Dota 2 patch releases weather effects, mini-Pudge courier, emoticons

Oh good. Just what I always wanted! Something else to try to turn off as quickly as possible.

With absolutely no fanfare (barring the little green bar that shows Steam is downloading something) Dota 2 has been patched once more.

This time around, the patch includes no real bugfixes or hero changes, instead focusing on both functionality and some stretch goal rewards.

For instance! Newly released are the Pudge mini-courier and its level 50 alternate style, the alternate styles for the Lt. Squawkins courier, chat emoticons, and weather effects – the latter of which is equippable in your global loadout.

The functionality updates are equally pleasant. Spectators now have a “live rewind” function, which is rather timely as we’re coming up on The International 4; this’ll let you pause and rewind live matches whenever you like, so if you need to get a drink/want to watch a fight again, you can easily do so. But! There are also some interface tweaks that’ll help you when you’re playing Dota 2. If an ally can buyback, for instance, they’ll have a gold border around their portrait on the top bar. Equally, if you mouse-over the ultimate diamond on the top bar, you’ll see the ultimate’s cooldown.

I’ve uploaded two screens showing the “Moonbeam” environmental effects below, although it’s a little hard to tell the difference when it’s not moving. When it is moving, everything looks all sparkly and purple. When it isn’t… well, it looks a bit dusty, I suppose. The other environmental effect appears to be Snow, which – at a very quick glance – seems to cap the trees with white, and creates a nice little snowfall effect over the map. I’m assuming that these environmental effects will only play for someone who has them equipped, but I can’t say for sure.

You can read the full eight lines of Dota 2 patch notes over here, or have a look at the brand new Compendium update page created for these goodies over here.