It’s been just over one week since the Dota 2 Battlepass has been released. In that time there have been two significant changes. The latest one is the removal of Sithil and Quirt’s reimagined Sideshop. Weekly Wagering was also changed.
Let’s start with the Sideshop. Originally this was an in-game feature which was eventually removed. For this year’s Battlepass, the Sideshop functioned more like a mini-game with mechanics similar to Dota Underlords. Players could “hire” heroes using gold earned and then sell those heroes in return for gems. The gems could then be used to get special rewards.
According to a report at EarlyGame, the Sideshop didn’t see a positive reception from many players, with some of them calling this feature as “a casino within a casino.” It didn’t help that the gold that can be used to buy heroes was already limited. The ways to get more gold were limited as well. One way to get gold was to recycle unwanted items and this is where it became troublesome for Valve. In the past, recycling these items either gave players additional levels on their Pass or added to the progress to their chest.
Any rewards earned previously in the Sideshop remain in the inventories of the players. However, for those who still have gold and want to continue rolling, they can do so by using the dota-show_sideshop command.
That’s not the only thing that was changed. Early this week, Valve revealed in a post that they received “feedback from the community that leveling feels harder this year.” Compared to last year, players on average earned 1.95% more free levels. Considering only players who after one week were below level 200, players on average earned 7.91% more free levels compared to the past year. Valve did say that they “recognize that players still feel that they wish playing granted more.”
Because of this, the wagering battle point rewards were increased by 50% with Guild contract battle point rewards upped by 100%. There were also increases for the Sideshop, but with it being shut down, that’s no longer necessary.
The latest update released now brings back the amount of weekly battle points available from wagering to the same level as last year.
This new update now also allows immortals to be recycled using the same system as the last year. So for players that have already recycled immortals, the system automatically back fills the progress under the new system while also giving players an extra immortal treasure as needed.
Finally, the update also removes the need for a ticket to join the Gauntlet.
What are your thoughts on these changes? Did you like or dislike the Sideshop? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
