It's not that AP is really that bad for ranked, it's the mexican standoff at the start that is just dumb. I've seen teams almost miss the horn because they were trying to counter pick each other. AP would be reasonable in ranked if they enforced picking a hero by 0:00. Maybe by taking away gold slowly the longer past the pick phase you go.
This. Played a game a few days ago and I was the only hero on the map by the creep spawn. I'm Lion.
It's not that AP is really that bad for ranked, it's the mexican standoff at the start that is just dumb. I've seen teams almost miss the horn because they were trying to counter pick each other. AP would be reasonable in ranked if they enforced picking a hero by 0:00. Maybe by taking away gold slowly the longer past the pick phase you go.
This. Played a game a few days ago and I was the only hero on the map by the creep spawn. I'm Lion.
Just force anyone who hasn't picked when the timer hits zero to play Meepo, or at least random them without bonus gold.
Descendant XSkyrim is my god now.Outpost 31Registered Userregular
To @21stCentury and the rest of the guys who were in the game that I just quit,
I apologize for abandoning the game and likely ruining it for the rest of you. I was unaware that you would not receive BattlePoints for me leaving the game. I would have reconnected if I had known that, but I uninstalled right after I left the game so that ship had sailed. DOTA 2 is clearly not my type of game and I really was not enjoying it, but that did not give me the right to wreck your experiences. You have my sincere apologies.
Garry: I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time I'd rather not spend the rest of the winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!
I'm finally winning games again, but only games where I play Nature's Prophet. When I choose another hero, even when I have a pretty good game, my team ends up losing. Conversely, I'm actually as good as others are on NP, but win anyway. Oh well, just gonna split push all the way back to .500
Just played a game as NP. I was playing out of my mind, picking people and couriers off, getting lucky ults, I managed to down all 6 outer towers. My team though? 1 solo guy who was clearly playing his first game as LC. The other 3 were a stack, alternating between laughing at nothing and making weird noises in their mics the whole game. They tri-laned together, managed maybe 3 kills the whole game collectively. One of them was kotl and at one point teleported me into a losing team fight so I'd die too. Later in the game they all bought force staves and ran into the enemy fountain. If that's how people have fun playing, fine, whatever, do that, but keep me out of it. I will take longer queue times any day if it means I can solo queue again.
Crystal Maiden game, my final line was 0-11-23. I think that's the first full length no-kill game I've ever had. Early game I just was a walking ice cream buffet to an enemy team with a murderers' row of disablers and nukers. Meanwhile I was getting yelled at for not upgrading the courier, and then literally a minute later for not having boots, all while I was spending whatever meager cash I could hold onto between deaths on wards, as the other team was ganking constantly.
Once we got past the early game though, me playing WardCraft all over the map was such a perfect combo with Nightstalker, Riki, and LC on my team. Very satisfying turnaround, and I'll take the harmless-as-a-kitten stat line for that victory.
Although, why do the other guys get to have all the glory? WTB an announcer pack for supports.
I appreciate good supports a tremendous amount, and know I am hardly capable of playing them (besides the supports that can make aggressive plays on their own right; the more Veno/Omniknight style supports). At the same time, there's an annoying trend in some of my games of supports who have a similar attitude to the stereotypical carry.
Why'd you wander off alone to their hard camp after seeing them on the map at mid? "I was warding their jungle, I'm a support, I can die."
Why are you throwing rank 1 spells in lane at enemies that don't feel the impact? "I'm harassing them!"
Why are you using frostbite on the dire-side hard camp after frost nova-ing the wave to be in equilibrium right by river? "I need EXP!" (and so does my favorite enemy offlaner).
Why are you sticking around a lane with an invis hero at 200 HP with no regen left when your strength carry is full HP with a stout shield and is begging you to heal up? "I have to protect you or you'll die!"
I feel like I've played enough to be mildly bitter and recognize that every role is thankless at times and every role has stereotypical excuses and patterns of bad decisions that are justified by trying way too hard to stick to the mindset of "what a carry/support/mid does." For every carry that last hits well in lane, there's a support that's warding properly and saving key spells to peel for the carry. For every carry that's farming his fifth item on the small and medium camps while his ancient is dying, there are supports that feel the need to drop a river ward 30 minutes in with no T1s and no enemies on the map.
I love playing support. I used to play a shitload of offlaning heroes but as me and my mates have moved more towards 2-1-2 again I find playing positions 4 and 5 most enjoyable.
CM, rubick, alch, lion, naga and bane are probably my faves in those positions
early on we were getting the shit kicked out of us. a Silencer, a Doom, and a Tusk who died relentlessly. we were up against LC, Abaddon, Lion, KotL, and Kunkka, the LC kept building up damage stacks. our Jakiro somehow held it together until I got my scepter.
and that's when I started picking off their KotL and Lion any time they separated from the group. a Blademail and Heart made me capable of tanking Abaddon or LC 1 on 1. we rallied for a push, got killed, and narrowly beat back their rush to our ancient
I had two late-game rocket flare kills in the fog of war that stalled them, we pushed to end it after 60 minutes
it was an intense game, we could have lost it easily three or four times
friggin Silencer kept running in front of me and blocking hookshots, though
I appreciate good supports a tremendous amount, and know I am hardly capable of playing them (besides the supports that can make aggressive plays on their own right; the more Veno/Omniknight style supports). At the same time, there's an annoying trend in some of my games of supports who have a similar attitude to the stereotypical carry.
Why'd you wander off alone to their hard camp after seeing them on the map at mid? "I was warding their jungle, I'm a support, I can die."
Why are you throwing rank 1 spells in lane at enemies that don't feel the impact? "I'm harassing them!"
Why are you using frostbite on the dire-side hard camp after frost nova-ing the wave to be in equilibrium right by river? "I need EXP!" (and so does my favorite enemy offlaner).
Why are you sticking around a lane with an invis hero at 200 HP with no regen left when your strength carry is full HP with a stout shield and is begging you to heal up? "I have to protect you or you'll die!"
I feel like I've played enough to be mildly bitter and recognize that every role is thankless at times and every role has stereotypical excuses and patterns of bad decisions that are justified by trying way too hard to stick to the mindset of "what a carry/support/mid does." For every carry that last hits well in lane, there's a support that's warding properly and saving key spells to peel for the carry. For every carry that's farming his fifth item on the small and medium camps while his ancient is dying, there are supports that feel the need to drop a river ward 30 minutes in with no T1s and no enemies on the map.
"I'm a support, I can die", may subtly be the worst attitude in dota, but it is unfortunately very closely related to the useful and necessary attitudes of: "I'm a support so I will die for the carry every single time my death is necessary to secure his life" and "I'm a support so I will probably die more than the carry even when playing my best." Sadly, as you pointed out, "I'm a support, I can die" is often used to excuse poor decision making and sloppy play.
The nonchalance of "I'm a support, I can die" is a defense mechanism against both the pain of dying frequently and the responsibility of playing your best so you don't die any more often than is strictly necessary. Usually goes hand in hand with basically having given up on a particular game. Like "fuck it I'm just going to get picked off by nyx anyway, may as well ward alone" or "fuck it my team sucks anyway, may as well do *insert suicidal or self destructive thing here*"
Learning how to play from behind, not go on tilt, and stop a snowballing bad situation is probably one of the most useful skills in dota.
So I installed this game last night but have not played it yet. I used to play LOL a lot and this game seemed interesting. I have a few questions that I am sure you have heard before so I am sorry to bug you.
- what are couriers? what makes some better than others?
- how long does an average game last? I have a 1 year old daughter and so I basically only get to play computer games during naps and after she goes to bed
- what would be some good starter characters to use?
- So are the swords, hats, etc that are sold in the marketplace all just cosmetic or do they actually effect gameplay?
Couriers and other things from the marketplace are purely cosmetic. Ingame the flying couier upgrade makes it faster, and gives it the ability to fly, ignoring obstacles.
Games are 30-45 min generally in my experience, can drag on longer or end quicker though.
As for starter characters I'll leave that to someone else. I pretty much never played the game alone early on, since there are so many damn things to keep track of and learn, even after a lot of LoL.
Couriers and other things from the marketplace are purely cosmetic. Ingame the flying couier upgrade makes it faster, and gives it the ability to fly, ignoring obstacles.
Games are 30-45 min generally in my experience, can drag on longer or end quicker though.
As for starter characters I'll leave that to someone else. I pretty much never played the game alone early on, since there are so many damn things to keep track of and learn, even after a lot of LoL.
Yeah, It seems like there is a lot going on. The reason I asked about the market place items being just cosmetic or not is because they will have a sword that is green and the same sword that is purple (rarity) but the image looks the same in the picture.
Couriers and other things from the marketplace are purely cosmetic. Ingame the flying couier upgrade makes it faster, and gives it the ability to fly, ignoring obstacles.
Games are 30-45 min generally in my experience, can drag on longer or end quicker though.
As for starter characters I'll leave that to someone else. I pretty much never played the game alone early on, since there are so many damn things to keep track of and learn, even after a lot of LoL.
Yeah, It seems like there is a lot going on. The reason I asked about the market place items being just cosmetic or not is because they will have a sword that is green and the same sword that is purple (rarity) but the image looks the same in the picture.
Also @21stCentury runs a guild dedicated to learning stuff. Tends to have an experienced player coach and a bunch of complete newbies. So might wanna get in touch with him. They don't tend to win too often but it's entertaining enough and the conversations very productive and not abusive like the average pub game will be.
So I installed this game last night but have not played it yet. I used to play LOL a lot and this game seemed interesting. I have a few questions that I am sure you have heard before so I am sorry to bug you.
- what are couriers? what makes some better than others?
- how long does an average game last? I have a 1 year old daughter and so I basically only get to play computer games during naps and after she goes to bed
- what would be some good starter characters to use?
- So are the swords, hats, etc that are sold in the marketplace all just cosmetic or do they actually effect gameplay?
1. couriers ferry items from the shops to heroes in lane (or wherever else). There is a walking courier which must be bought for 150 gold and is available from the start of the game, and a flying courier with a speed boost ability. The latter costs 220 gold, and is only available after 3:00min.
all the different variations you see are just cosmetic
3. lich, crystal maiden, venomancer, skeleton king, chaos knight, sven, tidehunter, sand king are all good starter heroes. I recommend starting in bot games and picking whoever sounds cool and getting a feel for things that way.
4. All the swords, hats, etc that are sold in the marketplace are strictly cosmetic. Depending on the game mode, you can also pick any hero you want from the start (I understand that wasn't the case in LoL).
I didn't play LoL but I'm sure there are some good guides out there for people making the transition.
Party and Solo MMRs both ended up at ~3750. I feel pretty good about that. It seems like a pretty nice place to be in terms of random teammates as well. My ranked games have featured far less trolling/flaming/raging than my unranked. I still run into the occasional asshole, but the ratio has gone from about 1/3 of my games featuring some dick to 1/7.
The other 3 were a stack, alternating between laughing at nothing and making weird noises in their mics the whole game. They tri-laned together, managed maybe 3 kills the whole game collectively.
Oh man, I hate getting those stacks because it's constantly up in the air when the giggles crew is going to actually play vs. screw around. Often there will be one friend who's kind of shitty who they will encourage to be even shittier for laughs.
Obviously it's a nice change of pace from shitlords who take the game ultra serious and will hound you relentlessly if you make a single mistake, but man, I hate watching winnable games go to crap because a stack is having a laugh.
Party and Solo MMRs both ended up at ~3750. I feel pretty good about that. It seems like a pretty nice place to be in terms of random teammates as well. My ranked games have featured far less trolling/flaming/raging than my unranked. I still run into the occasional asshole, but the ratio has gone from about 1/3 of my games featuring some dick to 1/7.
I am in the 3300's for both solo and party and just feel that in general the attitude is better in ranked. Speaking of:
http://dotabuff.com/matches/450728025
I had the weirdest solo captain mode game this weekend. Dude picked captain, did not say a word during the whole draft and ignored what the other 4 of us were saying and just chose bot lane. We were left to ourselves on what heroes to choose. Our SK just started calling GG before the first creep spawn and bitching the first few minutes in general chat even after we got first blood. We then proceeded to murder them in every team fight. Zeues would ult to break mirana's invis. We were constantly pushing all 3 lanes and then won a big teamfight to GG.
I was SF and the opposing slark was freaking out about the Rat dota and my refusal to team fight him. Got ganked a ton early game so only caught up on cs once I got shadow blade.
So I've been playing at a netcafe and someone has been in my account and traded themselves tons of my crap. Any idea if I contact valve or dota2 if I can get my things back or some kind of disciplinary action started against them? It's pretty clearly theft in the steam history as I trade away tons of crap to someone I've never played with and just friended that second, if I friended them at all. I've changed my steam password and spoken to the netcafe, they will try to find the perpetrator as well, but if that fails, wondering if I have any other recourse.
edit: netcafe found the perps, items were returned, steam password changed, and criminals banned from the establishment. all is well
Party and Solo MMRs both ended up at ~3750. I feel pretty good about that. It seems like a pretty nice place to be in terms of random teammates as well. My ranked games have featured far less trolling/flaming/raging than my unranked. I still run into the occasional asshole, but the ratio has gone from about 1/3 of my games featuring some dick to 1/7.
I am in the 3300's for both solo and party and just feel that in general the attitude is better in ranked. Speaking of:
http://dotabuff.com/matches/450728025
I had the weirdest solo captain mode game this weekend. Dude picked captain, did not say a word during the whole draft and ignored what the other 4 of us were saying and just chose bot lane. We were left to ourselves on what heroes to choose. Our SK just started calling GG before the first creep spawn and bitching the first few minutes in general chat even after we got first blood. We then proceeded to murder them in every team fight. Zeues would ult to break mirana's invis. We were constantly pushing all 3 lanes and then won a big teamfight to GG.
I was SF and the opposing slark was freaking out about the Rat dota and my refusal to team fight him. Got ganked a ton early game so only caught up on cs once I got shadow blade.
Last game, single draft I grab QoP. I really like QoP. Fun character and is really helping me with map awareness for ganking. I am mid verse a shadow demon, he annoys me but I get my bottle easily by 2 minutes/3 minutes. I go to hit the courier but there was no courier. Lich didn't buy one. I guess my fault for assuming he would, but he is playing support. I check he has 1k gold has bought 0 wards and no courier at this point. *face palm* So I run back to base, buy a courier and get my bottle and tp back to my lane. I kill the shadow demon and use to gold to upgrade the courier because no one else is.
I gank a few lanes but at this point bot was in bad shape as lich had done 0 warding verse a brood mother. I do get to kill the gyro there a few times. I think in the end Lich ends up buying one sentry ward all game. Whatever I figure, I start warding and getting towards my orchid. Our Naix is farming well and I figure we might still have a chance. Brood, SD and Gyro are pushing bot. Lich is with me with chainfrost up and I jump in. I drop my combo everyone is at like 10 life and I end up being focused and killed. Lich never drops the chain frost on the 3 heroes practically standing on top of each other.
This kind of snowballs from there. Brood ends up with double butterflys, clock is super fed and hell the crystal maiden had a god mode streak. I made some major mistakes like I kept forgetting to dagger first the maiden after I knew she had a linkens then orchid her. I end up being part of or having 3/4 of our kills during the game and my bkb finished just a we died. Still sometimes I wonder about people. I think watching a bad support (lich went tranquil, ags then a mek after the point where it mattered). Naix and Bristle were at least competent just out itemed and out leveled.
While that sounds like an awful game, I'd guess that Lich could have been extremely new to the game and playing a recommended new player hero. Also sentry wards really aren't *that* effective against Brood in lane now, since she can still just walk in and out of the trees.
While that sounds like an awful game, I'd guess that Lich could have been extremely new to the game and playing a recommended new player hero. Also sentry wards really aren't *that* effective against Brood in lane now, since she can still just walk in and out of the trees.
Most broods at my level aren't that intelligent. When I started warding I kept finding her standing in lane when she wasn't eating someone. But still a sentry helps keep brood out of the lane and helps prevent her from ganking.
If you are at the level that your opponents do not understand the key use of their ability, it is unlikely you are at the level that your allies would understand their abilities. While it doesn't make it more fun for you, it's very likely the Lich was very new to DotA at that point.
milski on
I ate an engineer
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
@Mazzyx: You going to be playing tonight? I'm in a Dota mood today.
If you are at the level that your opponents do not understand the key use of their ability, it is unlikely you are at the level that your allies would understand their abilities. While it doesn't make it more fun for you, it's very likely the Lich was very new to DotA at that point.
He probably was. I actually spent part of the game helping him out and describing things to him when I could. QoP is a busy hero so not a lot of downtime except when I was dead. Though it has been probably a week or more since I ran into someone who was that new.
I know what being new is like and I do my best to help.
Guy was also in a 3 stack, his friends weren't being helpful it seems.
@Gnometank I am down be nice not to 100% solo que.
If you are at the level that your opponents do not understand the key use of their ability, it is unlikely you are at the level that your allies would understand their abilities. While it doesn't make it more fun for you, it's very likely the Lich was very new to DotA at that point.
Sucks though. I notice that as a predominantly solo player MM will often throw brand new players in with a bunch of seasoned vets; usually the new player gets shit on until they rage quite in disgust. It's really not fair to do that to new players.
Anyway, I myself feel like sentries are a must in the early lane against a brood. If only to harass the shit out of her every time she tries to CS. Just delaying the soul ring for an extra minute or two can make a world of difference.
I appreciate good supports a tremendous amount, and know I am hardly capable of playing them (besides the supports that can make aggressive plays on their own right; the more Veno/Omniknight style supports). At the same time, there's an annoying trend in some of my games of supports who have a similar attitude to the stereotypical carry.
Why'd you wander off alone to their hard camp after seeing them on the map at mid? "I was warding their jungle, I'm a support, I can die."
Why are you throwing rank 1 spells in lane at enemies that don't feel the impact? "I'm harassing them!"
Why are you using frostbite on the dire-side hard camp after frost nova-ing the wave to be in equilibrium right by river? "I need EXP!" (and so does my favorite enemy offlaner).
Why are you sticking around a lane with an invis hero at 200 HP with no regen left when your strength carry is full HP with a stout shield and is begging you to heal up? "I have to protect you or you'll die!"
I feel like I've played enough to be mildly bitter and recognize that every role is thankless at times and every role has stereotypical excuses and patterns of bad decisions that are justified by trying way too hard to stick to the mindset of "what a carry/support/mid does." For every carry that last hits well in lane, there's a support that's warding properly and saving key spells to peel for the carry. For every carry that's farming his fifth item on the small and medium camps while his ancient is dying, there are supports that feel the need to drop a river ward 30 minutes in with no T1s and no enemies on the map.
I think what's common across roles here is that there's kind of a contradiction that comes with playing a complex team game with a rotating cast of strangers.
You and your teammates need to be able to understand how each other will play with minimal fuss, which pushes towards a static attitude where heroes are pigeonholed into specific roles and builds and you'll probably get flak for deviating much at all; on the other hand, Dota is too complex and dynamic for rigid, rule-of-thumb based play to yield ideal results.
And that's without even getting into when people only even pick up the commonly accepted rules of thumb (or roles of thumb?) in a fragmentary way, which is another problem.
badger2d on
Blizzard: Symphony #1704
Steam: badger2d
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MortiousThe Nightmare BeginsMove to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
My last game made up for the previous game as QoP. I got put with a 3-stack verse a 4 stack and I got Lina. Proceed to help PL own the disrupter and Void in my lane. End up 6-7-12 with a scythe being finished, mek, and a wand plus my wards let us ambush a rosh attempt. Was a good game.
Man, I played a weird game tonight, it was like nobody wanted to be there. I think people were having lag problems at large, and it was Single Draft, so the picks were kind of all over the place. Everyone just kind of played halfheartedly; a gank here or there, some farming. And then the enemy batrider just said fuck it and sat in spawn, only coming out to leech xp so he wouldn't get an abandon. But instead of 5 man pushing, my team just kind of milled around in mid lane outside of the rax tower, for seriously what seemed like forever. I don't think I've ever wanted a game to just end more.
Steam and thus DoTA2 was weird last night. I actually lost my Steam friends during a game but didn't lose connection to DoTA2. I had some bad lag with my last game with @gnometank as well. Cleared up in the end but almost got me killed during the laning phase a few times.
Also I have a new love, Nature's Prophet. Man he is fun. I also almost never get as farmed as I do on him. Two games I had desolator, shadow blade, bkb for one game and something else in the other. I felt like I could use a Linkens on him though. The first disable is what kills me because if I get caught out I don't have time to react by shadowblading or sprouting myself. Maybe a blink? But I think that is overkill.
Also I seem to be able to get all the tier 2s solo pushing really easily. But I can't really do much split pushing after that. Just seem to keep the lanes out but my teams feel like they are falling apart unless I follow them around instead of split pushing.
So Purge has moved to Korea to form a team with Blitz, Eosin and SexyBamboe. Should be interesting, guess we'll actually find out how good he is.
Huh, wonder if he is still going to do his youtube vods. As long as Chachi isn't joining they should be fine. Korea is probably the weakest area for DoTA2 teams atm I think. North America is tougher especially with like Team Liquid.
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This. Played a game a few days ago and I was the only hero on the map by the creep spawn. I'm Lion.
If you're gonna wait until creep spawn to pick, don't pick into a hard counter... it's just depressing.
Just force anyone who hasn't picked when the timer hits zero to play Meepo, or at least random them without bonus gold.
That or people have a random hero selected at 0
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
bit.ly/2XQM1ke
I apologize for abandoning the game and likely ruining it for the rest of you. I was unaware that you would not receive BattlePoints for me leaving the game. I would have reconnected if I had known that, but I uninstalled right after I left the game so that ship had sailed. DOTA 2 is clearly not my type of game and I really was not enjoying it, but that did not give me the right to wreck your experiences. You have my sincere apologies.
PSN: jrrl_absent
Once we got past the early game though, me playing WardCraft all over the map was such a perfect combo with Nightstalker, Riki, and LC on my team. Very satisfying turnaround, and I'll take the harmless-as-a-kitten stat line for that victory.
Although, why do the other guys get to have all the glory? WTB an announcer pack for supports.
"Warding Spree!"
"Ultra Vision!"
"HOLY MAP HAX"
Steam: badger2d
Why'd you wander off alone to their hard camp after seeing them on the map at mid? "I was warding their jungle, I'm a support, I can die."
Why are you throwing rank 1 spells in lane at enemies that don't feel the impact? "I'm harassing them!"
Why are you using frostbite on the dire-side hard camp after frost nova-ing the wave to be in equilibrium right by river? "I need EXP!" (and so does my favorite enemy offlaner).
Why are you sticking around a lane with an invis hero at 200 HP with no regen left when your strength carry is full HP with a stout shield and is begging you to heal up? "I have to protect you or you'll die!"
I feel like I've played enough to be mildly bitter and recognize that every role is thankless at times and every role has stereotypical excuses and patterns of bad decisions that are justified by trying way too hard to stick to the mindset of "what a carry/support/mid does." For every carry that last hits well in lane, there's a support that's warding properly and saving key spells to peel for the carry. For every carry that's farming his fifth item on the small and medium camps while his ancient is dying, there are supports that feel the need to drop a river ward 30 minutes in with no T1s and no enemies on the map.
CM, rubick, alch, lion, naga and bane are probably my faves in those positions
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
bit.ly/2XQM1ke
early on we were getting the shit kicked out of us. a Silencer, a Doom, and a Tusk who died relentlessly. we were up against LC, Abaddon, Lion, KotL, and Kunkka, the LC kept building up damage stacks. our Jakiro somehow held it together until I got my scepter.
and that's when I started picking off their KotL and Lion any time they separated from the group. a Blademail and Heart made me capable of tanking Abaddon or LC 1 on 1. we rallied for a push, got killed, and narrowly beat back their rush to our ancient
I had two late-game rocket flare kills in the fog of war that stalled them, we pushed to end it after 60 minutes
it was an intense game, we could have lost it easily three or four times
friggin Silencer kept running in front of me and blocking hookshots, though
"I'm a support, I can die", may subtly be the worst attitude in dota, but it is unfortunately very closely related to the useful and necessary attitudes of: "I'm a support so I will die for the carry every single time my death is necessary to secure his life" and "I'm a support so I will probably die more than the carry even when playing my best." Sadly, as you pointed out, "I'm a support, I can die" is often used to excuse poor decision making and sloppy play.
The nonchalance of "I'm a support, I can die" is a defense mechanism against both the pain of dying frequently and the responsibility of playing your best so you don't die any more often than is strictly necessary. Usually goes hand in hand with basically having given up on a particular game. Like "fuck it I'm just going to get picked off by nyx anyway, may as well ward alone" or "fuck it my team sucks anyway, may as well do *insert suicidal or self destructive thing here*"
Learning how to play from behind, not go on tilt, and stop a snowballing bad situation is probably one of the most useful skills in dota.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
- what are couriers? what makes some better than others?
- how long does an average game last? I have a 1 year old daughter and so I basically only get to play computer games during naps and after she goes to bed
- what would be some good starter characters to use?
- So are the swords, hats, etc that are sold in the marketplace all just cosmetic or do they actually effect gameplay?
Games are 30-45 min generally in my experience, can drag on longer or end quicker though.
As for starter characters I'll leave that to someone else. I pretty much never played the game alone early on, since there are so many damn things to keep track of and learn, even after a lot of LoL.
Yeah, It seems like there is a lot going on. The reason I asked about the market place items being just cosmetic or not is because they will have a sword that is green and the same sword that is purple (rarity) but the image looks the same in the picture.
Also @21stCentury runs a guild dedicated to learning stuff. Tends to have an experienced player coach and a bunch of complete newbies. So might wanna get in touch with him. They don't tend to win too often but it's entertaining enough and the conversations very productive and not abusive like the average pub game will be.
1. couriers ferry items from the shops to heroes in lane (or wherever else). There is a walking courier which must be bought for 150 gold and is available from the start of the game, and a flying courier with a speed boost ability. The latter costs 220 gold, and is only available after 3:00min.
all the different variations you see are just cosmetic
2. An average game lasts about 38min http://dotametrics.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/dota-2-hero-winrates-by-game-duration/
3. lich, crystal maiden, venomancer, skeleton king, chaos knight, sven, tidehunter, sand king are all good starter heroes. I recommend starting in bot games and picking whoever sounds cool and getting a feel for things that way.
4. All the swords, hats, etc that are sold in the marketplace are strictly cosmetic. Depending on the game mode, you can also pick any hero you want from the start (I understand that wasn't the case in LoL).
I didn't play LoL but I'm sure there are some good guides out there for people making the transition.
Welcome to dota2! http://www.purgegamers.com/welcome-to-dota-you-suck
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
Oh man, I hate getting those stacks because it's constantly up in the air when the giggles crew is going to actually play vs. screw around. Often there will be one friend who's kind of shitty who they will encourage to be even shittier for laughs.
Obviously it's a nice change of pace from shitlords who take the game ultra serious and will hound you relentlessly if you make a single mistake, but man, I hate watching winnable games go to crap because a stack is having a laugh.
I am in the 3300's for both solo and party and just feel that in general the attitude is better in ranked. Speaking of:
http://dotabuff.com/matches/450728025
I had the weirdest solo captain mode game this weekend. Dude picked captain, did not say a word during the whole draft and ignored what the other 4 of us were saying and just chose bot lane. We were left to ourselves on what heroes to choose. Our SK just started calling GG before the first creep spawn and bitching the first few minutes in general chat even after we got first blood. We then proceeded to murder them in every team fight. Zeues would ult to break mirana's invis. We were constantly pushing all 3 lanes and then won a big teamfight to GG.
I was SF and the opposing slark was freaking out about the Rat dota and my refusal to team fight him. Got ganked a ton early game so only caught up on cs once I got shadow blade.
edit: netcafe found the perps, items were returned, steam password changed, and criminals banned from the establishment. all is well
That lineup is hilarious. I love it.
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
Last game, single draft I grab QoP. I really like QoP. Fun character and is really helping me with map awareness for ganking. I am mid verse a shadow demon, he annoys me but I get my bottle easily by 2 minutes/3 minutes. I go to hit the courier but there was no courier. Lich didn't buy one. I guess my fault for assuming he would, but he is playing support. I check he has 1k gold has bought 0 wards and no courier at this point. *face palm* So I run back to base, buy a courier and get my bottle and tp back to my lane. I kill the shadow demon and use to gold to upgrade the courier because no one else is.
I gank a few lanes but at this point bot was in bad shape as lich had done 0 warding verse a brood mother. I do get to kill the gyro there a few times. I think in the end Lich ends up buying one sentry ward all game. Whatever I figure, I start warding and getting towards my orchid. Our Naix is farming well and I figure we might still have a chance. Brood, SD and Gyro are pushing bot. Lich is with me with chainfrost up and I jump in. I drop my combo everyone is at like 10 life and I end up being focused and killed. Lich never drops the chain frost on the 3 heroes practically standing on top of each other.
This kind of snowballs from there. Brood ends up with double butterflys, clock is super fed and hell the crystal maiden had a god mode streak. I made some major mistakes like I kept forgetting to dagger first the maiden after I knew she had a linkens then orchid her. I end up being part of or having 3/4 of our kills during the game and my bkb finished just a we died. Still sometimes I wonder about people. I think watching a bad support (lich went tranquil, ags then a mek after the point where it mattered). Naix and Bristle were at least competent just out itemed and out leveled.
Still do love QoP though, she is so much fun.
Most broods at my level aren't that intelligent. When I started warding I kept finding her standing in lane when she wasn't eating someone. But still a sentry helps keep brood out of the lane and helps prevent her from ganking.
He probably was. I actually spent part of the game helping him out and describing things to him when I could. QoP is a busy hero so not a lot of downtime except when I was dead. Though it has been probably a week or more since I ran into someone who was that new.
I know what being new is like and I do my best to help.
Guy was also in a 3 stack, his friends weren't being helpful it seems.
@Gnometank I am down be nice not to 100% solo que.
Sucks though. I notice that as a predominantly solo player MM will often throw brand new players in with a bunch of seasoned vets; usually the new player gets shit on until they rage quite in disgust. It's really not fair to do that to new players.
Anyway, I myself feel like sentries are a must in the early lane against a brood. If only to harass the shit out of her every time she tries to CS. Just delaying the soul ring for an extra minute or two can make a world of difference.
I think what's common across roles here is that there's kind of a contradiction that comes with playing a complex team game with a rotating cast of strangers.
You and your teammates need to be able to understand how each other will play with minimal fuss, which pushes towards a static attitude where heroes are pigeonholed into specific roles and builds and you'll probably get flak for deviating much at all; on the other hand, Dota is too complex and dynamic for rigid, rule-of-thumb based play to yield ideal results.
And that's without even getting into when people only even pick up the commonly accepted rules of thumb (or roles of thumb?) in a fragmentary way, which is another problem.
Steam: badger2d
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
Also I have a new love, Nature's Prophet. Man he is fun. I also almost never get as farmed as I do on him. Two games I had desolator, shadow blade, bkb for one game and something else in the other. I felt like I could use a Linkens on him though. The first disable is what kills me because if I get caught out I don't have time to react by shadowblading or sprouting myself. Maybe a blink? But I think that is overkill.
Also I seem to be able to get all the tier 2s solo pushing really easily. But I can't really do much split pushing after that. Just seem to keep the lanes out but my teams feel like they are falling apart unless I follow them around instead of split pushing.
Huh, wonder if he is still going to do his youtube vods. As long as Chachi isn't joining they should be fine. Korea is probably the weakest area for DoTA2 teams atm I think. North America is tougher especially with like Team Liquid.