I haven't played in ages but innates / facets seem like a big deal, no?
Dota 2
Yeah, absolutely. it's a huge change.
Do Dota2 players even keep up with this? I tried to come back but checked out when I saw random neutral drops. It was always a bit overwhelming but it looks more and more insane every time I do it.
I just started playing again a couple months ago. Read the abilities on your favorite 1-3 heroes, test the ability in the demo if it's something completely new. And then just hop into all pick and play. You'll learn everything again faster than you think
It's easy to keep up with if you stick with it, I'd wager. But as someone who's been out for a couple years now it's less about going in with ~perfect knowledge like in the past and more about making as good a decision as you can in the moment. Don't need to know all the neutral items, just need to read the three they give me and pick my favorite for the situation.
Idk, I honestly love the direction they've been taking. Feels like the meta becomes slower to solve each time they expand things and there's so much room to play casually now it's kind fun. Like these facets give, in some cases, completely different ways of playing some of these heroes and that's incredibly cool.
Imo, it's not important to memorize everything. Every patch changes something (sometimes something small like here armor adjustment on something). The general game play loop has never changed. Be aware of the map, get last hits/denies, work with team, play and build for your role/position, be cognitive of your positioning, etc.
It will be interesting to see how facets affect drafting. I think it will make drafts a lot more interesting to watch because it will be harder for teams to make predictions and counter-pick accordingly.
Also, I've only gone through a small fraction of the patch notes, but has status resistance been completely removed from the game now?
Nope - it was removed from sange and halberd, but stayed on S&Y (while slow resistance was added). Status resistance is just more expensive now.