In the early hours of December 24, Valve rolled out a minor update for Dota 2, addressing various issues with cosmetic items across several heroes. This patch brings subtle yet important tweaks to ensure a smoother visual experience for players who enjoy customising their favourite characters.
Key Changes in the Update
The update focused on improving the functionality and compatibility of specific cosmetic items, particularly for heroes like Anti-Mage, Tinker, Dawnbreaker, and Phantom Assassin. Here are the highlights of the changes:
- Anti-Mage: Particle effects for the blades of the persona have been fixed, ensuring they now display as intended.
- Bounty Hunter: The weapon from the Verminator set is now selectable as an ability effect, adding more flair to gameplay customisation.
- Tinker: The Immortal headpiece Rollermawster can now also be used as an ability effect, enhancing the hero's visual identity.
- Windranger: Improved compatibility between certain head-slot items and her Arcana, addressing aesthetic inconsistencies.
- Dawnbreaker: The hammer model from her new set has been fixed to display correctly during ability animations, avoiding visual glitches.
- Phantom Assassin: Fixed the mobility animation for the back-hat accessory in the Onikage Disciple set, ensuring it moves naturally during the hero’s motion.
A Focus on Cosmetic Quality
This update aptly fits in with Valve’s gradual plan to improve the aesthetic aspect of Dota 2 for engaging players who own cosmetic items. Consequently, these do not use the term ‘cosmetic sets’ literally but rather understand the need to balance customisation options and their functionality in-game.
From a customisation point of view, these patches add to Valve’s efforts to make Dota 2 look as good as possible, even through the most minor changes to the game. The holiday season comes with a present, as Dota 2 fans received a patch that grants cosmetic changes to heroes, including Anti Mage and Tinker.
As the end of the year approaches, this patch is a good illustration of how things are with Valve—or rather were. One thing that’s great about them is that they never get lazy.