The Primal Beast has been a menace since it came out, with problems ranging from overpowered skills to bugs.
Despite Dota 2 Patch 7.32 being released over a month ago, and several sub-patches and small updates released since then, Primal Beast’s ultimate bug still remains in the game. While the bug itself can technically be avoided, some unsavory characters in the Dota 2 community are, unfortunately, misusing the bug to their advantage.
Copyright: Valve
Since the release of the patch, some players figured out a way to abuse Primal Beast’s Ultimate Pulverize with other abilities that change a Hero’s position, such as Tiny’s Toss, Lion’s Earth Spike, etc.
If Tiny uses Toss while a Hero is being slammed by Primal Beast’s Pulverize, the slammed players can get helplessly stuck around Primal Beast. The recently-added Hero can then carry his trapped enemy to a tower or have teammates come in and kill them. This, needless to say, gives an unjust edge to the team the Heroes are on, and some players have been abusing the bug to gain an unfair advantage and subsequent easy MMR.
Dota 2’s Patch 7.32 came out on September 1, when Valve claimed to have “fixed ability interactions between Pulverize and Dismember” among numerous other updates to balance the game ahead of The International 11. Like most Dota 2 updates, this one has some bugs that players are noticing and misusing to their advantage. As has been emblematic of the company in recent years, Valve has yet to comment on or fix this issue.
Pulverize lets Primal Beast grab an enemy Hero and repeatedly slam them into 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 any enemy gets caught in this AoE, they are damaged and get stunned for a short period of time.
This bug can sometimes not stop even when Primal Beast dies. The stuck players keep appearing inside and outside the map after its death. This renders the game unplayable for those unfortunate players.
The Dota 2 community has been having discussions about the bug on Dota 2’s subreddit. Despite Valve releasing a minor update with Patch 7.32c last week, it seems that the developers have not noticed this annoying glitch and are yet to fix the issue. There is also another bug that lets Dark Seer keep the upgrade of his Aghanim’s Scepter ability even after quickly selling it following purchase.
Abuse of this bug is making players frustrated as most games become irreversibly ruined after a player gets stuck with Primal Beast. The constant feeding drives gold and experience curves in favor of the Primal Beast’s team and makes it near-impossible for the opponents to win.
Until a patch is released to remedy the problem, it’s no surprise that some players might exploit the decisive bugs. This is especially problematic given its timing, as it comes as a threat to the TI11 Last Chance Qualifiers, which begin on 8th of October. Both Tiny and Primal Beast is well within the current meta, and Lion has almost always been a viable pick in the pro scene. This bug might become an issue for both teams drafting the new Hero and teams playing against it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZNQo7Snzro
Upon its release with Patch 7.31 on February 23 this year, Primal Beast was initially touted as an overpowered Hero that could dominate games with its ridiculously imbalanced skill set and stats. However, the Hero has seen many nerfs since and was added to Captain’s Mode and therefore introduced to pro play with the 7.32 update.
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