DotA 2 - Valve's up and coming hat simulator

[Inhuman Bot]

Obligatory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQBBVWP7wRk

Don't get Shadow Blade on Riki. BKB is infinitely better. Shadow Blade has the exact same counters as your ultimate. Also, Mask of Madness is a terrible item that only works if you are a Faceless Void who can 5man cronosphere or you are playing against complete idiots.

Mask of Madness is like a wave with a lot of amplitude. It's really effective against bad players, ineffective when you're with and against average players, and really effective again at high levels.

[Pie Guy]

Weirdest thing: I was just in a random group where we were losing 5v4 hard, and no one raged. At all. I was in a pre-made where I only knew one guy, and everyone but the guy I knew raged so hard. What happened to all the elitist anger I've heard so much about, Dota?

[Rhydeble]

Finally got into the beta, you can add me as rhydeble if you want.

[Grif]

Please please please buy a black king bar and activate it anytime you go against more than one person. You're elusive, but even a downright awful player can still land a lucky stun if you don't drop the smoke bomb on them.

I personally just stick with another player who can actually disable another hero for me. That way, you don't need to invest in a BKB that early.

[tribble]

Mask of Madness is like a wave with a lot of amplitude. It's really effective against bad players, ineffective when you're with and against average players, and really effective again at high levels.

I'd rather have armlet and either vlad's, dominator helm, or satanic.

Weirdest thing: I was just in a random group where we were losing 5v4 hard, and no one raged. At all. I was in a pre-made where I only knew one guy, and everyone but the guy I knew raged so hard. What happened to all the elitist anger I've heard so much about, Dota?

Funny thing, if you play casual mode in heroes of newerth you don't see very much elitist rage either. I just find it interesting that the moba with probably the worst reputation for its community has an arguably better community than its main competitor. Sure, you play badly in normal mode HoN you can expect to be abused, but if you play badly in League of Legends you're going to get treated poorly and raged at no matter what. At least one of them has a mode where you can get away from the ragers.

EDIT: @ Grif: I trust pubbies about as far as I can throw them. I have never played tiny.

[Grif]

I
EDIT: @ Grif: I trust pubbies about as far as I can throw them. I have never played tiny.

You assume I actually touch a DotA game with pubs on my team?

[Dogmantra]

but if you play badly in League of Legends you're going to get treated poorly and raged at no matter what.

Come now, that is an unfair thing to say and you know it.
The community is not good but it's not that bad. You do get games where everyone is just dandy.

[tribble]

Come now, that is an unfair thing to say and you know it.
The community is not good but it's not that bad. You do get games where everyone is just dandy.

I can do 5-man premades in other games too.

Point is that while I didn't always get raged at for doing badly in a game of LoL, I never got yelled at for being bad in a casual mode game of HoN, so there was at least a place I could go to get away from the ragers.

Hey, let's come up with new "fun mode" names for the heroes in Dota. I propose faceless void be renamed Godot, because I'm still waiting for him to carry.

[Penguinizer]

Faceless Void ulti is probably one of the strongest initiation's in the game in my opinion. I'm still waiting for myself to get half decent at playing the game so I can start carrying my team. I just mainly play side-lane semi-carries or supports.

[tribble]

Faceless Void ulti is probably one of the strongest initiation's in the game in my opinion. I'm still waiting for myself to get half decent at playing the game so I can start carrying my team. I just mainly play side-lane semi-carries or supports.

I don't discount that faceless void's ult, or even his entire kit is very very good and makes him a baller carry, it's just my experience with them is that they toss an ult on one guy, don't do any kind of damage to him, and then try to get me kicked when I smite the little infidel from 70% hp and pick up the kill. Brotip: If zeus did more than half the damage involved in the kill, he isn't ksing if he takes the kill.

[Math_Mage]

Funny thing, if you play casual mode in heroes of newerth you don't see very much elitist rage either. I just find it interesting that the moba with probably the worst reputation for its community has an arguably better community than its main competitor. Sure, you play badly in normal mode HoN you can expect to be abused, but if you play badly in League of Legends you're going to get treated poorly and raged at no matter what. At least one of them has a mode where you can get away from the ragers.

Not sure how this reflects on the respective communities rather than the respective queue designs.

[Inhuman Bot]

In my haste to make sure this thread was properly attended to, I hadn't gotten around to bringing up that ValvE posted concept art for Lycan, Lone Druid and Shadow Demon.

[Inhuman Bot]

In my misguided attempt to keep this thread up to date, new patch is out.


Your soul is mine.

Spoiler

Show

I know now why you cry. But it's something I can never do. Goodbye.

[tribble]

That is AWESOME. Both the Rattletrap terminator AND Obsidian Destroyer.

[Inhuman Bot]

The glitch where illusions could sell items has been fixed, as was the 'item trading' bit.

However, if you random then repick, you still start off with extra gold.

[Bayar]

The glitch where illusions could sell items has been fixed, as was the 'item trading' bit.

However, if you random then repick, you still start off with extra gold.

Wasn't that how it worked in DotA ? Also, I seem to remember people picking heroes like AM then repicking, thus creating a pseudo-ban.

[OFWGKTA]

I know now why you cry. But it's something I can never do. Goodbye.

Took me a second to get that lol

[9mm]

So. good news: I won a key in a draw, so I don't need to subject myself to hon to play Axe anymore!

Bad news, holy hell I'm rusty.

[Keld Denar]

Took me a second to get that lol

I still don't get it...is it some reference?

[9mm]

I still don't get it...is it some reference?

go watch Terminator 2.

[Ur-Quan]

Add me to play! I promise I don't flame :))))))) Here

[Volatar]

So I played a few botgames with my best friend earlier today. Discovered Windrunner, who I now love.

Leavers are annoying as heck.

Also, bots are ridiculously good ad denying. They seem to prioritize it over last hitting, which is just a troll move by Valve. In the games I played all the bots had 30-40 denies. One game Sniper Bot ended with no less than 83 denies.

One question: How the heck is Tower aggro determined? It seems to be completely random.

[Tono]

Generally? If no one else is attacking the tower, it hits you. If all the creeps leave to hit other creeps, it hits who ever is hitting the tower. Closest, then furthest.

Fun little note, if tower is attacking you, and you have creeps nearby (I think they have to be aggro on the tower) A+click the creep as if you would deny, even if it has full health and it will switch to creeps. That way you don't have to run out of tower range and come back.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

So I played a few botgames with my best friend earlier today. Discovered Windrunner, who I now love.

Leavers are annoying as heck.

Also, bots are ridiculously good ad denying. They seem to prioritize it over last hitting, which is just a troll move by Valve. In the games I played all the bots had 30-40 denies. One game Sniper Bot ended with no less than 83 denies.

One question: How the heck is Tower aggro determined? It seems to be completely random.

So for tower aggro, there are a few simple rules they follow.

If a hostile unit enters the tower's range and the tower is able to attack that unit, then it will target the unit as soon as it's able.

If the tower kills a hostile unit, it will switch to the closest hostile unit.

If a hostile unit attacks an allied hero, the tower will switch targets and defend the hero, attacking that target either until dead or until the tower is no longer able. This only applies to attacks, however; you can still target hostile heroes with spells or manually-casted Unique Attack Modifiers like Drow's Frost Arrows, Silencer's Glaives of Wisdom or Huskar's Burning Spears without being targeted by the tower.

If the tower is attacking a unit that then attempts to attack an invalid target, then it will search for a new target as if it had killed its old one. The most common and useful situation is this. You're on the Dire side, sieging the Radiant's Tier 1 tower. It's attacking you, so you force-attack your ranged creep, which is at full HP. Since it's above 50%, you can't actually damage it, but the tower will switch targets, allowing you to drop aggro without leaving range.

In general order of priority, it's:

1) units attacking a hero, sorted by distance
2) units attacking the tower itself, sorted by distance
3) units attacking friendly non-hero units, sorted by distance
4) other hostile units within range
5) siege units
6) summoned units, including Venomancer wards

This isn't completely exact, since I'm not 100% sure on how the AI has changed from Dota 1 to Dota 2, but generally speaking this is how it works. Don't autoattack a hero within range of a tower unless you have a good reason. Don't autoattack the tower if nothing else is attacking it unless you have a good reason. Use the force-attack trick to drop aggro when appropriate.

If you want to play some games, add me on steam; my ID is QuicklyRainbow. Feel free to message me. I'll try not to be flame-y. Whether or not I am, unfortunately, depends on how long its been since I last went to the gym.

[Volatar]

Thanks. It all makes sense now.

Shot you a friend invite.

[Rhydeble]

I love how people believe that EVERY SINGLE HERO is the dedicated support, as long as they aren't playing it. Magina? support. Drow? support. EarthShaker? nahh its probably that naix.

I just hate it when people wait sixty seconds, then pick and claim solo-mid, and get angry when no-one buys a donkey and wards for them. Also, buying a bottle means that YOU PERSONALLY have the sole right to any and all runes, even if its a regen and you're at full health, or the enemy is trying to grab it too, or someone else on the team bought a bottle first.

The sense of entitlement some people have when playing what they believe to be a carry (armlet antimage with vlad's... when ursa already had a vlad.) is just crazy.

[Suedars]

I love how people believe that EVERY SINGLE HERO is the dedicated support, as long as they aren't playing it. Magina? support. Drow? support. EarthShaker? nahh its probably that naix.

I just hate it when people wait sixty seconds, then pick and claim solo-mid, and get angry when no-one buys a donkey and wards for them. Also, buying a bottle means that YOU PERSONALLY have the sole right to any and all runes, even if its a regen and you're at full health, or the enemy is trying to grab it too, or someone else on the team bought a bottle first.

The sense of entitlement some people have when playing what they believe to be a carry (armlet antimage with vlad's... when ursa already had a vlad.) is just crazy.

This is doubly hilarious since vlad's is a support item, not a carry item.

[Keld Denar]

Yea, I love being in a game where I'm the only one buying wards. Ever. And then getting yelled at when the ward duration ends while I'm on a gank and don't get back to put up more wards immediately. If its that big of a deal, buy your own dang wards. Otherwise, I'll get wards up as soon as I get done killing a guy and head back to my lane. Patience!

Also, Bane Elemental is now in the game! Woot!

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

This is doubly hilarious since vlad's is a support item, not a carry item.

Well, yes and no. Theoretically it's a support item, but its most common usage is on hard carries in a pushing lineup. Most often you see it on an Antimage in a lineup that's trying to take fast towers and end the game before the 28-ish minute mark (though in pubs Ursa frequently rushes one, which makes total sense since it lets him solo Roshan). It's kind of an awkward item - the 12% damage, armor and lifesteal auras are really, really beneficial in a pushing lineup and to melee hard carries, but it's too expensive for too little individual benefit to a poor, squishy support compared to a Drum, Vanguard or even a Force Staff. I'd suggest that its proper carriers are really long-lane solos who generally carry items like Mek and Pipe; that is, team-focused, expensive 'support' items.

[Suedars]

it's too expensive for too little individual benefit to a poor, squishy support compared to a Drum, Vanguard or even a Force Staff. I'd suggest that its proper carriers are really long-lane solos who generally carry items like Mek and Pipe; that is, team-focused, expensive 'support' items.

This is mostly what I meant. Obviously you aren't going to see CM running around with a Vlad's. But it's a supporty item because most of the benefits are to the team rather than the individual carrier.