Red or Green – Dota 2 patch simplifies Watchers colors cover image

Red or Green – Dota 2 patch simplifies Watchers colors

Here’s what the new colors mean for Watchers in Dota 2

The 7.33 Dota 2 Gameplay update brought about significant changes to the map earlier this year. One such change is the introduction of Watchers spread all across the map. The team that controls the watchers gains vision over a small nearby area. In the latest Dota 2 update on May 30, Valve has added a small but very useful change amidst a lot of bug fixes.

What do the Watchers' colors mean?

Watchers are obelisks that act as static permanent wards in Dota 2. They can be captured by clicking on them and channeling for 1.5 seconds. You can cancel the channel at any point by moving away or using an ability, similar to Outposts. 

Previously, Watchers turned Red for Dire and Green for Radiant control. There’s strong logic behind the color choices, but it was also confusing for players. Your team could be controlling the Watcher but because you are on Dire, you will see it Red in color. For most players, Red signifies the color of the opponent and hence the confusion.

Dota 2 players had been demanding a change in this UI to make it easier to understand the control on the map. In the latest update, Valve has implemented Green for friendly control and Red for enemy control.

Bug Fixes

There are several other bug fixes in the latest update as well. Here’s a list of all that’s new in the May 30 Dota 2 update. 

The other big changes include updates to Tormentor and Wisdom Runes. Wisdom Runes grant XP while Tormentors will drop an Aghanim Shard to a random player on the team. However, they also used to consider Abandoned players which meant the waste of XP or a Shard. In the new update, these buildings will only consider players who are still in the game.

May 30, 2023 Dota 2 Update Patch Notes

  • Watchers are now colored based on whether they are controlled by your team (matching minimap coloration), rather than whether they are controlled by Radiant and Dire.
  • Auto-selected summoned units no longer close the shop UI.
  • Wisdom Runes no longer consider players who abandoned when finding a second player to grant XP.
  • Tormentor no longer considers players who abandoned when finding a player to grant shard.
  • Tormentor no longer considers heroes who have no shard upgrades/abilities when finding a player to grant shard.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Tormentors to not play their idle or flinch animations.
  • Fixed a bug where a hero would have to have a second Dust available in order for the damage or movement speed penalty to apply to enemies encountering the Dust.
  • Fixed Alchemist's Unstable Concoction Throw not triggering Phylactery.
  • Fixed an inconsistency where Dark Willow's Shadow Realm would not behave as if the unit were invisible for a number of abilities.
  • Fixed a crash when Earth Spirit creates many Stone Remnants and then casts Magnetize affecting at least one enemy unit.
  • Fixed Earthshaker leap being interrupted if he is debuff immune and gets a stunned applied on him (that does not pierce debuff immunity).
  • Fixed Gyrocopter's Flak Cannon modifier not updating its attacks remaining when refreshed.
  • Fixed Hoodwink's Acorn Shot, Medusa's Mystic Snake, Tinker's Laser, and Zeus' Arc Lightning not properly applying when casting hero has a Phylactery and a low-health unit is targeted.
  • Fixed Legion Commander's Overwhelming Odds radius indicator showing the incorrect radius.
  • Fixed Ogre Magi lvl25 talent 17% Chance for Fireblast on Attack no longer applying if the player buys and then sells/unequips Aghanim's Scepter.
  • Fixed a bug with Outworld Destroyer's Astral Imprisonment where, when a stack of Astral Imprisonment debuff was removed, mana as well as max mana might be restored.
  • Fixed Shadow Fiend's Necromastery tooltip incorrectly stating losing 40% of souls on death, when the real value is 30%.
  • Fixed Spirit Breaker Charge of Darkness occasionally continuing past death, leading to the ability being on indefinite cooldown and no longer usable.
  • Fixed Eimer Hillburrow courier not being selectable.
  • Fixed various tooltip issues.
  • Fixed various relics.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Dota 2 news and updates.