New hero Mars has arrived in Dota 2

After months of waiting, mysterious Dota 2 hero Mars has arrived.

Though the new addition comes later than its original release window, the character has dropped in Dota 2 after a prolonged silence on its status from Valve.

Mars is a strength-based melee character that will likely be used in the carry position, though he also has the tools to function as a bulky initiator. He owns a unique set of AOE skills specifically designed to knock enemy heroes down and around.

His primary spell is Spear of Mars, an intuitive ability that sees the character hurl his weapon forward. It does damage on contact with each enemy unit in its AOE, but can also skewer an enemy hero and carry them for the spell’s range. If the skewered hero comes in contact with a tree, building, or cliff wall, that hero is stunned for up to 2.8 seconds.

His second spell is God’s Rebuke, which has Mars attack a semi-circle area in front of him. As with Spear of Mars, this spell knocks enemy units back to the end of its AOE, but it has no additional interactions with the environment. It instead inflicts a massive critical hit that scales based on Mars’ damage, making it the hero’s best late-game tool.

Adding some additional heft to Mars is the passive ability Bulwark. This ability functions similar to Bristleback’s titular skill, except it grants bonus physical attack defense for each hit delivered to his front, with half of that bonus granted for attacks from the sides.

His ultimate spell is Arena of Blood, which combines aspects of Disruptor’s Static Field and Monkey King’s Wukong’s Command. When activated, Mars sets up a circular arena which enemies cannot enter or exit. Surrounding the field are untargetable units which attack enemy heroes that move to the inner perimeter of the arena for up to 250 damage with each swing. The arena also grants bonus health regeneration and blocks incoming physical attacks directed at Mars.

Packaged alongside the release of Mars is an updated model for Drow Ranger. The character was not reimagined, but does have a sharper look than the original version.

The update is ready and available for download on Steam.