Dota 2

[Destiny]

Is there an Anandtech Team on DOTA 2? (ATOT) or (AT)?

I'm on the ATOT team in Battlefield 3, but haven't played it since my friends got me addicted to DOTA 2

 

[Clinkster]

Is there an Anandtech Team on DOTA 2? (ATOT) or (AT)?

I'm on the ATOT team in Battlefield 3, but haven't played it since my friends got me addicted to DOTA 2

I don't think there is. I would not object to joining one though.

 

[smackababy]

If someone makes one, I wouldn't be opposed to joining. I am pretty good at HoN and when I attempt Dota 2 I destroy. It could be because I haven't normalized out of all the awful players yet; it could also be because even if I am dominating I can't win with 4 hard carries on my team all feeding.

I would love to play with people who aren't from Brazil (moba diss!) and can actually do something other than give the other team gold and experience.

 

[Gunslinger08]

I'm through Nyx on the A-Z challenge. I had won over 100 games before I started, but here's what I've learned/refined my knowledge of:

- Support is just as important as carry, but almost nobody in pub games wants to play support. Even when pub players in normal skill level pick a support, they end up trying to carry. They don't buy a courier, upgrade the courier, buy/place wards, deny, harass, etc. They end up stealing farm from the carry. Vision from wards can win or lose games for you.

- A lot of heroes that I hadn't played since Dota 1 or had never played are a lot of fun and actually very good. Alchemist is great if your team lets you play him as a tank/carry instead of a full on support. Ancient Apparition has a ton of great abilities. Invoker is way simpler and way more powerful than I thought.

- I struggle with melee carries. It's so easy to get harassed out of your lane as a melee hero with low HP when you aren't getting good support.

- Team composition and lane choices are huge. A lot of pub games end up with 3, 4, or even 5 carries. You're all going to be struggling to get farmed up.

- Mana draining abilities are ridiculous. KotL, Anti-mage, Nyx, etc. are pretty much instant wins in a lot of games.

- A lot of players think they're invincible if they can go invisible, so they get shadow blades on every hero. This is a big fail.

- Drum is good on pretty much anybody.

- Always carry a TP.

- When the entire opposing team is missing, don't chase down that 1 hero you find with 25% health. You are going to get owned.

To sum it up: Don't play like the game is all about you. Even the most farmed carry will lose games if you ignore your teammates getting ganked 50 times and let the other team push in all of your towers.

 

[smackababy]

IIRC Nyx Assassin is a hard counter to Anti-Mage. Assuming Nyx is the hero whose ult makes them go invis, has a targetable, area stun and an aoe damage spell that drains mana. If that is true, Nyx is one of the top semi-carry gankers in the game. I prefer Nyx over Tiny in that roll even. Solo mid Nyx, or mid with a roaming support to help, gets levels fast and can go gank at 6 with ease.

Support is the hardest role to play, regardless what most pubs will tell you. In order to play a good support you have to not die, manage your farm and support you team. You are generally under leveled, and thus easy to kill, as well as under farmed. You go off by yourself with little to no escape mechanism to ward and only offer minimal help in team fights without your support items.

Pubs in general are stupid. I dislike playing with them in any game. The fact that it is extremely hard to win by yourself, with any hero, when your team is awful is why I dislike solo queuing to much. And anyone that thinks they can go invisible and win are morons. There are quite a few items that counter it, and they are cheap. Sentry wards, dust, and gems.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

I'm through Nyx on the A-Z challenge. I had won over 100 games before I started, but here's what I've learned/refined my knowledge of:

- Support is just as important as carry, but almost nobody in pub games wants to play support. Even when pub players in normal skill level pick a support, they end up trying to carry. They don't buy a courier, upgrade the courier, buy/place wards, deny, harass, etc. They end up stealing farm from the carry. Vision from wards can win or lose games for you.

- A lot of heroes that I hadn't played since Dota 1 or had never played are a lot of fun and actually very good. Alchemist is great if your team lets you play him as a tank/carry instead of a full on support. Ancient Apparition has a ton of great abilities. Invoker is way simpler and way more powerful than I thought.

- I struggle with melee carries. It's so easy to get harassed out of your lane as a melee hero with low HP when you aren't getting good support.

- Team composition and lane choices are huge. A lot of pub games end up with 3, 4, or even 5 carries. You're all going to be struggling to get farmed up.

- Mana draining abilities are ridiculous. KotL, Anti-mage, Nyx, etc. are pretty much instant wins in a lot of games.

- A lot of players think they're invincible if they can go invisible, so they get shadow blades on every hero. This is a big fail.

- Drum is good on pretty much anybody.

- Always carry a TP.

- When the entire opposing team is missing, don't chase down that 1 hero you find with 25% health. You are going to get owned.

To sum it up: Don't play like the game is all about you. Even the most farmed carry will lose games if you ignore your teammates getting ganked 50 times and let the other team push in all of your towers.

If you play as Anti-mage, get first level in blink, second level as Mana burn, and then start harassing them right back.

 

[smackababy]

If you play as Anti-mage, get first level in blink, second level as Mana burn, and then start harassing them right back.

And unless you get pooled regen or are going against a suicide long lane, you are going to not farm very well. Your support should be boxing them out well enough you should be focusing on farming. Anti-mage, even with his blink, is easy to kill at low levels with a single stun. His health is low. In order to get good early game farm, he needs a babysitter.

 

[Clinkster]

Bristleback confirmed for tomorrow's patch.

EDIT: http://dev.dota2.com/showthread.php?t=79951

 

[TheVrolok]

Bristleback confirmed for tomorrow's patch.

EDIT: http://dev.dota2.com/showthread.php?t=79951

Moar goo!

 

[Delita]

Bristleback confirmed for tomorrow's patch.

EDIT: http://dev.dota2.com/showthread.php?t=79951

Great. Bristleback is sweet. A little surprised though. It looked as though Skywrath Mage was going to be added first.

 

[Chiropteran]

Any else noticing exceptionally high CPU temperatures while playing DOTA 2? I had this issue and posted about it awhile back, but I thought it might just be the motherboard/CPU combo I was using, with an FX-8120.

I just got a new PC, a Dell XPS 8500 w/ i7-3770, and I see the same sort of extreme high temperature only from DOTA 2. It's not out of spec for the CPU, but it's damn close- 63-65C, 67.4C is supposed to be max. Why does DOTA 2 stress the CPU so hard?

Note that the temperature only occurs when I play DOTA @ full screen or full border-less windowed mode. As soon as I tab out temperature starts to drop. I am measuring temperature with HWMonitor.

 

[TheVrolok]

Any else noticing exceptionally high CPU temperatures while playing DOTA 2? I had this issue and posted about it awhile back, but I thought it might just be the motherboard/CPU combo I was using, with an FX-8120.

I just got a new PC, a Dell XPS 8500 w/ i7-3770, and I see the same sort of extreme high temperature only from DOTA 2. It's not out of spec for the CPU, but it's damn close- 63-65C, 67.4C is supposed to be max. Why does DOTA 2 stress the CPU so hard?

Note that the temperature only occurs when I play DOTA @ full screen or full border-less windowed mode. As soon as I tab out temperature starts to drop. I am measuring temperature with HWMonitor.

I'll check tonight.

 

[smackababy]

I am pretty sure the max temp for that CPU is around 100C, not 67.4C. So you're just fine.

 

[Chiropteran]

I am pretty sure the max temp for that CPU is around 100C, not 67.4C. So you're just fine.

Perhaps, but I'm still curious. No other games or software cause my CPU to reach such high temperatures. It's rare for any program to load more than 1-2 cores. What special about DOTA 2?

 

[smackababy]

Suppose it uses a lot of CPU resources. Or at least takes advantage of them while they are there.

 

[Zeze]

Any else noticing exceptionally high CPU temperatures while playing DOTA 2? I had this issue and posted about it awhile back, but I thought it might just be the motherboard/CPU combo I was using, with an FX-8120.

I just got a new PC, a Dell XPS 8500 w/ i7-3770, and I see the same sort of extreme high temperature only from DOTA 2. It's not out of spec for the CPU, but it's damn close- 63-65C, 67.4C is supposed to be max. Why does DOTA 2 stress the CPU so hard?

Note that the temperature only occurs when I play DOTA @ full screen or full border-less windowed mode. As soon as I tab out temperature starts to drop. I am measuring temperature with HWMonitor.

Hmm not for me..

I run everything max at 1080p (no AA, no vsync though) and get 50-80fps.

CPU temp stays at 40-50C (stock fan i3-2120)

As for everyone, here is Bristleback that'll be out on main client in about 7-8 hours:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ItxT85EC10

 

[Chiropteran]

Interesting combination of abilities. Reminds me of singed in LoL.

 

[smackababy]

Can someone who can use the internet more freely than those of us at work list Bristleback's skills and such?

 

[Chiropteran]

Viscous Nasal Goo QG

Ability Affects
Target Unit Enemies
Covers a target in snot, causing it to have reduced armor and movement speed. Multiple casts stack and refresh the duration.
Range: 600
Duration: 5
Armor Reduction: 1/1/2/2
Movement Speed Reduction per Cast: 20% and +3%/+6%/+9%/+12%
cooldown 1.5 manacost 30

Quill SprayWR

Ability Affects Damage
No Target Enemies Physical
Sprays enemy units with quills dealing damage in an area of effect around Bristleback. Deals bonus damage for every time a unit was hit by Quill Spray in the last 10 seconds.
Radius: 625
Duration: 10
Base Damage: 20/40/60/80
Stack Damage: 30
Damage Cap: 400
3 35

BristlebackEK

Ability
Passive
Bristleback takes less damage from attacks/casts if attacked from the side or rear. If Bristleback takes 250 damage from the rear, he releases a Quill Spray of the current level.
Reduced Damage (Rear): 16%/24%/32%/40%
Reduced Damage (Side): 8%/12%/16%/20%

WarpathRW

Ability Affects
Passive Self
Bristleback works himself up into a fury every time he casts a spell, increasing his movement speed and damage. The first stack (base) provides larger bonuses.
Duration: 10
Base Bonus Movement Speed: 5%/7%/10%
Base Bonus Damage: 20/25/30
Stack Bonus Movement Speed: 1%/2%/3%
Stack Bonus Damage: 20/25/30

 

[smackababy]

Oh yeah. I thought I knew that hero. He is Armadon in HoN. He takes the most skill of any hero in Dota history. You literally just spam W, that is it. The best thing about this hero is if you get good early game farm, you are basically an invincible wrecking ball mid to late game.

However, if you get shut down early game, he can't recover at all and just becomes useless.

 

[Zeze]

Oh yeah. I thought I knew that hero. He is Armadon in HoN. He takes the most skill of any hero in Dota history. You literally just spam W, that is it. The best thing about this hero is if you get good early game farm, you are basically an invincible wrecking ball mid to late game.

However, if you get shut down early game, he can't recover at all and just becomes useless.

I take it you were being sarcastic when you said he takes most skill (Meepo, Invoker do).

Bristleback does play better in the hands of expert players. The Quill Spray has 0 cast point and comes out instant any time. And it has 3 second CD.

The Nasal Goo (slow) has a full casting animation (stop for 0.4 seconds) with 1.5 CD.

So a veteran player knows to prioritize Nasal Goo (Q) WHILE pressing (W) during the Goo's casting animation, fitting in both skills simultaneously.

You don't just spam W.

He also has the fastest turnrate in the game (1.0- same as Bat & SF). He should always turn around to show his back before getting nuked- so he gets 40% reduction and quill-fuck enemies in return.

He's similar to Undying- amazing early/mid but falls off badly late game, but slow is still quite useful, like the Tombstone.

200-230 damage max stack (4 + 1~ passive proc) Quillls is nothign to scoff at either. It's physical, so it goes through BKBs.

And I'm sure you know this.. Bristleback came before Armadon.

 

[smackababy]

I take it you were being sarcastic when you said he takes most skill (Meepo, Invoker do).

Bristleback does play better in the hands of expert players. The Quill Spray has 0 cast point and comes out instant any time. And it has 3 second CD.

The Nasal Goo (slow) has a full casting animation (stop for 0.4 seconds) with 1.5 CD.

So a veteran player knows to prioritize Nasal Goo (Q) WHILE pressing (W) during the Goo's casting animation, fitting in both skills simultaneously.

You don't just spam W.

He also has the fastest turnrate in the game (1.0- same as Bat & SF). He should always turn around to show his back before getting nuked- so he gets 40% reduction and quill-fuck enemies in return.

He's similar to Undying- amazing early/mid but falls off badly late game, but slow is still quite useful, like the Tombstone.

200-230 damage max stack (4 + 1~ passive proc) Quillls is nothign to scoff at either. It's physical, so it goes through BKBs.

And I'm sure you know this.. Bristleback came before Armadon.

I was being sarcastic about the skill level required to play him. If built right and with decent farm, he doesn't fall off late game. He can stand in a fight and spam quills, which do quite a lot of damage for their cost and cooldown. His slow is nice, and pretty much nullifies the enemy getting linkins, but is really costly early game. Spamming W is usually more effective when you only have the mana to spam one skill. Later in the game, after some build up, snot then quills really stop a hero from doing anything, including running away.

And yes, I know he came before, I just couldn't remember the old Dota name. I figured that was who Armadon was a clone of once I heard his name though.

 

[MikeyLSU]

Is there an Anandtech Team on DOTA 2? (ATOT) or (AT)?

I'm on the ATOT team in Battlefield 3, but haven't played it since my friends got me addicted to DOTA 2

I'd be in

 

[Chiropteran]

patch is live now.

 

[Zeze]

patch is live now.

Can't wait for Skywrath Mage next week or next next week.

http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Skywrath_Mage

The ultimate glass cannon nuker of the game.

[edit]
Oops, just learned that Valve likes to take a break over Easter holidays. Next hero will be out probably end of April.