The March 6 Dota 2 update has introduced a bunch of new content to the game, including a major Dota Plus update, new cosmetics, quest rewards, and much more. However, what has excited the hardcore players of the MOBA even more is the newly introduced ‘Dota Labs’ feature added in the update.
The Dota Labs is essentially a set of experimental features available to all Dota players, and a new way for the developers to ship new experiments to the game.
“These are features where our playtesting has produced mixed or ambiguous data,” Valve said in a blog post. “We can’t really know if they’re good or how to make them better without seeing real Dota players using them, so we’re shipping them in an earlier form on purpose so you can tell us whether they’re worth continuing to invest in.”
How To Use Dota Labs in Dota 2
To use the features included in Dota Labs, players can simply head over to the options menu, where they’ll be able to find a new tab named ‘Dota Labs’. Features included as part of Dota Labs are experimental and are likely less polished than features that have already been added to the game. For the same reason, they’re included in a separate menu and are disabled by default.
All Dota Labs Features & Experimental Settings
Here’s a list of all the features and experimental settings included as part of Dota Labs at the time of writing:
- Overlay Map: This feature enables users to bind a key to make the minimap much bigger, transparent, and fixed at the center of the screen.
- Modifier Key Filter Bindings: This is an extremely useful feature that can potentially be used to force your target selection to enemies, allies, creeps or heroes. This can prevent you from accidentally using your big teamfight ultimates (like Doom or Laguna Blade) on creeps.
- High-Visibility Local Hero Healthbar: This setting significantly alters the visibility of your hero’s nameplate, making it more prominent and helping you distinguish it during chaotic teamfights.
These were all the features included as part of Dota Labs at the time of its launch. Valve is likely to ship out more experimental features to the game in future, but they’ve mentioned that they’re currently looking for player feedback on settings that have been shipped to Dota with the Dota Labs update.
