Dota 2 is not the only game that changes over time. Many competitive games are constantly updated, and those who play them must adjust to the new changes and the meta they create. But Dota 2 is such a complex game that it requires many hours of learning to fully relearn. Know the Dota 2 guide for returning players 2022.
If you haven’t played this game in several years, you’ll discover that around half a dozen new heroes have been added, and everything feels different. These are the main things to study if you want to understand the current version of Dota 2, played on patch 7.32b.
Neutral Items
The addition of neutral items has been one of the big changes in Dota 2 in the last few years. These items can be found by killing neutral creeps, and there are 5 tiers of them. The longer the game goes, the higher the tier. For each tier, only 5 such items will drop for each team. The players need to share them between themselves.
Each player can have just one neutral item at a time. And he can use any of the available neutral items found by his team. Naturally, the higher the tier of the item, the stronger it will be. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use a tier 3 one when their 4 items are available. It all depends on the hero you’re playing, and the item build you want to use.
Neutral items give you stats and abilities worth around 1000-1500 gold. At the first two tiers and 2000 – 4000 gold at the next three tiers. So you should treat them as being of great importance, especially at tier 1 and their 5, because that’s when the biggest differences occur.
Dota 2 Guide for Returning Players
You can get your first tier 1 item just 7 minutes into the game. The remaining tiers get unlocked at minutes 17, 27, 36:40, and 60.
One of the consequences of neutral items is that rush strategies are now much harder to implement. This has been further amplified by the fact that couriers and observer wards no longer cost gold. Support heroes can afford to buy items instead by the time they’re level 6. They are already hard to kill.
If you look at the win rates of heroes that used to do well as a result of dominating the early game, you will see that they’re all terrible right now. In particular, Broodmother, Nature’s Prophet, Templar Assassin, Batrider, and Pugna are almost useless. Their win rates are below 45%.
Strategy
With enemy heroes being stronger and the enemy team being smarter in general because most Dota 2 players have had a lot of training over the past 3 years, Steam’s most played game in the MOBA category can no longer be won by brute force.
If you want to gain MMR and do well in ranked matches, you need to master tactics, strategy, matchups, and much more. Dota has become a positional and highly strategic game, even in the low MMR brackets. You’d be surprised to learn just how strong the new 2K MMR players are compared to the ones from 5 years ago.
These changes have also occurred because of all the available Dota 2 tutorials that exist online. Players can now study the game the way chess players study chess. And if you’ve had no training, playing casually will most likely feel frustrating. Even a former 4K player may get bested by a 2.5K one if he’s not careful.
Most Dota 2 matches are now decided during the mid-game and late-game instead of just minutes after the game begins. The other team seems to always know what to do and how to utilize the hero abilities it has at its disposal.
Dota 2 2022
Different heroes are strong at different things, but to have good games in Dota 2, you will need to understand the synergies between them. Otherwise, a basic laning tactic may ruin your chances of winning.
Heroes begin with decent items in this patch and skill an active ability that gives them the highest chances of securing the first few creep waves. Valve decided to make the towers stronger and grant allies health regen, and armor. This means that diving in the early game is not as effective as it used to be.
Experienced players will know how to use their defensive advantage to avoid a killing blow. And will also know how to pick Dota heroes that create serious challenges for the opposing team. If your MMR is 4K+, you need to be aware of that and not try to win with silly moves. Expect hard games each time and smart opponents. Because most players seem to have gotten smarter.
New Heroes and Reworked Heroes
Another thing you’ll get to relearn is how heroes work. Much of what you know from 3-5 years ago no longer applies. Many abilities have been reworked, Aghanim’s Scepters have been added for every hero, and even Aghanim’s Shards exist in the game’s newest version. These shards enhance existing abilities in a variety of ways.
A new hero in Dota 2 is Primal Beast. Other recent heroes that have been added to the game are Snapfire, Marci, Void Spirit, Dawnbreaker, Hoodwink, and Mars. All of them can be amazing to play, but you’ll neyou’llpractice them a lot to reach mastery.
