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[Dreams-Visions]

ignore em, its fine to KS as zeus 99% of the time.

It really isn't. As one who's played almost 200 matches with Zeus, I'm confident in saying that Zeus will get plenty. If he can hold back and help his carry/jungler/soloer get a kill, he should. If it looks like someone is going to escape, drop the hammer. If someone has already gotten away and your ult just came off of CD, drop the hammer. If there is risk involved (like them turning a fight around), drop the hammer.

Otherwise, spread the love around. Zeus never goes hungry regardless.

Could it be that the whole kill stealing thing is more of a problem in the absolute beginner's bracket? I seem to remember that people complained constantly about people stealing their kills when I started playing but at some point the complaining went almost completely away and was replaced with "a kill is a kill".

No, it's present at every level. Many don't care. As long as they're dead, it means your team is getting fed and theirs is not. That's the goal. Some people only see the game through the context of how quickly they can get their own items, though. Those are the people that bitch.

Now with that said. If you're playing something like a carry and you're behind in items/levels and in desperate need of a kill...and you put yourself in position to get a kill and some very necessary gold...and someone Zeus ult's/power shot snipes your kill when it wasn't remotely necessary...

...that fucking sucks no matter how it's spun. Teammates have to be aware of the situation in the game. Your carry can't carrry if (s)he has no farm and on top of that people are sniping kills (s)he needs to tread water and carry the game later. The very same people sniping the kills that would have brought in the gold you needed to buy bigger items faster will be the FIRST people bitching about how you've failed to get items in a timely fashion.

 

[Hazaro]

i tried dota again. i picked zeus and people got mad when i ulted. this friendly player added me after the game to clue me in on the error of my ways.

am i missing a way to disable click to move on the mini-map? the ui is just massive and i find myself inadvertently clicking on that section. it is really kind of problematic.

Sorry to hear that. I've had one major idiot and a bad apple in 260 games. Depends on how much of a kill secure it was tbh. I wouldn't worry that much about it until you know for sure you stole it.

So how do you guys play Ember Spirit? Played him for the first time yesterday, and I really liked him. Is he viable as mid or offlane?

He's pretty simple to play, and the chains + shield combo can do a lot of damage early on and scroe some easy kills

What are some good items for him?

Practice SoF into Chains vs in -wtf mode. Apart from that he's (imo) a terrible mid. Bad LH damage and poor harass. Yeah your burst at 5,6, and 7 is ok, but eh.

You can do shield/Chains max or SoF max. It depends on your lane. You kinda go (bad) (great) (meh) (lol BF and Crit) during the game.
I've seen a lot more arguments for SoF max over shield, but it's situational vs who you lane against and how well your team is doing. If you start picking up a lot of kills early and turn those into tower you can go straight BF and SoF harass/zone and farm up pretty quickly.

Usually I'll go Phase -> Drums -> Maelstrom / Deso with a Shield/Chains first build. Transition into BF later since you can already farm fast and safely with shield and remnants in mid game.

Alternatively max SoF and rush 2BF and crit. I think it's silly, but sometimes it just doesn't matter.

 

[ViviOggi]

So how do you guys play Ember Spirit? Played him for the first time yesterday, and I really liked him. Is he viable as mid or offlane?

He's pretty simple to play, and the chains + shield combo can do a lot of damage early on and scroe some easy kills

What are some good items for him?

He's not viable in any position honestly.

Could it be that the whole kill stealing thing is more of a problem in the absolute beginner's bracket? I seem to remember that people complained constantly about people stealing their kills when I started playing but at some point the complaining went almost completely away and was replaced with "a kill is a kill".

That's my experience as well.

 

[Nirvana]

Because they're either newbies who don't realize how getting kills from outside normal exp range is more net gold and exp for the team or they just want to pad their KDA.

I dunno, if you're having a bad game and someone clearly waits for the last hit it can be frustrating, especially if they're a 4 or 5 and you're a 1,2 or 3.

Have a friend who does it constantly and never owns up to it. Pretty frustrating.

 

[Boken]

i tried dota again. i picked zeus and people got mad when i ulted. this friendly player added me after the game to clue me in on the error of my ways.

am i missing a way to disable click to move on the mini-map? the ui is just massive and i find myself inadvertently clicking on that section. it is really kind of problematic.

Disabling click makes the minimap super retarded so I think you need to get used to it

Alternatively, after the patch you can move the minimap to the right hand side (superior side on a technical level) like in lol. This should lower misclicks

Ps
You fucking k
S

 

[ViviOggi]

No, it's present at every level. Many don't care. As long as they're dead, it means your team is getting fed and theirs is not. That's the goal. Some people only see the game through the context of how quickly they can get their own items, though. Those are the people that bitch.

Now with that said. If you're playing something like a carry and you're behind in items/levels and in desperate need of a kill...and you put yourself in position to get a kill and some very necessary gold...and someone Zeus ult's/power shot snipes your kill when it wasn't remotely necessary...

...that fucking sucks no matter how it's spun. Teammates have to be aware of the situation in the game. Your carry can't carrry if (s)he has no farm and on top of that people are sniping kills (s)he needs to tread water and carry the game later. The very same people sniping the kills that would have brought in the gold you needed to buy bigger items faster will be the FIRST people bitching about how you've failed to get items in a timely fashion.

True, like so many thing in Dotes it's always situational. With your MMR getting higher you're more likely to be matched with mates who understand kill priorities, and when someone snatches an actual ks as 4/5 position most people don't get mad immediately (could've been an honest miscalculation). And then there's the notorious 'real' kser who you'll always meet from time to time.

But in the end it's nothing compared to Bnet/Garena/etc. Dota, ksing and ks complaining was absolutely RAMPANT back then.

 

[NBtoaster]

I hope they add more heros to the wraith-night pool because it will get old quick with the current one.

 

[Seance]

Wait, Wraith King is just a reskinned skele king? Damnit...

 

[Vaporak]

I hope they add more heros to the wraith-night pool because it will get old quick with the current one.

It's not like you are going to have a lot of time to get sick of it.

 

[ElyrionX]

I hope they add more heros to the wraith-night pool because it will get old quick with the current one.

Wait. Not all are available? Is there a list somewhere?

 

[NBtoaster]

It's not like you are going to have a lot of time to get sick of it.

You can probably see all there is to see in one weekend. Unless you want to farm it.

Wait. Not all are available? Is there a list somewhere?

There are only 15.

 

[ViviOggi]

You now get an abandon if one of your party members abandons. A party abandon on its own cannot put you into low priority.

Has this been discussed yet? I guess it's to combat parties taking turns abandoning, which I'm fully behind, on the other hand it'll be really annoying to have abandons show up on your profile due to technical difficulties someone in your party might have.

There are only 15.

Uuugh

 

[Zeknurn]

Also, there seems to be a "PLAY NOW" Button, not sure what thats going to be about.

It's probably for people that are new to the game. They said they were going to ease people into all the game modes and whatnot.

 

[Saprol]

Has this been discussed yet? I guess it's to combat parties taking turns abandoning, which I'm fully behind, on the other hand it'll be really annoying to have abandons show up on your profile due to technical difficulties someone in your party might have.

Profiles will be changed to show personal and party abandons separately.

 

[Hazaro]

Wait. Not all are available? Is there a list somewhere?

A lot of abilities are reworked (Drow has multi shot) Veno gets double wards, Omni gets 615 radius degen aura, Battle Hunger grants DAMAGE lifesteal to allies, etc.

There are 15-20 heroes. I'm starting to think you need Omni.

 

[Vaporak]

You can probably see all there is to see in one weekend.

And you have even less time than that to play it, unless Wraith-Night being the 12th means something other than what it says.

 

[ViviOggi]

Profiles will be changed to show personal and party abandons separately.

Oh I see, should be worth the trade-off then.

 

[ViviOggi]

Just noticed the 6.79c changes, pretty much what I expected for Kaolin bar the knockback range. Seems reasonable, can't wait to see him in CM.

Magnetic Grip cast range reduced from 1400 to 1100
Boulder Smash silence duration reduced from 5 to 3.5/4/4.5/5
Boulder Smash unit knockback range rescaled from 800 to 500/600/700/800
Fixed Stone Remnant counting as a spell (for purposes of Curse of the Silent, Magic Stick, etc)

Edit: Oops, thread suddenly became slow.

 

[Sigismundo]

If it looks like someone is going to escape, drop the hammer. If someone has already gotten away and your ult just came off of CD, drop the hammer. If there is risk involved (like them turning a fight around), drop the hammer.

But Zeus isn't OD.

 

[NBtoaster]

And you have even less time than that to play it, unless Wraith-Night being the 12th means something other than what it says.

I'm assuming it isn't a 1 day event.

 

[Archie]

KS = kill secured

duh

 

[Hazaro]

I'm assuming it isn't a 1 day event.

If the pay crystals are $0.99 it'll be like TF2's Mann vs Machine (tickets) holdout mode which makes sense.

 

[dmshaposv]

I like the Wraith king design a whole lot more than the SK. SK always felt like a lazy design - generic skeleton with a crown/cape. Where as other skeletal heroes like pugna and clinkz have much cooler designs.

Anyone else feel a Le Chuck (from Monkey Island) vibe from it? A Fire beard cosmetic would be cool *hinthint*bounchfx/anuxi*hint*

 

[Nymerio]

It really isn't. As one who's played almost 200 matches with Zeus, I'm confident in saying that Zeus will get plenty. If he can hold back and help his carry/jungler/soloer get a kill, he should. If it looks like someone is going to escape, drop the hammer. If someone has already gotten away and your ult just came off of CD, drop the hammer. If there is risk involved (like them turning a fight around), drop the hammer.

Otherwise, spread the love around. Zeus never goes hungry regardless.



No, it's present at every level. Many don't care. As long as they're dead, it means your team is getting fed and theirs is not. That's the goal. Some people only see the game through the context of how quickly they can get their own items, though. Those are the people that bitch.

Now with that said. If you're playing something like a carry and you're behind in items/levels and in desperate need of a kill...and you put yourself in position to get a kill and some very necessary gold...and someone Zeus ult's/power shot snipes your kill when it wasn't remotely necessary...

...that fucking sucks no matter how it's spun. Teammates have to be aware of the situation in the game. Your carry can't carrry if (s)he has no farm and on top of that people are sniping kills (s)he needs to tread water and carry the game later. The very same people sniping the kills that would have brought in the gold you needed to buy bigger items faster will be the FIRST people bitching about how you've failed to get items in a timely fashion.

Sure it's present at any level but it seems like it's far worse with beginners as they tend to only look at k/d. But there seems to be point where people start to realize that kills aren't all there is and that's when a lot of them stop raging when others secure a kill. That said, there are always idiots who'll rage at anything and there is kill securing and kill stealing. It just takes a couple of games for players to figure out which is which.

 

[FlutterPuffs]

Could it be that the whole kill stealing thing is more of a problem in the absolute beginner's bracket? I seem to remember that people complained constantly about people stealing their kills when I started playing but at some point the complaining went almost completely away and was replaced with "a kill is a kill".

A lot of people complaining about Dota are in the beginner's bracket. Not saying all of the complaints are wrong however, but some people are just fucking nasty down the ladder.

 

[Pkaz01]

So this new ranked MMR comes out tomorrow with this new mode? or are they just saying its coming in the future?

Its probably not going to work well like every other ranked MMR but at least we can see it now and the 10 things you have to do to get a score intrigue me. I used to roll my eyes when it would just ask you what level you think you are.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

Man, Kaolin sure got nerfed quickly. Surely one of the quickest nerfs in recent Dota history eh? Elder Titan was freely available for months in AP in his hilarously broken incarnation. I wish I had known about 0-4-4-0 earlier.

 

[Phandy]

So any thoughts and why icefraud nerfed Earth Spirit so hard even though he has the 3rd lowest winrate in the game (~40%)?
Winrate is much higher in top tier games? Can you filter winrate anywhere by just very-high matches still?

 

[Calidor]

So any thoughts and why icefraud nerfed Earth Spirit so hard even though he has the 3rd lowest winrate in the game (~40%)?
Winrate is much higher in top tier games? Can you filter winrate anywhere by just very-high matches still?

nerfs and buffs are mainly based on Icefrog's own will and pro players feedback.

The winrate you mention is not really very relevant. Wisp had a similar WR yet it was first pick / ban in the pro scene, before getting nerfed

 

[Phandy]

nerfs and buffs are mainly based on Icefrog's own will and pro players feedback.

The winrate you mention is not really very relevant. Wisp had a similar WR yet it was first pick / ban in the pro scene, before getting nerfed

ES hadn't even gone into CM? Are very high tier players really getting wrecked that much by him?
I'm on the edge of high/veryhigh and he was never getting insta-picked every game and he certainly wasn't destroying every game I saw him in.

I'm just surprised he jumped onto him so hard/fast.

 

[SamVimes]

ES hadn't even gone into CM? Are very high tier players really getting wrecked that much by him?
I'm on the edge of high/veryhigh and he was never getting insta-picked every game and he certainly wasn't destroying every game I saw him in.

I'm just surprised he jumped onto him so hard/fast.

Basically every pro player was saying he's overpowered.

 

[GorillaJu]

Man, Kaolin sure got nerfed quickly. Surely one of the quickest nerfs in recent Dota history eh? Elder Titan was freely available for months in AP in his hilarously broken incarnation. I wish I had known about 0-4-4-0 earlier.

Kaolin is broken on a whole different level. He's extremely tanky, can get in and out with like a 4 second CD on that huge range boulder which can initiate or escape, he can pull teammates out of fights, a huge range 5 second AE silence at level one, and prevents escaping heroes from urning/salving/blinking with his ult DOT. He's god-like in any lane set up and from level 3 will never lose a skirmish with his skills.

ET is just too strong. Kao is broken as fuck.

 

[G.ZZZ]

ES hadn't even gone into CM? Are very high tier players really getting wrecked that much by him?
I'm on the edge of high/veryhigh and he was never getting insta-picked every game and he certainly wasn't destroying every game I saw him in.

I'm just surprised he jumped onto him so hard/fast.

From my 30th in the world DSR i can tell you that hero was hilariously broken in top-MM. I think he's still very good, probably too much, but at least now i won't fucking get stunlocked-kicked into towers at lvl3.

 

[Empty Space]

Where are people finding all these images of the cosmetics for tomorrow? Obviously they're already in the game files, but I'm assuming you guys aren't personally scrubbing through all them to find them.

 

[Sigismundo]

DotaGAF, what's some 'gimmicky but viable' builds for anyone on the roster? A buddy of mine wants to know and I can only come up with Dagon 5 on anybody.

 

[Dynamic3]

Whoa just saw the no force staffing for dueling opponents change, how does that work!?

 

[Nirvana]

DotaGAF, what's some 'gimmicky but viable' builds for anyone on the roster? A buddy of mine wants to know and I can only come up with Dagon 5 on anybody.

Carry ES is always entertaining. Shadowblade > Crit + any raw damage means his enchant totem does massive damage. Gimmicky as fuck but occasionally viable.

 

[inkls]

ignore em, its fine to KS as zeus 99% of the time.

there's a console command to change the misclick timing for the minimap, you can try adjust it. some info here http://dota2.gamepedia.com/Minimap

I'd argue that, I remember playing a game where I was pretty sure our zeus kept his camera on me because the only time he had kills with his ult was when I was 1v1'ing a hero and zeus would ult, it wasn't even close fights and the other guy wasn't even trying to run away. The other times he would just spam it as it went off cooldown. I think its more useful to use it when a teammate is losing a fight and/or when an enemy is running away at low hp.

 

[Phandy]

Basically every pro player was saying he's overpowered.

Hmm fair enough.

Maybe my anecdotal experience has been very lucky. I've had very very little problems playing against him.

 

[Cato the Censor]

Hmm fair enough.

Maybe my anecdotal experience has been very lucky. I've had very very little problems playing against him.

The problem wasn't so much that he was overpowered but how good he was starting from lvl one. Most of his combos could lead to kills pretty easily. Too many "same duration / range at all levels" abilties.

 

[Wes]

Meracle Naga is my heroine.

 

[Detox]

Added message indicating that players must complete a low-priority match with players on both sides to decrement their low-priority penalty count

For those confused by this, it isn't new they just added the message. Low priority is now hell, if someone abandons then regardless of whether you complete the game or not your low priority tally does not go down. As you can imagine there are people in low priority because their connection is terrible, if they abandon then you have no choice but to play another low priority game. If luck isn't on your side you can easily spend double your penalty count to get out of low priority.

 

[ReRixo]

How often am I allowed to abandon? I've got 7 abandons out of about 550 games, which is a small % but is due to connection issues (and one afk lol).

Added message indicating that players must complete a low-priority match with players on both sides to decrement their low-priority penalty count

For those confused by this, it isn't new they just added the message. Low priority is now hell, if someone abandons then regardless of whether you complete the game or not your low priority tally does not go down. As you can imagine there are people in low priority because their connection is terrible, if they abandon then you have no choice but to play another low priority game. If luck isn't on your side you can easily spend double your penalty count to get out of low priority.

Wording sounds like it's just a message? That'd be shit if it was like this, whenever I play in low prio someone disconnects.

 

[GorillaJu]

DotaGAF, what's some 'gimmicky but viable' builds for anyone on the roster? A buddy of mine wants to know and I can only come up with Dagon 5 on anybody.

Refresher Agh's on Razor.

 

[inkls]

DotaGAF, what's some 'gimmicky but viable' builds for anyone on the roster? A buddy of mine wants to know and I can only come up with Dagon 5 on anybody.

Refresher on pugna

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVbSzkwx-9M

 

[Imp the Dimp]

DotaGAF, what's some 'gimmicky but viable' builds for anyone on the roster? A buddy of mine wants to know and I can only come up with Dagon 5 on anybody.

Dagon 5 + Necro Ult can instakill if you are significantly ahead. Might need an Ethereal Blade perhaps though.

 

[SteveWinwood]

So any thoughts and why icefraud nerfed Earth Spirit so hard even though he has the 3rd lowest winrate in the game (~40%)?
Winrate is much higher in top tier games? Can you filter winrate anywhere by just very-high matches still?

Winrate don't matter, if he's broke he's broke. You get a free kill in a lane at lvl 3 unless they play super defensively.

Also it's only that low because he's new and you're looking at the whole month on average. If you look at him daily it's at like 46 percent and still rising. Everyone stopped just playing him to see what he was and how he worked and now it's more people who know what to do.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

Winrate don't matter,

It's up to 47.50% already:

http://dotabuff.com/heroes/earth-spirit

Same with Elder Titan. He started off with a very low winrate until scrubs stopped picking him and merely people who were competent with him played him. His win% went up by like 12% and was among the highest in pubs in 6.78.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

Omg Mushroom Nature's Prophet

I waited so long for that set!



Omg, the Abaddon set I waited to get in is a Mann Up reward :/
That's kind of really lame, I hope I can just buy it outright...

 

[dmshaposv]

I wish that I did not have to play support to win matches.

Being a good support is even more important than a good carry. Setting up kills is quite rewarding, and certain supports can really rack up those kills (Lich in particular is my favourite when it comes to this).

Plus you get to show off your badass legendary/mythical courier and your cool collections of custom ward skins. Your Carry wouldn't be buying these, now would they?

Lately I've been having a ball playing relatively item independent supports like Venge, batrider, tidehunter. Just get that blink dagger whenever you can, and otherwise roam a ton and set up kills. Also, warding in the enemy's jungle is fun (especially in lower level pub games) where a low health jungler is an easy kill.