While most people were expecting the Crownfall update to arrive alongside the Ringmaster hero teased last year, the Dota 2 team has instead released a small but still rather meaningful update. It brings with it a brand new hero ban system, a couple of additions to Dota+, as well as some much-needed balance changes to help keep things interesting.

First and foremost, you can no longer select a hero to potentially get banned at the start of a match. Instead, you're now able to 'lock in' four heroes you never want to see, of which each one has a 25% chance to get banned (even if you leave a spot empty). So it's still not a guaranteed ban, but the new system is a bit more resilient against cheaters targeting specific players, as well as automatic so you won't accidentally pick Tinker just because you missed the banning window by a second... not that I've done that before!

As for the balance changes, the biggest one is the removal of the Divine Rapier + Revenant's Brooch one-shot combo that mostly relied on Divine Rapier's damage bonus stacking with its magic amplification bonus to create some absurdly massive crits. Beyond that you can look forward to a stronger Sand King early game, a generally weaker Lifestealer, and most devastatingly of all, a 3 gold decrease to the Mud Golem's bounty!

You can check out the full patch notes, as well as the exact details behind the new hero ban system, over at the Dota 2 website.

The final thing worth mentioning is that the Crownfall update has not been forgotten! It just needs a little bit more time in the oven. In other words, you can look forward to seeing it and the Ringmaster hero at some point in mid April.

Once that happens, I'll make sure to let you know. Until then, have fun with the new update!