14 DAY TRIAL // Dota 2 got its first major in-game event of the year last week, in the form of the New Bloom Festival of 2015, the second edition of the now traditional event through which Valve marks the Chinese New Year in its hugely successful multiplayer online battle arena title.
A wide array of things have been added to the game in honor of the large event, and considering Valve skipped other past festivities like Diretide or Frostivus, due to its impending large overhaul of the game, many fans were immediately enticed by the new goodies.
Lots of free and premium goodies are elements
Fortunately for them, Valve certainly brought a lot of interesting things to the table, both for free and for money. The free ones included the new Winter Wyvern hero, who finally makes the transition from Dota 1 to the new experience, while simultaneously receiving some lore details via a digital comic. The free comic book also shed more light on Crystal Maiden, a popular support class hero that has received one of the biggest premium elements of New Bloom 2015 - her very own Frost Avalanche Arcana customization set.
Besides new visual elements like in other Arcanas for heroes such as Lina, Shadow Fiend, Terrorblade, or Techies, Crystal Maiden's set also brings forth the first pet companion for Dota 2, in the form of a wolf pup that follows the hero around and disappears when enemies are close, in order to avoid confusion.
All these things certainly justify the Arcana standard price of 30 USD/EUR, which is reduced by 20% until March 2.
Besides this premium element, the New Bloom Festival of 2015 also included the free 6.83c gameplay patch, which provided some much needed nerfs to the power of heroes such as Juggernaut, Axe, Vengeful Spirit, or Lion, not to mention a custom themed map. Mechanics like the reworked drops system, the item recycling one, and more are also available free of charge.
Premium goodies now available in the in-game store include a new music pack, various item sets, and even the reworked Spectre voice pack, which is free if you got the compendium for The International 4 last summer.
Year Beast Brawl, however, is pay-to-win
However, another major aspect of New Bloom 2015 is the Year Beast Brawl game mode. As opposed to 2014's iteration, the new one allows players to have in their team an AI-controlled Year Beast that can ransack the enemy team.
You can upgrade its power by spending ability points. While some can be obtained within the game, for item recycling for example, most of the points are available only by spending cold hard cash. You can outright buy points from the store or receive a couple of thousand by buying the Crystal Maiden Arcana.
As such, by spending a few dollars, you can pay your way to victory in Year Beast Brawl and get item sets as reward. However, these sets can't be sold on the community market, so don't expect to make a profit on them, at least not if you're playing by Valve's rules.
The mode can still be won if you have a good team and follow, for example, our guide. However, if you go up against experienced players who have lots of money and Ability Points to spend, you're going to have a bad time.
While that's certainly not the best thing, if Valve keeps the base Dota 2 experience like it is today, it won't end up affecting the fate of the MOBA.
I, for one, am okay with seasonal pay-to-win events, provided Valve keeps launching free updates, maintains the complete free hero pool, and doesn't go extra greedy with item drops and other such things.
After playing Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm, with just seven free heroes every week and others with exorbitant prices, both in terms of real-money and in-game currency, I'm more than willing to tolerate Year Beast Brawl in Dota 2.