DOTA 2: Disbanded or Terrible Associations 2: In Loving Memory of PGG

[forkinyoureye]

Everyone in the party at the time, iirc, had at least twice the experience I did, assuming wins and losses are approximately the same on them. I still don't have that much knowledge about which heroes work well together and what laning compositions work with what lineups, so right from the picking stage I was lost, since everyone else had that knowledge.

I was told I had to pick someone to go on the short lane, so I suggested Windrunner and got weird reactions from everyone else, since I was also going to be in lane with Wisp. Eventually it got to the stage where I was asking them what hero I should play, and they just said to pick whatever. I ended up not picking a hero until after the first creeps spawned.

[Milskidasith]

Short lane = the easy lane. Besides the enemy having the potential to use trees to their advantage at the "corner" in order to do devious things to you, you're generally in the clear. If the lane is pushing or to give extra EXP, you can pull very easily on the dire side and fairly easily on the radiant side. Especially if you're laning with wisp (hard support), you generally want to pick a carry for this lane to win. In order to set up kills, you could pick a couple of different guys, but think people like Skeleton King, Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Riki, etc. Skeleton, Riki, and Chaos knight especially would work really well because they can all set up Wisp stuns very easily; SK has a stun of his own, Riki can teleport behind enemies, and Chaos Knight has both of those.

Windrunner isn't really a great choice to go with Wisp because she's already good at holding her own and can even solo the long lane because she has a great escape, a stun that's good for escaping, and her W lets her farm at least a couple creeps per wave (with good timing) even in atrocious circumstances. She doesn't really benefit from Wisp allowing her to play less safely than she usually does. Plus, a minor note is that I believe WR in the long lane has better opportunities to shackleshot than Windrunner in the short lane, but that's a very minor thing.

I'm not super amazing at DotA, so anybody else feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but that's basically the impression I got.

EDIT: One super obvious thing I missed: short lane/easy lane is the lane that your creeps naturally wind up meeting the enemy creeps closer to your tower; both top and bottom meet up at the "corner," but this is closer to the dire tower on top and the radiant tower on bottom.

[Bandages]

Nope, you covered pretty much everything

[Atyidae]

Short lane = the easy lane. Besides the enemy having the potential to use trees to their advantage at the "corner" in order to do devious things to you, you're generally in the clear. If the lane is pushing or to give extra EXP, you can pull very easily on the dire side and fairly easily on the radiant side. Especially if you're laning with wisp (hard support), you generally want to pick a carry for this lane to win. In order to set up kills, you could pick a couple of different guys, but think people like Skeleton King, Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Riki, etc. Skeleton, Riki, and Chaos knight especially would work really well because they can all set up Wisp stuns very easily; SK has a stun of his own, Riki can teleport behind enemies, and Chaos Knight has both of those.

Windrunner isn't really a great choice to go with Wisp because she's already good at holding her own and can even solo the long lane because she has a great escape, a stun that's good for escaping, and her W lets her farm at least a couple creeps per wave (with good timing) even in atrocious circumstances. She doesn't really benefit from Wisp allowing her to play less safely than she usually does. Plus, a minor note is that I believe WR in the long lane has better opportunities to shackleshot than Windrunner in the short lane, but that's a very minor thing.

I'm not super amazing at DotA, so anybody else feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but that's basically the impression I got.

EDIT: One super obvious thing I missed: short lane/easy lane is the lane that your creeps naturally wind up meeting the enemy creeps closer to your tower; both top and bottom meet up at the "corner," but this is closer to the dire tower on top and the radiant tower on bottom.

I know, from both being in the game in question and which terminology gets passed around inbetween Nyselm, Jake48.2 and I, that he was hardlane (bot, because we were Dire) with Wisp, not easy/short lane (top). It's an easy mistake, and really the picking thing was already Jake48.2(Wisp)'s fault, because Wisp was not the correct pick on a Morph/CM/Luna team, where he KNEW he had to hardlane. There was no correct pick at the time (IMO), unless Fork wanted to jungle and leave Jake to the feed all by himself.

[Bandages]

I had a Dota thought before bed. The ultimate team:

Naga Siren, Silencer, Dark Seer, Sand King, and Enigma.

Haha it's just so fucking evil

[forkinyoureye]

Short lane = the easy lane.

Uh
I thought short/long referred to how far out from the base the tier one tower was
Another reason that I shouldn't play Dota on any significant level ;-;

[zeratuljo1291]

i am debating whether we should run another CM inhouse this week. perhaps we should create a list of reliable captains who know drafting and can draft to a certain extent. or perhaps i should EXPALIN DRAFTING TO YOU.

you see, when you are driving and you try to turn really fast, often times your car doesnt have enough room to complete the turn so you-oh wait. im mistaken that is drifting.

in any case: DRAFTING 101

before you draft anything, have a plan. what kind of victory are you looking for and how you are going to win. Is your lynchpin going to be a single hero impacting the game like a carry or a semi-carry? do you plan to fast push or lvl 1 roshan. are you just going to gank your way to victory? or are you going to dominate so well in the laning phase that it will snowball from there. do you mind sacrificing a lane for the betterment of the other two? there are a lot of things to consider but the simplest way to draft is this: plan out what heroes you want and see how well they will do from there.

when you are crafting a team, consider these three things: how long do the heroes on my team need before they can fight together, how much money and items do they need and how well do these heroes fight together. there is more to consider but these are often the first three things that come to mind.

lets take medic's last game's team as an example: crystal maiden, dragon knight, windrunner, invoker and enigma.

HOW LONG DO THE HEROES NEED BEFORE THEY CAN FIGHT: Crystal Maiden is good almost from the get go. at lvl3 she has a decent slow aoe and disable that can kill off most ppl with help. Dragon Knight needs more levels than CM, but around lvl 7 he can start being proactive with dragon form, his tail stun and a good aoe nuke. Windrunner needs a bit of levels as well, mostly either to maximize powershot damage or shackleshot to punish poor positioning. WR is mostly ready to fight around lvl 7. Invoker needs levels badly. his spells becomre more powerful the more he level the orbs up and for that he needs levels. i would say by the time he can hold two invoke spells he can fight well. Enigma needs levels to max out his stun and his ult, but he can assist in teamfights and pushing with just a level 2 malefice stun and eidleons.
WHAT ITEMS DO THEY NEE CM needs no items other than boots and wards. Dragon Knight needs a) more health and armor and b) more autoattack damage to fully realize his potential. Windrunner doesnt need much items either. Invoker needs some items mostly to help with his abysmal movement speed, so we can say that phase boots and drums are almost core on him. Enigma is where it can differ. Blink dagger is almost core on him. i say almost because he doesnt need to be the prime initiation with this team. windrunner can provide some of that with a shackle and invoker with tornadoes.
HOW WELL DO THESE HEROES FIGHT WITH EACH OTHER: this is where it gets complicated. any kind of chain stuns work well with one another. Enigma and dragon knight bring some reliable pointnclick stuns while CM and windrunner provide reliable semi-stuns. Invoker can work well with all these stuns and ministuns and can dish out temporary disables as well. Keep in mind that alongside crowd control is your need to deal damage in the time allowed from stunning them.

conclusion: this team is strong early provided they get levels. when invoker, enigma and dragon knight start getting more levels and big items, you can start playing aggressively.


with this out of the way and i hope a decent introduction to team building and drafting Here are more strategies and things to consider

[Milskidasith]

Uh
I thought short/long referred to how far out from the base the tier one tower was
Another reason that I shouldn't play Dota on any significant level ;-;

I actually may have been wrong on the laning terminology. This is why my groups usually use easy/hard lanes (or suicide lane, in the case of soloing the hard lane with a jungler).

EDIT: Also, couldn't the racing joke have still been done with the racing term for drafting?

[dynamicEquilibrium]

I just got some pretty scientific evidence that americans are just as bad at dota as brazilians are

I'm soloing mid as Dark Seer, got the tower down almost instantly, and just picked up my third kill, putting me 3/1 at 12:00
I look up at the global scoreboard
our team has 3 kills
they have 19

[zeratuljo1291]

EDIT: Also, couldn't the racing joke have still been done with the racing term for drafting?

i didnt know drafting was a racing thing. :v oh well today i learned

[forkinyoureye]

Drafting is when you're using the airstream from the car in front of you to get momentum up and eventually slingshot around them.

Unless, of course, I'm remembering wrong.

[xXljoshlXx]

Why on TA do you go for meld before psi blade is the burst damage that good?

[Tensei]

Psi Blade isn't very useful past level 1 in lane. You get the full benefits of the splash damage, and the range increase is enough to let you lasthit without getting blocked by creeps, every level after that only slightly increases your range. In most cases you want to max out Refraction first, but depending on the amount of DoT your enemy has Meld can be a better option.

[forkinyoureye]

Pretty much what Tensei said. Melee carries get things done just as well as ranged carries, and Lanaya is one of two heroes that I know of that can switch from being more or less melee to having a bit more range. Ideally, you'll be getting levels fast anyway, so it's not like you'll be doing without the range for most of the game. And if you get Blink Dagger, then she has about no range issues whatsoever, even with that single level in Psi Blades.

[xXljoshlXx]

I just played my first game that wasn't bots not including the inhouse and we won . i think i did really good as Lina mid went up against a Blood Seeker. I only died when he ulted me and i didn't notice >.>

E: I played another and half the other team left the game before 20 mins...but on the bright side someone on our team D/ced so i got to play Spirit breaker and Crystal maiden at the same time

[a prickly pear]

I'm really liking Vengeful Spirit so far. Getting a bad farm doesn't cripple you, decent pushing, lots of ganking ability, and your aura and ultimate are fantastic late game. The fact that the maxed Nether Swap is over a screen length in range and you can easily target people from beyond their vision is just icing.

[Bandages]

I love people that play venge like a carry

But only if I'm playing against them

[a prickly pear]

People say she's a soft carry, but she has short range and can be outgunned pretty quickly. It's more useful just to be a surprisingly resilient support

[Milskidasith]

Welp I give up any claims to being a good Invoker.

[Azruelli]

People say she's a soft carry, but she has short range and can be outgunned pretty quickly. It's more useful just to be a surprisingly resilient support

Pretty much, but I've found her damage bonuses and building a Yasha/Desolator late game really nice for taking out squishier people, especially since a swap + stun + wave gives you a very big field advantage. I've actually yet to play a game where I've finished her scepter upgrade, but I hear it's pretty hilarious.

[zeratuljo1291]

ladies and gentlement: we now have FANTASY DOTA2

http://fantasy.dota-academy.com/Login

omgomgomgomgomgomg.

ITS LIKE FANTASY SPORTS EXCEPT ABOUT VIDEO GAMES. A FANTASY e-SPORT GAME for DOTA2 WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[forkinyoureye]

That is just stupid. I signed up instantly, of course.

[zeratuljo1291]

its confirmed group support for local individual tournaments will be happening after the international 2. time to get everyone in a betting pool and clean everyone out! BUY IN IS 400 BOONBUCKS

[Milskidasith]

Just a quick question: Anybody got an invite they'd be willing to trade? I've got a friend I'd like to get into the game.

[zeratuljo1291]

Just a quick question: Anybody got an invite they'd be willing to trade? I've got a friend I'd like to get into the game.

if you just buy 2-3 keys from the store you can trade them for an invite.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Dota2Trade/c..._2_keys_items/