Patch 7.33: Time for The New Frontier

After eluding players for quite some time, the long-awaited Patch 7.33 has finally arrived. Patch 7.33, also known as the New Frontiers Update, marked the end of Patch 7.32, the lengthiest patch in Dota 2 History. The patch 7.33 update came with a new map, making the original map 40% bigger. The new map also came with new objectives and new mechanics as well. The new map features multiple new Neutral camps. New lanes formed as the trees got removed to make ganks more efficient.

The New Objectives

With the new map comes new objectives and new mechanics to the game. Now both edges of the map are connected through Twin Gates. Players can now use Twin Gates to teleport from one end of the map to another end after 3 seconds of channel duration.

Defender’s Gate

Defender’s Gate is a back door to your team’s base. It allows your team to pass through and keeps the enemy away.

Lotus Pools

Lotus Pools are new mechanics, and players can find this on both the left and right sides of the map near where creeps first meet. The pools spawn a fruit periodically. Consuming the fruit will grant mana and HP. The fruit will become an even larger and higher value fruit if the players choose to store and combine it for the late game.

Roshan’s Fantastic New House

Now, Roshan has two homes instead of one.  It is good to see Roshan doing well, as rents are rising. Roshan is tankier now, but he will never drop an Aghanim’s Shard. On his second death, he will drop Cheese. On this third, he will drop an Aghanim Scepter or Refresher Shard, depending on his home.

Tormentors

The Tormentors are two powerful neutral creeps that spawn after 20 minutes near each base. When killed, they gave Aghanim’s Shard to the lowest net-worth hero on the team.  However, they came with megashields to reflect most of the damage thrown at them, and they grew stronger every time they died.

Runes

Patch 7.33 introduced two new runes. River runes now also spawn Shield Runes. These runes give 50% of the hero’s Max HP as a barrier to encourage more aggressive plays.

However, Wisdom Runes, available on the edge of the map, grant an XP boost to the heroes that took them. The spawn place of Wisdom runes is near each base too.

Watchers

Watchers are wards that are neutral and inactive when the game begins. Once activated, it grants vision over the Watcher’s area to the team that triggers the Watcher for seven minutes. However, to temporarily disable the Watchers, enemies can sabotage the Watchers. Killing Roshan will automatically turn Watchers to the team who killed Roshan's side.

The Outposts

The Outposts also got moved to new locations.

Multiple heroes received rework. Along with the change, many new neutral items came with this update.  Overall disable duration got reduced in this patch.

The Reworked BKB & Neutral Item Drops

Black King Bar, a broken item since the release of Dota 2, received its first nerfs. Black King Bar got reworked. Now when Black King Bar activates, instead of magic immunity, it grants 50% Magic resistance and Debuff Immunity. It also grants immunity from Pure and Reflected Damage.

This rework could change a lot of things. Position 1 hard carry is more likely to get Linken Sphere, Manta Style, Sange and Yasha and Satanic instead of getting BKBs since they’re more efficient in most matches. High-burst magic damage dealers could become the meta.

Along with most heroes, the map and Black King Bar, neutral items also received rework. Now neutral creeps randomly drop neutral item tokens when killed. Instead of dropping neutral items, these tokens will let players choose five arrays of options. However, there is a twist. Even though neutral item tokens can be given to anyone in the team to use, once the neutral item token is redeemed, the redeemed item is not sharable. Neutral item camps can now scale as the game progress.

The meta wants to be oriented around ganks and early-game action with less farming. However, players and teams will always find a way to get ahead of the curve. With DreamLeague Season 19 grand finals around the corner and The Berlin Major on the horizon, it will be interesting to see how the meta will develop in the coming days.