zircon

Depends on the character and how much gold you start with. The only thing you NEED for ANY character is some kind of healing item. If your HP drops too low, you are in danger of a gank (even at level 1), and thus you are useless. So, you need healing items to survive. Even the simple Runes of Blight (90 gold) are sufficient, as they will restore about 333 hp total - a good rate of return. A health potion is 100 gold, healing 400 hp, but it will go away if you get hit. I prefer the Runes. If your character is in for some hardcore laning - ie. Pollywog Priest, Thunderbringer, Arachna or some other good solo character - then you will want *extra* healing items, possibly mana too. If you get enough consumables you may be able to lane until level 6 or 7 without returning to town, giving you a dominant gold and XP advantage. If you're any other character, usually getting stat items is good, as has been mentioned. If you started with ~1k gold you might want to get the +15% attack speed gloves, as it will help you last hit better with *any* character and put you closer to steamboots too. Remember that at the outset it's not necessary to complete the recipe for your +6/+3/+3 item.. you can get the +2/+2/+2 item (2x) and a +3 item, and then complete the recipe on your next trip. The very first thing on your list when you return to town for the first time should be Marchers, almost without question. Not long after that, you want a Homecoming Stone, as well as a replenished stock of consumables if you're still going to be laning for a bit. After that, you have much more flexibility. Some general tips, based on my experience... * If your team has the advantage, use this opportunity to save up for awesome, expensive items. * If you're dying a lot, or your team is losing, you are probably gaining less gold and are at constant risk of losing what you do have. Buy smaller items that will be beneficial immediately. Getting a Wingbow right as your team loses is not helpful. * Basically any character can benefit from the Boots recipes. Which you get is up to you, though Post Haste is a bit of a luxury. Enhanced Marchers should be for slower characters and those with little stun/slow capabilities, while Steamboots are better if you can already chase or escape without a problem (ie. you have a teleport, self-dispel, etc.) * Slash is a great, cost-effective offense item. Worth getting even earlier on as it can be combined with Hack to get Hack & Slash, a great damage-dealer item. * Helm of the Black Legion is good, but you may be better off saving for Behemoth's Heart, which is considerably better (scales better, too.) Behemoth's is basically the best defensive item in the game because it adds such massive HP and regeneration. * Know your character role when choosing items. Are you Legionnaire? Behemoth? Almost any other STR char? Please stop buying damage items. You are naturally suited to tank, so let the AGI chars on your team focus on damage. Are you support? Get defensive items, disables and mana regeneration. Don't get damage items. * Some classes are less item-dependent than others. Know your abilities. If your skills are all based on set damage, then focus on defensive items or mana augmentation. This would include characters like Pyromancer, Thunderbringer, Pollywog Priest, Valkyrie, etc. Conversely, characters like Arachna, Chronos and Predator need to enhance their damage through items to be effective. In some ways this means that playing INT characters is often easier than playing non-INT characters, since a good Defiler with no items can still do exactly as much damage as a good Defiler with tons of items, and a lot more damage than a Moon Queen with no items.

There are a number of reasons why one mix gets posted and another doesn't. * The mix corresponds with an event or a person - a remixer's birthday, a recent project release, a new product by a remixer (cough), etc. * Newcomer mix vs. established remixer (could go either way), or an old subbed mix is by a remixer with a lot of recent mixes * Too many mixes from the same game, in the same style, or using the same source tune * Dave personally prefers one over another

Some advice on teamfights. There are a few GENERAL roles your character can play. 1. Initiator. These are usually STR heroes that have good damage mitigation and/or high HP. YOU must be the one to start the fight, meaning you throw out the first attack and you put yourself first into enemy territory. Because you are going to be the first one in plain sight, you are going to get focus-fired, hence why you want good defensive abilities. The best Initiators have AOE stuns, AOE damage, and/or teleports, some of which can be obtained with items. Examples: Electrician, Kraken, Behemoth, Magmus, Legionnaire. 2. Disabler. Your primary purpose is to stun, sleep or otherwise nullify enemy heroes. You need to coordinate with your team to pick a hero to disable first. Since team fights are big, you will often disable one target and attack another target. Why? Think about it... say there are 5 characters. If you disable one and attack the disabled one, you are receiving 4 characters worth of attacks the entire time. However, if you disable one character and attack another of the 5, then you will very quickly turn those 4 simultaneous attacks into THREE. So, again, coordinate. Examples: Succubus, Pollywog Priest, Glacius. 3. Damage. Every character can do damage, but these guys are usually AGI or INT heroes with high-power instant nukes and ultimates. You are basically going to unload as much as you can without overkilling the target. You want to end lives as quickly as possible and COORDINATE with other damage dealers, as well as your disabler. Examples: Moon Queen, Blood Hunter, Pyromancer, Scout, Thunderbringer. 4. Support. Though you might have some damage or disable ability, you have the extra role of watching over your teammates, either through protective spells, dispells (removing debuffs), heals or auras. Examples: Jereziah, Accursed, Nymphora, Demented Shaman. 5. Chaser. Almost all characters can chase in some way, but some characters are really good at it. If you have significant movement-enhancing abilities, huge snares, and/or teleports, you should be the one to chase down a dying opponent. The whole team doesn't need to chase down one guy, especially if the conflict is still happening. Examples: Scout, Blood Hunter, Arachna. Know your role and STICK TO IT. If you're a damage dealer or disabler, don't initiate fights. If you're a support character, stop trying to do damage and heal. No matter what, coordination is needed, so LISTEN to your teammates, and if there isn't a clear order of who should die first, you'd better propose one. --- There is no specific rule for what kind of character to kill or disable first. It really depends on who you are fighting. However, generally, damage dealers are the most lethal of all and should probably die before anything else. For example, if the opposing team is Succubus and a bunch of STR heroes, you don't need to worry about 1000 damage in an AOE, so you can target Succubus first. On the other hand, if it's Succubus and Pyromancer, Pyromancer is potentially more lethal... so go for him. The other general rule is to not try and kill high HP characters first. They should be disabled or ignored.

One reason we didn't bring back the RRR initially is because the new OCRtist spotlight will feature at least one full song from the artist being interviewed. Considering this will often be a song that isn't new at all, we figured it would be a good replacement. Only reason we didn't play a song all the way through on #68 is because the interview was also a project director interview so we had a lot of clips to play. Still, we'll take all feedback into consideration...

Actually, don't sell yourself short. That game, you had one semi-AFK player, but even considering that you got a good amount of kills. That's why we wanted you dead so much

Unfortunately iTunes doesn't really support free downloads. Independent artists can get their music on it, but iTunes basically determines the pricing for you unless you have a LOT of leverage. They only do free downloads for promotional purposes, and only then, it's rare. So, it's not feasible to do anything through the iTunes Store.

So amazing, I love this one. Only thing I would suggest is an even bigger, more monstrous bass.

The game itself is not too hard to be good at. The absolute, most IMPORTANT thing I can possibly emphasize is to NOT DIE. Dying is the worst thing you can do in the game. When you die, it: * Immediately hurts you, by making you lose gold. * Benefits the enemy team, giving them gold AND experience. * Hurts your ability to gain XP/gold by making you wait to revive and then walk back. * Makes it easier for the enemy team to win the game. Early deaths are especially bad since gold is in short supply. You need to always watch your HP and the enemy distances/MP like a hawk. Do they have Magmus? Arachna? Characters that can easily slow/stun from a distance? Instant nukes? THEN DO NOT HANG AROUND FOR XP WITHOUT HEALING ITEMS. The reward of getting one last hit or kill is not worth the risk of dying. Speaking of healing items, always (and I do mean always) buy at least a few healing items at the start. I don't care who your hero is. Being forced to run back all the way to base at level 2 or 3 because you didn't bring healing items is *almost* as bad as dying. You're simply giving the enemy more XP and gold (since you can't deny) and hurting your own ability to grow. The 90 gold runes are an excellent choice - just remember that they don't have a huge effect, so you need to start using them once you've lost even just 200 hp or so. Lastly, when it comes to killing enemy heroes, trades are OFTEN worth it. For example, say you're playing a ranged nuker. Your enemy hero is running from you, and almost dead. It is better to chase them and kill them than to run away. If you run, all your effort (wasted HP/mana) was for nothing. If you kill them, you will probably die to tower/creeps too, but you got the XP and they didn't.

Couple new thoughts; Kraken - C tier. His base stats and gains are nothing special, his passive is pretty useless overall, and while his charge is a pretty good escape/distance closer, his abilitie are generally too weak. He only has a small window where he can really shine earlier in the game, when Drench still does good damage. Whirlpool is absolutely hilarious but it has such a long casting time, and it telegraphs so much, that it's hard to really use properly. Definitely a playable hero, but not very godo. Dark Lady - B. The silence -> dash attack thing is pretty cool, but she's rather fragile overall and just never seems to do a lot of damage. Not bad overall, but there are a lot of better Agi heroes.

I'm going to go ahead and say Scout is A or S-tier. His combo of vanish/ultimate/vanish/backstab is basically a guaranteed 700-800+ damage shot that also slows, and can be set up both easily and frequently. He can escape from any situation very easily and is surprisingly tough to kill even if you do trap him (evasion.) Because he's so fast, I found it pretty easy to get gold with him, as I could jump between lanes and neutral creeps, thus keeping up my damage output even into the late game, where his ultimate becomes a bit less effective. I thought I was going to have a really hard time with him, but actually, he's a lot of fun!

Absolutely! We'd love to have you and your bro. Is he a nerd too? Hooray I dunno about that zucchini cake though....

Happy birthday Doug!!

By the way, I still maintain that Blood Hunter is a really, really awesome hero. Is ANYONE better at chasing than he is? He's got a long-range nuke that deals massive damage the more the target runs, he has high base speed, and passively increased speed to boot. Not to mention a silencing DOT. Dude is awesome.

Decided to create a discounted 2-CD digital bundle for Antigravity and Impulse Prime, now that they're both "Best Techno" winners http://zirconmusic.com/store/bundles-and-combos/best-techno-bundle/ Thanks for the kudos, folks!

Yeah, I'm not complaining at all, just pointing out the obvious power differences in heroes. Not saying you can't win as any of them, or that any of them can't suck. But again, if you want to play a damage soaker/support str hero, Accursed is basically a worse choice than Jereziah in almost every respect. If you want big stun/trap potential, Pharaoh is OK, but Behemoth owns him. After playing War Beast again, I have no idea what tier he is. He's REALLY hard to play, but as a support character he has absolutely insane auras/buffs.. +25% base damage and +25% attack speed, as well as a +44 damage shout. However, if you can't micro like hell, he's too hard to play, since he has absolutely no stuns. The only way to get an advantage is to micro the dogs. Anyway, Arek, stop being an ass; MANY of us only just got this game days ago (and had never played DotA previously), and thus don't know EVERY ability of EVERY hero. That's why this kind of discussion is helpful. It didn't occur to any of us that our team had no stuns until we were well into the game.

Powerlord pretty much covered what I would have said. "You can't trick something that isn't human" isn't really an apt argument either. Like it or not, we use terms like 'trick' all the time when it comes to computers! ie. Your browser can be "tricked" into trusting a bad security certificate, for example. Also, those definitions of exploit are very clearly different than the definitions traditionally used for computer games, so THAT semantical argument ALSO doesn't work. An 'exploit' in a game is something that the code technically allows, but goes against the intention of the designers & programmers, usually conferring an advantage to the player that cannot be achieved through the course of intended gameplay under the same circumstances. An idling program falls under that definition perfectly, because while Valve's code certainly allows it (you're not "hacking" their code, technically), it's very clearly not intended and confers the advantage of being able to get items without actually playing the game. An analogy would be in Street Fighter, if there were some combination of button inputs that caused your opponent to disconnect (and for you to get a win for the match.) That "ability" is obviously not supposed to be part of gameplay, but it's technically allowed in the game code. So if players actually use it to farm wins, that would be an exploit (or perhaps, cheating via an exploit.) Another example would be in a game like Diablo II, where you could duplicate (dupe) items by going through an elaborate process that basically involved desynchronizing the server by using a specific combination of in-game and meta-game (battle.net-related) actions. Any one of those actions was perfectly legal, ie. creating and leaving games, or dropping various amounts of gold on the ground. It's just that when you combined them in a certain way, it became an exploit that gave you the advantage of unlimited items, something not intended by the designers. I've actually coded a number of multiplayer games myself, from scratch, that relied on persistent mechanics like this. I had to deal with players using exploits all the time. It's extraordinarily frustrating, because you expect players to have the brain to tell what the difference between intended and unintended is, but evidently they don't, in any genre of game. I don't just post to see my own text on the screen. Stop being a dick.

I'd say that exploiting the game in order to gain benefits in a way unintended by the developers (and, in fact, without even playing the game at all) is cheating without needing any sort of external definition. Furthermore, something can be cheating even when there's a negligible impact on gameplay, so I'm not sure why that's contradictory. Also, enough with the "victimless crime" stuff. Valve is a private company, they can do whatever they want with their users. If the users don't like it, they can go elsewhere.

Updated Tiers (again, all this is just in my personal opinion, but it would be fun to maintain this as a group) Definitions: God Tier - Clearly overpowered, weaknesses are too few compared to strengths, overwhelming in more situations than not. S - Strengths outweigh weaknesses, numerous big advantages. A - Very good hero all-around. Balanced strengths and weaknesses. B - Solid hero, but does not have a truly strong advantage. C - Can be powerful, but overall outshined by the upper tiers. Garbage - No or very little reason to use this hero, obviously needs buffs. Too weak in too many situations. God Tier - Behemoth, Magmus, Jereziah S - Legionnaire, Madman, Blood Hunter, Swiftblade, Moon Queen, Defiler, Thunderbringer A - Pollywog Priest, Arachna, Andromeda, Predator, Succubus, Devourer, Torturer, Electrician B - Glacius, Blacksmith, Slither, Night Hound C - Armadon, Chronos, Accursed, Scout Garbage - Voodoo Jester, Pharaoh Any player can win and be good with any hero, of course, but for example, why pick Night Hound when you could use Swiftblade? Why use Glacius when you could use Thunderbringer? Why use Accursed when Jereziah is basically just the same, but better? It's really bad in some cases. For example, Accursed's heal spell does either 250 healing or 250 damage to a single target. It also damages Accursed when he uses it. In comparison, Jereziah's heal restores 360 health AND does 360 damage in an AOE. And it doesn't hurt him at all. Uhh... OK, so Accursed's thing costs less mana and has a shorter range, but still; practically speaking, Jereziah's spell is just far superior. Another game-deciding factor is the viability of ultimates. Some heroes have ultimates that are 'good game' when you use them, so they are almost guaranteed a kill every 30-90 seconds (making them even stronger.) For example, Behemoth's ultimate, at level 4, does a hefty 285 damage AOE plus over 100 magic damage and a 1.5 second stun. As if that weren't good enough, it also gets +65 bonus damage per enemy creep or creep corpse. It is very common to have at least 4 creeps, if not more, in a battle area - toward the end, it can be more like 8-10. So, that's over 1,000 AOE damage plus stun, and it's VERY easy to set up. What does Pebbles, a similar Strength hero, have? Well, his ultimate debuffs himself (slows his attack speed), makes his melee damage somewhat better (probably canceled out by the slower speed), increases the range on one of his other spells, and the damage on one skill from about 60 to 100. Wow, what a godly ultimate. Despite the gaps in strength between some heroes, HoN seems like a very balanced game to me overall. My only complaint about design right now is that killing heroes confers too much of an advantage. Think about it - if you die, not only do you lose gold, you lose positioning, you give the enemy gold and XP, allow them to push more easily (putting them closer to victory), AND your ability to gain gold/XP and maintain positioning is diminished. That's why a level advantage earned early on often doesn't change.

Agreed on Electrician. Glacius is interesting. I'd put him in S tier. Gives GLOBAL passive buff to regen, but more importantly, he just has a great mixup of abilities. Very good caster to have.

If you have someone to play it with, River City Ransom is AWESOME. On the surface, it looks like a standard sidescrolling brawler. In actuality, it's really quite deep. It has a stat progression and skill system allowing you to customize your character(s), add new moves, hold items in your inventory, etc. Kinda like Castle Crashers, but.. 20 years earlier Anyway, the style of graphics and humor is also fantastic. The world is free-roaming meaning you can go back to areas you've already been to, explore around, etc. Two player just makes it way more fun. RCR lets you throw basically ANYTHING at ANYTHING, including enemies and your allies, and beating up people with punches and kicks is incredibly satisfying. One word of warning - watch out for the tire

I dunno, I don't see a reason to play him as opposed to, say, Behemoth, Magmus, or Legionnaire. That's why I put him at a low tier. He's not garbage, but a lot of other characters have abilities as good or better, and better invulns/escapes/armor. Torturer is probably a solid A. Great all-around nuker. Legionnaire IMO is also A. His execute is crazy earlier on (and even later on to an extent) but relies on items to get himself in, and, well, again he's good but why play him when you can play Behemoth or Magmus? I'd also knock down Arachna from S to maybe A, now that I've played against her more. Her snares are still good, but I dunno, just doesn't seem as strong now. Jereziah probably goes in S tier as a support guy for obvious reasons. Another S would be Thunderbringer. Though he doesn't have much in the way of stuns, his raw burst damage is nuts as an INT char. I definitely don't think Scout is garbage. If anything I might move Chronos to garbage because he takes so long to get good. Scout at least is good at what his name says, and for ambushes and ganking he seems nuts. One problem with our game was that we were generally underleveled, so your Scout never got to boost his damage and really hang in there.

Congratulations Karl! I have to ask, how tall is she? Is this going to be one of those funny marriages where the wife is like 5'2 while you're 6'6?

God Tier - Magmus. He's a lot like Behemoth... lots of stuns, lots of damage. Not quite as much burst damage, but the stun into ulti combo is insane.

Can someone explain what "carry" is? A lot of these new player guides talk about it, but no one really defines it. Also, the new player guides are extremely helpful. I didn't know that you get xp just for being around enemy kills - I thought you had to damage them!!

My updates after matches tonight; A Tier - Devourer. Dude is a great ganker, but tricky to play. Hook gets caught on too much stuff. Still, as a solo char he's pretty amazing. B Tier - Blacksmith. Solid skills, including a dmg + stun and can eventually do massive damage... but he takes awhile to really get effective.