Dota 2 Finally Has a Bard – And He’s a Frog Who Licks People With His Tongue

The Bard Class Finally Arrives After 12 Years

Valve released Dota 2 patch 7.40 on December 15, 2025, introducing Largo, a Strength-based support hero who fills a role the game has lacked since its 2013 release: the bard. “Dota is an ensemble cast, but keen observers looking through the collection of rogues, wizards, druids, and knights may have noticed the absence of that most maligned of hero classes: the bard,” Valve’s announcement teased. Largo changes that by strumming a two-stringed instrument, commanding froglings, and literally licking teammates to safety with his prehensile frog tongue.

This marks the first new Dota 2 hero since Ringmaster launched in January 2024. Before that, Valve released only one hero per year in both 2023 and 2022, signaling a dramatic slowdown in content compared to earlier years when multiple heroes launched annually. The community had grown frustrated with the glacial pace, but Largo’s arrival alongside massive gameplay changes in patch 7.40 demonstrates Valve still cares about expanding Dota’s roster when they have compelling designs.

The patch notes are so extensive Valve couldn’t publish them on Steam. Instead, they created a dedicated website just to contain the changes, which include sweeping hero reworks for Lone Druid and Slark, three new neutral items replacing retired ones, terrain adjustments across the map, and the Winter Treasure 2025 Collector’s Cache featuring 16 cosmetic sets. This isn’t just a new hero drop. It’s a fundamental meta shift that will dominate competitive play for months.

Meet Largo, The Shamanic Frog From Velu’Mar

Largo hails from the Murkroots of Velu’Mar, a living island where he serves as the shamanic head of the bardmonk order. Unlike traditional bards who sing about current events and chord changes, Largo tailors every song to his exact circumstances, raising allies’ spirits or boosting their foot speed as they run toward battle or flee from danger. His frog biology provides unique tactical advantages, particularly his prehensile tongue that has “all kinds of tricks.”

Classified as a durable support, Largo amplifies teammates while debilitating enemies through musical abilities and frog-based crowd control. His kit focuses on keeping allies alive, improving their mana efficiency, pulling targets in and out of danger zones, and summoning froglings that disrupt positioning. When fights escalate, he strums Murkroot classics that bestow powerful team-wide buffs, letting players adjust tempo and tone to suit tactical needs.

Visually, Largo stands out as one of Dota 2’s most whimsical character designs. He’s an anthropomorphic frog with a musical instrument, surrounded by tiny hopping froglings that attack on command. The aesthetic contrasts sharply with Dota’s usual dark fantasy tone, but so did heroes like Hoodwink and Snapfire when they launched. Valve isn’t afraid to inject personality and humor into their character designs, and Largo delivers both in abundance.

Largo’s Abilities Breakdown

• Catchy Lick – Licks target, pulls them short distance, applies basic dispel. Damages enemies, saves allies. Successful dispel grants temporary health regen
• Frogstomp – Launches froglings into area that stomp every second, dealing damage with mini-stuns and movement slow
• Croak of Genius – Reduces mana costs for nearby allies, enabling efficient spellcasting
• Amphibian Rhapsody (Ultimate) – Rhythm mini-game where Largo strums on beat for different song effects. Successful strums grant armor and reduce mana costs, missed beats lose stacks
• Innate Ability – Extends buff durations on self and teammates
• Aghanim’s Scepter and Shard upgrades available at launch

Amphibian Rhapsody Is a Rhythm Game Inside Dota

Largo’s ultimate ability is legitimately one of the most creative hero designs Valve has implemented in years. Amphibian Rhapsody transforms his ability bar into three different song abilities, each with unique effects that activate only if strummed on beat. Largo becomes disarmed during the performance, committing him fully to the support role rather than allowing hybrid auto-attack builds.

Every successful strum on beat grants a stack of Groovin’, each providing bonus armor and reducing mana costs for every song. Miss a beat, and you lose a stack. The skill ceiling is enormous. Bad Largo players will spam abilities off-rhythm and accomplish nothing. Skilled players who nail the timing will chain powerful team buffs while becoming increasingly tanky through armor stacks, turning into unkillable support machines during prolonged team fights.

The rhythm game element adds mechanical depth that separates good Largo players from great ones beyond just positioning and game sense. You need actual timing precision to maximize the ultimate’s value, creating a skill expression avenue similar to Invoker’s spell combos or Rubick’s spell steal decision-making. Whether pro players embrace the mechanical complexity or find it too gimmicky for competitive reliability remains to be seen when The International 2026 meta develops.

Lone Druid and Slark Get Massive Reworks

Patch 7.40 doesn’t just add Largo. It completely overhauls existing heroes, with Lone Druid and Slark receiving the most dramatic changes. Lone Druid gained an entirely new Entangle ability for Sylla himself while his Spirit Bear received its own fully revamped talent tree separate from the hero. This addresses long-standing complaints that Lone Druid felt awkward to play with talent progression split between two units.

Slark became deadlier and more elusive through fundamental kit changes. His signature Essence Shift is now an innate ability rather than a skill point investment, freeing up early levels for other abilities. The new Saltwater Shiv lets him sap enemy health regeneration and movement speed, making him a persistent threat in extended fights where opponents can’t simply heal through his damage or kite away from danger.

These reworks represent Valve’s ongoing effort to modernize heroes designed a decade ago when Dota 2’s meta was completely different. Power creep is real in MOBAs. Heroes that felt balanced in 2015 seem underwhelming in 2025 when newer designs pack more utility and scaling into base kits. Rather than abandoning underperforming heroes, Valve periodically reimagines them with updated mechanics that fit current gameplay philosophies.

Three New Neutral Items, Three Retired

The neutral item pool received significant changes with three new additions and three retirements. Weighted Dice, Idol of Scree’Auk, and Riftshadow Prism join the game, while Helm of the Undying, Sister’s Shroud, and Pyrrhic Cloak get removed. The Helm of the Undying removal is particularly significant given how much the item warped late-game fights by providing free resurrections on a neutral drop.

Neutral items have been controversial since their introduction in 2019’s 7.23 Outlanders update. Critics argue they add too much randomness to a competitive game where skill should determine outcomes. Supporters counter that they create tactical diversity and reward teams who secure jungle control. Valve has refined the system over six years, adjusting tier distributions, adding and removing items, and tweaking power levels to minimize game-deciding RNG while maintaining strategic value.

The specific new items haven’t been fully tested by the community yet, but early theorycrafting suggests Riftshadow Prism could become meta-defining depending on its exact mechanics and tier placement. Whenever Valve adds neutral items, the competitive scene spends weeks discovering broken interactions and optimal timings. Expect the first major tournament after patch 7.40 to feature unexpected item builds and strategies exploiting the new additions.

Map Changes and Terrain Adjustments

Valve implemented numerous map changes ranging from minor path adjustments to major structural updates that fundamentally alter how teams approach certain areas. These terrain tweaks happen most major patches, keeping the map fresh and forcing players to relearn optimal ward spots, gank paths, and rotation timings. Even subtle tree line adjustments can dramatically impact which heroes thrive by opening or closing previously safe farming locations.

The full scope of map changes won’t be understood until pro teams scrimmage extensively and discover which alterations matter competitively. Sometimes seemingly minor changes like adding a cliff or removing a juke path completely eliminate certain strategies or enable new ones. The competitive meta evolves not just through hero balance but through how teams exploit terrain advantages that patch notes barely mention.

One thing is certain: Every Dota player will spend the next week dying because they tried to juke through a path that no longer exists or assuming vision coverage based on outdated map knowledge. Learning new terrain is part of every major patch, and 7.40’s changes are extensive enough that even veteran players will make embarrassing positioning mistakes until muscle memory updates.

Winter Treasure 2025 Collector’s Cache

Alongside gameplay changes, Valve launched the Winter Treasure 2025 Collector’s Cache featuring 16 community-created cosmetic sets priced at 2.65 EUR each. These limited-time treasures fund the community artists who create Dota 2’s best cosmetics while giving players exclusive sets unavailable through normal drops. Collector’s Caches typically become valuable on the Steam marketplace years later when they’re no longer obtainable.

The economic model works well for everyone involved. Artists get paid for quality work. Players get unique cosmetics that appreciate in value. Valve takes their cut while maintaining goodwill by keeping base gameplay completely free. Unlike many modern games that gate competitive advantages behind paywalls, Dota 2 monetizes exclusively through cosmetics, ensuring the only thing money buys is looking cooler while losing ranked matches.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Largo release in Dota 2?

Largo launched December 15, 2025, as part of patch 7.40. He’s available immediately for all players across PC, Mac, and Linux versions of Dota 2.

What role does Largo play?

Largo is classified as a durable support hero, designed to amplify teammates through buffs, control fights with crowd control abilities, and provide utility through mana cost reduction and dispels. He’s a Strength hero but doesn’t function as a traditional tank or carry.

How does Amphibian Rhapsody work?

Largo’s ultimate transforms his ability bar into three song abilities activated by strumming on beat. Successful timing grants stacks of Groovin’ for bonus armor and reduced mana costs. Missing beats loses stacks. It’s essentially a rhythm mini-game inside Dota 2.

Is Largo the first Dota 2 hero in 2025?

Yes, Largo is the only new hero released in 2025. The previous hero was Ringmaster in January 2024, continuing Valve’s pattern of releasing one hero annually since 2022.

Where can I read the full patch 7.40 notes?

The patch notes are too extensive for Steam, so Valve created a dedicated website at dota2.com/patches/7.40 to host the complete changes including hero reworks, item adjustments, and terrain modifications.

What other heroes got reworked in patch 7.40?

Lone Druid and Slark received the most substantial reworks. Lone Druid gained a new Entangle ability and separate Spirit Bear talent tree, while Slark’s Essence Shift became innate and he received the new Saltwater Shiv ability.

Why is Largo a frog?

Largo comes from the Murkroots of Velu’Mar, a living island where his people are anthropomorphic frogs. His biology provides tactical advantages like a prehensile tongue used for the Catchy Lick ability.

Will Largo be competitively viable?

Too early to determine. New heroes typically need weeks of testing before their competitive viability becomes clear. The rhythm game ultimate might prove too mechanically demanding for reliable tournament play, or it could become a defining meta strategy.

The First Bard Is Here

After 12 years and 126 heroes, Dota 2 finally has a proper bard character. Largo fills a thematic gap while introducing genuinely innovative mechanics through the rhythm game ultimate and tongue-based dispel system. Whether he becomes a competitive staple or remains a niche pick for players who enjoy mechanical challenges depends entirely on how pro teams utilize his unique toolkit.

What’s certain is that patch 7.40 fundamentally shifts the meta through hero reworks, neutral item changes, and terrain adjustments that ripple across every aspect of gameplay. The competitive scene will spend months discovering optimal strategies, broken interactions, and counter-play patterns before the next major patch resets everything again. That’s the Dota cycle, and after 12 years, the community wouldn’t have it any other way.

Largo represents what’s best about Valve’s approach to hero design: creative mechanics that couldn’t exist anywhere else, strong thematic identity that makes characters memorable, and skill expression that rewards mastery without becoming inaccessible to casual players. A frog bard who plays rhythm mini-games while commanding smaller frogs that stomp enemies is peak Dota absurdity. Download the patch, hop into a match, and start licking people with your tongue. The bard class has finally arrived.