[Update]: Dota 2's Patch 7.33d has nerfed Vanguard, Octarine Core and some of the overperforming heroes.

After a couple of fairly subdued patches that did little to shake up the gameplay, it looks like the Dota 2 team has decided to go all-out with Update 7.33. As such, not only does the freshly released update bring with it an absurd amount of balance tweaks, but it has also massively expanded the map, added a whole assortment of new things to fight over, reworked a bunch of heroes and core gameplay mechanics, and the list goes on for a very, very long time.

I'll avoid going into too many details as we'll otherwise be here for an hour, but here's a quick rundown of the most important bits and pieces that were added with the extended new map:

• Teleport Gates that lead from the top left to the bottom right corners of the map, and vice versa.
• Tormentor mini-bosses that dish out a lot of damage, but also shards for those able to defeat them.
• Two Roshan pits, each close to their respective Teleport Gate. Roshan can be found in the Dire pit during the night, and the Radiant pit during the day.
• Wisdom Runes which have replaced Tomes of Knowledge and offer a sizable experience bounty to whomeever picks them up. Needless to say, they can be stolen by the enemy team if you're not careful!
• The jungles have been redesigned to be more balance between the sides, and there are even new creep camps to plunder.
• Lotus Pools on the left and right side of the map periodically produce magical fruit that can restore a sizable chunk of your health and mana. Perfect for amping up the aggression and preventing the enemy carry from having an easy time farming.
• Watchers are essentially captureable wards sprinkled throughout the map. They can be stolen or disabled by the enemy team, and they only last 7 minutes, but despite all of that you'll definitely want to capture them as keeping tabs on the enemy is always a huge boon.

Whether any of this is balanced, that I'm afraid I have no idea since I've only played a couple of games so far. What I can say for certain, however, is that the new map is a whole lot of fun to mess around with! I especially love all of the new objectives that encourage teams to go deep behind enemy lines as that has frequently resulted in some rather intense fights all throughout the match.

Besides the map changes, Update 7.33. has also added a fourth hero type - Universal. These are heroes that benefit equally from all three stats (Strength, Agility and Intelligence) by getting 0.6 damage per point in each one, which might not sound like much, but is actually quite significant since it allows these Universal heroes to go completely wild with their itemization as everything benefits them.

Add to that yet another rework of how neutral items work, massive changes to heroes like Ogre and Medusa, an absurd amount of tweaks and improvements, and you've got yourself one of Dota 2's most impactful updates in what feels like forever. So if you're even remotely curious, I'd highly recommend you dive in and experience the madness for yourself, especially right now since everyone is likely just as confused as you are!

If you have some time to spare and want to dive into all of the details, you can find the full list of changes, reworks and improvements over at the Dota 2 website. Enjoy, and I'll leave you with the cinematic trailer: