I imagine it's something like... take shield lv1. If you're offlaning, max shield first. Supporting a lane, max coil first.
Offlane Abaddon is suuuuper fun. I agree with this build except I don't use aghs. Also climbing that MMR, up to 1800 now.
Seems like a lot of people go vlads then s&y for ultimate slow. Did that my first game and then got maelstrom and it worked pretty well. If I ever have a good bit more gold than that I might try aghs. Redirecting 50% of the damage to you in teamfights for 7 seconds seems pretty ridic, but that's a lot of gold for me as an offlaner.
I don't Abaddon often, but when I do it's in the offlane and I build tanky af. Basi Tranq Vlads Things (SnY, AC)
I really enjoy watching professional DotA right now that I know wtf is happening 6 months into playing the game. I enjoy it more so than playing, even. Things Dota needs to be a better viewing experience: 1. Better TV/Stream casual-friendliness. Once a hero is drafted, while analysis is going on for seasoned spectators, noob/casual friendly graphs/stats/meta changes would be nice. Easily repeatable/reusable for every major/minor event. Don't even need to waste caster's time on descriptions, regular viewers can still see draft board and hear analysis. 2. Replays of major fights. Seriously this is highest priority by a massive amount. After a TeamFight, have one of your observers queued up the fight at 1/2 speed and the next break where they go back to farming, split screen or picture-in-picture of the replay so we can see the fight again and get some analysis. While there's no dead ball time like football/basketball, there is certainly "downtime" where everyone goes back to farm, especially mid to late game. Always have main observer/play by play caster on live shot to break in if needed. Doesn't have to be for every engagement, but maybe biggest 5v5s where there were a lot of deaths. 3. Shorter in between game breaks. Too easy to turn it off due to prolonged wait times. Too random. Better coordination of on air talent on panel to let you know draft is starting in "X" minutes. Life halftime of regular sports, you need to have consistency. 4. Unpredictability of start times of next matches is also a BIG deal. 5. Show more reactions of players. Epicenter did this well. 6. Crowd noise is important. Needs to be present on feeds. Greatly improves stream quality. 7. After drafts a graphic of which player (picture) on which hero (picture) would be nice but not that important. 8. Piggy backing to point #1 again, during draft a graphic cycling through each players top played heroes would be nice addition. Any other thoughts?
4 and 3 are kind of impossible to reconcile with eachother unfortunately. Just like tennis matches where one match could legitimately last 3X longer than you think it might or should. Hard to really fix #3 much as teams usually do need a little time to get set up and stuff, plus post match interviews- though epicenter did a nice job of usually having a "Next match in xx:xx" timer, so that was good. Other than that, agree with most everything. I also think more general stats would be cool. Win/loss/kda type things with certain players on certain heroes and things of that nature. The russians are starting to break down games more that way beforehand and it's pretty entertaining.
In other news since patch Elder Titan has a 65% win rate in sub 2K MMR. Super low pick rate (100th most popular hero) so values probably skewed.
Professional dota is by far the most entertaining video game content for me personally. I can't get into most esports, but Dota grabbed me during the TI and never let me go. I haven't been playing much, but I love to watch. This event was run so well, a lot of productions will have to step up their game going forward.
Won 12 of last 15. All ranked except the LP we played last week. The rebound losing streak will be horrendous.
Same. I can't even watch professional LoL anymore, even though their production quality is more consistent and often better. It's just boring as shit.
I'm a dirty Riki picker, when they changed his ult I started to suck. Maybe I'll give him a shot again this weekend.
New battle pass dropped today. This caught my eye. Join The International Ranked Queue to begin your calibration. Play 40+ games and you’ll also have the option to replace your normal Ranked MMR with your new, hard-fought Season MMR once The International 2016 is complete.
I think that's a really innovative idea. Instead of getting a new account to smurf in order to recalibrate higher or lower you can just get a new one in the battle pass. I would consider playing 40 Riki games just to see how high I could get my MMR. Also buying my first battle pass, let's do this.
Did the battle pass just start today? They're already over 2 mil for the prize pool. That 18m from last year will go be surpassed.
I was chuckling as that last team was split pushing for a solid 2 minutes while we were knocking down their tier 4's
People freaking out about the trees in the new landscape that is permanent at level 125. Easy to see juke spots (not vision of the areas but easy to see potential juke paths).
I've played 2 recalibration games and gotten ass raped in both of them. I'm going to recalibrate at a lower MMR, I can feel it.
Carry treant with radiant is just great. Smashing with a roaming BH is just great. Too much compendium rewards, I don't know what to do with my hands.
I will take all Riki, Omniknight, necro, Abaddon and oracle items in exchange for literally anything else you want.
Oh my god. 4 hour game, at one point 7 Rapiers on the ground, techies with 75 kills. A circle of couriers parading around the ancient as sacrificial lambs. Omfg
I honestly don't care about cosmetics but good lord having those extra quests and shit make battle pass fun.
first game back in a long ass time i pick gyro and steamroll i almost have the urge to play more, but i know what will happen
Good God, Dark Seer is the best hero ever to punish a jungling LC. edit - right, BH is better, but DS is mah jam
AA end game = sit in spawn and throw ults. Also ward, sentry, and greaves... And help defend high ground with slows/stuns and the attack booster, but srs better off not going on any attack.