Henroid Posted June 19, 2014 Wow so apparently the queue times have jumped up substantially with the new language filtering (languages communicated in, not like, cursing, etc). BUT The match I just played was like the most friendly, laid back one ever. Maybe that was just random chance of happening, but when everyone is in on the conversation and only knows enough English to say "you suck" or call you ugly names, it makes for a better playing environment. I'll see how tomorrow goes but DAMN was I pleased with that match. And we were losing too, didn't feel a tinge of anger. Edit - OH, almost forgot. There's a new feature when matches end. A questionaire came up about someone on my team, asking me to rate their friendliness, team-helpingness, and how strongly I feel about playing with them again. If this happens every round from here on out, it would REALLY help to shape the DotA 2 community. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jutranjo Posted June 19, 2014 Desolator is, in my opinion, almost mandatory on Sniper. It's a very good item for a hero who's not up in the frontlines to have. He can ping it on whoever's being focused and BOOM they're dead that much quicker. Sniper in general is very strong with good positioning and a supporting team that can't be ignored, because he's free to do whatever he wants. But desolator is 61 gold per +dmg. That's comparable to buriza if you didn't look at the crit. MKB gives small attack speed as well as a 2nd bash. Sniper has long range and a 40% chance to bash. You want to build attack speed for more bash procs. For defence you can buy lots of different things but I don't see the point of going +dmg when you can go +attack speed. Mjolnir is boss. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
casktapper Posted June 19, 2014 But desolator is 61 gold per +dmg. That's comparable to buriza if you didn't look at the crit. MKB gives small attack speed as well as a 2nd bash. Sniper has long range and a 40% chance to bash. You want to build attack speed for more bash procs. For defence you can buy lots of different things but I don't see the point of going +dmg when you can go +attack speed. Mjolnir is boss. I'm not going to disagree that mjolnir isn't a good item on sniper, but you're ignoring the -armor of desolator in your comparison. It contributes a 10%-30% increase in damage, depending on the armor of the target. Actually, it's a reduction in damage reduction on the target, but that nets to more damage. And that doesn't apply just for sniper, but anyone attacking the target with physical damage. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jutranjo Posted June 19, 2014 I'm not going to disagree that mjolnir isn't a good item on sniper, but you're ignoring the -armor of desolator in your comparison. It contributes a 10%-30% increase in damage, depending on the armor of the target. Actually, it's a reduction in damage reduction on the target, but that nets to more damage. And that doesn't apply just for sniper, but anyone attacking the target with physical damage. Yeah but anyone on the team can make the deso. Sniper can fill his inventory with items that aren't deso but give more dmg per slot. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dewar Posted June 19, 2014 Wow so apparently the queue times have jumped up substantially with the new language filtering (languages communicated in, not like, cursing, etc). BUT The match I just played was like the most friendly, laid back one ever. Maybe that was just random chance of happening, but when everyone is in on the conversation and only knows enough English to say "you suck" or call you ugly names, it makes for a better playing environment. I'll see how tomorrow goes but DAMN was I pleased with that match. And we were losing too, didn't feel a tinge of anger. Edit - OH, almost forgot. There's a new feature when matches end. A questionaire came up about someone on my team, asking me to rate their friendliness, team-helpingness, and how strongly I feel about playing with them again. If this happens every round from here on out, it would REALLY help to shape the DotA 2 community. Random questionaires have been coming up for a while, but I don't recall seeing one for a specific team-mate before. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sproutella Posted June 19, 2014 Yeah but anyone on the team can make the deso. Sniper can fill his inventory with items that aren't deso but give more dmg per slot. It makes his solo pushing much more effective, It's nice as an early item when he can ping towers and let the creeps do even more work. I don't think its "core" because if you feel you won't be able to push effectively early its better to build mjoll/mael as that gives farming+dmg. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jutranjo Posted June 19, 2014 It makes his solo pushing much more effective, It's nice as an early item when he can ping towers and let the creeps do even more work. I don't think its "core" because if you feel you won't be able to push effectively early its better to build mjoll/mael as that gives farming+dmg. Sniper's a bad solo pusher though. You can't get away unless you buy a blink, shadowblade won't help vs dust. You might be able to blink into trees and Boots of Travel away. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Henroid Posted June 19, 2014 If you're feeling particularly ballsy you can get Mask of Madness on Sniper, which sorrrta gives you a run-away gimmick. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jutranjo Posted June 19, 2014 MoM is good, you're fucked anyway if someone finds you in fights. But it's still shit for split pushing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Henroid Posted June 19, 2014 I'm not sure if Sniper is necessarily bad at tower pushing. If it's just him an the tower and NPCs he can get it done. If he has Desolator it's a done deal. But he's very vulnerable to other heroes, even fully geared. But I guess that's the point of being a glass cannon. Also getting MoM means not having Desolator because UAMs being UAMs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jutranjo Posted June 19, 2014 If it's any hero vs creeps and a tower the hero wins. If you want to split push you need to be able to escape the 2-4 people that come looking at you sitting in a lane alone. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sproutella Posted June 19, 2014 Sniper's a bad solo pusher though. You can't get away unless you buy a blink, shadowblade won't help vs dust. You might be able to blink into trees and Boots of Travel away. Yeah solo pusher is probably not the best way of describing him he isnt a true split pusher, but you underrate his pushing capacity. He doesn't need to escape as well as other pushers b/c of his range (he can hit towers from out of sight i think) and with a deso and a creep wave he can dink it a few times from range, fire shrapnel on top of the tower and just leave if there is enough people missing. That alone will take a good chunk of damage. As long as enemies are on the map he can just repeat this to take outer towers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sno Posted June 20, 2014 I haven't been playing Dota nearly as long as some of you, so i'm probably still being matched against scrubby players, but I started playing Phoenix and i'm 7 wins with 1 loss so far.Phoenix is awesome.One point in icarus, max fire spirits to fuck with the enemy's last hitting in laning and then build into sunray and the ult before finishing icarus dive. Play as a support in laning, give your partner the farm and focus on harassment and denies instead. Sentry ward aggressively if their team has invisible gankers, because you're always hovering around 30-40% health in laning.Tranquil > Wand > Urn > Shiva (Intelligence solves Phoenix's minor mana problems, aura protects the ult, the active makes the ult hard to escape.)Cast out those fire spirits, hit the shiva active, icarus dive, ult and explode, cast out more fire spirits, sunray the stragglers, fly off into the sunset like a boss.If the match runs long, go for a Halbred too. More right click protection, and the added strength will ensure that sunray can turn almost any team fight.Be afraid of ultra-fast right clickers like Troll and Ursa, and don't even bother picking Phoenix against a Silencer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BusbyBerkeley Posted June 20, 2014 Yeah solo pusher is probably not the best way of describing him he isnt a true split pusher, but you underrate his pushing capacity. He doesn't need to escape as well as other pushers b/c of his range (he can hit towers from out of sight i think) and with a deso and a creep wave he can dink it a few times from range, fire shrapnel on top of the tower and just leave if there is enough people missing. That alone will take a good chunk of damage. As long as enemies are on the map he can just repeat this to take outer towers. So many people ignore shrapnel! I don't play a lot of sniper but I don't see why you'd prioritize headshot over shrapnel once you have a single point in headshot. the only thing that increases is the damage per proc, and not even by a lot. Seems like leveling shrapnel and just dropping it on towers would be hard to deal with. much more so than the +15 dmg per headshot proc or whatever it is per level. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Henroid Posted June 20, 2014 The thing about Headshot is that at low levels that damage adds some noticable oomph. Granted it goes away fast. I can see the case for leveling Shrapnel after one point of Headshot. I always max his attack range first though. It just makes sense to me. Keeps him out of trouble, lets him engage from further away than people tend to remember. You can also shoot across some tree lines out of sight. It's damn crafty. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dewar Posted June 20, 2014 Queen of Pain is now officially my least favorite hero. She can't do anything. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Henroid Posted June 20, 2014 Queen of Pain is now officially my least favorite hero. She can't do anything. Her damage spells having a relatively low cooldown but short range and mediocre damage are... lame. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Forbin Posted June 20, 2014 Shadow blade makes Sniper fairly safe while split pushing lanes. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
undermind9 Posted June 20, 2014 QoP is an excellent mid for gank potential. strong rune control, quick burst damage, dagger is annoying, and free blink. keeping lanes on their toes with strong mid presence opens up space for the hard-carry or a struggling offlane but she is made of wet newsprint and blinking-in to a fight is usually certain death unless overwhelming odds. personally i dont like playing her, but one of those lords that in in the right team makeup can make a strong impact early. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dewar Posted June 20, 2014 I don't mid that well really, which is just as well because playing with pubs someone always demands mid and I don't really want to argue with them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sproutella Posted June 20, 2014 I don't mid that well really, which is just as well because playing with pubs someone always demands mid and I don't really want to argue with them. Yeah It's either someone demands mid as soon as they load in, or people avoid it like the plague and I'm forced mid as Phantom Lancer (hint that didn't go too well for my team). And then of course there are the games where someone demands mid 10 secs after creeps spawn when there is already someone mid. Although I've actually had a decent time asking for it nicely at the beginning and people not minding. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
undermind9 Posted June 20, 2014 the mini map in picking phase is invaluable and underused. if someone wants mid click little head there and then go afk Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dewar Posted June 20, 2014 No one pays attention to the mini-map picks though. http://dotabuff.com/matches/730169815 Slardar took mid, and he was doing all right, but also calling for mid ganks a lot. I managed to get up there and help a couple of times, but it also disrupted our lane and made it difficult to keep pace. Also, Gyro was constantly attacking creeps instead of just waiting for last hits, meaning that we were often fighting in the shadow of the enemy tower and I was having a tough time getting any last hits myself. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to work and I was just slow on the uptake, but I basically felt like the whole game I was running around confused about what I should be doing at any particular moment. *shrug* I gave up on getting QOP done for the daily and re-rolled for the first time. Edit: I actually went about 4-8 during the main game. It was suciding at the end when they were in our base that made my stats slide so bad. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trip Hazard Posted June 20, 2014 I played Dota ages ago, but not online 'cos I'd heard terrible, awful things about the community, and I'm a total wuss who needs constant reassurance. Is there some kind of Thumbs support group which can ease me into Dota? Stroke my hair, coo platitudes into my ear, that sort of thing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
undermind9 Posted June 20, 2014 dewar - that seems like stuck in a group of clowns - poor lanes and ego. sladar should have been lit up middle VS tinker to the tune of no runes, no tower, no last hits. and him asking for ganks forced you into a support...but with no real disable either, so he would have to sprint through tower/creeps/March of machines to land a stomp. KotL may have been a better ganker - at least a well placed charge shot & mana leak could hold him still oh well, long story - dont sell QoP short, big asset in the right team Share this post Link to post Share on other sites