Three Spirits Update Detailed for Dota 2 Plus Diretide, Crafting, Coaching, and More

[Shawn Zipay]

Valve gave a late night update on the Three Spirits update for Dota 2. It features three different spirits that would give Captain Planet's Planeteers a run for their money.

The Ember Spirit, Storm Spirit, and Earth Spirit are hitting the test client already. That's just one small step away from being released to the final release client. As you might expect, these three characters have abilities that are themed around their respective area of expertise.

Storm Spirit
As a fresh young spirit, the boisterous Raijin found the Wailing Mountains too constricted for his tastes, and so set forth to stir the winds of the wider world. But no sooner had he ventured out than he found himself caught in a bungled summoning spell. An amateur elementalist named Thunderkeg had hoped to end a drought; instead he ended his mortal life, forever transfigured into the entity known as Storm Spirit.

• Static Remnant - Creates an explosively charged image of Storm Spirit that detonates and deals damage if an enemy unit comes near.
• Electric Vortex - A vortex that pulls an enemy unit to Storm Spirit's location.
• Overload - Casting a spell creates an electrical charge, which is released in a burst on his next attack, dealing damage and slowing nearby enemies.
• Ball Lightning - Storm Spirit becomes volatile electricity, charging across the battlefield until he depletes his mana or reaches his target.

Earth Spirit
Carved of sacred jade, a statue of general Kaolin was buried at the head of a stone army ten thousand strong'a force of soldiers, holy men and acrobats, entombed for millennia in the embrace of the soil. Within this jade flowed the spirit of the Earth itself'an elemental force at one with the planet, gathering its strength until it dug its way free. Now the great Kaolin Earth Spirit strides across the land, fighting his enemies, calling forth remnants of his buried army.

• Boulder Smash - Earth Spirit smashes the target, sending them flying in the direction he is facing.
• Rolling Boulder - Earth Spirit becomes a boulder, rolling forward to damage enemies.
• Geomagnetic Grip - Pulls the target allied unit or Stone Remnant to his location. Enemies struck by the flying target are stunned.
• Stone Remnant - Calls a Stone Remnant at the target location. Stone Remnants make Earth Spirit's abilities more effective.
• Magnetize - Deals damage over time to enemy heroes in a small area. Victims will trigger Magnetize again if they run into Stone Remnants.

Ember Spirit
Within the Fortress of Flares rests a topaz cauldron filled with ash, a pyre for the warrior-poet Xin, who trained his acolytes in the Bonds of the Guardian Flame. Touched by the teacher's lasting legacy, the Burning Celestial, aspect of fire, cast himself to the fortress to reignite the remains. From these glowing embers emerged an image of Xin, wreathed in flame, his thoughtful countenance prepared to train and to teach, and to spread the fires of knowledge to all who seek guidance.

• Searing Chains - Unleashes fiery bolas that anchor enemies in place and deal damage each second.
• Sleight of Fists - Attacks all nearby enemies in a rush in the targeted area of effect, then returns to his start location.
• Flame Guard - Surrounds himself with a shield of fire that damages enemies and protects him from magic damage.
• Fire Remnant - Generates Fire Remnants that he can dash to and detonate, dealing damage to enemies nearby.
• Activate Fire Remnant - Select the Fire Remnant at which to arrive.

The update is also slated to include in-game coaching that will allow you to teach other players how to win. It includes the ability to draw on the ground or mini-map, ping elements on the student's HUD, a private communication channel, and more.

Crafting and socketing are also included in this update. Similar to how it's done in Team Fortress 2, crafting will allow you to transform several items of the same rarity into a new item. Additionally, you can combine duplicate items into a single item of higher rarity. Socketing will let you personalize your favorite items with Kinect Gems. These introduce unique animations, new colors, and new effects to weapons and couriers. You can add up to five gems per item for a truly unique mishmash of visual flair.

Showcase View lets you zoom in really close to your character to really appreciate the finer details. Open up a replay and use the new Showcase View to shine a light on the more intense moments. This is probably perfect for those making highlight videos of their abilities.

Oh yes, Diretide is back.

The full list of changes included in this update can be found below.

Changelog for Dota 2 for November 14, 2013

User Interface

• Lanepicker added to hero selection screen
• You can now invite to trade from within Dota 2, including people you aren't friends with (privacy settings available)
• Games that are part of a best-of series are now grouped and spoiler-protected in the recent games panel
• Added set browser to Hero Picker
• Broadcasters can now specify a country and description per channel when setting up a lobby for specators
• Showcase View can be activated using the icon on the left side of your hero portrait.
• Colorblind option added
• Closed-captioning option added
• Added a "Pending Invitations" tooltip when in a party that lists outstanding party invitations
• Added Acknowledgements tab to the Library
• Fixed incorrect turn arrows when spectating Captains Mode drafts
• New convar dota_ability_legacy_mode_quick_cast causes all ability casts in Legacy keybinding mode to be Quick Casts
• You no longer need to equip pennants to have their view counts updated and count towards teams you watch live

New Player Experience

• Bots now substitute for players that leave in Limited Hero mode
• Added last hit training missions

Community

• Changed low-priority penalty metric from time-based to games played
• Added messaging popups and more indications of low-priority status in interface
• Added new survey questions about self and team cooperation

Audio

• Game Voices and Sound Effects now have separate volume sliders
• Added a damage sound to Blademail reflect (only audible to attacking player)
• Added a sound on Diffusal Blade target units
• Corrected Clockwerk's spawn line
• Fixed FoW issues with some Invoker, Crystal Maiden, and Nature's Prophet abilities
• Visage ult sound no longer stacks with number of familiars
• Bloodrage target sound now retriggers even if target is still silenced

Visuals

• New support for remnant based effects. Visual updates to Storm/Ember/Earth Spirit remnants can be applied to all wearable items and will properly mimic when Rubick steals them
• Modified Storm Spirit's effects to bring them visually in line with other Spirits

Coaching

• Anyone in a matchmaking party can specify that they'd like to coach the party instead of play. In lobbies, players can choose to coach a team instead of play or spectate. Coaches cannot be used in Team Matchmaking, or Tournament lobbies.
• Increased maximum matchmaking party size to 6, to allow a coach to teach an entire team of students (but you can't Find Match if you have 6 players with no coach)
• Coaches are able to use in-player perspective views and broadcaster tools like line drawing to teach their students. They are able to ping on the ground, the minimap, and anywhere in the HUD itself.
• Coaches are considered to be on the same team as their students, so they cannot see anything in the game that their students can't see.
• Coaches and students have private voice and text communication channels.
• Coaches can hit their 'Hero Select' key to cycle through their students.
• Coaches see spectator-style item purchase popups for their students.
• In-perspective player view now shows the correct state of more HUD elements (Shop Quickbuy, KDA/Last Hits/Denies, Buyback). These improvements apply the the in-perspective view in live games and replays, as well as coaches.

Economy

• Steam Community Market
  • This update may greatly disrupt market prices. In order to prevent items being purchased at pre-update prices for arbitrage, we are removing all item listings and returning them to their owners. While this removal process is taking place, new items will not be able to be listed on the Steam Community Market.
  • You can now list an item on the market from the armory (right click: sell on the market).
  • Armory item tooltips now contain the current lowest trading price for an item of the same class as the one highlighted. (Class is a somewhat flexible concept at the moment, so unusual courier prices will be less accurate than a specific wearable piece of equipment.)
  
  
• Crafting
  • Crafting recipes now have a chance of dropping as a bonus item. These drops do not take up your normal drops, but are in addition to them.
  • Polymorph Recipes
    • These recipes take a variable number of any input of the same rarity and output a random other item of the same rarity. Example: 2 of Any Rare => 1 Random Different Rare
    
    
  • Augment Recipes
    • These recipes take a combination of inputs of the same rarity and output a random other item of the next best rarity. Example: 1 of Any Common & 1 Wavecrester => 1 Random Uncommon
    
    
  • Ancient Scroll Case
    • A new type of Treasure Chest called the "Ancient Scroll Case" has been added. These cases drop multiple recipes when they are opened.
    • The Ancient Scroll Case has a chance to drop an Exceptional Recipe. These make items that were previously only available as Genuine quality promotional items. The recipe creates a non-genuine version of the item.
    
    
  
  
• Gems & Sockets
  • Items can now have up to 5 sockets.
    • A socket can receive a gem. Each socket can only contain one gem.
    • Some sockets require specific types of gems.
    • When a gem is added to a socket that already contains a gem, the previous gem is destroyed.
    
    
  • New Socketing Tools:
    • Artificer's Chisel: Adds a socket to an item.
    • Artificer's Hammer: Extracts the gems from an item.
    
    
  • Gem Types:
    • Kinetic Gems
      • Adds a new animation to the hero using the item.
      
      
    • Inscribed Gems
      • Adds stat tracking ability to the item similar to the old strange system.
      • The item they are added to changes to the "Inscribed" quality.
      
      
    • Ethereal Gems
      • Adds a particle effect to the item.
      • All unusual effects can now be colorized.
      
      
    • Prismatic Gems
      • Colorizes the particle effect on the effect gem.
      
      
    • Ascendant Gems
      • The Ascendant Orb, Gem of Taegeuk, and Bloodstones are now Ascendant Gems.
      • The item they are added to changes to the "Ascendant" quality. (in addition to tracking victories or gifts given as they did before).
      
      
    • Autograph Runes
      • Autographs are now Autograph Runes.
      • Allows you to tag an item with a pro player's autograph.
      • Since an item can have 5 sockets, you can now get a whole team to autograph an item.
      • The item they are added to changes to the "Autographed" quality.
      
      
    • Spectator Gems
      • Items that previously tracked 'games viewed' now contain spectator gems.
      • Spectator gems follow a specific league or team.
      • Styles that previously required 'games viewed' now require a gem with the same number of games viewed (for the correct league / player / team / etc).
      
      
    • Ethereal & Prismatic gems are used together on unusual items (couriers).
    • More types of gems will be coming in the future.
    • Unusual items do not change quality when gems are added. Non-unusual items will change in the order gems are added.
    
    
  
  
• Item Quality Keywords
  • The item quality keyword "Vintage" has been changed to "Elder".
  • The item quality keyword "Tournament" has been changed to "Heroic".
  • The item quality keyword "Haunted" has been changed to "Cursed".
  • The item quality keyword "Strange" has been changed to "Inscribed".
  
  
• Strange Items
  • Strange modifiers on items have been converted into stat tracking Inscribed Gems.
  • The stats on items are no longer wiped when an item is traded.
  • Strange modifiers that haven't been applied have been turned into 'gem packs' that grant a living stat tracking gem and a Artificer's Chisel to create a socket on an item.
  • Previously strange quality items are now have the inscribed quality.
  
  
• Unusual Paint & Colors
  • Unusual paint items have been changed into Gem Packs that will grant a gem of the same color of the old paint item when used.
  • All couriers that were painted in the past will now have color gems already installed of the appropriate color.
  • All legacy courier colors (very old drop colors, bugged colors, etc) have been preserved as color gems. If you want, you can smash the courier to recover the legacy color gem and use it on some other courier or effect combination.
  • All unusual paint items on the Steam Community Market have been delisted. You can relist the Color Gem Packs.
  • All non-legacy colors (colors that drop normally from Treasure Chests) now have specific names (i.e.: "Verdant Green"). Legacy colors will have the name "Legacy (R G B)". (Most Legacy Colors are completely unique, but there are a few where more than one of that color exist.)
  • New colors will appear on Treasure Chest unusuals from time to time moving forward. While we will avoid selecting legacy colors we cannot completely guarantee that new colors will not sometimes be similar. The 800 or so unique legacy colors in existence cover a large amount of color space.