Hidden mechanics in Dota 2
There are some things in Dota 2 that you can know by playing the tutorials. Others, by reading all the patch notes in detail.
Then, there are some secrets of Dota 2 that you can know only if you’ve played the game long enough. These things may not be written in the in-game glossary, explained in YouTube guides, or even be easily noticeable.
Here are a few secret mechanics of Dota 2:
Passive gold increases as the game progresses
You probably already know that you get a certain amount of passive gold every minute. What you may not know is that this passive gold amount increases as the game goes on.
Passive gold starts off at 100 gold per minute, then increases by a small amount at certain time intervals, as shown below:
0-minute mark: 100 gold per minute
5-minute mark: 106 gold per minute
22-minute mark: 112 gold per minute
40-minute mark: 120 gold per minute
62-minute mark: 128 gold per minute
This change was made after the Bounty Rune count was reduced from 4 to 2 for all subsequent spawns after the initial 0-minute spawn in patch 7.29.
All melee heroes have innate damage block
Damage block is a mechanic that reduces incoming damage, usually by a flat amount. This could be physical damage, magical damage, spell damage, or universal damage.
What may not be known by all is that all melee heroes have a fixed, innate, physical damage block of 16 with a 50% proc chance.
This change was made in patch 7.23 after the items Poor Man’s Shield and Stout Shield were removed from the Item Shop. Poor Man’s Shield stayed around for a while as a neutral item before being removed completely in patch 7.28.
You can tell when an enemy places a ward out of vision
Have trouble figuring out where the enemy supports are placing their wards? Worry not! Here’s a simple trick…
If you click on an enemy support and see that they have Observer/Sentry Wards in their inventory, keep an eye on it. Don’t click away or select any other unit, so that their inventory stays visible to you.
Even after the enemy hero goes into the Fog of War and out of your vision, their inventory will still update in real-time.
You can use this to guess where they might have placed an Observer Ward.
Keep in mind, if the hero has both Observer and Sentry Wards stacked in the same slot, it will update to an empty slot when either is placed. So you’ll have to do a bit of guesswork to figure out which one they actually placed.
You can choose which items the courier delivers to you
Have too many items on your courier and not enough slots in your inventory? Simply lock combining on items you don’t want the courier to deliver to you!
This can be useful if, for example, you have an extra Gem of True Sight that you don’t want to use at the moment. Or, if you have some components of a bigger item but wish to send the courier to the Secret Shop to complete it before delivering it to your inventory.
Luna’s Moon Glaives bounce on enemy-controlled Outposts
Here’s a mechanic that only works with the hero Luna. Did you know that her passive Moon Glaives can allow her attacks to bounce off of Outposts?
Strangely, this only works if the Outpost is controlled by enemies, and only after an enemy tier 2 tower has been destroyed, making it capturable by either team.
This may not be useful in most situations, but should you find yourself in a 1v1 next to an enemy Outpost, remember, you have a slight advantage!
Combining Healing Lotuses and Cheese creates a secret item
Patch 7.33, or The New Frontiers Update, introduced a larger map with several new objectives and buildings to the game. One of them was the Lotus Pool, which periodically drops Healing Lotuses.
Combining three Healing Lotuses creates a Great Healing Lotus.
Combining two Great Healing Lotuses creates a Greater Healing Lotus.
But what’s beyond that?
If you have three Greater Healing Lotuses and a Cheese in your inventory, they combine into a Block of Cheese. Meaning, it requires a total of 18 Healing Lotuses and a Cheese to create.
This item can be consumed to provide a universal damage barrier of 500 HP that regenerates at the rate of 100 HP per second. The damage barrier is permanent and persists even after death.
Be wary though! If you’ve stacked multiple Cheeses in your inventory, they will ALL be consumed to form a Block of Cheese.
That’s our list of hidden mechanics in Dota 2. Did we miss any? Know of any that you think no one else does? Let us know!
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Anomaluna
