[Megathread] DotA 2

[Kurdiern]

What

The featured hero has bugged out on me many times also. Nothing like seeing a naked Bounty Hunter with Shadow Shamans hex sticks.

[Ichy]

since the bug has veno pictured, I have to say I miss the old veno a bit. Never liked wards much, but loved doing Poison sting (attack modifier ability) and stats till PS was maxed (meant skipping ulty) and just pushing any one I wanted out of lane early game which later lead to late game ownage... tried it about 2 weeks ago, didn't work all that great, and it seems wards are better to max out now : /. Though there was always exceptions to who I could push out, like heavy healing or cc heros that counterd with maxing their cc/heal first instead of a nuke.

[Lysah]

I don't really believe the dota1 SS, it seems unbelievable to me that he'd change the game this drastically when the current area for Rosh works...

[Finear]

I don't really believe the dota1 SS, it seems unbelievable to me that he'd change the game this drastically when the current area for Rosh works...

well i took that last 2 screenshots
it may be fake or just internal test version

[Lysah]

well i took that last 2 screenshots
it maybe fake or just internal test version

I'm calling fake until it actually goes live.

[Valedus]

since the bug has veno pictured, I have to say I miss the old veno a bit. Never liked wards much, but loved doing Poison sting (attack modifier ability) and stats till PS was maxed (meant skipping ulty) and just pushing any one I wanted out of lane early game which later lead to late game ownage... tried it about 2 weeks ago, didn't work all that great, and it seems wards are better to max out now : /. Though there was always exceptions to who I could push out, like heavy healing or cc heros that counterd with maxing their cc/heal first instead of a nuke.

What old veno? The veno that exists now is the oldest one I can remember, and the wards really aren't THAT strong. Not compared to having two slows. (Gale+sting)

I usually only get a level of the wards early game for vision in the nearby forest, because it makes you extremely hard to gank, but you are a much better babysitter for carries with two slows.

[PizzaSHARK]

What old veno? The veno that exists now is the oldest one I can remember, and the wards really aren't THAT strong. Not compared to having two slows. (Gale+sting)

I usually only get a level of the wards early game for vision in the nearby forest, because it makes you extremely hard to gank, but you are a much better babysitter for carries with two slows.

You always put first point in Gale, usually second point in Sting, and then max Wards. Wards are used for pushing and counter-pushing and if you have four or five of them placed properly they can really wreck enemy creep waves without Veno even being present due to their lengthy duration and almost nonexistent cooldown. Poison Sting doesn't really get a lot better with more points (an extra 1% slow per point, scarrrrrry!) and Gale is used primarily for the slow rather than its pretty lackluster damage.

[Lysah]

Poison Sting gets a hell of a lot of damage per point early game, at level 7 Veno can do a solid 150 damage to you just by tagging you with his auto attack. Maxed sting/gale at level 9 is a solid kill on just about anyone with pnova. I only get one point in wards for the vision, I max them if I think I'm going to have an opportunity to block people but that's pretty rare. Veno doesn't need to be taking farm from real carries, and if he IS the real carry, wards are wasted points regardless.

Exceptions are solo long where you max wards immediately.

[Valedus]

And pushing the lane is rarely a good thing, unless you can down the tower. Killing enemy heroes under their tower is incredibly difficult, and having the farming line under the enemy tower makes it hell for your carry on the lane to farm. Also, Gale's damage is far from lackluster. It may be a DoT, but it does nearly the same damage as most other nukes. Also, each level of poison sting is still 35 damage. Level 4 with 2 in Gale and 2 in Poison sting is quite a bit of dps.

[PizzaSHARK]

And pushing the lane is rarely a good thing, unless you can down the tower. Killing enemy heroes under their tower is incredibly difficult, and having the farming line under the enemy tower makes it hell for your carry on the lane to farm. Also, Gale's damage is far from lackluster. It may be a DoT, but it does nearly the same damage as most other nukes. Also, each level of poison sting is still 35 damage. Level 4 with 2 in Gale and 2 in Poison sting is quite a bit of dps.

It's 350 damage before adjustments at level 4, spread out across 15 seconds, and it allows the enemy to deny affected heroes starting at 25%. It also has a punishingly long cooldown of 22 sec compared to a duration of 15 sec, and the full strength of the slow only lasts for a few seconds. It's a pretty lousy nuke unless you can hit their entire team with it, but that has drawbacks of its own, especially later in the game where Gale's damage is pretty much something you can ignore, but still allows denial.

Poison Sting is good, but it requires you to autoattack, and Veno is squishy with a fairly short attack range. It's no coincidence that Venomancer is often first blood in games where he's present - if he's out of position at all, he's meat for anyone with a disable.

You get maxed wards because they allow you to push down towers, easily defend towers, and allow veno to contribute while remaining safely behind the front lines and without having to use Gale prematurely. It's enormously hard to breach a base if veno's setup a ward wall, and the same thing applies to pushing down towers; a pile of wards can distract or outright kill creep waves, allowing extra damage onto an enemy tower from your own creeps.

Past the early game, Veno's only real purpose is to ulti+gale and then start shitting wards everywhere. Their damage is pretty awful against heroes, but level 4 wards are fairly tanky given how fast they can be created and I've seen Na'Vi put a gem on their Veno and turn him into one rock-solid bastard of a counter-ward hero.

[Lysah]

He's first blood in games because people waste skill points in wards~

I rarely fail to get a killing spree leveling gale/sting exclusively, the combination of that + pretty much any lane partner really will crush just about any matchup.

And if we're talking about pushing and defending, forget the wards and replace him with Leshrac on your team.

[PizzaSHARK]

He's first blood in games because people waste skill points in wards~

I rarely fail to get a killing spree leveling gale/sting exclusively, the combination of that + pretty much any lane partner really will crush just about any matchup.

And if we're talking about pushing and defending, forget the wards and replace him with Leshrac on your team.

Shit, why choose? Get both! More likely Lesh will get banned out though since everyone's aware of how silly he is once he has enough mana to start spamming spells nonstop.

Veno is almost always run as part of a trilane, meaning wards don't even come into play because the first points are always gale and then sting. Next point HAS to be wards because you need the vision. The biggest problem with Veno is that gale allows denies, yet is absolutely critical to him being worth a damn for most of the game. He's a damn good hero but not because he can steal kills from carries.

---------- Post added 2012-08-15 at 03:00 AM ----------

Flicking through a Reddit thread about unconventional hero lane combos and Pudge+Omniknight sounds funny as hell. Repel means Pudge is immune to Rot's damage, hook and Rot slow (and probably an early point in Degen for extra effect) make landing heals easy and once they reach a certain point you can't really harass them that well since you either hide behind creeps the entire time or just die endlessly.

[Valedus]

Shit, why choose? Get both! More likely Lesh will get banned out though since everyone's aware of how silly he is once he has enough mana to start spamming spells nonstop.

Veno is almost always run as part of a trilane, meaning wards don't even come into play because the first points are always gale and then sting. Next point HAS to be wards because you need the vision. The biggest problem with Veno is that gale allows denies, yet is absolutely critical to him being worth a damn for most of the game. He's a damn good hero but not because he can steal kills from carries.

---------- Post added 2012-08-15 at 03:00 AM ----------

Flicking through a Reddit thread about unconventional hero lane combos and Pudge+Omniknight sounds funny as hell. Repel means Pudge is immune to Rot's damage, hook and Rot slow (and probably an early point in Degen for extra effect) make landing heals easy and once they reach a certain point you can't really harass them that well since you either hide behind creeps the entire time or just die endlessly.

Any silence/stun/nuker hero would smash it though, especially if they were able to dodge hooks. Pudge is a terrible side lane hero because the hooks are too predictable. And you're still stuck as double melee, which is a big DotA no-no. If oyu want to try a lane like that, replace Omni with Rooftrellen, because he can make Pudge invis.


Funnier lanes are: Axe/Silencer (Hunger + CotS), Tiny Techies, Rhasta Techies (etc), Chaos Knight/KotL (feed CK chakras so he can spam his skills, its ridiculous) and any double slow/stun. Also CM/Jugg is pretty ridiculous too.

[PizzaSHARK]

Any silence/stun/nuker hero would smash it though, especially if they were able to dodge hooks. Pudge is a terrible side lane hero because the hooks are too predictable. And you're still stuck as double melee, which is a big DotA no-no. If oyu want to try a lane like that, replace Omni with Rooftrellen, because he can make Pudge invis.


Funnier lanes are: Axe/Silencer (Hunger + CotS), Tiny Techies, Rhasta Techies (etc), Chaos Knight/KotL (feed CK chakras so he can spam his skills, its ridiculous) and any double slow/stun. Also CM/Jugg is pretty ridiculous too.

Yeah, but all of those except maybe Axe/Silencer are pretty much expected and normal. Pudge/Omniknight would be one of those batshit insane lanes that suddenly you're dying a lot and wait a minute it's a fucking OMNIKNIGHT for chrissakes.

[Lysah]

Invoker/axe safe lane. Axe pulls/half jungles and shows up to spam hunger. Battle hunger + cold snap = major laughs will be had.

[Valedus]

Yeah, but all of those except maybe Axe/Silencer are pretty much expected and normal. Pudge/Omniknight would be one of those batshit insane lanes that suddenly you're dying a lot and wait a minute it's a fucking OMNIKNIGHT for chrissakes.

There's nothing wrong with omniknight, but both of those heroes are really susceptible to to ranged harass. And in order for you to actually die, the pudge hook would have to land, or you could just step back. Pudge is really wasted on side lanes, so you'd have to really hope it worked.

---------- Post added 2012-08-15 at 05:56 AM ----------

Invoker/axe safe lane. Axe pulls/half jungles and shows up to spam hunger. Battle hunger + cold snap = major laughs will be had.

Cold snap in general is ridiculous, in my opinion. It's SUCH a good spell. So frustrating, though.

[PizzaSHARK]

Invoker/axe safe lane. Axe pulls/half jungles and shows up to spam hunger. Battle hunger + cold snap = major laughs will be had.

Safe lane's dire top/radiant bot and short lane's dire bot/radiant top, right? Laning against an aggressive Axe is a major pain in the ass. Battle Hunger does enormous damage over time and harassing Axe just means he kills you or you're helping him farm. I'm still not sold on the Battle Hunger build, though... just seems like Axe is more valuable in the midgame with Helix and taunt maxed, especially since taunt will neutralize any enemies that try to rush a BKB. Always run into mana issues with the BH build... maybe buy a Soul Ring on Axe?

[Alraml]

Invoker/axe safe lane. Axe pulls/half jungles and shows up to spam hunger. Battle hunger + cold snap = major laughs will be had.

Invoker + Almost any hero = Safe lane

[Ichy]

So whats the deal with Eyefinity setups? Finally got mine up and running and the game is unplayable at 5760x1080, even the lesser 4800x900 is unplayable. On the larger res, nothing shows up in right screen unless alt tabbed, and for 4800x900 the bottom portion (mini map, hero 3d picture, skills etc) cover over half the screen.

[Ultraviolet Harmonies]

So whats the deal with Eyefinity setups? Finally got mine up and running and the game is unplayable at 5760x1080, even the lesser 4800x900 is unplayable. On the larger res, nothing shows up in right screen unless alt tabbed, and for 4800x900 the bottom portion (mini map, hero 3d picture, skills etc) cover over half the screen.

They're not really supported in DotA2. Here's why:

Normal 16:9


Eyefinity 36:9 (half height)