Anyone got one of those mysterious boxes from their compendium prediction scores...
Could've sold mine in the market for around $5... but I opened it and got the Flares of Solar Divne (Rare Skirt) for Lina...^_^
Not so DotA-free that you can't stay out of this thread. :awe:
Neener neener.. completely dota free and don't even crave it.
No raging and sob stories due to those stupid ass noob teammates from me.
Oh that's fine. I love following the scene- still and will visit here and /r/dota2.
Neener neener.. completely dota free and don't even crave it.
No raging and sob stories due to those stupid ass noob teammates from me.
Woah people got gifts for that? My compendium was bugged so I never got anything.
I don't talk about my good games. But coming from behind, with Mega creeps, and winning after 60+ minutes...one of the best feelings in the world.
Neener neener.. completely dota free and don't even crave it.
No raging and sob stories due to those stupid ass noob teammates from me.
As an update, it turns out I got my prize after all - it was just an uncommon though, so I don't understand why these things are selling for $5 on the market?
I think that is the average selling price if you did not open the box = unopened box sells for around that price...
I finally moved from playing chiefly against "unfair" bots to real people and was surprised to see that the unfair bots were able to last hit way better than actual humans. Merely from the last-hit practicing against unfair bots, I found in actual live games I was destroying the people I laned against in terms of last hitting; of course this is the low-tier skill bracket, so not much to brag about.
I was rather surprised to see that the general skill level of the players in the "unfair" bot difficulty matches seemed to be higher than the base matches. There were a few games with people just standing around as if they were dumbfounded, not knowing what to do. So far my win rate over the weekend was around 80%, which is way too high, so I'm fearing they are going to shove me into a higher difficulty bracket. Playing against unfair bots until you're at the point where you win almost every game really does help you practice to go against humans though.
After playing almost exclusively all-random, single draft, or random draft, I decided to try some all-pick this weekend. For me, this meant Dota 2 became Spirit Breaker RPG. 17/7 with spirit breaker after this weekend. Even when I lost I was getting kills and holding my own.
Experimented with items a lot, pretty much settled on a build.
stout shield, ring of armor, 1 tango, 1 branch
stout shield- I typically just sell later. I was building it into a vanguard in some games but I think it's better to just dump it once you get to late game. It's too useful for laning to skip completely.
ring of armor- build into tranquil boots briefly in the early game, and after I earn a bit more gold I take the boots apart, build power treads, and eventually build a vladimir's out of the ring of protection & regen.
1 tango- 1 is enough because the shield & RoP reduces the damage I take significantly. If I start with other starting items, I'd probably need a second tango and/or salve.
branch- I will vendor this when I need space, just a very minor bonus to help lane phase.
From there I build the tranquil boots, convert them to power treads soon later. If nobody else on my team is building an urn I will often build one. I used to really like drums, but after many games I've realized I do fine without them and they slow down my progress on building real items.
If the game includes a bounty hunter, clinks, broodmother, slark, or other annoying invis using hero, I'll buy dust of appearance fairly early. Charge of darkness is such a great counter for invis heroes, since it will continue to chase even after they disappear, and then I can dust them after the stun for an easy kill.
After power threads and vlads, and dust as needed, I'll usually build an armlet. Beyond that it's usually dependent on the team I am facing, I might work on a linkens or a helm of dominator depending on if the problem is stuns or casters or physical damage. I tried mask of madness and didn't like it, I need to initiate for my team and the 30% extra damage taken while MoM is active is a killer.
If it gets to be late game I'll build a heart or a scepter, but usually it doesn't matter at this point.
I've seen builds including stuff like daedalus and I just don't get it at all. Most of my damage comes from stuns and ultimate, boosting auto attack damage just doesn't do much.
I still think he is among the strongest heroes in the game, if played right, though Warlock is certainly up there too. I plan to continue this until I get bored, spirit breaker carries me into v high elo, or my win/loss ratio equalizes.
After playing almost exclusively all-random, single draft, or random draft, I decided to try some all-pick this weekend. For me, this meant Dota 2 became Spirit Breaker RPG. 17/7 with spirit breaker after this weekend. Even when I lost I was getting kills and holding my own.
Experimented with items a lot, pretty much settled on a build.
stout shield, ring of armor, 1 tango, 1 branch
stout shield- I typically just sell later. I was building it into a vanguard in some games but I think it's better to just dump it once you get to late game. It's too useful for laning to skip completely.
ring of armor- build into tranquil boots briefly in the early game, and after I earn a bit more gold I take the boots apart, build power treads, and eventually build a vladimir's out of the ring of protection & regen.
1 tango- 1 is enough because the shield & RoP reduces the damage I take significantly. If I start with other starting items, I'd probably need a second tango and/or salve.
branch- I will vendor this when I need space, just a very minor bonus to help lane phase.
From there I build the tranquil boots, convert them to power treads soon later. If nobody else on my team is building an urn I will often build one. I used to really like drums, but after many games I've realized I do fine without them and they slow down my progress on building real items.
If the game includes a bounty hunter, clinks, broodmother, slark, or other annoying invis using hero, I'll buy dust of appearance fairly early. Charge of darkness is such a great counter for invis heroes, since it will continue to chase even after they disappear, and then I can dust them after the stun for an easy kill.
After power threads and vlads, and dust as needed, I'll usually build an armlet. Beyond that it's usually dependent on the team I am facing, I might work on a linkens or a helm of dominator depending on if the problem is stuns or casters or physical damage. I tried mask of madness and didn't like it, I need to initiate for my team and the 30% extra damage taken while MoM is active is a killer.
If it gets to be late game I'll build a heart or a scepter, but usually it doesn't matter at this point.
I've seen builds including stuff like daedalus and I just don't get it at all. Most of my damage comes from stuns and ultimate, boosting auto attack damage just doesn't do much.
I still think he is among the strongest heroes in the game, if played right, though Warlock is certainly up there too. I plan to continue this until I get bored, spirit breaker carries me into v high elo, or my win/loss ratio equalizes.
MoM isn't for initiating, its for farming and solo ganking against squishies.
Just be aware that while charging you are not magic immune, good players will simply stun/snare you out of your charge and leave you somewhat helpless.
I almost always go Mask of Madness on Spirit Breaker - the main reason is that the increased swings land you more stuns. The increased health you gain compensates for the 30% extra damage. As far as Stout Shield, I usually get the poor man's shield with SB; it's cheap enough not to drain the budget but still gives you that extra degree of survivability that lets you ignore creep damage early on, and if I make it to the end game, then I'll sell it when I need the slot.
I also skip the tranquil boots and go straight for treads; to me the most efficient path is to buy stuff that can build into other things, and I'd rather have the extra salve to begin with versus the RoP.
I find that when I pick spirit breaker, I might get a couple early kills, but the enemy team very quickly starts to run as 5. MoM being good for ganking doesn't really have a chance to payoff, because by the time I could finish one most of the fights will be team fights, unless I am lucky enough to find a lone jungler.
And for the most part, charge stun + ultimate is enough to gank any squishy, MoM just feels like a luxury item. If anything, I'd rather have an urn, as an urn charge is a nice easy way to get a little extra damage on a fleeing enemy.
Like I said, I feel like MoM doesn't have a good place in my games. If it is an easy solo gank, the target dies fast after charge/auto attack/ult, MoM isn't needed. And if it's a team-fight, I'll get a charge or two and an ult but I won't have much time to auto attack because the enemy team will focus and cc me.
I could see it working in a game where the enemy team is disorganized enough that I can catch lone enemies well into mid and late game, or a game where I just need to counter one farming carry... maybe I'll try it next time I get into one of those... but most of the games I played involved very turtle style group-running enemy teams.
I think vlad's is just too good of a support item to skip. The bonus damage armor and lifesteal aura is great for enhancing your team overall, and as a personal boost it's about as good as helm of the dominator. Since I plan to build a vlad's later, I'll need that ring of prot and ring of regen. Tranquil boots are just a completely free early game item.
I've tried skipping them, but since it didn't really save me any time on building my real items it just made the lane phase a little more annoying with no gain to offset. I suppose if I had an ally building vlads I wouldn't bother, though.
I usually build an urn on him, works pretty well for the extra health/damage + mana regen + a heal when you need it.
I have to disagree with the rest of your build though, as Juddog the name of SB's game is attack speed.
More AS = More bashes, and less the enemy can do to disable you. Especially 1 vs 1.
That's why treads are much better than tranquil boots on him and why MoM is better than Vlad's.
I usually build Poor man shield, urn, treads, MoM and then either AC/S&Y or BKB depending the enemy team and how much farm I'm getting. If I have tons of money MKB.
For SB, I almost always urn. MoM first on complete pub stomps, BKB usually first if other team actually knows what they're doing and has adequate counters. I usually don't bother with the stout, and if I do get one it almost never get's upgraded to a poor man's. It really could help a lot with diving though, and even though the agility is sort of a waste of 300g at least the attack speed is very useful to SB.