Part 2 of Dota 2’s Battle Pass has been Released

In the wake of the TI 11 finals that took place last sunday, fans have been eagerly awaiting the release of part 2 of this season’s battle pass. This season’s pass is an unprecedented 19 weeks long and includes a number of new features.

Despite recent online criticism of Valve’s dedication to Dota, fans will still be logging in and downloading the 1.25GB update as soon as possible to gain access to the new game mode Diretide as well as receiving the Crystal Maiden persona. If you haven’t downloaded it yet and don’t want spoilers - read no further!

Crystal Maiden persona - a completely different form

CM’s persona was released as the lowest level arcana/persona this year. Players need only reach level 148 in order to receive it, which may be easier said than done for those who purchased a level 0 pass. However, Dota has released a number of purchasable level packs at reduced prices to make it more accessible for those willing to pay extra.

The persona itself sees CM take the form of Blueheart, an “ageless avatar” that appears as a crystalline wolf. The new model comes along with new animations, custom hero assets, new effects for Crystal Nova and Freezing Field and 600+ persona exclusive voice lines. She is also accompanied by a smaller wolf, similar to her arcana.

Diretide - new game mode

Perhaps the most highly anticipated aspect of part 2 is the seasonal game mode, Diretide. Previously, this mode has only been available around Halloween so it’s interesting to see it with a Christmas skin over the top. In this game mode, teams must kill as many greevils as possible and dump the candy they drop in the opposing team's wells in order to drive Roshan over to kill them.

It goes without saying that the reduced cooldowns, high gold earnings and runes makes for some interesting team fights. Even most ults such as Ravage and Black Hole don't have the usual 180 second cooldown. However, the game mode is not particularly well explained in game so many teams are struggling to hit the objectives. This is the first time Directive has been the seasonal game mode in many years, giving veteran players more of an edge over newbies.

Other rewards finally released

One of the particular points of criticism from fans this year is that a lot of Battle Pass rewards have not been immediately available. This includes taunts for Underlord, Primal Beast and Elder as well as the highly anticipated Cave Johnson announcer pack. Luckily, those who have reached those levels before the release can still earn the rewards.

Part two has also seen the release of a second round of cavern crawls. Unfortunately, the skin rewards are lacking somewhat as they are simply alt versions of the already available skins. That means that there are 4 CM skins including adding a persona to a hero who already has an arcana.

The Battle Pass will be available until January 12th 2023 so there is still plenty of time to try out all of the new features!

Image source: Dexerto