[Megathread] DotA 2

[Longview]

That's definitely an interesting concept. Putting him as a 3, perhaps, in a similar position as Dark Seer, but rushing scepter over mek, to completely nullify the mek, and any other healing they bring, on top of its massive damage during teamfights.

It's a shame it wouldn't work through bkb, but with the nerf to it, scepter could still be viable later in the game. Perhaps a counterpick to Chen, as well.

Yeah it's cool in theory, but he runs into the same issue as a lot of other potentially interesting heroes to run: Where do you lane him?

Mid? Not impossible after bottle-crow nerf. You'd need to win your other lanes. He's not that great at anything middle lane except for making people run back, forcing them to miss last hits. He works well against Shadow Fiend and virtually every melee hero, but a lot of heroes shit on him.
Safe lane farm? No way. If you run him as a farming (chain-pulling) support hero, there's no way he's going to get that Aghanim's Scepter in any reasonable time frame.
Off lane farm? Needs +1 to even stand under tower.

[PizzaSHARK]

Agreed, people who buy eul's on AA make me...very sad...

Unless enemy team has a blink hero. Nothing better than destroying the 900 HP QoP because you have what is a guaranteed stun if you time it well.

Honestly, though, all AA players should probably be rushing scepter against any comp in the game at this point. His ultimate alone basically does laguna blade damage over its full duration, not mention the pure utility of them not being able to heal at all (mek, IV, lifestealing...).

Yep. A lot of the new and improved scepters seem to be pushing people into the idea of (gasp!) giving supports some actual farm so they can get these scepters. Omni's scepter gives his team an extra glyph or allows him to assist any teamfight even from across the map. Lion's scepter gives him a 1000 damage nuke every 20 seconds (Dagon 5 on steroids, basically.) Silencer's scepter gives him a global range nuke that hits for ~300 damage and burns ~200 mana on top of a lengthy silence. AA's scepter, as you mentioned, basically shuts out affected heroes from any and all forms of regen or healing for 17 seconds and instantly kills them if they hit 10%. Necro's scepter prevents buyback.

I really hope these super-good scepters start making teams consider giving their supports more farm; I don't see the need to have a roided out Anti-Mage at 40 minutes if you can just share the farm among all heroes on your team a bit more equally and win the game at 25 minutes because even your Crystal Maiden isn't dying in two hits.

Also, everyone needs to see this. EVERYONE:

[Morally Grey Storm]

Yep. A lot of the new and improved scepters seem to be pushing people into the idea of (gasp!) giving supports some actual farm so they can get these scepters. Omni's scepter gives his team an extra glyph or allows him to assist any teamfight even from across the map. Lion's scepter gives him a 1000 damage nuke every 20 seconds (Dagon 5 on steroids, basically.) Silencer's scepter gives him a global range nuke that hits for ~300 damage and burns ~200 mana on top of a lengthy silence. AA's scepter, as you mentioned, basically shuts out affected heroes from any and all forms of regen or healing for 17 seconds and instantly kills them if they hit 10%. Necro's scepter prevents buyback.

I really hope these super-good scepters start making teams consider giving their supports more farm; I don't see the need to have a roided out Anti-Mage at 40 minutes if you can just share the farm among all heroes on your team a bit more equally and win the game at 25 minutes because even your Crystal Maiden isn't dying in two hits.

Also, everyone needs to see this. EVERYONE:

this video is most awesome indeed

on topic of farming supports, tho: for the last 30~ matches since 4th June patch, I've seen 1(one) Lucy with Agha, and 1(one) AA, who literally rushed Agha with nothing but basic boots, and did it at, like, 40th minute mark.

[PizzaSHARK]

Agh on Doomy is still worthless. Doom already lasts for 20 years without scepter and while infinite Doom sounds fun, in practice you're better off buying Refresher and having two unlucky sacks of shit doomed at the same time.

AA can't farm very well so scepter is hard to get for him, but it'd be worth making the effort; the scepter upgrade is very good.

[Anaralah]

Playing doom any other way than carry is worthless imo , alpha wolf is just too good not to base your build around it , just get boots+sblade+armlet and start critting for 500

[PizzaSHARK]

Playing doom any other way than carry is worthless imo , alpha wolf is just too good not to base your build around it , just get boots+sblade+armlet and start critting for 500

I rush Necrobook and go aurawhore/utility. Especially now that Vlad's and AC stack, it seems like the best way to go. Necrobook 3 at 15 mins is utterly gamebreaking and adding auras like AC and Vlad's supports your team's carry and makes necrominions even stronger; they have extremely low BAT so any IAS you can give them dramatically amps their damage. It's also hilarious because necro3 minions at that early stage of the game, people have to be super super paranoid about killing the melee creep because 600 pure dmg isn't a joke; you can pretty much chase people with the melee creep at low life, daring them to fight back. I've watched a kotl go from full to like 15% because I ran my melee creep into an illuminate.

Necro3, vlad's, and then something else depending on team... AC, blink, maybe pipe. Usually eat a centaur for the IAS aura for necrominions, blink dagger becomes really good then. The only thing you need is something to keep people still while the necrominions pound on them, centaur stomp works well for that, you could also build atos (but IMO buying HP on Doomy is a waste because of how high his STR is already, all he needs is armor.)

I like to aim for something like Necro3, Vlad's, AC, Shiva, Refresher, and Boots of Travel as a final six slot setup. You're really hurting their team as long as you're alive, but killing a Doomy with 30 armor is pretty tough.

[Lysah]

Playing doom any other way than carry is worthless imo , alpha wolf is just too good not to base your build around it , just get boots+sblade+armlet and start critting for 500

I agree completely. Only build worth mention other than alpha armlet is blink centaur/ursa in my opinion, which is pretty much the same as necro3 because I'd probably buy that second now. Tank build is garbage, caster build is garbage, just doesn't compare to Doom's carry potential. And you rarely need doom to last more than 12 seconds on somebody.

And killing Doom with 30 armor is easy, just pick TC and one shot him with a PA crit.

[Scummer]

Tbh besides not going for Scepter I have no idea what the best way is to build Doom. What's the reason for Radiance? I see it used on only certain heroes yet I've got no idea why.
Another hero I'm unsure as to how to build is DK, I usually play him with treads, sr, armlet and then build from there depends on what I'm against. But I see a lot of competitive players go shadow blade and drums on him. Is that a better build?

[Longview]

Radiance has really fallen out of favour on a lot of heroes. The reasoning for getting Radiance on Doom is that it makes killing Doomed targets even easier. Plus, his base attack damage is pretty shitty, he likes to get up close to fight, it sorta counters Blink Dagger (Blink Dagger range is longer than Radiance burn), it counters Heart of Tarrasque.

You can build Radiance on virtually every hero, and it works if you can get it early enough. I see it sort of like building Dagon - buy it when you're ahead to stay ahead. If you can start pushing towers and forcing team fights before 20 minutes with Radiance, that's some easy-ass towers in most games. If you have a lot of unreliable gold and you get ganked once/twice, just go for something else.

[Deleted]

Tbh besides not going for Scepter I have no idea what the best way is to build Doom. What's the reason for Radiance? I see it used on only certain heroes yet I've got no idea why.

Radiance is mostly used if you can rush it fast enough (Doom, Alch, Enigma, etc, though anyone with freefarm works) as the enemy can usually do very little against the rad burn when their health is still low and you're doing 5% of their health every second and you're hitting for 20%+.
A lot of other heroes, primarily illusion-based heroes can use it to jungle as the rad burn still radiates from illusions and iirc doesn't even aggro camps, Siren could quite easily send illusions out to every camp and enjoy the free gold. (Though if you're planning on AFKfarming, Rad isn't the best choice)

Another hero I'm unsure as to how to build is DK, I usually play him with treads, sr, armlet and then build from there depends on what I'm against. But I see a lot of competitive players go shadow blade and drums on him. Is that a better build?

Armlet is carry build while Lothar's is roaming build. Depends on what you want. *shrug*

[Anaralah]

Idea about radiance is that you build it on heroes that can farm it very fast at about 17 min mark and also can stay alive during teamfight to use it to its full extend , dooms devour helps him get that radiance very fast and his str gain allows him to be a tanky hero , best way to build doom (imo) is first of all getting an armlet (this is true for any right clicker str hero) , besides armlet logical picks are shadow blade , assault curiass , mkb , abyssal , heart depending on your choice and the situation ( i am not even counting bkb as it is kind of core on any carry depending on the enemy team composition).

DK is usually played on pro scene as a mid hero and he is build as a teamfight tank where he stand in the front lines and soaks brunt of the enemy , ideal inventory for this role by lvl 16 would be threads/drums/bkb/plate mail , this is assuming an even game , you might also get hyperstone before getting a plate mail if enemy team is built around magical damage.
On the other hand a "carry dk" usually takes a lot of items to deal compareable damage to other carries , by the time you have threads/armlet/bkb/mjolnir/daedalus you can start hurting ppl and after that getting an abyssal would be ideal.Shadow blade is good item for any hero and it makes mid game of DK alot better , if you want to gank/teamfight early and need to deal damage shadow blade is always a good choice.

[Scummer]

Are there good trading sites for items?
I found a Jugg mega-kills announcer a while ago and hope I can get an axe one for it off somebody .

[Shuji V2]

First result on google: http://dota-trade.com/

Not sure if it's any good, but it looks good enough.

[Lillpapps]

Are there good trading sites for items?
I found a Jugg mega-kills announcer a while ago and hope I can get an axe one for it off somebody .

I have found Dota2 Lounge to be the easiest site to trade at. You can also bet on pro games.

[reckoner04]

Someone gifted me Dota 2 on Steam but apparently I only got the spectator version (isn't that one free anyway?). I had already read a few guides for beginners so I was quite disappointed to find out I couldn't really play. Does anyone have a spare key to give away? If someone sends me one I will edit this part out.

I also got a question: Does Dota 2 balance get patched a lot? From what I read I think there are not that many changes, so it wouldn't be a problem if I read older guides or watched older videos, right? For example the abilities should still have the same effects etc.

[Deleted]

Are you sure you added it to game library? It could still be in your inventory on Steam. If it's not, add this guy

He asked me to post it

[Longview]

I also got a question: Does Dota 2 balance get patched a lot? From what I read I think there are not that many changes, so it wouldn't be a problem if I read older guides or watched older videos, right? For example the abilities should still have the same effects etc.

Major patches come roughly twice every year. You can find relevant changelogs here.

[PizzaSHARK]

Tbh besides not going for Scepter I have no idea what the best way is to build Doom. What's the reason for Radiance? I see it used on only certain heroes yet I've got no idea why.
Another hero I'm unsure as to how to build is DK, I usually play him with treads, sr, armlet and then build from there depends on what I'm against. But I see a lot of competitive players go shadow blade and drums on him. Is that a better build?

I tend to just tank up; while DK can do some good damage, I don't really feel that's his best role and feel he's better off being this fat dragon sitting in the middle of a teamfight with his 3 second stun and free ranged AOE Skadi. Pipe, Shiva, Necrobook, even Meka are all favorites on him. Force Staff is also really good on him since it means you aren't reliant on your ulti to be able to actually use that retardedly OP stun of his. DK with Pipe and Shiva/AC is hilariously hard to kill, you don't even need (or really want) a BKB.

And I like Necrobook on just about everyone. I swear to god that item is criminally underused in pubs and even in pros.

[Ragu4]

Does anyone else think that their should be a separate queue for teams? If there is, then I guess i'm just pissed at how inept my teammates are. I try to do ANYTHING that isn't auto attacking creeps, my team just can't react or handle extremely basic commands. I ended up just leaving and knew there would be no hope at all. Maybe I need a break from Dota for awhile. I just cannot comprehend that you have played a minimum of 100 games and still don't know the extreme basics of the game, like NOT trying to kill someone when your at 100hp and theyre at full just cause you have a stun. I'd rather play marvel heroes, at least you supposed to mash the attack button, too bad the game is painfully mediocre. So angry right now! I need pills.
1

[Deleted]

Does anyone else think that their should be a separate queue for teams? If there is, then I guess i'm just pissed at how inept my teammates are. I try to do ANYTHING that isn't auto attacking creeps, my team just can't react or handle extremely basic commands. I ended up just leaving and knew there would be no hope at all. Maybe I need a break from Dota for awhile. I just cannot comprehend that you have played a minimum of 100 games and still don't know the extreme basics of the game, like NOT trying to kill someone when your at 100hp and theyre at full just cause you have a stun. I'd rather play marvel heroes, at least you supposed to mash the attack button, too bad the game is painfully mediocre. So angry right now! I need pills.
1

There is, it's called team matchmaking. I'm not really sure what you're getting at here, if you're solo queuing then why would it matter, and if you're not, why are your teammates so bad?