Ringmaster is finally in Dota 2 after nearly a year of wait. Naturally, he dropped out of nowhere, as Valve products and events often do, but players quickly caught on that this doesn’t look like the hero we saw in promos, and now even believe Valve scrapped its original design.
Ringmaster has been a long-awaited addition to the rarely-changing and expanding Dota 2 roster, especially because his promotional material and trailers made him look like a genuine terror for heroes. However, looking at the abilities we now have access to, Ringmaster isn’t that scary at all. The character appears to lack many of the skills we saw him perform in the trailers, causing players to think Valve probably redesigned and reworked his kit, which would explain the delays. In numerous Reddit threads including one from today, Dota 2 players went full conspiracy theory, attempting to compare the Ringmaster that was promised compared to the one we have.
“His original concept was scrapped,” one user claimed, adding that they believed Ringmaster “was Rubick levels of complex” and that the “original trailer doesn’t make sense with the abilities we got today.” Many in the thread agreed with them, and also claimed the introduction of Crownfall and its many accompanying events might have impacted the development on Ringmaster, who then had to be toned down to allow for his release. The hero even launched without a Facet of his own, and, though it wouldn’t be the first time, also lacks an Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade for his abilities.
In another thread, players discussed Ringmaster’s ultimate, which looks like a lovechild between Axe’s taunt and Enigma’s Black Hole. The mash-up caused one player to wonder if “we get a random rushed ulti for Ringmaster?” The thread had one of Ringmaster’s apparent abilities from the trailers attached, and those replying hoped that would be his actual ultimate. Hopes of it being attached to the missing Aghanim’s Scepter or Facet are also there, though I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Hero releases in Dota 2 are few and far between, and whenever one does actually come out, it’s usually a big deal. Thematically, Ringmaster is very much on point and much closer to the Dota 2 world than Primal Beast, for example. But what Primal Beast lacks in thematic sense, he makes up for in abilities—something Ringmaster is acutely missing.
