undermind9

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    647

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by undermind9

  1. Posted

    Whooooooooooah...  I'm so glad Mac achievements are permanently broken with Flash games and I will never be tempted to go all out like this because I would murder myself even getting halfway to what you accomplished.

     

    i was ready to quit the sob when i had to re-do chest kills with samson, blue baby, and eve....essentially my 3 worst characters.  and some 800 or so deaths in there too.  i think i platinum'd on attrition, i may reset stats to get get plat w/lowest death count

  2. Posted

    exactly, the wasted .25 sec epicenter out of fight VS not getting it off makes him ideal to charge up & blink/burrow.

     

    the blink queuing is the best way to do this, but takes some practice.  binding items to hotkeys/commands/mouse key or two is really great.  

     

    in dota1 i kept 4 items on my mouse...but in HoN i relearned to use Alt+Q/W/E A/S/D (as in 2 rows of 3 items each)

    but you'll see people streaming with their bindings all over the place, truly whatever makes most comfortable

     

    So in this case its R -> SHIFT Click  Blink Dagger -> Click Blink point.  load up on some bots and give a try a few times (enable cheats & -referesh for quick skill refreshes)

     

    and then drop veil, shiva, into sandbox, or burrow to get extra range on a straggler.  typically though youre going to die...its part of the initiation process.  you go in, create chaos and let the others swarm and pick off.  lots of assists though

  4. Posted

    I liked Vampire a lot, but that might have been due to the class I picked. I don't remember having too many problems with the stealth, though some of the areas (the hotel comes to mind) were overly long.

    i dont think i got past the first 3hrs in Vampire Bloodlines, but i picked the Nosferatu class so was immediately at a disadvantage. i remember thinking it was very clunky...if on sale on GoG i should try again

     

    However! the first one Vampire Masquerade was a great time, loved the voice acting.  Still a joke amongst brothers when approaching giant rats in the cave guy says to himself - "Wild dogs?...nay! Rats!"

  5. Posted

    Key Arena hosts concerts all the time, so I imagine they already have set layouts for things like this. It would be cool to see Valve arrange things differently though. Maybe both teams in the middle with their backs to each other, looking out at the crowd?

     

    ya i went on key arena's webby for some standard layouts, http://tinyurl.com/pgjvmml

     

    The round layout would be great, especially if teams faced out to the crowd.  if it isnt sold out could easily rotate to the other side of the arena to watch dreamily at TC

     

    OR rotating stage.  that'd be pretty neat

  6. Posted

    i wonder what kind of layout they'll utilize for a arena that size.  

     

     

    $100 ticket general admin for 6 days at a bigger venue VS the $50 for 3 day pass, ive never been to Key Arena, but i imagine if they utilize typ. horse-shoe concert layouts theres a pretty good opportunity for good...and bad seats

     

    also, end on a monday!? boo, now i'll have to explain to everyone what twitch is...and why it is on my second screen streaming all day - and none of the other work is getting done

  8. Posted

    ive been playing through Origins on PS3, i got it ~$30 on a black friday deal but held off playing since it was essentially broken

     

    I think the story is actually pretty interesting, the side-quest villains are neat, and combat feels great still.  As to the broken-ness of the game ive only had one lock up in ~10hrs

     

    i'll likely report back when finish the game as to the story as a whole.  i tend to 100% these games so might be a while - except challenge rooms, im not nearly good enough at the fighting to earn those massive score medals

  9. Posted

    Haven't posted in this thread before. Only been playing Dota for a couple of weeks. Had to stop in because I just finally managed to pull off my first successful carry! Am so excited and didn't know who else to tell that would appreciate it. :) There's a screenshot here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/unavoidablegrain/13531538223/ I played as Sand King, one of the few heroes that I feel like I sort of understand how to play and the only one who's not a support. After watching this Purge video 

     I tried a new build order building up burrowstrike before sand storm and going for a blink dagger. The combination makes for great chase and kill potential. Ended up 29-4-7, more kills than their whole team put together.

     

    It may sound like I'm bragging here, and I guess I am, but I think it really speaks to how amazing this game is. The learning curve on this thing is amazing. Just so well tuned. I'm constantly balanced on a knife edge between feeling frustrated with myself when I fuck up or have a bad game and so psyched when I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of some new skill -- like improving my last-hitting -- or or pull off some maneuver  -- like ganking with a blink dagger and burrowstrike combo or trapping someone with Lina's light strike so someone else can finish them off. And I've only probably played about a third of the heroes ever and I only feel like I have the hang of maybe five. The learning curve just goes up forever as far as I can see. It's awe inspiring.

     

    I'm totally shocked to find myself as into a game that's this goddamn complicated and fiddly as this one. It shouldn't work but it does.

     

    Huzzah! keeping your build flexible is very important, as nice as the Sand Storm Sand Box is sitting in one place really leaves you exposed and hoping to get a last hit VS actively last hitting with autoattacks.

     

    Someone who is any good at denies will snake all of the creeps from the slow dot of SS.  You may even find needing Caustic over Sand Storm if you are laning against some aggressive melee folk - they'll back right quick when 3-4 creeps all pop at once (hit each creep once then go for the kill on the first/lowest)

     

    for more mind blowing - turn that plate mail into a Shiva's Guard, blink in with epicenter going and activate the slow...no chance of escape.  OR! Veil of Discord is fairly popular, blink in again and cast the huge AOE veil for bonus magic.  

     

    someone else already pointed out that sand king isnt the best carry...as some BKB's and a pipe will often stunt your kills.  but can certainly snowball and dominate team fights.  True Carries are often categorized when they have passive/active skills that scale well into the end game - good stat growth, critical strikes, vamp, etc. 

  10. Posted

    on the topic of match making i find a real enjoyment when matching up against the same group over and over again

     

    My 3-lock team in un-ranked RD pulled the same opposing 3-lock team three games in a row.  we took the series 2-1, and lost the last one to weaver that went an absurd 19-0 (rooftrellan living armor saves on at least 4 counts) - nothing spectacular about the games, just satisfying to have a random match series with the same people

     

     

    the close out of the night though was the worst/best RD lord pool could imagine.  there was not one "hard support", the final lineup was - Doom, Mirana, Razor, Silencer, Alch VS Morph, Ember, Dragon Knight, Skywrath, & Vipes.

     

    the viper ended up dropping, but it was a really neat game where lords where shoe-horned into roles not usually setup for.  and the two pubs in the group were canadian stoners, pretty great voice chat commentary

  11. Posted

    it sounds like you have a solution coming, but for others in similar predicaments i have had great success with power-line connections.  

     

    my wife would not tolerate a 100ft cat6 in our apartment so it was the best solution (even wireless was shakey across the room due to the ~30 other broadcasts in the complex)

     

    and in our house now i cant get a fish in the walls due to the excessive insulation in between the studs - but i am running a power line from downstairs on a different circuit to the office and have yet to have any network packet drop, and get full speed out of comcast

  12. Posted

    How did you feel when you finished it?

     

    I felt a little...empty. As though I had just wasted a good amount of time. The so called "brilliant ending" left me thinking "Really? That's the best you can do? Magic meta-physics?"

     

    holy smokes, sorry, didnt mean to make this a big BI discussion.  i was just so happy to be done with it

     

    as to the ending -

     

    i completely agree.  being a year later i had heard all sorts of hype, amazing reviews, nominations for awards...even threw headphones off whenever spoilers of the end were appraoching...and then meh.

     

    i really expected them to play on the multi-dimension thing...like a really long loop and they kept going lighthouse to lighthouse trying to un-f*ck the other worlds and essentially spinning their wheels.

     

    and was almost there in the scene where you saw other pairs walking on the docks

     

    dk, im glad i finished it, and im also glad i can uninstall it.  live, lives, will live.  dies, died, will die sorta thing

     

     

    and! for the record.  i think i liked the game - just not the actual story

    i think i was disheartened after Daisy was shot, and then down spiral kidnapping, future world, and hooked up to the Matrix plug machine.

     

    it was really great looking, set pieces, enemies, plasmids were cool...and as usual the side story voice acting was stupendous.  i think the traps and melee executions were out of place...but not deal breakers

  13. Posted

    momentous occasion, since the steam summer sale been banging my head against this one

     

    finally finished Bioshock Infinite this weekend on PC.  total 12hrs for one play through on hard...i was scouring deep for all the pick ups, ended up 37/80 achievos on first run which i think is ok?  

     

    i cannot see myself coming back to this one though, even 1999 mode.  i felt against the wall some encounters and with more difficulty/less health the first Handyman would bring tears.

  14. Posted

    Ugh what an obtuse guild system.  I have no way of finding the DOTATODA guild or having access to anything about it or who runs it so whoever that may be, assuming the guild is still active, can you invite me?  Steam name is my username.

    the best way to get invite is idle in the chat channel "idlethumbs" and ask everyonce and a while for a guild invite.  someone will notice with officer rights and will add in

     

    ive been trying to play with new people outside of my usual 3-6 friends, hope to see you on!

  16. Posted

    on the topic of modes "-AR DM ID SC" holds a special place in my nostalgic heart, for anyone unfamiliar in dota1 player slot 1 one the responsibility of typing in the game modifiers at the beginning of the match.  and that line breaks down as follows -

     

    AR - all random

    DM - death match - when you die lose that hero from the pool forever, say 1st hero QoP and die...could respawn as Centaur Warchief

    ID - Item Drop - instead of losing money when die drop a random item from slot

    SC - super creeps - essentially an Ancient spawns in lane to push with regular creepwave

     

     

    i hope valve adds more "arcade" modes to the game after the un-released hero pool dries up.  Ranked doesnt have a strong appeal to me, but i fear that all the polite/not-troll players will exodus overtime to Ranked away from public match making

  17. Posted

    I've never met anyone who claimed to like Single Draft and wasn't lying through their teeth, so now we know nj00s is a big liar.

     

    i loved Single Draft in dota1 when you could swap around, it was essentially modern random draft but w/o the alternating picking part.  SD has certainly lost its appeal in dota2 since i feel like people can lose the game in the draft more easily

     

    Not that you couldnt lose in the draft in dota1, but it didnt feel as competitive in rando-battlenet public games like dota2 matchmaking

  18. Posted

    ive a Das Keyboard ultimate at work i use all day that i love (the all blank one...scares off people from using my terminal).  however i dont think i could ever consider using this for gaming, the constant click-clacking in a FPS would be aggravating

     

    but at home ive been using mitsuko keyboards for the last ~12years.  its fancy because its got those slick multimedia buttons & internet navigation

     

    directron_1983_886935728.jpg

     

    they come in combo packs with terrible mice...only my last keyboard was a laser the rest had been ball mice

     

     

    i often have considered a nicer keyboard but since my home PC is now exclusively a game machine a slick ~$100 one seems like a waste

  19. Posted

    hey subbles, frequent lurker, seldom poster,

     

    thats terrible and never an easy thing.  we lost one of our cat-children year and half ago to jaw cancer.  ive lost human people in my life that didnt break my heart as much as that little guy in the last few weeks

     

    just wanted to share and let know another person is in your corner

  22. Posted

    on the note of important things to teach someone in the first 20 matches i think Orbs is pretty interesting.

     

    it was a mechanic held over from WC3 when you would find a *Blank* elemental modifier in the map and it would boost your hero unit's attack & put on a burn, slow, dot, etc modifier.

     

     

     

    i think DOTA2 has done a good job explaining how orbs work, but making sure they dont interact adversely is difficult language to understand; skadi + deso + vamp...but Vlads isnt an orb & lightning procs independently.

     

    also, some of the "easier" heros also have "Attack Orbs" (Drow, Viper, clinks, etc) that can be used for Orb Walking (old dota1 jargon) where the creeps wont attack you if you manually cast the spell...but if its auto cast and you right click they will agro

     

     

    its weird, and a minor epiphany when you figure out how to do it & easily first blood someone with a good frost arrow chase