DOTA 2

[undermind9]

Had a wombo combo team the other night; centaur, tide, disruptor, puck. I was ck for pushing and clean up.

4 blinks and the damage to the group was incredible. Was a great time (for us)

[Henroid]

Get a BKB son.

We were shut down, we couldn't farm at all. It was a disaster.

 

What isn't a disaster is my Compendium 10 Lord Challenge. My initial roll for lords left me with 4 that I knew how to play / could easily learn. I tried to get my fifth win on Disruptor but support heroes are hard as dicks. I also had Meepo, which is like the ultimate smack in the face to someone still learning the ropes. So I finally gave in and used my reroll.

 

I couldn't believe who came up. Dragon Knight, Legion Commander, Morphling, Silencer, Bounty Hunter, and Spirit Breaker. I know these heroes. I don't have real-match experience with some of them but I've done plenty of bot practice, guide reading, and discussion about all of them and most importantly feel comfortable playing them all. Plus Spirit Breaker is literally my best hero (14 wins, 6 losses on him). The only x-factor is Silencer, who can either be support or carry. If I keep falling into matches where people demand me to play the supporting roll I won't be able to roll him up into the power house he becomes.

[Forbin]

Finished my 10 hero challenge, I can't wait for the next milestone to unlock the daily hero challenge. It forced me to play heroes I was afraid of, and turn out to be a lot of fun.

[Dewar]

Dang it, I missed the easy points for qualifier predictions by a day

[Henroid]

Anyone got a list of hard counters against Axe?

 

I'll just copy-paste this from elsewhere on the net:

 

They need to find a way to balance Axe because I'm tired of seeing this bullshit with him:

He goes into the enemy long lane, between the two towers. And just farms creep waves that way. He's not even threatened by the creep waves because of Counter Helix proc'ing so goddamn much. It leaves you alone to fight creep waves with the tower (god forbid you're by yourself because you have a jungler). And at the start of the game creep waves can and will fuck up most heroes. You can't run to engage Axe, because then your tower is vulnerable as shit as enemy creep waves stack like hell. This problem also gets harder depending on who is with Axe. Like this time it was Treant; game fucking over. Our laning phase was shut down (SB and Sniper). You also can't devote people from other lanes to trying to fight Axe, because the tradeoff is weakening one guy on the enemy team while weakening your entire team across the whole map.

It's total bullshit and exploitative. How is this not fucking addressed?

[BusbyBerkeley]

Use your dudes to hit him when he does that. Stuns are nice. Maybe rotate someone in from another lane if you can. Capitalize on him being way out of position.

 

Use cc. 

[Jutranjo]

Anyone got a list of hard counters against Axe?

 

I'll just copy-paste this from elsewhere on the net:

 

They need to find a way to balance Axe because I'm tired of seeing this bullshit with him:

He goes into the enemy long lane, between the two towers. And just farms creep waves that way. He's not even threatened by the creep waves because of Counter Helix proc'ing so goddamn much. It leaves you alone to fight creep waves with the tower (god forbid you're by yourself because you have a jungler). And at the start of the game creep waves can and will fuck up most heroes. You can't run to engage Axe, because then your tower is vulnerable as shit as enemy creep waves stack like hell. This problem also gets harder depending on who is with Axe. Like this time it was Treant; game fucking over. Our laning phase was shut down (SB and Sniper). You also can't devote people from other lanes to trying to fight Axe, because the tradeoff is weakening one guy on the enemy team while weakening your entire team across the whole map.

It's total bullshit and exploitative. How is this not fucking addressed?

 

Go pick axe for 5 games and do this, you'll find a variety of ways you're gonna get fucked over by the enemy team for doing this.

 

You gotta know how to last hit creeps under a tower with no extra creeps. It's dead easy when you're at around 50 dmg per autoattack, just hit each creep once and let the tower take em down to last hit range. You'll get every single CS.

[Twig]

An axe cutting the lane should be a dead axe. Kill him. It's worth more than the creeps on the tower. If he keeps doing it keep killing him. Even if you lose a tower early, he's died a lot.

Treant helps no one when they're tanking creeps. Armors gone immediately.

Your lane was also less than ideal. No support? But sniper alone should've wrecked him.

[undermind9]

It's a major pain in the ass as a melee, but ranged should be able to pick him apart, counter helix pops a lot but still needs to take creep hits.

*of course it's sometimes easier said than done. I've had to sac towers early and make a stand at the second tier from early game. Best can hope is to get the t1 deny and screw up their equilibrium the rest of the game

While on topic

I saw some one the other day with 2 stout shields, I thought that had been patched out. Used to be standard Hon build

[Jutranjo]

It's a major pain in the ass as a melee, but ranged should be able to pick him apart, counter helix pops a lot but still needs to take creep hits.

*of course it's sometimes easier said than done. I've had to sac towers early and make a stand at the second tier from early game. Best can hope is to get the t1 deny and screw up their equilibrium the rest of the game

While on topic

I saw some one the other day with 2 stout shields, I thought that had been patched out. Used to be standard Hon build

 

Nah, they've always stacked. As in, 1st one procs, 2nd one can't. If the 1st one doesn't proc, 2nd one can.

[Dewar]

So, as a 20 game or so player, what am I supposed to do with IO? I've got him on my 10 hero challenge and I think I'd rather have Mepo. 

[undermind9]

the buddy system! latch onto the most useful carry early and feed life & mana, get some kills in the game...then once got some healing items going can turn on overpower & watch said carry go rampage

 

he meshes well with most hard hitting lords, Tiny is the most common w/aggs

 

 

if youve got an IRL friend can try some ult-ganks...but those are less effective when you dont tell your tethered friend where they are going

[Dewar]

Hmm, is there a trick to hitting with the orbiting balls? I had a hard time doing any damage and my healing of my carry was pretty tiny.

[Henroid]

It's fun to use general knowledge of the game against people.

 

Earlier tonight I played a match as Lycan (my absolute favorite lord now, Spirit Breaker is on the bench). He's known for being a strong pusher, especially with a Necronomicon right? So my team wanted to push a lane, but we weren't quite at the level of taking the enemy out in direct 5v5 fights. So I ran to a different lane before my team gathered for their push and started my own. My hope was to draw at least one of the enemy away so that when my team does their push they have less to deal with - and since I'm Lycan I can pop my ult and get the hell out with no problem.

 

It worked. Lifestealer was waiting at the enemy T2 and KotL warped in to help him, but I was already out. My team was able to push a lane fully to the enemy base, all the way from T1, after taking out the remaining 3. It felt very good. I just wish the game had a way of measuring this kind of shit rather than just "how much shit did you kill?"

 

As for general "I like Lycan discussion," seriously I love the way this guy flows. I can jungle it out to let someone level up a little better, I can chase run-aways, push very well, buff my team for fights I'm not even at yet. Not to mention scouting with the wolves while I do whatever farming I'm on. I'm actually good with him is the best part, on top of enjoying playing him. Oh plus, as someone who likes wolves (the animal itself and any / all culture surrounding that animal) it just comes up all Henroid on this.

 

Edit - Oh and the best part about the feint I pulled is if it didn't work (attract attention) I could've just made it an actual lane push anyway. The only way it could've failed is if I was stun-locked by someone (or an entire team; but I had vision of most of them on the mini map) smart enough to cut me off but that would take some crazy odds.

[Darjeeling]

Hmm, is there a trick to hitting with the orbiting balls? I had a hard time doing any damage and my healing of my carry was pretty tiny.

Not much of a 'trick' per se. If you are trying to hit them onto people farther away it's a bit of prediction of where they are going and then expanding/contracting accordingly. It should be reasonably easy on targets that are running away. A somewhat harder 'trick' is to 'orb bomb' people by getting right next to them (with tether or relocate) with balls active just next to you so that they all hit the target right after another.

 

In terms of healing: Always keep tabs on your own health/mana. You will only give additional healing to the one you are tethered to if you are, in fact, yourself healing (so if you are full HP and getting healed, you partner isn't getting anything out of it). The most powerful items with wisp (although it's not necessary to build them on the hero, just to have on the team) are perhaps arcanes and mekanism, because both give health/mana to you and your partner AND on top of that your partner gets another chunk of it through you (so you are effectively giving 2+ mek charges at once, but only, again, if you are actually being healed from it). Sorry if you already knew all this, but I've seen some Wisp-players not quite aware of all the interactions. Hope it helps!

[Twig]

The trick with Io is to curl up and cry because it's a miserable experience.

 

I lost eleven games as Io before finally winning one. Five of those losses were during my current A-Z Challenge. Ugh worst.

[Darjeeling]

It's a much better experience if you have someone to pick a carry and play with, but yeah, I can see the frustration.

If you have the hero in the 10 hero challenge, it might be a better idea to just finish the other 9 and then re-roll the Io.

[Sno]

I've got a friend who plays Io sometimes and has been absolutely clutch in some very high stress games. This is what i can share, based on my observations of Io from those matches:

 

In general, Io needs to pick a carry on the team and just stay glued to that person. (Don't be afraid to refocus on somebody else if somebody else has started carrying the team.) Think Team Fortress 2 medic, stay tethered to your heavy. Io can make your team's carry damn near unkillable.

Also, Io's ability to teleport around is incredibly beneficial, but absolutely requires coordination and communication. Io always returns to the original location at the end of his teleport, but the tethered player can either stay or return depending on whether or not he stays tethered after the first teleport. (Earlier on in the match, if your carry has bad recovery and your own abilities aren't yet sufficiently supplementing that, you can take them to the fountain after a fight for a few seconds of recovery and then both return to the original location.)

One of the keys to Io though is that you're actually more item dependent han you would expect a support to be, since recovery buffs are factored into the regen you confer upon your tethered ally. (The regen is only shared if you are yourself actively recovering health/mana, but overcharge drains you and can force that, while also giving you and your tethered ally a large attack buff.)

Io can also lay on some surprisingly crippling debuffs with his tether sweep, and his spirits do a ton of damage.

[Twig]

In general, Io needs to pick a carry on the team and just stay glued to that person. (Don't be afraid to refocus on somebody else if somebody else has started carrying the team.) Think Team Fortress 2 medic, stay tethered to your heavy. Io can make your team's carry damn near unkillable.

This mentality is what ruined my first eleven games with Io. It wasn't until my last game where I decided to just be super aggressive and mobile and help everyone that I finally played pretty well and was largely responsible for us winning the game.

[Dewar]

Not much of a 'trick' per se. If you are trying to hit them onto people farther away it's a bit of prediction of where they are going and then expanding/contracting accordingly. It should be reasonably easy on targets that are running away. A somewhat harder 'trick' is to 'orb bomb' people by getting right next to them (with tether or relocate) with balls active just next to you so that they all hit the target right after another.

 

In terms of healing: Always keep tabs on your own health/mana. You will only give additional healing to the one you are tethered to if you are, in fact, yourself healing (so if you are full HP and getting healed, you partner isn't getting anything out of it). The most powerful items with wisp (although it's not necessary to build them on the hero, just to have on the team) are perhaps arcanes and mekanism, because both give health/mana to you and your partner AND on top of that your partner gets another chunk of it through you (so you are effectively giving 2+ mek charges at once, but only, again, if you are actually being healed from it). Sorry if you already knew all this, but I've seen some Wisp-players not quite aware of all the interactions. Hope it helps!

Any information helps. I think I'm going to have to grab a friend or two and practice in some bot matches.

[Dewar]

It's a much better experience if you have someone to pick a carry and play with, but yeah, I can see the frustration.

If you have the hero in the 10 hero challenge, it might be a better idea to just finish the other 9 and then re-roll the Io.

Wait, re-roll only re-rolls the heroes you haven't completed? I thought it reset progress entirely.

[Twig]

Only the heroes you haven't completed.

[njoos]

You can only do it once, or was it twice. 

[Twig]

Once, as far as I know.

[Jutranjo]

Try going soul ring tranquil on wisp, SR gives a hero 200 or so mana and then heals em from your tranquils.