Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Drafting Practice: Day Eight

Draft #1I'm the Dire player.I think Radiant is going to have a really bad day.Razor and Puck are tied middle, maybe with a slight advantage for Puck because of his mobility and evasion.Spectre is going to flat-out lose his lane.  Veno is food - his low range, low speed and squishiness will spell his doom vs an aggro tri.  Even Disruptor alone would be able to zone out both Veno and Spectre.  Enchantress will come online with a few levels and be able to help out, but by that time, the tri-lane would be lost (if she's not simply ganked...

Spotlight on Bane: The Tough Support

Intro to BaneBane has higher starting damage and EHP than any other ranged support.  He (it?) can also make enemy’s life in lane into a living hell with Enfeeble and Brain Sap.  He is one of the most aggressive laning supports in the game as of 6.82b, on par with Skywrath Mage and Lion.  He can also one of the support heroes that can be played as a mid semi-carry, and scales well until lategame, but still has Fiend's Grip, and thus will stay relevant even after BKBs become prevalent.Needs mana to sustain casting-harass (clarities...

Thursday, November 13, 2014

More Drafting Analysis

Draft #1:Me as RadiantI think Dire has the advantage here in the lanes.  Although Venge could roam from bottom to middle given the lane setup, Beastmaster doesn't really need it - he can still farm and gain levels safely with Wild Axes and Bottle crowing.  Silencer would probably be best joining Nyx top lane, to both harass Luna and contest pulls by Shadow Shaman.It's almost impossible to zone out Clockwerk from a lane, given Flare to farm and Cogs to use defensively, although Curse spam from Silencer might force Clock to operate with...

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Day Six, Part Two: Opponent Joins in - atypical drafts!

Okay, so I went a bit YOLO with some of these drafts (Spiritbreaker, anyone?), but I didn't think it was all that bad.  My opponent (same one) joined in with some more-atypical hero choices sometimes, but largely stuck to the "strong in the 6.81 meta" heroes.  I think I still got the better of him in some drafts, however.Draft #1 :  Me as RadiantIf it's not obvious, I'm going for the armor-reduction strategy on this draft. While I didn't get hard-countered by any hero picks, my lanes are weak.   Shadowfiend can do okay...

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Supports that Work Mid

I've experimented with a few of the greedier supports, and if you can put them mid, they scale extremely well.  They aren't the usual mids, or even really known as semi-carries but they can work.Here's the list of supports I've tried that should go mid when possible, and why:WarlockNeeds levels (extremely good teamfight skills)Scales well with farm due to Ultimate and Agh's LeshracHighly dependent on multiple items to reach full potential (Bloodstone, BKB)Needs levels badly, especially before BKBs come outSpammable nuke (Lightning) against...

Monday, November 10, 2014

List of Heroes with More Than One Disable

List of heroes with two or more hard disables, and some team ideas around this.Heroes with Two Disables, NOT including Ultimate:Earthshaker (Fissure, Aftershock - also Echo Slam) Lion (Earth Spike + Hex)Shadow Shaman (Hex + Shackle)Tiny (Avalanche + Toss)Heroes with Two Disables Including Ultimate:Bane (Nightmare and Fiend's Grip)Brewmaster (ultimate form has Tornado and Boulder)Centaur Warrunner (Stomp and Stampede)Clockwerk (Cogs and Hook)Invoker (multiple)Kunkka (Torrent & Ghost Ship - and X for chasing)Naga (Ensnare & Song)Ogre (Agh's...

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

List of Damage Amplifiers

Heroes that have damage-amplifying abilities (not including armor reduction):Ancient Apparition (Ice Vortex)-15/ -20 / -25 / -30 Magic Resistance to targets in 275 areaBloodseeker (Blood Rage - self or target) +25 / +30 / +35 / +40 Damage Increase (Dealt and Taken)Chen (Penitence)+14 / +18 +22 +26 Damage AmplificationElder Titan (Natural Order - aura 275 range)Base Resist Reduction: 12% / 19% / 26% / 33% Medusa (Stone Gaze)Physical Damage taken = +50%Magical Damage taken = -100% Pugna (Decrepify) - Ethereal effectMagic Resist Reduction = 50%...

Team Ideas: All healers & lifestealers

This is a "theme" team, but might work really well in low-level pubs where players have a hard time coordinating their nukes.Candidates:  See List of Healers, Lifestealers and Self-HealersTeam ideas:  Dual Lanes#1:Omni MidNecrophos + TreantAbaddon + Dazzle#2:Huskar MidDoom + BaneChen + Undying Team Ideas:  Tri-lane#1:Necrophos Mid Alchemist + DazzleLC JungleUndying Offlane solo#2:Mid: HuskarSafe: Wyvern, Legion Commander, PugnaOfflane: PhoenixTeam Ideas:  Dual Mid#1:Mid:  LC + IoSafe:  Wraith King, WyvernOfflane: ...

Similar Heroes for When you Get Banned

The following list gives ideas of what hero to pick when your preferred pick suddenly gets banned, or when you love one hero but want to play a similar-but-different one.Tidehunter = Timbersaw.  Both tough, melee initiator-types with lots of nuke.Lion = Lina = Ogre Magi.  All are big nukers with big single-target ultimates.Abaddon = Legion Commander.  Both can be played as support/healer/semi-carries, with slightly different functions, but very similar ability to buff and heal allies.Wraith King = Sven = Dragon Knight = Alchemist. ...

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Spotlight on Legion Commander

Legion Commander is a very versatile hero, who can be played in many roles.  Despite not having a teamfight-oriented Ultimate, she could probably be played as a support similar to Abaddon or Ogre Magi, due to her ability to buff/heal teammates and nuke.Laning LC (farmer) Starting:  Courier, Tango, Clarity, Healing Potion, 3 BranchesEarly:  Boots, StickCore:  Power Treads, Armlet, Blink DaggerCore Ext:  Basher, BKBLategame: Abyssal, AC, Boots of Travel (BoT), HeartJungler LC Legion Commander is often jungled even from level...

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Warding: Comprehensive Link List

Here's a list of all the warding-related posts and images that I could find.  There are many more, but some aren't all that good.  These either have good explanations, good screenshots/map markup, or both.6.82 Patch-Specific WardsImage:  6.82b Warding LocationsYoutube Video: 6.82 WardingWarding Articles:How to Ward by Wulfstan (DotaFire Guide:  The Good, the Bad and the Warding)Tsunami's Ridiculously Comprehensive Guide to Warding:Link on Reddit to EHUG posts:Pull Camp & Rune Wards (PDF)Pushing Wards (PDF)Situational Wards...

1437 Enchantress set basic colour WIP

Here is an update to the 1437 set! Colours are still being worked on but it closeish to being finalis...

Dota 2 Jokes

Found a blog with Dota2 jokes on it.Reprinted from that blog:General dota 2 jokes:Q: Whats the river’s name in dota?A: I’m pretty sure it’s The River Fag. 'Cause I’ve been told I few times ‘don’t cross the river fagQ: Why did the CM build a battlefury?A: for the +35% to cleavageQ: What time does Antimage finish farming?A: 3AMQ: What did Jesus say to the apostles when Romans came to arrest him?A: “MISS???”Q: Why people always blame the mid for losing his lane?A: If the mid loses his lane too, we don’t have a single lane that’s winning.Q: Why does...

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Earliest Solo Rosh Heroes and Builds

by CNHphoto on Reddit:So a recent project of mine is learning heroes that can solo rosh early on. I'll post my list of heroes and what they need. I know there's more heroes that can do it in the early game, but I'm not entirely familiar with the minimum requirements (e.g. Venomancer, Troll Warlord, Lifestealer). I'd love to know you think or how to do it with different heroes. Lycan: Need level 7, Vladmir's Offering, Stout Shield, Quelling Blade, Smoke. Complete-able 10 minute mark.Enigma: Need level 5, Medallion of Courage, 2-3 Healing Salves,...

How to Accelerate Your Farm

Here are some tips for accelerating farm like a pro.  Gathered from reddit and other sources.

Tip:
- if mid laner ganks the safe lane, he doesn't stay there to nuke down the next two waves of creeps before going back mid. Leave those creeps for your safelane carry!

Zrog's Tips:
- Don't die.  While this may seem like stupid advice, it also means "don't take risks when you don't have your core items yet", and "abandon fights and escape when they look iffy".
- Your supports may be jumping into a losing fight to ensure that you, the carry, make it out alive, and if you go back into the fight to "save" them, you're doing the wrong thing.
- Don't farm risky zones without support.  Farming the enemy Ancients with no wards or supports nearby is asking to be ganked.

by mido9:
A really important part of finding farm is that in pro games, unless you're immediately grouping to take a tower, every lane+jungle is occupied. There's very little farm that should go straight to the tower or die to an enemy creep wave.
Mid going to gank offlane? A position 5 support rotates to mid for a few quick levels and ward gold.
Carry just finished a gank with his two supports? Immediately back to the safelane he goes.
Offlaner farming his lane, support at safe, midlaner at mid? Carry instantly into the jungle he goes.
Just finished a good deathball and took the Tier 2 Tower? Immediate delta split into each lane + a jungle.
Anti-mage just TP'd to help a mid fight? To ancients ASAP afterwards.
It's a large part of why net exp and net gold is so much higher in pro games on average than in pubs, there's just a lot of gold that goes away for no reason because the mid stuck around to nuke some waves, or a tri-lane support was babysitting a little unnecessarily, or the offlane was running around looking for ganks too often and fell behind in gold, etc. The default state of a lane is to be occupied usually unless there's a really big, clear opportunity to gank and push or some other big deal.

by Jalapen0s
(As a carry): If you see a big fight somewhere else on the map, chances are unless you are 95% sure that you can TP in and get kills on retreating low HP enemies, you shouldn't join the fight, and just keep farming with the space that fight created for you. Also, when your supports pull, after you kill the enemy creeps, detour into the camp and get XP/ cs, then go back into lane.

by Noblewingz
  1. Always BUY OUT. Almost never do I lose gold on a death unless I'm saving for buyback or a big item.
  2. NEVER miss last hits, as a mid player it's acceptable to miss a few because of the enemy mid, but if i'm getting uncontested or under tower, I get almost every one. (Learn to estimate hp under tower so you don't miss last hits, or with quelling drop quelling for easy hits.)
  3. My farming patterns are very efficient, I studied arteezy and burning to get a idea of the best patterns for a mid carry :)
  4. Supports should stack frequently/all the time!
  5. Finally, carry a Town Portal (TP) Scroll at all times and USE IT. That 100 gold often can earn you a extra 300-500 by going to a different lane, instead of waiting for jungle to respawn/creeps to hit your wave!
HiyoleX , paraphrased:
1. Basic Boots.  Moving faster between camps is worth the money.  Get [brown] Boots before your farming item.
2. Know which farming item to get for which carry.  Gyro = HoD.  Anti-mage/PA = BFury.  Medusa = HoD or Maelstrom. Naga = Radiance (usually).  Sniper = Dragon Lance, Maelstrom or Midas.  Void = Midas

FMERCURY writes:
I'd like to emphasize the importance of buying a quelling blade on melee carries. It drastically increases the rate at which you can farm the jungle, not only by boosting your damage against neutrals, but by allowing you to cut more efficient paths (also, removing trees that can obscure enemies). And I guarantee you will improve your CS in the laning phase.
You can even make a case for it on some ranged carries. Radiant gyro is a great example.
[also very useful for cutting trees to make faster farming paths - Zrog]

DROWNING_WITH_SIRENS writes on Reddit:
  • Missing less last hits in lane is going to be the first and most important thing to do well.
  • Clearing camps between waves is another way to increase your farm instead of just waiting around for the creeps to meet again. You can also clear camps if you are struggling to last hit in lane or the lane is too pushed for you to safely do so. [Zrog says:  You should ideally be pushing the wave, and then side pulling with the large camp]
  • Farming where fights are going to happen. If you have the capacity to be useful early, farming near to where you think a fight is going to break out is a good idea. Farm until fight starts, run in and get aoe gold, then go back to farming. Keep a tp if the enemy team is diving. This doesnt mean standing around waiting for the fight to happen like people love to do in pubs, you want to be farming a camp or something while the teams are waiting for someone to do something.
  • Good itemization. It doesn't matter how farmed you are, if you buy bad items you are going to be setting yourself back.
[–]Berbacat writes on Reddit:
  • Planning. Carries that require a minimum amount of farm already know what items to get at minute -1, minute 2, and minute 10. They also have enough experience to know what to get based on how well the laning phase went.
  • Efficiency (1). There are 2 aspects to this: Time and space. Sometimes, identifying space that is available (such as a creep wave pushed up to a Tier 2 tower due to a Tier 1 tower immediately crumbling before) can nab you an extra 200 gold within that minute compared to joining a push that is already guaranteed to get you a Tier 1 tower in the lane you're already in.
  • Efficiency (2): Maximising time that isn't farming. This includes traveling, fighting and most importantly, pushing. If you're traveling to another lane, efficient carries think of the possibility of stacking, or using their mana to clear out a camp somewhere in if they know that they'll regen it later.
  • Disciplined. Carries that know how to farm will generally resist temptation to fight, depending on how close they are to a particular item. If they have foresight, they can even convince teammates to delay a smoke gank or something similar by a minute because he knows in advance what his farming progression is like.
These are just examples at the top of my head, let me know if any of them don't make sense

more from Reddit:
A big part of [farming] is TPing to other lanes with waves opening up. Do not miss CS, farm the jungle in between waves, especially after getting your basic items (treads, aquila). Do not run to base unless necessary, bring yourself regen. Do not die, dying is the #1 reason [carries] fall behind.

by Barnyyy
http://www.twitch.tv/barnyyy
or
http://youtube.com/barnyvods

 by Merlini: