The hotly anticipated 7.31 patch has landed and brought a new hero to the game.
The Primal Beast has joined the ranks of Dota 2, becoming the 123rd hero.
You might have seen him before if you've played any of the Aghanim's Labyrinth game mode over the last few months, or at least heard about the gigantic behemoth, although he's been scaled down a little to be added into the game.
The Primal Beast is a strength hero with several devastating abilities that can affect both enemies and allies.
What are Primal Beast's abilities?
The hero has four abilities, with an Aghanim's Shard granting a fifth.
Onslaught, ability one, sees the beast charge forward, knocking back allies and enemies, damaging and stunning foes he passes through.
Trample will see the beast stomp around, damaging units in an area around his fists, whilst Uproar will passively provide bonus base damage, accumulating stacks for every instance of 35 damage or more.
When activated, Primal Beast will roar, slowing nearby enemies and granting extra attack damage and armour per stack for seven seconds.
His ultimate ability, Pulverize, sees the beast grab an enemy and slam them into the ground.
Each slam will damage and mini-stun any foes in a 600 AOE radius.
Purchasing an Aghanim's Shard will give the beast a new ability, Rock Throw.
The ability will see Primal Beast throw a rock at the target, stunning and damaging enemies in the area.
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Where can the hero be played?
At the moment there's not much information about how Primal Beast's abilities will impact games.
The beast is listed as "Initiator", "Durable", and "Disabler". Combined with his attack damage of 62-64, and damage-orientated abilities, it's likely we'll see the Primal Beast played as a core.
His talent tree also includes damage and spell lifesteal talents, more commonly seen on carry heroes.
What's the Primal Beast's lore
Until now, the only thing we know about the Primal Beast is from titbits in the Aghanim's Labyrinth game mode.
Fortunately, the Dota 2 hero announcement treated us to a juicy bit of background information on the new hero.
Though the deterioration of the Mistwood and its evolution from idyllic expanse to death-filled tanglewild was a slow, wizard-fueled process, most scholars agree the true beginning of the end was marked by the interdimensional arrival of the Primal Beast. A creature hatched into an existence devoid of all feeling but hunger and pain, aeons of carnage shaped the Primal Beast into the apex predator on a planet filled with violent terrors. Desperately banished by would-be masters with failed hopes to control him, the Beast was cast into a new world; one where he could ascend from mere hungry predator into an invasive killing machine with nothing able to stand in his way.
For thousands of years, the Mistwood served as undisputed stomping ground for the Beast's destructive play; until one tiny annoyance employed vile trickery to trap the unstoppable Beast in the Gleipnir. There he might have remained subdued for eternity, were it not for the unpredictable powers of the Continuum Device. Now, freed from both Gleipnir and Vault, far afield from the Mistwood, and much closer to inhabited lands, the Beast sets his snout towards new slaughters and the delights of savage destruction; and the paltry fires of civilization will do little to keep this ageless monster at bay.
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