cakedotavi

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Posts posted by cakedotavi

  1. Posted

    On 1/29/2017 at 5:32 PM, Kyir said:

    On the topic of 7.00 though, I started out not really liking the patch, but I've changed my mind a bit. I still don't like most of the geographical changes though, since you can pull waves with pretty much every radiant camp it feels like and there's way too much diversity in high and low ground. The skill tree thing has proven to be interesting in some cases, especially when I'm playing as support and need that bonus XP/gold to not hate myself.

     

    Some of the map changes need work, for sure. I specifically think the Radiant offlane jungle is too strong compared to Dire, since you've got your 2 camps very close together with the rune right beside them, and the biggest highground hill in the game protecting your shrine to the north. It's damn near impossible to get ganked in there, and you can farm very efficiently thanks to the rune/camp placement when your offlane is pushed. Overall I like the *intent* of the map changes (faster game encouraged, less AFK jungle farming possible), and just feel like they need some fine-tuning. 

     

    On 1/30/2017 at 10:24 AM, Jutranjo said:

    I kinda like the 2 minute respawn time, sometimes it'll happen that the 2-3 farmers on the team clear all the camps on our side of the map, and we kinda mill about with no idea what to do. Because we've been avoiding the enemy team? Maybe it'll make some 5 manning occur more naturally, in the herding-cats kind of way.

     

    I like it because it forces you to move around the map, leading to more frequent natural ganking opportunities. Playing enigma and just finished farming your offlane camps, and the enemy is pushing the offlane at the same time? Pop out and see if you can get a kill with malifice. Doesn't cost you more than a few seconds since you were nearby anyway thanks to having to move around, and leads to more exciting play overall. 

    On 1/30/2017 at 9:43 PM, sclpls said:

    Also while this thread is more active I'm going to take the opportunity to shamelessly plug my webapp again! As I check right now there are like 7 people on the leaderboards streaming! That's quite the selection! I recently prettied it up a bit (although it still could use a lot of work on that front), but more importantly I fixed whatever issue I was having with Heroku's servers, so now the page seems to be loading up a lot faster. Yay!

     

    dreamstream.herokuapp.com

     

     

     

    I don't quite understand what the app does. Can you clarify?

  2. Posted

    4 hours ago, Jutranjo said:

    Yeah the event is cool. I've only gotten past wave 8 once. But wave 8 of a sea of Kunkkas and Tidehunters is insane. You only need to reach wave 5 to get the daily bonus of 35k, enough for a spin on the wheel. 


    Agreed; it's a fun break from regular games.

     

    I got to wave 12 or 13 (Alchemist) with a lineup of Sniper, Winter Wyvern, Ember, Underlord, and Tiny (the Tiny pick was the least effective, I feel). It seems like Underlord is just mandatory in that mode honestly - amazing early wave clear, he's a great tank, and his ult is actually really really good for repositioning the team quickly. I think Sniper is also really important for his ult, which is one of the few things that can blow up targets from really far away (great for the Warlock wave, for instance). 

  3. Posted

    I've continued to focus on offlaning since the above post, especially as Slardar.

     

    I am absolutely in love with offlane Slardar this patch (solo or dual lane), despite never playing him pre-7.00. He's pretty versatile & can be built as a pure initiator & semi-support (initiation items into vlads, crimson/pipe, etc), or if you team needs a core you can fill that role too (initiation into echo, BKB, etc).

     

    Even better, he excels at fighting *all the time* thanks to his 8 second AOE stun, and with his ult he can get kills really easily with just 1 or 2 other players helping. His "up time" as an initiator is second to none (no waiting for long CDs), and with sprint, blink, and force staff you can cover the width of the map in no time. Everything about him is amazing in this fight-heavy meta; he can be damn near anywhere on a moment's notice, initiate and re-initiate in a single fight easily, and burst down key targets very quickly with corrosive haze. 

     

    I got off to a bit of a rocky start with not knowing when it's safe to sprint etc, but after I watched Purge's offlane Slardar commentary & practiced a bit things have really come together for me. I'm now 9W : 3L over my last 12 Slar games, and I'm feeling supremely confident playing him these days. Win or lose I almost always have a great time playing him since he's just so active & fun to play. 


    9jXxiER.png

     

    Thanks to Valve for a really fun meta this patch! Some stuff to fix for sure (Radiant ~8% win advantage etc), but I'm excited by the faster pace of the meta & what it might mean for future patches. 

  5. Posted

    45 minutes ago, Badfinger said:

    I got the sense that they would be faster of course but not a crazy technological leap forward so amazing it would be worth waiting for them to release vs buying now (at least when I researched it last July). The sentiment might have changed now that it's a new calendar year. Can't give you more up to date info than that I'm afraid.

     

    Hmm, thanks - good food for thought. I'm mostly just *so* happy with how my 2500k has aged that I'm looking for something comparably long-term, and was thinking 10nm might be my best shot at that kind of longevity. Perhaps I'm giving it too much credit though; I'll read up on the purported performance gains a bit more. 

  6. Posted

    Anyone heard anything about the upcoming 10nm CPUs? I think it's Canonlake that brings 10nm to mobile and laptop CPUs, but they couldn't get desktop CPUs running at 10nm yet if I remember the Intel rumor mill correctly. 

    Has anyone heard when, or I guess if, Intel expects to launch 10nm on Desktop?

    My OC'ed 2500k is getting up there, and it seems like a bit of a waste to get a 1070/1080 with such an old CPU. I'm trying to wait for "the next big jump" in CPUs, but I've got a 1400p/144hz display that I really want to get the most out of! :) 

  7. Posted

    How do people feel about Offlane post-7.00? Specifically, as heroes like Slardar who sometimes have to leave the lane (creeps are under enemy tower etc), what do you fill your non-laneing time with?

    You can only grab runes so often. Does anyone have any good tricks for pulling your lane to bring the creep line back so you can farm again? Or do people just roam and show in other lanes when you can't lane yourself?


    I'm ~3600 MMR for context.

  8. Posted

    Doom:

    Doom is really great, and definitely my most mechanically satisfying game of 2016. I very much like the pacing, with bursts of frantic flow punctuated by slow moments exploring for secrets between fights. Thanks to the speed and fluidity of Doom's movement, combined with weapons that feel great and "glory kills" (melee executions that heal you), the action in each fight is non-stop & incredibly satisfying. If you enjoy shooters and are tired of the plethora of "stop-and-pop" tactical/cover shooters these days this game has your name all over it. Technically everything is rock-solid; great presentation and runs like a dream.

     

    My only complaint is that the back 3rd felt a bit drawn out. I'd say you switch between (very minor spoilers)

     

     

    earth and mars one too many times,

     

    but aside from that I really loved it. Honestly my only complaint is that there's a *bit* too much of it, which is a great problem to have. You should play this game. 

  9. Posted

    Played a bit further (details below) and gosh the one boss fight I just did was way, way too simple.

     

    I love this game, but wish there was a bit more to the combat  - it just feels too "same-y" compared to the variability of, say, Darksouls. Give me the open world, characters, and narrative of the Witcher with the combat of Darksouls and I would be very, very happy. I want more involved attack animations, multiple possible boss attacks/patterns instead of just one, and the like - it's just too static as-is.

     



    I beat the fight with Imoleth (probably spelling those names wrong) and turned Ge'el.

     

    The fight with the Crones was fun, but the one against Imoleth was just stupidly easy. Roll past him, turn for 2 hits, roll past him, repeat. His 2nd stage is no better - dodge 3 times, get 4 hits, dodge 3 times. Took about 2 seconds to figure out the pattern, and then 5 minutes of mindless repetition to grind his HP down.

  10. Posted

    Wow, didn't expect there to be that much - felt like it was wrapping up & I was expecting 30 minutes or something. Glad I didn't try and power through last night. I'm eager to finish up so I can move on to Blood and Wine & Dark Souls III for my action-adventure fix.


    Thanks for the tip on the spoiler tag, Jutranjo.

  11. Posted

    Speaking of the end of this game dragging on a bit... can someone tell me how much further I have to go? Spoilers below in white text about where I am in the story.

     

    spoilers

    I just finished the fight with the Hunt at the Witcher stronghold, after gathering my allies.

    /spoilers

  12. Posted

    OK, cool let's give it a shot. I just added you.

     

    I think making a run from challenger to champion in one go is unrealistic so I probably won't want to do exclusively ranked, but let's try some unranked. 

  13. Posted

    On 8/8/2016 at 11:07 AM, Griddlelol said:

    So I've been playing the shit out of this recently.

     

    I was initially really down on the game, I hated how when you start, you're basically terrible at the game. Still, I got over that, but what really got me excited about the game, was I had a friend over.

    We played together for like 6 hours , 12am when the pub closed to 6am when he had to go home. So much fun!

     

    It's more fun together, but even alone it's great. I still suck, but I am definitely getting better.

     

    Also...I am 2 trophies away from the platinum. Anyone able to help me get the play together with a friend trophy? I just need that and 150 items...

     

    Strange - one of the main things I like about Rocket League is that I feel it's immediately accessible since the premise is so simple. Was it just the mechanical learning curve that bothered you? If so, were you being matched with people beyond your skill level and that's what made it less fun, or is it just the frustration of whiffing itself?

     

    Unrelated, I'm still playing the hell out of this game. A little over 500 hours played now & just hit Super Star in ranked 2's. Anyone else out there around the same 2's mark (on PC, NA) interested in buddying up & trying to push for Champion league? Steam name is same has here, if so. 

  14. Posted

    Too bad! Seems to be great for Civ, but not as good for XCOM.

     

    Luckily(?) I don't have any DLC, so the one bug you guys mention won't be an issue for now. Still, if I were to lose another a-squad to some other bug I think I might cry...

     

    Whelp, here goes!

  15. Posted

    How has the patch support been for this game, specifically for mission scripting bugfixes?

    I had an Ironman game going back at launch where my a-squad got wiped because of a bug where the VIP I had to rescue didn't spawn, and I didn't realize I was encountering a bug until I'd wasted too much time trying to figure out what was going on to recover. I kept the campaign going on life-support for another 5 hours or something, but eventually wiped for good - it was too much to recover from.

    Was loving the game up until then & want to revisit it, but *really* don't want to have that happen again...

  16. Posted

    Lol, that was quick. The xps13 is pretty great. Very small for the screensize, and it performs well. My main thought on ultrabooks is that I'll never go back to a "regular" sized laptop. I never just carry around a laptop, so the extra bulk and weight for larger laptops is simply not worth it for me, and ultrabooks, while not powerhouses, are still quite capable machines for most tasks.

     

    Yeah I spent a few hours doing some research yesterday and it sounds like the XPS is pretty much universally praised as best-in-class right now, so I decided to go that route.

    Thanks to all for your thoughts! I can't wait to give it a shot when it arrives :)

  17. Posted

    I have a XPS13 that's almost 2 years old now, mainly because it's the only laptop which offers customer service for Linux machines. Other than eventually getting fairly hot and noisy when under a large load, I have no complaints at all, it's my main work machine (which involves some light simulation software) and was my only gaming option for about 6 months. It won't run anything very heavy, but it's a solid, well-built and beautiful machine. 

    Cool - I hear the new ones are a bit quieter and cooler so that sounds great.

    Ended up going for an XPS 13 - can't wait for it to ship! :)

  18. Posted

    Anyone have thoughts on good Ultrabooks?

    I'm looking for something roughly $2000 CAD pre-tax, portable, good battery life, and capable of some light-weight gaming.

     

    I'm currently looking at the XPS 13/15, the Surface Book, and the X1 Carbon/Yoga, but of course am keen to hear other suggestions!

  19. Posted

    Raising an old thread from the dead here, but...

    I'm really enjoying this game! The story is terrible, but it's a great set of systems to interact with. 

    I'll write more details about what I'm enjoying after I've played a bit more.

  20. Posted

    I like this game a lot, and I wrote a few words about why. An excerpt of the full article below:
     

    Rocket League can be understood by very nearly everyone from minute one. Since the rules are very closely based on soccer, the most popular sport on earth, they are instantly familiar to most of us. Even without this, the goal of the game is easily intuited the moment you see a big ball in the center of a field and two giant nets at opposite ends. There are no "power ups" to worry about, you don't need to pour over specification sheets to select the right weapon; you just drive at the ball, and bonk it at the other guy's net. At it's very core, the game is that simple. 

     

  21. Posted

    Hi everyone.

     

    I recently spent a bit of time thinking and writing about what I find so uniquely engaging about Dota. I'd very much appreciate any feedback you folks care to offer, be it regarding your own thoughts on the topic, criticism of my writing, or opinions on formatting. I've quoted my opening paragraph below:

     

    Over the last few years it’s been pretty well impossible to miss the explosive popularity of the Lords Management (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) genera, and Dota 2 in particular. Recently, Dota has boasted record-setting competitive events, more press and community coverage than ever before, and many tweaks and enhancements to the Lords Management formula itself. With monthly player counts in the millions, (a little over 11 million at the time of this writing) gamers the world over are being drawn to Dota in incredible numbers... but what is it that makes this game in particular so engaging?

     

    Take a look at the link and let me know what you think! :)

    EDIT: Hahaha the "Lords Management" replacement is a nice touch, administrator.


     

  22. Posted

    My thought is to wait a year and then check on 4K again. What I've read about them is that they're almost there but not quite. However it sounds like if you want a big (30+ inchs) monitor then 4K is the way to go, where as if you want a smaller one HFR is what you want.

     

    Having said that if you can find a good deal on a monitor that fits into either category then you may as well go for it. Black Friday will be good for this I imagine.

    I'm targeting 27 inches, with a viewing distance of about 73cm and very close to 20/20 vision. After doing some research yesterday it sounds like 1440p is *just* shy of being "good enough that more pixels will make no difference" for me. That certainly gives me something to think about. (As an aside, I likely will wait for Black Friday to see what happens over the coming months, and perhaps snag a deal on something like the Acer Predator XB270HU as Vorlonesque and others have suggested if I do decide to forgo 4k)

     

    If the games you play are able to run at high framerates, it's very hard to go back to a 60 Hz display after using a 120+ Hz one for a little while (from personal experience looking at / using my friend's 144 Hz monitor.) Even just moving windows around on the desktop looks like a stuttery mess at 60 Hz compared to buttery smooth at 120/144 Hz, once your eyes adjust.

     

    High pixel density is also nice, but I'd say it's more useful / noticeable for things other than gaming (e.g. reading a lot of text or programming), whereas in games antialiasing can somewhat mimic what a high pixel density display will do, and depending on the game a high refresh rate will make things feel comparatively amazing.

     

    Of course, different games benefit differently from each. Higher refresh rates are the most noticeable in FPS games, I think.

     

    Most of the games I play do support high framerates. I'd really like to see 144hz in person before I decide to figure our if it's for me, so I'll probably delay for a bit to try and make that happen. As I reference above, I've changed my mind from heavily favoring 4k to seriously considering 1440p 144hz; I'd just really like to see a HFR display before I pull the trigger and forgo those sweet, extra pixels :)

    Thanks to all of you for your thoughts!

  23. Posted

    Hi folks.

     

    I can safely assume my PC will push either UHD or HFR at a workable framerate, (60 for UHD, 120+ for HFR) but of course I can't really do both. My budget for a new panel is about $800, give or take, and I am heavily biased towards the color reproduction of IPS panels; I likely won't consider a TN panel.

     

    How best can I decide between the two technologies? 

     

    - Are there any shops that routinely have both available for an in-person demo in a game? (I live in Vancouver Canada but visit the Seattle area reasonably frequently)

    - Are there any recommended write-ups comparing the benefits of the two directly for gaming? (I've already read these two HFR articles) 

    - Do you have any personal thoughts regarding the differences between the two technologies for gaming?

     

    Thanks!

  24. Posted

    Anyone interested in getting some games in this morning? (Quick match; I'm still only level 28) I've got the next few hours free, (flex day, baby) and I hate queuing for this game solo. Bnet ID is cakedotavi#1406

     

     

    Can any thumbs recommend a good site for builds for Hots? it was fairly easy to find out where to look with more established lords management games but idk where to go for Hots since its kinda the new guy.

     

    Ten Ton Hammer has some decent guides linked from their tier list. The competitive tier list is here, and the quick match tier list is here. (They split the lists since some heroes are more/less powerful when you have a team that is actually working together)

     

    The builds they link to from each list are the same though. Only the tier/order of the heroes changes between the two links. 

  25. Posted

    Holy shit this game is huge and beautiful and good! Really enjoying my time so far.

     

    Yeah it's outstanding so far. I'm normally someone who puts 5-20 hours into games per week (depending on other commitments) across a wide variety of games; I normally play between 2 and 4 different games in any given week.

     

    This week? Despite work being heavy I've clocked 20 hours in The Witcher 3 and haven't touched another game, and I've still got Sunday ahead of me! :)