[Megathread] DotA 2

[PizzaSHARK]

BKB bruh. Easy.

4k gold item bruh. Not easy. Gets nerfed numerous times, too. The solution would've been to make stuns less overpowered to begin with, but that would make too much sense so instead we get the past 2+ years of balancing the game around a single item.

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The ability is nullified around any unit. It isn't that great.

The search radius is pretty small, roughly double melee range, shorter than TA base attack range and almost 50% smaller than Degen Aura radius. It's not actually hard to have it active on enemy heroes even in teamfights unless there's a crapton of (friendly) creeps around, and it's almost guaranteed to be up 100% of the time in skirmishes. For what should be obvious reasons, clumping up in teamfights is usually a very bad idea. I'd imagine a good Zet draft would include other heroes that specifically punish them for stacking up.

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Why is OD even in the game? Why did they utterly destroy that hero when he was already underperforming due to being nerfed when he didn't need nerfs?

I think I understand what they're going for, making him stronger late game... but he's going to be weak late game due to BKB making him useless no matter what. He has shit attack range, he's balanced around stealing INT which now requires a lot of IAS and time to attack people, and he no longer has lane dominance due to losing his INT steal on his W.

He now needs mobility items, attack speed, health, armor, and BKB just to be able to not die immediately in a teamfight, plus he needs a level advantage and preferably gold advantage (on a hero that sucks at farming) to be any good.

Like, holy fucking shit what a worthless fucking hero. This patch is seriously the worst they've done in years, how fucking hard is it to even just LOOK at the patch notes and understand that "wow, this will destroy this hero"? I mean, this is their game and the lead dev has been the more or less sole developer of it for the past, what, like 10 years?

I swear to god there's more and more evidence supporting the idea that Icefrog is either no longer the sole person in charge of designing the game, or apparently has suffered some sort of severe brain trauma or something.

[Lysah]

I think the OD nerf was a result of him getting a new aghs. With aghs/refresher he could ult once, chop everyone's life in half, gain 40 int and easily finish the job. The only real way to avoid an instant rampage was to just not clump up but the AOE is pretty substantial as well. Not to mention, astral spam basically made it impossible to lane against him with any hero, he was even a killer offlaner if played properly.

I don't think he needed help before, I just think the era of tanky physical damage dealers outgrew him (lmao gyro still broken as shit). His new astral is just godawful though, hero is definitely in trouble now.

[Bapestar]

4k gold item bruh. Not easy. Gets nerfed numerous times, too. The solution would've been to make stuns less overpowered to begin with, but that would make too much sense so instead we get the past 2+ years of balancing the game around a single item.

Well there are ways to dodge stuns at least. Do you really want BKB to block everything like it did way back in dota1? Not every stun is op btw.

[PizzaSHARK]

Well there are ways to dodge stuns at least. Do you really want BKB to block everything like it did way back in dota1? Not every stun is op btw.

Most stuns are not individually OP. Cold Snap for sure, and maybe Wraithfire Blast... but that's Leoric's only active skill and it's his only way of keeping people close, so it kind of has to be OP.

But stun spam is absolutely OP and still remains the go-to solution for skill discrepancies. Playing IH leagues and know the other guys are better? Who gives a shit, draft more stuns and proceed to faceroll. You still might lose, but a team with a lot of stuns has a ton of room for error in fights compared to teams with only one or two stuns. BKBs don't last forever and don't have 100% uptime and there are a lot of items and ults that can go through them anyway.

I mean, obviously nothing can really be done about it, the game is completely designed around BKB and around you not being able to get to play your hero without it. But I think it's a severe design flaw of the game.

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I think the OD nerf was a result of him getting a new aghs. With aghs/refresher he could ult once, chop everyone's life in half, gain 40 int and easily finish the job. The only real way to avoid an instant rampage was to just not clump up but the AOE is pretty substantial as well. Not to mention, astral spam basically made it impossible to lane against him with any hero, he was even a killer offlaner if played properly.

I don't think he needed help before, I just think the era of tanky physical damage dealers outgrew him (lmao gyro still broken as shit). His new astral is just godawful though, hero is definitely in trouble now.

Hero's useless. He used to have a niche but doesn't anymore, and he had to dominate lanes based on how the rest of the hero is designed. If you don't have gold/XP advantage you don't have INT advantage (he's pretty stupid for a hero that's so reliant on INT discrepancies), and if you don't have INT advantage, you basically don't have an ult.

What's the verdict on Zet? No cooldown on items, when items are made intentionally OP, seems incredibly dumb. There's a reason Rearm doesn't affect several items. I've seen him played as a carry a lot but he seems to have potential as a support, or at least a carry that buys support items. Double sheeper is disgusting. His skills definitely seem to be more of a support style.

Flux is stupidly good, 50% slow that lasts several sec at lvl 1. If you get out of position more than a few steps from a creep or teammate, you're screwed. Long cooldown but short cast range and tiny mana cost. Spark Wraiths are awesome, like ranged Storm Spirit things. Give ton of vision for 50 sec, insane cast range, almost no cooldown. Also do 150 dmg at lvl 1. I've turned fights around with his W. Dropping one and then another in a teamfight can completely change the course, especially since most heroes want to delay MKB as long as possible. It's also really great for pushing since it amps creep DPS while also making them immune to tower damage.

Does have really fucking terrible base stats though. Even with lens+manaboots it was still pretty difficult to keep mana up if I was spamming wraiths constantly. And you SHOULD be spamming wraiths constantly.

[M1r4g3]

http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/2016382902
Think hes strongest when hes played as a naga and in the safelane, while keeping the wraiths at lvl1 and using them just for vision. Not sure about the mid build though.
And flux isn't really that good unless you're up against a solo offlaner, but its decent late game when you can actually BoT with your tempest to random lanes and kill people.

ALLIANCE IS BACK

[Strangebrew]

[Drunkenvalley]

There are a few personalities I despise like nothing else in Dota 2.

The first is the guy who tells you "►We need wards" when all wards are placed and no new wards can be purchased, and they're all good wards too. The guy who's getting the game of his life handed to him, and he squanders it by being genuinely retarded, then complains to the team about it. Safest lane in the fucking universe? Let's go get ourselves killed anyway by going for a kill behind their tower, that's bloody clever.

Fuck you, random PA player. Fuck you.

And second is the guy who plays captain. The micro-captain. "Dazzle, heal", while you're practically autocasting that shit to start with, so he's just being a massive fucking cunt. "Dazzle come bot," he says, while he's feeding the enemy laners by playing like a fucking dumbass, and you already TP'd before he fucking spoke. And then he says "Dazzle, come bot" again while you're back to base after having been bot because it's a goddamn disaster down there.

Fuck you, random Jakiro player. Fuck you.

[StrawberryZebra]

I don't think he needed help before, I just think the era of tanky physical damage dealers outgrew him (lmao gyro still broken as shit). His new astral is just godawful though, hero is definitely in trouble now.

The worst part of the whole thing is rather than going back on the changes, he's in for months (years?) of being incrementally buffed up to a level where he's playable. Only to have gotten buffed too far and end up getting smacked right back down again.

There are a few personalities I despise like nothing else in Dota 2.

The one I find most irritating is the "stand around doing nothing support guy". Stack some camps, place some wards, go roaming mid and help Death Prophet out. Do something other than watch me farm uncontested.
Its even worse when you're in a tough lane and you've got Lich or Lion just letting the other team bully you, and they're stood just far enough away to be in XP range, but nowhere near close enough to be of any real use.

[Crackleslap]

Alliance is back!

I was cheering for them, but they won filthily.

[Drunkenvalley]

The one I find most irritating is the "stand around doing nothing support guy". Stack some camps, place some wards, go roaming mid and help Death Prophet out. Do something other than watch me farm uncontested.
Its even worse when you're in a tough lane and you've got Lich or Lion just letting the other team bully you, and they're stood just far enough away to be in XP range, but nowhere near close enough to be of any real use.

Ugh, yes. I don't see them much anymore, but admittedly I've also played a lot of support heroes lately. But yes, these fuckers are so frustrating. My only peeve as Dazzle my last game was that everywhere was going so splendidly I wasn't sure what to do between pulls lol.

[Mellomania]

Alliance is back!

I was cheering for them, but they won filthily.

Using naga song to let tiny take the last racks was kinda dirty

Edit: http://i.imgur.com/kfqDPvk.gifv

[Deleted]

I'm sure Oracle is a completely broken hero honestly, even after the nerf to ult. The mana cost on both W and E need to be doubled or some shit - the hero is fucking absurd even discounting the ulti if you actually skill him right (i.e max E, max W, leave Q for last instead of the retarded "ME MAX Q BECAUSE Q IS DISABLE" that every pub Oracle does) and I'm almost willing to bet money on him being the new cancer in pro DotA this patch.

[M1r4g3]

I'm sure Oracle is a completely broken hero honestly, even after the nerf to ult. The mana cost on both W and E need to be doubled or some shit - the hero is fucking absurd even discounting the ulti if you actually skill him right (i.e max E, max W, leave Q for last instead of the retarded "ME MAX Q BECAUSE Q IS DISABLE" that every pub Oracle does) and I'm almost willing to bet money on him being the new cancer in pro DotA this patch.

Most people don't know that you can purge the E heal with Q.

[PizzaSHARK]

Using naga song to let tiny take the last racks was kinda dirty

Edit: http://i.imgur.com/kfqDPvk.gifv

As though anyone didn't know Naga was OP. It's amazing how the patch guts heroes that were already underperforming like OD and then doesn't touch obviously overpowered heroes like Naga, Gyro, etc.

Seriously, worst patch. I'm convinced it was done with interns or something while Icefrog was busy helping gaben keep up on counting the money.

[Lysah]

What's the verdict on Zet?

He's pretty bad. He's essentially a support, but since he has agility primary people think he's a carry. He certainly COULD carry, and being able to send clones at your base and do damage and you can't do anything about it is pretty strong. Problem is, he has no farm potential outside of a second midas. He has no lane phase, two of his spells are essentially invalidated by the presence of creeps and the third only helps keep him alive for a few seconds if you dive. His ult costs an insane amount of life and mana at level 1, so he can't really spam it just to farm. This means he's bound to lose his lane if he's the "carry," making it impossible to keep up in net worth for sure.

What he's good at - picking people off in the jungle. Great counter jungler, great roamer, that's how people should play him but nobody does. Have another support to help CC and set up wraiths, tower dive and use field to survive, etc. Put them in a position where they can't avoid flux because they have to run away. He should probably focus on support items as well. Double Atos would be insane for a fairly cheap price, sheep obviously, force staff if you're a pro. Ideally you want to sit behind a real carry and be ready to drop field on him in fights, as well as spamming item advantage. BoT + nec3 is good as well, you can send a clone to push another lane quickly while you are sieging enemy.

You won't see very many people playing this hero well, ideal use of him is going to rely on spamming BoTs to split push which will take the dedication of a meepo player to do well. Just like meepo, we're going to see the hero is trash in the hands of 99% of the population while a few people make it look good. I just wish people would stop picking him "just to see what he does" in my games.

[PizzaSHARK]

Yeah, I went aether lens but I'm not sure if the extra cast range was particularly important. I agree he's a top tier roamer/ganker, it's clearly why Flux and spirits are made for, especially given their long cast ranges and spirits giving vision. Manaboots are incredibly good on him since he can pop them twice instantly with ulti to refill a ton of friendly mana. I really think people undersell Flux because it's inactive when people are hugging - you don't want to be hugging your teammates in fights. Summons would be a bigger problem, Profit could pop some trees in the middle of the group and probably prevent Flux from doing anything.

I do think he's a Meepo hero. He's not hard to play, but he does require more work than others for similar results.

[Drunkenvalley]

Magnus + Arc Warden. Much uncertainty will be had. Also, I sincerely hope to see Blink nerfs in the future, or hero changes that make them more capable of dealing with heroes trying to blink escape.

[Lysah]

Just pick your own blinker, antimage has never been happier in his life than this patch. This hero is probably due for some nerfs soon so better get your free MMR while it lasts.

[Deleted]

Seriously, people, can we stop calling Blink Dagger "Blinker"? It's not a fucking turn signal on a car or a person with dysfunctionally hyperactive orbital muscles, it's a dagger that lets you teleport. "Blink" or "Blink Dagger", not "Blinker" TYVM before I lose my fucking mind.

[Sorcereria]

Lol. They updated how riki ulti works with battlefury. It doesnt attack creeps or illusions. Can we have the same shit for ember sleight?