Top 5 removed features in Dota 2 that the community misses

It has been eight years since Dota 2 was officially released on Steam in 2013.

The prototype recreation of DotA on the Source engine looks dramatically different from today’s Dota 2. Other than a whole engine change, Dota 2 has gone through numerous patch cycles with wildly shifting metas. While these major patches are all about adding new elements to Dota 2, outposts, neutral items, Shard upgrades, and so on, numerous features have also been removed for balance purposes.

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The following are probably the biggest relics of old-school Dota 2.

5) Armor-piercing Cleave

Dota 2 patch 7.20 was a composite nerf to Battlefury. This patch reworked the Dota 2 armor formula to make it more effective across the board. The big change, however, was the interaction between cleave damage and armor. Namely, there wasn’t any interaction prior to this. Cleave damage simply went through armor.

Now that cleave damage considers damage reduction from armor, one Tide-bringer swing off Kunkka’s cutlass leading to a teamwipe is a far more uncommon sight. For the supports who often die of collateral damage, this was a welcome change. But what captures the essence of golden age Dota 2 more than a Kunkka team-wipe?

4) Iron Talon

For the longest time in Dota 2, Iron Talon has been the ultimate go-to for early game farming. It was the one item that made lvl 1 jungling somewhat efficient. A 40% base damage boost (15% for ranged attacks) when attacking non-hero units and an active effect, called Chop, to instantly remove a percentage of a targeted creep’s HP.

As a means of re-balancing the game with the 7.00 changes, Iron Talon received a nerf to its base damage boost to instead add a flat damage bonus: same as Quelling Blade, its primary ingredient. In 7.07, roughly a year later, it was removed altogether. It was later returned as a neutral item, only to be removed again in 7.28.

3) Sniping the Sole Courier

Courier sniping still very much exists within Dota 2. Recently, in the EU qualifier finals for the final slot to TI 10, Dota 2 players found unexplored waters in the art of courier-killing. Neta ‘33’ Shapira started fountain-camping OG’s couriers with a Helm of The Dominator creep he snuck past the enemy tier 4’s.

Courier-sniping indubitably remains a very intriguing way of claiming a net worth imbalance. But it was far more disruptive and game-changing back when the whole team had a single courier.

2) The Side Shop

Along with the impact of courier-sniping, patch 7.20 also removed one of Dota 2’s fondest relics: the side shop. The logistics of Dota 2 was addressed with four more couriers to work with. But taking away the shop was also a removal of slick plays involving a use-and-throw Blink Dagger from the side shop.

1) Shrines

While the outposts introduce a different layer of cat-and-mouse capture the flag game to Dota 2, the defunct Shrines are still mourned by many. If there is one thing Dota 2 players hate in the early game, it is the walk of shame to the base when they cannot afford more resources. Shrines (7.00-7.24) used to be the glint of hope in these dark moments, a means of recuperating without breaking the momentum.