After a few weeks, DOTA 2 finally welcomes Skywrath Mage as its new addition to the hero pool! He is now available on the test client and will be available on the regular client towards the end of this week. Good luck on trying to get your hands on Skywrath Mage, as you contend with everyone else to pick him in pubs. You know how it is whenever a new hero enters the pool, right?
And perhaps more interesting hero greetings are also in order, as Drow Ranger and Tusk are now available in Captain’s Mode. It will be very interesting to see how or if these two heroes affect competitive drafts and strategies as they enter the Tournament Version.
There have also been changes in the reporting system and some visual reworking among other things. For more detailed information, you may refer to the following changelog from the Dota2 Dev Forums:
UPDATE NOTES
April 17, 2013
http://dev.dota2.com/showthread.php?t=82418
COMMUNITY
– Added stricter system implementing communication (voice and text) bans for abusive players.
– Combined voice and text reports into a single ‘communication’ report.
– Reduced reports per week to 4.
– Removed ability for spectators to report players in-game.
– Reports now allow single selection of behavior type only.
GAMEPLAY
– Beastmaster: Fixed Wild Axes losing vision after the second cast.
– Doom: Scorched Earth now shows its duration on the buff icon.
– Lich: Fixed Frost Armor auto-casting while Lich is channeling.
– Magnus: Fixed a rare crash involving Skewer.
– Slardar: Fixed Slithereen Crush not slowing attack speed.
– Spectre: Fixed Haunt illusions moving while out of the game.
– Timbersaw: Fixed Timberchain travelling too fast.
– Timbersaw: Fixed Timberchain not latching quite far enough.
– Tusk: Fixed Tusk not issuing an attack order on the snowballed unit after the snowball crashes.
– Enabled Drow and Tusk to Captain’s Mode (Tournament Version next week)
UI
– Added tab to the Watch section showing downloaded replay files.
VISUALS
– Riki: Added Smoke Screen and Blink Strike animations.
– Sniper: Added victory animations and more aggressive posing of idle, run and attack when enemy is in range.
BOTS
– Bots now know to avoid standing in Macropyre and Ice Path.
WORKSHOP
– Added a button to the preview that allows you to test your imported model in-game, in a local server.
UPDATE 2
http://dev.dota2.com/showthread.php?t=82481
– Added tickets for AtoD3, E2MAX, GEST, and AMD tournaments.
– Skywrath Mage: Added sound tags for wing flaps.
– Skywrath Mage: Fixed not playing loadout animation.
– Skywrath Mage: Fixed weapon effects being an incorrect size.
– Skywrath Mage: Fixed Concussive Shot targetting illusions.
– Skywrath Mage: Fixed Concussive Shot using Skywrath’s cast time.
– Skywrath Mage: Fixed Mystic Flare damaging illusions.
– Skywrath Mage: Fixed Mystic Flare dealing one extra instance of damage.
– Skywrath Mage: Fixed base damage being too low.
– Skywrath Mage: Fixed attack point being too slow.
– Skywrath Mage: Fixed Concussive Shot’s slow being purgable
– Skywrath Mage: Fixed projectile speed being too slow.
– Skywrath Mage: Fixed Concussive Shot not dealing area damage if the main target became magic immune.
– Skywrath Mage: Fixed him not drawing correctly when invisible.
– Skywrath Mage: Fixed Concussive Shot not damaging creeps.
– Fixed Skywrath Mage location in the hero picker.
– Workshop item in-game testing now forces the player to join a team.