New Dota 2 hero - who is he?

There is just over a week left before the end of the Battle Pass and Aghanim's adventures. Valve plans to release update 7.31 for Dota 2 on February 23rd.

But what will be in this patch, and should we expect a new hero?

Rumors about new heroes in Dota 2 that have not yet released in the game appeared in August 2020. The gaming community was pleasantly surprised by the announcement of 3 new heroes that were supposed to appear in 2021. As a result, dataminers began to rapidly collect information on possible heroes. After researching the game data, they came to the conclusion that players should expect the following heroes: Fenrir (primal beast), Freya (valkyrie) and Puppet Master.

In the end, over the course of a year, Valve kept its promise and released 3 heroes, but they were not what the community was waiting for.

And if the players were still expecting to see Hoodwink, since dataminers had previously found references to this hero, then the release of Dawnbreaker and Marci was unexpected for the public.

Earlier, namely on July 15, 2020, Valve prepared a new event for players. The first version of this event was called "Aghanim's Labyrinth", where the final boss was the same Aghanim, and many players began to assume that this particular character would become a playable hero in the future. But at that time, not a word was heard from Valve, and dataminers could not find anything.

On December 15, 2021, an update was released in Dota 2, in which the developers added the second version of the Aghanim's Labyrinth: The Continuum Conundrum event. In it, you could meet that Primal Beast, but really as a boss. But is there any reason to believe that Primal Beast could be the next Dota 2 hero?

This character has a well sculpted model and attacks, many fans again suggest that Primal Beast may join the official Dota 2 roster as a playable hero.

The first piece of evidence is a file with each hero's minimap icon. All the faces of the characters are taken from one image, which contains variants of the arcana and characters. The same file previously leaked the Drow Ranger arcana and Mirana personas. Primal Beast has its own minimap icon, which is very similar to those used by most existing heroes. Most non-hero enemies of Aghanim's Labyrinth have no icon at all and appear as dots like creeps.

The quality model of Primal Beast is another reason he could be the next hero. In Aghanim's Labyrinth, the model is enlarged to emphasize his role as the final boss. His back is highly detailed and his face has many expressions that change depending on which move he uses.

When and if Primal Beast is added as a playable Dota 2 hero, his abilities will undergo significant changes.

It is possible that Valve may leave his skills that are in Aghanim's Labyrinth: Arcane Continuum, making only balance changes. But if you look at the list of talents and skills that were leaked by dataminers, you can also assume that it will be reworked.