Update 7.24 for Dota 2 Removes Shrines and Changes How Neutral Items Work

Right after the completion of DreamLeague Leipzig Major, Valve released a new gameplay update for Dota 2. In version 7.24, the developers removed Shrines, introduced significant changes to Neutral Items and couriers, adjusted balance of multiple heroes, and many more.

The most significant change of the update is, probably, the complete removal of Shrines. After introduction of Outposts in 7.23, Valve already removed Shrines from secondary jungles in patch 7.23e. In the newest version of the game, there are no Shrines at all. Instead, Outposts have been moved to the primary jungles and are now located almost in the same places where the Shrines were. The Outposts now have a reduced ground vision radius (from 1400 flying to 700 ground). Moreover, they belong to the respective teams at the beginning of a game, and can be captured at any time. The experience reward still happens at the 10 minute marks.

The introduction of Neutral Items in 7.23 caused a lot of discussion in the community. Many players believed that the items introduced too much random to the game, while others claimed that they negated net worth advantage and made it significantly easier to come back in the later stages of the game. To address these issues, Valve have created a designated slot for Neutral Items, which means that now each hero can use only one Neutral Item at a time. To make the sorting of Neutral Items easier, Valve also introduced Neutral Item Stash that can store up to four items per tier. The items can be teleported to the stash directly from your inventory. Due to the changes mentioned above, the number of Backpack slots was also reduced from four to three. From now on, Ancients also drop Neutral Items with the x3 chance.

In this update Valve also reverted most of the changes to couriers that they introduced in the 7.23. Passive gold income no longer disables when your courier is dead. Couriers no longer can plant wards at level 15 and use items at level 25. The developers also increased the bounty for killing couriers as well as expanded the time of resurrection.

Among other general changes are removal of all GPM talents, addition of Void Spirit and Snapfire to Captain’s Mode, increases of hero respawn time and buyback cost, as well as a custom UI for charged-based abilities. As always, the update also includes countless balance changes to items and heroes. The full list of changes can be found on the official website.