Tensei

For the record, I would have done a lot better that game if I hadn't gotten a hero I had never played before.

eternalZero, I have friended your smurf account but I don't know what your main account is. I'd definitely be interested in playing with you sometime, since I'm still looking to improve. Anyway, to everyone concerned, sorry about acting like a bit of a dick in our game earlier. I understand it's annoying when you're new to the game and you get killed over and over again, but you have to remember my connection is often terrible (2 second response times for my hero sometimes), so in times when my connection is actually good I really want to make the most of it, and being told to 'go easy on us and stop runewhoring' etc. can be very frustrating in turn, given that it's relatively rare that I can play unhindered. That said, I do think it can be beneficial to play against someone more experienced as long as you try to find out why they're exactly doing that well (I've been there myself in my matches against c3lly and donut). Sure, I can hold back and just keep on last-hitting instead of constantly harassing you with every nuke I have because you're low on health and far away from your tower, but that's not something that would happen in a 'real' game. And yes, I guess I can stop runewhoring, but you could also just get a bottle yourself and counter-runewhore or try to ambush me while I'm out of position.

I was only half-serious, but my point is if I want to practice pipe bombs and pipe bombs only, I don't go to the OCR server because I won't be a lot of help to my team without stickies.

No, you go to a server with TR_Walkway

Did some reading up about Pharaoh. Actually I think he should be alright with laning due to his decent strength gain and the nuke which he can use to last-hit/harass (though not too much because of his low mana-pool). As it is now, in midgame, the ult into mummies into hellfire chain should be able to take out most heroes in 1v1. The low mana pool shouldn't really be an issue once you've farmed up your bottle and you're running ganking and refilling it with runes. Another interesting use for his nuke seems to be long-distance lane pushing, i.e. targeting creep waves without being anywhere near them. The wall of mummies can probably be used as an escape mechanism as well, by blocking off a chokepoint with it then hitting one mummy to get out of it (it actually takes three hits to take down a mummy for everyone but the pharaoh). Hellfire seems to do damage to based on how many targets there are around (similar to moonqueen's ult?), so it can do up to 1120 damage on level 4 to a single target. I should try him out some time, he seems interesting.

Not anymore. His nuke is very useful due to the infinite range as you can use it to scout and help with runewhoring. Also I haven't played him, but isn't his ult something like a blink? I think his main role is to be a midgame ganker as he can pretty easily roam/runewhore and disable people. Not really comparable to tanky or support heroes IMO, though I will conceed that Magmus seems like more or less the same hero, except more powerful.

Protip: Don't join pub games until you at least somewhat understand the game. If you say you're new/rusty in one of our inhouse games nobody will yell at you and will most likely try to help you as much as possible. The DotA pub community has, as I understand it, always been that shitty.

Voodoo Jester still in the garbage tier makes me sad.

As a Soulstealer you really want to rush either portal key or assassin's shroud (If you're playing a bit more of a low-level pub game where they probably won't ward) right after boots, because due to the nature of your ult it does more damage the closer you are to the enemy, so positioning is very important there. Shrunken head would probably be the next logical step. Of course he's a decent carry as well due to his insanely high base dps with maxed out soulsteal, so getting shieldbreaker and maybe wingbow after shrunken head is great too. Edit: NEW UPDATE Looks like they've added a new Hellbourne strength hero, Maliken, as well as a bunch of new items (about 5 I think). The Logger's Hatchet looks interesting as it boosts your melee damage against non-heroes by 32% and allows you to cut down trees and only costs 225 gold. Edit: Played with Maliken a bit, here are my thoughts. This guy ROCKS. His nuke hits multiple targets, slows, and can be used as a blink (by pressing Q again as soon as the projectile is in flight). He has toggle-able lifedrain that reduces his damage but heals for a set amount (Each hit heals 40 on level 4), which is awesome for laning as he rarely needs to visit the fountain. He can also boost his damage at the cost of taking damage himself, every time he hits. He has a passive ability that increases his chance to crit based on how low his HP is (0.75% to crit for every 1% of health you're missing, meaning that if you keep him around 60% health, he'll have a very healthy 30% crit chance). Finally, his ult..just wow. 2 seconds of AoE disable at level 16, coupled with his blink ability. Oh and did I mention he gets a massive boost to attack speed and his attack becomes ranged with splash damage for 30 seconds? All that for a measly 100 mana and on a 90 second cooldown. I believe he is meant to play as a tank-like STR carry, but his slowing nuke/blink makes him suitable for early ganking as well, while his ult easily allows him to push a lane. I didn't even farm up any damage items (went for steamboots, insanitarius, behemoth's heart and shrunken head) and he had 3.5k hp and about 300 auto-attack damage on level 20, while having insanitarius and the self-damaging DPS booster skill on all the time without losing HP.

Arek, I think you're exaggerating stuff a bit. When I say something like "Well if Donut had played a carry we probably would have won." after a match, that's not something I say just to kiss his ass, but it's just a very reasonable assumption, given the previous matches I've played with him.

Ah well in that case it doesn't really matter I guess, I thought S2 had set up something like that, but if it isn't official (yet?) then I can wait. As for scout BUT OMG SNIPE+CODEX+VANISHBACKSTAB IS SO IMBA

Wow wow wow, hold it right there, buddy. Replay Site? Moar info plz. Also I noticed zircon tends to get really silly items on his heroes in general (Mock of brilliance on scout?), but I never really comment on it since so far I've only seen it happen when we're rolling the other team anyway.

I still maintain we could play a good 5v5 as long as we don't end up with dumb stuff like fivre being AFK half the time, or not being able to trade Soulstealer for Accursed, resulting in Arek playing with a really hard hero.

iirc Keeper can actually get up to quite a lot of dps with his auto-attack if you get the nature's wrath ability (or whatever it's called, the third one where he uses a tree), though he can't really be played as a carry I guess. Due to his stealth+ ult, he's an AMAZING initiator, on par with behemoth + portal key, and the eyes are invaluable, especially for earlygame runewhoring. Some thoughts on two underplayed heroes (I rarely see them used), Hellbringer and Devourer. These guys RULE, both are at least A-class IMO. They both take some skill to play, however (Hellbringer needs to micro Malphas, Devourer needs good aim with Hook). Devourer is a great ganker/tank/lategame pusher: his Hook-attack has 1000 (!) range, does 400 damage on level four, and pulls any enemy you hit with it towards you. Unfortunately it's not targeted, but rather aimed (Similar to Soulstealer's nuke), and will pull the first thing it finds on it's way, so careful positioning/aim is required, but it allows for RIDICULOUS ganks, i.e. pulling someone off/onto a cliff or through the trees. In addition, devourer essentially has a free triple mock of brilliance on him (100 magic damage per second to stuff around him, including himself), which can be kept on indefinitely once you have the magic armor/regeneration to nullify the damage to self (Shaman Headdress+ Behemoth's Heart). Have I mentioned it doesn't cost any mana? Hellbringer on the other hand is a pretty awesome support character/earlygame ganker. He has a slow and a pretty nasty DoT nuke so he can provide some great pressure in the early-game. His signature ability is mana void, which reduces magic armor (synergy with his fire-based ultimate) and makes it so that any damage the units affected by mana void take is added to his HP. This allows him to lane really really well since he can forego all healing items. His ult can be gamebreaking in midgame; Malphas can kick some serious ass and takes down towers in the matter of a few seconds with his firebreath. Malphas+ Mana Void+ Slow+ DoT Nuke can turn a gank around in a few seconds as the massed fire damage on the enemy hero completely heals you. Edit: ^^^^ Well if you're talking about farming neutral creeps and taking damage, that means you're probably playing legionnaire (or predator?), since every other jungling/neutralfarming hero I can think of will have something to tank for him (Tempest, Ophelia, Warbeast). I still think HotBL is unnecessary, even on a jungling legionnaire. If you open with a buckler and healing/mana, then go for lifetube into shaman headdress, then for portal key or even behemoth's heart right away (in case you won't be initiating, which is silly because legionnaire is a great initiator), you should have no trouble with creep farming and you'll get your portal key/heart really really quickly. You shouldn't be taking damage from creeps in lanes, ever. Even when pushing, the standard strategy is to wait for your own creep wave to tank the damage, then dispatch the enemy creeps asap. Also, you'd be surprised by how much time people spend in 'ganking-mode' in midgame. That's exactly the reason why you can't really solo-farm a lane anymore after a certain amount of time, because people will be on the look-out for easy targets and generally just sticking together to either push a tower or gank someone. Tanks are meant to tank damage. Not chase people. Don't get Hack and Slash on a tanking hero :/ Edit: I suppose Zephyr will be taking SOME damage while jungling, but you really should just be microing him well, so that his tornado's hit a lot while you're kiting enemies. He can also use his own tornadoes to heal so health regen shouldn't be a very big issue with him.

I still have to disagree about the usefulness of Hack and Slash and HotBL. Shaman Headdress is superior on a tank to HotBL because it provides lots of magic armor. For the first half of the game, physical attacks shouldn't be an issue at all, as the majority of the ganks will be done by nukes. My usual build on tanky heroes is something like marchers->headdress (starting with lifetube)->steamboots/e.marchers-> behemoth's heart HotBL never really fits into an item build IMO, as there are certain items that are more geared towards specific heroes (insanitarius being a prime example of an underrated item). The same goes for Hack and Slash really. It gives lots of little bonuses which look good on paper, but in the end, as an AGI carry (which I assume H&S is geared towards), it's just much more efficient to pump the money into a shieldbreaker or wingbow for raw carry power. Lategame, Heroes like Arachna/Moon Queen will be able to solo most of the enemy team with insane dps from wingbow and shieldbreaker, which is what you always should be striving for as a carry. Getting HnS inbetween just delays this a lot.

Grabbing a bottle first is fine in lower-level games but you have to ask someone else to ward the runes and be on top of that shit all the time. I personally still prefer +stats, runes, mana and a courier-> bottle once you've farmed up 600. To be honest I think both helm of the black legion and slash or hack and slash are pretty bad items, and overpriced for what they do. For only a bit more money than Hack & Slash you can get a Wingbow, which is infinitely more superior. HotBL just has way better/cheaper alternatives if you're looking for health regen and tanking power (Most notably Shaman Headdress, magic armor is very important early game). Both aren't really necessary on any hero IMO.

While I understand it's frustrating to get killed over and over again, I think 'learning' the game is mostly about finding a hero that suits your playing style. After relatively unsuccesfully trying out Pollywog Priest, Electrician and Pestilence, I finally settled on Arachna, and it suddenly felt really easy to play her. Currently, she's probably the hero I'm best at. I honestly don't think there's that much of a skill gap, clef, I mean, we've all been playing for barely a week. Overall, I think it would help you to stay close to your teammates after you reach level 8~ (depends on the hero, obviously), because that tends to be the stage where the teams will usually stop farming and will start pushing towers or ganking people. The minimap also helps a ton; if you can't see any of the enemy heroes, it's probably in your best interest to play conservatively and stay close to your teammates/towers. Edit: and yeah, C3lly was unfortunately not really playing seriously that game, but the times that he did play 'seriously', listening to him and watching him(whether he was on the same team or the opposite team) really helped me to improve with stuff like positioning etc.

It's absolutely imperative that you stay in your lane for as long as possible at the start. If I'm able to bully you out of my lane ( and you best believe I'm going to try my hardest to do that ) and you have to go heal at the fountain, I get a good minute of free farming xp and gold. Advantage right there. Also, consider hero roles. If your lane buddy is a semi-carry/carry and you're support, you should focus on denying and harassing the enemy heroes in your lane (Just take some pot-shots at them with your auto-attack). DON'T try to score last hits unless it's obvious your buddy can't get to them anyway. Obviously you won't be farming as much gold or XP, but guess what, you don't need to be high leveled with 10k worth of items in the endgame, the carry does.

Sure, PM me his e-mail. First come first serve I guess. If you want to get into OCR games, post your account name/ingame handle here so someone can add you to their friends list and send you a clan invite once you're online. This goes for anyone who wants to play with us by the way. Edit: Another helpful tutorial vid. I think Scout is kind of like a Spy in TF2, in that he can have tons of kills, 0 deaths, and still be relatively useless to his team.

Last night's 3v3 was pretty much the best 3v3 I've played so far (still can't really compare it to the awesome 5v5s we've had though). It took over an hour and both me and zircon were completely maxed out on both items and levels. I have one beta invite left by the way. A few semi-helpful vids for new players:

Same difference!

Blood Hunter doesn't have any disables or slows really. His ult can be negated by quickly hitting H and either slapping him back in the face (He has pretty low hp for most of the game, being an agility-type. If he cast his silence on you before his ult then it's even better because he just boosted your damage output by at least 20%) or just using a homecoming stone if things start to look messy, and he won't be able to do anything to prevent you from teleporting out. Arachna or Pestilence are way better at chasing IMO since they both have a very powerful slow/disable. Pestilence's speed buff and low cooldown on his AoE stun allow him to easily chase down anything and interrupt spellcasting. On an unrelated note: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRtMdPWvP8A&fmt=18

I know, but it's still haunting my dreams, okay?

AP results in Donut picking magmus and c3lly picking behemoth and anso picking torturer EVERY. SINGLE. GAME. Though I have to admit, sometimes there's a hero I have tried out in practice mode and now want to use in a real game, so in those cases I'd like to have AP, but ah well. Oh, and this should probably go into the OP, but: If you're new, be sure to post your ingame handle in this thread. Me or some other clan officer will add you to our friends list and send you an invite as soon as you're online. After accepting the invite, log out and back in again and you should be in the clan chat.

I have 3 invites atm. PM me your e-mail address and I'll send one your way. Also, no respawn timer rule? Just get killed less. Dying is MEANT to set you back, especially early on while laning, since you'll miss out on quite a few seconds of farming. I think faction restrictions can be interesting, but I'm still partial to Single Draft myself.