Dota 2 patch 7.29 brings the Dawnbreaker to bear

Dota 2 patch 7.29, Dawnbreaker, has just launched. And you know what that means? That means it’s time for another of my lengthy and rambling posts about patch notes! Someone has to do it, after all.

If you’ve been paying attention to any of the recent patches, you’ve probably got a fair idea of what’s inside. A new hero (the titular Dawnbreaker), along with item changes and removals, hero buffs and nerfs, and a fair few changes to both the basic mechanics and the map itself.

I’m going to try not to go into too much detail, because as ever, you should really look at the incredibly extensive patch notes for yourself. There are even fancy image sliders on that page so you can see exactly how bits of the map have changed, so it’s well worth a look.

Dawnbreaker

The new hero is probably what most are interested in, though. Valora the Dawnbreaker (or Dawnbreaker to her friends) is a melee strength hero with a bit of a paladin feel to her. She’s a tanky sort and a reasonable carry, and she’s even got a few healing traits. Let’s quickly go over her abilities.

Her Q is Starbreaker. Dawnbreaker swings her hammer around three times while travelling a short distance in a direction, with each swing doing both her attack damage as well as bonus damage. On the final swing she smashes the hammer down, inflicting a stun.

Her W, Celestial Hammer, has her lob her giant hammer at a target point, leaving a flaming trail behind it. After two seconds it’ll return to her, but a second tap of the key will call it back to her, and she’ll dash to meet it in the middle.

Her E, Luminosity, isn’t an active ability at all. This is a passive that charges up as Dawnbreaker smacks things. After three basic attacks, her fourth will be a guaranteed critical hit that heals allies around her for 35% of the damage dealt — although creeps and neutrals provide less healing.

Finally, there’s her ultimate, Solar Guardian. Dawnbreaker can create a pulse near any allied hero anywhere on the map, and it’ll heal allies and damage enemies. After a short channel, Dawnbreaker will fly to the pulse, inflicting damage and stunning any nearby enemies when she lands.

In short: she’s got a fair amount of ways to inflict pain and stun, and she’s got global presence with Solar Guardian. Expect to see her in literally every game you play for the next week.

Patch 7.29 itself

This isn’t actually interactive. This is a screenshot of the official page.

I’m not going to go into too much detail on the rest of Dota 2 patch 7.29’s contents. This is primarily because the copy editors have made it painfully clear as to what’ll happen if I go over 1000 words again.

The changes to the map are fairly big and deserve mention, with adjustments to the areas around every Tier 1 tower, plus a load of changes to ward cliffs, outposts, and neutral camps.

The controversial outposts have actually undergone a change of their own, too. Rather than giving experience every 10 minutes, they give XP per minute instead, which should change a little about how they’re approached and contested. Bounty runes, too, have changed: they’ll no longer spawn in the river, and if you don’t pick them up in time, new bounty runes won’t replace the old ones. They’ll just sit alongside them.

There’s a brand new rune, too. The water rune will appear at both power rune locations at minutes 2 and 4, restoring 100 HP and 60 mana when used. They’ll also fill bottles, which is probably their point.

And the rest

Because it wouldn’t be a Dota 2 post without this picture.

There are loads and loads of other bits and pieces. Like Necronomicon is gone, and Broodmother’s Spawn Spiderlings is now an ultimate, apparently. I really don’t want to touch on every change, though. I do want to mention a quick quality-of-life addition that I like, though: on death, players get a free Town Portal scroll. The scrolls themselves are slightly more expensive to compensate for this, but it means that people can get back to lane faster — though lane-hopping will be a bit more costly.

Oh right, and Hoodwink is in Captain’s Mode now, so we’ll see hopefully see how the pros handle her before long.

Dota 2 patch 7.29, Dawnbreaker, is out now. It’s around a 500 MB download, and it should automatically download from Steam when you next sign in.