Dota 2

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Just had the most amazing game of my short Dota career. 28 kills with Weaver, (my first time playing him) carried my team, had 3 ultra kills in a row and a RAMPAGE, thrown in for good measure. Think i died twice maybe and I would love to post it on Dotabuff but it won't f*cking recognise me!!! seething.

I fucking love weaver. He's the ultimate hero for pissing people off, especially when you get trenchies who don't buy dust or sentries.

Its a bit like having a skilled winger on your team at football. He's a nightmare to play against, but so much fun to have with you.

I've found once you get your linken's sphere he'll snowball spectacularly. Throw in a desolator and an MKB into the mix and you can usually snipe away at people. Aside from being ridiculously useful as an escape and gaining back health, time lapse can be handy too for picking up items. TP over to your fountain, collect your items before timelapsing back where you were. Brilliant for pushing lanes.

[Kujabi_Kujabyou]

I fucking love weaver. He's the ultimate hero for pissing people off, especially when you get trenchies who don't buy dust or sentries.

Its a bit like having a skilled winger on your team at football. He's a nightmare to play against, but so much fun to have with you.

I've found once you get your linken's sphere he'll snowball spectacularly. Throw in a desolator and an MKB into the mix and you can usually snipe away at people. Aside from being ridiculously useful as an escape and gaining back health, time lapse can be handy too for picking up items. TP over to your fountain, collect your items before timelapsing back where you were. Brilliant for pushing lanes.

Weaver is my new favourite hero. He is the ultimate troll and can end someone's kill streak in an instant. If you get crystalis and desolator early then you can turn a game around or just push constantly. Because he's so fast I like to go all over the map and take heros out or help each lane push, I am the kind and considerate Weaver .

[Broken Algorithms]

Weaver is my new favourite hero. He is the ultimate troll and can end someone's kill streak in an instant. If you get crystalis and desolator early then you can turn a game around or just push constantly. Because he's so fast I like to go all over the map and take heros out or help each lane push, I am the kind and considerate Weaver .

I had a belter yesterday with my mate who was on disruptor. If they got control after a weave and a time lapse, he'd either kinetic field or glimpse them back. At the end we'd grab four in a field and ruin them.

After treads I'll always go linken's first. As a core item, it really does make you a b*****d to hunt down.

[Kujabi_Kujabyou]

I had a belter yesterday with my mate who was on disruptor. If they got control after a weave and a time lapse, he'd either kinetic field or glimpse them back. At the end we'd grab four in a field and ruin them.

After treads I'll always go linken's first. As a core item, it really does make you a b*****d to hunt down.

Treads are brilliant because you can switch to either damage-agi, hp regen- strength or mp regen- int, great little item for cheap. I've started getting crystalis as my core item then linken or just getting mana and health void stones because they're cheap and so useful. If i get kills quickly then i'll go linkens but I don't usually get it until quite late.

[banana]

^ Counterintuitive, but FYI you move towards max HP faster by keeping treads off STR. You have higher regen on STR, but also a higher health pool, so it takes longer to regen up to your max HP compared to treads on AGI/INT. Treads on STR on agi heroes is merely for increasing your health pool. Same goes for your mana pool and INT treads.

Few other mini-tips on this topic, be sure to switch to Agi treads when using a bottle charge as this means your mana pool and health pool are both lower and therefore each bottle charge will get you towards max pools better than if you're on STR or INT treads. Switch back after of course. For the same reason, drop stat items before using a bottle charge, assuming it's safe to do so (no BH, Riki, Clinks, blinkers nearby).

On Weaver specifically, if you've had a good start then you can skip treads until later in the game, heading straight for your big 1st item instead. Hell, you can even skip any boots on Weaver completely until after your first big item and rely instead on Shukuchi for maneuverability. Caveats to this are when playing against some high nuke gank skill combo, like Lion, Lina or Nyx, or your lane has lots of harassment (get the Belt first rather than the boots), or think you're going to be involved in lots of teamfights early rather than being left to farm, though you could just Bracer instead with a view to turning it into Drums later.

Agree Weaver is a lot of fun, and very versatile regarding item builds. If you're feeling particularly cocky, go a Radiance rush.

Edited June 8, 2014 by banana

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Stretch goal 20 has apparently been unlocked. Just been reading on the Dota 2 Subreddit that the prize pool is expected to hit $12m at the current rate. Keep in mind that they also still have the option of adding in extra stretch goals and adding in extra immortal items.

[Broken Algorithms]

Also, had a game the other night where I was supporting as Maiden with an Ursa on our team. Ridiculously fun walking into to freeze them in place, do a burst of damage before he'd annihalate them. He ended up 38 kills for 1 death.

[GiGi]

Ursa CM is an ugly lane to go against.

I've been back to Windrunner again recently, even played a 1 position carry. Such a strong hero right now and people underestimate the dps you can deal with the right build. Force staff into mek builds make me sad. If you want a support hero like that pick something else. But if you go blink and Aghanims with a Maelstrom or a deso and catch an enemy or 2 out, that hero will be dead.

[banana]

Ursa CM is an ugly lane to go against.

I've been back to Windrunner again recently, even played a 1 position carry. Such a strong hero right now and people underestimate the dps you can deal with the right build. Force staff into mek builds make me sad. If you want a support hero like that pick something else. But if you go blink and Aghanims with a Maelstrom or a deso and catch an enemy or 2 out, that hero will be dead.

In half decent pubs......

...the problem with a greedy build on such a hero is that the farm would be more effective on other heroes. Of course its nice to have big items on any hero, but the effectiveness of 15k gold on a WR pales in comparison to 15k gold on a Void, for example.

Force + Mek is standard on many supports as they are both semi cheap items (not so hard to farm) that have high game impact, namely in letting your carry and team engage, survive and escape fights, and to push. Do not underestimate how game winning these two items can be.

Of course, if your carry is noob or having a disaster finding safe farm then you *might* want to go greedy and turn general position 3 and 4s into full semi carries, like WR, Magnataur, Centaur, etc.

Ursa plus any reliable stunner/slower is rapefest in lane when the opposition doesn't counterpick properly or send the right heroes to lane. If you see it being picked, counterpick like a mofo - Veno, Lion, ES, CM, etc. for lane support, or stout shielded carries with escape mech /return fire if playing the farmer, e.g. Weaver, Void, AM, / Gyro. A good Bane can also really control the laning scariness of an Ursa. Also properly control the creep equilibrium.

Edited June 11, 2014 by banana

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Agreed about WR. I've never used her that much myself, but a lot of it seems to be down to how much flair the individual has. In terms of supports, most of the time I'd prefer to have a hero which can offer both a lockdown of some form as well as a buff (or debuff) over time. Shackle is great if you know how to use it correctly, but in comparison to other supports, as Banana says, you're often better off having a more tried and tested route. You could say the same of any game though. It all comes down to circumstance really. I've lost count of the times I've been playing as KotL and got bored as we stomp them, so I've bought a dagon!

In terms of the Ursa, he was jungling at first and got a quick gank (we were radiant) on the safelane. He managed to grab a quick blink and a smoke on Roshan early doors. From there on he joined with me (I was offlane supporting) as we went about steamrolling them.

[GiGi]

In half decent pubs......

...the problem with a greedy build on such a hero is that the farm would be more effective on other heroes. Of course its nice to have big items on any hero, but the effectiveness of 15k gold on a WR pales in comparison to 15k gold on a Void, for example.

Depends on the game. If you're always fighting I'd prefer the gold on a WR. More lockdown and if you have Aghs you've got an almost guaranteed pickoff every 15 seconds which can easily turn into a free tower when they're dead and your ult's up again.

15k WR beats a 15k Void in terms of carry potentional IMO but 10k further down the line WR drops off and Void is a lot better.

But WR snowballs super hard with farm and it's a fun hero if you're good at it.

Edited June 11, 2014 by GiGi

[banana]

Depends on the game. If you're always fighting I'd prefer the gold on a WR. More lockdown and if you have Aghs you've got an almost guaranteed pickoff every 15 seconds which can easily turn into a free tower when they're dead and your ult's up again.

15k WR beats a 15k Void (purely 1v1 unless he backtracks literally half the shots) but 10k further down the line WR drops off and Void is a lot better.

This is simply not the case in almost all scenarios, assuming decent players. The reason Void with even 15k farm is so feared is that he's killing you, and maybe others, in his ult, possibly 1 on 1, definitely with backup. There's a good reason why Void is called the anti-carry carry.

15k WR absolutely does not win your average 1v1 against a decent Void, not even close!

[GiGi]

This is simply not the case in almost all scenarios, assuming decent players. The reason Void with even 15k farm is so feared is that he's killing you, and maybe others, in his ult, possibly 1 on 1, definitely with backup. There's a good reason why Void is called the anti-carry carry.

15k WR absolutely does not win your average 1v1 against a decent Void, not even close!

I backtracked (eyyy) the 1v1 part due to chrono but other than that I stick by it.

[banana]

I backtracked (eyyy) the 1v1 part due to chrono but other than that I stick by it.

So remove his main threat then?

I'd still pretty heavily back an ult-less Void in most 15k 1v1s against WR. If you don't kill him during your first Windrun, or 2nd if you're playing a juking game, then you're likely dead.

[GiGi]

So remove his main threat then?

I'd still pretty heavily back an ult-less Void in most 15k 1v1s against WR. If you don't kill him during your first Windrun, or 2nd if you're playing a juking game, then you're likely dead.

It's an RNG game outside of chrono then. It's probably not fair to discuss it when focus fire is up and chrono isn't but then even with both having Aghs, focus fire is on a 15 sec cooldown compared to 60. Only the luckiest void will survive focus fire from a windrunner with both at 15k unless the void has a heart and WR somehow has no damage items.

If void gets shackled he's a goner.

[banana]

Only a YOLO Void stands and tanks her ult without retaliation, and a prepared Void isn't getting Shackled. If I know your Focus Fire plan beforehand, I buy a 2200 gold Blademail and let you decide between killing yourself or running away every 15 secs.

The WR is going to need to Hex, focus, Shackle, continue focus, and hope the Void dies before he comes out of Shackle and hunts her down. The Void avoids this scenario completely by BKBing, jumping on her and killing her with the help of stunlocks. The BKB isn't even that necessary.

[Broken Algorithms]

Have to admit, I've yet to see a WR that successful GiGi but I don't doubt it is possible.

At the moment, in terms of the hard carrys I'm powering through the games on Anti-Mage. The number of times you're left with freefarm on him can be astonishing.

Similarly, I've been playing a lot of PA and she seems to be a wrecking ball at the moment.

[banana]

You'd have loved AM from several patches ago, was very strong! PA has been buffed and buffed, is now enjoying a bit if carry limelight!

Pray that Medusa never gets strong again, boring to play with, *horrific* to play against if she gets farmed!

[GiGi]

The hero you don't want to play against is a Mirana. Try playing US servers, god forbid you go mid, you'll basically be camped the entire time by a Mirana shooting arrows from the fog and giving you a really bad time. I hate that hero. Also a go to if you want to stop a losing streak

[Broken Algorithms]

My go to heroes for ending losing streaks are Bloodseeker and Spirit Breaker. Two horrible heroes for the enemy as they snowball so easily. Especially on breaker if they have a jungler. Get a jungle ward on the go before waiting to see the victim and bashing them about.