Ever since it emerged, the Primal Beast has been a threat, with problems ranging from excessive skill to bugs.
Despite Dota 2 patch 7.32 being released a month ago, and several sub-patches and minor updates released since then, Primal Beast’s final bug still remains in the game. While the bug is technically avoidable, some obnoxious characters in the Dota 2 community are, unfortunately, abusing the bug to their advantage.
Copyright: Valve
Since the release of the patch, some players found a way to abuse Primal Beast’s Ultimate Pulverize with other abilities that alter a hero’s status, such as Tiny’s Toss, Lion’s Earth Spike, etc.
If Tiny uses the toss while a hero is being slammed by Primal Beast’s Pulverize, the slammed player may be helplessly trapped around Primal Beast. A recently added hero can then lead their trapped enemy up a tower or have teammates come in and kill them. Needless to say, this gives an unfair edge to the team the Heroes are headed, and some players are abusing the bug to gain an unfair advantage and easy MMR later.
Dota 2’s patch 7.32 came out on September 1, when Valve claimed to have “fixed ability interactions between Pulverize and Dismember” among several other updates to balance the game out before The International 11. Like most Dota 2 updates, it has a few bugs that players are noticing and abusing their advantages. As has been a symbol of the company in recent years, Valve has yet to comment or address the issue.
Pulverize lets Primal Beast capture an enemy hero and repeatedly slam them to the ground for a duration of 2.3 seconds (4.6 seconds after level 25 with the right talent). This ability also has an area of effect, and if an enemy gets caught in this AoE, they are damaged and stunned for a short time.
This bug sometimes doesn’t stop even when the primal beast dies. Trapped players continue to appear in and out of the map even after his death. This makes the game unusable for those unfortunate players.
The Dota 2 community has been discussing the bug on Dota 2’s subreddit. Despite releasing a minor update with patch 7.32c last week, it seems the developers haven’t noticed this annoying glitch and have yet to fix the issue. There’s also another bug that allows Dark Seer to keep upgrading his Aghanim’s scepter ability even after he sells it quickly after purchase.
Misuse of this bug is frustrating players as most games are irreversibly ruined once a player gets stuck with Primal Beast. Continuous feeding decreases gold and experience favoring Primal Beast’s team and makes it nearly impossible for opponents to win.
Until a patch is released to address the issue, it’s no surprise that some players may exploit a critical bug. This is particularly problematic given its timing, as it comes as a threat to the TI11 Last Chance Qualifier, which begins on 8 October. Tiny and Primal Beast are both well within the current meta, and Lion has almost always been a viable pick in the pro scene. This bug can become an issue for both the teams drafting the new hero and the teams playing against it.
Released with patch 7.31 on February 23 of this year, Primal Beast was initially touted as an overpowered hero who could dominate the game with his ridiculously unbalanced skill set and stats. However, Hero has seen several nerfs since then and it was added in Captain Mode and hence it was introduced in Pro Play with the 7.32 update.
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