[Megathread] DotA 2

[PizzaSHARK]

No that was pretty solid. I tried to point out before that top tier heroes might simply be often picked because they ARE balanced, in the literal definition of the word - they fit well into most, if not all, lineups. That was a good explanation, though.

So why would you pick any other heroes, then? If you can pick Gyro or Luna or Sylla or Naix, why would you ever pick Spectre or Medusa or Morphling? If a hero like Gyro has versatile laning, can hard carry and gank and push, why would you pick a hero that can only do one role?

[Lysah]

Because everything has a counter, some counters are just very out of style right now (like using SB to jerk around gyrocopter). You can easily beat a team centered around Luna with one centered around Morph or Medusa, the pros just don't seem to be in the mood for that style right now, though. The worst part is, most of the lower tiers of the community are just as unimaginative, if not way worse, and so you won't see any innovative counter lineups in pubs until the pros figure it out - which only adds to the image that certain heroes are too strong. Even if you pick Medusa to counter Luna in a pub, your team can easily let you down by not building the team around your strategy.

All in all, Gyrocopter only excels when he has room to sit back and spam flak cannon. Introduce a shadow blade SB to the game and he will go from full health to dead before he even has a chance to pop his BKB. Problem solved. Early game, where he is really hard to fight toe-to-toe because of rocket barrage, SB gets 1100 health with nothing but treads and can just tank it and kill him. Suddenly scary hero has to hide and can only farm if he's on top of towers.

[Longview]

I don't understand the point you're trying to make, PizzaSHARK. Do you have one?

[zehzao]

So many good games in this qualify, can't wait for the next one. Nice to see mouz there.

[PizzaSHARK]

Because everything has a counter, some counters are just very out of style right now (like using SB to jerk around gyrocopter). You can easily beat a team centered around Luna with one centered around Morph or Medusa, the pros just don't seem to be in the mood for that style right now, though. The worst part is, most of the lower tiers of the community are just as unimaginative, if not way worse, and so you won't see any innovative counter lineups in pubs until the pros figure it out - which only adds to the image that certain heroes are too strong. Even if you pick Medusa to counter Luna in a pub, your team can easily let you down by not building the team around your strategy.

All in all, Gyrocopter only excels when he has room to sit back and spam flak cannon. Introduce a shadow blade SB to the game and he will go from full health to dead before he even has a chance to pop his BKB. Problem solved. Early game, where he is really hard to fight toe-to-toe because of rocket barrage, SB gets 1100 health with nothing but treads and can just tank it and kill him. Suddenly scary hero has to hide and can only farm if he's on top of towers.

SB does seem heavily underused, which doesn't really make sense... seems like he'd be a good pick in place of a Naix in a lot of lineups. He does need some farm... a BKB and either hyperstone or MoM... but so does Naix (armlet and/or orchid.) He also has that insane 29 base STR, giving him huge dmg and early HP, and I guess he could even use Charge of Darkness to escape kill attempts if there's no disable to stop it.

To be honest, I've been surprised at the more or less total lack of Night Stalker. It seems like every time I play him, he's always useful. You can give him an armlet and BKB and he can be a semi-carry, or you can play him almost as a utility/support character, going for aura items and a scepter with gem. Void does a lot of damage on a short cooldown and low mana cost, and his silence is flat-out amazing. I guess he's a little dependent on time of day, but only until he gets some XP. Seems like he could fit into that sort of "utility carry" role that Naix seems to be the poster child for these days.

[potis]

The whole case with SB and Night Stalker are that there are less gamble heroes to pick than them to be honest, that was always been the case, its not like the main complain of Dota is that tournaments always seem to have the same heroes..and for a reason.

Its not that SB isnt good, but he isnt as good as others, of course with such an RNG stun, or Night Stalker, there is risk and gamble involved compared to other heroes.

Then again many things changed since i actively played Dota, and since i restarted the last few months maybe things have changed that i am wrong, but oh well ;D

[Lysah]

The risk with NS is that you let the game last for 50 minutes and he becomes nonfactor. Even with items and at night his late game damage is just pathetic in comparison to most heroes...mostly due to how little farm you will likely be getting if you do your job. I've seen many a Nightstalker (including myself) start out with 6, 7, 12 kills and still end up hiding in the back of team fights late game.

SB will still have an AoE stun with charge and a target bash that goes through BKB, even if nothing else, he is useful for that. Black hole? Meet nether strike (and that's not even to mention the movespeed aura that can't be underestimated).

[PizzaSHARK]

The risk with NS is that you let the game last for 50 minutes and he becomes nonfactor. Even with items and at night his late game damage is just pathetic in comparison to most heroes...mostly due to how little farm you will likely be getting if you do your job. I've seen many a Nightstalker (including myself) start out with 6, 7, 12 kills and still end up hiding in the back of team fights late game.

SB will still have an AoE stun with charge and a target bash that goes through BKB, even if nothing else, he is useful for that. Black hole? Meet nether strike (and that's not even to mention the movespeed aura that can't be underestimated).

I remember someone telling me that the best way to fix Bloodseeker would be to make Thirst affect teammates. I'm pretty sure he was saying it with a straight face, too.

[Lysah]

This game needs more Timbersaw.

[Hermanni]

This game needs less trees.

Fixed that bit.

[Deleted]

So tired of disconnects and abandonments....what a torture and a waste of time,the consequences for such behaviour need to be much stricter.
And connection checks need to be extended to the first 3 minutes of the game.How often do people disconnect right after the picks?It's baffling.

I'm keeping my reports for people who abandon now.There's nothing else that's more disturbing.

[Hermanni]

I'm keeping my reports for people who abandon now.There's nothing else that's more disturbing.

Sorry to break this to you but the reports aren't meant to be used on people who abandon. There's a system in place that tracks leaves so it can automatically suspend players who leave too much, you don't need to put a report in for it. Your reports are for people who behave in disruptive manner, not for people who have to leave a game for whatever reason.

[Deleted]

Sorry to break this to you but the reports aren't meant to be used on people who abandon. There's a system in place that tracks leaves so it can automatically suspend players who leave too much, you don't need to put a report in for it. Your reports are for people who behave in disruptive manner, not for people who have to leave a game for whatever reason.

Yeah, I'm always surprised at people telling others to report a guy that leaves.

[Deleted]

Yeah, I'm always surprised at people telling others to report a guy that leaves.

I know there's something in place,but that doesn't mean I don't want to hasten the process.

[Coffer]

Tobi won't be covering the eastern qualifiers.

Bit of a disappointment. I'm quite displeased with BTS and 2GD so far, to the point where I simply cannot watch them - poor casters and the insight provided by the co-casters is nothing compared to what the likes of Hanni, Maelk and KuroKy have given us so far (not to mention that the latter 3 all synergize very well with Tobi).

I don't give a damn about Tobi not being all that knowledgeable. He doesn't have to be.

[Hermanni]

I know there's something in place,but that doesn't mean I don't want to hasten the process.

You're still not supposed to. The whole abandonment system is in place so that if anyone who is seldom met with an emergency (or even has a rare case of rage) and has to leave mid-game can do so without fear of punishment and the rest of the players can leave and proceed to a new game. When someone leaves in your game you can assume that either they're pathological leavers and will probably be sent to low priority right away, or maybe they're someone like me with nearly 3000 games and maybe 3 (legitimate) abandons. It's not your place to demand that almighty gaben smites that player from heavens for wasting 15 minutes of your time.

If you read what the descriptions of the report categories in-game, you'll notice they're called "Communication", "Ability Abuse" and "Intentional Feeding." Did someone do something that doesn't belong to any of those 3 categories? Don't report it.

[Deleted]

I don't give a damn about Tobi not being all that knowledgeable. He doesn't have to be.

But does he have production value?

This game needs more Timbersaw.

No, this game needs more Abaddon. And right now.

[Coffer]

BTS is slightly better now that Merlini is there, but it shows that LD really needs a top tier co-caster in order to be good.

[hiragana]

So tired of disconnects and abandonments....what a torture and a waste of time,the consequences for such behaviour need to be much stricter.

Agreed, seems atleast half of my games someone leaves in the first 10 minutes. Ive no idea what the punishment is but it needs to be stricter.

[Lillpapps]

BTS is slightly better now that Merlini is there, but it shows that LD really needs a top tier co-caster in order to be good.

I find LD to be miles better than Tobi. Personal opinions huh?