Drafting Practice: Day Three, Part Two: Improvement

Draft #4:  Me as Radiant

The idea of this lineup was to have some tough carries who also come online midgame, and then back them up with a healer (Abaddon in this case).  Elder Titan (ET) would provide valuable armor and resist removal against enemies, and add a nice followup to Chronosphere.  My last-pick Brewmaster SEEMED like a good idea, as he's difficult for Bane to lock down, and has quite a bit of CC of his own during his ultimate, and even in normal form he'll dodge a lot of TA's right-click.

Ok, so I thought I was being all clever with my tri-lane bottom, but then he puts Void down there, and I doubt I have enough lockdown to kill him before he Time Walks away.  However, Brew will likely do just fine solo against him (even at level 6, when Void can't do much damage in the Chrono).  Thus, Abaddon and SShaman could roam.  SShaman would likely pull the lane repeatedly to get some farm of his own, and Abaddon could roam, guard runes, help tower dive vs. TA, or assist Elder Titan top.

ET will do fine against Mirana + Bane, simply because he can use his Spirit to farm and stay far from initiation range of Bane.  If he makes a mistake, he's dead, but that's typical with the suicide lane.

DK and TA are probably equal mids, although TA's armor reduction could really hurt DK, and DK doesn't have anything to deal with refraction, except in Dragon Form Level 1, once level 6 hits.  TA has rune control advantage with her traps after Level 6, but without much psi-blade impact until later on, both heroes will likely get enough farm to come online for midgame.

Pushing power:  Okay, here's where his lineup falls flat.  He's really got no good midgame push-antipush against SS Wards + DK Dragon Form + my backup/sustain from Abaddon / ET.  Heck, ET could even put Void to sleep inside the Chrono! (I think?  Do spirits work in Chrono?)

The main issue would be:  can Void get enough farm, or can TA get enough ganks, to make it to lategame?  I have a feeling I could seriously roll over the enemy lineup during midgame.  However, against more cores and harder carries, it would have to be a short game or I'd lose.

After the draft, my opponent pointed out that Brew makes a terribly tri-lane hero, as he needs levels more than farm.  I think I could adjust lanes to make that happen, though.

Draft #5:  Me as Radiant

I feel that I drafted poorly here.  I don't really have anything to stop Lycan from running around killing all my supports, my Wraith King will get kited around by Storm Spirit and even Lycan.  If he stands still, a Black Hole is waiting for him.  Razor can steal damage really well from Lycan, which is why I let the Lycan through the first ban, but NP will be food to the Storm Spirit ganks, and Lich doesn't really offer anything at all beyond denying Centaur a bit of farm, which isn't even a big deal.

Let's just move on...

Draft #6:  Me as Dire

Ok, so I got too greedy here.  I'm going to be punished heavily with an aggro tri-lane, unless by some miracle I can get an upper hand on kills.  Early game, before level 6, Wraith King is only going to have 1-2 stuns before running out of mana, although both AA and Viper have very long-range attacks to harass Void.  Void can likely get away from most ganks, but he's not going to get a lot of farm.  Jakiro is likely to get caught out and killed if he doesn't hang in the back, and if he hangs back, he's not helping against the harass.  My best choice would be to actually be very aggressive from level one, and hope that a good Burrowstrike + Dual Breath would allow me to get an early kill.  With a slight upper hand, I would be able to get an edge against a severely-slow-leveling Viper.

My mid matchup is far better.  I think Brew, as a melee character, would have a great deal of trouble against an Exhort Invoker.  However, once Brew hits 6, he's going to be a lot stronger than anyone in my lineup.

I basically lose bottom.  Sure, Darkseer will get XP, but OD will get freefarm and levels, which is bad.  I can't gank with Invoker, and Dark Seer is unlikely to kill OD, and may even get Astral Imprisoned one too many times and lose the ability to Ion Shell for some farm.

Lesson learned here:  while Faceless Void is a great character, he's not really a great first-pick, tri-lane carry.  You need to get creative in how you lane him so that you can take other characters with better midgame.

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Drafting Practice: Day Three, Part One: Defeats

Well, I think I got heavily stomped in today's drafting.  Don't know who the guy was, but he was able to pre-ban my preferred picks, and generally pick the few heroes that I overlooked that would cause me the most pain.

Draft #1:  Me as Radiant - "Wombo combo blues".

Okay, so I ran out of time here / my phone lagged, so my Magnus pick (which was redundant) could have been OD.  It still wasn't a horrible choice, but a bit over the top for the already-strong wombo combo.

I didn't lose this one so badly, as many of my heroes had some anti-push (Jakiro, Magnus), and I think I could have held off his aggro-tri, and Lycan (or his wolves) would have had issues either getting constant farm, or pushing against Dark Seer.

Then again, he didn't have much to counter my big combo, other than DP's ult taking pieces out of people during the Chrono (until I killed her in a Chrono or something).  DSeer's Wall of Replica would be VERY effective against both Viper and Lycan, and a Vaccum + Chrono + Macropyre + Empowered right-clicks would do very well against largely ranged team.

However, I didn't have anything to counter his midgame split push, and DP's and Skywrath's Silences would mess my combos up pretty bad.


I still think his synergy was better, with heavy physical damage, Skywrath to help in the laning phase, and then split push + decent post-teamfight push.  Defensively, he could use Silences and Nether Swap to defeat / reduce my big combos.

Last, his lineup could easily do Rosh, and as Dire, he'd be in a better position to take advantage of it.

Draft #2:  Me as Dire

This was a weird draft for me.  I decide to go PL after him granting me KotL, to counter his heavy push from the Prophets (Death and Nature's).   And yes, I decided to abandon the bottom lane, because it's unlikely that he could push it in too early (without Serpent Wards, and Skywrath sucks at pushing).  He's actually gimping himself by putting Skywrath/Brew/SShaman in a tri-lane, because all of them need levels as well as only a bit of farm.  However, abandoning the lane gives Brewmaster free-farm, and then lets the other 2 supports jungle-pull, and/or roam.

I feel that my top tri-lane would drive NP out of the lane, or kill him repeatedly.  Illuminate would take care of any treants and keep him away or damage him.  Chakra + PL, as we all know, is near-unlimited harass.  Nyx would be free to roam after driving away NP, and then either hunt NP in the Radiant jungle, or make a nuisance of himself mid, hopefully killing DP and preventing her from becoming the big level 11 threat.

Skywrath is heavily countered by Pugna, who could outlevel Skywrath with a good laning phase in mid.  However, Pugna isn't the greatest matchup against DP, and neither hero has an escape, so it would likely come down to how well each team's supports could roam.  Unfortunately, Sky and SS roam really well together, and Pugna would likely get killed repeatedly, unless babysat by Nyx, who would also have his hands full trying to keep the roaming supports from killing Doom in his own jungle, and ganking NP in the Radiant jungle so he didn't get too fat, even after abandoning top lane.

Depending on who got the jump on whom, Brew is heavily shut down by Doom, as are Skywrath and Shadow Shaman - but Doom has to pick only one.  PL's split push is somewhat countered by NP, and until PL comes online, the whole lineup is reliant on Pugna's and KotL's abilities to hold back pushes and delay/prevent full-blown teamfights until the Dire carries get up and running.

I think the two drafts would come down heavily to execution, although the midgame definitely favours my opponent.  There's a glimmer of hope in my lineup, but it's at the end of a long, dark tunnel...

Draft #3:  Me as Dire

I went too greedy towards the end of this line-up.  I started out well, but his final Weaver pick reduced my aggro tri-lane to uselessness.   All of my supports, and Lone Druid, would all be easily ganked by Tiny+Wisp, and even though Silencer MIGHT do well mid, I don't have any good roaming to shut down Doom's jungling, nor drive Tide out of lane.  LD would get good farm until the Tiny/Wisp combo came online, but then that would be it.

My thought process was that LD was a good carry who didn't care about Doom, and would punish greedy lane choices.  Yet, he needs babysitters, and I didn't provide him with any (although the Rubick could rotate to that lane and maybe sacrifice himself to save LD if gankers came), nor did I pick pushers that would force a defensive posture from the opponent, leaving LD to farm in peace.

While Silencer could occasionally shut down ganks from Tiny+Wisp with a global silence, he probably couldn't do it often enough, and then would not have it available for subsequent teamfights against Doom + Ravage.

Started out well, but failed horribly.

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Drafting Practice: Day Two

Love this tool:  http://dota2draft.the-cluster.org/
... too bad not more people use it.  Would be a great addition to the Dota 2 client!

Draft #1 Analysis:  Me as Radiant

His lanes are strong, although I don't think the aggro trilane would have worked - Dazzle is too much of a defensive support, and WK only has about 1-2 Hellfire blasts before he's out of mana.  A well-placed Cask or Hex (or both) would pretty much ruin his kill attempt.  Finally, Void could simply Time Walk away, and some spells / attacks on him would simply fail due to Backtrack.

Midgame, if Silence was cast, I could simply fall back, and then use Stampede to re-engage. Serpent Wards don't care about Silence if they are already cast, similar to Chronosphere.

Simply put, without a dominant early game, which my opponent isn't really set up for, he has nothing to counter Tinker's split push, nor Shadow Shaman's Serpent Ward's pushing power.  I suppose you could argue that Dazzle does well with Shadow Wave against pushes, Razor has his AOE, and TA can "cleave" waves, but none of those kill towers.

The only combo that would work well would be to wait until Death Ward is down from WD, cast Silence during the Chrono so that only Void could do appreciable damage, and then hopefully Hellfire Blast and kill Void with right-clicks.  He has lots of carry, but no AOE lockdown, and no reliable initiation (unless he tried the Wraith King sucker punch?).

Draft #2 Analysis:  Me as Dire

My aggro tri-lane would have a difficult time, here.  Disruptor MIGHT be the only saving grace, as it would be easier to arrange a "cage match" in the Kinetic Field, or maybe to Glimpse someone back into a Burrowstrike + Open Wounds/Rage.

I've tried a "support Slardar" myself, and I find he makes a very poor tri-lane hero.  He can roam decently, but in this case he's not going to do well trying to gank Batrider, who can simply fly over a cliff or use a cocktail to bounce him back out of range.

Beastmaster vs. NP is probably a wash, although range vs. melee favours NP slightly.  NP can also join other skirmishes at will, unlike Beastmaster.  NP Sprout and Beastmaster Roar both shut down melee carries quite effectively, magic resist or no.

If the game went long, his superior (many) carries would probably overwhelm my team, but counter-pushing against NP would be difficult for him, with only Beastmaster having any AOE ability.

There's very little he could do against a Batrider initiation against Brewmaster.

I think it would actually be a decent game, and a great deal influenced by the respective skills of the players.

Draft #3 Analysis:  Me as Radiant

I actually loved my last-pick Huskar on this one.  The nice thing about the Razor-Huskar matchup (for me) is that Burning Spears does magical damage, so it's no reduced even if Razor Static Links a lot of Huskar's damage away.  I think it would be an interesting lane matchup.  Late game, Huskar would fall off a lot, unless he could maintain a level and item advantage from an early-game snowball.

The tri-lanes are both nasty.  With melee carries, the stuns and slows would really impede them from doing damage, although an earlier Mirror Image on Naga would really make single-target stuns inconvenient, as they tried to choose the right target.  CM and SS would be good defensive supports, and would make it very difficult for WK to successfully reach and right-click any single target.

The solo lanes are a wash - no one would get an advantage there, and both would be able to farm their Blink Daggers relatively fast.  Neither would be likely to kill the other after Level 6, either.  However, both are powerful teamfight heroes.

I believe neither team has the advantage late-game, even though Static Link isn't very effective against an illusion hero, but Razor's ultimate would be very good at not only determining the right target for Link, but also to rapidly reduce the illusions.  Huskar would remain a threat to the supports throughout the game, and could be a decent initiator against that lineup, though he'd have to stack some armor to prevent getting right-clicked down, especially facing Vengeance Aura and Wave of Terror.

Very late game, or if Naga got ahead in farm with a proper Radiance, I believe Dire would have issues against the split-push of the illusions.  However, Venge would scale better than CM or SS, and AA's ult would remain effective throughout the game (and would also help vs. the split push).

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Team Ideas: Physical Spell Combos

Introduction:

Note that these teams are nearly impossible to draft - they use high-ban/pick heroes, and most of the time the opponent is going to see what you're doing and ban an appropriate hero.

However, in pubs, feel free to lolz.

Team Combos:  Physical damage “spells”:

Team #1:  

Medusa Stone Gaze + WD Death Ward + Death Prophet Exorcism + Dazzle Weave + Faceless Void Chrono

Lanes: 

Medusa + WD + Dazzle

DP mid

Faceless solo offlane

Team #2:

Troll + Dazzle + Shadow Shaman (or someone else with lockdown)

SFiend mid
Elder Titan solo offlane

Team #3:

Troll mid
Medusa safe solo
Aggro tri:  Juggernaut, Treant, Witch Doctor

Team #4:
DP mid
Magnus solo offlane
Ember + Dazzle + Shadow Shaman/Veno

Team #5:
DP mid
Medusa + WD + Venge
Undying solo offlane

Team #6:

Alchemist + Elder Titan + Dazzle

Magnus offlane (for setup RP + Empower)

Ember Spirit (or Death Prophet) mid

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Team Idea: The Wraith King Sucker Punch

Dec 5, 2014 - Author's Note:  This post has gotten a lot of traffic, so I've added a few details recently.

Wraith King can be horribly abused for his ult, just as a means to slow the whole team and make them use abilities on him.

So... here's an idea (untested):

Using a support WK, push WK in by himself – rest of team waits nearby.  Opponents kill WK and are slowed when he resurrects.

Normally, it's tough to get opponents to focus WK in a fight, because they know that he'll just come right back.

Followup with a Blink-initiator (Dark Seer, Sand King, Earthshaker, Magnus, Enigma, etc), plus some followup area-damage (Invoker, Gyro, Kunkka, Disruptor, etc).

One of the keys to this concept is to use heroes whose ults are usually harder to land, due to delays, such as Gyro's Calldown, Disruptor's Static Field, etc.  Not only do these ults inflict big damage, but they also further debuff (slow/silence) your enemies.

Alternately, use Batrider/Venge to jump one of the heroes, and let WK delay the enemy team.  If they DO kill him, they will be slower to respond or counter-initiate (slowed).  You must, of course, kill your target and go rescue WK before they kill him again!

You will see some teams give Wraith King the Aegis of the Immortal, simply because it's very difficult for anyone to hold back from using at least SOME abilities/cooldowns on Wraith King, when he's hitting your teammates in the face.  The more damage he can soak and still keep coming back, the more annoying he can be.

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Drafting Practice Day One - Analysis

I did a bunch of drafting practice today on the dota2draft site.  Below is an analysis of the drafts.

Prelude:  the current meta seems to favour Tide and Shadow Shaman as supports, and Doom and Faceless Void as carries.  Lyncan is, as always, a high-winrate hero, and is frequently picked or banned for his pushing ability and midgame power.

Last Draft (me as Dire):

I felt that this was the most interesting draft, with the most interesting lineups.  Happened with the 4th draft in a row against the same person.

Anyone know how a Lone Druid vs. Nature's Prophet mid matchup would go?  I have no idea...

I think both tri-lanes were strong - too strong for vs. solo laner.  Centaur would probably do better than Razor, but both would be likely to get zoned out. 

In all, I think it got to the point where both my opponent and I were trying to out-think each other too much, and this draft is the result.
  
3rd Draft (me as Radiant):

I got Lycan here, and wanted to exploit yet protect him, but the Ursa pick caught me off-guard.  My later picks reflected my need to shut down Ursa (with Razor as anti-carry), and also take a kiter/split-pusher/escaper in Weaver.  However, I ended up without a good place for Weaver to lane.  He MIGHT have been able to survive and soak up XP against the tri-lane, but it would have been a crappy lane for him.  Might have been better to jungle Lycan and have Weaver + Bane safe lane...


2nd Draft (me as Dire):


I think I broke even here - this might even be an even game.  I'm unsure how good his aggro trilane would have been, with only a Disruption as lockdown, and some slows - a Cask from WD would probably be enough to disrupt their initiation.   OD would get free-farm on his lane, but wouldn't be able to zone out DS, either.  Nyx would likely do well against Warlock, and would probably be able to kill him at level 6 quite easily.

1st Draft (me as Radiant):


As our first draft against each other, I think my opponent wasn't expecting a tri-lane at all.  I think I won this draft pretty hard, as Invoker would decimate Doom mid, and probably drive him right out of lane.  Batrider would be in no danger offlane, and might even be able to kill AA with a level advantage.  If AA left the lane, Void wouldn't be able to lane against Bat without a ton of regen, Backtrack nonwithstanding.  He has no good offlaner against my tri-lane; with the dual lane, Abaddon would have a bad day, though Windranger could probably stay in the lane and get some farm with Power Shot.  However, with three stuns in my tri-lane, she'd have to be really careful not to get caught out.

Conclusion:

I found that as I went along, my lanes became less predictable.  It's a lot easier to mess up your opponent's lanes if he has very little flexibility in how he lanes his heroes.  I don't feel at any time that my draft was hard-countered, although I did worse for sure on the 3rd draft.

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More Wombo Combos

Team: Luna, Sand King, Kunkka, Jakiro, + Necrolyte/Omni/Dazzle/Witch Doctor

Combo:  Epi --> Burrowstrike into Ice Path into Ghost Ship/Torrent into Eclipse.  By the time the combo is over, Ice Path and/or Burrowstrike may even be off cooldown for a repeat!

Laning:  Very flexible.  Computer tends to send Jakiro mid, but I'd probably pick Kunkka or the +1.

Team:  Sand King, Kunkka, Jakiro, Dark Seer

+ carry with AOE:   Shadowfiend/Medusa/Luna/Gyro/WK/(solo DK w/roamers?)/Alchemist/Terrorblade

Laning:  Kunkka mid, (carry) + Jak + SK safe (& roam), DS solo offlane

The Combo:  Burrowstrike or Vaccum into Ice Path+Wall+Macropyre+Epi+Requiem

Team:  Magnus, Gyro, Kunkka, Jakiro, Shadow Shaman/Lion?

Lanes:  Magnus solo safe, SS + Jak + Gyro agro tri, Kunkka mid

Items: Veil, Mek, Arcanes.

Bans:  Centaur, Naga, Silencer, Pugna

Team:  Warlock, Tidehunter, Sand King, Leshrac, Luna/Sven/Gyro/Kunkka/OD/Ember

Lanes:  Warlock mid, Luna + SandKing + Lesh, Tide offlane

Items: Blink on SK & Tide; Veil on Warlock, Arcanes on Lesh, Mek on carry?

Ban:  Silencer/Rubick/Naga/Pugna

Team: 
Void solo offlane
Warlock mid
Gyro, Witchdoctor, Crystal Maiden safelane

Team:
Timbersaw offlane
Void, WD, Jakiro safelane
Leshrac mid

More Ideas, based on this link:

http://www.dotafire.com/dota-2/guide/universal-guide-to-team-fight-powers-7197

#1: Puck, Gyro + AA,  Disruptor + Sven (AA & Gyro can anti-push from cross-map (Gyro w/Aghs).

#2:  Faceless + WD + SShaman, Phoenix solo, Magnus mid (RP into Chrono + WD ult + Wards/Shock + Supernova)

#3:  Faceless + Jakiro + Lich, Darkseer solo offlane, Tinker mid (Tinker for splitpush while teamfight powers allow 4v5 wins)

#4:  Medusa + Dazzle + SShaman, DSeer solo offlane, DP mid

#5:  Faceless + Warlock + CM/Lich/Jakiro, Gyro mid, DS/Mag/Elder solo offlane

#6:  Kunkka + Tide + Disruptor, Magnus mid,

#7:  Siren + Tide + Veno, Warlock mid, Dark Seer solo offlane

#8:  Faceless Void + Warlock + Skywrath/CM, Zeus mid, Phoenix solo offlane (Zeus Veil, Phoenix Mek)

#9:  Warlock, Dark Seer, Sven, Disruptor, Sniper/QoP mid

(Vacuum into Bonds + Upheaval + Wall + Static Storm, Sven Storm Hammer + Cleave, Sniper right-click or QoP Sonic/Scream).

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