Three weeks ago I told myself I wasn’t going to play Dota 2 again until a new patch comes out. After the exciting launch of what might be the biggest patch of all time, games had started to become stale. At the admittedly average level I play at, a lot of games are all but over by the 20-minute mark, if you lose the lanes, it’s incredibly hard to win. This means fewer matches than ever will result in epic comebacks and close battles where Dota really shines and gives you the incredible sense of achievement that few other games can match.
Since then, I’ve played 37 games of Dota chasing that feeling. I can think of one that delivered it.
Dota 2Publisher: ValveDeveloper: ValvePlatform: PC (SteamLaunched: 2013Monetisation: Free-to-play with cosmetic and esports-related microtransactions.
This is the curse of the Dota player. The good times in Dota are so good, that it takes a lot to make you stop playing. Hours of miserable, soul-crushing games are easily forgotten when you win an hour-long war where you know your actions played a big part in that. It sounds problematic, and now that I’ve written it down I’m questioning the thousands of hours I’ve played, but I can still tell you about some epic games I played 10 years ago, and I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything (other than a literal boat load of cash). It’s just annoying that seemingly fewer games than ever are memorable.
Back in April Valve released patch 7.33, which is easily one of the two biggest patches in Dota 2’s history. The Dota 2 map, which had retained its core shape for years, was suddenly 40 percent larger, with new areas added around the edge of each side lane. There were a ton of new objectives, both big and small, including portals that will take you from the top lane to the bottom lane for free in a matter of seconds with no cooldown. The usual major patch changes of hero reworks, new items and a few core system tweaks were also present. It was seen as an update that would keep Dota fresh and exciting for years to come.