The Dota 2 Crownfall update is finally expected to arrive in the coming days, bringing what many hope will be a massive patch that brings some big changes to the game. Fans are confident that the patch notes will bring some new cosmetics and hopefully the new hero Ringmaster, but other than that there has been little to no information about what to expect.
But that doesn’t mean that Dota players don’t have a long wishlist of what they want to see added. After months without a big update, there is a lot that is starting to feel stale in the world of Dota and we need a big patch to shake things up. Last year the 7.33 patch did a great job at freshening up Dota, and hopefully, Crownfall will do the same in the next few weeks, but these are the big changes it needs to include to do so.
Buff Roshan’s Banner
If you watched any of DreamLeague Season 22 you will probably have heard about Roshan’s Banner and how pointless the item seems to be. The flag, which is dropped by Roshan later in the game, is designed to buff any creeps that pass it and give you a lane-pushing advantage. However, in practice, the buff has proven to have little value, and the pro teams don’t seem to have any real solutions on how to make it worthwhile, sometimes even placing the banner in the enemy base presumably as a taunt rather than for making use of the creep buff.
The obvious solution would be to turn up the numbers to make creeps that pass it stronger, but that runs the risk of becoming too powerful in certain situations and further punishing the team that doesn’t get Rosh. The other option is just to remove it entirely given that the old system of having Rosh drop the Aegis, Cheese and Aghs didn’t really need changing.
Move The Twin Gates And Shrines
The first couple of weeks of patch 7.33 were magical for a position four main like myself. The addition of the twin gates and all the space around them meant I could gank the enemy offlaner to my heart’s content without it costing a thing. Then all the position fives figured out they could follow me through the gate and even things up, which killed the fun a little. Now it feels like the only time I’ll use one of the gates is to get to Rosh should he be on the opposite side of the map to my team’s shrine, which makes them feel very underwhelming.
The idea of having the gates is good, but I feel like they need some kind of change to make them a little more useful. Perhaps moving them to a location where it isn’t so safe lane favored to use them during the laning stage would be a good option, or add more of them to different locations to make moving around the map generally easier.
I’d also like to see the Shrines near the two gates either removed or opened up to be usable by both teams. It feels like one team has a massive advantage at Rosh fights depending on when he respawns and what side of the map he is on.
Make High Ground Less Terrifying
I have no data to back this up, but it feels like in recent patches pushing into the base is harder than ever. So many games have been lost by failed high-ground pushes against a team that can easily stall you out of the base, then one fight goes their way and the comeback mechanics mean they have the advantage. While pushing to finish the game should be one of the harder parts of Dota, it also shouldn’t be a requirement that at least 40 minutes have passed and some of the enemies are already dead.
I don’t think there is a simple fix for this. Some talent have suggested things such as making super or mega creeps only target buildings, not heroes to stop them being kited into the fountain, which could be a fun solution, and another more obvious change is to change the comeback algorithm to give less gold and XP after winning a fight when behind. But neither of these things alone would alleviate the issue of long stalling games that we have been seeing recently, and a complete rework to the base could be a good starting point.
Make Supports Poor Again
Perhaps a controversial take to end things, but I think Dota should go back to how it was 10 years ago where the four and five positions would not be fully six-slotted at 30 minutes and would really have to make impactful decisions on what items to buy. In my mind this would fix two issues, one is that it would make itemization for supports mean more, currently one won fight can buy me an entire Force Staff or Glimmer Cape, so I can just casually pick one of those up while building towards a bigger item and rarely have to think about getting smaller items or going all in on a bigger one.
The other issue it solves is unique to lower-level Dota, but something I’m sure many players will have experienced. Your support deciding they can be a core and building items that don’t really do much other than help them rack up stats. In a game where you are dominating this can work, but for the most part, your position four Natures Prophet deciding they are the carry is going to lose you more games than you win. Reducing the amount of gold available on the map, meaning supports will naturally get less, should fix this problem, because now a position four can farm relatively easily without getting in the way of your cores.
