New Dota 2 Update Adds New Hero and Aghanim’s Shards

December 21, 2020 | 0 | 504| |

Valve has finally released the 7.28 Dota 2 gameplay update adding a new hero, features and several changes to existing items and abilities. The Mistwood update brings around sweeping changes to the game’s meta and Dota 2 players can expect a lot of volatility in the meta for the next few weeks.

What’s New in the Mistwood Update?

There’s a lot in the new update including a new hero, new gameplay mechanism in the Aghanim’s Shards and numerous tweaks to hero and item numbers. There are also several new items (including neutral items).

New Hero

Valve has released Hoodwink as the newest hero to join Dota 2. Hoodwink is a ranged agility hero. She is a nuker, disabler and also has an escape ability allowing her to walk through trees and phased collision.

Hoodwink Abilities

Acorn Shot

Hoodwink fires an acorn at her target which can bounce to nearby enemies, slowing them and dealing bonus damage. Can be ground targeted to create a tree, but the added bounce will be lost.

Bushwack

Tosses a net trap that stuns enemy heroes if they are near a tree in the area. Enemies are pulled towards the tree and have their vision reduced to 0 for the duration of that stun.

Scurry

Hoodwink passively has a chance to evade physical items while near trees. When activated, Hoodwink gains bonus movement speed, phased collision, and tree-walking for a brief time.

Sharpshooter

Hoodwink charges up and fires a deadly bolt from her crossbow, dealing heavy damage, slow and Break to an enemy hero. The damage and debuff duration scale up in time with her charge.

Hoodwink’s toolkit allows the hero to be extremely versatile in its playstyle and performance. The hero is a nuke, a disabler and has an escape ability in Scurry. It has been less than a week for the new hero, but players are already trying out new positions and roles. For now, Hoodwink seems to be best played as a support or a position 4 role. With an easy combo and an AOE disable (with an extremely short cooldown), Hoodwink can control team fights or lanes without much investment.

Aghanim’s Shards

One of the biggest additions in the 7.28 gameplay update is the new Aghanim’s Shards. After the wildly popular Aghanim’s Labyrinth event, Valve has now introduced Aghanim’s Shards to the game. Aghanim’s Shard is a new item that costs 1400 gold and provides a permanent custom shard upgrade to the hero. The shard can be purchased after the twenty-minute mark and gets consumed immediately when given to your hero.

Dota 2 players can check their equipped Aghanim’s Shards in the new UI.

Every hero has a different Aghanim shard and Dota 2 players can check the status of their Aghanim Shard via the new UI on the hero dashboard.

Hero Changes

As is the norm with any new Dota 2 patch, there are significant changes in the pick-rates and the win-rates for various heroes. Here’s a quick rundown on how the 7.28 gameplay update has changed the Dota 2 meta.

Biggest Winners

The new Aghanim’s Shards bring out unique playstyles in existing heroes. Screengrab via Dotabuff.com.

As expected, Hoodwink, the new hero is the most popular hero of the current patch. Valve has enabled the hero for normal matchmaking and as such, players are trying the new hero in different roles and positions. Check out EsportzNetwork’s guide on the best tips and tricks for Hoodwink.

Biggest Losers

The most popular heroes of the previous patch have been the biggest losers of the new update. Sven, superman Sven, received some minor nerfs. But amidst the glamour and the excitement of the new hero and the update, the hero has seen significant erosion in playtime and pick-rates.

Sven has lost its popularity after Valve added small changes to the hero’s talents and skill. Screengrab via Dotabuff.com.

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Rohan

The author

Esports journalist. An esports fan, former wannabe pro and occasional angry young man. You can find him trying to climb the Dota 2 MMR or just chilling in Rocket League. Or maybe building an entire city in Cities: Skylines. The current mood is always a surprise.