[Megathread] DotA 2

[Ultraviolet Harmonies]

Can I get a source on that? Because I seriously do hate Techies. Besides that, there have been "feedback" threads up on playdota for a while for Phoenix and Azgalor so it's pretty safe to assume both will see some changes before they're ported to Dota 2.

There's a VOD of it, I'll dig it up. You should take the first part with a grain of salt before I can source that.

Side-note: I like EG.Fear and mean no disrespect pointing out his bad PotM yesterday, he's a very good player.

Fear has no games played as Mirana yesterday.

Ragequit my first game today.

I feel you. It's been closer and closer for me lately. Just today I was queued with (and played against) a two people with less than 20 wins. Both seemed really new to the game. Usually I don't see anyone under 250. It'd be cool if the matchmaking system was a bit more transparent.

For those interested, JD.TobiWan is currently having an Ask Me Anything over at reddit.

[Deleted]

Played some more for a couple of days.
Some new favourites: Witch doctor and Shadow shaman. Shadow shaman's damage is very high with a scepter, quite fun (:

Stepped up from easy bots to normal, and it's going pretty well, so going to up the difficulty again (don't wanna play against people until I know/have seen each ability in the game, and feel more comfortable playing.

Have to say though, playing a support in DotA is way more fun than in LoL, I like =)
The amount of leavers (at least in Botgames) is incredible though...most games end with 3 people versus the bots...if I'm lucky

Small question:

When an item says: +x damage, this only counts towards autoattacks right? Abilities never ever scale with any stats no?

[Freezymcgee]

Its unfortunate that 50% of this thread is Lyash picking fights with people saying "I am gods gift to this Dota and everyone who disagrees is wrong"
You really need to take a timeout from this thread.

On a side note: every time someone rage quits it makes baby jesus cry

[Ultraviolet Harmonies]

When an item says: +x damage, this only counts towards autoattacks right? Abilities never ever scale with any stats no?

The +damage-modifier counts towards your auto attack damage, yes. Some spells are calculated off of your auto attack damage, and are in turn affected by this. Mainly crit-modifiers scale very well with attack damage.

[Finear]

Small question:

When an item says: +x damage, this only counts towards autoattacks right?

yes, items like relic
http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Sacred_Relic
only increase autoattack dmg

Abilities never ever scale with any stats no?

kinda yes, although there are a few exceptions when spell directly scales with stats
e.g.
OD arcane orb scale with mana pool
http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Outworld_Destroyer
and skywrath (not yet implemented ) arcane bolt scale with int
http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Skywrath_Mage

[Esg]

For those who asked about where to find out an idea of next hero coming out http://www.cyborgmatt.com/ is a good place to check, he regularly checks data files and that usually gives a good hint of whos next (although valve has been screwing with his predictions lately on purpose)

[PizzaSHARK]

Played some more for a couple of days.
Some new favourites: Witch doctor and Shadow shaman. Shadow shaman's damage is very high with a scepter, quite fun (:

Stepped up from easy bots to normal, and it's going pretty well, so going to up the difficulty again (don't wanna play against people until I know/have seen each ability in the game, and feel more comfortable playing.

Have to say though, playing a support in DotA is way more fun than in LoL, I like =)
The amount of leavers (at least in Botgames) is incredible though...most games end with 3 people versus the bots...if I'm lucky

Small question:

When an item says: +x damage, this only counts towards autoattacks right? Abilities never ever scale with any stats no?

There's no reason to stay in botmatches. They're purely to learn stuff and dick around, and there's no penalty for leaving. I don't care if people are completely fucking awful at the game in a botmatch, they're where they're supposed to be and not ruining games in regular matchmaking.

Honestly they should just require someone to play like 3 botmatches with a hero on normal difficulty, and win, before they're allowed to use that hero in games against other players. It'd probably go a long way towards reducing the amount of rage and bm in the game.

[Lysah]

Fear has no games played as Mirana yesterday.

The server crashed, believe it or not. This was about thirty seconds before I complained about the servers on MMOC forums. I have no idea if he was streaming. He lucked out, maybe, I don't know. We had ogre soloing bot and I was roaming as rhasta leaving CK solo top against the WR we first blooded. Saving ogre long lane wasn't going easy though, could've been anyone's game.

@Pizza
Don't worry, Valve won't do anything. Did I complain in this thread yet about how I got three losses in a row from the same guy abandoning during picks?

Edit:
And I must say, the servers have been making me real happy lately. A flat out crash is one thing, but not even to get and sort of replay or recognition that the game existed at all? I worked my ass off two days ago going 26-3 as Invoker, just barely saving my team and getting mid rax. We backed off to do rosh to make sure we didn't screw up and get counterpushed, getting ready to take another lane and end it, DISCONNECTEDLOL. And there's no record of me ever playing Invoker that day. At the very least, I would've loved the replay, I had some epic moments with blinkwalls and sun strikes =(

[Deleted]

Don't worry, Valve won't do anything. Did I complain in this thread yet about how I got three losses in a row from the same guy abandoning during picks?

Except that if someone leaves during hero pick (or the next few minutes, like 5 minutes max.) There will be no stats recorded, eg. no losses nor wins. The game will even say when it happens, so you can leave without a loss

[Ultraviolet Harmonies]

The server crashed, believe it or not. This was about thirty seconds before I complained about the servers on MMOC forums. I have no idea if he was streaming.

He was, I was watching on and off. He only kept the first VOD-block, meaning the last hour or so is missing. I don't recall him playing Mirana, but I don't recall him playing Juggernaut either. It does not matter; I'm not calling you a liar. I don't doubt for even a second that you play around his rating.

Namedropping is a pretty normal thing in e-sports. When I played counter-strike professionally, I played ladder games against some people who would go on to win larger tournaments and get sponsored by large companies. Naturally, if I was arguing counter-strike, I have a mental list of names to drop to prove my legitemacy. But really, in the end, it does not matter. Speaking of tournaments, my team is signed up for the open join dota masters on friday. I'm sure that'll be a blast. It's cool to have games you play casted.

[Lysah]

Speaking of tournaments, my team is signed up for the open join dota masters on friday. I'm sure that'll be a blast. It's cool to have games you play casted.

Good luck =p
I tried tournament life for like...one season of CAL. Wasn't fun in the slightest bit. I really don't want to turn a hobby into a job. If I had a team that could be both casual and at least semi decent, maybe it would be more interesting =/

And I don't care much about legitimacy on a WoW forum, it's just people, who I know are virtually guaranteed to be far below me, arguing with me about the dumbest stuff that they're horribly wrong about is annoying. The only names I really remember are people I play ALL the time, like LoLQoP/Warden, I don't even know who these people are, I just know I see their names an awful lot in my games and also on page 1/2 every day of top games.

[Deleted]

Started playing normal games. Did three so far. One thing that was common in all of 'm...

-leavers

First two games we had leavers, last game the opposite team had leavers, it's really really annoying =/

First game was still fun though (my first normal ever!). I was shadow shaman. At the beginning of the game we had a leaver, and a guy that chose drow ranger and decided to keep feeding for about 10 minutes or more.
Then he disconnected and we were only three left, me, rubick and bounty hunter. Their team was brewmaster, riki, witch doctor and 2 others I don't remember (think juggernaut and some druidy guy).

We were slowly losing everything 3vs5. Riki kept roaming and killing us. At some point I decided, what the hell, we're gonna lose anyway, just gonna buy a shitton of vision wards. Boy did that help. We turned around the game. Every teamfight where we had vision wards we managed to kill riki and the rest (shadow shaman ult is awesome I learned).

Was somehow a really fun game, winning 3vs5, but the fact that so many people leave is really annoying =(

[Lysah]

SA is completely crippled by vision, but it early and always in every game you play against him and it's a free win. I've bought gem as early as level 4 for SA games.

[PizzaSHARK]

SA is completely crippled by vision, but it early and always in every game you play against him and it's a free win. I've bought gem as early as level 4 for SA games.

That's one of Riki's strength. Just by being present, he forces the enemy team to piss away gold on gems, sentries, and dusts. Same with Bounty Hunter and Broodmother. Assuming you're doing it right, it leads to an easy gold advantage since your team doesn't have to spend so much on detection.

Riki's also a natural choice for Diffusal Blade, and combined with Smoke Bomb, he's really good at shutting down a lot of heroes.

[Kuntantee]

The amount of leavers (at least in Botgames) is incredible though...most games end with 3 people versus the bots...if I'm lucky

I rarely see leavers in matchmaking.

SA is completely crippled by vision, but it early and always in every game you play against him and it's a free win. I've bought gem as early as level 4 for SA games.

buy gem before riki is invisible...Pro decision.

Added some IDs from search...Check and accept it if it's you, inform me if one of them is not you. Can't wait to see you playing with coL, EG, Na'Vi regularly.

[Ultraviolet Harmonies]

That's one of Riki's strength. Just by being present, he forces the enemy team to piss away gold on gems, sentries, and dusts. Same with Bounty Hunter and Broodmother.

Or pick Slardar/Gondar. There's a few ways to counter Rikimaru.

[PizzaSHARK]

Or pick Slardar/Gondar. There's a few ways to counter Rikimaru.

Tru dat. That still makes Riki a good pick, though - you're forcing the other team to play around your decisions, which gives you the initiative. Would work even better if you're able to ban those two, but I'm guessing that would telegraph WE WILL PICK RIKI to the other team.


Been wondering about playing Clockwerk as a support-y ganker style of hero instead of a standard solo mid people seem to like using him as. Build Basilius if no one else is gonna get it, to be turned into a Vlad's during mid-game if there's a melee on the team that can use it (leave it alone otherwise.) If someone else is getting Vlad's/Aquila/Basilius, leave base with some branches to build wand with later.

Start with a couple of tangos, a couple clarities, two gauntlets (to be turned into bracers later.) If building RoB, lose a clarity and a gauntlet, leave base with Ring of Protection instead. Adjust accordingly if you're tapped to buy chicken/chicken w wings.

Finish ROB immediately if getting ring, otherwise buy a quick magic stick and upgrade to wand when possible. Buy wards/dust/smoke as needed. Buy and finish bracers as you can afford them.

Work out with other support if your team will need both pipe and mek. I think Pipe would be better on CW than Mek, but I haven't tested either. Probably want to turn ROB into Vlad's by 25-35 mins or so if you're the one that's gonna be getting it.

I think the core build would be like either: Magic Wand, Phase Boots, 2x Bracer, Point Booster if you're not getting Vlad's. If you're getting Vlad's, it'd be like Vlad's, Phase Boots, 2x Bracer.

The Point Booster is in the first build because it compensates for the difference in gold requirements compared to the Vlad's build. In either case, CW wants Agha's because it makes his ult ridiculously good. Once you complete your core, Agha's should be built immediately afterwards unless your team desperately needs Mek/Pipe to survive team fights. Agha's also provides a pile of stats and is fairly cheap at 4200g.

Complete build leaves you with 2 slots free /w Vlad's build, 1 slot free /w Wand build, meaning you can always carry TP/sentries/dust/smoke/etc.

Skill build, I'm thinking 1st point into Flares. Lets you last hit (in case your partner leaves the lane or otherwise can't get to them), gives you easy, cheap vision of runes and jungle, and most importantly allows you to completely rob the enemy team of salves/clarities.

Next point into shrapnel, then a point in cogs, another in shrapnel, and alternate the two until both are maxed, stopping for ulti at lvl 6. Cogs are amazingly versatile... you can use them to block, you can use them to escape (drop them in a chokepoint, blast one out of your way, and keep going), and they essentially function as a more annoying Sprout (because you can't kill them immediately /w tangos/culling blade/powershot.) Shrapnel makes it possible for you to farm if the opportunity presents itself, makes channeling anything impossible for enemies, and adds a surprising amount of damage, especially if it's a single target.

Your ulti is your team's initiate and with scepter upgrade, it doubles as an escape function (hook to a teammate/friendly creep.) Flare stays at lvl 1 for a while, stats if you're dying, otherwise pump flares. Means you can't use flares to snipe someone trying to run, but I think shrapnel+cogs guarantees more kills.

[Lysah]

Or pick Slardar/Gondar. There's a few ways to counter Rikimaru.

Not a true counter, you still have to see him first.

@Kuntantee
When did I say SA was level 4? You really need to calm down.

[Alraml]

After seeing so many bad drow rangers I decided to pick her up for a game and see how it went. Despite losing the game it went well for me in the end, something like 9-3 but it surprised me at how bad she is.

Her attack animation is so slow it was painful to me. Won't be playing her again, a hard carry with a slow attack speed is just bad to me. I can think of a long list of other soft/hard carries that can easily dominate her in LH/D

[Lysah]

Drow is probably the single highest sustained DPS in the game, barring absurd luck from some RNG heroes. She comes with a built in eye of skadi if you want it, and an amazing AoE silence to stop her biggest counter in casters/supports. You can do over 100 damage naked as early as level 6, her attack animation keeps her from being stupid.