I'm really curious how big a newb flood can possibly be considering that 282,476 are playing right now.
I assume that when it comes out there will be momentary spike in players when people who might have heard about Dota, or been slightly curious, but not enough to actually get beta-key. Then they play a game realize it's hard and quit and player numbers fall down close to current levels.
And that's when I will strike and be marginally better by comparison.
Counter-picking is fun. The enemy team chose Phantom Assassin, a late game hero, as their carry, so I took Jakiro because he's super strong early on. They were eaten alive.
Counter-picking is fun. The enemy team chose Phantom Assassin, a late game hero, as their carry, so I took Jakiro because he's super strong early on. They were eaten alive.
I'd say that support being counterpick to hard-carry is kinda simplifying it. Sure some heroes are good early game and others need farm to be super effective. In my understanding if you counterpick against specific hero, there's usually some skills that are effective against that hero. For example I'd say that Bounty Hunter and Slark could be considered counterpicks against some invisible heavy heroes like Riki.
You description sounds more like counter-strategy, early aggression and push vs farming and late game focus.
But I could just be wrong and misunderstood in everything.
Counter-picking is fun. The enemy team chose Phantom Assassin, a late game hero, as their carry, so I took Jakiro because he's super strong early on. They were eaten alive.
I'd say that support being counterpick to hard-carry is kinda simplifying it. Sure some heroes are good early game and others need farm to be super effective. In my understanding if you counterpick against specific hero, there's usually some skills that are effective against that hero. For example I'd say that Bounty Hunter and Slark could be considered counterpicks against some invisible heavy heroes like Riki.
You description sounds more like counter-strategy, early aggression and push vs farming and late game focus.
But I could just be wrong and misunderstood in everything.
Not really, both lina and lion are direct counter-picks for PA, same can be said against some of the more tough to beat carries, like lifestealer => bane with BKB or shadowblade etc.
You're not wrong. In this case I knew that, at my level, PA is played easy until mid-to-late game, and I know that Jakiro can do an unusual amount of damage early on. It isn't really a move that transcends the situation, but I'd still call it a counter-pick.
I think counter-picks are a little silly until you get into high level of play. Sure some champs have a kit that will make it harder for the other player to keep up, but I think player skill come into play more often then counters.
-You buy the items piece by piece, you don't wait till you have all the money to buy it. -You get more money for kills or tower last hits than for creep last hits. -You lose money whey YOU get killed. -You get even more money if you have a killing streak. -If you buy stuff that needs to be activated, do so. -USE YOUR SKILLS, specially your ulti (usually bound to the R key). -If you use a character that controls other stuff, use control groups, the same way you do so in Starcraft and Warcraft.
Scott, you should invite some of the dota playing bros from the forum to play a bot game or couple with you and give you tips during your play. I feel that would help the tips to stick better than reading walls of text after you have played.
items marked as "situational" are usually counters to specific enemy heroes / abilities / lineups.
from the Purge Skeleton King guide you were looking at, these are the situations you'd probably want to buy those items:
Soul Ring: When you're chronically low on mana due to eating a lot of mana burn from things like diffusal blades or Anti-Mage's Mana BreakUnique Attack Modifier. Using the active on the Soul Ring will give you 150mp (or 10 more than you need for your ult, which is basically a 1up mushroom).
Monkey King Bar: prevents your attacks from missing, which is great against heroes like Phantom Assassin.
Radiance: 60dmg per sec aura. Good for situations where you're getting kited or rooted a lot; you can't kite an aura :P.
Shadow Blade: makes you sneaky like a ninja and pairs nicely with armlet; gank even harder and faster. Probably not a great idea if you've already got effective gankers on your team (especially invisible ones since it will make detection that much more cost effective for the enemy).
Abyssal Blade: lots of damage and bashes through Magic Immunity (which is going to stop your own stun); great when the enemy team has an Omni-Knight, Lifestealer or are buying tons of BKBs to counter your own teams magic attacks. 25% bash + lots of attack speed from armlet = bash lord
Assault Cuirass: big armor item with a useful aura; great when your enemy has a lot of physical damage right clickers.
etc.
As you play, you'll get a feel for what items will be good when.
To kite things is to drag them along chasing you for a while. Aura is an effect radius around you. Don't know about orbs or roots, but BKB is a Black King Bar, another item.
I didn't understand half of what you just said. Here are words people use that I do not understand.
Kite, aura, orb, root, and BKB mean nothing to me.
Kite is somewhat common word in different types of games. Basically it means attacking enemy with short range from far away and keeping your distance. So in theory if fast guy with long range and slow melee guy fight against each other the guy with ranged attack can just shoot and run, shoot and run, until the melee dude is dead. That's kiting.
Aura is an aura. Is something that radiates around you. For example Skeleton King's second ability is an aura, it gives lifesteal to him and close by allies.
Being rooted means that enemy ability causes you to be unable to move from one spot, which is usually bad news for anyone, but especially melee dudes who need to get close to enemy to hit them.
Orb is old name for things that are called Unique Attack Modifiers in Dota 2. Like the name says they are effects that modify your attack giving them some additional effects and are unique so every single attack can have one type of unique attack modifier in it.
And BKB is just common short for Black King Bar, item that when activated makes you magic immune for x seconds.
I think "Root" means to immobilize a target, but not necessarily remove their ability to act (as a stun would). (Just throwing my 2 cents in because that term hadn't been identified by someone yet.)
Auras are things that apply effects to enemies and allies within a certain radius of your hero. Radiance does 60 damage per second to any enemy within 350 dota units (for reference, it is about 1200 dota units from the left side of the screen to the right side).
BKB, aka Black King Bar gives you some stats but its main attraction is its active ability Avatar:
"Grants magic immunity. Duration and cooldown decrease with each use. Some Ultimate abilities are able to disable through Black King Bar."
Magic Immunity basically makes you untargetable by abilities (except when it doesn't, details in that link:P) and prevents you from taking most magic damage.
Is a very common item that is vital when you're up against a team with a lot of targeted spells.
Root is an umbrella term for "things that make you move slow or stop or get stunned", aka things that prevent you from walking up to bad guys and hitting them with your sword.
Unique Attack Modifiers, aka "orb effects" aka "orbs" (I have no idea people refer to UAM as "orbs", they just do) are effects that get applied to enemies when you hit them with your sword. Not all Attack Modifers are unique (bash, for example, will happen along with an orb) but only one Unique Attack Modifier will happen (or to use the dota term "proc"). It is usually regarded as bad to have multiple orbs at a time. Click through that link to see how the game decides which to apply when you do stack them. Orbs are probably the thing I had the hardest time wrapping my head around, so reading the detailed mechanics page is advised.
Orb is usually in reference to the Refresher Orb item. Resets your cooldowns, very useful.
For clariety, every use of the word "orb" in my above paragraph is referring to Unique Attack Modifiers and not Refresher Orbs.
Also, if you're into Skeleton King, you should read his real ultimate guide Epic Returns (mostly for lulz as the icons won't mean anything to you). Actually, it won't be funny at all until you know quite a bit about Dota... (other people should read it though).
All this information is useless to a nub. Focus on playing and understanding the core mechanics (re:MrRoboto's post), and in the mean time buy the items recommended to you by the game.
UPDATE: Scott has improved measurably from the start of this session to now. He fucking wrecked in two games, including one where he came second on his team, and destroyed me in the process. Given time and some experience, he'll be legitimately really good.
Of course, we did have a few games that didn't go so well - Fountain for MVP - but on the whole, I think we all did alright, and we all learned something. Except Joe, who already knows everything.
While I have gotten good at the game, my opinion of it is largely unchanged. The fundamental game of having a team of 5 characters battling on a map is very fun. The specific details of managing a zillion items, denials, last hits, etc. is just as awful as ever. A truly good game can be made of this.
Comments
You description sounds more like counter-strategy, early aggression and push vs farming and late game focus.
But I could just be wrong and misunderstood in everything.
Watch live video from apreche on www.twitch.tv
-You buy the items piece by piece, you don't wait till you have all the money to buy it.
-You get more money for kills or tower last hits than for creep last hits.
-You lose money whey YOU get killed.
-You get even more money if you have a killing streak.
-If you buy stuff that needs to be activated, do so.
-USE YOUR SKILLS, specially your ulti (usually bound to the R key).
-If you use a character that controls other stuff, use control groups, the same way you do so in Starcraft and Warcraft.
(Could use some background music, or game sounds, or something, though.)
items marked as "situational" are usually counters to specific enemy heroes / abilities / lineups.
from the Purge Skeleton King guide you were looking at, these are the situations you'd probably want to buy those items:
Soul Ring: When you're chronically low on mana due to eating a lot of mana burn from things like diffusal blades or Anti-Mage's Mana Break Unique Attack Modifier. Using the active on the Soul Ring will give you 150mp (or 10 more than you need for your ult, which is basically a 1up mushroom).
Monkey King Bar: prevents your attacks from missing, which is great against heroes like Phantom Assassin.
Radiance: 60dmg per sec aura. Good for situations where you're getting kited or rooted a lot; you can't kite an aura :P.
Shadow Blade: makes you sneaky like a ninja and pairs nicely with armlet; gank even harder and faster. Probably not a great idea if you've already got effective gankers on your team (especially invisible ones since it will make detection that much more cost effective for the enemy).
Abyssal Blade: lots of damage and bashes through Magic Immunity (which is going to stop your own stun); great when the enemy team has an Omni-Knight, Lifestealer or are buying tons of BKBs to counter your own teams magic attacks. 25% bash + lots of attack speed from armlet = bash lord
Assault Cuirass: big armor item with a useful aura; great when your enemy has a lot of physical damage right clickers.
etc.
As you play, you'll get a feel for what items will be good when.
Kite, aura, orb, root, and BKB mean nothing to me.
Aura is an aura. Is something that radiates around you. For example Skeleton King's second ability is an aura, it gives lifesteal to him and close by allies.
Being rooted means that enemy ability causes you to be unable to move from one spot, which is usually bad news for anyone, but especially melee dudes who need to get close to enemy to hit them.
Orb is old name for things that are called Unique Attack Modifiers in Dota 2. Like the name says they are effects that modify your attack giving them some additional effects and are unique so every single attack can have one type of unique attack modifier in it.
And BKB is just common short for Black King Bar, item that when activated makes you magic immune for x seconds.
edit: D=
Auras are things that apply effects to enemies and allies within a certain radius of your hero. Radiance does 60 damage per second to any enemy within 350 dota units (for reference, it is about 1200 dota units from the left side of the screen to the right side).
BKB, aka Black King Bar gives you some stats but its main attraction is its active ability Avatar:
"Grants magic immunity. Duration and cooldown decrease with each use. Some Ultimate abilities are able to disable through Black King Bar."
Magic Immunity basically makes you untargetable by abilities (except when it doesn't, details in that link:P) and prevents you from taking most magic damage.
Is a very common item that is vital when you're up against a team with a lot of targeted spells.
Root is an umbrella term for "things that make you move slow or stop or get stunned", aka things that prevent you from walking up to bad guys and hitting them with your sword.
Unique Attack Modifiers, aka "orb effects" aka "orbs" (I have no idea people refer to UAM as "orbs", they just do) are effects that get applied to enemies when you hit them with your sword. Not all Attack Modifers are unique (bash, for example, will happen along with an orb) but only one Unique Attack Modifier will happen (or to use the dota term "proc"). It is usually regarded as bad to have multiple orbs at a time. Click through that link to see how the game decides which to apply when you do stack them. Orbs are probably the thing I had the hardest time wrapping my head around, so reading the detailed mechanics page is advised. For clariety, every use of the word "orb" in my above paragraph is referring to Unique Attack Modifiers and not Refresher Orbs.
A lot of these concepts are covered in things like the Dota 2 Wiki's Mechanics section or Purge's famous Welcome to Dota 2, You Suck.
Also, if you're into Skeleton King, you should read his real ultimate guide Epic Returns (mostly for lulz as the icons won't mean anything to you). Actually, it won't be funny at all until you know quite a bit about Dota... (other people should read it though).
Besides, responding with "you're too bad to understand" isn't really better.
Of course, we did have a few games that didn't go so well - Fountain for MVP - but on the whole, I think we all did alright, and we all learned something. Except Joe, who already knows everything.