Valve has been forced to disable Lone Druid after Dota 2 players discovered a nasty bug involving a neutral item interaction that can crash matches almost at will. The hero will remain unavailable until the developers find a fix for the druid and his spirit bear companion.
The bug gained traction in the lead-up to last weekend, with Dota 2 devs ultimately pulling the plug on Lone Druid in a small update on Aug. 10. Lone Druid won’t be available to select in any mode as the bug stems from an interaction between the hero and his spirit bear. After transferring an active neutral item from the bear to the hero and back, any command then issued to the bear would crash the server and end the game for everyone.
Whether it be teleporting the bear to Lone Druid’s location, selling an item from the bear at a shop, or using an active item on an ally or enemy, the server would freeze up and kick everyone to the main menu. Lone Druid players could essentially hijack a game if they were losing, or accidentally break the server doing something that is otherwise considered normal in Dota.
Lone Druid did receive a Facet refresh in Patch 7.37 two weeks ago that involves the player inventory and item limits, but it’s been proven by fans that Facet selection plays no part—the bug can be replicated regardless of this choice.
It’s one of many Dota 2 bugs that have been quashed following 7.37’s release, but unlike a few of those glitches, the Lone Druid bug was about as gamebreaking as they come. There has been a sharp rise in the number of deadly bugs or exploits in Dota recently; notably, the Meepo exploit back in July that saw players duplicate neutral items was fixed quickly but didn’t involve Valve disabling the hero from the queue.
As Dota‘s devs up the game’s complexity, there are countless interactions that players will come across—some of which may not have been tested properly before arriving on the client. Given The International is just few weeks away, it’s hoped Valve can iron out all the kinks like the Lone Druid bug before the biggest celebration in Dota begins.
