Dota 2

I've began to learn the joys of playing mid. With Dragon Knight, I was a very fed carry and getting into Lv 25 very quickly and having 20 kills...!

Too bad one of my friend Pudge plays like an asshole, pulling friends here and there unnecessarily and then this caused my game to be thrown.

Why are Pudge players these days assholes?

But at least I start to learn on what's necessary to be a carry.

edited 8th Mar '16 8:05:54 PM by ChrisX

DK's one of the best pub heroes in the meta right now thanks to the fact that he's ridiculously hard to kill, even early on, thanks to his natural tankiness and his Fire Breath. Add to the fact that ganking mid doesn't always occur for supports to do at MMRs below 3.5k and it allows DK to stay on lane practically until he's nigh unstoppable.

Edit: Just rewatched Team Secret's first game against EG during the Upper Bracket Round 2 (the one where Puppan had no reserve time) since that was one of the few games I was unable to watch live during the Major, and I have to say, mad props to Puppey for creating such a great lineup despite the lack of reserve time, EG's misplays throughout the game notwithstanding.

edited 8th Mar '16 10:19:44 PM by ITNW1989

Puppey is an exceptional captain, if not the best in the pro scene. It says a lot about his skills as a captain when he can turn EternalEnvy into someone that's comparable to a weapon of mass destruction.

Speaking of Puppey, I just learned that the Shanghai Major gave him his highest prize money won. I found it amusing that it's more than The International 1.

Darn tootin'. Back when he was the captain for NaVi, he'd been leading the team to consecutive 1st and 2nd finishes. He's definitely right up there as one of the best team captains, right up there with Xiao 8. Those two are definitely among my favorite captains. Shame that Director 8 went on a break after TI4. The fact that in a good number of games in the Major 3 out of the 5 bans were usually Puppey heroes (Chen, Enchantress, Enigma; Puppey only played Chen once this entire Major, against EHOME during the group stages) shows just how much teams fear and respect the man.

And Chairman Mao's always been good, I think, even back during his C9 days. It's just that he has a bad habit of jumping into situations that end up with him throwing so hard he's left a black hole in his wake. Even Puppey hasn't been able to completely stamp that out, what with his Ember Spirit blinking into five heroes on his own, but yeah, I agree that Puppey's definitely honed EE into a better player. I just imagine that Puppan takes EE-sama to a dark room each time he goes into one of his fEEding frenzies and shows him what happens to people who feed in his team.

pieliedie, though... that man was my MVP for Team Secret during the Shanghai Major, no doubt. His plays with Lion (who he actually seldom played before the Major), as well as his other games with Venge and Io, were something to behold. I wouldn't be surprised if people start respect-banning Lion against Team Secret now just to get it away from pld's hands.

Indeed. I am going to show this video the next time someone tries to claim that support heroes are boring.

If support heroes are boring, they're not doing it right. I primarily play position hard carry or offlaner, but the times I've played support also tend to be pretty fun. Witch Doctor is one of my favorite supports, and I draft my carry WK occasionally as a support, and Rubick is definitely a fun hero to experiment with. Whenever I'm helping out friends get out of Low Priority, I almost always go for the support. LP is such a fun time to experiment and mess with others. Smoke ganks, deep warding and such is fun to learn against LP players.

Wait, you mean there were games where the MVP vote didn't go to the winning carry?

I need to get better at Witch Doctor. I can never seem to do well with him. I can win okay with Ogre, Omniknight, and Winter Wyvern, but Witch Doctor I have trouble with.

edited 9th Mar '16 11:40:45 AM by Pannic

I'm not quite sure what the votes were, but EE and w33 definitely got MVP votes most of the time. Most casters agree that a lot of the time that whenever w33 or EE got the vote, pld or Puppey usually deserved the vote more. And I agree, many times I felt that pieliedie deserved the MVP vote more than either of Team Secret's cores.

I also agree with some redditors who suggested an after-game vote specifically within the team to see who they felt deserved the MVP vote.

All right, I just had a game where I pretty much dominate with 60 kills total for team. Then enemy Spectre suddenly one man army us and then we lost. To top it all off, said Spectre just uses all-chat "Noob".

Fucking seriously? There goes my chance to break my losing streak...

... My creed is that no matter how ez the game, I will NEVER insult others. No calling others noobs. Nothing. Just GG.

edited 10th Mar '16 7:50:01 AM by ChrisX

My question to you is, how many of those kills were against Specter? Because unless you actually shut her down, she's the type of hero that surges back with a vengeance and hate-murders everyone. Case in point: EE's Specter against EG during Game 1 during the Shanghai Major.

EDIT: Yep, checked your match. The Spectre died a measly 7 times out of 60 total team deaths, and judging by his GPM, you barely put any pressure on her. Spectre's the type of hero who can solo an entire team if not shut down, so focus less on the supports, and try to gank her more often. Kills are good and all, but if you're just letting the hard carry get too fat, then you've lost, regardless if you managed to kill the supports 30 times.

edited 10th Mar '16 10:52:30 AM by ITNW1989

Tell me more about how she does that. Spectre is a hero I have less information with. I think it has something to do with eventually having Blade Mail....

And MY GOD, never have I got this kind of losing streak in Dota in my attempt to win once with Dragon Knight... oh wait, I did have another long losing streak... except that was in Smite using Fenrir.

edited 10th Mar '16 3:07:54 PM by ChrisX

Most Spectres rarely, if ever, bother with Blade Mail; Dispersion already does that, and more, what with it reflecting the damage in a decreasing AoE. She completely blocks and reflects 22% of all incoming damage (not just physical damage), making her a very sturdy tank, especially with Vanguard/Crimson Guard, as she first blocks and reflects 22% damage, and only then does the damage reduction from her armor, Vanguard, and etc. apply.

Example: A physical attack deals 100 damage to a Spectre with Vanguard. 22% is blocked and reflected by Dispersion, making the effective damage 78. Vanguard procs, reducing the damage by a further 32, leaving 46 effective damage, which is then further reduced by whatever armor she has. This makes Spectre an incredibly tanky hero, and Dispersion scales really well into the late-game, making her one of the hardest heroes to kill.

Most Spectre players don't really bother with a Vanguard, though, and usually go for a Drums and/or Urn instead before building towards a Radiance.

The problem lies in how fast she can both farm and gank heroes. With just a Radiance, she can farm extremely quickly (especially when paired with a Manta), effectively shut down Blink Daggers with her Haunt, and Drums allows her to chase down heroes no problem, with Urn providing that extra 100 Pure damage. And if it's her teammates who manage to gank someone, it's really easy for her to just drop Haunt and get that assist gold, whether or not she actually uses Reality to teleport to the ganked hero. It's the reason why EG kept ganking EE's Spectre: they didn't want him getting too fed, and although they succeeded in shutting him down in the early game, EE managed to farm up enough that he ended up shooting from 7th in Net Worth to 3rd in a matter of minutes.

Our strategy back then was to push hard, so I guess it was our fault that they get left behind. But even then, there's still Shadow Fiend to contend with. Once he got the BKB and Desolator, everything started going to hell as well that we cannot contend to Spectre much. But I suppose that ganking Spectre should've been top priority.

Actually I might need strategy to properly gank. I mean, I know there are wards, but I need to know where to place wards offensively (not to detect ganks, but to setup ganks) and when, even with wards, it's the time to strike together.

Back then, 7 deaths and Spectre had little kills so we thought she'd not be a problem. Guess that's the mistake...

Also I'd like to talk about my current tilt. I think I had about 8-10 consecutive losses and all of them was because I want to win with Dragon Knight for a certain project of mine. JUST ONE VICTORY WILL SUFFICE. And after that, I would do the same with Mirana then Bloodseeker then one more unconfirmed hero (but a carry style). Last time I had a tilt like this with Phantom Lancer, I switched to Smite for a few days and then when I came back, not using PL again and then score some good victories. I wonder if I should do the same now?

Secondly... Dragon Knight himself. Okay so people say he's very tough. Now how do I build him to maximize his potential: Do I get his HP high with STR Item or do I put in more attack power (with Daedalus, for instance). And lastly... a problem I had with DK is that he's too slow to get into the fight. Is spending money for Blink Dagger advisable for him, or should I just go for the usual Shadow Blade? Because it doesn't increase the speed to enter team fights.

(P.S: Does Spectre's Disperse go away with Silver Edge's passive destroyer?)

edited 10th Mar '16 3:56:13 PM by ChrisX

Yep. Break gets rid of everything.

Well, not everything. Warpath, Flesh Heap and Necromastery deceptively don't get affected (well, deceptively for me anyway).

And finally broke away the streak with Dragon Knight. YES!! (Though it was because it's the enemy team who got a raging Pinoy who is such a tryhard in trying to get to major league that he became toxic. He was using Anti Mage too)

And now, it's time to learn and try about Kunkka. I managed to get pretty far and nab some kills by using the Silver Edge-Daedalus combo (I love how Kunkka farms in an alarming rate with his W). I wonder though... would adding a Battle Fury make his W do extra splash thus extra damage? Also does his W proc Silver Edge? I think yes, but I gotta be sure.

(P.S: Still lost the game because the enemy has Spectre, requiring me to upgrade to Silver Edge to get rid of her disperse and I simply lack keeping power to make my ship land, but it was still a fun game overall)

edited 11th Mar '16 7:26:46 AM by ChrisX

Okay, next topic. I dunno, but I have absolutely bad luck with Kunkka. I lost a lot of them and my 'allies' are more than ready to blame me and tell me I should uninstall. I just took it with a stride. That happened in the last game.

And the next game afterwards, surprisingly, I got teamed with the team that curb stomped my Kunkka. Immediately, everyone started jeering on me and think I'm going to feed again... Well I would, if Kunkka wasn't taken by the enemy... So I picked Sniper instead! I ho ho ha ha'd and getting safe kills about 10 times, but it would've been won anyway because my ally is a 0 death Slark. They all just shut up and stop saying I suck, all except the guy who kept dying in the game (Ogre Magi) and saying that I'm good at KS-ing.

• Does this mean I really shut them up good?
• Is it just me or Kunkka is just not meant to be played when Soloqueueing at pub matches?

So... Na'Vi is in the semifinals of a tournament. And they beat Secret.

edited 19th Mar '16 6:59:34 PM by Pannic

Which one?

Dota Pit League Season 4.

MVP.Phoenix shut out EG in a stunning 3-0 to become champions of the Pit League.

Just hit 100 games with an above 50% winrate!

My actual participation in games tends to vary. In some, when I'm on point, I'll close out the lane (Usually safe or mid, depending on the comp), ravaging my lane in a bid to take out the tier one tower and dropping Serpent wards to close it out (If I'm playing Shadow Shaman, which I usually am), then roam to gank and help out the other lanes, warding occasionally (Read: very occasionally). In these games, we'll often stomp the enemy team, which starts leaving at the 25ish minute mark and leaving our team to, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, apologize for their asshole teammates.

Most of the time however, I try really really hard to solo push. Like, way too hard. Like, not showing up to team fights to disable hard. Bad hard. The moment I have blink dagger up, I'll spring into a lane, push really hard, then drop serpent wards on the tier one or two tower, then try to blink out again. Every now and again the enemy team will catch wind of me doing this and gank the everloving fuck out of me. Then we lose.

And it's bad.

I had a long losing streak wherein I got reported a couple times during my 40th-60th game, going 7 loses before a single win, just completely unable to get my groove on because of all the shit talking coming my way.

I tried a bunch of different heroes at this point, believing that countering was going to bring me out of my slump as opposed to familiarity.

That worked, to some degree. Even if I wasn't winning, the variety made me aware of how to better counter the heroes I was playing, and eventually I feel like I levelled out the playing field. I'm having a lot of fun at the moment, and I really cannot wait until I get my ranked mmr so I can get stomped some more.

TL-DR: I evolve. I learn. I pontificate. I WIN! (At least, 52% of the time)

edited 21st Mar '16 1:04:14 AM by Brokenlampshade

Quality of life changes and bug fixes.

Damn, Universe and Baby Rage leave EG for Team Secret, replacing Misery and w33's roles as offlaner and mid, respectively, while Sumai L and Fear also have left EG, leaving PEEDURR on his own and scrambling to fill up the team in three days before the roster locks for the Manila Major.

Peedurr should hire me. I can impotently yell names, get trapped in trees and I can play half of the carries at an okay level.