Dota 2 Summer Client update: New armory, player behavior system, bug fixes, and more

As Dota 2 fans gear up for the season-concluding tournament The International 2023, Valve recently revealed the Summer Client Update. It brings several new mechanics and interfaces to the decade-old game for players to experience. This includes a new armory, a new player behavior system, new rendering features, bug fixes, and a whole lot more.

The changes to the armory and the player behavior system were a long time coming, with Valve itself acknowledging:

"One of the side effects of a game with 10 years worth of new features and interfaces is... well, sometimes things can get a little complicated."

Well, better late than never, as the old adage goes. Nevertheless, read on to learn about all the details of the Dota 2 Summer Client update.

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Everything you need to know about the Dota 2 Summer Client update

New Dota 2 armory awaits players in-game

With the latest update, Valve has "created a simplified single interface for everything it’s possible to do with items, from buying and selling to previewing and equipping." The browsing interface will allow players to view items they own and don't.

They can now mix and match cosmetic items on a hero and then demo them, irrespective of whether they own the said items or not. This is a breath of fresh air as it allows players to review how each cosmetic piece will go with the other before they purchase it.

A new armory system (Image via Dota 2)

The Global Item sections have also been revamped, with developers assuring that it will be easier to find and equip non-hero cosmetics like couriers, wards, and Roshan replacements.

Other major highlights of the new armor are:

• Item highlighter
• Duplicate stacks
• Sort by market value

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New Dota 2 player behavior system to better the in-game experience

Much like any other multiplayer game played online, the Dota 2 community has a fair share of good and bad players. While the former uplifts the team aspect and the entire experience, the latter can leave one with a bad taste in the mouth, especially after a particularly crushing defeat.

The latest Summer Client update tries addressing these with a number of improvements and mechanics. The developers stated:

"Because this system is going to rely on accruing a large amount of data, it’s obviously going to get more accurate over time. This means that, at least at the outset of these changes, we’ll likely be more conservative in the actions we take. We will always act on the data we have the most confidence in; we hope you’ll be patient with us while we build that confidence, and your trust."

A personalized matchmaking system will now attempt to ensure players have higher chances of pairing up with others they have enjoyed playing with before instead of those they didn't. Players they commend will be more likely to be considered in future matchmaking, whereas players they dislike through the newly added button will be less preferred for future matches.

Furthermore, the game will notify players when it has taken action based on their reports and feedback.

Get notified when action is taken (Image via Dota 2)

A new reporting system has been implemented that will let players report Toxic Chat, Toxic Voice, Smurfing, Griefing, Cheating, and Role Abuse. This can be done during the game or after.

Furthermore, there's no cap on reporting, and players can report either team. The developers further stated:

"All reports automatically take into consideration a wide range of supporting hard data: a Griefing report knows whether someone destroyed their items, and a Smurfing report looks at both gameplay and account properties."

Interestingly, Valve stated that there will be real-time processing of toxic chat from here on. If their text is deemed to be problematic or toxic, they will be quickly voice and chat muted for everyone until the end of the game.

New player behavior system (Image via Dota 2)

While the offending player will still be able to use pings, alt-clicks, and pre-set chat wheels, there's an added caveat. All these will take place on a 30-second cooldown. It appears the developers are coming down hard on the rampant text toxicity that exists in general Dota 2 matches.

Along with their behavior score between 0 and 10,000, players will now receive a communication score based on their in-game chat and speech interactions. The announcement stated:

"Current behavior scores carry over into the new system, but the cap for both new behavior score and communication score has increased to 12,000."

While earlier, a Dota 2 player's behavior score only affected those they got matched with in future matches, it will now impact features like post-game item drops, game pausing, and ranked play.

Furthermore, communication scores will impact pinging ally abilities, coaching, tipping, text, and voice chat. If it falls too low, they will have their text and voice muted, with other communication being on a 30-second cooldown.

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Map rendering has been updated

The announcement post revealed three map rendering updates with the Summer Client update.

Shadows after update (Image via Dota 2)

Particle Lighting will now appear more clearly and distinctly on terrain and heroes, with lights being added to new sources like tower attacks.

Dota 2 players will once again be able to see clouds casting shadows, with sun shadows being in higher resolution. Finally, Valve has tweaked the contrast in darker map regions and dialed it up.

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The developers also revealed they were introducing various Dota 2 bug fixes with the latest update:

• New: Bounty rune spawn locations now show on the minimap before the horn using desaturated icons.
• New: Added an option to rebind the Alternative Cast Ability switch key under the Advanced Hotkeys Interface tab.
• New: Optimized Dota's network traffic. Dota will now use a little less bandwidth all the time. and a lot less bandwidth sometimes (for example, in illusion-heavy gameplay).
• Fixed Invoker Wex sometimes granting the wrong amount of mana regeneration.
• Fixed Allied Heroes being able to refresh a Hand of Midas that doesn't belong to them.
• Fixed Wraith King skeletons sometimes ignoring Wraithfire Blast when selecting their target.
• Fixed Spirit Breaker having an infinite shield when taking the level 25 talent.
• Fixed Riki's Level 25 Right Talent not displaying the proper cooldown reduction.
• Fixed being able to blink to one specific location off the top left corner of the map.
• Fixed various tooltip issues with Invoker's Ghost Walk.
• Fixed universal heroes not showing up correctly in Ability draft UI tooltips.
• Fixed Overwhelming Blink doing 100 damage over six seconds instead of 100% of the caster's strength over six seconds.
• Fixed Windranger's Agh's upgrade invisibility effect not visually applying for allies.

For more details, check out the entire Dota 2 update here.