Dota 2 Discussion (~Boston Majors & Road to TI7~)

[DakaSha]

How often are invites sent out? and is it hard to get invited? I did the survey thing yesterday

 

[Malakal]

Necro 3 is just the best fucking item in the game, summons are crazy powerful, have mana burn and last will, true sight, and the item not only has cheap components but also gives a lot of STR and INT. For me its a must have on any INT and all non INT nukers unless team desperately needs disables.

I also like manta, urn of shadows (two gauntlets are a common first items for me) and guinsoo. Other items wary.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Am I the only one that goes ballistic when there's no armor aura item on anyone by the time team fights roll around? Even just a ring of basillius is such a huge advantage for it's cost. Especially when there's some twit on your team sitting at like 5 armor at level 16 and an enemy has an armor debuff. But even without that, the difference is just staggering when you add the numbers up.

Also, it seems to me that the use of pipe/mek for keeping creep waves alive is generally overlooked. A whole creep wave pounding on a tower for 15-20 seconds while you team fight and then being around after it makes a huge difference if you're fighting at an enemy tower. They generally get burned to a crisp by AoE but a pipe or mek (let alone both) can totally counter that, and the tower is probably pounding on a hero during the fight anyways, so by the time it's done you'll still have your full creep wave fighting + the next one walking along too. It's like having treants or eidolons around.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

I'm trying to find heroes to get Halberd on. I just love the item, completely, but most heroes I play I would rather get something else. It's this weird mix of midgame survivability and utility from the Sange and late game utility from the evasion and disarm. The problem is during the midgame most heroes would rather have tons of different things besides a sange, so you get it late and it ends up being just a relatively small, by that point, HP buff component. Only time I ever really had success with it was late game on a Tidehunter to disarm an antimage so our carries could kill him.

Love that thing on night stalker.

It's perfect for him offensively because it just gives straight damage (+45), which is what he wants to go along with his huge AS boost
It also helps a lot with his "tanky disabler" niche. People tend not to throw nukes at guys with that much HP him so the evasion works wonderfully on him, and you'll always live long enough to get that perfect disarm off.

I've heard great things about halberd on Axe, but I don't play Axe.

 

[Hoodoo]

didnt know that, does satanic/dominator also work with skadi?

 

[kingcomrade22]

On ranged heroes, and I think only in Dota 1. I dunno if they ported that particular glitch over. But, I know lifesteal works with frost breath on Dragon Knight, so probably.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Satanic's active was a special lifestealing effect. It copied the effect of a potion rather than an innate ability, so it stacked with all sorts of stuff it normally wouldn't, like cleave and other orbs. It'd be kinda weird if they didn't port that part over.

The skaadi/lifesteal thing is different. Basically, skaadi places a buff on targets without being an orb for ranged heroes, while lifesteal items are an orb effect that doesn't place any buffs, so they can stack with eachother. Most effects (including skaadi on melee heroes, or say, Maelstrom on anyone) create an orb effect AND place a buff on the target to make their trigger work. And you're only allowed 1 of each, so almost nothing stacks. There's probably some other exception I'm unaware of though involving some hero's passive attack poison or something.

 

[Hoodoo]

S & Y orb is similiar as well, stacks with everything but itself.
What you guys think of the abyssal basher upgrade? forget name

100dmg buff +25% chance to stun and an active that gives you a free 2 second stun. Bit of strength as well I think.
OP?

Costs more than DR but i imagine it would be a fun item to have on a Naix or summin.

 

[kingcomrade22]

Well Sange just plain isn't an orb any more (orb of venom uses the same thing sange used to use). I think in Dota 1 it was changed to a trigger, and obviously in Dota 2 they can code it however they want.

Abyssal Blade is obviously a very lategame item, and you use it basically to fuck up other carries, as a carry. I think it's a very well thought out item since that in fact is the correct reason to get a basher in the first place.

You know, I've ONLY been playing Dota 2 for so long, I've forgotten about so many of my favorite heroes. Shit Lord, Feeder of the Light, Ogre Fagi. I used to play those three a ton, now I barely remember how.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Tried playing normal DotA just a bit ago. Can't stand it. UI is SO bad. Minimap is terrible. Hotkeys are totally fucking random. Items are bound to the numpad. And the graphics are choppy and muddy as fuck.

I wish there were more serious competition for this genre. HoN went all herp-a-derp with their 2 pay only heroes on the roster at all times (feel free to get moderated if you say they're unbalanced, all hail S2), and although I like a lot of the differences in LoL like the buffs to fight over and a universal mechanic for letting spell damage scale, most of the hero design is relatively dull. Tons of their heroes have single target direct damage spells with trivial side effects. The most trivial side effect to a spell like that in DotA or HoN is usually a massive slow. But in LoL a slow lasting over 3 seconds is a big deal by itself, without damage. A stun lasting 3 seconds (on one guy) is an ulti. It adds up to a lot less interplay between skills with people trying to slow, stun, silence, or whatever to counter the enemy doing the same. Instead there's just a lot of unavoidable damage flying around and most fights boil down to initial positioning and relative amounts of farm.

The best DotA heroes are the ones with big ultimates that change things fast, like Enigma or Sandking or Tidebringer or Faceless Void. A lot of thought goes into landing, avoiding, countering and taking advantage of those skills. Nobody gives a fuck about Finger of Death. It'll get fired at the nearest squishy, can't be avoided, big fucking deal.

 

[meh]

Just to confirm:
SnY isn't an orb. Skadi on ranged heroes stack with lifesteal (skadi is a buff placer). Mjolnir/Maelstrom "stacks" with lifesteal - when the lightning procs, you won't leech life that attack.

One of the more important aspects of Abyssal Blade stun is that it goes through BKB.

In addition, Heaven's Halberd wants to be a useful item, but it still has a long way to go. There were several games when enemy team had four of those to counter carry, but (un)fortunately it didn't really work out. One could invest 1600 on ghost scepter instead or several thousand more and get scythe. The sange itself is pretty bad on majority of heroes, adding nothing of value. Similarly to Veil of Discord - seems to be useful, but the components/price doesn't cut it.

 

[Metro]

Again, noobie player, but I agree that I find myself buying Urn on almost every character for a lot of reasons: 1) pretty much every character can use a small amount of mana regen, 2) with charges it can serve as a heal to yourself/others, 3) it's strength based so helps pad the hp of agi and int heroes and also adds damage to str heroes, and 4) best of all it's pretty cheap/easy to make early on.

 

[kingcomrade22]

I'm sitting on a stoop with Delray, Shaniqua, Lebrandon, and Chen. which one of these people doesn't belong?

 

[Hoodoo]

whats a delray

 

[Hoodoo]

is that like the thing that hit bruce banner

 

[kingcomrade22]

Delray funna dick you in all free howes biyach

 

[kingcomrade22]

Those flakes at Valve skipped another hero update?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Good news for Metro in the latest patch, "Increased bot sensitivity to human pings for pushing and defending."
Requires some manual effort but hopefully would make the bots on your team work with you a bit more.

 

[Metro]

Those flakes at Valve skipped another hero update?

This thing is going to be in beta a while. At first I thought there were only like twelve heroes left to add but it's more like double that.

Good news for Metro in the latest patch, "Increased bot sensitivity to human pings for pushing and defending."
Requires some manual effort but hopefully would make the bots on your team work with you a bit more.

The bots rage at me in chat. They say 'd00d, where were you?!?!' And I'm all 'bro I was farming for m3h Divine Rapier.'

 

[kingcomrade22]

Only time I play with bots if I have no friends on, or to relax when it's late. Otherwise you really aren't doing yourself a service by playing against bots instead of people. I should probably not play against bots at all unless im tired and its late, but sometimes I just go "i dont want to play support any more, i want to play a carry" and of course bot games are 5 carries vs bots.
I went back and played a couple Dota 1 games just because I miss a lot of the heroes. I also forgot how BAD people on B.net are.

 

[Metro]

People are scary.

 

[Pope Amole II]

Anybody watching starladder starseries finals? Some damn good games there, with darer suddenly finding themselves on a fourth place and Na'vi making a powerful comeback in their second game with CLG. Well, maybe it was not the biggest comeback ever, but it was certainly pleasant to watch.

I'm not that amazed of darer's almost total loss, though - first, judging from interview, they hadn't practiced for almost a week (which is unspeakably foolish), second, Artstyle being too artstylish - sure, no one's going to argue that he is not a good player or not a good captain, but however good you are, you just can't put half of your team in the wrong roles and expect them to perform decently. I mean, Furion G, what the hell? It's like, they threw away every single strat that was working for them in their winning streak, and in exchange for what?

 

[Hoodoo]

just getting used to everythig and they do a UI/art update FFS.
They didnt even change the towers either, the towers look like cocks.

Anyone know whos slated for release next?

 

[Metro]

According to this wiki it seems like Phantom Lancer might be next. Was also looking at the massive list of stuff they already have for the on-line store including individual armor pieces (helmets, chest, boots, belt, etc.), taunts, spell effects, and alternative announcer voices. Valve is going to make a killing on this...

 

[Hoodoo]

So you can dress yr hero up, TF2 style?

PL, gimme my rigwarl