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[Pai Pai Master]

Hell yes.

 

[Aselith]

Got my first rare drop finally! WOOOOOO! It was Horns of the Peacebringer.

 

[IceMarker]

http://www.lancraftwc3.com/2012/08/dota-15-transformation-pack.html

Cool thanks!

 

[Pai Pai Master]

6.75 Spirit Breaker looks like he'll be a lot of fun. I'm assuming you would max the charge first now, then Greater Bash?

And MoM more viable on him now with the additonal move speed % and Greater Bash synergy? Or is it still an awful idea in most situations?

 

[Drkirby]

I'm not sure, I was thinking of level 1 in Charge, maxing Bash first, and leaving haste for last. You have to remember, when charging, spirit breaker is actually moving at 650+, and he bashes anything he runs though, making it a giant nuke if he goes for a person in the back.

I honestly always thought Spirit breaker was one of the few people MoM really worked well on, but you can't really use it in a major team fight, only in small engagements, or when cleaning up after the initial clash.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

Yeah, he really is the only hero I've ever seriously built it on...I'm still not familiar with all the item changes though so I dunno if there's something for him now that would work better, like the new Armlet.

I love that the patch is changing so many heroes that I just haven't been playing much. Looking forward to playing a lot more SB, Doom, Sven and Razor. And shotgun OD.

Edit: Holy crap Orb of Venom got even cheaper...should try it out on SB.

 

[JustinBB7]

Tobi starting an hour earlier, mouz vs kharkiv!

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

How exactly does Fatal Bonds work? I can't seem to land bunch of them.

 

[JustinBB7]

How exactly does Fatal Bonds work? I can't seem to land bunch of them.

You put it on 1 and it links to others.

 

[Anbokr]

my friends playing dota 1 say zet is insanely imba.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

my friends playing dota 1 say zet is insanely imba.

The changes in 6.75b definitely seemed needed. I don't think we'll be seeing this guy in CM for a long time. Anyone have any impressions of Winter Wyvern? Zet is certainly the more bombastic new hero but I haven't really seen anyone talking about the other one.

 

[TheThunder]

Let's talk about damage items for a second, there are a lot of end game damage items, each with their own stats and special ability but I don't know what to get a lot of the times. I know it really depends on your hero and what the other team heroes are and what are they building, but it would be nice to have general guidelines or tips to what item is more suiting for what situation.


So as a strength hero here are the damage items that I see or consider to build later on:

-Monkey King Bar
-Daedalus
-Abyssal Blade
-Desolator
-Heaven's Halberd
-Mjollnir
-Satanic

I left out items like Battle Fury and Radiance since they seemed more like farming items while the Divine Rapier always looked like a "gtfo my game, this how hard I'm owing you"

I tend to build the MKP a lot since it looks like a "vanilla" damage item and would work in almost all situations.

 

[Drkirby]

The changes in 6.75b definitely seemed needed. I don't think we'll be seeing this guy in CM for a long time. Anyone have any impressions of Winter Wyvern? Zet is certainly the more bombastic new hero but I haven't really seen anyone talking about the other one.

The only thing I have heard is his ult completely rapes people like Brood Mother, Meepo, and Phantom Lancer. His 6 seconds of having 1450 range sounds really useful, I think MoM would be viable on him.

I wonder how far off these characters are, Valve is getting pretty close to all of CM being in.

 

[The Technomancer]

Are there heroes that aren't in CM for a reason?

 

[Pai Pai Master]

Are there heroes that aren't in CM for a reason?

A lot of the new heroes are admittedly not balanced enough for CM play. Ember Spirit for example, is still not in CM. It will take a few patches for these new guys to be considered viable for tournament play. It's just not a good idea to introduce new heroes and rush their entry into CM when he can get plenty of feedback from other games without breaking pro games.

 

[demidar]

What items you get are completely tied to what hero you are, but generally get damage items that would best fit with your abilities. For example get straight damage items on Kunkka (Phase Boots, Shadow Blade, Daedalus) and shun damage from strength and attack speed since your main attack damage comes from infrequent hardhitting critical Tidebringers. Illusion heroes like Chaos Knight and Naga Siren benefit most from stats as bonus attacks damage is not transferred to illusion (but stats do) so you get Butterfly, Heaven's Halberd, Satanic, etc. Abyssal if you're cash rich or if you're a carry without a good way to stop runners. MKB to counter heroes with dodge (and only then, wasted otherwise). Desolator to enhance armor reduction from a Hero's spells (BH's Track, Slardar's Amplify Damage, TA's Meld). Basically get things to enhance natural strengths of a specific hero.

 

[bzm]

Let's talk about damage items for a second, there are a lot of end game damage items, each with their own stats and special ability but I don't know what to get a lot of the times. I know it really depends on your hero and what the other team heroes are and what are they building, but it would be nice to have general guidelines or tips to what item is more suiting for what situation.


So as a strength hero here are the damage items that I see or consider to build later on:

-Monkey King Bar
-Daedalus
-Abyssal Blade
-Desolator
-Heaven's Halberd
-Mjollnir
-Satanic

I left out items like Battle Fury and Radiance since they seemed more like farming items while the Divine Rapier always looked like a "gtfo my game, this how hard I'm owing you"

I tend to build the MKP a lot since it looks like a "vanilla" damage item and would work in almost all situations.

As far as MKB vs daedalus is concerned, some nerd crunched the numbers awhile ago and it came out that for most of the time you could afford it (as in: what your damage and attack speed were [usually typical]) daedalus was the better buy for pure damage. I remember the threshold being way lower than in hon, but whatever.
There are situations in which you want to go mkb over any of those, though, namely if an enemy hero has evasion (PA, brew, windrunner, heroes with butterfly, etcetc). The bash doesn't get enough cred too, and the 0% uphill miss chance can be nice if you're playing sniper and your positioning isn't the best.

Satanic and heavens halberd I wouldn't even really consider damage items. Satanic is pretty much pure survivability and hh is more utility based.

As for the remaining three it depends on what you need. Mjol gives a bunch of attack speed (which is often important for strength heroes, as they don't have the best innate attack speed), deso is good for pure, cheap damage output, and abyssal is kind of the lategame item -- the stun is awesome, but its pricey as fuck.

 

[Schweinehund]

6.75 Spirit Breaker looks like he'll be a lot of fun. I'm assuming you would max the charge first now, then Greater Bash?

And MoM more viable on him now with the additonal move speed % and Greater Bash synergy? Or is it still an awful idea in most situations?

Just spitballing it here, one point in charge, max bash, max aura then charge last.

Buildwise I think phase (or treads)/drums/yasha into s&y or maybe just manta, or s&y into halberd/manta (wouldn't really recommend doing this unless you're position 2/3). I use to think manta was disgusting on strength heroes but carry tiny changed my mind (CK also does this, but they both are special cases, not sure if SB will benefit nearly as much). BKB still viable, AC or Mjol for luxuries. I like yasha better than MoM because it gives you lots of attack speed + movement speed, and no drawbacks. I don't usually like S&Y but bara needs all the things the item provides so I have a hard time saying it's bad for him (its also 200g cheaper now).

Right now I usually build armlet/bkb/treads on him for my core. I think post patch he'll be very flexible and will fit the 2 slot pretty well. To reiterate, anything that gives attack speed or movement speed would be great on bara. Health items are also worth taking into consideration, he's going to be focused a lot.

 

[Forkball]

Just had a bizarre game as Warlock. The other team was #YOLO to the max and they mostly spoke in Tagalog. It was 5-0 in the enemy team's favor after about three minutes. Ursa laned with me (alarms going off right there) and kept going for kills, but he was so easily shackled by Shadow Shaman. He died a few times and eventually I even outleveled him. We also had a Bloodseeker with Force Staff. Luckily our teamfight was incredible and they really had nothing to counter that. We had so much of our stuff knocked down early, but we managed to come back and win after playing smart. I also leveled myself to where I'm just about to level up. Should be handy this week when the new items hit.

 

[1.09]

Let's talk about damage items for a second, there are a lot of end game damage items, each with their own stats and special ability but I don't know what to get a lot of the times. I know it really depends on your hero and what the other team heroes are and what are they building, but it would be nice to have general guidelines or tips to what item is more suiting for what situation.


So as a strength hero here are the damage items that I see or consider to build later on:

-Monkey King Bar
-Daedalus
-Abyssal Blade
-Desolator
-Heaven's Halberd
-Mjollnir
-Satanic

I left out items like Battle Fury and Radiance since they seemed more like farming items while the Divine Rapier always looked like a "gtfo my game, this how hard I'm owing you"

I tend to build the MKP a lot since it looks like a "vanilla" damage item and would work in almost all situations.

AC is a big pickup on most str dmg dealers, as the armor is more important on them then say a hard agi carry, and gives them some much needed - armor. Since they're str heroes, they're naturally tanky with good str buildup items like treads and drums, so they do enough right click, just don't click fast enough. Mjolnir is common, very few str carries actually go Daedalus or MKB (Can only think of Tiny and Kunkka).

Generally, the most prominent str carries in the game are CK, Lycan, Naix, DK, SK. The general trend with these heroes is to first build them up tanky, whether that be armlet, drums, treads, or whatever, then build attack speed items/bkb/bigger tanky items. Remember, as a strength carry you don't have the range or mobility that agi carries boast, but you do have the survivability. Thus, BKB is a must buy on these kind of heroes, and force staff/blink is a solid pickup on things like Slardar, SK, Naix.

 

[DonasaurusRex]

AC is a big pickup on most str dmg dealers, as the armor is more important on them then say a hard agi carry, and gives them some much needed - armor. Since they're str heroes, they're naturally tanky with good str buildup items like treads and drums, so they do enough right click, just don't click fast enough. Mjolnir is common, very few str carries actually go Daedalus or MKB (Can only think of Tiny and Kunkka).

Generally, the most prominent str carries in the game are CK, Lycan, Naix, DK, SK. The general trend with these heroes is to first build them up tanky, whether that be armlet, drums, treads, or whatever, then build attack speed items/bkb/bigger tanky items. Remember, as a strength carry you don't have the range or mobility that agi carries boast, but you do have the survivability. Thus, BKB is a must buy on these kind of heroes, and force staff/blink is a solid pickup on things like Slardar, SK, Naix.

i wouldnt build dragon knight as tanky, he's a ganker in a tanks body.

 

[Schweinehund]

i wouldnt build dragon knight as tanky, he's a ganker in a tanks body.

He's actually a dragon in knight's armor.

 

[TheThunder]

AC is a big pickup on most str dmg dealers, as the armor is more important on them then say a hard agi carry, and gives them some much needed - armor. Since they're str heroes, they're naturally tanky with good str buildup items like treads and drums, so they do enough right click, just don't click fast enough. Mjolnir is common, very few str carries actually go Daedalus or MKB (Can only think of Tiny and Kunkka).

Generally, the most prominent str carries in the game are CK, Lycan, Naix, DK, SK. The general trend with these heroes is to first build them up tanky, whether that be armlet, drums, treads, or whatever, then build attack speed items/bkb/bigger tanky items. Remember, as a strength carry you don't have the range or mobility that agi carries boast, but you do have the survivability. Thus, BKB is a must buy on these kind of heroes, and force staff/blink is a solid pickup on things like Slardar, SK, Naix.

I usually do pick up the AC but after getting one damage item. Good to know that I was at least doing something right because I always get the treads, drums and armlet, but I guess the MKP choice wasn't the best.

Funny you should mention the AC since that was going to be my next queastion, How do you know if you should get an AC (or Shivas) or a Heart ? I guess it's a question about how to know which is more important, more armor or a lot of HP at any given situation.

 

[shaowebb]

Oh God, the last bit with Bounty Hunter was hilarious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGoOV4_cS5o

LOL! Oh God the Bounty hunter and the attempt to flame him via chat backfiring! Im in tears... XD

 

[demidar]

I usually do pick up the AC but after getting one damage item. Good to know that I was at least doing something right because I always get the treads, drums and armlet, but I guess the MKP choice wasn't the best.

Funny you should mention the AC since that was going to be my next queastion, How do you know if you should get an AC (or Shivas) or a Heart ? I guess it's a question about how to know which is more important, more armor or a lot of HP at any given situation.

You want to build armour and health up together because they are multiplicative, that is each point in armour increases your health effectively by 6%. High health then adding some armour is better than just focusing on health or armor

 

[1stStrike]

The fails of the week videos are quite funny. Granted, some of it is still over my head since I don't know some of the heroes abilities yet and can't always tell what is going on, but I think my favorite moment is in episode 10 (I may be wrong on the ep) when Pudge hooks someone and ends up flying all the way across the map, into their base, and then getting killed by their spawn tower lol.

 

[The Technomancer]

The fails of the week videos are quite funny. Granted, some of it is still over my head since I don't know some of the heroes abilities yet and can't always tell what is going on, but I think my favorite moment is in episode 10 (I may be wrong on the ep) when Pudge hooks someone and ends up flying all the way across the map, into their base, and then getting killed by their spawn tower lol.

I think my favorite is a CM getting hooked by Pudge, and halfway through the drag she's hit by Clockwerk's hookshot, which causes him to get dragged and stuck in the trees where she was passing through.

Oooh, ooh, or Dark Seer vacuuming the enemy Tidehunter out of a Chronosphere, who promptly uses Ravage and turns the fight.

 

[q_q]

I love fails of the week but have you guys seen the most recent one where the Naga uses her ult to ruin Veno's ult. It seemed like that one had to be a troll, not a fail. She uses the ult right as his goes off and then ends it right as the poison wears off the other team.

 

[Archie]

TalkDota in 5 minutes. SirScoots will be on and mai husbando Puppey will be discussing 6.75.

 

[Artanisix]

You better sum up what he says for me.

 

[la flama blanca]

So I played a game with myself as Enigma and a friend as Puck. Friend (puck) says Enigma takes precedence over Puck in terms of initiation. Take a look at the game and please provide your thoughts as to if he's right or wrong:
https://dotabuff.com/matches/45498632
I personally believe he's bat shit insane for not thinking that Puck should always initiate with myself as Enigma and a CM on the team.

 

[bzm]

So I played a game with myself as Enigma and a friend as Puck. Friend (puck) says Enigma takes precedence over Puck in terms of initiation. Take a look at the game and please provide your thoughts as to if he's right or wrong:
https://dotabuff.com/matches/45498632
I personally believe he's bat shit insane for not thinking that Puck should always initiate with myself as Enigma and a CM on the team.

Completely situational, but if enigma has blink/bkb he probably has precedence, otherwise puck. But if a 4-5man bh is ever an option enigma should take it regardless.
edit: though if theres a rubick present and enigma cant catch him too then its probably better for puck to initiate.

 

[la flama blanca]

Completely situational, but if enigma has blink/bkb he probably has precedence, otherwise puck. But if a 4-5man bh is ever an option enigma should take it regardless.
edit: though if theres a rubick present and enigma cant catch him too then its probably better for puck to initiate.

I would normally initiate in a team fight where we would take them by surprise sure, but let's say we are face to face at our rax with the other team, I'd think it would be way too risky to waste a BH on a few heroes (considering 2 are ranged). Would be better to have try to silence and coil as many as he can imo.

 

[Artanisix]

Puck should usually go in first, he has a much safer initiation along with escape skills and his dreamcoil + silence sets up Enigma to safely pull of black hole.

 

[JustinBB7]

You better sum up what he says for me.

Game on game action.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Puppey's response to the 'women and Dota' question was either hilarious troll, or he's obviously been reading the GAF OT (note: he's trolling).

 

[JustinBB7]

Dat puppey girl bashing trolol.

 

[Deadman]

They say the lycan and morphling nerfs are massive and maybe too much

 

[LoftyTheMetroid]

I've been having a blast with this game, and have pulled a number of my LoL friends into it (although a couple of them have just gone back to LoL...).

Unfortunately, I and one of my newbie friends that I was teaching just got out of one of the worst matches I've had. Not only was he still learning the game, but our side had dc's and players that were clearly less skilled than the opposing team. (And of course, I fucked up a bunch with Prophet, who I was practicing with...) Very quickly there was an average level discrepancy of about 8-10 levels.

Now that's fine, and I understand the occasional imbalanced matchup. However, rather than just finish the game, the five of them started spawn camping us and wouldn't end it, even when we asked them to. We had to wait for the creeps to kill the ancient.

Can I report these players for Intentional Ability Abuse or something? Or is there nothing I can do other than just AFK and wait for the inevitable?

(God, I wish there was concede...)

 

[wakajawaka]

Sell everything you have and buy a force staff, then push them into the fountain. It works most of the time

 

[SteveWinwood]

I've been having a blast with this game, and have pulled a number of my LoL friends into it (although a couple of them have just gone back to LoL...).

Unfortunately, I and one of my newbie friends that I was teaching just got out of one of the worst matches I've had. Not only was he still learning the game, but our side had dc's and players that were clearly less skilled than the opposing team. (And of course, I fucked up a bunch with Prophet, who I was practicing with...) Very quickly there was an average level discrepancy of about 8-10 levels.

Now that's fine, and I understand the occasional imbalanced matchup. However, rather than just finish the game, the five of them started spawn camping us and wouldn't end it, even when we asked them to. We had to wait for the creeps to kill the ancient.

Can I report these players for Intentional Ability Abuse or something? Or is there nothing I can do other than just AFK and wait for the inevitable?

(God, I wish there was concede...)

It'll take all of what 3 minutes? More motivation to win!

 

[Sibylus]

Leshrac

• Diabolic Edict now uses Leshrac's cast animation time

Less useful for setting up kills, still strong in that pursuit with position and it still melts towers. Not liable to change his popularity drastically, I think.

Lich

• Frost Nova cooldown decreased from 9.25/9.25/9.25/8 to 8

Free harass comes a bit faster, though in practice I don't think the second and a quarter will come to any noticeable change (Between enemy heroes not always being in range when the cooldown finishes and having to wait at times for Sacrifice before harassing).

Lina

• Fiery Soul attack speed bonus increased from 40/50/60/70 to 40/55/70/85
• Laguna Blade cooldown rescaled from 120/90/55 to 90/70/50

Further strengthens her semi-carry and nuke potential. Having to wait 30 fewer seconds for her level 1 Laguna Blade to come off cooldown could be quite the large change indeed, makes her that much more of an ever-present threat on the map to lanes and heroes. She's seen occasional play, can see this only helping.

Lion

• Finger of Death cooldown rescaled from 150/90/55 to 170/105/40
• Finger of Death damage increased from 500/650/850 to 600/725/850 (Aghanim's from 600/800/1025 to 725/875/1025)
• Mana Drain initial cast range increased from 600/650/700/750 to 750
• Mana Drain threshold range increased from 800 to 850
• Mana Drain cooldown decreased from 25/20/15/10 to 20/15/10/5

Lion used to be quite popular when the first International debuted, and gradually disappeared entirely bar the very rare reappearance. Worse ult cooldown early (better later), better ult damage for levels 1 and 2 and no change for level 3, so on balance it's better when you need it most and more recurring later in the game. Mana Drain gets a battery of predictable buffs to its general utility (given you never use it save on ranged creeps in lane): cast range is now consistent across all levels, it breaks off at slightly farther distances, and the cooldown is slashed by 5 seconds on all levels. The Level 4 skill being up every 5 seconds could be enough to push it into a situational use in ganks and fights, but the drain rate is slow enough that you could only afford to do it on a hero you knew was nearing empty to begin with. A future buff that Valve could perhaps look at might be adding a drain rate multiplier if the drain is cast on heroes, which would have the effect of making the drain useful for these instances, but without also making the skill ridiculous in lane with the ranged creeps.

Lone Druid

• Spirit Bear can no longer be resummoned while it is taking damage

• Has same duration and rules as his blink disable

Good, careless play shouldn't be rewarded like the old skill does. Probably will have significant repercussions with regard to how far forward Druids run their Spirit Bears, though I can't see this change pushing him out of relevance.

Luna

• Moon Glaive level 4 bounce count increased 4 to 5

More pushing power and teamfight DPS, probably not all that big a change but it's still something. And it will knock Blink Daggers or a Spirit Bear onto cooldown as well, which is still worth something.

Lycanthrope

• Summon Wolves manacost increased from 125 to 145
• Spirit Wolves HP decreased from 400/450/500/550 to 200/240/280/320
• Spirit Wolves now have 50% magic resistance
• Fixed Shapeshift speed buff remaining after dying with Aegis

Praise the lawd, hurts Lycan's insane rebound potential quite a fair bit with wolves that are nearly half as tanky, and slightly more costly.

Meepo

• Geomancer clones stat sharing increased from 25% to 30%
• Geostrike DPS increased from 5/10/15/20 to 7/14/21/28

Not sure of how much better Meepo will scale here, but with four Meepos running around, any little thing snowballs quite far.

Mirana

• Elune's Arrow cooldown decreased from 25 to 20
• Starfall's second single unit impact damage increased from 50% to 75% of the original

Maintenance buffs, Arrow is still so very hard to land at a distance and her mana pool is still so low that five seconds fewer seconds on the cooldown isn't probable to change much how she plays. Starfall's bonus star buff is situational to the extreme, but it's fair enough to do.

Morphling

• Cast animation time increased from 0.3 to 0.45
• Morph manacost increased from 20 to 30 mana per second
• Base damage decreased by 6
• Waveform AoE decreased from 255 to 200
• Waveform no longer allows you to start attacking/casting before it is completed

Veritable broadside of nerfs. Shotgun is slower, morphing is costlier, weaker early game, Waveform hits less, and it seems like he can no longer TP and waveform at the same time. As strong as the hero is, I don't know, I find myself thinking similarly to Synderen and Puppey. This could be so much that the hero falls out of play just as quickly as he was picked up.

Naga Siren

• Base damage decreased by 12
• Cast animation time increased from 0.5 to 0.65

Sizable nerfs, but in true Icefrog style they preserve the Hero's real strengths in trade: the Song and the Net (for the most part).

Lifestealer

• Rage duration increased from 2.5/3.25/4/4.75 to 3/4/5/6

Pretty sizable buff, both because 6 seconds of magic immunity is really good, and because the window of downtime is now a mere 9 seconds. Between Feast and Infest, he can run down quite a bit of the clock on this and fight continually. This should earn him some competitive play, I think.

Necrolyte

• - Death Pulse heal rescaled from 50/75/100/130 to 70/90/110/130
• - Sadist reworked

• Sadist:
• =======
• Necrolyte gains increased HP and Mana regeneration for each unit he kills.
  
• Mana Regeneration: 2/4/6/10 per second
• HP Regeneration: 1/2/3/4 per second
• Duration: 6
  
• Gives 10x the bonus for hero kills.
  
• Note: Stacks with itself. Each stack operates independently.

Not the pure damage buff to the Aghanim's Scepter buff, but it's definitely something. Death Pulse heal getting a bit better in the early game definitely helps, it wasn't worth casting really early. The new Sadist is interesting: Regen is a lot less useful for Necrolyte in fights than it is in laning, but by the same token this rework means that Necro should be a lot stronger in the early game, because he needs to hang onto his mana for Death Pulses. Now he can last hit and regen for free. Fills in his early mana problems quite a bit.

Nyx Assassin

• - Base HP regeneration increased to 2.5
• - Mana Burn drain amount increased from 4*Int to 5*Int
• - Mana Burn manacost rescaled from 90/110/130/150 to 130/120/110/100
• - Vendetta movement speed increased from 10/15/20% to 16/18/20%
• - Spiked Carapace reworked

• Spiked Carapace
• ===============
• When activated, Spiked Carapace reflects and negates damage dealt to Nyx Assassin (max once from each source), as well as stunning the source of the damage.
  
• Duration: 2.75
• Damage Reflected: 100% of negated damaged
• Stun Duration: 0.6/1.2/1.8/2.4
• Manacost: 40
• Cooldown: 14

Great all around buffs to his stats, Mana Burn, and Vendetta, but the big change that we saw coming from a great distance is to Spiked Carapace. This buff would have made Na'Vi's Carapace and Rubick Ravage Theft gambit in the International 2 work brilliantly, it just turns the skill from insanely situational to insane applicability. It does everything now.

Nerubian Weaver

• The Swarm's attack rate improved from 1.5 to 1.35

Maintenance buff, not liable to net him much additional play I think.

Outworld Destroyer

• Astral Imprisonment intelligence steal increased from 2/4/6/8 to 4/6/8/10

Astral Imprisonment int is pretty modest at most times (the main thing is that it hurts the opposing hero's pool quite a bit), so an additional 2 stolen per level should give the hero a bit more room to use his spells early, and should make his opponent hurt for mana that much more.

Ogre Magi

• Armor increased by 1
• Aghanim's Unrefined Fireblast cooldown decreased from 20 to 10
• Bloodlust can now target catapults
• Bloodlust movement speed bonus increased from 6/9/12/15% to 10/12/14/16%

The Aghanim's change isn't as big as it may appear at first glance, given how damned expensive Unrefined Fireblast tends to be. The Bloodlust buffs strike me as being much bigger, especially being able to cast it on catapults. Doubling a catapult's damage at level 4 is a pretty nice thing to add to a push, especially if you roll a multicast and splash some melee creeps in addition.

Omniknight

• Degen Aura AoE increased from 300 to 315

Maintenance buff, impossible to predict his popularity outside of copycat "knight team" strategies.

Brewmaster

• Primal Split units are now affected by Black Hole

Partially covered, but to reiterate: Enigma naturally is much less of a risky pick against Brewmaster with this change, and it's now swung into the other corner with Enigma becoming a great counter.

Phantom Assassin

• Coup de Grace critical strike multiplier increased from 2.5/3.25/4 to 2.5/3.5/4.5

I can hear the anuses puckering. From the future.

Phantom Lancer

• Agility growth increased from 2.8 to 4.2
• Spirit Lance slow duration increased from 3 to 3.25 seconds

An additional 1.4 agility per level is no joke, especially when it handily grants him the highest Agility growth of any Agi hero in the game. This could do quite a bit for a hero who's seen now and again on blue moons, especially with an added quarter of a second for his primary chasing skill.

Puck

• Dream Coil duration increased from 5 to 6 (Aghanim's from 7 to 8)
• Illusory Orb AoE increased from 200 to 225
• Waning Rift damage increased from 60/120/180/240 to 70/140/210/280
• Fixed Phase Shift invulnerability duration ending 0.25 seconds too soon

Most of these changes add up to a really health segment of added damage. Puck is already a really strong hero, think this could net her more play in competitive scenes with her skills having a little more oomph to them.

Pugna

• - Movement speed increased from 315 to 320
• - Nether Ward mana flare damage increased from 0.75/1/1.25/1.5 to 1/1.25/1.5/1.75
• - Life Drain break range increased from 850 to 900

Little buff to movement speed, quite sizable boost to the Nether Ward damage, little buff to Life Drain. Could net him more play again, the Ward was really the skill that indebted a team to him.

 

[LoftyTheMetroid]

Sell everything you have and buy a force staff, then push them into the fountain. It works most of the time

I almost killed Ursa by using Sprout when he was fountain diving, but he escaped with like 5% health. But yeah, they were fed enough that they could dive into the fountain and survive. (Or, they would just have Pudge hook players out of it from the side.

It'll take all of what 3 minutes? More motivation to win!

It was closer to 10 minutes I think. And who exactly is being motivated to win...?

 

[SteveWinwood]

It was closer to 10 minutes I think. And who exactly is being motivated to win...?

You so you don't have to sit through that shit!

 

[LoftyTheMetroid]

You so you don't have to sit through that shit!

I guess my sarcasm detector is broken. (Or, at least I hope it is...)

 

[Artanisix]

Now that's fine, and I understand the occasional imbalanced matchup. However, rather than just finish the game, the five of them started spawn camping us and wouldn't end it, even when we asked them to. We had to wait for the creeps to kill the ancient.

Can I report these players for Intentional Ability Abuse or something? Or is there nothing I can do other than just AFK and wait for the inevitable?

(God, I wish there was concede...)

Cannot report people for fountain camping. You're pretty much forced to AFK and wait, unfortunately. If you can pull it off, buy some smoke of deceit and use it to run out of the base and hide in the jungle.

By the way, you guys should hurry up and post more so I can post the ot3.

 

[Hylian7]

Cannot report people for fountain camping. You're pretty much forced to AFK and wait, unfortunately. If you can pull it off, buy some smoke of deceit and use it to run out of the base and hide in the jungle.

By the way, you guys should hurry up and post more so I can post the ot3.

They do at least need some kind of concede though. Even if it's not available until your barracks are down or something, it needs to be added to stop bullshit like that.

 

[JustinBB7]

Talk Dota still going, finally done going through the entire changelog, it's 2:10am now in Europe haha.

 

[Sibylus]

Jesus christ, couldn't have ended at a better time. Bathroom intermission urgent.

 

[Artanisix]

Is it worth watching? Puppey say some good stuff?