Dragon's Hoard is actually good.

[AIR]

If you are a tiktok watcher with low attention spam, please ignore this post. I'm well known for writing walls of text, and this description alone is longer than your usual "X" message but yeah, I am going to award the first person who writes "TL:DR" because that is who I am.

So, buckle up or leave: either way it's fine, thanks for reading.

I'm an attention seeker scum...

But you know it by now, already. And since I know it too, it's cool because I try to use this "Trait" to provide feedback and talk with this community, that I like very much indeed. Before people jump in with labels "Valve Employee" or "Valve Defender", let me disclosure this: I have been attempting a job at Valve for years, but the truth is they will never hire me - I am not qualified enough to work at Valve - in my opinion, one of the greatest gaming companies in the world. I live in Brazil and I as I said, I am underqualified even to be a community moderator. As you know I have 15.000 hours in Dota, playing since the Closed Beta, I "HAD", in the PAST, two alt accounts - at the top 1000 Immortal US East. Which is basically EU Archon. In 2023, I broke my arm and I the doctors said there would be no recovery. I proved them wrong going above and beyond on exercises at home. I broke my arm near the biceps, and my shoulder was dislocated in the same accident: so you could not cask it in any way.

So... Can you shut up and talk Dragon's Hoard?

First, let's take the obvious out of the way: The Chinese New Year "Event" was release, as usual, on date - because Valve makes a lot of money with the Chinese Market, so it's more important - both cultural and economically - for them to be on point with the Chinese Holiday, instead of the "End of December Holidays". Icefrog speaks Chinese because of Dota - this has been known for a while, you can google about the incident where he posted a screenshot and there was a favorite from a popular chinese website.

And, in my opinion, there is nothing wrong with that: you gotta focus your attention on the biggest market. Unlike popular belief, Dota 2 isn't dead in China. Pro Players from China complain from time to time that they don't get enough viewers, or that the game is "fringe": well, that is how Dota is around the World.

One example is the WK Arcana exclusive model for China - since the "Standards and Practices" of China has some restrictions about showing bones or other kind of gore - they had a lot of adaptations that could be easily sold in the "West" aswell, but the Chinese community demand that exclusivity: that is why we will NEVER have the WK Arcana - Black Armor - Style unlock in the "West". It's a shame, because the "Censored" version of "WK Arcana in China" is amazing and it would be a great addition, but we will never have it.

Shut up and talk about the Treasure already...

I will go thru a small analysis of the Tiers, then I will talk about the Box itself.

Commons: Those are great cultural references to Chinese Culture - I miss the lunar beast events, but that is another point. All Tier 1 are, on average, good looking sets without the abuse of particles, the year of the dragon is a great theme specially because what the year of the dragon represents, but specially now that the Chinese economy is struggling.

Rare: CM persona being released as a rare was amazing. It's one of the best heroes for new players, and being accessible to a lot of people is a good draw to Dota and Dota Economy. Master Play.

Very Rare: The abbadon set is just amazing. Enough said.

My problem is with the Ultra-Rares: It's clear as day that it is somewhat rigged. This isn't spreading misinformation, I am just sharing my experience - I got 4 Primal Beast sets before getting the Dragon Fountain: and as my research online showed me, it's the case for everyone. Just notice the price. One can say "it's offer x demand" - sure, fenrir sets are bound to go cheaper than a first time custom skin for an ancient, but if they had the same drop rate, for real, they would be 20-30% more expensive - and that is not the case at all.

The Primal Beast set should be Very Rare, the Dragon Ancient Ultra Rare and they missed a golden opportunity: they could have made a reprint of the Monkey Kind Immortal set as cosmically rare - but the set in RED, to match the reprint staff. That would cost a FORTUNE, and would go for much more than any cosmically rare effect. Besides, MK Immortal Set is themed around Dragons, and the animation is for the ultimate - making a dragon ring. Picture the set in RED, and the ult animation in RED, and you will get my point.

Also, I think "Dota Plus 30 Days" should be a "Very Rare" on all Dota 2 lootboxes. Just an observation.

I, personally, like these boxes: more than the "Upgrade to RNG" model that they sold on Frostivus. I still would rather have the option to straight up buy the sets I wanted from Common to Ultra Rare and the RNG - gambling - side of the lootbox would be just about the Dragon Throne and the Cosmically Rare MK Red Reprint Immortal Set. At least with escalating odds, it less predatory. I will always hate on lootboxes, but as they say, if you can't fight the current, surf the wave: the lesser of two evils. And the option to give a treasure to other people, even random people, is just awesome. Specially if you "open" a "gift treasure" in the regular chest, you can keep it to yourself after the event. And you even got a courier.

Smite does that already...

There is a lot of things from Smite that Valve could apply to Dota 2: I am not talking about the gameplay, but the business model - and they have been doing that. But the scale and dimension of the two games, and the sizer of the companies, can't compare - specially because Valve DOESN'T CARE IF DOTA MAKES MONEY OR NOT: face it - Dota and CS make a fraction of the money that Steam Store does. Even with the % on market transactions, the ammount of money made by Valve is, and always will be, just an apple in the tree that is Steam Store.

I've bought the Battle Pass and some other stuff on Smite, as research - also because I find the game very fun, and has the option to surrender, so it is much more chilling than our good old Dota.

As a good friend of mine from this forum, Absche, would say: Dota 2 needs more positive reinforcements for players. Smite has a Gift System that allows you to, for cents (gems), give a chest reward to other players. Smite also awards you if you reach a monthly count of Commends. And I know you all will say the former "Might Lead to Abuse" - but in Dota those could be account bound and ungiftable.

The thing is: Hi-Rez, the studio behind Smite, NEEDS the money, so they come up with an infinity of ways to provide dopamine rewards - honestly, it is kinda of an eye sore the ammount of notifications and stuff, and I would never want Dota to go that way.

It's hard to say anything else until "Crownfall" releases

Pretty much it. A lot of people have Data Mined this game for years, and we all know Sky and Venge is the "Dota Poster Couple" and that they are getting Arcanas soon. Gameplay wise, I am glad with the last patch game changes. Sure the game will always be imbalanced, as NoTail would say, and that is amazing in Dota. But just like Medusa Pos 3, 4 and 5 being justifiable just because the hero was S+ a few patches ago, there are some tune ups and downs that are needed - I'm looking at you, Abbadon. My hopes for "Crownfall": A PVE or PVP event, the new hero is coming of course - and I do hope he is released with an Arcana, maybe even a Terrain; I am also hoping for the Couple Sky/Venge Arcana and a Battle Pass - in a event that lasts at least until July - with Cavern Crawl unlock style sets - because I honestly want a new Baby Roshan Statue.

Final Considerations

As a live service game, with an spaguetti code from a decade ago, problems with Windows Update are bound to happen. Bugs are bound to happen. But considering the "Dry Season" we had between the end of TI and the Release of Frostivus - from Frostivus to Year of the Dragon we had a increase in cadency, which is good and all we want: rolling over content, high quality, all year around. My "research" on Smite - a game that is basically league of legends skill shot oriented - was fun, as I mentioned, I recommend the game since it's free and the progress - and currency - will transfer to Smite 2.

Of course, compared to Dota, Smite is nothing. Any game compared to Dota is nothing. I would say that there are Casual Social games - like Among Us - or AAA single player games that are amazing that are worth playing - but nothing compares to Dota: LOL tried to steal our thunder, to a point that a rat called pendragon DELETED the database of Dota All Stars website in a backstab move to promote LOL...

But we made Dota. As an old man, I remember the Golden Era of Modding in Warcraft 3 and was there having fun with each new hero release, each person creating heroes, until we got the amazing job that was All-Stars and turned out to be the Dota 2 we love and play today.

So be vocal: use your social media, complain about anything you think deserves a complain, give suggestions - be it here, on reddit or github. Valve policy is this: we don't spend money on advertisements, because our advertisement is delivering a good game.

Invite people to Dota, be friendly to new players. In this discussion board, be friendly - reducing our toxicity is the first step. There is a lot of people on this Discussion Board that just wants to take a huge, long, dump on the game. I am not saying for you to "Fight those people", but for you all to be constructive and help players feel welcome.

I don't use reddit - I am banned from the platform, not from /Dota2 or /DotaMasterRace, but from Reddit itself. I could easily circumvent the ban - but I don't care for Reddit anyway. I don't use any form of social media, not a streamer.

Just a loudmouth. But hey, sometimes you can find roses blossom in concrete. So use your best judgment, you know.

I hope you all get amazing games, keep on loving Dota. I wish good health for you and yours, see you in Crownfall. Thanks for reading, and congrats in advance for those who write "TL:DR" as a response - as promised, I will definetly award you guys

Peace!

[FaiÏry Reálm ツ]

Originally posted by Cain:

P.S.: Even if we both got it right, it's not right of you to gatekeep this Discussion Board from people requesting things, providing feedback of what they want. The way you phrased it, you basically are saying "It is confirmed that those features won't come back and people should stop asking for it" - because that has never been confirmed by a Valve Official Note (exactly like you said) - and I honestly refuse speaking to your Alt Account, specially when you pseudo-moderate to a point where you actually ask for people to "Stop requesting those things" - as if they were doing it wrongly.

If you want to speak with me, use your real account that you claim to have a badge of "Voluntary Moderator", so I can take you more seriously.

Still, this is a free discussion board, so I'm politely asking you to abide by the guidelines. I despise the "Gift Trade Mafia" from this forum, that are always having each others back with multiple accounts, posting "Gift Trade Requests" or replying on those posts instead of asking for the moderation to move the thread to the Trade forum, since there is a Pinned Post by a former moderator, Felix, about "Trade being forbidden here since there is a trade subforum".

ai dont want itt ,,...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq9k03dIsQ0

[MovingTargetTez]

Originally posted by Cain:

Still, this is a free discussion board, so I'm politely asking you to abide by the guidelines. I despise the "Gift Trade Mafia" from this forum, that are always having each others back with multiple accounts, posting "Gift Trade Requests" or replying on those posts instead of asking for the moderation to move the thread to the Trade forum, since there is a Pinned Post by a former moderator, Felix, about "Trade being forbidden here since there is a trade subforum".

Still shadow moderating I see, let's be honest here......was that entire wall of text necessary?
You could have got your point across quite simply with 10-20 lines, instead you go off about yourself etc are you really that starved for attention that you need to talk about yourself?

Also picking fights with people that have given you information is totally against the point of a discussion thread.....

What's your issue with people that use gift trading? Seems like a very random thing to bring up given how it wasn't/hasn't even been mentioned in this thread.

[Chorizonator（・ ⌒・)ノ]

TL:DR

[AIR]

Originally posted by Chorizonator（・ ⌒・)ノ:

TL:DR

There we go!

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

I have to agree with you about the treasury, the cosmetics were well done. but the primal beast and ancient cosmetics being the same rarity is just stupid, rigged for sure, could be worse though.

[AIR]

Originally posted by ¯\_(ツ)_/¯:

I have to agree with you about the treasury, the cosmetics were well done. but the primal beast and ancient cosmetics being the same rarity is just stupid, rigged for sure, could be worse though.

Agree completely. Compared to the last treasure that worked this way - the one with AM persona as ultra rare - this one is definetly much better. IMO, Primal Beast should be the same rarity as Abbadon - and sadly, the Monkey King Immortal Set, Reprint in RED, as cosmically Rare, would fit perfect in this chest: it's a dragon themed set, from a hero from Chinese folklore.

That would be, IMO, the Coolest looking "Red" Immortal. I guess Spectre and Juggernaut would be close competitors, but just the fact that the "Red Immortal" affect the animation, having a Wukong Ult with a red dragon floating around the ring - just as the regular golden immortal... That would be awesome.

[AIR]

Originally posted by ¯\_(ツ)_/¯:

I have to agree with you about the treasury, the cosmetics were well done. but the primal beast and ancient cosmetics being the same rarity is just stupid, rigged for sure, could be worse though.

P.S.: Sorry for someone awarding you with a Jester award. As you can clearly see someone is harassing not only me, but everyone that engages in this conversation. I'm awarding you a "Wholesome" to thank you for your input.

[TiberiusGaben]

this man made a post and for the first paragraph he explains he talks to much .

[AIR]

Originally posted by TiberiusGaben:

this man made a post and for the first paragraph he explains he talks to much .

Yeah, Dr. Krieger, I did.

It's a review about the Patch, so I warned people that don't like long texts to avoid it. It sets the tone to the text aswell, adding a sense of humour to the long read.

[76561198879843338]

There's nothing good about it, it's just a money grab.

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

Originally posted by Kagami:

Originally posted by The loathsome Dung Eater:

There's nothing good about it, it's just a money grab.

Isn’t in game market is about grabing money ? Why are they make in game market if they don’t want to grab money from it ?

It's so confusing to read all these comments about grabbing money.
For game devs, making games is their job.
Of course they want to make money from the games! It's one of their main sources of income.

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

I keep hearing a lot about this Crownfall event (excuse my ignorance) but what is it?
Is it another large update? In which ringmaster will be released to the game?