map and mechanics in the meta. It'll all become simple DOTA once again. The pace of the game is changing but it's still DOTA in its core, just a matter of time until us "core," DOTA players go back to feeling like core DOTA players, if that makes sense.

Change is a scary thing. Learn to live with it rather than fearing it, and have fun with it. It's just a video game, in the end.

I agree with most of the people above that this patch is quite insane. Over 2500 hours of dota played here and it's safe to say I'm overwhelmed.

Positives

• Monkey King (just seems really cool)
• Shrines (I like how they can make for some cool plays, help to keep you out on the map and being able to TP to them, but with no vision is cool)
• Jungle camps (I like the addition of new camps and ancient types. The locations seems good. Also like how they don't spawn every minute)
• New pregame (You load in almost instantly, the strategy phase is a huge plus and just that pregame "VS" montage is so freaking cool)

Don't Like -

• New Hud (I mean I believe this was the first thing already changed in the first patch post 7.00 b/c it was so disliked, way too small especially the health/mana bar, poor positioning of some info, not displaying enough info. Good to see they've already fixed some. Personally I still believe they need to make it bigger and how can they not list hero stats still? That seems crazy to me.
• Ward spots? (probably just me, but I'm having a hard time finding good, non obvious ward spots)
• Virtually no hero changes (ok sure talent trees could basically be considered the biggest hero changes ever, but as far as your standard buffs/nerfs there was almost none to speak of. But since we're coming off the famous "perfect balance" patch I guess that makes sense. Doesn't mean I still wouldn't of liked to see more.

Jury still out or just indifferent

• new map (i mean I'll need a few dozen hours before I can wrap my mind around it)
• rune changes (having 2 bounties in each jungle is weird and cool and something I'm not crazy about)
• New Rosh (I like how it's basically completely even now, but this is probably going to take some getting use too, but wow I just feel so vulnerable in the pit now)
• Talent trees (either they could add crazy new layers of depth, replay and versatility or they could make heroes OP and annoying. Can't tell yet)

This is just stuff off the top of my head after only having played 3 games on the new patch. Heck Purge has that epic 9+ hour patch notes video up so yeah... big changes in the dota world.

I feel like Monkey King is actually fine right now. Yes, he does a crazy amount of damage, and extremely strong in the laningphase. But he also is very easy to kill if he is not the one initiating. He has no real escape, is not very tanky and his ult takes way too long to channel to be a worthwhile escape mechanism. That hero is all about hanging in the trees and then jumping in to wreck house. I think it just takes time before people will realize that you absolutely can not walk near him in the lane, because 2 hits + stun + hit = you are dead. Viper, Batrider & Timbersaw are also incredible against him.

I honestly am now undecided on whether hes in a good spot. I do know I'm sick of playing against him, and having him in every game.

I've only played him once or twice, and laned against Timbersaw and crushed him, and then timber was too weak for hte rest of the game to be an issue other than removing trees... which whatever I can live without

As of today's update, "Matchmaking now considers geographical distance when finding players for your team."

Thoughts?

Is this a direct reaction to people bitching about Peruvians? I think it's a good idea. I have no problems with people who speak other languages, but communication is incredibly important in dota. Having people on your team who you understand and can understand you can quite literally be the difference between a win and a loss.

@acrippledgrip: If it gets more even matchups in terms of ping, I don't see how that's a bad thing.

Never fun to be the guy or to have a person on your team who gets bad lag. Makes it hard to coordinate

@acrippledgrip: Fantastic change, without a doubt. Playing USE previously was guaranteed to have a team that didn't communicate or you got a 4stack of people who dont speak english, now the last 4 games I've had everyone has been communicating. I think all around its better.