Wandering Waters Dota 2 gameplay update brings long awaited changes

Dota 2 has finally received a new numbered patch with the arrival of Wandering Waters.

Patch 7.38 brings huge changes to the game, starting with a revamped map, hero and item changes, a new system for the neutral items and plenty of quality of life updates.

In true Valve fashion, the 7.38 patch is huge and should we mention it’s been dropped during a tier one tournament? While the teams competing for a share of the $1,000,000 prize pool at DreamLeague Season 25 have been given a few hours to figure out how they should play the game now, the rest of the Dota 2 community will for sure need quite some time to explore and enjoy the massive gift received from IceFrog.

Before jumping into a new game here are the most significant map changes.

Water streams

The Dota 2 map has been flooded. The side lanes now have a stream of water each and there’s a trick to it. Running with the current in the new water streams will give you a speed boost, without slowing you down if you're running against the flow. The current has a visible animation, so it will be obvious when you are riding it. Use this wisely and farm faster all the jungle camps placed along the stream.

While this seems like a cool addition for the carry players who need to farm the jungle, there is one hero who benefits the most from it. Yes, you guessed it! It stacks with Slardar’s Seaborn Sentinel water based terrain bonuses.

Roshan is back in the river

Mid-lane players, brace yourselves!

Roshan’s two pits have been moved to the river, near the Power Runes and there’s a new trick to this too. He first spawns in the southern pit during the day time and transitions to the northern one at night, but while he does so, he grabs and tosses around any unit (including heroes) caught in his path.

Craft your own Neutral item

Neutral items no longer drop at random from neutral creep camps. Instead, Madstones are granted when fully clearing a camp. Two Madstones are given to the hero clearing the camp and one is going to a random allied hero. When you have enough Madstones, you can start crafting your own, personalized neutral item. Each neutral item is made of two parts which you can combine depending on your own needs. While this sounds more complicated in theory, once you jump into the game, you will see it’s extremely easy and intuitive, so don’t worry!

There are still five tiers of neutral items, but now you can change your neutral to a new one which becomes extremely handy especially if you reach the tier 5 timing in the game.

One Tormentor to spice up the battle

If taking a Tormentor down wasn’t enough of a hurdle, now, you have to also beware of the enemy team while doing so. There are no longer two Tormentors spawning in the map corners, near each base. Instead, a single Tormentor will spawn at one of two locations in the corners of the map, depending on the time of day. Keep in mind that the Tormentor will appear on the opposite side as Roshan. The good news is that after it is destroyed, the Tormentor leaves behind a healing area of effect.

Other map changes

• Outposts have been removed

• Map buffs (Mighty Mines, The Well) have been removed

• Spawn interval of Bounty Runes increased from 3 minutes to 4 minutes

• Twin gates have been repositioned to the corners of the maps near Tormentor locations

While that 7.38 Wandering Waters patch is quite large, these are the most crucial aspects you need to worry about in terms of map changes. You can read more about neutral creep camps changes here, about hero nerfs and buffs here and about quality of life changes here.