Whewwwww, but this is a big Dota 2 patch. The Three Spirits update gives us Ember Spirit, Earth Spirit, Diretide, and a load of new systems.
I’m not going to go into Ember Spirit or Earth Spirit in any great detail right now (but I may well do later on, once I’ve had a chance to play with them) but let’s talk about the systems. Firstly: in-game coaching, which seems to be the promised mentor system. You can do one-on-one training sessions, watch a game through their screen, draw on the ground and minimap, ping UI elements, and you’ve got your own private communication channel. You can coach how you want, too; you can coach an entire team of people at once, or work with someone else and have both of you coach a single person. Up to you.
There’s a crafting system which lets you transform items into other items of the same rarity, or combine duplicate items into a single, more rare item. Recipes for this can be found while playing or by opening Scroll Cases, which might also give you the means to get even more exceptional items.
There’s a socketing system, which lets you customise items. You can add unique animations, or change colours, or add glows, or show off stats.
There’s a shitload of new functionality, like a Lanepicker on the hero selection screen, the ability to trade with people who aren’t your friends, some last-hit training missions, a colour-blind option, various audio and visual updates and fixes… and the low-priority queue now lasts for a certain number of games, rather than a certain number of hours, so you can’t just use a smurf account to wait out your punishment.
Also, Volvo gave Diretide.
I may or may not give a more in-depth report on this patch later, time depending. Either way: woo. You can have a look at exactly how right (and wrong) I was on my predictions for this patch over here, and have a gander at the update’s official page here.
My Dota 2 test client has updated, but not the official one, so I… don’t know whether this is actually out yet. As Diretide is due to run from today to 28 November, though, I’m guessing it’ll hit later on today.
