14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Valve working on DOTA 2 is announcing that it is launching a new major patch for the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena title, labeled 6.87, which is designed to introduce a wide range of tweaks to the experience based on the player feedback the studio has gathered over the winter season.
The company explains that it is aiming to deliver the tweaks to the main client in a day or two and that all those interested in testing the update and in offering reaction to it can now log into the test servers.
The changes made to DOTA 2 will be used in the coming Manila Major, with the open qualifiers linked to the tournament taking place from April 29 to May 2 and the regional ones coming from May 3 to May 6.
Valve says that the 6.86 gameplay update has reworked the Ranked All Pick, with a 15-second voting phase to ban heroes before the picking phase, with each player asked to vote for a different hero and then half of those who were voted on randomly selected and banned.
The company adds, "The game displays heroes as they are voted on, but not who voted. The number of bans is equal to half the total number of votes. If there is an odd number of votes, the number of bans is randomly rounded up or down. The random ban selection will choose at most 3 heroes from one specific team's votes, so it's more evenly split."
DOTA 2 introduces a wide range of gameplay modifications
A new scan is offered for each team, allowing it to target an area of the map for eight seconds and get information on the presence of enemy heroes, with a long cooldown and without showing the enemy group where it was used.
Valve is also making changes to terrain, introducing some new items and delivering extensive changes for the featured heroes to better balance the overall experience, with a full list offered to all those who click on the button at the end of this article.
The development team will probably continue to refine the new big gameplay update for DOTA 2 in the coming weeks, offering smaller patches that are based on the data it gathers from matches and the reactions of the player base.
The Valve MOBA is adding more content and improving balance as it seeks to capture more of the market which it mainly shares with League of Legends from Riot Games and Heroes of the Storm from Blizzard.