There often comes a time in Dota 2, when your team is losing, or there’s lack of coordination between teammates (5 carry in a game?) or sometimes when ganks go wrong. Some players just can’t tolerate and start misbehaving through voice and textual chat. They start calling you names, swear and judge your skills the entire game. It severely affects your performance and distracts you from in-game events. Not to mention the death by replying to those messages.

Luckily, There is a mute option present in Dota 2 that blocks voice and textual communication from player(s) and lets you to play in a peaceful environment. Once you block those inappropriate messages, you will notice a drastic improvement in your game. Follow the steps below if you wish to use this feature.

How to Block/Mute Chat in Dota 2:

• Press and hold ‘~’ key (it’s below Esc) to open Scoreboard.
• You’ll see a list of players present in the game along with their nicknames.
• After every player name, you’ll see a small speaker icon (see the yellow circle in image above). Click it to block communication from that player. You can do the same with other players if necessary.
• Tip: You can also report players by clicking their names through scoreboard.

The only disadvantage of this feature that it does not block Chatwheel messages and map pings. Players who have communication ban often misuse these features and start rage-ping on your hero and use Chatwheel to say “Well Played” whenever you die.

Valve has finally did it! They have added Dota’s one of the most popular strength hero ELDER TITAN (yes, it’s Tauren Chieftain). Elder Titan is the most unique and tough looking hero in Dota 2 so far, his attack and spells animations are perfectly done and truly reflect his potential in the game. Now, you can play this epic hero in game and counter those massive tank heroes!

A little introduction to Elder Titan for new players:
He one of the annoying heroes that literally wipe your hero’s HP within seconds. Elder Titan can spawn an Ancestral spirit (reflection of his own) and stun multiple spots at same time. His 3rd spell aura (Natural Order) sweeps away enemy’s magical resistance and amplifies the damage dealt by a significant margin. Titan’s ultimate is similar to Twin-head dragon’s Macropyre but it takes away 50% of opponents HP and slows them for 5 seconds. A perfect spell to counter heroes such as Centaur Warrunner, Ursa Warrior etc.

Some animations of Elder Titan skills for your eye candy, click to play:

And now here are the patch notes of today’s update: 

Dota 2 1st May patch

- Added Elder Titan!

COMMUNITY
- Fixed a bug that was allowing extra report submissions on Sundays.

UI
- Revised the Community page.
- Added an icon for league games to the Live, Recent and Downloaded game lists.
- Changed Heroes Played and Game History to be popups in the Profile.
- Numerous improvements to the Tournament Scheduling interface.
- Fixed Buy Back availability in spectator dropdown being inaccurate sometimes.
- Improved web browser performance.
- Fixed hitches when spectating games and switching between heroes.

SOUNDS
- New lines added to Skywrath Mage, Timbersaw, and Bristleback.

WORKSHOP
- Added an Animation Overlay dropdown to the Workshop Model Preview.
- Added Lycanthrope’s wolves to the Ability Model import list.

As usual, restart your Steam Client and Dota 2 to install this patch via auto-update. You might not be able to play until you update. The offline updates of Dota 2 are not yet supported by Valve.

Here are some screens from the recent patch update:

Dota 2 Patch Notes (18th April, 2013):

This weeks update is size around 200 MegaBytes and will take time depending on the load of Valve’s servers and your connection speed. Dota 2 is certainly improving as the time passes. Soon, we’ll see Dota 2 on Mac OS and Linux. Hopefully, they also bring FPS fix for Nvidia graphics cards and optimizes the game for lower-end PC’s so more users can enjoy the gameplay experience.

PS: Before proceeding with patch update, make sure your Dota 2 is closed, if automatic update doesn’t work, restart your Steam client.

Screenshots of this update:

Dota 2 Patch Notes (28th March, 2013):

This week’s update is sized around 500~ MB depending on the region of your Dota 2 client. Restart the Steam client and Dota 2 launcher to receive the automatic update. You might not be able to play/spectate games when update is being rolled out.

Valve has published a new update on Dota 2 client. This week’s update ports  balancing changes  of DotA 6.77c to the game. A lot of  visual effects have been updated for Flying Couriers, Drow’s Marksmanship, Dagon and dropped items. The minimap now displays illusions, heroes have improved textures and audio bug fixes but still, no signs of new heroes.

Preview of this update:

There are rumours that Valve is planning to release remaining heroes in all-in-one big Dota 2 official launch update along with Half-Life 2 Episode 3. We hope it’s true so we can wait in peace. Anyway, you can check out this week’s patch notes below. GAMEPLAY

• Clockwerk: Fixed being able to break Hookshot movement with purge/stonegaze/etc.
• Drow Ranger: Marksmanship bonus is removed when there are nearby enemy heroes (instead of just being halved).
• Drow Ranger: Reduced Marksmanship enemy detection aoe reduced from 400 to 375.
• Keeper of the Light: Illuminate manacost from increased 150 to 150/160/170/180.
• Keeper of the Light: Illuminate AOE reduced from 400 to 350.
• Keeper of the Light: Fixed Mana Leak not getting removed by Dark Pact or Kraken Shell.
• Mirana: Fixed cast and attack behaviors during Leap.
• Nyx Assassin: Spiked Carapace duration reduced from 2.75 to 2.25.
• Nyx Assassin: Spiked Carapace cooldown increased from 14 to 23/20/17/14.
• Timbersaw: Fixed Whirling Death debuff getting dispelled.
• Timbersaw: Fixed attack capability getting reset while Magic Immune when Chakram is used.
• Timbersaw: Fixed Whirling Death stat drain not affecting Magic Immune units.
• Treant Protector: Living Armor damage reduction is now done for all instances of damage that reduce its charges.
• Tranquil Boots: Disabled speed reduced from 50 to 25.
• Tranquil Boots: Heal increased from 170 to 250.
• Tranquil Boots: Cooldown increased from 40 to 60.
• Tranquil Boots: Heal duration increased from 10 to 20.
• Tranquil Boots: Fixed being able to drop the item to reset its state.
• Tranquil Boots: Fixed damage detection threshold on Tranquil’s heal.
• Heaven’s Halberd: Disarm is no longer dispelled by Manta.
• Added Timbersaw to Captain’s Mode (Tournament Version).
• Fixed attack acquisition range on Disruptor, KOTL, Wisp, Visage and Medusa.
• Fixed Towers sometimes attacking you too soon when moving out of range.

BOTS

• Added Jakiro bot.
• Added Sand King bot.
• Bots that have been hit by multiple stacks of Sticky Napalm will now contemplate their misfortune further back in the lane.
• Fixed a bug where bots would try to cast stuns when being wildly out of range.

UI

• Minimap now displays illusions for spectators.
• Fixed a bug that caused enemy created Meepo illusions to get added to the original player’s multi hero interface.

VISUALS

• Added in game models for when the following items are dropped from inventory into the world: Tango and Dust of Appearance.

EFFECTS

• Updated Dagon visual effects and scaled it with level.
• Added an effect when Marksmanship is active.

AUDIO

• Fixed music volume bug.
• Fixed a bug preventing heroes from commenting on specific item purchases.
• Fixed AA’s ult cast sounds to only play for teammates or nearby enemies that have vision.
• Added a unique sound for Viper’s orb attack.
• Added sound to Diffusal Blade purge.
• Various mix tweaks across creeps, ui and the tutorial quest sounds.

WORKSHOP

• Disabled browsing & submitting in the Test Client, but allowed imports for testing purposes.
• Submissions now have the option of including a PSD containing marketing materials for the submission.
• Added Beastmaster’s Hawk and Lone Druid’s Bear to the Ability Import list.
• Attack animations now describe the animation timing required for the attack to match the character using them.

The size of this upate is 524 MegaBytes. Restart your Steam and Dota 2 client to receive this update. You might not be able to join games or watch replays until you update.

source: dota2 dev

Dota 2 Patch Notes (2013/03/14):

GAMEPLAY / GENERAL

• Clinkz: Fixed Death Pact healing Clinkz under Ice Blast debuff.
• Gyrocopter: Fixed Flak Cannon killing couriers.
• Sniper: Fixed Headshot not working on units like Spirit Bear, Warlock’s Golem, etc.
• Sniper: Fixed Shrapnel doing slightly less damage than intended to towers.
• Sniper: Fixed Headshot’s physical damage bonus being blocked by Magic Immunity.
• Spectre: Added a short grace period to walking off the Spectral Dagger path before collision is restored.
• Spiritbreaker: Fixed Magic Immune units being ignored by the AOE greater bash procs from Charge of Darkness and Scepter Nether Strike.
• Tusk: Fixed some cases where Ice Shards could get units stuck.
• Visage: Fixed a number of incorrect spell interactions with Familiars.
• Wisp: Fixed Tether sometimes ending prematurely if Relocate was cast before Tether.
• Wisp: Fixed Relocating units sometimes walking away to do a previous behavior.
• Fixed Roshan’s aoe Slam damage type being physical rather than magical (and thus hurting Familiars).
• Fixed creeps and neutrals sometimes not responding to long range spells.
• Fixed Blink Dagger selfcast to work consistently.
• Fixed Cheese not having a cooldown.
• Fixed Cheese not stacking in inventory.
• Enabled Timbersaw in Captain’s Mode in Latest Version (Tournament Version next week).
• Local games are no longer automatically unpaused.

AUDIO

• Added sound effects to the Dashboard.
• Added sound effects for various Tiny deaths.
• Updated Mjollnir sound effect.
• Updated Maelstrom sound effect.

UI

• Items held by the courier are now included in a player’s Net Worth.
• Fixed the sorting of Teams List under the Community tab.
• Fixed courier and ward previewing in the backpack.
• Fixed the scrollbar being hidden when a schedule had a full page of tournaments in a single month.
• Live games list now displays the game mode.
• Fiery Soul of the Slayer’s custom minimap icon only draws for the player that owns the item.
• Repositioned end game survey to not block the chat.
• Teams that haven’t played a team matchmaking game in the last 7 days will now show up as being “inactive” in WebAPI calls.
• Improved performance of chat channels in the Dashboard.

VISUALS

• Revised overhead Soul Assumption indicator.
• Fixed Smoke of Deceit AOE visual effect showing for enemies if the caster is hidden
• Added ingame models for when the following items are dropped from inventory into the world: Divine Rapier, Healing Salve, Clarity, Dust of Appearance, Bottle, and Boots of Speed.

BOTS

• Added Lion bot.
• Added Omniknight bot.
• Made a number of adjustments to loadouts and builds based on community feedback.
• Bots now know how to use Rod of Atos, Tranquil Boots, Abyssal Blade, Heaven’s Halberd, and Veil of Dischord.
• Bots will no longer go to the Side Shop with a full inventory if they aren’t willing to sell anything.
• Generic summoned units (Necro units, Illusions, etc) now have basic bot AIs, so they can act independently from their owner.
• Fixed bots interrupting their teleports.
• Bots will be less aggressive when they have stacks of Sticky Napalm on them.
• Bots will now only use Refresher Orb if they want to cast big ticket abilities.
• Fixed Witch Doctor bot spamtoggling Voodoo Restoration when he simply wanted to activate it.
• Witch Doctor is less likely to use Death Ward on units that are about to die anyways.
• Bots now establish their lanes at 0:15 (changed from 0:30), which makes jungling the initial creep spawn eaiser without confusing them about what lane you’re in.
• Bots will no longer go for runes that may or may not be there if it’s been a while since their spawn time.
• When there are no wards up, bots are now smarter about only warding the closer rune location.

WORKSHOP

• Added general support for importing any Ability/Spell related model. Currently just supporting Beastmaster Boars.
• Reworked the “View My Submissions” page to better handle a large number of submissions (sorting/pagination/bug fixes).
• Fixed submission preview images not being set correctly.
• Fixed a bug where updating an existing submission could set incorrect tags on the submission.
• Disabled the Workshop in the Test client to prevent confusion.

You must restart your Dota 2 Client / Test Client in order to receive this update.  It will take some to update/install depending on your internet speed.

source

DOTA 2 Patch Notes (6th March 2013)

GAMEPLAY

- Gyrocopter: Fixed Rocket Barrage firing while under effects like Disruption/Chronosphere/Doom/Hex.
- Gyrocopter: Fixed Flak Cannon hurting nightmared units without waking them up.
- Naga Siren: Fixed being able to purge Song of the Siren aura off of Naga Siren.
- Nyx: Fixed Spiked Carapace affecting Juggernaut during Omnislash.
- Outworld Devourer: Fixed Astral Imprisonment not draining enough mana from enemy heroes.
- Timbersaw: Fixed Whirling Death not doing enough damage against strength heroes.
- Fixed Maelstrom and Mjollnir being unable to proc if the initial target is Magic Immune.
- Tweaked Neutral Creep chase timings for the two small camps.
- Fixed a number of bugs in Mechanics I, including all known showstoppers.

UI

- Fixed holding alt causing smoked hero names to be shown on minimap when near truesight.
- Fixed your status showing as playing a local bot game if you were spectating a game
- Hero performance page is now sorted by total number of games played.
- Fixed Dire wins in the Team Game History tab showing up as losses.
- Fixed bug where Team Game History wasn’t refreshing properly.
- The Teams List under Community now displays Teams in order of their most recently played match.
- There’s now a dialog asking the player to rate their currently-used hero build (if it’s not yet been rated).

AUDIO

- Music now plays in spectator and replay modes.

ITEMS

- Added Fiery Soul of the Slayer item for Lina.

So guys we hope that you will have alot of fun while playing DOTA 2. Keep coming here and check the latest updates of your favorite game online here..

It’s Thursday and time for a new Dota 2 update from Valve. This week’s patch brings some new exciting new features in in-game. The tutorial mode has been officially added which is intended to give brief beginners guide to the game concept, neat stuff. 7 sets of cosmetic items are added in the shop, User interface tweaks to provide more friendly navigation and improved visuals. Also, Skywrath Mage and Abaddon could take a few weeks to release. Check full patch notes below!

Dota 2 Patch Notes (2/28/2013):

GENERAL
- Added Mechanics I for new players!
- Added 7 new item sets to the Dota store.
- Immortal and Tournament items can now be traded on the Steam Community Market.

GAMEPLAY
- Clockwerk: Fixed Power Cogs pulling more than just heroes inside the cogs.
- Huskar: Fixed Berserker’s Blood not stacking at the proper health thresholds.
- Keeper of the Light: Fixed Mana Leak accumulating mana loss during magic immunity.
- Phantom Lancer: Fixed an issue where illusions made by a player on the other team would create uncontrollable Juxtapose illusions.
- Tusk: Fixed a case where heroes with very small collision size could escape Ice Shards.
- Tusk: Fixed a rare bug where teleporting could cause Walrus Punched units to end up in odd positions.
- Fixed various aspects of Spectral Dagger logic being dispellable.
- Fixed sometimes being revealed if your projectile hits the target after you become invisible with Shadow Blade.
- Improved TP interaction with FoW.
- Fixed two ledges (below the two rune spots) where you could get units stuck with Telekinesis and Vacuum.

UI
- Added the ability to examine chests.
- Added a Game History tab to the Team Profile.
- Added checkbox for filtering Live Games to just Team games.
- You can now click on Team names in Live or Recent games to view their team profiles.
- Added a post-game Match Quality survey panel.
- Added an icon to backpack slots if that item is currently equipped.
- Fixed the courier delivery icon popping when the courier collected stash items.
- Fixed courier delivery being delayed by 0.5 seconds if there were no items to get from the stash.
- Fixed courier move orders not clearing the transfer items buff icon.
- Players can now set a custom rich presence status that can be displayed on the UI.
- Fixed Lina’s Fiery Soul buff not showing the correct cooldown if it was refreshed with 3 stacks.

AUDIO/VISUAL

- Updated Arc Lightning’s visual effects and sound.
- Updated Shadow Shaman’s attack sound.
- Updated Ether Shock’s visual effects and sound.
- Updated Mjollnir and Maelstrom visual effects.

BOTS
- When a push is happening into a base, global desire to farm is significantly decreased.
- Fixed a case where bots far from the lane front could thrash into and out of Push Lane mode.
- Single-player bot games now run locally on the user’s machine.
- Increased reaction time by about 50% in all modes.

Valve has added server.dll in Dota 2 files which allows user to create their own local bot games, means you don’t have to be connected to internet to learn the game. This could possibly a start of user-generated custom maps or maphacks with the help of debugging commands. The size of this week’s update is 365 MB. Restart your Steam/Dota 2 in order to install it.

Dota 2 Patch Notes (2/21/2013):

GAMEPLAY

- Fixed backswing behavior on some of Invoker’s skills.
- Fixed Last Word being dispelled by Purge/Cyclone/etc.
- Fixed Last Word interrupting channeling spells if the initial duration ends during the channel.
- Enabled Medusa in Captain’s Mode tournament version.
- Fixed Healing Ward not preserving its hotkey when leveled up.

UI

- Added right click menu to the combat log with “Copy to clipboard” option.
- Added option to render the Co-Broadcaster’s camera. Use dota_minimap_draw_cocaster_camera 0 to disable.
- Added new right click option to backpack items to equip the entire set the item belongs to.

BOTS

- Adjusted hero roles of Windrunner (fewer last hits) and Meepo (more last hits).
- Made Death Prophet bot more likely to use Crypt Swarm in teamfights.
- Made Necrolyte bot a bit more hesitant about using Death Pulse when laning.
- Fixed bots dropping thousands of TP scrolls at the side shops.
- Practice with Bots difficulty and team settings are now saved.

The size for this update is 226 MB, restart your Steam client to update Dota 2 automatically. Bristlebog (Bristleback) , Goblin Techies and Skywrath Mage are the next anticipated heroes. May be we’ll have to wait a week or two for one of them to be included in game.

Dota 2 Tusk, Guide and Preview. Tusk (also known as Ymir, Tuskarr in DotA) is a Radiant/Sentinel strength hero. He’s is a mid-game hero with great ganking abilities for targeting single opponents  He can be played as a semi-carry and can be really effective against dominating/harassing carry heroes in against team. His first Spell is nuke and blocks Enemy path which doesn’t let anyone get away easily, the second skill Snowball does similar by rolling over and stunning the opponent. Tusk 3rd skill provides him a Snowstorm which slows down move and attack speed of opponents. Lastly, his ultimate Walrus punch provides critical hit and a massive slow. Tusk can be real pain if played rightly, his skills synergy make him a perfect ganker and fun-to-play hero.

Tusk Screen Shots:

Gallery:

Tusk Spell/Abilities Guide:

1. Ice Shards (Hotkey: E)

Tusk compresses 5 shards of ice into a ball of frozen energy that damages all enemies in comes in contact with. If the ball comes in contact with an enemy hero or reaches its maximum range the shards are released, creating a barrier that lasts for 5 seconds.

2. Snowball (Hotkey: W)
Tusk and any nearby allied heroes roll in a quickly growing snowball towards the target enemy unit. Any victims caught in the snowball’s path take damage and are briefly stunned; the final target takes 40 extra damage and 0.25 extra stun duration.

3. Frozen Sigil (Hotkey: G)

Tusk summons a Frozen Sigil by calling upon the deepest cold of winter. The Sigil creates a snowstorm which slows all enemy units within 600 range.

4. Walrus Punch (Horkey: R)
Tuskr prepares his mighty Walrus Punch; his next attack will do a critical strike and launch the victim into the air. The victim will be slowed upon landing and take damage.

Tusk Spell Build:

Level 1 – Snowball 1 Level 2 – Ice Shards 1
Level 3 – Ice Shards 2
Level 4 – Snowball 2
Level 5 – Ice Shards 3
Level 6 – Walrus Punch 1
Level 7 – Ice Shards 4
Level 8 – Snowball 3
Level 9 – Snowball 4
Level 10 – Frozen Sigil 1
Level 11 – Walrus Punch 2
Level 12 – Frozen Sigil 2
Level 13 – Frozen Sigil 3
Level 14 – Frozen Sigil 4
Level 15 – Stats 1
Level 16 – Walrus Punch 3
Level 17+ – Stats 2-10

Tusk Item Build:

As you may know, there’s is not a fixed item build for every hero in Dota, following are items that can be purchased on Tusk according to game situation.

Shoes for life: Power Treads / Phase Boots

Must have: Magic Stick / Magic Wand / Empty Bottle

Core: Armlet of Mordiggian  / Hood of Defiance

Attack & Damage: Stygian Desolater / Monkey King Bar / Assault Curiass

Survival: Heart of Tarrasque  / Black King Bar / Satanic

Tusk Strategy Guide:

Early Game:

Tusk shouldn’t start roaming at level 1. He is not a roamer like Vengeful Spirit or Tidehunter. He actually is item dependant, so he must also farm. In early game, try to have a strong lane control and last-hit creeps. With a well combo, you can dominate the lane with 2 melee heroes. DO NOT leave the lane. You shouldn’t start ganking for now. You should place wards to increase your teams map awareness. Check the hero synergy part for a strong lane combination.

Mid Game

This part is where you truly shine. (Shining Walrus. Kinda funny.) If you bought Boots, Bottle and Wand you should start ganking with your partner. You can also gank alone but it will not be very effective. Use Urn and Bottle to heal after ganks. Use Snowball to initiate and Ice Shards to prevent them from escaping. Finish with Walrus Punch. Your main role is not farming, but you can farm between ganks. It is important that you gank the enemy teams CARRYs. Killing Ezalor 10 times may make your score look good, but killing enemy Traxex 3 times will help your team more. Because Ezalor wont be a problem in late game, but Traxex will.

Late Game

In team clashes your main role will be to Area of Effect slow with Frozen Sigil and take a bit damage. Use Walrus Punch on the enemies carry to kill, or at least to disable them. If a clash is not going well, use Snowball to flee with your whole team (Target a neutral creep). This is an advanced technique, but if you can use Ice Shards to separate the team-mates of the opposite team, you will greatly increase your chance to win the clash. I will try to put an screenshot about that.