Dota 2 6.73 Patch – Content Analysis

The DotA 2 6.73 patch is by far the biggest update Valve has provided so far and as always there are plenty of goodies hidden away within the updated files. Below you can find my analysis/findings from DotA 2′s most recent patch, enjoy. (PS: Click to enlarge the images)

Front End Changes

With the addition of two new heroes (Silencer and Spirit Breaker) we’ve also received portrait and model updates for a number of the existing heroes (Slardar, Huskar, Drow and Earthshaker) the latter two only receiving minor changes.

Slardar with the full head remake, Huskar with a rework to his face, Drow with a rework to her jaw, and Earthshaker with his positioning, totem and beard.

Slardar received the biggest changes with his head being remodelled and it also appears he has been hitting the gym (the black gloves are a model viewer problem).

As well as the model updates Valve has introduced new animations for when a hero is injured/low health, so far only Nature’s Prophet, Juggernaut and Ursa have been given animations for this.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us0NZr_-vlU

Tide Hunter has a low health animation as well but only for his Ravage:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_lV8vr9rXw

The UI also received a few updates, the practice lobby gets a complete rework so the game preferences can be seen by all the players, the watch games replay tab now hides the winning team and the new minimap is beautiful.

The new minimap update also provided us with a collection of pixel art heroes which are displayed on the minimap when the user holds down alt.

Full collection here: http://dota2.cyborgmatt.com/6.73icons/miniheroes/

Back End Changes

On the back end of things this patch provided us with the strings for Obsidian Destroyer’s and Lycanthrope’s abilities.

    //OBSIDIAN DESTROYER
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_arcane_orb"            "Arcane Orb"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_arcane_orb_Description"      "Adds extra pure damage to Harbinger's attacks, based on his remaining mana pool.  Arcane Orb also does bonus damage to summoned units and illusions.nnArcane Orb is a Unique Attack Modifier, and does not stack with other Unique Attack Modifiers."
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_arcane_orb_mana_pool_damage_pct"  "%MANA POOL TO DAMAGE:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_arcane_orb_illusion_damage"    "ILLUSION DAMAGE:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_astral_imprisonment"        "Astral Imprisonment"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_astral_imprisonment_Description"  "Places a target allied or enemy hero into an astral prison.  The hidden hero is invulnerable and disabled.  When cast on an enemy Hero, Harbinger temporarily steals intelligence from that hero."
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_astral_imprisonment_int_steal"    "INTELLIGENCE STEAL:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_astral_imprisonment_steal_duration""STEAL DURATION:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_astral_imprisonment_prison_duration""PRISON DURATION:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_essence_aura"            "Essence Aura"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_essence_aura_Description"      "Whenever nearby allied Heroes or Harbinger itself casts a spell, it gains a chance to restore 25%% of its mana pool.  Harbinger also passively gains a bonus to its base mana pool."
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_essence_aura_radius"        "RADIUS:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_essence_aura_bonus_mana"      "BASE MANA:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_essence_aura_restore_chance"    "%RESTORE CHANCE:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_sanity_eclipse"          "Sanity's Eclipse"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_sanity_eclipse_Description"    "Deals damage to enemy Heroes in an area of effect based on the difference between Harbinger and the affected Hero's intelligence. If the Hero takes less than the damage threshold, that Hero loses 75%% of its current mana.nnSCEPTER UPGRADABLE: Increases damage multiplier and casting range."
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_sanity_eclipse_radius"        "RADIUS:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_sanity_eclipse_casting_range"    "RANGE:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_sanity_eclipse_damage_multiplier"  "DIFFERENCE DAMAGE MULTIPLIER:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_obsidian_destroyer_sanity_eclipse_damage_threshold"  "DAMAGE THRESHOLD:"
    "npc_dota_hero_obsidian_destroyer_bio"                    ""
    "npc_dota_hero_obsidian_destroyer_hype"                    ""

    // LYCANTHROPE
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_summon_wolves"                  "Summon Wolves"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_summon_wolves_Lore"                ""
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_summon_wolves_Description"            "Summons two wolves to fight for Banehollow.  Level 2-4 wolves have Critical Strike, and level 4 wolves have permanent invisibility."
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_summon_wolves_wolf_duration"          "DURATION:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_summon_wolves_wolf_bat"              "BASE ATTACK TIME:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_summon_wolves_wolf_armor"            "ARMOR:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_summon_wolves_wolf_damage"            "DAMAGE:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_summon_wolves_wolf_hp"              "HP:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_howl"                      "Howl"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_howl_Lore"                    ""
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_howl_Description"                "Grants bonus damage to Lycan and all allied heroes and all units under their control."
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_howl_howl_duration"                "DURATION:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_howl_hero_bonus_damage"              "HERO BONUS DAMAGE:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_howl_unit_bonus_damage"              "MINION BONUS DAMAGE:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_feral_impulse"                  "Feral Impulse"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_feral_impulse_Lore"                ""
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_feral_impulse_Description"            "Increases the damage and attack speed of Banehallow and all units under his control."
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_feral_impulse_radius"              "RADIUS:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_feral_impulse_bonus_attack_speed"        "BONUS ATTACK SPEED:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_feral_impulse_bonus_damage"            "%BONUS DAMAGE:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_shapeshift"                    "Shapeshift"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_shapeshift_Lore"                ""
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_shapeshift_Description"              ""
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_shapeshift_duration"              "DURATION:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_shapeshift_base_attack_time"          "BASE ATTACK TIME:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_shapeshift_crit_chance"              "%CRITICAL CHANCE:"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_ability_lycan_shapeshift_crit_damage"              "%CRITICAL DAMAGE:"
									

An update to the courier provides the ability to check its status.

    // Courier Tooltip    
    "DOTA_Tooltip_courier_status"                          "Courier Status"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_courier_no_couriers"                        "No couriers found"
    "DOTA_Tooltip_courier_status_at_base"                      "At Base"          // idle at the fountain, or working with the stash
    "DOTA_Tooltip_courier_status_idle_in_world"                    "Idle In the Field"      // idle somewhere out in the world
    "DOTA_Tooltip_courier_status_moving"                      "On The Move"        // moving somewhere
    "DOTA_Tooltip_courier_status_returning"                      "Returning to Base"      // move dest is the fountain
    "DOTA_Tooltip_courier_status_delivering"                    "Delivering Items to %s1"  // moving to a hero

    "DOTA_Tooltip_courier_respawn"                          "DeadnRespawn in %s1"
									

More new strings referencing to a “career profile” and an updated lobby list which includes: “Public Matchmaking, Practice Game, Tournament Game and Tutorial” suggesting that a tournament lobby will be added separately from the current private game lobby system we’ve now.

    "dota_profile_overview"                    "Overview"
    "dota_profile_history"                    "Game History"
    "dota_career_profile"                    "CAREER PROFILE"
    "dota_profile_title"                    "DOTA 2 - PERSONA"
    "dota_profile_prefs"                    "Persona Preferences"
    "dota_profile_recent_games"                  "Most-recent Games"
    "dota_profile_commendations"                "Commendations"
    "dota_lobby_type_matchmaking"                "Public Matchmaking"
    "dota_lobby_type_practice"                  "Practice Game"
    "dota_lobby_type_tournament"                "Tournament Game"
    "dota_lobby_type_tutorial"                  "Tutorial"
    "dota_lobby_default_title"                  "PRACTICE LOBBY"
    "dota_featured_hero"                    "Featured Hero:"
									

And finally channeling spells now so a timer:

    "DOTA_Channel_Bar_Default"      "Channeling"
    "DOTA_Channel_Bar_Time"        "Channeling %s1"
									

The unreleased Juggernaut’s Dog courier was updated with new materials:

To keep parity with 6.73 Tiny’s model now has a tree weapon model and animation set that is intended to be used when he buys a Aghanim’s Scepter but has yet to be implemented in the current DotA 2 client.

Looking towards future heroes we’ve new texture work done for the following heroes:

Invoker has had more texture work done with his Forge Spirit ability now having a texture:

Obsidian Destroyer has more texture work done:

And finally Clinkz receives a whole batch of new texture work, I won’t include them all but here are some of the better:

Predictions For The Next Hero

Currently I’m on a streak for guessing what the next hero is, so keeping with tradition I’m going to say that Clinkz will be the next hero to arrive in the DotA 2 world.

In this patch Clinkz now has a total of 25 material files, prior to this he had 4 files, as well as the material files we also have Clinkz’s subtitles for his voice work, all of which is similar to what happened before the release of Death Prophet, Ursa and Bounty Hunter.

• Next Entry: Dota 2 19th Jan Patch – Content Analysis