The Spring 2022 Cleansing Update has arrived, fixing a slew of bugs while also completing a host of life-enhancing optimizations. Hurry up and check out some of the bigger changes—such as improvements to Aghanim’s description, improved blocking, shop search, and revamped hero demos—and then dig into the long list below, under detailed categories Bug fixes and gameplay tweaks.
Aghanim’s Scepter and Magic Crystal Description
The inner connection of Aghanim’s mind (and monologue) is undoubtedly beyond mortal comprehension, but the impact of his magical wand and magic crystal on the battlefield has become much more evident in today’s update.
The descriptions for Aghanim’s upgrade effects now contain more details, including the exact values changed when equipped, and modified abilities will also include this information in a dedicated section. Many upgrade effects have also been specially rewritten to make it easier for us non-magic minds to understand.
Shield function optimization
Dota players are very belligerent, and can sometimes be dominated by the wrong emotions in the heat of battle. In the event of abusive behavior, it’s important to block and report players through a quick and easy way to keep them under scrutiny without disrupting their own game. To achieve this effect, blocking voice, blocking text and reporting players can now be done with one click. For situations where the player’s behavior is not very intrusive but still doesn’t want to communicate with them, you can also right-click to block text and voice individually.
There are also convenient advanced controls, using the new “block team” button to block team communication with one click. We also take this opportunity to re-evaluate the way we handle communication reports. Our goal is to block players quickly and easily in abusive situations, while also being able to clearly understand which types of players we should take more severe measures against.
Store search updated
Spending money should be easy, happy, and most importantly, efficient. So to help you feel more unhindered on your shopping spree, the item’s store search function has been expanded to optimize support for keywords – including an emphasis on attribute search display. Just search for “armor”, “strength”, “distance”, etc. to highlight the attributes you are interested in. Picking the perfect item for the perfect plan has never been easier. All you need these days is to play money.
Hero trial optimization
Want to try the latest tactics or create your own? Or maybe just eager to know how many Axe Kings a Tidebringer’s blade can send? Anyway, you’re in luck! The Hero Demo has been updated and reworked to include a number of new features:
- The northern area of the demo map has been expanded and now offers more flat areas for testing.
- Added control buttons for easier spawning of friendly and enemy heroes.
- Added control button that resets the hero back to level 1.
- Added control buttons to remove heroes after testing is complete.
- The buttons to level up, add a scepter, add magic crystal, and toggle invulnerability now apply to all currently selected heroes.
- All existing minions will be destroyed after turning off troops.
- Added a button that allows each side to spawn a wave of minions.
- An added button that spawns 6 main runes.
Item description has been expanded
Can’t remember how much magic intelligence provides? Or how much armor does it get from its own agility? Don’t think about it anymore, now just hold down the Alt key while reading the item’s description, and these properties will be extended to the components.
Skill damage color
Knowing the challenges in front of you in battle enables you to make informed choices. To help analyze potential hazards, damage from skills and instructions now has a different color based on physical, magical, or pure.
Improved language support for singular and plural entries
In order to optimize the applicability of the game around the world, we have added new features to better support singular and plural rules in multiple languages and updated more than 400 texts for this purpose.
Permanent effect
If you don’t know what your actions will achieve, you will be overwhelmed when developing tactics. In order to let everyone know more information after the game, the kill status of the post-match interface will now also display the Plague Mage’s Reaper Scythe and the Axe’s Elimination Blade.
Post-match details can be categorized
Want to delve deeper into the details behind your own victory? The post-game scoreboard can now be organized for easier analysis.
Gameplay
- Walking Boots are less likely to target minions when cast in range of turrets.
- Players can sell items for their full price for the first 30 seconds after the match starts, instead of the normal 10-second sell time.
- Lifestealer’s Devour now uses the same shortcut, regardless of the type of unit being infected.
- Ogre Fist now has charge and stun sound effects.
- All neutral mobs now have auras that show their area of effect when hovering over them.
- Now the item descriptions of Wraith Band / Ethereal Pendant / Bracers will update their stat bonuses accordingly after 25 minutes.
- Fixed several cases where the displayed healing value did not count towards the healing boost.
- Players with Fountain Invincibility will not automatically attack when there are enemies within the range, resulting in losing this status.
- The range display for Blink Dagger and the upgraded version now calculates the cast range boost.
- Oblivion’s passive effect “Soul Steal” has a clearer description. As long as an enemy hero dies while under the effect of Destruction, Desolation gains attack.
- Fixed a bug that caused items to disappear when the courier returned items to the stash upon death in an all-hero random deathmatch.
- Neutral items can no longer be locked and crafted. This will fix a bug where couriers would not deliver locked crafted neutral items.
- Fixed a bug where the phantom cloned state had the wrong duration, allowing the real body to be recognized.
- Fixed a bug where gold from some sources would not increment correctly in Boost and Novice modes.
- Fixed a bug where some in-game descriptions that could be modified by talents would display 0 instead of the correct value.
- Fixed an issue where couriers would not work when players were disconnected during the hero selection or decision phase in Boost Mode.
- Eul’s Holy Staff now properly applies the effect when cast on spell immune clones, rather than just going on cooldown.
- Kobold’s Prediction Aura no longer applies to hero-like units (like Druid’s Spirit Bear), fixed a bug that provided double the effect.
- Clones and Storm Duo now correctly inherit the stat bonus from Aghanim’s Blessing from Alchemists.
- Chen’s Hand of God now correctly applies ongoing healing to creatures Chen controls, rather than just initial healing.
- Arc Warden’s Storm Duo ranged attack penalty now also takes into account Arc Warden’s resurrection.
- The Blink Dagger on Arc Warden’s Storm Duo is no longer on cooldown when summoned.
- Added a note explaining that Clone and Storm Duo do not inherit the heavy hit from Skullbreaker or Abyssal Blade.
- Arc Warden’s Storm Duo can no longer earn shared wards.
- The Phantom Assassin will no longer trigger the Phantom Invisibility refresh after killing the Stormtroopers with Aghanim’s Scepter equipped.
- Naga Siren’s Riptide talent now requires -1 attacks to be reduced by 1 instead of 2.
- The duel attack damage bonus for Legion Commanders is now also awarded when the winner is invulnerable.
- Tusk’s Walrus Kick now has the correct 12 second cooldown.
- Terrorblade’s Enchantment now has the correct 35/40/45/50 second cooldown.
- Monkey King’s Jungle Dance can no longer escape the Blood Arena.
- Naga Siren’s Riptide effect in Ability Draft now applies to the correct hero instead of Naga Siren.
- Now casting a smokescreen during Riki’s lore trick will not end the channeling even if “Only H/S key interrupts channeling” is enabled.
- Fixed the interaction of Marcy’s over-the-shoulder slam with the Black Emperor Staff and the Lotus Orb.
- The Sniper’s Concussion Grenade now adds a disarm icon above the head.
- Morphling no longer permanently retains the Soullink passive effect after transforming into a Druid.
- Underlord’s Demon Gate adds a missing channeling icon
- Added a missing description to the Ice and Fire Bomb debuff for Ancient Ice Shaman.
- Aghanim’s Cursed Crown particle effect now has the correct countdown.
- Using the Hand of Midas on a Druid Spirit Bear now grants control hero experience.
- The Bear and Storm duo will now have the power of the wand, wand, and holy pendant.
- Void Spirit’s Path of the Void tooltip now displays the correct buffed value while holding the Alt key.
- Zeus’ Divine Leap now displays distance when the mouse is over.
- Corrected Arcane Aura description for the Crystal Maiden.
- Fixed Shadow Shaman’s Hex description, the skill description would incorrectly increase the duration by 1 second after selecting “Hex Destruction”.
- Fixed an issue where Abaddon’s level 20 talent would not update the cooldown of Reflection of Light in the skill description.
- Fixed Shadow Fiend’s Descent to now correctly apply to neutral mobs.
- Fixed Tinker’s Warp Flare taking effect on Roshan.
- Fixed a bug that the Monkey Monkey clones had incorrect skills in Skill Recruitment.
Rubick
- Fixed a bug where Rubick’s illusions based on stolen abilities (such as Bane’s Claws when equipped with Aghanim’s Scepter) did not move correctly.
- Shadow Hunter, the Aghanim Crystal upgrade, can now be stolen.
- It is now possible to steal the Aghanim’s Scepter upgraded tie.
- Dragon Rider’s Dragonfire Fireball can now be stolen separately, instead of being automatically obtained by stealing Elder Dragon Form.
- Stealed Wolf Bite now works correctly.
- Stealed Depth Shield now works correctly.
- Removed the separate movement skill after stealing the Astral Soul. Rubick will now keep two skill slots after stealing this skill.
- Anti-Timewalking will now switch to the same slot in Timewalking when Rubick has the Aghanim Crystal. Rubick will now keep two skill slots after stealing this skill.
- Swift Wings now swaps to the same skill slot in Illusion Orb. Rubick will now keep two skill slots after stealing this skill.
- Now when Rubick has the Aghanim Crystal, the pour will switch to the same slot as Dismembered. Rubick will now keep two skill slots after stealing this skill.
- Dismember now pours out allied heroes when replaced by other abilities.
- Spit now swaps to the same skill slot in Bloody Mouth. Rubick will now keep two skill slots after stealing this skill.
- Stealing Enemy Thaumaturgy no longer grants Wild Strike at the same time. Wild Assault will still be applied after Enemies Thaumaturgy is cast.
- Having Aghanim’s Scepter now works correctly after stealing Io’s Ghost.
- The Mausoleumguard’s Cloak upgraded with Aghanim’s Crystal can now be stolen.
- Cursed Crown will now also generate thorns if Rubick has the Aghanim Crystal.
- Miasma now also spawns Plague Wards if Rubick has the Aghanim Crystal.
- If Rubick has the Aghanim Crystal, it will now sprout a Treant.
- Shackles now also spawn Serpent Guards if Rubick has the Aghanim Crystal.
- Chilling Embrace will now also release Shattering Blast if Rubick has the Aghanim Crystal.
- Shaking the Earth now also applies Enrage if Rubick has the Aghanim Crystal.
- If Rubick has Aghanim’s Scepter, he now also spawns Ghostblade with Shadow.
- Terror now also applies enchantment if Rubick has Aghanim’s Scepter.
- If Rubick has the Aghanim Crystal, homing missiles will now also generate rocket barrages.
- Murloc Smash now also applies Corrosive Haze if Rubick has the Aghanim Crystal.
- If Rubick has Aghanim’s Scepter, Flak now also has the Side Gun passive.
- Timewalking now also applies a time lock if Rubick has Aghanim’s Scepter.
- Throwing darts now also applies ninjutsu if Rubick has Aghanim’s Scepter.
- Arrow of Luna now also applies Starstorm if Rubick has Aghanim’s Scepter.
User Interface
- Fast cast targeting a vector has been modified so that the vector is now drawn when the key is pressed, and the cast is completed when the key is released. This is the same as the quick cast behavior of releasing the key.
- Combat events for destroying Scout Guards now show the actual recipient of the money.
- The spectator screen now correctly shows which player is spectating.
- The descriptions for Aghanim’s Scepter and Magic Crystal now appear on the post-match scoreboard.
- Backpacks and neutral items are now displayed in post-match hero details.
- Ability lifesteal values for heroes and non-heroes are now displayed separately while holding the Alt key.
- The Skull Warrior’s rallying aura is now displayed as a counted status, instead of multiple individual status icons.
- Fixed an issue where consecutively exchanging neutral items and teleporting one would cause the teleportation item to be incorrect.
- The Arcana interface is no longer displayed when watching a league.
- You can now press enter to accept a match-ready check.
- Items in the Quick Buy menu now show the crafted item after holding down the Alt key.
- Ctrl+Alt-clicking the following items will tell your party that they are ready, rather than assembling: Arcane Boots, Crimson Armor, Guardian Greaves, Mekensium, Pipe of Insight, and Mist of Deception.
- The number of Sentinel Ward inventories displayed during the decision phase has been increased from 2 to 3. Up to 3 Sentinel Guards can be purchased at the start of the match.
- Now when a hero is selected, the Suggested Items section of the walkthrough will show the first section of the walkthrough when there is no “Starting Items” section in the walkthrough.
- The placed player is now displayed for friendly players, spectators, and friendly coaches when a ward is selected.
- The courier’s return to base button now also returns any items on him to the stash upon reaching the base.
- Now the battle log can be called out by binding the shortcut key in the settings.
- The battle log is now displayed to the right and no longer overlaps the control panel for hero playthroughs.
- Now the battle log will take into account the interface flip (the minimap is displayed on the right), and it will be moved to the left when this setting is checked.
- Fixed build/comment comments of walkthroughs replacing ellipses with “‘” and other HTML symbols when saving. Guides with this issue still need to be updated manually.
- Adjusted hero display for matchups on 21:9 or wider monitors.
- Fixed a bug where having 2+ amulets would cause the text display of the amulet interface to overlap.
- Fixed an issue where minions would not spawn when clicking to start before the hero spawned in the slash training.
- Introductory clips (such as Heroes and Arcana/Mind-Mind Debut) are no longer displayed for players who have not completed the starter process.
Accessories
- Fixed a bug where illusions would not correctly inherit some cosmetic models.
- Fixed an issue where the cloth of several models would incorrectly stretch offscreen.
- Underlord’s immortal “Jasper Conquest” now has a custom skill effect for his ultimate.
- Shadow Demon’s Immortal “Grimface Cloak” now has the correct origin for the Shadow Toxic projectile effect.
- Wraith King’s immortal “Blazing Shadow” has a higher priority than Arcana when casting Wraithfire critical strikes
- Earthshaker’s Immortal “Blade of Light” surround effects have been fixed.
- The Shadow Word (friend and foe) skill effect of Warlock’s Immortal “Inscription of Shadows” has been fixed.
- The area effects of the immortal “Dragon’s Assault” of the Underworld Yalong have been fixed.
- Abaddon’s “Blade of the Demonborn” Ambush Shield effect has been fixed.
- The Tidehunter’s “Behemoth Belt” has removed the particle effect that was supposed to be on the arm.
- The body effects on Mask of the Void’s “Invasion of Extra-Dimensional Vision” weapon have been fixed.
- Drow Ranger Arcana’s marksmanship aura now has two styles of custom effects.
- Rubick’s “Puppet Dilemma Torch” ambient effects have been fixed.
- The Engineer’s Treasure’s Wounded Run animation now plays at the correct speed.
- Engineer’s Arcana Gem adds color support for Sticky Bombs and Reactive Shocks.
- Missing arsenal icons have been added to the Engineer sets “Sled’s Nest”, “Magic Sappers”, “Scars and Cannons”, and “The March of the Tank Patrol”.
- Fixed the motion of the engineer’s suit “Spiritual Nitrogen” Spoon in the teleport preview.
- Rubick Arcana now has a custom effect for the Engineer’s Sticky Bomb, which was previously a Remote Control Bomb.
- Fixed Dazed’s struggle animation so that she doesn’t get stuck in the wrong sequence of moves.
- Legion Commander’s “Hui Feather Conqueror” bundle and its items are now tradable and tradable.
- The Legion Commander’s “Legacy of the Fallen Legion” and “Hui Feather Conqueror” battle flags have added a wind blowing effect, regardless of whether the Arcana weapon is equipped.
Performance
- The Panorama UI engine has been updated to interact with the GPU more efficiently using atlases. In our review, this increased the necessary GPU performance to serve the interface by 25-30%, especially in some particularly complex home interface pages. This change will also improve Vulkan’s CPU performance and should be especially effective on M1-powered Macs as well.
- “Sandstorm” particle effects have been optimized to improve performance.
- The Panorama UI engine has been updated to avoid some unnecessary render target gaps to avoid GPU work.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes reduced threads used in situations where multithreading was originally going to be used. This fix is especially helpful for configurations below 4 cores.
- Fixed a bug where incorrectly set thread affinity could cause pauses in some configurations.
- Added a warning to the video settings that running the computer in a power-saving mode can cause slower performance.
- The performance of description descriptions when browsing in the item store has been optimized.
Dota PLUS
- Daze’s Relic “Fel Affects Four Times” has been replaced with “Fel Damage and Healing”.
- Engineer Artifact “Remote Bomb Kills” has been replaced with “Sticky Bomb Attached Heroes”.
- The Engineer’s Relic “Static Trap Coils” has been replaced with “Active Shock Disarm Multiplayer”.
- Tinker Relic “March of Machines Damage Amount” has been replaced with “Defense Matrix Absorb Damage”.
- Underlord relic “Kills After Dark Portal” has been replaced with “Kills After Allies Use Demon Gate”.
- Underlord’s relic “Dark Gate Savers” has been replaced with “Apocalypse Aura bonus damage deals damage”.
- The Almighty Knight relic “Allied damage during Heaven’s Gift” has been fixed.
- The Beast Artifact “Multiple Heroes in Assault” has been fixed.
- Meepo’s Hero Challenge “Dealing Magic Damage to Heroes” has been replaced with “Dealing Pure Damage to Heroes”.
- Naga Siren’s Hero Challenge “Song of the Kraken Heals Heroes” has been replaced with “Mana Break Damage to Heroes”.
- Tinker’s Heroic Challenge “Damage from March of Machines” has been replaced with “Damage Absorbed by Defense Matrix”.
- Engineer’s Hero Challenge “Remote Bomb Kills” has been replaced with “Sticky Bomb Attached Heroes”.
- Underlord’s Hero Challenge “Dark Portal Teleports Multiple Heroes” has been replaced with “Allied Kill with Demon Gate”.
- The Heroic Challenge “Dealing Soulbound Enemies” has been updated to include damage from allies.
- Updated Mirana’s Hero Challenge “Damage After Leap”: now includes all damage types, previously only physical.
- Fixed “Blink Dagger/Force Staff and Claw Combos” for Bane’s Hero Challenge.
- Fixed Dragon Knight’s Hero Challenge “Number of Kills During Ancient Dragon Form”.
- Fixed Drow Ranger’s hero challenge “Wind silences 2 or more enemies”.
- Fixed Crystal Maiden’s hero challenge “Frozen Prohibition Killing Minion”.
- Fixed Dark Seer’s Heroic Challenge “Dealing damage during rush”.
- Fixed Lifestealer’s hero challenge “dealing damage during rage”.
- Fixed Druid’s Hero Challenge “Dealing damage during True Bear Form”.
- Fixed Mars’ hero challenge “dealing damage to enemy heroes”.
- Fixed Mars’ hero challenge “Splinter kill enemy units”.
- Fixed Almighty Knight’s hero challenge “Dealing damage during Heaven’s Gift”.
- Fixed Almighty Knight’s hero challenge “Blessings of the Kingdom to Allies Duration”.
- Fixed Rubick’s hero challenge “telephone stuns multiplayer”.
- Fixed Tinker’s hero challenge “Aghanim’s Scepter upgraded laser deals damage to heroes”.
- Fixed the “God Fist Flying Kick Combo Times” for Tooth Seamen’s hero challenge.
- The Venom Warlock hero challenge “Dealing damage to heroes under the effect of Silver Edge” has been removed.
- Tinker’s Hero Challenge “March of Machines Killing Minions” has been removed.
- Added Underlord’s hero challenge “Firestorm deals damage to heroes”.
Custom game
- The veranda overview page can now be filtered by the number of currently active players in addition to the number of public rooms.
- Fixed an issue where custom games in the Arcade would sometimes not show up as needing an update until the game was reinstalled or Steam was restarted.
- The room list in the veranda no longer shows rooms that do not match the currently installed version of the custom game, or rooms that cannot be joined.
- SetFilterMoreGold now filters out gold earned from bounty runes.
Creative workshop
The Dota Workshop tools for items and custom games have been updated and now use the new “ModelDoc” model editor. Workshop authors should migrate models from the old tool, which will be removed in a future update.