Valve reveals plan for when next new Dota 2 heroes will launch

With The International 10 Battle Pass now closed, Valve has plotted out its plans for the next few months.

In a post published to the official Dota 2 blog, the publisher outlined a number of its plans for the game moving forward. This includes an overhaul of Dota Plus, a new direction for the TI10 Battle Pass guild system, and a new approach to updates in Dota 2.

While Valve did reveal that fans could see a new hero within the next month, there was a lot more to it than that. The overhaul of Dota Plus and the retooling of the guild system work hand in hand. Dota Plus has long revolved around the “shard” currency which allows users to acquire shards by playing games and completing challenges, then trade shards in for skins. This has traditionally been stuck behind a paywall, but the system is now available to everyone.

Instead of giving battle pass BP, guilds now award shards to all members on a weekly basis based on the guild’s performance relative to others in the region. Dota Plus subscribers receive double the standard guild payouts. All players can also earn extra shards by simply winning games.

Adding some extra value to Dota Plus are new chat wheel sounds taken from the TI10 Battle Pass, a new seasonal treasure, and new challenges. Dota Plus also maintains its other features, including extra chat wheel sounds and in-depth stats.

Valve planning new Dota 2 heroes in near future

Alongside the granular tweaks to Dota 2’s reward systems were some larger changes to how updates happen on the calendar. 

“Recently we’ve been thinking about trying an overall development approach of spreading out updates during the year, rather than only having most content and updates centered around The International. We are hoping a steady state of content will prove to be more engaging to users than the previous approaches,” the blog post reads.

This is interesting and would likely help to keep Dota 2 feeling fresh, which is a novel concept given how things often wind up feelinf stale in the game for its most dedicated players. The problem is that Dota 2 fans have already heard this a few times over the years, with Valve starting and quickly stopping these larger changes to how the company approaches its patches. From the short-lived biweekly patch model of 2018 to the revised patching system that rolled out changes to the economy and XP system ahead of additional hero and item changes, Valve hasn’t yet been able to commit to real change with Dota 2.

In the long term, Valve is likely to fall into the same habits it has always had with the game. But in the short term, it seems like fans might have a new hero to look forward to sooner than expected. Though Valve struggled to ship basic elements of the TI10 Battle Pass during its run, the company is planning a timely release of a new Dota 2 hero.

Valve wants to launch a new Dota 2 hero in November 2020, followed by another in early 2021.

New heroes have been released very scarcely, with 2019 being the most active year in history with three new heroes launched in Mars, Snapfire, and Void Spirit. Every other year since 2014 has seen just one or two new heroes added.

The best way to attract the attention of lapsed Dota 2 fans would be adding new heroes. Judging from a number of leaks found in Dota 2’s game files, the company has a host of ideas for new heroes that could be added to the game.

There are a slew of other topics discussed in the blog post, so make sure to check it out.