Tuesday, February 11, 2014

[TIPS] Stuff you didn't know about DOTA 2

Heroes:

  • Abaddon can deny himself with Mist Coil.
  • Axe's Culling Blade and Ancient Apparitions ultimate go through Dazzle's Shallow Grave.
  • Axe's Berskerer's Taunt works through magic immunity.
  • Beastmaster's boars can slow heroes through magic immunity.
  • Bloodseeker's Blood Rage cannot be dispelled.  If you cast it on a hero before they pop magic immunity, they will still be silenced.
  • Bounty Hunter can deal bonus Shadow Walk damage twice with a single cast. You can attack during the fade time to get free bonus damage without cancelling the invisibility, and then attack again to remove your invisibility.
  • Centaur Warrunner's Double Edge has a small AoE.  Once you have good health regen you can actually use this to farm creeps.
  • Centaur Warrunner's Return works on towers as well (it will deal damage to them when they attack him).
  • Razor's Static Link (draining damage) works through magic immunity.
  • Silencer's ultimate interrupts channeling spells (e.g. Pudge's Dismember or Enigma's Black Hole).
  • Death Prophet's spirits deal physical damage (and are reduced by armor) but are unaffected by damage block from shields.
  • Disruptor's Glimpse at level 4 has 1800 range, as far as you can see in daytime.
  • Enchantress' Nature's Attendants will heal through BKB, and will continue after she dies (staying in the place where she fell until the end of the duration).
  • Ezalor's (Keeper of the Light) Mana Leak will instantly stun Lone Druid's bear since it has no mana already.
  • Ezalor's Mana Leak will not work on Blink or teleport abilities (very fast movement in under 0.1 seconds will not drain mana).
  • Faceless Void
    • Backtrack is not considered evasion so MKB does not work.
    • When in Chronosphere, evasion is not possible.
  • Invoker's Tornado dispels many buffs (e.g. Drum of Endurance, Empower).
  • Juggernaut
    • You can attack during Blade Fury...
      • Against magic immune targets, it does full damage
      • Against magic vulnerable targets, it does no damage but can still apply attack modifiers (like maim)
    • His Healing Ward moves at an incredibly fast 450 move speed.
    • Omnislash
      • Goes through magic immunity and Linken's sphere (Linkens will block one attack but not the ministun on first hit)
      • You can attack during omnislash, but must manually target enemies (and be next to them)
      • Kills creeps in one unit (non-player controlled or ancients)
      • Does not target Undying's Tombstone zombies
  • Leshrac's Diabolic Edict at max level, when used against a single target, does 200 damage per second for eight seconds and can hit invisible and magic immune units as well.
  • Lina and Lion's ultimates can be disjointed.  You have a .25s interval between the animation and the damage to avoid it (e.g. with blink).
  • Lion, Shadow Shaman and Scythe of Vyse all hex enemies into different animals.
  • Luna's Eclipse ultimate will turn day into night while it is active (between 1.8 and 5.4 seconds, depending on level).  Note that she has full vision at night as long as she has at least one level in Lunar Blessing.
  • Omniknight's Guardian Angel (physical invulnerability) and Repel (magic invulnerability) can be purged.
  • Silencer's Glaives of Wisdom do not work on Visage's gargoyles.
  • Silencer's ultimate Global Silence will work through magic immunity, but can be removed by activating BKB after it has already been casted.
  • Sniper's Headshot, when it triggers, will ALWAYS hit.  It will bypass any kind of evasion (e.g. Windrun, uphill miss chance).
  • Spectre
    • Dispersion...
      • damage does not put blink dagger on cooldown
      • only deals damage between 300 and 1000 units (the closer you are the more damage you take).  Thus if you are closer than 300 or farther than 1000 you take no damage.
    • Haunt can be used on any illusion you have, such as from Manta Style and the Illusion rune.
  • Sven's ultimate, God's Strength, cannot be purged.
  • Terrorblade
    • ...has the highest starting armor in the game of 7.08.  Visage, Phoenix and Io all have negative starting armor values.
    • ...can sunder his own illusions.
  • Tidehunter's Anchor Smash's damage and debuff (-60% damage) goes through BKB.  Activating BKB will also not remove it (though purging will).
  • Timbersaw can cast and use items normally after he fires Timberchain.  This includes using Whilring Death and Chakram, but you can also activate a teleport scroll and it will keep channeling even while being pulled.
  • Undying's Tombstone will continue spawning zombies even while enemies are slept by Naga Siren's ultimate.  You can stack quite a few zombies this way before releasing the song.
  • Ursa's Overpower cannot be purged, but his ultimate (Enrage) can be.
  • Viper's Corrosive Skin triggers on many interesting effects.  For example, Corrosive Skin will be triggered by Centaur Warrunner's "Return" passive, applying your passive to him every time you attack.
  • Phoenix
    • Can fly over Earthshaker's Fissure with his slow movement while Sun Ray is on.
    • If Phoenix activates Blade Mail before using his ultimate, whoever kills the Supernova will take reflection damage based on Phoenix's health before he used his ultimate.
    • Phoenix can be denied by teammates while in Supernova and under 50% health.
  • Venomancer
    • Poison Gale has the longest slow in the game at 15 seconds.  This makes Venomancer an excellent lane partner with Dark Seer, who can easily use ion shell to get kills.
    • Poison Gale does 25 total damage at level 1, but 200 damage at level 2.
    • Poison Sting does not dispel healing or prevent blinking.
    • Poison Sting goes through BKB.
  • Viper's Corrosive Skin works globally when a DoT is placed on him (e.g. Phoenix's Flame Spirits), damaging the enemy even when they're not around anymore.
  • Viper's ultimate slows through magic immunity (including Naix Rage and BKB).
  • All heroes have the same day sight range (1800) except for two: Batrider and Night Stalker, who have 1200.
  • All heroes have the same night sight range (800) except for four: Night Stalker and Slark (1800), and Sniper and Bounty Hunter (1000).  Luna also gets 1800 night vision, but only after she gets a level in Lunar Blessing.
  • At level 16, Dragon Knight has 20.5 armor with no items. This makes him excellent against any hero that relies on armor reduction for damage.

Items:

  • You can only use Blink dagger in the direction you are facing.  Trying to use it behind yourself will force you to turn before blinking.  View the forum post on this here (originally about Puck's Phase Shift + blink).
  • It costs more to build a Dagon to level 5 than a Divine Rapier.
  • Black King Bar can be repurchased from scratch to reset the cooldown (you should probably sell your old one).
  • Desolator applies to buildings as well as heroes.  Also, the armor debuff is applied BEFORE your attack lands, meaning that even your first attack benefits from the -armor.
  • Magic Stick and Magic Wand only gain charges from visible enemies within 1200 units.  Enemies casting from the fog of war or while invisible do not add to your charges.
  • Mjollnir pops its damage every tick when you're being damaged by Phoenix's Fire Spirits, which can add up to quite a lot of damage.
  • Monkey King Bar bypasses all evasion, including smoke screen from Riki, Windrun from Windranger, and uphill miss chance.
  • Necronomicon minions have extremely fast attack speeds.  The warrior's base attack time is .75 and the archer's is 1.0.  Compare that to Anti-Mage at 1.45, who has the fastest unbuffed hero attack speed in the game.
  • Linken's Sphere can be casted on a teammate to give them the same protection temporarily.
  • You can activate Shiva's Guard, then blink, and the frost radius will follow you.  Very effective if you wait till it's mostly expanded before blinking.
  • The Cheese that drops every time from Roshan on and after his 3rd death can be sold for 750 gold.
  • Couriers can hold Smoke of Deceit and use it (it does not make them invisible but will work on nearby friendly heroes).
  • Manta Style activation removes Dust of Appearance.
  • Orb of Venom and Skadi both slow someone who is magic immune from Black King Bar.
  • Smoke of Deceit
    • will hide heroes from the minimap, even if they are visible from a sentry ward.
    • will not be removed by illusions of heroes
  • Vanguard does not block damage from Serpent or Plague Wards.
  • You cannot queue (shift click) items or abilities that are on cooldown.

Monday, February 10, 2014

[TIPS] Dota 2 Hero Counter Pick List


  • Abaddon
    • Ancient Apparition's Ice Blast will prevent him from healing during Borrowed Time, but he still won't take damage.
    • Culling Blade can kill him even with his ult active as long as his health is low enough.
    • Doom prevents his ultimate from activating if you use it beforehand.
    • A very high damage attack (such as Laguna Blade or Finger of Death) can kill him without activating Borrowed Time if it kills him from outside the trigger threshold (400 hp).
    • Any form of Hex disables his ultimate from going off (but you must kill him while he is hexed).
  • Beastmaster
    • His boars will slow through magic immunity, making him an excellent counter to magic immune melee carries.
  • Bloodseeker
    • Immediately teleporting when you see him coming for you can be a very effective way to survive a gank.
  • Bristleback
    • Venomancer can be very powerful against him in the lane, doing a large amount of damage over time (DoT) with his passive poison.
    • Leshrac is a decent lane support against him as Diabolic Edict can be a very powerful harassment tool.
    • Magic Stick is extremely useful against him in lane as he spams goo and quills. I would get it even on a hero I wouldn't normally (like a late game carry) if I was in the same lane as him.
    • Any source of hex (Lion/Shadow Shaman/Scythe of Vyse) is a great counter as it will remove his rear damage protection from his passive.
  • Broodmother
    • Alchemist can get a ridiculous amount of gold from killing her spiderlings thanks to Greevil's Greed and his Aoe poison spray.
    • Any AoE hero is effective at stopping her pushes (e.g. Lina, Leshrac, Jakiro, etc.) but you must have some degree of mobility to get away in the event that she surprise attacks you from her web.
  • Centaur Warhammer
    • Necrophos can exploit his self-damage from Double Edge with his ultimate.
  • Chen
    • Very strong in situations where the enemy lacks AoE and creep killing abilities (e.g. Devour, Midas)
  • Clinkz
    • Ghost Scepter is extremely useful against him as it totally negates his damage against you.  Often picked up by supports.
    • Ogre Magi is an excellent pickup against Clinkz, as your extremely strong stun and slow have a good chance at instantly killing him and your high health means you'll typically live long enough to get it off.  Watch out for Orchid silence, however.
  • Dazzle
    • Axe and Ancient Apparition's ultimates both go through Shallow Grave.
  • Doom
    • Any hero that doesn't need to continually use spells or items once combat begins is effective against him.  Death Prophet and Razor are popular pro counterpicks.
    • Medusa's Mana Shield is not removed by Doom.
    • Dazzle can keep Doomed heroes alive through the debuff using Shallow Grave.
    • Healing in general works well against Doom due to how long it takes for the target to die.
    • Magic resistance is very effective against the ultimate, as well as having high health and health regeneration.  Hood of Defiance and Pipe of Insight are both especially good.
  • Faceless Void
    • Pugna can Decrepify Faceless Void's target, or Faceless Void himself if he's not magic immune. This can save teammates when Chronosphere is up.
    • Omniknight's Guardian Angel prevents a lot of Void's damage (note that bashing will still happen).
    • Axe shuts him down well with blink + taunt, combined with the massive bonus to armor. Counter Helix also goes through magic immunity (physical damage).
    • Tiny matches up well against him all game ,with his nukes one shotting Faceless Void for much of the game and craggy exterior stunning attackers in late game.
  • Io
    • Disruptor totally shuts him down with Glimpse countering Relocate easily.
  • Juggernaut
    • Ghost Scepter and Ethereal Blade are excellent item counters against him, as they prevent his Omnislash from hitting you.
    • As his ultimate does physical damage (and bypasses magic immunity), high armor is extremely effective.
  • Legion Commander
    • Pugna can decrepify him or his Duel target.
    • Vengeful Spirit can swap his Duel target away.
  • Lion
    • Extremely effective at countering illusion heroes (especially slow spawners like Chaos Knight and Terrorblade) using Mana Drain and Hex
    • Zero cast point of Hex makes him great against mobile, evasive heroes (Anti-Mage, Storm Spirit, Slark)
  • Morphling
    • Ancient Apparition's ultimate prevents him from healing from his strength conversion.
  • Naix
    • Razor.  You can Static Link through his magic immunity, and it continues working even when Naix jumps into a creep!
    • Siren can activate Song can isolate Naix from his team, as he will be the only one unaffected.
    • Viper, whose ultimate goes through his magic immunity.
  • Nature's Prophet
    • Spectre can find Nature's Prophet wherever he is on the map, preventing him from split pushing effectively.
  • Necrophos
    • In the laning phase, Dragon Knight is an excellent counter pick as your health regeneration will outpace his Heartstopper Aura.
  • Omniknight
    • Both his repel and his ultimate can be purged.
    • This means that Shadow Demon, whose ultimate purges, is a good counter.
    • Omniknight's Guardian Angel prevents all physical damage, which can protect teammates caught in Chronosphere.
  • Outworld Devourer
    • Black King Bar prevents ALL of his abilities (including the orb) from being used, which makes him a carry that focuses on a strong mid game.
    • In the mid lane, he struggles against any hero that does good damage and requires minimal mana (Viper, Kunkka, Razor).  All were common counter picks in The International 3.
  • Phantom Assassin
    • Ghost Scepter is extremely useful against him as it totally negates his damage against you.  Often picked up by supports.
  • Phoenix
    • Huskar resists magic damage extremely well, and harassment by Phoenix will only make him attack faster (which also helps him to kill Phoenix during Supernova).
  • Razor
    • He's an excellent counter himself for many carries that rely on staying power through the fight over burst damage output (like Spectre).  He's also great against Lone Druid since he can suck damage from the bear.
  • Rikimaru
    • Any hero that provides detection will be useful against him whenever he shows himself: Slardar, Bounty Hunter, Zeus, etc.
    • Dust of Appearance is obviously effective, but remember he can purge himself with Diffusal Blade.
    • Monkey King Bar will prevent any miss chance due to Smoke Screen.
  • Skywrath Mage
    • Pugna. His Nether Wand easily annihilates Skywrath Mage when he attempts to use his ultimate.
  • Slardar
    • Dragon Knight's very high armor mitigates the impact of Amplify Damage as well as reducing normal attack damage.
  • Slark
    • Necrophos is very effective at exploiting Slark's Dark Pact (which injures himself).  Death Pulse and Heartstopper Aura also affect invisible units.
  • Sniper
    • Spirit Breaker is an excellent counter because he can charge Sniper from any distance and repeatedly bash him to prevent him from attacking.
    • Tinker has an 1100 cast range on his Laser which is longer than Sniper's attack range, and it causes Sniper to miss all of his attacks.
  • Storm Spirit
    • Enchantress' passive ability Untouchable dramatically reduces Storm Spirit's damage output.  Since the passive takes effect when he starts his attack animation, it takes quite a while for him to land even his first overload attack.  Until Storm Spirit has a Black King Bar or Scythe of Vyse (which disables Enchantress' passive), she can prove very hard to kill.
    • Lion/Shadow Shaman.  Both of them have instant cast stuns (hex) which makes it harder for Storm Spirit to escape after engaging.  Additionally, both of them have follow up stuns as well (and Impale goes through Linkens as long as it's targeted on the ground).
    • Scythe of Vyse: For the same reason as above, it gives you an instant disable on Storm Spirit.
    • Silencer. A silenced Storm Spirit loses the ability to deal damage, silence, stun, slow, and escape.  A well-timed ultimate from Silencer can easily shut down Storm Spirit.
  • Templar Assassin
    • Dark Seer is an excellent support against TA.  Ion Shell quickly removes her Refraction charges and hits invisible units.  Vacuum and Illusory Wall can also hit her while she's Melded.  His Surge also totally counters the slow from her traps.
    • Shadow Demon's ultimate can purge away her Refraction, removing her primary source of survivability and damage.
    • Immediately teleporting when you see her coming for you can be a very effective way to survive a gank.
  • Terroblade
    • His very high starting armor (7.08, best in the game) and excellent agility gain makes Elder Titan's "Natural Order" passive very effective.  With level four of the ability, he reduces Terrorblade's armor by at least 7.  If the Terrorblade was level 16 it would reduce his armor by 14 (7 from starting, 7 more from agility gain).
  • Tidehunter
    • Leshrac can be a powerful lane support against him by using Diabolic Edict.
  • Timbersaw
    • Keeper of the Light's Mana Leak is extremely effective against Timbersaw, who relies on mobility to deal damage.
    • Leshrac can be a powerful lane support against him by using Diabolic Edict.
  • Tinker
    • Spectre can find Tinker wherever he blinks to when he's split pushing. You'll still need a way to cancel his teleport, however (Spectral Dagger doesn't ministun).
    • Phantom Assassin can close the gap to Tinker quite easily with blink strike and interrupt teleports and Tinker's own blink with Stifling Dagger.  As long as you have BKB you can ignore the miss chance from Laser and his missile damage.
  • Tiny
    • Silencer's Curse of the Silent is very effective against Tiny (and other high mana cost spell heroes) in the laning phase, forcing him to either take full damage from the spell or use some of his very limited mana pool.
  • Undying
    • Earthshaker's Echo Slam works as an excellent counter against the zombies spawned from Tombstone.  Additionally, since Undying's Soul Rip is stronger when he stands near many units, he sets himself up for your ultimate.
    • While the zombies are magic immune they are affected by physical AoE abilities normally (such as Bristleback's Quill Spray or Axe's Counter Helix).
  • Ursa
    • Both Force Staff and Ghost Scepter are extremely useful against him, as he relies on quick melee damage to finish people off and has no chasing ability.
    • Omniknight's Guardian Angel completely shuts down Ursa's damage output.
  • Viper
    • His ultimate goes through all forms of magic immunity (the slow, not the damage) which makes him great at kiting melee carries.
    • Corrosive Skin will be triggered by Centaur Warrunner's "Return" passive, applying your passive to him every time you attack.  It makes you a strong laner against him.
  • Weaver
    • Weaver is a great counter to any slow projectile stuns (Alchemist, Sven, Wraith King) as her invisibility will dodge them as long as they have no true sight.
  • Windranger
    • Shadow Demon can purge away Windrun, preventing her from escaping or evading attacks.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

[TIPS] Killing the Year of the Beast (New Bloom Festival)

Not sure how to "kill" it yet (if it's possible at all) but here are some tips:
  • There's a new item, Force Boots, which is automatically created from Boots of Travel + Force Staff.  Get it.  It gives you a 5 second cooldown force push on yourself only.
  • The damage done for the purpose of rewards is based on your TEAM damage, not your personal damage.  Thus you can play a support (e.g. Omniknight) that does no damage to the monster and still get credit.
  • Synchronize the killing of the horn and the tail to disable it longer.  Once you kill one limb or the other, it will thrash around and give you a small window to kill the other.
  • You can buy firecrackers for 100 gold that will save your teammates from being devoured.
  • Reserve two item slots.  One for the healing/clarity salves the beast drops, and the other for firecrackers to save teammtaes.
  • Any unspent gold after the battle will be turned back into ingots.
  • There are three distinct body parts- a body, a horn, and a tail.  You should be aiming at either the tail or the horn all the time.  Taking out both will stun him for quite some time.
  • You get one free (1 gold) buy back, and then after that it's too long of a cooldown for you to use again (20+ minutes).
  • Templar Assassin is an excellent pick due to her refraction preventing four kinds of any damage from the Beast, excluding his grab.
  • If his horn is damaged, he cannot grab.
  • If his tail is damaged, he cannot stun.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Best videos and articles on DOTA 2

Videos

  • Top 50 Dota Plays (Hall of Fame edition)
  • Fails of the Week (this whole series is good but this one is especially funny)
  • Alliance vs. Na`Vi Grand Championship Game 5 of 5 Their entire series was incredible, but the last one was unbelievable.  Extremely lethal (it was like 1.9 kills per minute) and action-packed, with multiple lead switches during the game.
  • Best (and funny) moments from The International 3 (2013)
  • A Kunkka leading his team back from megacreeps with the help of five Divine Rapiers.
  • An extremely humorous (but useful) guide to playing Leoric.
  • Dendi's Youtube channel.  Dendi is considered one of the best players in the world and usually goes solo mid.
  • Dendi talks about the mentality of playing solo mid and how he approaches it.  It's a video that's done in Dota 1, but almost everything is still applicable today.
  • Dealing with dual offlanes as a support (by Fluff)
    • Sometimes you can't zone due to the matchup- just hit the offlaner when they go for CS and secure farm for your carry
    • Use sentry wards as an early warning against bounty hunter. It's better to never get hit than to do damage to the BH
    • Give your mid a sentry ward vs. a bounty to protect them
    • At level 1 or 2, it's more efficient to suicide to neutrals than it is to walk to fountain. Make sure to buy any items first so you don't lose gold (worst case scenario, buy branches for 50g)
    • Fluff's smurf account is still 5100
  • General guide to supporting by Blue Span
  • Hexor's Youtube


Articles

Hero Guides



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