[Megathread] DotA 2

[Longview]

Wasn't around for diretide so don't really know what it's about ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

pretty sure you can try it out via custom games

[Kralljin]

And possibly a teaser of pit lord in the new custom game image they showed:

Sort of reminds me of that Pit Lord looking thing on the Axe / Disruptor loading Screen in the back.

[EqualWin]

no free hats, literally worst event ever.

[Mellomania]

Bot matches isn't using my cosmetics atm. Volvo plz BibleThump

[minteK917]

Dat new pa set look so dope wit my arcana. Upgraded the shoulder effect now i jusf need to get rid of all the EE gem stuck in dat shit, volvo plz.

[Mellomania]

Dat new pa set look so dope wit my arcana. Upgraded the shoulder effect now i jusf need to get rid of all the EE gem stuck in dat shit, volvo plz.

Does those gems even with games watched? Doesn't look like it at least as my naga set with iceiceice still say 0 after watching several games with him in the client : /

- - - Updated - - -

As Nanyang is now over the nerfs to doom and brood is now in effect. The winner was: Team secret wins 3-2 over VG
6.85b: Scepter Doom no longer increases damage
6.85b: Scorched Earth damage and heal reduced from 12/24/36/48 to 12/23/34/45
6.85b: Scorched Earth cooldown rescaled from 60/55/50/45 to 55
6.85b: Spiderlings Poison Sting slow reduced from 12% to 8%

[PizzaSHARK]

Holy shit, what is this game? Looking at the Secret VG games in the Nanyang grand finals. Doomy and Alch are top picks like I always said they'd be. Fucking Slardar was first ban in game 2, I have no goddamn idea where that came from - did people finally realize he's god tier at a roaming/gank lineup, or did he get a huge buff, or is that an honor ban? Nyx got banned, not surprising... Nyx is pretty good.

I guess the fun thing is that this shows that DotA really is a game that can exist outside of "the meta." Unless I missed a major balance patch, 6.85 didn't bring a whole lot of earthshaking balance adjustments, so it seems like a lot of this is just due to players actually playing the game and realizing that most heroes that aren't Terrorblade are actually all pretty good in their own niche. Shit, even Batrider's been picked in game 2.

I'm amused that they nerfed Doomy. Hero was fine, he went basically unchanged for like 2 entire patches, it's another example of kneejerk nerfing.

[Mellomania]

Alliance qualified for WCA, second tournament they qualified for now after TI

Oh, and for doom, bulldog on alliance got the most doom games this patch, and he got 72.7% winrate with it lol. (11 games)

[PizzaSHARK]

Alliance qualified for WCA, second tournament they qualified for now after TI

Oh, and for doom, bulldog on alliance got the most doom games this patch, and he got 72.7% winrate with it lol. (11 games)

Why were teams suddenly having issues dealing with Doomy after he went months and months without being picked due to people knowing "how to beat him"? Did I miss something in 6.85 that suddenly made him go from lower-tier to top-tier?

[Mellomania]

Why were teams suddenly having issues dealing with Doomy after he went months and months without being picked due to people knowing "how to beat him"? Did I miss something in 6.85 that suddenly made him go from lower-tier to top-tier?

Scorched Earth damage/heal increased from 12/18/24/30 to 12/24/36/48
LVL? Death cooldown reduced from 8 to 7

So scorched earth is pretty much free radiance + hearth x)

[Kralljin]

Did I miss something in 6.85 that suddenly made him go from lower-tier to top-tier?

Well, buffing Scorched Earth by 50% beyond Rank 1 made him quite hard to kill.

Which is the main reason he is so strong, he can just sit out any attempt to kill him with that insane reg and come back to kill the enemy because scorched earth deals so much damage.

Then his insane farm thanks to devour, but the main reason Doom saw hardly any play was rather his weak early game.

[PizzaSHARK]

Scorched Earth damage/heal increased from 12/18/24/30 to 12/24/36/48
LVL? Death cooldown reduced from 8 to 7

So scorched earth is pretty much free radiance + hearth x)

Oh wow, I didn't realize it was buffed that much. That's fucking insane, 18 HP/sec over the previous best? What the fuck?

- - - Updated - - -

Well, buffing Scorched Earth by 50% beyond Rank 1 made him quite hard to kill.

Which is the main reason he is so strong, he can just sit out any attempt to kill him with that insane reg and come back to kill the enemy because scorched earth deals so much damage.

Then his insane farm thanks to devour, but the main reason Doom saw hardly any play was rather his weak early game.

Yeah. His early game is still weak though, isn't it? Or does the extra 6 HP/sec at rank 2 Scorched Earth make much of a difference there? I mean, near as I can tell, VG and Secret were using same old standard Doomy play... buy armor, buy Agh's, buy Refresher, and get a blinker or lothars in there somewhere.

[Kralljin]

Yeah. His early game is still weak though, isn't it? Or does the extra 6 HP/sec at rank 2 Scorched Earth make much of a difference there?

Yeah it does, because of his huge HP pool he can survive initial burst and can outreg most auto attack dmg with stout shield + scorched earth, plus he just outruns most people.

Throw in a Creep ability like unholy aura or ice armor and there you go, something that is hard to kill.

If you can kill him quickly, he dies just before 6.85, if you don't kill him fast, you won't kill him.

[Crackleslap]

Doom early game Orb of Venom he runs you down and you die.

Brood nerf isn't going to change a whole lot. Didn't really think the hero needed to be nerfed tbh. :/

[PizzaSHARK]

Doom early game Orb of Venom he runs you down and you die.

Brood nerf isn't going to change a whole lot. Didn't really think the hero needed to be nerfed tbh. :/

I'm not really sure what they think -3 HP/sec off the top of Scorched Earth is going to do anything, if the reason Doomy is so popular now is due to Scorched Earth's enormous boost. Factoring in base MR, that's barely more than 2 dmg/sec removed from it... nothing substantial, I'd think.

[Mellomania]

I'm not really sure what they think -3 HP/sec off the top of Scorched Earth is going to do anything, if the reason Doomy is so popular now is due to Scorched Earth's enormous boost. Factoring in base MR, that's barely more than 2 dmg/sec removed from it... nothing substantial, I'd think.

It's also a static 55 sec cooldown now though, a bit lower than it was in low lvl 1, but longer than lvl 3-4 scorched earth.

[PizzaSHARK]

Why the hell did Burning buy a bfury in game 5 of VG v Secret? They were already behind and he spends his gold on an item that won't do anything for them for another 15-20 mins? What a bad decision, a 20+ min Juggy bfury is not going to catch up to or outfarm a 14 min AM bfury.

[Lysah]

Fucking Slardar was first ban in game 2, I have no goddamn idea where that came from - did people finally realize he's god tier at a roaming/gank lineup, or did he get a huge buff, or is that an honor ban?

I kind of wanted to talk about this somewhere, so here we go

Slardar got a huge buff with Sprint being reduced in duration and cooldown by about 50%. Now I know what you're thinking - "what the fuck? it's the same uptime, who cares?" But this is a pretty big deal, honestly. One of Slard's oldest problems is that he needs Sprint to make plays, but using it is a liability. Removing the damage taken aspect is probably necessary...but it would make him impossible to kill. What this buff lets you do is use Sprint when it's needed, as soon as it's needed, and it will wear off before everything goes south. In addition, the time between the buff falling off and being able to use it again has been reduced, meaning you can use it more freely without having to worry about it being on cooldown when you need it. Essentially, this has opened up the possibility for Slardar to spam Sprint as much as he wants without worrying about the consequences, for the most part. Instead of having to choose the perfect moment, he can just slam it for any or no reason at all, whether it's to quickly ult someone and run, or to chase, or to flee, or to run around the map. It's just made playing him that much easier.

Also, his stun was buffed in damage and duration over the last couple of patches, which helps. The addition of Solar Crest was a large buff to him, as is the SF meta, and the DS meta, the blink dagger buffs were all very beneficial to him. His being popular right now is a culmination of the fact that he has always been a solid hero with a very powerful ult, one of the best stuns in the game, huge mobility and decent tankyness, and all of the changes to the meta in general, from items to other heroes, everything has led to slow but sure buffs to Slardar every single patch.

Slard has always been one of my favorite heroes. He is one of the strongest laners and can't really "lose" a lane outright. He is an all around well designed hero, imo. The meta has swung from magic damage dealers to physical ones, which makes slard a great pick. Also, we're still in the age of blink dagger gaming, with 2-4 blinks per game or so, which makes natural blink holders stronger.


I'm also quite happy Tiny is being seen again, without the Wisp crutch. He is close to being overpowered, in my opinion, and while I don't want him to be nerfed as he is my signature hero if any hero is, it makes me happy to see the 'lil guy get some love. People aren't even rushing Aghs always on him anymore, finally figuring out that it's actually a fairly terrible item on him.

Why the hell did Burning buy a bfury in game 5 of VG v Secret? They were already behind and he spends his gold on an item that won't do anything for them for another 15-20 mins? What a bad decision, a 20+ min Juggy bfury is not going to catch up to or outfarm a 14 min AM bfury.

A) Have to keep up in farm somehow, they didn't have the power to end early so he had to get items. B) bfury is always good against AM because it lets you cleave his manta down, which is a huge part of his damage. Sadly, Jugg has always been and still is a terrible right clicker and they should've picked a better hero. Jugg might be one of the worst carrys in the game right now, imo. Really, I think VG just didn't know what to do about Antimage, they seemed very unprepared to deal with it and shut him down. I think Jugg was their feeble attempt at matching his farm with an Alchemist banned out, more than anything else. If there is any hero that can keep up with first ban alch/bfury AM in farm, it's probably SF or Jugg, and they tried both.



Want to know what I find funny? Every Clinkz, EVERY CLINKZ now goes agility treads > aquila > soul ring > desolator. All of them. Where have I seen that build before????

Now we just need to get people to realize that radi/core/manta Alchemist is actually a 100% shitbuild and they really need to stop.

[StrawberryZebra]

Slard has always been one of my favorite heroes. He is one of the strongest laners and can't really "lose" a lane outright. He is an all around well designed hero, imo. The meta has swung from magic damage dealers to physical ones, which makes slard a great pick. Also, we're still in the age of blink dagger gaming, with 2-4 blinks per game or so, which makes natural blink holders stronger.

I've been wondering when people would cotton on to this for a while now. Even before his long string of buffs he could win lanes by just battering anyone who got in his way, including some of the other strong early game Heroes like Jugg, Huskar or Clockwerk. His base armour is absurdly high for a Str Hero, right up there with Night Stalker, and higher than most Agi Heroes too, combined good armour growth and good Str growth. If it wasn't for the damage taken penalty on Sprint he'd be damn near immortal.

Even before his most recent buffs he's should have really been more in meta though. He's one of the few Heroes who has a strong early game and can really take advantage of it to run away with an early lead. Shame its taken so long, but he fits right into a physical-orentated meta we have now at least. Hopefully its going to bring his pick rates up, he's a Hero I want to see more of so Valve see how badly he needs a remodel.

If there is any hero that can keep up with first ban alch/bfury AM in farm, it's probably SF or Jugg, and they tried both.

The only other Hero I've seen who consistently keeps up with AM in farm is Luna. She has a couple of other issues, but farming has always been one of her stronger points. With her recent Str and ult buffs, along with more physical line ups she's probably due for a resurgence too.

Tinker can keep up with AM's farm too of course. But I hope he doesn't start trending again any time soon, Tinker every game is probably one of the circles of hell. So fuck Tinker.

[M1r4g3]

And i kept getting flamed by people for buying soul ring on clinkz before 6.85...

Yea the radi/octarine/manta build is meh, sure you get 1k gpm but you still waste 2 item slots to achieve that, i prefer the solar crest>aghs>tank up>aghs>tank up