Brannigan

DOTA 2

Recommended Posts

I'm enjoying the Dark Moon event a lot too, got to wave 15 for the first time today, but died horribly about halfway through the boss' enormous health bar. I've read that you basically need a techies stacking bombs for two waves to kill it in a reasonable time frame. Other than that, Medusa + Sniper + Pit Lord seem pretty mandatory to get very far. Tiny is basically useless even after getting Aghs, and Disrupter is entirely ineffective the entire game.

 

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.

 

If any of you want someone to queue with, I'm a pretty decent position 4/5 (and sometimes 1.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The Dark Moon event is so much fun! I think it is the best event Valve has done in a really long time.

 

I also have mixed feelings about 7.00. I enjoy the talent tree a lot, and I like the change to the location of the rosh pit, but otherwise I'm also not a big fan of the changes to the map. I also really don't like that they added a bunch of more neutral camps, but lengthened the interval between spawn times. That's completely ruined the rhythms I got into playing support, and I really haven't adjusted to it yet.

 

I need to fix/replace my modem before I play any real matches of Dota though. I've been getting lots of packet loss while playing and that has just been super game losing.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

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.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think I preferred Wraith Knight, but that may be because thematically it felt much more appropriate and involved and fun??

 

I'll tell you what tho I love being a giant tree.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

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

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
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?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It shows players that are on the Dota 2 leaderboards that are currently streaming on Twitch.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hah, cool! I'm learning lots in this thread :)

In exchange, here's something cool I just learned - you can refill a bottle by dropping it into the inventory of anyone affected by fountain regen, including someone who just TP'ed to your lane. If you're fast, that person can even control-click the bottle onto you & have it refill again before the buff dissipates.

 

Here's an example (doesn't include the control-click for the extra charge). 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I started playing ranked last week, and I have to say it's been a pretty positive experience so far. It might just be because I'm not very highly ranked (3k-4k bracket) or because DOTA's reputation for toxicity is kind of overblown (it is,) but either way it's kind of relaxing. None of the getting matched with 4 other people on Discord type stuff, people generally knowing what they're doing, with only the occasional bout of nonsense. Would recommend.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You're above the average schmoe if you are at 3k+. 3.5k is like the 85th percentile of players so a lot of the toxicity is probably filtered out. 3.5k to 4k is also where Dunning-Kruger starts to dissipate, and a lot of toxicity has it's basis in that. It's a pretty good place to be, most people are just trying to improve their own game instead of focusing on others. If you go lower they think they don't deserve to be in the sub-3k bracket and blame everyone else than themselves. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That makes sense. I didn't realize the average MMR was so low when the upper ranges are up around 8k. I guess I have to revise my recommendation to being at my specific bracket. Don't bother if you're better or worse than me. 

 

That said, playing Warlock has pretty much been carrying me to success.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

In my experience most of the toxicity is in really low and really high MMR games. I'm a 2.somethingK player, and my games have been chill. But the high MMR matches I watch on Twitch regularly feature people way worse than anything I encounter, and when I hear stories from my friends that are under 1K MMR I hear similar things...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm convinced that normal All Pick is a trap for fools. Random Draft has had better results for me, but still not great.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah, I mean I get it that Normal AP attracts people that want to practice a specific hero... but it seems like there are always at least 2 or 3 people every game that are in that boat; they just want to do one specific thing and are not willing to be flexible at all. Nobody seems to care about the draft, and communication is minimal or non-existent. As someone who's main strengths are (perceived to be) drafting and communication, it makes games substantially less enjoyable for me. 

I think you're right; I just need to switch my normal queues to Random Draft on the (rare) occasion I don't just play ranked instead.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 1/14/2017 at 1:14 PM, cakedotavi said:

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.


Answering my own question here:

Dotabuff just put together a neat run-down of post-7.00 offlaners, including Slardar. Worth a read, for those interested in meta theory-crafting & the offlane position specifically.

 

I certainly agree with their comments about Slardar needing a nerf, given how my recent ranked games have been going (see below).

ch5WStp.png

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This is my entire ranked adventure so far. I've had a lot of success just telling the rest of my team that I'll buy all the wards and trying to get people to not pick the greediest team comps ever, so we'll see if that lasts. Warlock feels a lot stronger with the introduction of shrines than he used to, since they provide the mana that I used to lack a lot in my cross-map support adventures. I'm glad they added them.

 

FH6lXGW.png

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Warlock is really good at just keeping a pub game together I think. He has a heal, good harass, and a good ultimate to save your dumb team when they start a team fight they shouldn't have.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

All true, though I probably need to be less trigger-happy on the golems myself. It's just so satisfying to stun everyone and hear the sound effect...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 2/19/2017 at 10:23 PM, Kyir said:

This is my entire ranked adventure so far. I've had a lot of success just telling the rest of my team that I'll buy all the wards and trying to get people to not pick the greediest team comps ever, so we'll see if that lasts.

 

This never stops being good. Support is one of the less popular roles, at least up to where I'm at (3.7k), and having someone clearly saying they'll pick it up and picking it first (so the other team can't counter-pick cores) is really helpful. The rest of the team knows they will get certain really important things like wards and rotations taken care off, and can plan their draft better. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I am very, very excited to try the new matchmaking patch. 
 

Quote

added better detection for clear cases of intentional feeding, and will be applying stricter punishments to those who violate this rule.

Finally, we’ve also added detection for users that are botting, and with this update have issued a permanent ban to a large number of recently-detected bot accounts.


http://blog.dota2.com/2017/04/matchmaking-update/

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My first two games of ranked were both positive experiences, but that's not a huge sample size (and the phone-linking isn't mandatory yet either anyway.) It's going to be interesting to see how much the solo-queue only setting will increase the time I have to wait in between games. I might just leave it off, since I don't run into people going in together much anyway in ranked.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now