Huge Dota 2 Diretide update adds two new heroes

Valve has revealed the hotly-anticipated Diretide update for multiplayer online battle arena game Dota 2, set to be rolled out from today.

Highlights include the addition of two new heroes, an in-game coaching system, crafting and socketing systems, and the new showcase camera view.

The two new heroes are Earth Spirit and Ember Spirit, both cousins of Storm Spirit.

The new coaching system supports experienced players teaching a friend to play, or an inexperienced player inviting an experienced friend to teach them. You can warm up in a one-one-one training session, then get your entire team together for a session with a professional player.

If you're a coach you can jump into the eyes of your students to see what they're seeing, and even draw on the ground and the mini-map to help guide them. You can also ping elements on their HUD to explain them. Supporting all this is a private communication channel.

You can coach three students at the same time or work with another coach on a single student, or combine multiple combinations of coaches and students in a single team.

The new showcase view lets you zoom into the battlefield. If you open a replay and use showcase view you can set up different angles to watch the match. Activate it by clicking on the icon on the left side of your hero portrait.

The Diretide update adds all this alongside a number of gameplay, system and graphics tweaks. The patch notes in full are on the Dota 2 website.

Other highlights: colourblind and closed-captioning options have been added to the game, as well as a new last hit training mission.

Changes to the economy are implemented - and Valve admits the Diretide update may "greatly disrupt market prices".

"In order to prevent items being purchased at pre-update prices for arbitrage, we are removing all item listings and returning them to their owners," Valve explained. "While this removal process is taking place, new items will not be able to be listed on the Steam Community Market."