Big news for Dota Battle Pass holders this week as Wrath of the Mo’Rokai has launched. In addition to this, Valve has gifted every Battle Pass holder 10 free levels.
Read on to find out all about this new game mode, including details on the Mo’Rokai and our winning tips.
When the Battle Pass launched last month, Valve made a promise regarding The International prize money. They stated in no uncertain terms that if the prize pool surpassed last year’s then they would gift every Battle Pass holder 10,000 points.
Image courtesy of Valve
Well, this week Valve kept their promise. The prize pool for last year’s International was $25,532,177 – in layman’s terms that over $25.5 million. However, at the time of writing the prize pool for The International 2019 is $26,160,936.
Valve made an additional promise that, if the prize pool (paid for in part by Battle Pass sales) surpasses $30M then they will award an additional 10,000 points. We still have some way to go before reaching that figure, but then again, The International is still a few weeks away. Fingers crossed that sales continue to climb and everyone can reap the rewards of another 10 free levels.
Alongside the ten free levels, Valve has also opened the doors to the Wrath of the Mo’Rokai game mode. We speculated during our Battle Pass article some weeks ago that the game mode would resemble the Year Beast Brawl. Well, as it turns out, we weren’t wrong.
While the Mo’Rokai aren’t quite as overpowered as the Year Beasts could be, they are still a big deal. The game plays like a regular Dota 2 match, with the notable exception of essence.
Image courtesy of Valve
All heroes and some creeps have a small blue bubble above their head. This indicates that they are carrying essence that they will drop upon death. Players collect this essence which they can use at predetermined increments to apply a beneficial ability to their team’s Mo’Rokai.
In addition to the essence dropped by players and creeps, chests periodically spawn around the map. Players can attack these chests, causing them to disgorge large amounts of essence to augment the Mo’Rokai’s abilities.
These abilities are split into three trees, Spirit (green), Wrath (red) and Storm (blue). As you gain essence you can work your way down each tree and grant your Mo’Rokai various abilities. These range from passive buffs like automatically healing structures to active skills like meteors.
The beast will push down a single lane at a time killing anything it comes into contact with. Teams are advised to stick with their Mo’Rokai for the regen aura and periodic bags of gold it drops. In addition (and fairly obviously) the Mo’Rokai is a great push tool. Fighting around your beast provides a significant advantage to your team.
From playing the game we’ve noticed a couple of things. The interface feels a bit cluttered. With the new overlays for displaying information about the beast and the essence, there is a lot to look at. It can make focusing on the minutia of the game more challenging – something you really don’t need when playing a game as micro-intensive as Dota 2.
Another observation is how easy it is for a team to snowball. The Mo’Rokai drops gold that any team can pick up. In one of our games, an enemy hero spent most of the game following the Mo’Rokai around picking up the gold he dropped and doing very little else. Despite losing his lane comprehensively, the enemy (a Faceless Void) ended up with one of the highest net worth stats.
With all that said, it is designed as a fun addition to Dota 2. While Dota is inherently competitive, the Mo’Rokai mode adds a nice bit of variety in the runup to The International. If you go into the game expecting a not-quite-balanced bit of fun then you won’t be disappointed. Now that Wrath of the Mo’Rokai has launched, take the game for what it is – a free (to Battle Pass holders), fun time-sink to be played in between more serious Ranked matches.
How have you been finding Wrath of the Mo’Rokai? Are you happy with the free 10,000 points or should Valve do more to celebrate? Have your say in the comments below.
Featured image courtesy of Valve.
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