After an extremely lengthy period of no content or sizable balance changes, Valve has now finally revealed Dota 2's upcoming Dueling Fates update. It brings with it two brand new heroes to mess around with, an absolute ton of balance changes to items, heroes and talents, a variety of new items and the removal of Iron Talon and Poor Man's Shield, a couple of hero reworks, mechanics changes, and the list goes on for quite a while.
I would love to go into more details and give you a brief summary of what exactly is being changed, but I'm afraid that's simply not possible. The patch notes are so long it took me around 30 minutes to actually read and internalize all of it, so to even attempt to summarize such a thing is a foolhardy venture. So if you're looking to go in-depth and learn everything there is to know about the Dueling Fates update, make sure to visit the official website as Valve has gone all-out on the patch notes.
The one very important thing I will comment on, however, is the new matchmaking system. Instead of the current system where your points never reset and you never need to recalibrate, the new matchmaking will operate through six-month seasons with qualifiers for each one. This should go a long way towards making a player's MMR more accurate, and hopefully also make some of the middling ranks a lot less chaotic.
Each ranked tier will also have its own little medal
If you're not a fan of the super-serious mode, worry not as this update is bringing with it some fun stuff as well. First and foremost, Valve is adding a brand new Dota Turbo game mode. It has the same rules as All Pick, but the matches are going to be a lot shorter and more action packed due to increased gold & exp gains, weaker defensive towers, reduced respawn times, and the ability to buy items anywhere on the map. Secondly, Ability Draft is being updated with a new interface that allows players to swap keybinds on the fly, the ability to better communicate with teammates during the draft phase, 15 new and previously-unusable heroes, as well as fixes to some of the broken combinations of old.
Long story short, Dota 2's Dueling Fates update will be bringing a little bit of something for everyone. The balance is probably going to go straight into the trash can for the next month given all of the changes, but it should still be a lot of fun to try out new strategies, heroes, and even modes! You can expect to see the Dueling Fates update this November 1st.
