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[Dota 2] Nyx Assassin, Keeper of the Light, and Visage this week, and straight to CM.
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Force staff on windrunner.
Actually, force staff on everyone. It's so good.
GT: Tanky the Tank
Black: 1377 6749 7425
what? no!
Anyhow, I need to shed my HoN safety blanket. No matter how much it is based on DotA, the two games are very different. I mean, it's nice to know what certain heroes and items do, but relying on them to act like they do in HoN is a crutch that's just keeping my leg broken and not allowing it to heal. All said, every PA'er I played with was very patient with me - thank you!
That's pretty much all you need to know about who I play in DotA 2 these days. Yes I know I need to expand my horizons, but right now Veno does what I need...give me a champ who I feel I contribute to the game with, while still learning the items and tactics and such.
We lost terribly, but I'd much rather have that than the alternative. I know you guys always complain about "team five carries" in solo queue, but there's a reason people do it. Playing a carry is the best way to effect the outcome of the match if you're solo queuing; you don't have to rely on other people knowing what they're doing, you just win the game by yourself.
Personally I think more than anything else this is an argument for semi-/mid-game carries with support-like abilities like Mirana or Enchantress or Silencer, or gankers that can end up carrying by virtue of how huge they get like Pudge or Nightstalker or Storm Spirit. Five hard carries is bad because it means you're all heavily item/level dependent, which means at least three of you are getting screwed.
And that's great, if you're not playing single draft! I only had one carry, my other two were supports.
True, but then I lose the joy of having someone come up a high ground ramp without vision only to walk in to 15 venom wards sitting up there.
If it works, though, you've effectively ensured you are going to have one long and boring game.
I tend to have the reverse strategy of Spawnbroker's; I'll take the optimistic (read: gullible) approach and hope the other carries know what they're doing and I'll fill the support/pusher role. Either method is a hell of a gamble, unfortunately, and is a testament to why pubs suck.
Maybe, but you gain the joy of having the enemy getting a centaur stun/troll snare in their behind while you and your allies go SPROINK! on their asses.
But hey, at least you feel good about yourself afterwards. You weren't that guy that insta-locked a carry after the rest of the team had already picked carries.
So I can't even tell myself I should have gone support and it would've ended better. I know it makes me a dick, but it doesn't even bother me. I have a choice between:
1) Pick a carry and lose because my entire team picks carries, and I end up with the most farm.
2) Pick a support and lose because my carries don't know how to farm.
It helps that carrying is sort of my thing, but it really feels like a crap shoot a lot of the time when I solo queue. If I get lucky enough to get a semi carry in my pool, that's fantastic! Oh well, this just means more PA people need to play at 10:00 AM EST.
Not to slight LoL (I still play it from time to time), but it makes me wonder how much creativity went into creating the Summoner's Rift map:
"So guys, how do we want to differentiate each side? What sort of details and nuances do we want to put in to emphasize their differences?"
"Purple vs. Blue!"
i r read gud!
Incidentally, this is why I don't play SD.
If you go support and actually support it would of most likely ended better. Picking another carry when your team already has 2 is bad all the time, unless you know your playing in a bracket that is way beneath your skill level. Like queue'ing with 4 friends that are new to the game.
Summoners Rift is just the map cut in half and flipped upside down, fyi.
My other really awesome feature of Dota 2 is how they did the character graphics. I'm not sure what they did, or if it's some kind of shader effect, but in team fights, I can make things out so much more clearly than LoL. Things get very cluster fucky graphically in LoL when shit goes down...but in Dota 2, it always seems like I am able to keep track of life bars and tags and such, even in middle of a huge brawl.
I've noticed this as well actually. I'm muuuuch better able to differentiate what's going on in team fights in Dota2. Pathing is still about as bad, but the level of polish is so leagues ahead of LoL (pun intended) it's crazy. But..I mean Riot built that map on a shoestring budget and it works for what it is.
I know what you mean. It doesn't happen quite so badly in HoN as it does in LoL (for me), but it still does to some degree. I don't know much about graphical technicalities when it comes to games, but is Dota 2 the only "true 3D" game of the 3? LoL and HoN have zoom features, but Dota 2's zoom actually changes the reference angle for every object when it zooms. I wonder if this is why hero differentiation is so much easier, or at least lends to it.
It always draws name bars/health bars ON TOP of particle effects. Always. In addition, name bars and health bars have a thin dark outline which makes them "pop".
In addition, it seems like Valve is doing some smart positioning, where as name tags start to stack, they smartly "re-arrange" themselves so that all nameplates are visible, rather than one nameplate or another drawing over the top of the others. This is a technique they took from Blizzard/WoW.
Same here about knowing what is going on in a teamfight, but a part of it to me is less the graphics and more the sounds: It's a lot easier to know what happens from the distinct ability sounds and the character quips. A lot of it is small, but I've come to appreciate things like Pudge's ult having a global sound, Zeus going "YOU CAN'T RUN FROM HEAVEN" whenever he scores a kill with his ult, knowing which spell Omniknight cast just by listening to his quip (not the lines he uses, but the way he says them - his heal quips have a noticeably harsher sound than his repel quips), and overall just having louder attack sounds when they hit you.
For an actual slight against LoL, Bloodseeker's ult in DOTA 2 is not anti-fun solely from the soundwork.
Glad to see someone else caught that game on SyndereN's stream. They had a quest: everyone must build force staff and eul's except AM who must farm rapiers. Also had to kill enemy slardar 20 times. Made for one hilarious clusterfuck of a game
Also quoting myself, in hope of a response:
It was quite fun to be honest, and hilarious.
it's also a legitimate game ender when it's on certain heroes who can be confident they won't lose it or when it's coupled with aegis. you just demolish buildings, even through BD protection.
You weren't in the low priority queue. It says it in red letters when you are while match making.
(steam name is spafey, can trade for Smnc beta key)
I still don't know exactly how that punishment system works, but it is pretty harsh. I spent some time in the low prio queue when I got my first abandon in about 100 games. Which is a bit tough, but then again I really want it to be.
Says nothing of the sort in the pic you linked, which is why I commented.
Ha ha, yeah, the soundwork in Dota 2 is so awesome. I'd probably lower the cast range on it a tad, but otherwise...really as an ult it's to punish bad positioning and snag runners.
I now see why people play this for such worrying amounts of time. It's rather good.
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