The third day of the New Bloom Festival update for Dota 2 is upon us, which means many, many details for what this patch entails.
Patch 6.83c (if you want to be boring) will bring with it a new hero, a new Arcana, and a ludicrous amount of other stuff. The new hero is Winter Wyvern, who I’ll detail in a mo. The new Arcana is for Crystal Maiden and oh my god this might actually be the first Arcana I buy at full price. There’ll be a bunch of new stuff on the Store, including a music pack and some new sets and treasures, in addition to reworked item drops, gifting, a new look for the map, and a voice pack for Spectre.
So, Winter Wyvern. Four abilities: Arctic Burn grants flying movement and lets her attacks removes a percentage of enemy health, Splinter Blast shatters a block of ice on an opponent that then splinters and hits nearby enemies, Cold Embrace freezes an ally in ice that makes them immune to physical attacks, and Winter’s Curse freezes an enemy in place and forces any enemies around them to attack them. Which could be wonderfully useful for picking off an enemy at the start of a teamfight, let’s face it.
Crystal Maiden’s Arcana makes her float and gives her an adorable little wolf pup pet that follows her around (and can be toggled on and off) as well as custom animations, death effects, etc. It also gives 2400 ability points for the Year Beast Brawl event, and lets your team earn Ability Points for victory in regular matches while the event is on. It costs an obscene amount of money and I want it.
Anyone who purchased last year’s Compendium will get a voice pack for Spectre which actually means she makes sense. Insanity.
The existing item drop system (granting full sets, bundles, and treasures) will have an increased frequency, so you’ll get stuff more regularly, but it’s being joined by a new drop system for single items, which will happen a lot more item. These items aren’t marketable but can be gifted to a friend, once.
Item recycling is back from last year’s New Bloom Event, but works a bit differently. Recycle 10 items and you get a Charm of the Crucible item, letting you predict victory in your matches. Get it right three times and you get a Treasure of the Crucible Jewel which might contain a hero set, or even an Arcana. Get it wrong twice, and you instead get some Charm Fragments you can use for a head-start on your next recycling spree.
Other than that, there are lots of lovely little changes. Buyback Readiness now actually takes into account the amount of gold you’ll lose on death, so you can now genuinely tell if you’re buyback ready. Pausing is no longer allowed in unranked All Pick if your team is connected and hasn’t picked their heroes, which is a wonderful and much-needed change. And, y’know, other stuff.
I don’t know when the New Bloom Festival patch will hit Dota 2, but if I had to guess, I’d say it’ll probably be this week – either Thursday or Friday. Naturally, I’ll let you know as soon as it’s out.
You can read more about it on the official Dota 2 site, here.
