Dota 2’s next update, most likely coming on Monday, is going to be a big one. Along with the usual mix of changes and fixes, we’re getting three new heroes. A trifecta of heroism. A triumvirate of courage. A tricorne of… no, wait, that’s a hat. Regardless, it’s a massive bloody update, and it’s coming with the rumoured Gyrocopter, Phantom Assassin and Chaos Knight.
Dota patches usually hit in the middle of the week, but as Icefrog states in this post on the dev forums, introducing the heroes right now might do some hinky things to the ongoing International Qualifiers, which is fair enough, really. Introducing three new heroes in the middle of a professional set of matches is going to do some horrible thing to team composition and strategy, even if they are similar to their Dota counterparts.
Gyrocopter is considered to be a bit weak, in general, due to his attacks being highly visible skillshots that are easily avoided, or targettable and thus destroyable, in the case of his Homing Missile. He’s popular though, if only because he’s got rockets and a killer moustache.
Phantom Assassin, on the other hands, is a nightmare for everyone involved, so long as ‘everyone’ is ‘everyone on the other team’. A stealth based hero, she’s a little esoteric, with Blur not quitemaking her invisible, instead leaving her 80% transparent, and giving her a high evasion chance. Her DPS can get insane though, especially with her Ultimate which increases Critical Chance andCritical Multipliers, up to 4x.
And Chaos Knight is a big scary dude in big scary armour on a big scary horse. He’s got stuns, illusions, teleports and damage boosts, which, inevitably, mean he’s only going to be slightly less terrifying than Phantom Lancer, and a lot more annoying. Hopefully there’ll be some cosmic malaise that makes everyone you ever go against no want to pick him.
Even more impressively, it’s looking like Valve is committed to getting out all of those heroes hinted at in the leaked concept art before the International in August. Undying looks like he might be next, although the addition of Disruptor particle effects in the patch does hint at greater things. Meepo and Luna look like they could be up soon, too.
Which all makes it a pretty damn exciting time to be playing Dota 2. The best part of it all is that with three new heroes, it’s likely you won’t have them all autolocked before you have a chance to do the same. Team composition be damned.