Dota 2 just got massive overhaul with The Outlanders Update

The Outlanders Update has arrived for Dota 2, with it introducing new heroes and some pretty big changes to the gameplay. As someone who has always enjoyed the gameplay of Dota 2 but found some elements of it highly frustrating, the gameplay update sounds fantastic.

First, let's take a quick peak at the new heroes which were announced during The International tournament back in August. We have Snapfire, a crazy old lady with some mean cookie cooking skills. Abilities:

• Scatterblast - Snapfire unloads with a wide blast from her trusty scattergun that damages and slows enemies. Particularly effective at point-blank range.
• Firesnap Cookie - Snapfire feeds a potent cookie to Mortimer or an ally, causing them to hop a short distance. The hopping unit stuns and damages enemies in the landing zone.
• Lil' Shredder - Snapfire unleashes a volley of fixed-damage attacks with her lizard-mounted battle cannons, gaining rapid fire and bonus attack range while slowing the attack speed of enemies she hits.
• Mortimer Kisses - Snapfire rears up on Mortimer, guiding his aim as he launches burning globs of firespit that damage on impact and linger on the ground to slow enemies and cause more damage over time.

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She honestly sounds like good fun to play as, Mortimer looks awesome. Although if you're after a hero that's a bit darker they also released Void Spirit, eldest of the spirit heroes next to Ember Spirit, Earth Spirit and Storm Spirit. Abilities:

• Aether Remnant - Void Spirit dispatches a remnant aspect of himself to stand sentinel over a small area. The remnant peers in a single direction, waiting to pull in and damage enemies that cross its gaze.
• Dissimilate - Void Spirit temporarily fades into the aether, creating a number of portals through which he can reassemble himself and cause damage to enemies in the area where he reappears.
• Resonant Pulse - Void Spirit wraps himself in a protective shield that absorbs physical damage and emits a single damaging pulse around him. The shield gains increased damage absorption for each enemy hero the pulse hits.
• Astral Step - Void Spirit consumes a charge to rip through reality into the astral plane, damaging all enemies along the rift path and inflicting a void mark that slows and detonates for significant damage.

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Now, moving onto the gameplay changes as they're seriously huge. Each player now has their own personal courier, automatically too as you don't need to buy it. Your courier gains levels as well, just like you do. They get to increase their speed, gain the ability to fly, get a shield and more.

The economy has been tweaked too, with Observer Wards no longer costing gold. Each hero will start with three town portal scrolls, if you apply damage or a debuff to an enemy hero that dies you get area assist gold even if you've left the area or died too. You can get even stronger now as well, as you can level up to 30 and once you do, you can unlock the entire talent tree. Backpack slots have also been increased to 4.

Valve went further though, the map was redesigned putting both team's Ancient on the opposite side of Roshan. Not just that, Dota 2 has replaced the side shops with Neutral Outposts, which you can teleport to and capture giving your team bonus XP for grabbing it (plus more every 5 minutes) and team vision in that area.

Neutrals also now drop unique items, which cannot be sold but you can give them to an ally. There's 62 of these special items you can find, across five tiers.

You can find Dota 2 free on Steam, with the special update page here.