Valve has officially released its newest Dota 2 hero: Mars. Mars is the fifth hero introduced by Valve, which began with the release of Monkey King back in 2016. Dark Willow and Pangolier followed in 2017, and Grimstroke was released last year.
Mars, god of war and first son of heaven, has now joined the battle of the Ancients. https://t.co/dE9ptpysps
— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) March 5, 2019
In Valve's announcement, Mars is described as having abandoned his past and is "ready to assume the true mantle of leadership over gods and men, a position he now realizes has been wasted for eons by the petty whims of Zeus."
A melee strength hero, Mars is described as an initiator and disabler. His first skill is dubbed Spear of Mars. This skill sees the hero throw his spear and damage enemy units that it hits. Further, the first enemy hero hit by the spear will be skewered and then pushed back. If a tree is hit, or even a building or cliff, the enemy hero skewered is impaled to the structure and stunned. The spear has a range of 900/1000/1100/1200 with stun duration of 1.6/2.0/2.4/2.8.
Mars' second skill is God's Rebuke, where he smashes enemy heroes in front of him with his shield. Enemies hit with God's Rebuke are knocked back and receive critical hit damage. Since the skills has True Strike, it brings with it bonus base damage. Cast range of God's Rebuke is 500 with critical damage of 160/200/240/280 percent.
The third skill is passive and titled Bulwark. Here, Mars uses his shield to block physical attacks. This skill allows Mars to block attacks from the front or the sides. Reduction to front damage is 25/40/55/70 percent while the side damage is reduced by 12/20/27/35 percent.
His ultimate skill is Arena of Blood, which allows Mars to summon an arena which is lined with the Ash Legion's undead warriors. The arena is able to block both enemy attacks and movement. Enemy heroes inside the arena are attacked by spears and knocked back. Duration of the arena is 5/6/7 with spear damage at 150/200/250.
With regards to gameplay, it remains to be seen just how much impact Mars will have on the meta. Newly introduced heroes have shown to be disruptive enough in the past, especially with all the other balance changes implemented in recent patches. Monkey King and Pangolier continue to be good picks on both public matches and professional games. Grimstroke had a good pick rate before slowing down after changes were done in patch 7.21b.
It should be noted that along with the release of Mars, Valve also released a redesign of Drow Ranger.
