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[Castle]

THis is pretty fuckin neat

http://animationtidbits.tumblr.com/post/25610725625/dota-2-character-art-guide-full-pdf-here

[Nillo]

The Tranquil Boots nerf makes me sad. It's going to hit Axe pretty hard, and he wasn't even that strong to begin with.

[allen]

yeah I used to love them on supports, but now when they're disabled you get less speed than from brown boots.

fuck that

[Castle]

At the same time, a lot of carries that start with tranquil boots into whatever can no longer rely on that strategy. I think that's probably a decent trade off, and T. Boots are still more or less the same for jungle heroes.

[allen]

sure they can? carries like pl, riki, spectre, anti-mage, void, etc who get them have abilities that can help them escape. the movement speed is much less of an issue to them than it is a support.

though the 20 second heal duration is also a big nerf to them since if there is an enemy in their lane they would have to sit back and heal.

too much of a nerf, but more of a nerf to supports than carries who buy the item imo.

[Nillo]

Heads up: The Cursed Wood chests and Shaper Divine chests have ONLY rares, mythicals and legendaries in them. A few of them come with extra animations while others are new mounts for heroes like Mirana and Bat.

[starsrift]

Been playing a bit of DotA2 lately. Maybe you more experienced guys can help me with something - I'm having a lot of trouble playing with PL on my team (or very rarely as PL; I prefer supports or gankers). How is PL best played? If he's off farting around in the jungle all game, should I be calling him on it, or let him farm b/c he's the carry?

I particularly had a game a few weeks ago that was literally this, the PL sat in the jungle, got 0 kills and only a couple assists - from when the enemy team came to gank him and the rest of the team moved in to help him. Obviously this is an extreme example of how not to carry, but how concerned about PL's farm should the rest of the team be?

[Blademasterbobo]

He needs farm, but you can farm multiple areas at once with the illusions, he's good at getting kills early game, he can farm by pushing lanes better than jungling (especially with his invis ability for escape), and most carries should be involved in some fights, even earlier in the game. If one team has been doing four man teamfights all game, and losing them, and the other team has a carry who actually knows how to play and has high farm, on top of the won teamfights / destroyed towers, guess which team is gonna win? And if they've been doing four man teamfights and winning, well, you didn't really win the game cuz of the carry, did you?

You do have to be careful of the opposite thing happening, though. Sometimes you can be winning teamfights and forget about their carry, and then he comes in at 40 mins and wrecks everyone. You have to find the right balance, which is easier said than done. Comes down to map awareness and good communication.  

[starsrift]

he's good at getting kills early game

I think this is the hardest part of having a PL, is feeding him early kills - as opposed to other carries. He's so damn squishy, and he doesn't even hit his stride with his skills until late because they're all focused on synergy. But thanks for the comment, Bobo, I'll try and kick the next PL I have jungling out into lane, which was p much my question.

[Blademasterbobo]

If you throw a soul ring on him (+ tranqs, perhaps) or if you lane him with KotL, he can spam his q all day long. It's not super difficult to outlane your opponents with PL.

[Jackson31]

What is it about dota that makes us want to play it so much?
When I consider having played lots of a game I think of how I've played 100+hours of battlefield 3 or call of duty, but with dota it's on a whole norther level

according to steam I've played over 800 hours of dota and still I can't quite put my finger on what compels me!

The only other game I've played so obsessively was my first MMO experience, and after time I learnt what MMO's are, the techniques they use to compel players to just keep on playing. So one day I just quit that MMO and I've never been held captive by one again.

Dota on the other hand does not use the same obvious tricks as most MMO's, and yet there is something in it more powerfully compelling than any other game I've played,
But
WHAT
IS
IT!?

[Nillo]

What is it about dota that makes us want to play it so much?

Depth.

How often have you looked at a decision someone made in a game (be it an item choice, skill build, lane setup, or other plan) and been 100% sure that this was the best decision the player could make in that situation? It's nearly impossible to say, because Dota is incredibly deep. During a game there are so many meaningful choices and interactions between game elements that you never completely understand what you should be doing, even if you have played it for thousands of hours.

Variety.

The amount of content in Dota is enormous and it keeps increasing every patch. In Starcraft, maybe you have marines and zerglings and zealots, but they're always going to be the same.  When you play with or against a new hero in Dota, it changes everything. What can they do? How do you deal with them? A constantly changing environment encourages you to keep playing and discover new things.

I can list a ton of other stuff I love about Dota but those are the 2 main advantages it has for me, when compared to other multiplayer games. It is deep in that it always lets me make interesting decisions while playing, and it has enough variety that no two games are going to feel the same.

[farmer]

Dota on the other hand does not use the same obvious tricks as most MMO's, and yet there is something in it more powerfully compelling than any other game I've played,
But
WHAT
IS
IT!?

It's the random reward schedule of winning and losing. And a random reward schedule is the most addicting, like a slot machine.

[Jackson31]

Dota on the other hand does not use the same obvious tricks as most MMO's, and yet there is something in it more powerfully compelling than any other game I've played,
But
WHAT
IS
IT!?

It's the random reward schedule of winning and losing. And a random reward schedule is the most addicting, like a slot machine.

Now that I've had a night to think about it, I think what it ultimately comes down to, is that dota is somewhere between random and not. If it was always random like you say, people would figure out that they have no control and would find it boring. But that's not the case, instead it's very close to being random but there is enough depth, choices and potential for player influence things that people feel they are contributing to the outcome (like Nillo said), even when it's never predictable

The way a game can almost always be completely turned around is another thing that does it, players will keep on playing hard and not give up because they know it only takes a couple of errors from the other side to have the upper hand again, the game's state is always in the balance, and therefore constantly interesting

There's probably more to it than just that, but I'm starting to feel comfortable with that answer

[Nillo]

Supporting for me is like watching the carry grow. They start out weak and naive and needing your protection from the big bad nightstalkers of the world. 40 minutes later they're all grown up and forging their destinies, and it's so cute.
I imagine KotL sitting back on a rocking chair with a pipe while PL 1v5's the enemy team in the background thinking, "Seems like it was just yesterday when he needed chakra for his lances".