Brannigan

DOTA 2

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I'm certainly not an expert yet, but it in the 70 games I've played so far the mid lane has always been the carry. Maybe the meta game gets a bit different at higher levels of play. But the advice was, to make people happy while you're learning let them take the middle. The tutorial specifically guides you on running the mid lane, so people coming out of it think it's the best place for them. It's something you see a lot of early on.

 

Mid is (very rarely) the lane of the carry. It's the most gankable lane as the enemy can come from anywhere, meaning that it's not ideal to play a hard carry there. The Carry is usually placed in the safe lane as you can control the lane easier there with pulling, stacking and so-forth. As a mid player I would say that there are a few things to do.

 

1) Beat the other midlaner (If this is not possible then don't let them get out of control and don't lose your lane)

2) Keep rune control if applicable (Invoker, OD and a few others don't care as much about these so it's less important)

3) Influence the other lanes, if you are able to get the carry space or an early kill the whole game will be easier for you in total. 

 

Again this is not set in stone as there are definite exceptions such as dual mids and so forth as the meta game of Dota is so dynamic. I would not take a new player to mid first simply because it is the most dangerous lane to play in. 

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Has anybody been playing legion commander? I'm having fun jungling with her.

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Few days on the game, and i'm enjoying my time with it.

 

I've always found it amusing how DOTA is like the entire RPG experience in a weird competitive microcosm, but i never really understood how much that is true until spending some time with it over the last weekend. The crafting system and grinding neutral mobs for gold and all that. What a weird thing, what a bizarre, nested, outgrowth of different genres to end up becoming the most popular competitive Video game in the world.

I always expected that i wouldn't like it, neither isometric RPG's or Blizzard-influenced strategy games were something i really ever enjoyed spending a lot of time with, but I think this game appeals to the part of my brain that likes fighting games. It's so much about playing the matchups, knowing the abilities that will be used against you and how to respond, looking for that opening and trying to emphasize your character's strengths while downplaying your weaknesses.

I guess Dota 2's pretty alright, it turns out.

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So, what exactly is the difference between ranked and unranked match making? Is unranked really just a complete scramble random pick of opponents, or is there some sort of skill-based matching going on? I hate when games divide ranked and unranked. It should have just stayed as either public or private.

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So, what exactly is the difference between ranked and unranked match making? Is unranked really just a complete scramble random pick of opponents, or is there some sort of skill-based matching going on?

Unranked is effectively a scramble compared to Ranked since you need to play 150 Unranked matches before you can start queuing for Ranked. You have an unranked MMR, but since it takes so long for it to plateau, it isn't a reliable read of your skill level for the first few dozen of games.

The effect of this is that since this warm-up period gives Valve's MMR system has a chance to get a decent read on your ability you'll be placed more suitable games when you enter ranked. By getting matched with people with similar, accurate MMR and a minimum number of games to get an understanding of the heroes, mechanics and items, you should have a more enjoyable play experience.

This will have the effect of eliminating the "Elo Hell" effect (or at least the perceived effect) of a new player tanking their MMR while they don't know how to play and having issues pulling it back up due to the fact that they are getting matched with other low MMR players (a % of whom will be in the same situation they are, but will also include trolls and people who don't give a fuck). Even if you're unlucky enough to end up with an unranked MMR several thousand points too low, you start your Win/Loss ratio (which plaus heavily into your MMR but isn't 100% of it) fresh when you enter ranked.

It also has the fringe benefit of making smurffing much less attractive.

I hate when games divide ranked and unranked. It should have just stayed as either public or private.

For something super casual and baby like Counter-Strike or Chess you can have a player-base with no experience level required, but this is Dota! (sarcasm)

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For something super casual and baby like Counter-Strike or Chess you can have a player-base with no experience level required, but this is Dota! (sarcasm)

Hahah.

 

Guys I had a dream last night that I played a custom Dota 2 map that doesn't exist.

 

Guys I need this custom map support to come out soon or I'm going to die.

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I guess I avoided that Hell by already knowing how to play before I started, so a lot of this seems like steps backwards to me. But then, I don't play a bunch, so I guess I'm not really Valve's target.

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If custom maps come to dota2 and someone gets the map from wc3 , the map in which some players play as trolls and other as survivors... well I'd play the sheet out of that map, not to mention maps like Angel's Arena (or what was it's name), let's not forget those Hero Deffense maps (favorite was the one in which you killed creeps on your side, and they would spawn on the other side as double)

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Having gotten a fair bit deeper into Dota, i'm curious to hear what characters you guys play/why you play them.

I've currently been playing a lot of Silencer, i love that powerful early game harassment.

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I like lich because I'm not very good at games. And sometimes you can make 2 enemies explode if you ulti them right.

I also like sand king a lot. I like to disrupt things a lot, and once you get blink you can have some hilarious Benny hill escapades.

Also, tide, caus shark on head.

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I tend to just flll to whatever's needed in the game.  The only characters I just don't touch are meepo and invoker more or less.  I also only really played random draft so I tend to be at the mercy of what's available in the pool.  According to dota my most successful heroes are undying, drow, and tiny.  I almost never play drow, just had her a lot early on.  Hell I don't think I've played any of those in a while.

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By far my favorite thing was getting stuck with some really pissy russians that kept screaming "VUNDYING VUT ARE YOU DOING?!"  Only because of the accent, in reality I was doing nothing wrong, just the other team made it their mission to not let my tombstone be up for more than 3 seconds.

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Ug, I don't understand why work blocks any Valve webpage images. If they want to block steam, just block the website.

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Any newbie thumbs out there looking to play? 

 

Funny you mention that. I'm not a real newbie to Dota 2, been playing since TI3 caught my attention in August. However, none of my real-life friends play Dota, so I'm stuck playing pubs all the time. I'd love to get an invite to the guild in-game. Can someone here hook me up with that? My Steam username is SixFootAwesome.

 

Long-time listener, first-time poster, and all that.

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For people wanting to lord it up, join the idlethumbs chat channel in game, and post in either the Lords Management Consortium thread in Multiplayer Networking, or in the Steam group with the same name, and ask to join the guild (DOTATODA).

 

 

I've sent Sean and Brad an email reminding them to tell people to do this, hopefully we get more people to play with soon.

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Hermie, I'll do that.

6.8 looks awesome! I'm really looking forward to the rework of how Unrefined Fireblast works on OM. I love OM but he's always been hamstrung by low mana in the end-game. This really ups his damage potential.

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