Support NeoGAF

[Kard8p3]

Just had a ballin Meepo match with arab

http://dotabuff.com/matches/373037767

Such a fun hero

gg arab, was fun to play with you! Sorry I left, have class in 7 hours lol.

 

[Uriah]

I am the worst slark player

 

[SamVimes]

Teams sending Invoker to safelane isn't anything new, just saying. If you're not getting contested quas-wex is super strong and Dendi already played that build many times.

 

[Mohasus]

Testing nVidia Shadowplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4ywTFBCGyI&feature=youtu.be

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Testing nVidia Shadowplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4ywTFBCGyI&feature=youtu.be

Shadowplay working very nicely.

Teams sending Invoker to safelane isn't anything new, just saying. If you're not getting contested quas-wex is super strong and Dendi already played that build many times.

It's not super-strong. Not when you're tasked with dealing the damage based on the draft. At a point in the game, they simply didn't have the damage. And you'd think with a clock, you'd really want sunstrike invoker online. But...tryin new shit. Failin with new shit. It is what it is.

 

[SamVimes]

Shadowplay working very nicely.



It's not super-strong. Not when you're tasked with dealing the damage based on the draft. At a point in the game, they simply didn't have the damage. And you'd think with a clock, you'd really want sunstrike invoker online. But...tryin new shit. Failin with new shit. It is what it is.

That's not the problem. The problem is that they drafted a midgame lineup and lost early and midgame, obviously in lategame they weren't gonna win but they were planning to win before that.

 

[bounchfx]

Testing nVidia Shadowplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4ywTFBCGyI&feature=youtu.be

that's awesome. Great use for Shadowplay too.. I gotta install that now for my amazing dota skills!

Spoiler

I wish

 

[Hazaro]

85% WR in recent games.
Time to start losing.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

That's not the problem. The problem is that they drafted a midgame lineup and lost early and midgame, obviously in lategame they weren't gonna win but they were planning to win before that.

indeed.

85% WR in recent games.
Time to start losing.

if solo queuing: it damn sure is time.

if 5-manning: not necessarily.

 

[Shinypogs]

Can someone please explain how to play warlock or point me to a good guide/ vods of him being played. I've only tried him the once and it wasn't bad but other than being reminded that it's fatal bonds into golem I didn't really get a good feel for what I'm supposed to be doing with him.

Btw does a PA crit carry through fatal bonds ? We had one on the team but I couldn't tell if her crits were effecting everyone in the bonds.

 

[Stronghammer22]

That was exactly what I was thinking at the time. The thing is, I've read posts in here (by much better players than me) who said sometimes you have to decide that teammates aren't worth helping if they can't help themselves. That's kinda how I felt, because Void/DK is such a shit lane that I didn't think I would be able to contribute much against the opposing Silencer/Nyx/Viper gank squad who kept taking them out. I was worried that I would rotate to help them out just to get killed myself. As Bees said, I bought no CC to the table as Zeus, so I wasn't very confident about our chances..

I would say they're referring more to seeing an engagement in progress and backing away, as opposed to going in and dying too. That doesn't mean you never help your teammates, just in that particular instance it's not worth trying to save them when you're only going to lose your own life along with them. Next time they're up, go together. Leaving them for 20 minutes when the other teams mid was constantly ganking was a mistake. Particularly the first time Viper went top (the first time he went bottom he was invis and killed Slarder too quick to react), he and Void were playing ring around the rosie with the tower. If you had TP'd, you could have turned it around on Viper.

DK's stun has a decent range, so there was potential for kills top. Especially if you got the jump on Silencer, since he is paper thin and Zeus hits like a truck early game (his W, anyway).

But not to be too defensive — I definitely could have done more. What I probably should have done when Viper ganked top, is rotate bot and gank Warlock/Tide. Slardar and LD have decent CC together (granted Entangle procs) so we probably could have killed at least one of them..

Yes, and if I wouldn't have ganked bot (like I probably should have), I definitely should have at least pushed the mid lane and taken a tower. I fucked up there. I was just scared of pushing too far and letting Viper sneak back to mid and killing me. But that's no excuse, because I should have bought wards to have vision of the river. My rune control was godawful, no excuses there.

It's good that you can see your mistakes and know what you should have done differently. That's how you improve. The wards would not only have given you the peace of mind to push mid tower, but also advance warning to your team of which way Viper was heading.

So what I should take away from that match is: Buy wards, control runes, manage mana, and push hard when the enemy is absent. These are things I basically already knew, but for some reason didn't put into practice that match. Well I guess it's one thing to know and another to execute. My execution was poor. Having said that, I still refuse to take the majority of the blame for that loss. I will take my share of it though. I also regret letting some random pub players get under my skin. Usually when I solo queue like that I'm laid back and just ignore shit talkers, but for whatever reason it bugged the hell out of me last night.

You definitely weren't completely responsible for the loss, you guys lost as a team in game and in the draft. I can however see how your teammates would be upset with you, as you left them to fend for themselves until both teams went 5 man (22 minutes or so in). You played well once the game advanced to 5 man, so good job there.

Yeah, they're random people you probably won't ever play with again. I'd say in most cases ignore them. It depends how they phrase what they say. If it's "you're shit" or more likely "your shit" lol, without anything explaining why, then ignore them. If they give you advice (coupled with shit talk), try and understand why they are saying what they are saying. Are they only looking for someone to blame, or is there a legitimate point they are making?

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Can someone please explain how to play warlock or point me to a good guide/ vods of him being played. I've only tried him the once and it wasn't bad but other than being reminded that it's fatal bonds into golem I didn't really get a good feel for what I'm supposed to be doing with him.

369118905
370478448

Download and watch those replays. It should give you a good feel for support Warlock. Alternately, you can put him mid but it's really not very common anymore. If you put him mid, the plan is typically to harass with bonds to make space for yourself to farm. Hit level 6 and go kill someone and push a tower with the ult. With support Warlock, you level Q and W based on what will help make more space for the carry. That will vary from game to game.

Also, it's not necessarily a rule...but I find a good rule of thumb: if you're going to duo a lane...if your carry doesn't have a stun or escape, don't pick Warlock. If the carry is a CK/Sven/PA or something like that, he's fine. You don't want to put together people with no escapes and no disables if you can avoid it.

Btw does a PA crit carry through fatal bonds ?

yea.

 

[LiQuid!]

The VS in this game called me "pro as fuck." Let us ignore the few minutes early on where I accidentally owned 2 pairs of brown boots.

http://dotabuff.com/matches/373125031

ed: BTW, tranquil boots don't break when doomed. <333333333333333333

 

[Shinypogs]

369118905
370478448

Download and watch those replays. It should give you a good feel for support Warlock. Alternately, you can put him mid but it's really not very common anymore. If you put him mid, the plan is typically to harass with bonds to make space for yourself to farm. Hit level 6 and go kill someone and push a tower with the ult. With support Warlock, you level Q and E based on what will help make more space for the carry. That will vary from game to game.

Also, it's not necessarily a rule...but I find a good rule of thumb: if you're going to duo a lane...if your carry doesn't have a stun or escape, don't pick Warlock. If the carry is a CK/Sven/PA or something like that, he's fine. You don't want to put together people with no escapes and no disables if you can avoid it.


yea.

Thanks, I'll watch those in the morning and keep your advice in mind.

 

[CarbonatedFalcon]

Btw I asked about a week ago and didn't get an answer:

Tips for playing Undying?

I just don't get him - he doesn't gel very well with me. No disable so he can't really solo kill ever. Laning he's pretty good at zoning, but that's mostly just annoying. Maybe worse against a melee (STR particularly) carry. Team fights he's kind of mediocre too unless it's in a choke. One of the better situations is sieging an outer tower putting up a tombstone underneath it to dissuade people from engaging, but that doesn't really work on T3s.

And of course he's stronger in a tri vs tri situation, but that's been rare for awhile and only going to be seen less going forward with the current state of the game. Sort of like a shittier Visage in that respect. Feels like one if the weakest heroes in the pool right now. Hard to take advantage of him early in the current meta-game and he has one of the worst late game falloffs (bottom 10 for sure).

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Thanks, I'll watch those in the morning and keep your advice in mind.

there was a correction there: you level Q and W, not Q and E. One point in E wherever you put him and max out the other 2 abilities based on what you want to do and what you need.

Btw I asked about a week ago and didn't get an answer:

Tips for playing Undying?

I just don't get him - he doesn't gel very well with me. No disable so he can't really solo kill ever. Laning he's pretty good at zoning, but that's mostly just annoying. Maybe worse against a melee (STR particularly) carry. Team fights he's kind of mediocre too unless it's in a choke. One of the better situations is sieging an outer tower putting up a tombstone underneath it to dissuade people from engaging, but that doesn't really work on T3s.

And of course he's stronger in a tri vs tri situation, but that's been rare for awhile and only going to be seen less going forward with the current state of the game. Sort of like a shittier Visage in that respect. Feels like one if the weakest heroes in the pool right now. Hard to take advantage of him early in the current meta-game and he has one of the worst late game falloffs (bottom 10 for sure).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOLxpE2ubM0

Chip them down with Q, drop tombstone when you want to engage (or escape). Q does more damage than they realize, and his right-clicks do more damage than they realize.

It really depends on the matchup, though. Pair him with a disabler for maximum effectiveness (Sven, Lion, CM, Tusk, etc.).

 

[Hylian7]

Just had a ballin Meepo match with arab

http://dotabuff.com/matches/373037767

Such a fun hero

gg arab, was fun to play with you! Sorry I left, have class in 7 hours lol.

He is such a fun hero!

I had two matches with him today, lost both, but I still did well.

http://dotabuff.com/matches/373014275
http://dotabuff.com/matches/372960433

The second one, the Vengeful Spirit on my team was a random and said right off the bat "I am sad that I have to be paired with a Meepo on my team." I tried to tell him I was legit, he didn't believe me. At the end of the game he said "Your Meepo is legit, I take back everything I said about that."

On another note, I had my first 6.79 Broodmother game on stream earlier. I'm sure some of you saw it. I did okay, had a really good laning phase, although as the game went on I kept forgetting to go into the trees or up and down cliffs to escape from something. So many times I could have survived by doing that and was stuck playing Broodmother the old way.

Something that I found really annoying though, I kept getting stuck in random places. There were a couple of times I got stuck in some trees for what seemed like, no reason whatsoever. Then I made a web that the edge was touching a cliff. I went up the cliff, then I couldn't go back down the same cliff, which was strange. Someone on the stream said it was probably because the web was touching the edge of the bottom of the cliff and not touching the walkable terrain on the top of the cliff, which made sense. It would sort of be like how people can end up on that lip on the ward cliff in Radiant jungle.

Edit: Back to a Meepo-related topic, I tried Milkman's build of 1-0-2 (that's one Earthbind, zero Poof, two Geostrike before level four). It worked fine, although I would honestly have to calculate which does better (factoring in OoV of course). I think j1-0-2 and 1-1-1 are both doable. With 1-1-1 you get a maxed out Poof faster, but of course if you get more kills with 1-0-2 you'll get your maxed out Poof quickly anyway.

 

[G.ZZZ]

Btw I asked about a week ago and didn't get an answer:

Tips for playing Undying?

I just don't get him - he doesn't gel very well with me. No disable so he can't really solo kill ever. Laning he's pretty good at zoning, but that's mostly just annoying. Maybe worse against a melee (STR particularly) carry. Team fights he's kind of mediocre too unless it's in a choke. One of the better situations is sieging an outer tower putting up a tombstone underneath it to dissuade people from engaging, but that doesn't really work on T3s.

And of course he's stronger in a tri vs tri situation, but that's been rare for awhile and only going to be seen less going forward with the current state of the game. Sort of like a shittier Visage in that respect. Feels like one if the weakest heroes in the pool right now. Hard to take advantage of him early in the current meta-game and he has one of the worst late game falloffs (bottom 10 for sure).

In pubs against duo lanes he's amazingly strong. If you get a couple of decays, you can go trade with right clicks and they can't do anything since they have 300 hp. Go stout first item, arcane as boots (i like Tranquils too). build is classic 1-1-3-1
Then buy tanky shit, and hope your team like to push and force teamfights early, since he's good for those mostly.

 

[Daedalux]

Meepo is my favorite hero, I get so angry when I insta-pick Meepo and someone picks another farm dependant hero... :<

Last game as Meepo was fun:

http://dotabuff.com/matches/370415231

 

[Nymerio]

there was a correction there: you level Q and W, not Q and E. One point in E wherever you put him and max out the other 2 abilities based on what you want to do and what you need.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOLxpE2ubM0

Chip them down with Q, drop tombstone when you want to engage (or escape). Q does more damage than they realize, and his right-clicks do more damage than they realize.

It really depends on the matchup, though. Pair him with a disabler for maximum effectiveness (Sven, Lion, CM, Tusk, etc.).

Undying is ridiculous when you land his Q on multiple heroes. I never really realized it before but I had a game a couple weeks ago where I managed to get two or so off on both heroes and I was suddenly running around with almost 1k life and hitting like a truck. Felt like a very manly zombie suddenly.

 

[Gav47]

Navi are getting better with their set designs.

 

[Razzer]

Navi are getting better with their set designs.

It's a Hippogrith!

 

[Heavy's Sandvich]

Just tuning in as I'm doing my homework.

Terrorist count - 0

 

[Spookie]

Navi are getting better with their set designs.

Colours are a bit bland. At least the model isn't awful this time.

 

[Heavy's Sandvich]

I like the Chen set, looks well designed and in keeping with Chen. Understated which is usually lacking.

 

[Ikuu]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Dota2Trade/comments/1q0kxp/auction_ef_pink_war_dog_191_78_123_with_bo/

 

[Heavy's Sandvich]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Dota2Trade/comments/1q0kxp/auction_ef_pink_war_dog_191_78_123_with_bo/

$30k paid? Incredible scones.

 

[Spookie]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Dota2Trade/comments/1q0kxp/auction_ef_pink_war_dog_191_78_123_with_bo/

... For a digital item. What the fuck.

 

[Razzer]

I just saw a post on reddit that said Anuxi was also making a set for sing to be revealed later. This was by Dany who plays with him a lot btw so it is legit. So, is it Mirana?

 

[fiore]

I just saw a post on reddit that said Anuxi was also making a set for sing to be revealed later. This was by Dany who plays with him a lot btw so it is legit. So, is it Mirana?

Either kunkka or sand king

 

[Baha]

I just saw a post on reddit that said Anuxi was also making a set for sing to be revealed later. This was by Dany who plays with him a lot btw so it is legit. So, is it Mirana?

Another sing set? He's already getting a Kunkka set from Brontothunder and Danidem based on his beaverly knight:

 

[Razzer]

Well the exact wording was
'No, he didn't. It's not just the ******* set, there's something that Anuxi's making that'll come at a later date (hopefully some time this month, though!).'

Take that as what you will. Could even be a courier or something. I just know Anuxi loves Mirana and he is famous for it.

 

[Kard8p3]

He is such a fun hero!

I had two matches with him today, lost both, but I still did well.

http://dotabuff.com/matches/373014275
http://dotabuff.com/matches/372960433

The second one, the Vengeful Spirit on my team was a random and said right off the bat "I am sad that I have to be paired with a Meepo on my team." I tried to tell him I was legit, he didn't believe me. At the end of the game he said "Your Meepo is legit, I take back everything I said about that."

On another note, I had my first 6.79 Broodmother game on stream earlier. I'm sure some of you saw it. I did okay, had a really good laning phase, although as the game went on I kept forgetting to go into the trees or up and down cliffs to escape from something. So many times I could have survived by doing that and was stuck playing Broodmother the old way.

Something that I found really annoying though, I kept getting stuck in random places. There were a couple of times I got stuck in some trees for what seemed like, no reason whatsoever. Then I made a web that the edge was touching a cliff. I went up the cliff, then I couldn't go back down the same cliff, which was strange. Someone on the stream said it was probably because the web was touching the edge of the bottom of the cliff and not touching the walkable terrain on the top of the cliff, which made sense. It would sort of be like how people can end up on that lip on the ward cliff in Radiant jungle.

Edit: Back to a Meepo-related topic, I tried Milkman's build of 1-0-2 (that's one Earthbind, zero Poof, two Geostrike before level four). It worked fine, although I would honestly have to calculate which does better (factoring in OoV of course). I think j1-0-2 and 1-1-1 are both doable. With 1-1-1 you get a maxed out Poof faster, but of course if you get more kills with 1-0-2 you'll get your maxed out Poof quickly anyway.

I'll definitely go watch those replays when I get a chance.

I was there for your broodmother stream, my twitch name is the same as my steam (Afterman), I was the guy who mentioned it probably was touching the bottom. All in all though you did really well, had you remembered you could've ran away into the trees you would've ended up being someone people didn't want to fuck with.

 

[Sibylus]

Spidermama ridiculously strong again, but I don't know if she's wildly ahead of her counters or not (Batrider, Beastmaster, Sand King, Tinker, more situational fare like Spirit Breaker and Io).

 

[balladofwindfishes]

I wonder why nobody has made a kappa courier yet. It seems like it would work really well as a courier and could jump on the Twitch nonsense for easy money.

 

[KingKong]

this is...true.

but at that point you can call it a "pocket strat". something they've found works and that they're saving for a surprise. Whether it works out is another matter. I have a hard time believing that putting XBOCT on QoP or Dendi on Invoker safelane carry and having him build support Invoker spec (QuasWex) was anything more than spur-of-the-moment creativity. Trying new shit to see what works and what doesn't to be filed away later as potential pocket strats in tournaments they care about. I could be completely wrong. But they did some shit today where...if you had told me they were betting against themselves in Vegas for a big payday, I would have believed you.

iirc the Xboct QOP thing was because Alliance picked Viper after so NaVi had to pick Razor and not have Dendi on QOP

 

[G.ZZZ]

The start of something amazing... first player set live on the store! Made by Fewes!

Kuroky's Rubick

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=191947080

Those sandals, also rubick apparently is a black dude.

 

[RubxQub]

Someone talk to me about Invoker...as a support. With him having access to two spells right off, I feel like there's more value to him in the early game now vs. just being a mid by default.

I understand that he needs levels to make his abilities more useful/impactful, but with the changes to XP gain and the increase to gold...couldn't a support Invoker be viable?

...I don't play Invoker, and I'm pretty sure the answer is going to come back "Invoker needs levels, period"...but I have to ask.

 

[fiore]

Best Lina set ever? http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=188486688

 

[1.09]

Someone talk to me about Invoker...as a support. With him having access to two spells right off, I feel like there's more value to him in the early game now vs. just being a mid by default.

I understand that he needs levels to make his abilities more useful/impactful, but with the changes to XP gain and the increase to gold...couldn't a support Invoker be viable?

...I don't play Invoker, and I'm pretty sure the answer is going to come back "Invoker needs levels, period"...but I have to ask.

I think awfulwaffle did support invoker in one of the cm games. I drafted dazzle+invoker+dusa lane, and the cold snap+poison touch does alot of work. Also tswift lion slayed milkman mid 8)

*results may vary from ih games to actual matchmaking

 

[G.ZZZ]

Someone talk to me about Invoker...as a support. With him having access to two spells right off, I feel like there's more value to him in the early game now vs. just being a mid by default.

I understand that he needs levels to make his abilities more useful/impactful, but with the changes to XP gain and the increase to gold...couldn't a support Invoker be viable?

...I don't play Invoker, and I'm pretty sure the answer is going to come back "Invoker needs levels, period"...but I have to ask.

I think you should ask yourself why you'd rather run invoker support instead of other heroes. His spells without levels are all pretty ass. In pubs sure, i've played my fair share of suppvokers since i random every game. Cold snap is your best spell period, Forge Spirits can help even at low levels, and frost wall too. EQ all the way.

 

[LiQuid!]

Why is her hat on the side of her head?

 

[F!ReW!Re]

Someone talk to me about Invoker...as a support. With him having access to two spells right off, I feel like there's more value to him in the early game now vs. just being a mid by default.

I understand that he needs levels to make his abilities more useful/impactful, but with the changes to XP gain and the increase to gold...couldn't a support Invoker be viable?

...I don't play Invoker, and I'm pretty sure the answer is going to come back "Invoker needs levels, period"...but I have to ask.

Well the thing is, he has no abilities until level 2 (which if you take invoke at level 2, still only gives you 1 ability: either cold snap, sunstrike or EMP)

And he does indeed need the levels/gold advantage over other players to be viable in the mid/late game IMO and as a pure support (buying wards/courier) it's gonna be a hell of a long time before he gets his much needed items up like Forcestaff/Eul's/Agh's.

I dunno about him being a hard support tbh...

 

[rugioh]

Hi all, I'm pretty new to dota but I have a question. I have less than 100 matches played, but I feel like I'm being paired against players with much more exp than me at times. When I check some of my teammates dotabuff accounts they have hundreds more games than me, and although I don't get trolled often I do get the occasional brazilian guy that complains and pings me because I don't initiate on 2v4 teamfights with him. Is the only way to play with other noobs like myself to play limited hero mode?

http://dotabuff.com/players/4228030

 

[RubxQub]

I think you should ask yourself why you'd rather run invoker support instead of other heroes. His spells without levels are all pretty ass. In pubs sure, i've played my fair share of suppvokers since i random every game. Cold snap is your best spell period, Forge Spirits can help even at low levels, and frost wall too. EQ all the way.

To me, the amount of utility you get out of Invoker makes him a hero worth considering as a support:

- Cold Snap/Deafening Blast for stuns
- Tornado for disruption/initiation
- EMP for mana drain (and gain)
- Ice Wall for chasing or escaping
- Ghost Walk for escaping

...he's got a sweet kit that I'd love to use as a support, and the ability to toggle orbs to help regen or movespeed only improves things. Add to the fact that Eul's and Force Staff are almost core on him and you get yet another set of items to bring utility to the team.

 

[Calidor]

Someone talk to me about Invoker...as a support. With him having access to two spells right off, I feel like there's more value to him in the early game now vs. just being a mid by default.

I understand that he needs levels to make his abilities more useful/impactful, but with the changes to XP gain and the increase to gold...couldn't a support Invoker be viable?

...I don't play Invoker, and I'm pretty sure the answer is going to come back "Invoker needs levels, period"...but I have to ask.

why not, a Quas Wex build with Nado-EMP that now gives your mana back and the huge range Cold Snap can harass pretty well

I may try it some today

 

[G.ZZZ]

To me, the amount of utility you get out of Invoker makes him a hero worth considering as a support:

- Cold Snap/Deafening Blast for stuns
- Tornado for disruption/initiation
- EMP for mana drain (and gain)
- Ice Wall for chasing or escaping
- Ghost Walk for escaping

...he's got a sweet kit that I'd love to use as a support, and the ability to toggle orbs to help regen or movespeed only improves things. Add to the fact that Eul's and Force Staff are almost core on him and you get yet another set of items to bring utility to the team.

Deafening blast do nothing without levels. Tornado ditto, it's good but you have shit range. EMP absolutely need you to have a level advantage because if you're draning 200 mana to level 16 heroes it's pretty bad, and icewall slow is decent but not great if you're not pumping those EQ levels. Ghost Walk, Cold Snap and Forge spirits work some, but still... You also don't do anything at level 1 except having 3 hp regen if you go quas, so you can't control the lane at all until you get to level 2.

 

[F!ReW!Re]

To me, the amount of utility you get out of Invoker makes him a hero worth considering as a support:

- Cold Snap/Deafening Blast for stuns
- Tornado for disruption/initiation
- EMP for mana drain (and gain)
- Ice Wall for chasing or escaping
- Ghost Walk for escaping

...he's got a sweet kit that I'd love to use as a support, and the ability to toggle orbs to help regen or movespeed only improves things. Add to the fact that Eul's and Force Staff are almost core on him and you get yet another set of items to bring utility to the team.

It all sounds good, but most of these spells SUCK major league ass at low levels.
Tornado's range is beyond crap with only 1 or 2 levels of wex.
Deafening blasts requires: quas wex and exort and I don't think people will get all 3 of them that early anyway (true some go for 1-1-1-1 first but still).

 

[Zeth]

Shagbark, my most valuable item -_-

I'm tempted to get a few of my most desired items within my budget lately. Any advice on the best way to go about this? Is there some kind of market-watcher for sniping deals or anything? It doesn't seem like trading keys for these nets much savings.

Nyx Dagon
Timebreaker/Battlefury
Forgewing
Pudge pants

 

[RubxQub]

Deafening blast do nothing without levels. Tornado ditto, it's good but you have shit range. EMP absolutely need you to have a level advantage because if you're draning 200 mana to level 16 heroes it's pretty bad, and icewall slow is decent but not great if you're not pumping those EQ levels. Ghost Walk, Cold Snap and Forge spirits work some, but still... You also don't do anything at level 1 except having 3 hp regen if you go quas, so you can't control the lane at all until you get to level 2.

That's what I need to play around with, I think. I don't fully appreciate how bad his abilities are at lower levels. I've seen the weaker versions of course, but I think playing with them is another thing to help me appreciate what's up.

...but even someone like Sand King needs levels for his Sandstrike to be super-useful since it's range is dogshit without level 3 at least.