Defense of the Ancients 2

I usually get mystic snake & stats early game. Split arrows and mana shield both suck schlong before I got some items.

DOTA 2 has the best events of all MOBAs. This chinese new year event is awesome

Not just the events but the frequency of the updates and patches and things. Most other game communities would kill to have updates as frequently as we get them.

Hmm, a DotA 2 Thread..
I don't know if any of you guys play support, if anyone does or if you're a carry player, what support would you pick to lane with you?

Currently my best pick would be Dazzle, he has a lot of sustain that is also parallel to damage he can dish out, a slowing nuke with a low cooldown, and of course his trademark protection from death. Best thing I like while playing Dazzle is turning the tides around with a well-timed Shadow Wave, oh and Physical damage based skills. His ultimate is just crazy with the armor reduction that can even go through Magic Immunity.
My next picks are Rubick then Crystal Maiden.

(Bitching time)
I just fucking hate it how supports are very squishy especially if you're on the fifth position on the team and you cant make any survivability items aside from mekansm or pipe. Plus, enemy team targets you always.

Disables. This includes Alchemist, Naga, Sven and Nyx supports as well. Not a big fan of Lina or Leshrac because they bring unreliable follow-up only stuns and are more farm dependant than an optimal support should be. Lich is great because he autowins any lane just by being Lich. Chen, CM and Veno junglers are great because they can jungle really well and turn it into a pseudo solo lane or give them a trilane package. KotL is my favourite support to play with, Visage is my favourite support to play as. Squishiness is not such a big issue if you get your levels properly, and if you don't die early on you can "support-snowball" into a Ghost Scepter or Pipe fairly early on.

Lich is great since he pretty much guarantees lane dominance for whoever you are supporting with sacrifice and he can pretty much fit in any lane with decent success (obviously he'll lose to a hard mid but at the very least sacrifice will vaguely make things even). Sandking is great in an offensive lane, can farm well and burrowstrike a great utility stun. Treant Protector is good if you expect your lane to be awful and his base damage is nothing to sniff at, living armor lets your allies cheat death early on so at least it makes laning easier on everyone else and his ultimate is okay. Shadow Demon is an excellent hero, good against heroes who depend on missile-based abilities and makes most heroes explode with soulcatcher.

In pub games, seriously? I'd admit he's good but he needs someone else to follow his Disruption initiation. Shadow Poison is also easy to avoid if they're swift enough.

Don't try Shadow Demon in pub, unless you're doing 3 stack. You don't want this happens right.



Lion is also good support. Good stun, good hex, less mana issues, and great burst. He only needs mobility items like ForceStaff/Blink.

Well I was focusing on the what supports I would play as, for pubs I agree that it's too gimmicky.

I don't really like shadow poison, it's meant to be used as cheap lane harass or a finisher but magic stick easily counters and as you said it's easy to dodge-I've seen people get it for the sake of scouting though. If you plan on playing mid though shadow poison generally takes priority over disruption.

Yeah Lion is good, just need to learn when to ult besides securing kills.

I learned the supporting role with Shadow Demon when I was a league scrub during my first month of DotA. Coming from League of Lesbians, the idea of a laneless roaming support (as well as having disables longer than a single second) was completely alien, so it helped me understand the game more quickly. If you're looking for lowlevel pubfriendly heroes only you might as well reduce your hero pool to junglers.

Kinda late but Free2Play documentary will be released on 19th March. Story about Fear, Hyhy, Maelk and Dendi. Shame hyhy probably will stay on LoL.

Anyone watching the DC Captain Draft tourney? It's kinda refreshing to see non-CM heroes like Sniper and Void get chance to play. Alliance looking back in form.

Valve, where's the TI3 documentary. Damn

Depends on the lanes, but CM is a really flexible hero that can lane, jungle, or roam gank. It's important for mid players to know where the opponent supports are at, so you can indirectly help your team win the lanes by simply staying in the fog. If the mid player plays too aggressively or don't respect that the supports are MIA, you can always punish him with a timely smoke gank when he's over extending past the river.

Thanks man. That guide has help me a lot.

Blink Lion is pretty fucking legit. One of my absolute favourite supports to play with. Reliable disables and even a great nuke. Really fun.

It seems there's a new Lich strategy going around.... and it seems legit too!

This guy's Lich build....

So that Lich build was Legit!!

And that's the story of how Lich's dotabuff winrate dropped by several percent in the short time this build got popular.

I am mindblown & rustled at them releasing Ember Spirit for captains mode. This unfinished piece of shit which is apparently the developers favourite hero of all time is the reason I stopped playing AP entirely, and now I can't get away from this crap at all.

Rumors about TI4 is getting louder.

Probably in mid July instead of August and possibly not using Benaroya Hall again.

Solo mid Lich, ah... the old days. It must be clan_iraq

--Nacho. Ember + AA combo is quite popular now. Sleight of Fist + Ice Blast can be very painful.

I'd be pretty psyched with it being at a larger venue than Benaroya Hall. With that and ESL One tickets selling well (at least the first wave) I'm pretty optimistic about Dota 2's future. Hopefully there will be some good turnouts at both events.

Only concern really is over saturation, with MLG maybe having to be rescheduled. Too many events in such a short time, with ESL, Dreamhack and TI4, could lead to some sub-quality games.

Don't forget about the $150,000 ESL Tournament in Frankfurt!

so, since ti4 got changed to july i believe most teams wont change much their gameplay and performace until there. who you guys think will make the top5? until a while ago i was sure europe (navi/alliance) would take the aegis, cause the west only had DK, but now IG and VG have shown their strenght and c9 has been really good lately.

Top 5 huh.

Na'Vi and Alliance is no doubt. Both is still on their top form. Alliance had a slump moment but finally shook off their rust. Bulldog can no longer rely on his "two heroes"

DK probably will finish higher. With Ice3 & Mushi, they put flexibility in DK. They just need to stop making Burning as their only one Carry and give Mushi semi-carry Mid. 4Protect1 is outdated.

VG have upper hand than LGD this time, LGD lost xiao8 who has the biggest influence on the team and LGD.Maybe is still a newcomer in Dota2 pro scene.

Personal favorite, I'm rooting for Fnatic, EG, and Empire to get the 5-8th spot.

I'm bit pessimistic about C9, EternalEnvy is so unstable.