Phoenix DotA

DotA 6.74 released... Most heroes get buffed once again!

2012-03-10T16:24:00.000+05:30

Hi guys,

The DotA v.6.74 was released a few hours back. Most of the heroes have received a buff once again and Wisp, Disruptor and Rubick have been added to the Captain's Mode (cm) play. The anticipated remake of some heroes (Pit Lord & Phoenix) has been postponed for the next version.

You can download the new map at getdota.com and read the complete changelog on playdota.com.

As for some prominent changes, the "Urna Swarm" ability of Nerubian Assassin has been replaced with the "Spiked Carapace" which is a combination of the blademail and Tiny's "Craggy Exterior".

Spiked Carapace:

=================

Temporarily enhances the Assassin's chitinous armor with organic barbs, causing him to prevent and reflect the next player based damage instance and stuns the target. Lasts 4.5 seconds.

Duration: 4.5 seconds

Damage return: 100% (after resistance on your hero)

Stun: 0.6/1.2/1.8/2.4

Cooldown: 10

Manacost: 50

However, guys who loved Urna Swarm do not need to worry as the frog has already declared that this skill will be included in a new hero.

Urna Swarm will be reused for a future hero.

The other major changes in the map are as follows:

- Nevermore's Necromastery soul count increased from 8/16/24/32 to 12/20/28/36. If my Math is correct, it means a maximum damage of whopping 1440/2160/2880!

- Removed Unexplored Fog of War

This means that heroes now blink without getting the message "must explore area first" and Furion can tp anywhere in the map. :D

- Batrider's Flame Break is now a targeted AoE spell.

- Naga Siren's 'Rip Tide' now casts in a 450 aoe around naga and all of her illusions. Enemies can be fully affected by the Illusion's aoe.

- Getting the Aghanim on Ogre now gives you a fifth ability.

Gives his other head the ability to cast a more primitive version of Fireblast. It has a constant (not modified by ultimate/level) 275 damage, 1.5 second stun, 20 cooldown, 400 manacost. It can trigger multicast.

- Option of auto-casting Puck's 'Phase Shift' has been done away with.

I will try to keep this post updated with more thoughts and ideas. Let me know what you think about the new map below.

- Phoenix

DotA players going crazy over Dota 2 Beta Keys!

2011-11-02T02:34:00.001+05:30

Hi everyone. Recently I've been giving time to play some Dota as well as Dota 2 Beta. As you all are aware of, Dota 2 is in closed beta for now and keys are being distributed on selective basis, its amazing how people are getting so crazy over these keys. But yes, the game does deserve all the attention. :) Anyways, I came across some really crazy & funny ways of requesting beta keys from Icefrog. Came here to just share those with you hoping that you'll enjoy them as well.

Youtube: Dota 2 Beta Key request for Playmate

Youtube: Dotapoo - The Key of Destiny

Playdota Forums - New hero of 6.73

Do let me know if you also came across an innovative idea for Dota 2 Keys. :D

Bye Bye Everyone!

2010-05-13T17:42:00.001+05:30

Hello everyone. You can expect this to be the last hello from me on this blog. College Life is almost over and I will have to join a job soon after that. It was fun writing for my passion DotA all these years but I guess the time's over now.

Thank you all for sticking with me ALLLL this time. Shoutout to PMS* for being the first international players to follow me publicly.

Good Luck Everyone & Have Fun!

Rohan 'Phoenix' Gupta

DotA Lover!

New Hero in 6.68!

2010-04-25T02:30:00.004+05:30

Icefrog has indicated that a new hero/heroes will be released in the next map update v6.68. As he answers a visitor message on his playdota profile.

Originally Posted by IceFrog

Quote: sniperattack
Are there any new heroes coming in 6.68?

Yes

Source

Although no other information has been revealed by him if the hero is agility/intelligence/strength type. You can join the discussion on the new hero on the official dota forums at playdota.com - Thread Link.

Take Pride in playing Dota!

2010-04-01T01:25:00.001+05:30

One of the most motivating posts on playing computer games by team OK player Drayich. Must read for all devoted gamers. Read his complete post or continue reading with the major points covered. My views are inside this post. :)

I can see alot of people around stating dota is just a dumb computer game, something you wouldnt do when you grow older, yet they give this game hours and hours of effort everyday. For me that sounds really destructive.

Yeah, Dota is just a computergame. Like boule is just boule or collecting stamp is just stamps. But whatever hobby you choose to do, its still a hobby, and if you didnt know it i can tell you now, hobbies are very important.

Why do we undermine the fact that we really have something that we like to do. We enjoy it, it makes us emotional, perhaps it even makes us better at english and provides us with faster reactions. But it makes us happy. Thats the key.

The major reason to why gamers still are considered nerds is simply because they have no pride in what they do. They undermine and shut down discussions about gaming when they talk to girls or parents. Seeing it as just something that you do cause you have nothing better in your life to do.

Take pride in it, and who knows maybe next time you get a girlfriend you dont have to stop playing. Because you told her from the beginning that even so she's beautifiul and really nice, there is just something special about charging up a alchemist stun and getting firstblood. She'll understand, if she loves you!

Although I'm pretty satisfied with what Dray wrote, there are a few points that don't go down my throat. First and foremost, people who think Dota is just a dumb computer game DO NOT give spend hours and hours on it daily.

Secondly, sharing gaming stuff with girl friend is okay but sometimes it's much more difficult when it comes to parents. Why? Because one can CHOOSE his girl friend but there is no alternative when it comes to parents. It can be really difficult for a player to share his feelings or feel proud gaming if his/her parents refuse to accept the fact that their child is a gamer or he spends most of his time playing computer games.

Mana Bars!

2010-03-30T22:36:00.001+05:30

A Warcraft tool by Lynn that allows you to see mana bars along with health bars.

I used this tool in a few LAN games and worked out fine. It really helps when you're Anti-Mage or Nerubian Assassin. However, many people reported that this causes Warcraft to crash when playing on Garena & B.Net and many tournaments might ban use of this tool as it provides you with an advantage over the enemy. So I wouldn't suggest using this on Garena & B.Net at the moment. It's worth trying on LAN anyways.

Download Link
ManaBars 1.4
Release Date: March 23, 2010

After extracting the files from the zip folder, run the program and Warcraft III in whatever order. :)

Note: If you disable "Show HP Bars" option in Warcraft 3, the manabars will also disable.

I hope Blizzard implements this tool in warcraft next patch.

Source

DotA Reconnection tool GProxy++

2010-03-12T22:20:00.001+05:30

Okay... something I had been waiting for a long long time is finally out. :D

This is the first public test release of the GProxy++ reconnection tool. Please keep in mind that this tool is the initial version. As with the early hosting bots, this is the initial technology that will be used as a base to expand from and grow in the future. Be patient if there are bugs or features missing.

Dota Reconnection Tool

Currently the tool seems to work only for B.Net and not Garena. :(

Anyways, all hail Varlock! :)

The Magic Stick dilemma

2010-03-09T11:05:00.002+05:30

Joining up on the hot Magic Stick debate started by team OK (former name TheShit!) player Dray, I'll be giving some of my view points and suggestion for the item here. First of all, sensible tweaks are always welcomed in the supposedly developing DotA world and therefore I can safely say that we'll see some changes in the item soon.

As far as my mind goes, I think of hp regen by the stick as it's defensive part while mana regen the offensive. If we want the game to get more action packed, nerfing the defensive part comes as the first thought. Dray proposes of removing the item completely from the game. But wouldn't that actually make the game imbalanced? Doesn't that mean that every healing spell forms a part of defensive mechanism and therefore, should be removed? This would also mean removing the concept of armor and spell resistance, because they basically serve similar functions. But if we think about it again, doesn't healing help pushing? Doesn't high armor promote tower diving? Everything can be seen in two different perspectives and magic stick is no exception.

My first point is, an item never makes a game imbalanced because it is the same for both the teams. [Although the item itself might not be in the perfect shape :)]

My second point is, one can always find aggressiveness and defensiveness in the same multi-use item/spell, it's only a matter of how people view it. We can think of hp regen as a defensive ability or an ability to promote pushing.

For my third point, let us suppose Icefrog codes magic stick such that we also get a charge for using a spell... I know it's a broken concept but don't you think that would actually promote aggressiveness? DotA is not a game where you can really talk much of logic. After all, it's a magic stick ;).

My suggestion for the time being is simple, remove charging up magic stick for spells that don't deal damage to you. I mean, it's always a moment of rejoice when enemy doom eats up 5 creeps :P (maybe just nullify the hp regen coz mana regen is the 'offensive' part).

The discussion is still open and I might post updates to the post later on, but these were my first response thoughts to Dray's & Loda's blog. :)

Related Links

Drayrich's blog - Remove Magic Stick?

Loda's blog - Is imbalance always a bad thing?

Ducky's Blog - Disagreement from Dray's view of the version

Milikki's Amazing DotA Comics!

2010-02-24T23:34:00.000+05:30

This Dota Fan Art has been made by a talented girl from China. Quite famous in China, xfy890228 brought her marvellous works into light on the official forums.

You can enjoy some of her amazing arts at the Official DotA Forum [You might need to register first... put the referral name "phoenix" if you like ;) ] or her original works in Chinese at her blog.

Nirvana.int players giving paid tutorials!

2010-02-21T13:07:00.001+05:30

So, Nirvana.int professionals are onto something new in DotA... giving paid tutorials!

From Demon's blog...

Recently, I've received a lot of requests for personal help and private DotA lessons so that I can help you and your team reach your maximum potential.

After teaching several people and talking to a couple of my team members, we've decided to offer private lessons in whatever form requested (Practice 1v1's, Replay Analysis, Theorycrafting, etc.)

Merlini, Kuroky, Demon and Fear will be the ones offering help. This will all be done via Ventrilo/Skype, payments will me made through PayPal.

From Kuroky's blog...

Please write a proper request, leave your msn adress etc. Tell me what specific training and lesson(s) you want for your own interest, so we can maximize the time we spent into the training.
*I editet the irc part out, due to massive amount of requests I couldn't keep a good overview so please write me a mail so I can prepare better if a deal will come up.

I got many people asking me how much I would charge. To give an example, averagely I'd take $20/hour. I will not answer any email that doesn't fulfil the requirements or doesn't look serious, thanks for your understanding

You can contact Nirvana.int for these tutorials at nvagaming@hotmail.com or on mIRC in #nirvana.DotA @ quakenet

Sources:
http://kuroky-kky.blogspot.com/2010/02/player-lessons-from-me.html
http://demon-miley.blogspot.com/2010/02/dota-lessons-from-pros.html

Awesome News: Reconnection in DotA now possible

2010-02-20T19:53:00.000+05:30

Icefrog says...

The first version of Varlock's reconnection tool is almost ready for release. We've been testing it in real DotA games for the past few weeks and it has worked very well. We've had many players disconnect only to reconnect moments later, saving otherwise lost games.

The code for this tool (both client and server) will be open source so that anyone can build upon it and integrate it into their platforms and communities.

It's a great advancement for the DotA World. A blessing for the league players while pubbers will get stripped off some of their excuses for leaving the game. ;) Also, we won't lose replays due to save reload. :D

On a side note, I hope you did notice that this tool has not actually been released yet! We still need to wait for a while.

I Got a Boat ft. Kunnka

2010-02-17T07:02:00.001+05:30

Pay attention to the lyrics of the song parody... Enjoy ;)

Excerpt from the lyrics...

I'm callin' solo mid.

Ricin' like Viets.

My waveform splashes,

gettin' everybody all wet.

This ain't the AI map.

This is real as it gets.

I got a boat motherfucker,

don't you ever forget.

GET THE FUCK BACK!

THIS BOAT IS REAL!

Fuck lanes, I cross the fjord, motherfucker!

Fuck range, I got a sword, motherfucker!

I got my boys gankin' top, motherfucker!

My X always mark the spot, motherfucker!

Original Song

Youtube Link for this song

Nirvana sponsors ex-Blight.int 5 LAN travels per year!

2010-02-08T15:12:00.003+05:30

Blight.int is now Nirvana.int!

The former sponsor of CommeDieu, Jun Sheng 'Loveen' Chang has created team Nirvana with their first team being the players from former Blight.Int, Kuro 'KuroKy' Salehi Takhasomi and crew.

Loveen with his sister

With their contracts left unsigned over at Blight, the six members of ex-Blight.Int have decided to look far east where DotA is booming for a more reliable sponsor. After months of searching with speculation of them joining SK-Gaming, the star-studded team has finally found a sponsor from China and it is none other than the former sponsor of CommeDieu during SMM Grand Finals 2009, Jun Sheng 'Loveen' Chang.

After the disbandment of CommeDieu over a month ago, Loveen has been searching for a new team to sponsor to express his passion for the game. When he was asked a few weeks ago by Jimmy 'Demon' Ho, he willingly accepted Demon's proposal to sponsor the team.

Now, the boys from ex-Blight.Int will go under the name of Nirvana.Int. The sponsor promised their new DotA team a monthly salary and up to five exclusive LAN travels per year. Loveen also expressed his thoughts of picking up a Nirvana.cn team in the upcoming weeks that will consist of a few players from the late cD team with some new faces.

Jun Sheng 'Loveen' Chang:
"I think the boys from Blight.int is one of the best DotA clan in the world. It is undeniable that they are all 5 God-class player. A few days ago, Demon approached me for a sponsorship deal and at the same time, I was looking to create a great DotA Club. I will create another two or three teams in my club like Nirvana.int (Blight.int) and Nirvana.cn (cD) and allow them to attend big events all over the world to gain experience. Nirvana will dominate every championships available."

Jimmy 'Demon' Ho:
"We are more than happy to be sponsored by Nirvana. We will exceed his expectations, and achieve the very best of results. We are also eager to be playing under our new tag as well! LAN travel support will not be a problem with Nirvana supporting us. Thanks Chang. (Smiles)"

Kuro 'KuroKy' Salehi Takhasomi:
I am very glad to be part of this new organisation, unfortunately blight gaming couldn't offer us alot in the long run and due to differences within the contract we decided to part ways.
We searched for a trustful organisation that we can rely on and be happy with for a long time, Nirvana was clearly the best option for us, I am happy that we actually did find a reliable sponsor for our euro-american mix.
Nirvana will set up a website very soon, so stay stuned!
I am very confident that Jun Sheng 'Loveen' Chang will do his best to support us, let's rock 2010!

Nirvana.Int team roster

Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov
Ben 'Merlini' Wu
Jimmy 'Demon' Ho
Clinton 'Fear' Loomis
Amar 'Amartnt' Hassan
Kuro 'KuroKy' Salehi Takhasomi
Morten 'ZexTaR' Knudsen (Manager)

Sources:
1. http://www.mymym.com/en/news/17852.html
2. http://kuroky-kky.blogspot.com/2010/02/blightint-goes-nirvanaint.html

Another BFB player starts blogging, this time it's Demon

2010-01-23T02:29:00.006+05:30

I hope everyone here knows about Kuroky's blog. It happens now that his teammate, Demon has started blogging as well. I think we all should pay a visit to his blog... :) Link to Demon's blog (Although currently it looks more like a personal blog rather than a blog devoted to DotA :D )

Also, famous Fnatic player Loda made a blogging comeback this week telling the world that he's still loyal to DotA and not HoN (which some websites claimed to happen) Check out his blog here :)

6.66 The 'Satan' is here!

2010-01-15T14:39:00.000+05:30

I hope everyone knows 666 is called the "Devil's Number"... dunno if Icefrog set some traps in the map. :P

Roshan is on fire!

Techies courier gets replaced by Nightmare Sheep

This was rather a quick update after 6.65 and I see all changes being welcomed. The best change was in Devour which gives Lucifer a totally new flexible jungle game-play.

Gains the abilities of the target neutral creep has until you devour another creep with abilities to replace it (Changelog)

He is much more fun to play now rather than just the ulti-silence stuff. Even Scorched Earth is much better now... looks like a promising competitive pick.

All changes were nice and don't need separate commenting imo. Good job Icy! :)

The DotA Bus Ride!

2010-01-14T14:39:00.003+05:30

I would like people to tell me what all is happening in this epic artwork. :D [Basically wanted to share this pic :) ]

The best part in my opinion is Mortred, followed by Bloodseeker eating up his neighbor. Zeus looks cool listening to music. Warlock is shouting over everyone while Riki is backstabbing him. I wonder who is chickened by Lion o.O . Whatever, but it's an epic piece of art. hehe! :D Do tell what other important aspects of the picture I miss. :)

This art was originally posted by Redisni @ playdota forums. (Link)

Update 1: Adding more image details (in case you missed some)
- Invoker's learning up from the book Invokelist
- Tiny is the bully/rejected guy sitting at the back
- Huskar's peeping on Lina's b**bies :P
- Dragon Knight's using his shield against Clinkz fire arrows.
- Rexxar thinks he is batman!

Original concept of the artwork by ShwigityShwonShwei. (Link)

Recovering from Illness :D

2010-01-03T17:36:00.000+05:30

Ahh! I'm finally sitting on my computer desk after a long pause of straight 7 days. Got sick a week back and had to consume 3 different type of capsules, 3 different tablets and 2 syrups everyday lying on my bed taking all my energy from a glucose drip, I dunno what more anti-biotic inject-ables doctors kept adding in it ... feeling as if almost dead xD... and finally DEAD, reduced to ashes! But don't worry, I came BACK FROM THE ASHES, coz I'm Phoenix ;P.

Just kidding about the dead part, but yeah, I was severely ill for the 'New Year'. Didn't get the chance to wish you all a Happy New Year - may this year bring you lots of gaming so you can rape-face every other player and Icefrog completes his 'Valve DotA'. Have Fun! :)

And if some noticed, the post on new heroes has been cancelled. :P

6.65 First Impressions part 2! Who's in, who's out?

2009-12-25T16:47:00.001+05:30

First of all, I would like all my readers to promote dota at World Cyber Games. Click the following link, register and leave a message for the WCG organizers to include dota in their tournaments all around the world. :)

http://www.wcg.com/6th/fun/eventzone/200912_want/want.asp

Now, resuming my comments on the new version 6.65, (first post - read first so you understand this one to the fullest) I feel we're gonna see a lot of forgotten faces in competitive scene. As I said in my last post, heroes with teleport based skills are to be seen more often but what I didn't realize at that point was that the new teleport mechanism applies only on teleport scrolls and not boots of travel! This does not decrease the importance of Pit Lord, Furion, Spectre and KotL here, but it does mean that the problem is not as big as it seemed to be. This also means boots of travel would be given far more importance than other boots.

Talking about the push-meta, someone will need to tank enemy spells & damage while pushing, someone to be focus fired. Tankers like Axe, Dirge and Bristleback come my mind here. After being almost completely neglected in 6.64, they seem to fill the void perfectly. Beastmaster, though not a proper tank, will continue to get picked/banned due to 'wild axes' having physical type damage which is far more important than magical in shorter games.

Summon heroes (Furion, Syllabear) will be the call of the day for tanking tower damage, accompanied by AoE healers like Necrolyte, Dazzle & Voljin and tower breakers like Pugna and Krobelus, who got small buffs themselves.

Two changes, introduction of the new item Urn of Shadows and the availability of boots in the side shops support the idea of roaming and reduces the number of fountain trips required. The problem of aggresive supports not having a healing mechanism is solved and teams can just carry on pushing after winning a team fight. Twin head dragon has been buffed several times, now it seems he can easily fill the slot of an aggressive support.

We'll have to wait and watch what new strategies professionals come up for playing the new Visage and Alchemist. I'm expecting a change in play style of both. With the new 'Familiars' having a active spell themselves, only high level players will be able to enjoy his full potential.

Gondar got a nice skill replacement but as I said in my last post, single target heroes are a no no this version. Many people are expecting Chaos Knight to make a come-back with only one skill replaced, but I still think he needs more buffs to get in par with other competitive picks. He's still a single target hero with images that get wiped out with a few AoE spells.

Panda (Mangix) got hit by the nerfstick. Icefrog wants us to kill Fire Panda if we don't like him. Judging by the change in the metagame, he's not going to be picked often now.

Blademail got a nerf and now it's not an item for everyone anymore. But the return of tanks will support this item. Force Staff on the other hand got a small buff, shorter games will lure players to get it as a dagger replacement but it's still not good enough to be seen frequently.

These are my first thoughts on 6.65. Thoughts change with time, new things pop up and I still need to figure out the counter strategies of such a meta-game. So don't take these to be my final verdict on the version and go enjoy some 6.65 action yourself. I would love to listen your views on the map update, so start commenting. :)

I'm yet to publish my views on the new heroes, so subscribe and stay connected. :D

First Impressions of 6.65! A New Metagame?

2009-12-24T22:30:00.002+05:30

The wait is finally over with an awesome update by Icefrog. (6.65 Changelog) The version came out with two major updates, one was the xp and gold change on creeps after destroying barracks and the other one was the reworked mechanics of Town Portal.

Both these changes indicate a clear green signal by Icefrog to push strategies. The benefits of destroying barracks are too good to ignore. What this means? The game has turned into a push competition, whoever pushes enemy rax first wins! The turtling era has been replaced by the push era (Yipeee!). Length of games will go down considerably. Pick a summoner, an AoE whore, an AoE healer, a tower demolisher & a carry jungler and you're bound to have a great time crushing your opponents. The carry spends most of his time jungling while the rest of the team goes out pushing everything to the rax. You don't even need to care much once you push rax. Push a lane or two and then farm in jungle as hell coz the other team is losing experience and gold relatively as the game goes longer.

Talking about the changes to teleport mechanics, it looks like Icefrog took Kuroky's excerpt on Mass teleport seriously. The changes are somewhat complex at first looks. People in organized games will need to teleport selectively. Mass teleporting to save carry and towers is a broken concept now. Other professionals should take a lesson from this and start posting their own views on the map. ;)

The other strat Icefrog seems to promote in this map is Ganking. The TP nerf promotes ganking and the new item Urn of Shadows is totally awesome for aggressive support heroes.

Defending base will be a pain in the ass and single target heroes like Viper will need to make AoE damage items else they might fade away from the Competitive Scene completely, while AoE whores like Puck will be used more frequently. Pit Lord is likely to make a comeback here with his mass-teleport ulti and the ability to kill creeps in a matter of seconds. The same concept applies to other global teleport heroes like Furion, Spectre and KotL. Some might say Spectre has got useless after the nerf to dispersion but she will continue to appear in higher level games in my opinion.

These were basically my first thoughts on the meta-game changes I expect in 6.65. I will continue to express my views on the new version, so subscribe and keep in touch with me. Thanks for reading. :)

Boots of speed are now available in side shops! <--- TOTALLY UNEXPECTED :D

XMas to come with 2 bangs! Merry Christmas!

2009-12-23T19:04:00.000+05:30

Merry Christmas everyone! :D

Yes, It's Christmas ! Time to enjoy, wait for Santa Icefrog and get loads of gifts heroes maps updates surprises! It's also the time to show dotaters that you are beyond godlike! So play dota with all your friends, enemies & unknowns and show them Who's their Daddy? ;)

As I mentioned in my previous post,

"Icefrog's actually planning to surprise us with Christmas gifts

the wait is almost over as Icefrog has given his statement,

"All set now, thanks for everyone's input

and gift unpacking has already begun. Everyone was thinking there would 1 new hero in 6.65 but it turns out there are two of them! :D

Hero No #1

Hero No #2

To view these pictures on the official dota download website, open getdota and refresh the page several times (press F5 key several times after opening the website) and you get two pictures one after the another for the two new 'Challengers' of 6.65. xD

Besides these, Icefrog posted another teaser on official dota website playdota, mentioning and asking when did he release a previous video teaser.

"I had this video up replacing getdota.com right before a map release a long time ago, anyone remember which version that was?

This video was released by Icefrog as a 6.50 teaser. We'll have to wait and watch he plans this time.

Let's hope he doesn't surprise us by not releasing 6.65 this Christmas! Or maybe he'll just skip 6.65 and post 6.66 directly. lol, can't help thinking about the surprises. Icefrog, you're a devil when it comes to teasing. :)

My predictions for 6.65

2009-12-20T10:09:00.000+05:30

Well, 6.65 is to be released soon and I'm expecting quite a lot of changes in this version. Even though there's no assurance even one of the following changes would be seen but nevertheless, THESE SHOULD BE CHANGED. One should also note that what I'm writing are the expected changes while Icefrog's actually planning to surprise us with Christmas gifts. :P

Where will she fit in the 6.65 load-screen?

DISCLAIMER

The things mentioned in this post are just my predictions. Anything may or may not come true.

End the Turtling era

SMM'09 came as a nightmare for me and taught every pro in the world how to go 'win win' situation in the 6.64 era, defensively farming. Honestly, this turtling thing should come to an end and dota should become a more spectator friendly game. It is the best thing that can happen to this game currently. My best bet would be nerf of defensive/tanking items like Vanguard, Hood/Pipe, etc., solving the mass tp problem as stated by Kuroky and maybe a small vision nerf to observer wards.

Pubs will galore with Night Crawler

One doesn't need to be a Dota expert to know this. New heroes become an instant hit in pubs and this one's rather Icefrog's Christmas Agility gift! The player with fastest clicking rate or the server will pick him, and it's inevitable for a hero who remains invisible while hitting to own the pubs like hell.
Now, there are high chances more pubbers would start using true sight items leading to downfall of other invisibility heroes like Riki, Gondar, etc. This means true sight is going to be nerfed so that pub invisibility heroes don't lose their ground.

Comeback of the Tanks

I'm sure Icefrog has noticed the silent disappearance of Dirge, Bristleback and other tank heroes from this version and will come up with some idea to re-balance the situation... probably a buff to Heart of Tarrasque.

Which heroes and what items will get nerfed?

Visage - Now that Icefrog's asking for suggestions, its obvious.
Mangix - "IMBA" of the version?
Vanguard, Hood & Pipe - Stated earlier.
Vision/true vision giving items - Stated earlier. Due to this I'm also expecting some Nerubian Weaver action. :)

Which heroes and what items will get buffed?

Tauren - The permaban of one version becomes an outcast in another. lol? He's not bad but needs just a tick to come along.
Force Staff - Never really used anywhere.

We all know Dota is very far away from attaining utopia. Icefrog always says he wants to make all strats viable for winning the game.

I want players to always feel there is a lot to improve upon and to encourage situations where a player is rewarded when he is able to make better decisions than his opponent, which is something I think even non-competitive players value.

Let's see how far he reaches his goals with this major update. (and how far he surprises us with his Christmas gifts. Merry Christmas! :D )

Heroes that kicked ass in 6.64!

2009-12-13T17:07:00.001+05:30

As most of you would be aware, Icefrog has indicated release of v6.65 near around Christmas,

so I thought why not compile a list of heroes that hit the spotlight in the current scene? After all, this was one version where I can say we witnessed games of many unforeseen heroes, whatever be the reasons. Don't believe me? Let's have a look...

Heroes that dominated the scene

Vengeful Spirit

First pick of every game? At least in Europe she was. She proved useful in several different strats. Need a baby-sitter? Pick Venge. Need a tri-laner? Pick Venge. Need someone to enhance negative armor strats? Pick Venge. Forget about being a part of a strat, swap is game breaking even at later stages of the game. She was undoubtedly the most picked hero in this era.

Mangix

This hero rose from just being a situational pick to every game ban with just two changes to fire panda: its move speed and the fact that it deals hero damage. It's just a matter of him splitting and all enemies go like "Run for your life! Fire Panda on the loose." I hope no one will be surprised when we see him nerfed in the next version! I would rather be surprised if he's not! o.O

Dark Seer

Choose one: Permaban or Permarape. I don't have the exact statistics but he was another hero beside Mangix who brought teams into auto-win situation. His marvellous ability to jungle and gank at early levels with monstrous damage is unparalleled, leave aside his ability to save allies' ass.

Sniper

Arguably the most unexpected dominating pick of this version. The prime target of comics to make fun off earlier, after receiving numerous buffs by Icefrog, finally saw the divine light of Competitive Dota. Sniper proved out to be one of the most effective component of turtling strategies as well as a counter to few heroes dominating the scene like Rhasta, Atropos, etc. Farming is easy being ranged, just make manta and the enemy finds three heroes shooting from out of their screens. :P

Picks of the SMM

The tournament infamous for sleeping spectators proved out to the world that defensive farming is the most secure way to win matches. Carries namely Medusa, Phantom Lancer, Spectre, Visage and Lightning Revenant, that could tank later in the game were most picked in this tournament with Vanguard as their favorite first item. Many dotaters cursed this version after SMM, for being so carry friendly. Anyways, hoping that Icefrog takes care of everything in the awaited version. :)

Who got scrapped?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, 6.64 scrapped all 'tanks' namely Dirge, Bristleback, etc. There were other heroes too, but lets stick to the discussion and talk about heroes that shined.

Player Specific heroes that kicked ass!

Mushi's Lanaya & Ursa

Mushi was the person who set out the trend for two heroes - Lanaya and Ursa. Lanaya paved way for the viability of two strats, armor reduction and tri-laning, became the 'map-hacker' of the version just like Visage was a few versions ago.

Roshan's nightmare and pubber's dream came true with Ursa! Again, Mushi became the trend setter proving out Ursa's usefulness to the professional world. Burst Physical Damage became much more recognized in ganking line-ups.

Angel's Storm

Storm proved out his worth in European games especially at the hands of MYM|Angel. The changes in bloodstone proved out to be a boon for this hero. Now either pick full time disablers like Rhasta and Atropos or get ready to face the wrath of an unkillable machine.

Mania's Sand King and Misery's PotM were also mentioned quite sometimes.

There are some other heroes too but these are the cream of the crop. The usage of some of these heroes has dropped after SMM, after which all teams are going for defensive farming. Perhaps we'll see more gank style games in upcoming versions. Lets hope for the best! :D

MYM vs BFB and Ganking

2009-12-12T07:17:00.000+05:30

Kuroky shares his views. MUST READ!
MYM vs BFB and Ganking
Might be posting views on it later. or not. :P

Ben's Fuck Buddies: Puppey, Merlini & Kuroky unite!

2009-12-06T20:30:00.005+05:30

BFB Logo

Puppey recently announced the making of his new team, Ben's Fuck Buddies (BFB) comprising of 7 big names in the Competitive DotA: Puppey, Merlini, Kuroky, Demon, Pajkatt, Fear & amartnt (more details). It looks like being a star and having a huge fan-base is a pre-requisite for this team. Looking at the list of players and the team's name, it is clear that they're gonna put up a lot of ganking-style gameplay which means highly entertaining matches for spectators. YaY! But can this clan meet the standards of a top level team? None of these 7 is a well known supporter and only time will tell if they mesh well with each other. As for now, they've already started playing together. You can watch their first tournament match as a team on Gosugamers.

Good luck to the newly born star studded team, hoping for some extreme action and thrilling games. :)
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Update

The team has changed name to Ben's Friendly Buddies and the pic above is their temporary logo. So... does this mean there are Ben's unfriendly buddies too? lolz.

SMM Grand National Dota Tournament '09 a summary...

2009-12-04T08:26:00.001+05:30

As many of you must be aware, SMM'09 was the biggest offline tournament in the history of DotA, it is no wonder we got to witness some interesting and some surprising stuff in the world of Competitive DotA. Talking about the interesting stuff, the tournament was won by team FTD inspite of the presence of much more popular teams like Cybertime, Kingsurf, EHome, etc. But of course, the most unexpected development in the tournament was MYM getting out of the tourni in the qualifier rounds. This came as a big big surprise to the DotA population, how can the rank 1 team in Europe could not even pass the Qualifier Rounds? MYM leader Kuroky says he played with Asian teams during the practice matches and realised that turtle farming is a way more secure strategy than their usual ganking stuff in the current meta. In fact, he even said that their ganking strategy would not work against the Asians. This was also widely accepted by all the participating teams in the tournament. But then, MYM fail to execute a good turtling strategy, did some bad hero picking and ended up out of the tournament. It's no wonder the game deciding MYM's fate, MYM vs Ftz.Asia became the most discussed match of the tournament online (on GosuGamers).

Spectators, who were expecting some entertaining matches like MYM vs Fnatic played a few weeks back were totally disappointed from the event as the only dominant strategy was passive farming. This aspect of the meta-game was truly shown in the most spectated match of the event, FTD vs Kingsurf where FTD won the game even after Phantom lancer lost his Sacred Relic once and FTD played with two lane barracks down! Though no-one can defy the fact that turtling is the most secure strategy in the current meta, I refuse to accept it as the only game winning strategy. Other strategies like ganking and pushing were not tried to their best a decent number of times during the tournament. Though we cannot blame the teams for trying out the best available strategy, many spectators were not happy with the match strategies.

One good thing noticed in the tournament was the usage of a large pool of heroes particularly those who had pushing and late game tanking powers like Visage, Phantom Lancer, etc. UTDC.Justin (Official DotA Staff Member) writes...

"This tournament showed the strength of the team presence heroes. There is a huge focus on heroes, I guess the closest type of characterization would be "heavy hybrid" - it includes Visage, Spectre, Medusa, Razor, and to a small extent Necrolyte, SF, Bristleback, amongst some more. Basically these heroes are special at the moment because they have the ability to win games. They don't do it by being especially powerful as carries in terms of damage output, but their ability to take damage and draw focus fire and survive temporarily makes them extremely effective.

These are heroes that will punish initiation of all types, you take on their teammates and you can get ready for a world of hurt - focus them and their natural ability to survive kicks in and what do you think happens to enemies that focus these heroes? "

All in all, though the tournament was not exactly a treat to the eyes for spectators, but it did bring out the most effective strategy in current DotA i.e. defensive farming. What all teams cared about the most in this tournament was the huge prize stash (approximately $26000 in cash total + goodies). Now, I'm waiting to see how Icefrog reacts to the outcome of this tournament. Again, congratulating FTD for their epic win (well deserved) and thanking all organizers & sponsors for conducting such a huge event in DotA. :)