In long games or -em games, a good ursa warrior can solo roshan within the first fifteen to twenty five minutes of the game depedning on how fast one can farm and if one is solo or not.
To solo roshan in this amount of time, you must select certain attributes and combine these attributes with vladimirs offering. This item is necessary because you need the lifesteal to continue fighting roshan. The best skill build for rushing roshan is to level overpower and fury swipes, leaving out Ursa's earthshock.
By level it would look something like follows:
1. Fury swipes
2. Overpower
3. Fury swipes
4. Overpower
5. Fury Swipes
6. Overpower
7. Fury Swipes
By level 7, if you have your vlads then you should be able to solo roshan. If you do not have your vlads, continue to max out both of these moves until you get it, and then get your ultimate.
You can repeat this process later on in the game when Roshan respawns each time and take him with ease. The gold you gain from killing him, exp, and aegis is very valuable in a long game, and gives you a considerable advantage.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Item Tip: Necromonicon
Necromonicon is a very misused and misperceived item in public games in my opinion. I will attempt to show that necromonicon is a very powerful item when put in the hands of a good micro manager and a hero that complements the item.
Heroes with stuns, or mass disable, usually intelligence based heroes, seem to work best with a necromonicon. For one, the intelligence from the staff of wizadry greater benefits an intelligence heroes mana pool and damage, and two, the belt of giant strength required for part of the recipe gives much needed hp to generally low hp intelligence heroes. Heroes that fall into this category would be ones such as Lion, Bane Elemental, and Rhasta because their multiple disables allow much more time for the necromancer spawns to deal damage. They aid in solo kills for these heroes where their normal spells usually do not finish the job.
Also the necromonicon spawns have very helpful attack and move speed auras, along with mana burn, and an AOE damage dealt upon the death of one of the spawns. If you upgrade the book to level three, which I think is the only way to go with this item if you choose to get it, one of the necromonicon spawns also gains truesight which is a VERY helpful counter to heroes such as SA, Weaver, and Bone Fletcher and well worth the money of the upgrades. With each level of recipe upgrades (3 is the max) the necromonicons get stronger dealing more damage and enhancing their auras. At level 3 necro book, an intel hero with mass disable such as the ones I mentioned above deals some serious damage with necro spawns and greatly enhances a team with its auras.
However, the downside to a necromonicon is the micromanagement required. One must simultaneously summon the necro spawns, cast the heroes disable spells, and also target attack and cast the necro spawns spells while managing to string together disable spells to keep the hero in range and unable to attack.
With lion, it would look something similar to what follows. One would first summon the necromonicon spawns. Next he/she would either voodoo or impale, while right click auto attacking with the necro spawns. Then, one would mana burn with the proper necro spawn, while casting the other spell that was not used above (voodoo or impale), continue attacking with the hero and spawns, and then hopefully finish the kill with lion's ultimate "finger of death."
With bane elemental, it would look something similar to what follows. To first isolate the enemy hero so you can get close to him and prepare all your moves, usually one nightmares the enemy hero. Once close enough, summon necro spawns and wait for nightmare to almost run out. Then fiends grip him, and start wailing on him with your necro spawns while gripping. At the same time you need to cast mana burn with the proper spawn and continue attacking. After grip is up, if the hero is still alive, then finish him off with a brain sap or a few attacks and a sap.
With rhasta, you summon your necro spawns and voodoo the enemy hero. Then you wail on him with your spawns, cast mana burn with the one spawn, and continue to attack him until voodoo is almost up. Then you have a number of choices depending on his health. You can either ultimate and net while letting your spawns continue to wail on him. Or if he is pretty low health, you can just net him and let your spawns continue to wail on him, saving your ultimate. This combo can be varied depending upon the situation. In a solo situation, this combo will do fine though.
To conclude, micromanaging is crucial with a necromonicon. If you cannot micro, I do not recommend getting a necromonicon because microing is key to bringing out the full effect of the item.
Heroes with stuns, or mass disable, usually intelligence based heroes, seem to work best with a necromonicon. For one, the intelligence from the staff of wizadry greater benefits an intelligence heroes mana pool and damage, and two, the belt of giant strength required for part of the recipe gives much needed hp to generally low hp intelligence heroes. Heroes that fall into this category would be ones such as Lion, Bane Elemental, and Rhasta because their multiple disables allow much more time for the necromancer spawns to deal damage. They aid in solo kills for these heroes where their normal spells usually do not finish the job.
Also the necromonicon spawns have very helpful attack and move speed auras, along with mana burn, and an AOE damage dealt upon the death of one of the spawns. If you upgrade the book to level three, which I think is the only way to go with this item if you choose to get it, one of the necromonicon spawns also gains truesight which is a VERY helpful counter to heroes such as SA, Weaver, and Bone Fletcher and well worth the money of the upgrades. With each level of recipe upgrades (3 is the max) the necromonicons get stronger dealing more damage and enhancing their auras. At level 3 necro book, an intel hero with mass disable such as the ones I mentioned above deals some serious damage with necro spawns and greatly enhances a team with its auras.
However, the downside to a necromonicon is the micromanagement required. One must simultaneously summon the necro spawns, cast the heroes disable spells, and also target attack and cast the necro spawns spells while managing to string together disable spells to keep the hero in range and unable to attack.
With lion, it would look something similar to what follows. One would first summon the necromonicon spawns. Next he/she would either voodoo or impale, while right click auto attacking with the necro spawns. Then, one would mana burn with the proper necro spawn, while casting the other spell that was not used above (voodoo or impale), continue attacking with the hero and spawns, and then hopefully finish the kill with lion's ultimate "finger of death."
With bane elemental, it would look something similar to what follows. To first isolate the enemy hero so you can get close to him and prepare all your moves, usually one nightmares the enemy hero. Once close enough, summon necro spawns and wait for nightmare to almost run out. Then fiends grip him, and start wailing on him with your necro spawns while gripping. At the same time you need to cast mana burn with the proper spawn and continue attacking. After grip is up, if the hero is still alive, then finish him off with a brain sap or a few attacks and a sap.
With rhasta, you summon your necro spawns and voodoo the enemy hero. Then you wail on him with your spawns, cast mana burn with the one spawn, and continue to attack him until voodoo is almost up. Then you have a number of choices depending on his health. You can either ultimate and net while letting your spawns continue to wail on him. Or if he is pretty low health, you can just net him and let your spawns continue to wail on him, saving your ultimate. This combo can be varied depending upon the situation. In a solo situation, this combo will do fine though.
To conclude, micromanaging is crucial with a necromonicon. If you cannot micro, I do not recommend getting a necromonicon because microing is key to bringing out the full effect of the item.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Experiences - Lion Impale Malfunction
A problem I have with lion (Demon Witch) frequently regards her ranged stun and animation. A lot of times, I will walk up to impale someone and realize that there is a few more heroes there than expected. In my mind I am thinking, "okay, finish impale real quick then run backwards to escape."
Yet sometimes when you are in a hurry like this, you try to maximize your escape by clicking to run backwards right when you see your impale spike animation go off. For some reason, I think it has to do with an inherent flaw in the Warcraft engine, the animation will still go off in these situations, but your stun, and the ending animation of the hero going flying into the air, will not go off.
So, basically, you get the worst of both worlds in this situation. One, your animation goes off but your stun does not so you are now getting chased by one more hero. And two, you are most likely dead because your stun did not go off.
Another problem that seems to occur quite frequently regarding lion's impale has to do w/ when other people guinsoo or voodoo a hero while you are target impaling that same hero. It basically does the same thing as mentioned above. The hero does not get stunned (sometimes), and also the animation of him flying up into the air does not occur.
Yet sometimes when you are in a hurry like this, you try to maximize your escape by clicking to run backwards right when you see your impale spike animation go off. For some reason, I think it has to do with an inherent flaw in the Warcraft engine, the animation will still go off in these situations, but your stun, and the ending animation of the hero going flying into the air, will not go off.
So, basically, you get the worst of both worlds in this situation. One, your animation goes off but your stun does not so you are now getting chased by one more hero. And two, you are most likely dead because your stun did not go off.
Another problem that seems to occur quite frequently regarding lion's impale has to do w/ when other people guinsoo or voodoo a hero while you are target impaling that same hero. It basically does the same thing as mentioned above. The hero does not get stunned (sometimes), and also the animation of him flying up into the air does not occur.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Item Tip: Blink Dagger
One of the most useful escape/hero killing/gank potential items that does not have a counter item or hero in my opinion, besides itself, is the blink dagger. At 2150, it is very versatile for the reasons mentioned above, and for its extreme enhancement of certain heroes. In this post I will attempt to mention as many heroes as I can that benefit tremendously from a blink dagger. Off the top of my head, the only heroes that I think should never get a blink dagger are ones that just cannot (pudge, vengeful spirit), ones that already have the ability to blink (QoP, Anti Mage etc.) and heroes w/ extreme move speed abilities (Clinkz, Weaver, Dark Seer etc.) . Other than these three categories, most heroes benefit from a dagger.
Heroes that benefit the greatest from a dagger due to the enhancement of ultimates, or their spells in general are:
Magnataur - His ultimate is AoE stun, and draws people toward him so the element of surprise is key for this so one can make sure they enemy is grouped together to get the maximum number of heroes stunned
Sand King - His ultimate has a long casting time, making him very vulnerable and is easily countered by a stun. Dagger allows him to cast his ultimate in a safe area unknowing to the enemies and then right when it triggers he can blink in and get the epicenter effects, and also impale.
Crystal Maiden - Her ultimate is mass AoE damage and her move speed is very slow and she is intelligence with low health. So instead of attempting to run into a group of enemies to cast her ultimate, and most likely dying before you get there, blink dagger allows her to teleport in and get it off before anyone notices, keeping enemy heroes bunched together for maximum AoE damage
Earthshaker- Same thing as CM. Slow ms, and also damage is dealt on his ultimate based on closeness to earthshaker, and then is compounded by units around the area of the ultimate, so a blink dagger is perfect to surprise a hero around a number of creep, or a group of heroes, and then let out a fissure and enchant totem and get the full triple effect of his passive stun when you cast a spell as well.
Others include, but not limited to: slayer, luna, enigma, juggernaut, shadow fiend, sniper, ursa warrior, tiny, rhasta, witch doctor, axe, slardar, venomancer, tormented soul, death prophet
Anyone with an AoE ult is a decent hero for a blink dagger, as well as damage dealers with slows where element of surprise is key and prep time is needed (ursa warrior, tiny, rhasta). To conclude, dagger ensures the full effect of any AoE because of the ability to surprise a hero, and also the ability to relocate instantly within a 500 range of your present state maximizing your pathing and giving you great gank potential.
Heroes that benefit the greatest from a dagger due to the enhancement of ultimates, or their spells in general are:
Magnataur - His ultimate is AoE stun, and draws people toward him so the element of surprise is key for this so one can make sure they enemy is grouped together to get the maximum number of heroes stunned
Sand King - His ultimate has a long casting time, making him very vulnerable and is easily countered by a stun. Dagger allows him to cast his ultimate in a safe area unknowing to the enemies and then right when it triggers he can blink in and get the epicenter effects, and also impale.
Crystal Maiden - Her ultimate is mass AoE damage and her move speed is very slow and she is intelligence with low health. So instead of attempting to run into a group of enemies to cast her ultimate, and most likely dying before you get there, blink dagger allows her to teleport in and get it off before anyone notices, keeping enemy heroes bunched together for maximum AoE damage
Earthshaker- Same thing as CM. Slow ms, and also damage is dealt on his ultimate based on closeness to earthshaker, and then is compounded by units around the area of the ultimate, so a blink dagger is perfect to surprise a hero around a number of creep, or a group of heroes, and then let out a fissure and enchant totem and get the full triple effect of his passive stun when you cast a spell as well.
Others include, but not limited to: slayer, luna, enigma, juggernaut, shadow fiend, sniper, ursa warrior, tiny, rhasta, witch doctor, axe, slardar, venomancer, tormented soul, death prophet
Anyone with an AoE ult is a decent hero for a blink dagger, as well as damage dealers with slows where element of surprise is key and prep time is needed (ursa warrior, tiny, rhasta). To conclude, dagger ensures the full effect of any AoE because of the ability to surprise a hero, and also the ability to relocate instantly within a 500 range of your present state maximizing your pathing and giving you great gank potential.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Hero Build - Witch Doctor
Depending on how one builds him to complement your team, and the opposing teams heroes, witch doctor can be a tremendous hero killer as well as a great support caster. He has an aoe heal, bouncing stun, a damage over time aoe spell, and a chaos damage, fast attacking ultimate. Due to these spells he is very versatile in his build and how you choose to level him. In this post, I will level him primarily as a hero killer, which will influence some of my item choices. All item selections will be based on a -rd mode. It really only affects beginning purchases because one starts with less gold in -rd, than -ar, or any -em mode.
Spell Selection by level
1. Paralyzing Cask
2. Maledict
3. Paralyzing Cask
4. Maledict
5. Maledict
6. Death Ward
7. Paralyzing Cask
8. Maledict
9. Paralyzing Cask
10. Attribute Bonus
11. Death Ward
12-15. Attribute Bonus
16. Death Ward
17-21 Attribute Bonus
22-25 Voodoo Restoration
Because the goal of this build is hero killing, heal is passed off until the end. Cask and maledict must be leveled ASAP along w/ ultimate to get the full spell combo that witch doctor is capable of delivering. Then attributes in order to supply the extra mana and survivability needed to start and finish your spell combos.
Ending Items
Slot 1: Boots of travel
Slot 2: Dagon level 1 (this slot depends on opponents hero selection, if lot of strength heroes do not get)
Slot 3: Black King bar
Slot 4: Aghanims Scepter
Slot 5: Blink Dagger (this slot depends on opponents hero selection and skill level, can be swapped with lothars depending on opps. Aoe stuns and skill)
Slot 6: Heart of Tarrasque or Eye of Skadi or Shivas Guard or Guinsoo
(just depends on lineup)
Item Selection by Duration
At start: 1-2 circlets, 2 ironwood branches, 1 tango set
First Item (0-20 minutes in): I farm incredibly fast with WD due to his good damage and attack animation, and also paralyzing cask damage to creep w/ each bounce. Because of all this, I rush my dagon by first getting staff of wizardry, for mana help to spell combo, then blades of attack, then recipe. A 15 minute dagon should be a decent goal to set, although 20 is not too bad. Also here make your 1 –2 circlets into bracers for life and battle survival. The dagon will allow you to easily combo kill basically any hero at this point in the game by stunning, maledict, dagoning, then if need be ult, or an attack or two.
Next Items (20-40? minutes): Boots, then start making soul booster parts for your aghanims. I usually go mana or point booster first, then the other, then vitality booster last. After these I get my blink dagger, making it easy for me to do my mass damage combos and much easier to land maledict with. Also it provides nice escapability limiting your deaths.
Final items (40-end): Here I finish my Aghanims by purchasing a mystic staff, as I will most likely be level 16 or higher, making it most effective. Then I finish boots of travel. Then, if they have a lot of stuns, I will get a Black King Bar allowing me to be protected when I lay my ultimate. The final slot is up to you, and how you are farming and what you feel will complement your team best (skadi, heart, guinsoo, shivas).
Total Cost of Items
Boots of Travel – 2700
Blink Dagger- 2150
Dagon - 3000
Aghanims- 6000
BKB - 3800
Variable slot - ?
Total $17,650 plus other variable slot
Lets say you farm with an average creep kill of $50 gold (takes into account the much greater amount for siege and some higher level neutrals), and assume a team tower kill every 20 minutes, and you are making 8 gold every 10 seconds being -rd (believe this is correct, could be wrong) , and the game lasts 60 minutes. The tower kills add up to $600, plus the 8 gold every 10 seconds adds up to $2880, these summed equal $3480. This subtracted from $17650, leaves $14,170 that you must farm from creep. In case you are interested, the final creep slay number you would have to have at $50 a creep comes out to about 283 creep kills. Broken down to creep kills per minute you would need, it would come out to be around 4.5 per minute. This seems ridiculously high, I know, but taking into account the items, and the fact that we are not considering hero kills, or even last hit tower kills which are major revenue factors for a hero, this cs count could very well be in the 160-190 range for a good player, which would reduce your needed creep kills per minute to around 3, which is very reasonable for a good wd player. Also this is the gold needed for the COMPLETE build in a 60 minute game, which rarely happens. So just BoT, blink dagger, and aghanims are sufficient ending items and the big 3 I would focus on if playing.
Spell Selection by level
1. Paralyzing Cask
2. Maledict
3. Paralyzing Cask
4. Maledict
5. Maledict
6. Death Ward
7. Paralyzing Cask
8. Maledict
9. Paralyzing Cask
10. Attribute Bonus
11. Death Ward
12-15. Attribute Bonus
16. Death Ward
17-21 Attribute Bonus
22-25 Voodoo Restoration
Because the goal of this build is hero killing, heal is passed off until the end. Cask and maledict must be leveled ASAP along w/ ultimate to get the full spell combo that witch doctor is capable of delivering. Then attributes in order to supply the extra mana and survivability needed to start and finish your spell combos.
Ending Items
Slot 1: Boots of travel
Slot 2: Dagon level 1 (this slot depends on opponents hero selection, if lot of strength heroes do not get)
Slot 3: Black King bar
Slot 4: Aghanims Scepter
Slot 5: Blink Dagger (this slot depends on opponents hero selection and skill level, can be swapped with lothars depending on opps. Aoe stuns and skill)
Slot 6: Heart of Tarrasque or Eye of Skadi or Shivas Guard or Guinsoo
(just depends on lineup)
Item Selection by Duration
At start: 1-2 circlets, 2 ironwood branches, 1 tango set
First Item (0-20 minutes in): I farm incredibly fast with WD due to his good damage and attack animation, and also paralyzing cask damage to creep w/ each bounce. Because of all this, I rush my dagon by first getting staff of wizardry, for mana help to spell combo, then blades of attack, then recipe. A 15 minute dagon should be a decent goal to set, although 20 is not too bad. Also here make your 1 –2 circlets into bracers for life and battle survival. The dagon will allow you to easily combo kill basically any hero at this point in the game by stunning, maledict, dagoning, then if need be ult, or an attack or two.
Next Items (20-40? minutes): Boots, then start making soul booster parts for your aghanims. I usually go mana or point booster first, then the other, then vitality booster last. After these I get my blink dagger, making it easy for me to do my mass damage combos and much easier to land maledict with. Also it provides nice escapability limiting your deaths.
Final items (40-end): Here I finish my Aghanims by purchasing a mystic staff, as I will most likely be level 16 or higher, making it most effective. Then I finish boots of travel. Then, if they have a lot of stuns, I will get a Black King Bar allowing me to be protected when I lay my ultimate. The final slot is up to you, and how you are farming and what you feel will complement your team best (skadi, heart, guinsoo, shivas).
Total Cost of Items
Boots of Travel – 2700
Blink Dagger- 2150
Dagon - 3000
Aghanims- 6000
BKB - 3800
Variable slot - ?
Total $17,650 plus other variable slot
Lets say you farm with an average creep kill of $50 gold (takes into account the much greater amount for siege and some higher level neutrals), and assume a team tower kill every 20 minutes, and you are making 8 gold every 10 seconds being -rd (believe this is correct, could be wrong) , and the game lasts 60 minutes. The tower kills add up to $600, plus the 8 gold every 10 seconds adds up to $2880, these summed equal $3480. This subtracted from $17650, leaves $14,170 that you must farm from creep. In case you are interested, the final creep slay number you would have to have at $50 a creep comes out to about 283 creep kills. Broken down to creep kills per minute you would need, it would come out to be around 4.5 per minute. This seems ridiculously high, I know, but taking into account the items, and the fact that we are not considering hero kills, or even last hit tower kills which are major revenue factors for a hero, this cs count could very well be in the 160-190 range for a good player, which would reduce your needed creep kills per minute to around 3, which is very reasonable for a good wd player. Also this is the gold needed for the COMPLETE build in a 60 minute game, which rarely happens. So just BoT, blink dagger, and aghanims are sufficient ending items and the big 3 I would focus on if playing.
Experiences - Battle Hunger Buff Icon
Something that really bothers me in version 6.49b and some previous versions recently is axe's battle hunger. No matter what level of it an opposing axe gets, it only shows a level 1 buff icon on your hero if the opponent casts it on you.
This bothers me because there is a significant damage difference between level 1 and level 4 battle hunger, and no matter what level they have of it, it only shows a level 1 buff icon on your hero. In close battles, where hit points will be close soloing against an axe, it is nice to know what level of battle hunger he has to determine whether to fight him, attempt to kill a creep to get it off, or to run.
One may counter this with the argument that if you are soloing against an axe you will eventually find out after repeated casts what level he has and it will not make a difference. This may be true, but this still does not change the fact that the other 4 players on your team have no idea what level he has when they are targeted with battle hunger, because all they are seeing is a level 1 buff icon and they have not laned against him all game.
Seeing as how it was not like this in earlier versions, this is a fixable problem and I think IceFrog should do something about this is the next version. A buff icon fix on battle hunger can make a world of difference regarding information in a game, and it is a bug that needs to be fixed.
This bothers me because there is a significant damage difference between level 1 and level 4 battle hunger, and no matter what level they have of it, it only shows a level 1 buff icon on your hero. In close battles, where hit points will be close soloing against an axe, it is nice to know what level of battle hunger he has to determine whether to fight him, attempt to kill a creep to get it off, or to run.
One may counter this with the argument that if you are soloing against an axe you will eventually find out after repeated casts what level he has and it will not make a difference. This may be true, but this still does not change the fact that the other 4 players on your team have no idea what level he has when they are targeted with battle hunger, because all they are seeing is a level 1 buff icon and they have not laned against him all game.
Seeing as how it was not like this in earlier versions, this is a fixable problem and I think IceFrog should do something about this is the next version. A buff icon fix on battle hunger can make a world of difference regarding information in a game, and it is a bug that needs to be fixed.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Experiences - Orb Damage Bug?
So I was playing a TDA game today, a -rd to be specific, when I noticed something which I consider a bug and have seen before but usually disregard. The only difference was that in this game, and the primary reason I am writing about it instead of disregarding, is that it truly affected the outcome.
The lineups were as follows:
Sentinel
- Axe
- Zeus
- Twin Headed Dragon (me)
- Venomancer
- Treant Protector
Scourge
- Silencer
- Faceless Void
- Tidehunter
- Shadow Fiend
- Centaur
So everyone is about level 17-18ish, the game is going along fairly tight, towers fairly even, with teams both down to their main bases in middle. Three of my teammates and I are neutraling bottom-mid, while the other guy is farming top (Zeus). I am neutraling bottom of the Sentinel side, where the weaker satyr creeps spawn, perusing the map while my hero cleans up, when I notice damage symbols coming from the fog where roshan sits. It is obviously black on my map since I am not in vision range, but I am seeing +59 , +59, etc etc. Obviously it is coming from silencer's glaive attack, showing up in the fog of war on my screen as he hits roshan with glaive damage. Pinging and alerting my team, we quickly congregate, leaving our neutral sites bottom and mid, meeting in bottom river, as Zeus continues to farm top.....
The four of us (minus Zeus) rush Roshan and make quick domination out of the three heroes there: silencer, shadow fiend, and tidehunter. The other scourge heroes, and the reason it wasn't so obvious they were roshaning, were evident on the mini map, one farming mid (centaur), and the other had just left top (faceless void). After the quick obliteration, Zeus boots of travelled to mid and we pushed mid tower and both mid racks, ultimately winning us the game.
This led me to question if the result would have been different if we had not seen the orb damage in the fog of war; leading us to finish off roshan and kill all three of there heroes there, tipping the scales in our favor at that moment considerably; allowing us to nab the aegis charge, each gain +200 gold for roshan, and push with a 5v2 advantage.
Orb damage which is displayed with a damage amount can be seen in fog of war by the opposing team (harbinger's arcane orb, enchantress impetus, silencer's glaives). I think this is unfair in the fact that the team against this gets an advantage on ganks, and definitely on intercepting roshan fights that may not be obvious otherwise. This is something which I consider a bug that can potentially alter games and which seems like a reasonable thing to be looked at for IceFrog to tweak in future versions.
Advanced - Creep Blocking
Creep blocking is a technique used to start the game, and play most of the game, near ones own towers. This allows for less ganks on you, and easier leveling as you will be aided by your tower and enemy heroes may not be willing to chase you into your tower range (especially in non em games).
The technique goes as follows. Once your hero is selected, choose a lane (top, middle, or bottom). Instead of running straight to the tier 1 tower (towers farthest from your main base where first creep lines clash closest to) , select your hero to wait either near the tier 2 tower (tower in between tier 1 and main base in each lane) , or near the 2 barracks in your selected lane where creeps spawn from. Personally, I prefer standing near the tier 2 tower when blocking due to the creeps approaching me in a straight line, allowing me to block easier. Creeps will eventually spawn and start heading towards the tier 1 tower and eventually clash with the other teams creep. You are waiting by the tier 2 tower (assuming my way of preference) , and when the creeps get close to you start running in the same direction as them, headed towards the tier 1 tower. As you are running towards the tier 1 tower, have your left hand on the S key on your keyboard, ready to hit it, which is the stop command for your hero. With this ready, align yourself directly in front of the creep line, and then tap S once. The creep will collide with you hero. Then before they can run around you, start moving forward again, and tap S again, repeating this process over and over until you reach your tier 1 tower, or until you have felt you have blocked enough.
I say this because you CAN block too much. The point of creep blocking is to fight close to ones own tower as much as possible, so you have the tower as an extra defender if need be against a gank. So if you block too well, the first line will clash in range of your tier 1 tower, and it will deal damage quickly obliterating the first enemy creep line. This will in turn push your line much farther into enemy territory, which is a tactical error, making one much more susceptible to ganks and much harder to farm.
With this said, the optimal point you are aiming for when blocking is for your first creep line to clash the enemy creep line right OUTSIDE the range of your tier 1 tower. This way the tower is not dealing additional damage and pushing your creep lines, yet you are also still close enough to your tower to treat it as a defense against ganks and chases. Also, this will result in a clashing of your second creep lines much closer to your tower, than the enemies, assuming all other variables held constant (hero damage, last hitting, denying, no creep pulling etc.).
I have found that most public game players only block the first creep line. However, any point where you can block and put yourself closer to your own towers is beneficial to do so, reducing gank threats, and adding extra defense in case of a chase or low life farming. This is most pertinent in the first 10 to 15 minutes of the game, where the goal is lane stability and level maintainment and not so much pushing, unless the opportunity presents itself.
As you probably know, Sentinel's top creep line starts farthest away from its tier 1 tower, deepest into enemy territory, so blocking this one as much as possible is a good idea. Middle is the case where you want to block the first line just enough so that the first line clashes just outside of the tier 1 tower's range. Bottom for sentinel, is a creep line which you want to be careful not to block too much. I have found that usually around 2 to 3 solid Stop command taps leads you to block just enough so that the first line results just outside your tier 1 tower's range. Any more than this and your first line is starting inside your tower's range, resulting in a much deeper push into enemy territory for your second line.
Scourge blocking is the exact opposite of the previous paragraph, because it fits together like a puzzle, complementing the sentinel creep line, by having the clashes meet in the opposite places. So, condensed, top on scourge you do not block much (same as sentinel bottom), mid same as if you were sentinel blocking mid, and bottom block as much as possible (same as sentinel top).
The technique goes as follows. Once your hero is selected, choose a lane (top, middle, or bottom). Instead of running straight to the tier 1 tower (towers farthest from your main base where first creep lines clash closest to) , select your hero to wait either near the tier 2 tower (tower in between tier 1 and main base in each lane) , or near the 2 barracks in your selected lane where creeps spawn from. Personally, I prefer standing near the tier 2 tower when blocking due to the creeps approaching me in a straight line, allowing me to block easier. Creeps will eventually spawn and start heading towards the tier 1 tower and eventually clash with the other teams creep. You are waiting by the tier 2 tower (assuming my way of preference) , and when the creeps get close to you start running in the same direction as them, headed towards the tier 1 tower. As you are running towards the tier 1 tower, have your left hand on the S key on your keyboard, ready to hit it, which is the stop command for your hero. With this ready, align yourself directly in front of the creep line, and then tap S once. The creep will collide with you hero. Then before they can run around you, start moving forward again, and tap S again, repeating this process over and over until you reach your tier 1 tower, or until you have felt you have blocked enough.
I say this because you CAN block too much. The point of creep blocking is to fight close to ones own tower as much as possible, so you have the tower as an extra defender if need be against a gank. So if you block too well, the first line will clash in range of your tier 1 tower, and it will deal damage quickly obliterating the first enemy creep line. This will in turn push your line much farther into enemy territory, which is a tactical error, making one much more susceptible to ganks and much harder to farm.
With this said, the optimal point you are aiming for when blocking is for your first creep line to clash the enemy creep line right OUTSIDE the range of your tier 1 tower. This way the tower is not dealing additional damage and pushing your creep lines, yet you are also still close enough to your tower to treat it as a defense against ganks and chases. Also, this will result in a clashing of your second creep lines much closer to your tower, than the enemies, assuming all other variables held constant (hero damage, last hitting, denying, no creep pulling etc.).
I have found that most public game players only block the first creep line. However, any point where you can block and put yourself closer to your own towers is beneficial to do so, reducing gank threats, and adding extra defense in case of a chase or low life farming. This is most pertinent in the first 10 to 15 minutes of the game, where the goal is lane stability and level maintainment and not so much pushing, unless the opportunity presents itself.
As you probably know, Sentinel's top creep line starts farthest away from its tier 1 tower, deepest into enemy territory, so blocking this one as much as possible is a good idea. Middle is the case where you want to block the first line just enough so that the first line clashes just outside of the tier 1 tower's range. Bottom for sentinel, is a creep line which you want to be careful not to block too much. I have found that usually around 2 to 3 solid Stop command taps leads you to block just enough so that the first line results just outside your tier 1 tower's range. Any more than this and your first line is starting inside your tower's range, resulting in a much deeper push into enemy territory for your second line.
Scourge blocking is the exact opposite of the previous paragraph, because it fits together like a puzzle, complementing the sentinel creep line, by having the clashes meet in the opposite places. So, condensed, top on scourge you do not block much (same as sentinel bottom), mid same as if you were sentinel blocking mid, and bottom block as much as possible (same as sentinel top).
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Advanced - Attack Animation Canceling
The normal notion for repeatedly attacking a hero is to right click target him and just hope your move speed is great enough to get more than one hit in before the hero gets too far away from you.
Attack animation canceling is a great way to get more hits in on a running hero, or even a hero that is standstill which you are attacking. Put simply, the concept is to cancel your heroes attack animation right after the animation fires from your hero. To do this on a running hero or hero in place, first right click target him. Your hero will go through his/her animation and fire the first bolt, shot, whatever you want to call it (the heroes attack). The key is in this next step. Right after the animation goes off, quickly click in front of you in the direction of the fleeing hero, and then right click target the hero again. By quickly moving forward right after your attack goes off, you cancel the latter half of your heroes attack animation, allowing you to get another shot off, and essentially dealing around 1.5 times as many hits on a hero (depending on your hero) than someone who would not be attack animation canceling. Someone just right click chasing a hero goes through the full animation of each attack, which takes much longer and is drawn out beyond the necessary damage dealing part of ones attack which occurs at the beginning of ones animation.
Heroes that have very drawn out attack animations, which would be good to practice on are the following: Silencer (glaive strike) , Viper (poison strike) , Enchantress (impetus) , Harbinger (Arcane Orb), Drow Ranger (Frost Arrow) . These are just a few heroes with long attack animations. Once one gets good with these heroes, you can essentially cancel any heroes attack animation, it does not have to be just orb spells. People sometimes associate names like orb walking, specifically glaive walking and impetus walking, with attack animation cancelling because you are walking (quick clicking, forward or to any side) to cancel your animation to get extra hits in.
I plan on posting some videos on this in a short while to help with the explanation.
Attack animation canceling is a great way to get more hits in on a running hero, or even a hero that is standstill which you are attacking. Put simply, the concept is to cancel your heroes attack animation right after the animation fires from your hero. To do this on a running hero or hero in place, first right click target him. Your hero will go through his/her animation and fire the first bolt, shot, whatever you want to call it (the heroes attack). The key is in this next step. Right after the animation goes off, quickly click in front of you in the direction of the fleeing hero, and then right click target the hero again. By quickly moving forward right after your attack goes off, you cancel the latter half of your heroes attack animation, allowing you to get another shot off, and essentially dealing around 1.5 times as many hits on a hero (depending on your hero) than someone who would not be attack animation canceling. Someone just right click chasing a hero goes through the full animation of each attack, which takes much longer and is drawn out beyond the necessary damage dealing part of ones attack which occurs at the beginning of ones animation.
Heroes that have very drawn out attack animations, which would be good to practice on are the following: Silencer (glaive strike) , Viper (poison strike) , Enchantress (impetus) , Harbinger (Arcane Orb), Drow Ranger (Frost Arrow) . These are just a few heroes with long attack animations. Once one gets good with these heroes, you can essentially cancel any heroes attack animation, it does not have to be just orb spells. People sometimes associate names like orb walking, specifically glaive walking and impetus walking, with attack animation cancelling because you are walking (quick clicking, forward or to any side) to cancel your animation to get extra hits in.
I plan on posting some videos on this in a short while to help with the explanation.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Advanced - Last Hitting and Denying
Last hitting ones own creep and the other teams creep is a tactic in Dota which pays off tremendously for ones hero development, and the lack of development for the other team. Put simply, the concept is to wait until the creep lines, yours and the opponents, get low on life and then to attempt to get the last hit with your hero on either. To track the life of creep a lot of people like to use the alt key. By holding it down it allows one to see the life of all creep. A good last hitter will move back and forth constantly not allowing there hero to attack. Then, while holding down the alt key, when a creep reaches a level where the player thinks he can get the last hit, he will attack that creep. After this he will return to moving back and forth constantly, and the process will repeat itself.
This seems like a lot of work, but by last hitting the opponents creeps, you will not be pushing towers as much (equaling less gank possibility on you), and you will have much greater control on creep kills and gold, then by just right clicking a creep and hoping your hero hits it repeatedly and then happens to strike it last.
By last hitting your own creeps, also called denying, you are preventing the other team from finishing creep kills, thereby preventing them from gaining gold. Also when you deny creep, you deny the opponents part of the experience they normally get from a creep. If you are against a ranged hero, the amount of experience they recieve by you denying a creep is much less than a normal creep kill. Whereas, if you are against a melee hero, the amount of experience they recieve is a little more than a ranged, but still much less than a normal creep kill.
By doing this repeatedly over the course of a game, last hitting opponents creep and denying your own creep, you will level faster than your opponents and gain much more gold than your opponents. Also you will die less, because you will be pushing not as hard into enemy territory, making it much harder for the opponent to gank you.
This seems like a lot of work, but by last hitting the opponents creeps, you will not be pushing towers as much (equaling less gank possibility on you), and you will have much greater control on creep kills and gold, then by just right clicking a creep and hoping your hero hits it repeatedly and then happens to strike it last.
By last hitting your own creeps, also called denying, you are preventing the other team from finishing creep kills, thereby preventing them from gaining gold. Also when you deny creep, you deny the opponents part of the experience they normally get from a creep. If you are against a ranged hero, the amount of experience they recieve by you denying a creep is much less than a normal creep kill. Whereas, if you are against a melee hero, the amount of experience they recieve is a little more than a ranged, but still much less than a normal creep kill.
By doing this repeatedly over the course of a game, last hitting opponents creep and denying your own creep, you will level faster than your opponents and gain much more gold than your opponents. Also you will die less, because you will be pushing not as hard into enemy territory, making it much harder for the opponent to gank you.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Beginners - Game Modes
For those of you who are just starting out, there is time for you to catch up. Here are some basic game modes that you need to know when entering a game of dota, that in my experience, a beginner should have some grasp on (assuming a full 5 vs 5 game). There are many different game modes that you can play which the host chooses at the start, the most popular, but not all are:
- -arem : which stands for All Random Easy Mode. All random means that each player is given a random hero from the pool and easy mode simply increases the frequency by which gold is given during the game on top of killing creep. In easy mode, heroes level much faster as well, gaining more experience with each creep and hero kill than normal. Also towers do much less damage than in long games.
- -apem : which stands for All Pick Easy Mode. All Pick means that each player gets to pick their hero at the beginning of the game from the hero pool. Easy Mode is the same as explained above in the -arem explanation.
- -rdem : which stands for Random Draft Easy Mode. Random draft is like a mixure of All Random and All Pick. The hero pool in Random Draft is generated randomly from the total hero pool, choosing only some of the total hero pool to play in the particular game. However, once this is done, then a 1-2-2-2-2-1 pick mode begins with either the sentinel or scourge starting the picking. Each player gets to pick from the random hero pool the hero they wish to play, and when you get to pick is based on your position when you join the game. For example, either blue or pink gets first pick, then it goes down the list for both teams ending with orange and brown, who get the last picks.
- -ar , -ap , -rd : these games are the same as above but without the easy mode command (-em). This makes the games harder because as a player your hero levels much slower, and gold beyond creep kills is given to you less frequently. Microing ones hero, and other advanced tactics such as last hitting creep and towers, play a much larger role in long games. I write on these tactics in the advanced blogs.
Other modes you may see beyond these, or combined with these modes, but less frequent are -wtf (no spell cooldown time), -xl (a league mode), -as (all strength pool), -ai (all intelligence pool), -aa (all agility pool), -sc (super creep mode placing ancient type monsters in lanes periodically), -sp (shuffle player mode), -mm (mirror mode).
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Dota - An Introduction
For those of you who have come looking for a place to start your dota knowledge quest, this post is for you. I will break down a significant portion of dota's early years and the development into what it is now. If this is not you, or you are just not interested in this, then you should skip ahead to the strategy section that fits your skill level best (beginner, moderate, advanced).
Dota is the acronym attributed to the custom game in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne known as Defense Of The Ancients. It places two teams (sentinel or scourge) of up to five players on each against each other, with the goal of destroying the other team's main base (Tree of Life for sentinel base or Frozen Throne for scourge base). Eul, a mapmaker and the original creator of Dota in Reign of Chaos, did not continue to update the map and eventually left it for others to modify when Frozen Throne was released. Guinsoo picked it up and created what we know as Dota All Stars, which split from Eul's version of Dota. It had more heroes and items, which made it much more appealing to players. The end of this story, which takes us to the present versions of dota, can be attributed to a programmer named IceFrog. He picked up where Guinsoo left off, creating more items, heroes, gameplay tweaks, terrain changes, balances, etc.
Under IceFrog, Dota has risen to the extreme level of popularity which it is at now, and is continuing to rise. With a strong fan base, Dota has recently featured new heroes and items created and inspired completely by the fans and players. It is not only a game, but a community. In the future, I see Dota branching off into its own independently created and distributed computer game, no longer a custom game, completely separate from the Warcraft III engine (somewhat similar to how Counterstrike progressed).
Dota is the acronym attributed to the custom game in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne known as Defense Of The Ancients. It places two teams (sentinel or scourge) of up to five players on each against each other, with the goal of destroying the other team's main base (Tree of Life for sentinel base or Frozen Throne for scourge base). Eul, a mapmaker and the original creator of Dota in Reign of Chaos, did not continue to update the map and eventually left it for others to modify when Frozen Throne was released. Guinsoo picked it up and created what we know as Dota All Stars, which split from Eul's version of Dota. It had more heroes and items, which made it much more appealing to players. The end of this story, which takes us to the present versions of dota, can be attributed to a programmer named IceFrog. He picked up where Guinsoo left off, creating more items, heroes, gameplay tweaks, terrain changes, balances, etc.
Under IceFrog, Dota has risen to the extreme level of popularity which it is at now, and is continuing to rise. With a strong fan base, Dota has recently featured new heroes and items created and inspired completely by the fans and players. It is not only a game, but a community. In the future, I see Dota branching off into its own independently created and distributed computer game, no longer a custom game, completely separate from the Warcraft III engine (somewhat similar to how Counterstrike progressed).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)