6.68 finally released

Once again, Icefrog has made another update for the dota community by the release of 6.68.



The much anticipated map has finally been released. In addition to the new gold mechanic of the game, four new heroes and two new items have been introduced.

The first new hero is Guardian Wisp, Io. Io is a ranged strength hero that has two protective skills, an increased attack speed skill and a mobility skill. This hero is most likely to be a carry due to its protective skills and a skill that depends on its base damage.

The second new hero is Far Seer, Thrall. As a ranged intelligence hero, Thrall has three aoe (area of effect) spells and an ability to relocate an enemy. Due to these aspects, Thrall is likely to play the ganker role.

The third new hero is Shadow Demon, Eredar. Eredar is another ranged intelligence hero that possesses the long gone Purge skill. In addition, Eredar has two damaging spells and a banishing ability that can contribute him as another ganker.



The last hero is Gyrocopter, Aurel Vlaicu. Being a ranged agility hero, Aurel is an engineer that deals with rockets. All four of his spells are damaging spells, one of which is capable of stunning. Due to its ability to shoot long ranged spells, Aurel is another ganker that can help ganking at a distance.

In addition to the new heroes, the first new item introduced is called Arcane Boots, which replaces Arcane Ring and is basically a recipee item that merges Boots of Speed and Arcane Ring. The second new item is Orb of Venom that simply adds poison effect to basic attacks.

The already introduced new gold mechanics has been implemented to this new update. As a recap, the new gold mechanics divides gold gained into Reliable Gold and Unreliable Gold. Reliable Gold is obtained by hero kills, while Unreliable Gold is obtained by creep and tower kills. When a hero dies and an item is bought, the Unreliable Gold pool is used first. The overall supposed purpose of this new mechanics is to bring back the age of ganking.

Pheonix, the hero that has been discussed much about, however, has been postponed to be introduced in another map.

Update

6.68b has been released to fix some bugs and disallow Guardian Wisp from teleporting to enemy fountain.

Update 2

IceFrog releases 6.68c with some major bug fixes.