It has been over a week since Dota 2 Patch 7.23 transformed the battleground of the Ancients forever. Changing a lot of game elements, including the map itself, it brought a big breath of fresh air.
Dota 2 was stuck for a long time on its previous version, which has been around for well over 6 months. With the professional meta already figured out, the game was becoming a bit stale and Dota 2 Patch 7.23 did a good job of turning everything upside down. Besides the two new heroes added to the game, here are some of the major changes.
The map
Being partially reworked in Dota 2 Patch 7.23, changes were made to both jungles, neutral creep placement, warding spots, the river, and the runes and most importantly outposts. The latter are a completely new addition to the game, similar to what shrines were a while back. Outposts take the place of the side shop which has been entirely removed and provides unobstructed vision in the nearby part of the forest.
Couriers
A whole lot of couriers came with Dota 2 Patch 7.23. Instead of having just one that’s shared by the entire team, now each player has their own. The way couriers work has been changed as well. Passive gold gain is now tied to it and as heroes grow in level, so do their couriers, increasing health points, move speed and gaining different abilities. Much like a very old version of the original DotA, back when it was still a modified Warcraft III map, when a player hits level 25 their courier can use items. This really expands the realm of possibilities in both pubs and pro matches.
Neutral Items
Perhaps the biggest difference between Dota 2 Patch 7.23 and the old patch is the freshly added neutral items. Those include the return of some old/removed items like Poorman’s Shield/Ring of Aquilla, wild combinations of current items like Blink Dagger and Meteor Hammer or brand new ones. All of those are split into tiers and drop randomly from neutral creeps as the game progresses. The first tier starts after minute 7, while the fifth begins after minute 70. There’s a limit of 3 items per team that are shareable, so it doesn't matter who got the drop.
Dota 2 Patch 7.23: Is it all balanced?
Well judging from the two quick hotfix patches that followed, it wasn’t. Currently, it’s too early to tell, but some people are worried about the element of randomness added to the game thanks to the high number of neutral items. Sometimes they’d be just a sweet bonus to a hero and in other cases, they might be able to turn the tide of an otherwise lost game. In any case, Dota 2 Patch 7.23 gave the game a slight increase in player base, a load of new ideas and a whole new learning experience for even the old experienced players.
What’s your opinion on the matter? Is 7.23 the patch players were waiting for? Did it shake things too much?
