Dota 2 is being renovated: Patch 7.23 turns the game upside down

New patch, new game, actually well-known wisdom for Dota 2 fans. Patch 7.23 brings so much new madness into the game that some fans speak of “Dota 3“.

Over 60 new items, a reworked map, two new heroes, a new maximum level and countless smaller changes to existing heroes and items make for a completely new game.

Two new heroes are just the tip of the iceberg

In many patches, the new heroes are the highlight and the centre of attention, at 7.23 both Void Spirit and Snapfire play a minor role. They are simply overshadowed by the huge changes elsewhere. Here’s just an excerpt of the significant changes:

–New maximum level 30: At level 30, the heroes learn all their talents and no longer have to make any selections.
–Jungle Item Drops: The neutral creeps can now drop random items in addition to gold and experience. These will change as the game progresses.
–Personal Courier: Each player now has their own Courier who levels up with the hero. This will gradually unlock new abilities for the Courier.
–Revised map: The map has been massively reworked, among other things there are now capturable outposts instead of the previous side shops. Not only do these give experience points at regular intervals, but they also provide a view of their surroundings and another place to teleport to.

The complete patch notes can be found on the official Dota 2 blog – Patch Notes 7.23

Chaos on a broad front

The changes were so massive that many professionals, as well as the rest of the community, had to sit down first. But they didn’t have much time to process the changes. With the open qualifying round for the upcoming major in Leipzig, the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) started again shortly after the patch. This is the tournament series that leads to the World Championship The International.

Since many of the top teams paused the last Chengdu Major, favourites like Team Secret or the German Kuro Salehi “Kuroky” Takhasomis with his new team Nigma had to go through the open qualification rounds. This is not such an easy task as a look at China shows.

For the third-placed of the last world championship, PSG.LGD, the second major of the season ended before he even started. With a completely surprising defeat against ForTheDream.Apollo in the Best-of-One, the superstars around Xu “fy” lenses are now watching.

Both Secret and Nigma are still in the race for the two places in the next round in the Western Europe region, but in the chaos of the new patch, they must also act cautiously.

First adjustments with 7.23a

Developer Valve has, of course, not only idly watched the spectacle around the complete changes. Within one day there were already adjustments to the Itemdrops, some heroes and items with version 7.23a. The item “Tome of Aghanim”, which was much too strong, was already removed and lasted less than three days. It will take some time until the biggest balance problems and bugs are solved, but until then we all enjoy a little “Dota 3”.