I love this guy, I've played 3 matches on him on the rolling barrel facet and I'm just looking for any kind of advice someone might be able to give to help me make smart decisions with the hero.

Just played Disruptor against a Dawn and "forced" Dawn to go second item (first real item) Linken's because I'd just glimpse her after ult. What's the proper response, because I know it isn't an early Linken's.

Mid Legend. I don't play Dawn, but I'd probably try and play with my team so glimpse after ult isn't as bad.

At dreamleague Ame has been running a different Medusa build compared to other carry players. He starts with null talisman, treads, manta, and skadi which is a pretty standard medusa build. Normally at this point most carry players go for other right click items, but Ame goes either Aghs/K&S/Shard or K&S/Aghs/Shard. After these items he goes for right click items (butterfly, daedalus, mkb, swift blink, disperser). Skill build is always 1-3-1 maxing w then q. He doesn't take ult until lvl 11.

Feels like this build gives up a bit of midgame damage in exchange for insane survivability, but he still hits hard once he starts picking up his later items. In the games he's played his offlane was mars/sk and didn't go for any auras. Mid was sniper/qop/tiny which seemed to help cover the midgame damage that Ame's build was forgoing. Supports went solar crest, drums, and other utility items.

I don't play Medusa so I'm wondering what other people think of this build. Initially I thought it was only necessary if your offlaner isnt going for auras, but in pubs Ame has done variations of this build even when his offlaner went for auras so it seems like it could be versatile.

https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/8012009665

I am the dragon knight. I felt like a force the whole game but could channel it into tower dmg.

Please advise

I always think that I am kind of greifing by picking Undying as the Frontline/ Tank / Offlane instead of Mars or Underlord or whatever else because I can't initiate, I have no stuns or escapes, and if the other team has a skadi carry ( especially if they are ranged ) It can feel extremely hard to do anything at all, yet in some games the Undying is such a potent threat its insane. The tombstone and the constant self heal soul rips and decays become totally oppressive.

It seems I just don't understand him. What exactly is his niche? I understand that his name would make it kind of self explanatory but how does that actually come into play and make Undying a good hero for your lineup ( in any position ) ?

Is he one of those heroes you can play in any draft?

About to lose 2000 mmr learning him, i typically use TY for his invoked spells, but think i might transition to DF?

Its been difficult figuring out a comfortable scheme. My items are V C X B SPACE mouse buttons and mouse wheel, so they cant be used.

Hey guys, BalloonDota, 8k Mid enthusiast coach here back with more educational content to share with you all. This time, I will be covering a very important element for Midlaners, which is having the ability to always win your lanes.

Midlane is arguably one of the more mechanically-dependent lanes compared to the sidelanes, whereby the player with better mechanical skills will almost always come out on top even if playing into a hard matchup. Key concepts in the laning phase include:

1. creep aggroing (aggressive and defensive)
2. creep setting (preparing ideal situations)
3. last hitting
4. denying
5. baiting
6. positioning
7. creep securing (spellcasting)
8. harassing (giving and receiving)
9. zoning
10. kiting (ranged vs melee)
11. protecting (important creeps like ranged/flagbearer)
12. sustaining (regen)

These are just to name a few among the many concepts present in the laning phase of Midlane. After spending thousands of hours coaching and experimenting with the best possible ways to win Mid, I have created a formula, or rather come up with some theories that are able to justify, with plausible reason, the meaning behind every actions and how to identify priorities of actions to take in the lane.

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEGFxju7iaM

This is possibly one of the more DETAILED Mid trading videos that I have created among the many educational content available out there, so I hope it will provide useful insight and information into how to trade favorably in the laning phase and come out on top.

Do join my Discord channel as well if you are interested in chatting with a community, participating in mini-events or want to get in touch with me to ask questions about Dota. Thank you!

BalloonDota Community Server: discord.gg/w4PWyXDV4n

I personally think support silencer is a grief.

Not always, but its statistically a loss for me to a point where if a pos4/5 silencer is on my team I made it a cardinal rule to never double down.

In my eyes, majority of support silencers pick that hero because they are role queue farming and can't actually play support. They buy wards? Sure. But they don't build or play like one. Every support silencer I meet is playing their own minigame and trying to build hurricane pike, shard and aghs be eventually become a right clicker hybrid.

This makes no sense to me. Is this even a good faith reasonable thing to do?

Edit: And yes this nonsense pick happens in divine-immo. Insane stuff.

Is anybody else annoyed by how much the initial cast can reposition you? It's almost like a mini-vacuum if you get clipped right on the inner edge of the cogs.

Again, not talking about the cogs pushback, that's whatever. I feel it shouldn't pull you to the center with clock.

I have tried many things but this hero doesn't seem to have an ideal build. i'm only certain of one thing,you need a lot of mana. i always buy 2 nulls+arcane+wand. octarine feels like a distant dream most of the time. Divine 3

as pos 3,i have tried many different builds (some of these WERE from dota2protracker) like:
-phylactery+eul+octatarine (d2protracker)
-mjollnir+auras
-rushing greaves into pipe or crimson
-mjollnir into khanda with lv 20 waveform talent
-mjollnir into tarrask (d2protracker)

as pos 4:
-eul+octarine (d2protracker)
-aether + aghs (in some games) or octarine
-phylactery + aether
-dagon 1 + phylactery
-rushing greaves + aether
-rushing blink + phylactery
-aether + blink

honestly blink may seem weird but morph (ult) has low cast range and when it's time to breach highground you can't always morph into your target as easily,having aether+blink makes this much easier,you can just blink in>morph>waveform out.

i didn't include aghs shard because it's always bought unless i'm against zero stuns.

And what about skill build?
i usually go 1-1-1 (i get adaptive strike at lv 2 to not feel useless in lane) to eventually 4-1-1>4-1-2
.is it good to max adaptive strike after getting second point in attribute shift if you are going phylactery? or should you max it even if not going? attribute shift at lv 3 feels so good though.

Would you report someone for playing morph 4 with str facet going selfish items or something similar? i'm a very greedy pos 4 player even on "normal" pos 4 heroes but usually my impact on these heroes (especially dark willow) is very high and it leads to easy wins unlike playing these unusual pos 4s which normally leads you to have below 50% winrate and people annoying you at the start and during the whole game.

i'm biased but i don't think anyone doing this should get reported unless they are actually griefing.

what is actually considered a valid report against someone not playing their role? maybe something like crystal maiden carry? i did it once with friends (my friend was playing lycan and rushed aghs,it was back when her shard let her move during ult) but would i get punished if i did it in a ranked solo match?

I don't play unranked or turbo.

Hello everyone,

I am trying new offlane heroes. I used to spam slardar mid a lot in last patch. I have following questions:

• Could you recommend itemization for offlane slardar?
• what heroes is slardar bad/good against?
• Which is better facet?
• How do I fight when enemy group up? When I play axe I know the target - enemy carry. But with slardar I am all over the place. I intitate, maybe kill a support if lucky and then die or get low hp.

What startegy you use for this hero and what is the optimal power spike for Slardar?

Thanks

sharing here matchid: 8005358665 im playing as a pos1 luna.

im playing 5man with my friends. at some point, i felt like i could've solo carried the game but failed to do so. what are the things i did wrong and what are the things I shouldve done to make our game easier. i just wanna focus on my gameplay here and dont wanna blame my friends since theyre a returning players and its kinda understandable if theyre playing poorly. i want to continue playing with them so i wanna improve my gameplay so i can atleast carry them.

any thoughts will be appreciated. thank u so much

match id 8006735756

cm (me) and sven safelane, laning stage went poorly against axe and pudge, so much effort to avoid hooks and still wasn't the best coz every successful hook (2) meant I died almost immed

10-15 min mark, felt we were 3v3 top for too long but wasn't sure what else to do

15-25min felt like that was our powerspike but we weren't able to breach hg

30min onwards felt like the game was slowly slipping away as we began to become unable to deal w bkb SF plus so many disables from enemy team

help plz

Every time I lane vs PA as solo or duo, PA literally spams dagger off cooldown and chips down my HP. Eventually at Lv 4 he gets brave and starts to blink strike me as well and kills me.

I rush stick/wand and it doesn't help. This PA never runs out of mana and keeps doing this crap and I end up feeding him.

I can't do anything if he blinks onto me due to high armor and evasion.

Basically every 100 games or so you'll have a crazy game that goes 60-70 mins. Every fuckup has immediate consequences and well... keeping my composure can be hard at times.

Once t5 items come into play, the dynamics of the game changes. Perhaps replay reviewing myself would help. But still, my mental composure goes to shit, especially if I'm a support that has less agency in the ultra late nullifier infested lategame.

I don't play well when I'm not composed, so general mental advice would help too.

Edit; Actually, I should be more targeted with my question. Is solar crest even worth the slot as a support at that stage of the game? (I probably know the answer just making sure).

Edit2: In retrospect I think a lot of why my mind starts losing composure in a 60+ game is because there's so much fast paced improvising to do when a core dies or diebacks fast. In the flash of a second we need to collectively decide if the 4v5 hail mary must be taken since the enemy just put a lot of their stuff on CD. (And while I'm thinking that through even more stuff is happening). I suppose I don't think about this scenario often which explains my panic.

Are there any good high level YouTubers that look at high level play like pro matches and analyze/break things down? For example I remember people saying how good Arteezy/Fly lane was, so something where they're reviewing a game of theres and talking about what they're doing. Could be any position/role or just overal team strategy. Also, someone who talks about the meta in depth and what strategies are good and why etc. I've listened to some podcasts like Synderens and Caps but they're just mostly for fun you don't learn anything really.

Something like this guy did: https://youtu.be/FwuwzPDPdEw?si=uOIo3f_yb3wpckW3

Hey guys me and my friend are searching for friendly players who are interested in todays Battlecup (EU Divison).

Available Roles are Pos 1,4 and 5.

We can speak English,German and Russian.

I'm crusader 5 and I main ET support sometimes with a 57% winrate. Ever since they changed his innate to the double damage fortify for towers and creeps, I'm a little lost on how to take advantage of that. Aren't fortifies better for defensive purposes? It seems like double damage for creeps is pretty negligible (4 seconds for creeps and 7 seconds for towers).

Is it better to get 2, 1, or skip these small items? I always build 2 and I'm wondering if I'm ruining my own games by doing this

I try unpopular facets on my spam heroes and I think some of them are good or even better. Just for different reasons.

- Plague Carrier (Venomancer)

I think the attach part is bruh. But the good thing is you can spam snakes in less than a second. The reason why it's good is guaranteed lane cut with no effort. If a lane is being pushed after a loss gank or bad positioning, just sneak in deep and drop 3-5 of these. If your teammate nuke the existing front wave, then they have no more push.

You can 100% make impact mid-game by just doing this on and on and avoid dying. Supports can't really kill 3-5 snakes by themselves and if cores show to kill them, you get the info. Your team can make a gank with advantage at completely different side from the info.

Is it better than the other one? It depends on your lineup and playstyle. But as a Venomancer spammer, I encourage trying it out. The build is green boots, drum, eul, blink and tons of sentry and you just own map with almost no counterplay. (other than trying to 3-5 man gank you with observers.)

- Kinetic Fence (Disruptor)

The quick cast time in quite impactful and underrated. Like Tusk's Ice Shard, you just need to deny enemies from walking to certain directions in fight and that's just what Kinetic Fence do. Its being a vector means that the effective range is longer than Kinetic Fence, because you can 45° it.

What might sounds unbelievable is that it's actually easier to land good Static Storm with 2 vectors than Kinetic Fence. And most times, with quick thinking and 1 vector is enough if it's a jump with a teammate or two.

Is it better than the other one? I think very yes, everyone gets Pipe anyway and that amount of AoE damage is pointless. Nothing is funnier than sandwiching people with 2 vectors and forcing their BKB to get out. And it's much easier to do than you think.

- Hookup (Clockwerk)

It's not obviously useful but this facet actually offers crazy map presence as any role. You still have the same Hookshot as initiation but with much more gimmicks/tricks to play with.

1. You can hook your own wave for travelling; why? it's long ass blink when you want to get to places very fast, or get out of ganks that's you know about to happen. Sure it's cost a lot of mana, but in late game when you have enough mana, it's really useful. You can go across the map really fast and have another Hookshot later. Not right away though and you have to think and play differently. Buy a blink and you're literally everywhere on the map.

2. You can hook your wave in front of an enemy tower; for what? it's a wave clearing that buffs your own wave with 15+ armor. With Solar Crest and a siege creep, you can solo push a tower if no one comes to defend. It's not the best thing ever but it's what Clockwerk lack, tower threat, and now he has it.

3. You can hook your range cores, not to start a gank, but to gtfo. Why it is good is that you will have another Hookshot ready soon when you heal up, making impacts and not actually wasting the ult.

Also worth mentioning that enemy can't use BKB to walk out of Power Cogs with no facet change and this one is basically that.

Is it better than the other one? It's a completely different thing and it is useful every game. The other facet has more kill potential and I can't argue with that. Imo, this facet is also good for supports if you want large map presence. For cores I think this one is better due to its potential late game.

- Spoils of War (Legion Commander)

You can go 4 if you have hyper-hitter cores like Sniper, Troll or Lina. Go sustaining build with some mana aura and just keep your team alive and use Duel as a stun or a knockout.

Is it better than the other one? Hell no, but I would argue that it works better as a win-condition if your cores can snowball from the damage. Being squishy is your weakness early and this one doesn't solve it. However if you don't have to stand in the lane to last hit creeps, then it is less of an issue.

That's it from me.

Hey folks,

I run RubickRecaps.com, a site that brings the community meta news and other DotA related shenanigans.

To support the site, we have a community of immortal players that analyze replays from new newsletter signups, and help the community in that way. We are currently 25 immortal players in a tight Discord community hanging out and enjoying banter around pro matches, meta, strats, life and what-else. While also analyzing games, and getting amazing feedback so far!

We're currently looking for more people to join the community, as the amount of replays is getting bigger, and more people is always great :-)

If you're an immortal player and would like to join a community of other immortal players with some really cool people: top ranked 10k+ players, old DotA 1 legends, people that played with pros and so on, shoot me a message or reply here, and I'll get you an invite.

Thanks!

I played support in a game that was pretty much already won with a TA and Drow on my team so I bought Helm of Dom to see the 30% damage increase from pack leaders aura which seems pretty insane if you can manage to keep it alive in the chaos. The tomato hellbear also gives 60%+ aura damage when it dies (the wiki says he has 2 different passive abilities but only one is present i dont know if its a timer thing or random?)

I tried finding a fun Bane build and sleep + helm of dom ogre smash with the 3 second stun is funny but not that practical.

I played Bristle against a Chen who got 3 hill trolls with break and kept killing me (most try hard but impressive thing ive seen)

I always thought the ThunderHide big creep is worth taking aswell, 75+ attack speed buff that has 0 downtime

Always wondered what is the point of choosing a farming hero vs a fighting one for pos 1 If you choose a farming hero these are the possible scenarios:

1. Your team is strong with out you and while you farm they dominate the game and by the time you start joining it wont even matter, if you took a fighting hero instead you could end the game even sooner.

2. Your team is weak without you and ubtill yiu come online they get destroyed left and right, by the time you start fighting the enemy pos1 or 2 has more items and levels than you even if you afk farmed until then because of how profitable kills are in this meta.

If you took a fighting hero maybe you would have a chance to even out the fights.

3. Your team holds it 50/50 without you, well in this case again a fighting hero would have a better chance of winning the game than one that farms 30 min

When I say farming hero I dont mean full afk farm for 30 min. I mean something like Luna for example that will prio farm and join just some fights when she has ulti in comparison to Wk or a Dk for example that will get an armlet dagger and participate way more in fights?

love visage and i want to be the best pos4 i can be so what do you guys think?

Hello all,

As the title says, I am looking for a coach with high MMR and the ability to explain himself for a live session, including around two games with pre- and postanalysis. Happy to sponsor it also financially if I get to see any material beforehand.

Or can anyone recommend someone from the community that I should know/approach?

Thanks

I was watching a topson vod and I know he does the hero differently by not building Midas, but I saw him using Order.

I like taking Disorder because the faster activation time on spark wraith lets me consistently land harass on the other midlaner as well as finish chases more reliably before getting atos. Like if it's Zeus or Lina especially I'm pretty much guaranteed to win the lane. It's hilarious. They're running around in circles trying to dodge while I am last hitting.

I also like having the evasion field on my clone so when I drop it on highground as the enemies have a significantly harder time killing it and stopping the push altogether if I have shard. The additional damage and attack range suits my main hero better too because while the focus is on other things I can sit from a better range and do damage or buff my drow or whatever.

What do you suggest? Eager to learn. Love playing Arc. Just an unranked scrubbie

I remember me and my friends used to play heroes with a lot of stacking aura and stack aura item on top of it. While it’s not popular right now what would be your 5 hero of choice if you try to do it in 2024 dota?

How do you guys feel about Phantom Assassin. If mastered I feel like she has a great kit for carrying games even if you have a weaker draft. Slow and blink to deal with casters, break to deal with tanks and burst crit damage to deal with other agility heroes.

She can take Roshan alone with Desolator and she farms really fast. I have played mostly Juggernaut, Lifestealer and Ursa lately but sometimes it gets really painful if your other lanes have sunk bad. Statistics show that PA has low winrate but whenever I play her I find a way to make myself a decent game. People often say that to grind MMR you need to limit your heropool so I figured including PA in my limited heropool but low winrate got me thinking. What do you guys think?

I've been hovering between 3k to 4k MMR for the past couple of years, which is above the 50th percentile of dota2 players in terms of rank distribution.

I mainly play pos3 and I can say I win atleast 80% of the laning matchups. Obviously there are other parts of the game I need to work on to help me rank up beyond 4k but that's besides the point.

Anyways I've noticed for a while when I am forced to play support for role tokens how little emphasis most core players in this bracket put to pulling creep aggro and manipulating the waves in their favor. I've even seen players who clearly have no idea about creep pulling mechanics and just stand there at the mercy of having a favorable lane matchup.

So yeah, PSA to prioritise pulling creeps to yourself. Even if your enemy in the lane is not visible you can still pull creeps by simply issuing an attack command on any enemy hero visible in the map, even if they are on another lane. The creeps will aggro onto you. Even easier you can click on the hero icons at the top of the screen to pull creep aggro.