Dota Plus is a monthly subscription service for Valve's MOBA

Dubbed "an evolution of the Battle Pass", Dota Plus is priced at $3.99 (Rs 260 approximately) each month.

Valve has announced a new monthly subscription service for their MOBA game Dota 2, called Dota Plus, which provides plenty of extra features for fans to make use of, including the fact that every game with a hero now earns you XP towards that hero's level progress, unlocking new tiers of hero level badges to grant Reward Shards and Hero Chat Wheel responses. I feel for all the DOTA players, at $3.99 a month, this smells like another one of those "Make you an offer you can't refuse" type things. Valve is selling Dota Plus as a replacement for all this with some added bonus. The Dota Plus site that describes the Assistant's goal says that it'll suggest items that should be purchased, abilities that should be leveled based on what lane players are in and on the compositions of both teams, and will even suggest heroes for players to pick before the game based on what allies and enemies have already picked.

That is all standard fare of a subscription within a free to play game, but where things get unusual are with the addition of "Plus Assistant". While the subscription is still brand new, features like the Plus Assistant already have some players questioning whether the feature borders on pay-to-win territory. A post-game analytics screen will wrap everything up with a full-game performance comparison based on multiple metrics and a breakdown of damage dealt by and to each hero based on sources abilities, summoned units, and attacks. And in case you are confused about which hero to pick, Plus Assistant will suggest that as well.

And while a number of the new features offered to subscribers are also purely cosmetic, the plan includes access to an in-game digital advisor that gives paying players on-the-fly advice for character selection, item builds, and ability upgrades. Non-subscribers will have to buy tickets for $1.

And while the scheduling is gone, some seasonal flavor will remain: Dota Plus subscribers will get "Seasonal Terrain" visual elements on the map that will be active during each season.