Dota 2

[civvver]

Farming isn't just about money though, it's also about levels. If bounty gets a couple levels behind he can't gank anyone and is pretty ineffective. You're very right, not everyone can jungle, but most players don't understand lane farming, letting the lanes come back to your base so you don't get ganked out of position etc. Lane farming is the best option, but sometimes jungle is safer or you can jump between both.

My friend is just a guy I play with, his dota name is Chris. No one special, just a damn good player.

 

[bonefang]

I have played Dota mainly in Garena (Yes, I know, facepalm) and i have seen some insane game plays with Akasha in Lan Tourneys.

 

[civvver]

Still playing! even if there's not much interest in discussion...

Anyway, hand of midas, worthwile? Only for super junglers? I usually just skip it. As an example I'd be playing lifestealer and could get midas around 8 mins but for a few more gold could get mordigans instead, which lets me farm fast and go gank the lanes well. Thing is I haven't noticed a big difference in games either way. My farm rate is high regardless. I guess I could do a bot match to really check it.

I also think too many people go majorly offensive on lifestealer. They build skullbasher or mjollnirs second. I like to build boots -> mordigans -> satanic. Satanic is usually done around lvl 16-18 and then you can literally tank their whole team provided you have back up. Lifestealer just screams tank to me, not dps carry. I like assault curiass next for the armor.

Totally different train of thought, which disablers do you prefer? I really love crystal maiden's synergy between a slowing nuke and then a long stun. Shadow shaman has two awesome ones as well and jakiro's is aoe. It's hard to pick. I guess it depends on what else your team needs, as most choices do.

 

[bonefang]

do try a deso on lifestealer. deso + ac gives you the added armor, and hence survivability & more lifesteal.

Also, buriza & mask of madness on sven.

 

[GoodGame]

Still playing! even if there's not much interest in discussion...

Anyway, hand of midas, worthwile? Only for super junglers?

A typical mid-lane build for Invoker that I've watched is to start with gloves of haste and rush Midas. I think some other mid-lane builds for other characters do that as well. So probably Midas is good if you will speed farm mid-lane, but probably Midas is not an item for an Agility hero that spams agility stats (since 1900 gold could be spent better on agility stats which would give more than attack speed, or on a more tactical item).

Main advice is to only get Midas if you get it the first thing on the hero since the long cool-downs limit how much gold it will net during the game.

 

[civvver]

Hmm I usually go satanic which has a nice build for it requiring helm of dominator first, which gives some good lifesteal, dmg and armor. That lifesteal won't stack with desolator but maybe I'll try the desolator route next time.

Also I've been having a real issue with bane on my team lately. It seems like everyone who plays him has no clue what to do and keeps nightmaring whoever we're focusing on, which of course transfers the nightmare to you when you hit the enemy. I don't really play bane or know how to use him either, just saying every game with him we do terrible in team fights. Is he supposed to just enfeeble in the team fighting and maybe disable a caster on the fringes?

Another hero I've enjoyed lately is doombringer. Pretty fun jungling with him, more challenging that say lifestealer but very doable. The only thing I don't like is how squishy he is once his hellfire is on cooldown. But solid hero all around.

 

[bonefang]

bane is simple - mana boots, dagon, eules.

nighmare on caster (the people farthest from the team fights) enfeeble on agi-dps guys, eules on other strenght / melee hero, so that you can focus your fire on one hero at a time.

Also, necrobook 3, is awesome

 

[civvver]

I guess I've been playing with some bad banes then.

 

[bonefang]

o you have been playing with Mr. Boon ?

 

[GoodGame]

I'm thinking Soul Ring is sometimes overlooked as a mana boost to spam expensive spells, like maybe Bane's life-steal.

The biggest problem with Bane is educating team-member's about how the nightmare travels. Second biggest problem is that the killer ult has a short casting range.

 

[civvver]

soul ring makes tons of sense if you can life steal. otherwise I usually skip it. It comes recommended for omniknight but I don't usually get it.

 

[bonefang]

Soul Ring ? wasn't that replaced with the mana boots ?

 

[civvver]

Uh not sure what's what in hon since I don't play it but in dota mana boots are movement speed increasing boots that you use to give mana in a radius. Soul ring has some hp regen? And when you use it it temporarily converts hp to mana. Thus it's useful for healers or life drainers to get a little mana boost then heal back up.

 

[GoodGame]

soul ring makes tons of sense if you can life steal. otherwise I usually skip it. It comes recommended for omniknight but I don't usually get it.

It's also critical for Broodmother (she gets very high health regeneration on her webs, where she mostly always is during the game). Soul Ring is worthwhile on high health/strength casters too. And Wisp can get use out of it when tethered to an ally (sending the mana boost to the ally). WitchDoctor can use it too, as can a hard utility support. And really not bad for anyone spamming expensive nukes at range who isn't likely to get touched by an enemy attack (e.g. Invoker).

 

[civvver]

Broodmother is a sick hero, depends on how focused the other team is on using dusts and sentries.

Anyway back to Doom (I think his name is doom not actually doombringer). I've having some problems playing him. First his jungling seems to be extremely dependant on the types of spawns. If you get a really good passive ability from the first hard camp he can roll, but otherwise you're behind the 8 ball pretty badly. Which also makes him much more susceptible to ganking, which is in general the best counter to junglers.

But aside from that, I'm not sure how to build his items. He is an uber tank when hellfire is up and super squishy when it's down. He is also really bad when disabled (I mean most heroes are but he has no escapes or counters or anything) so it seems like black king bar would be a pretty good choice. But I don't know, vladimir's offering goes nicely with him too, and I like assault cuirass for the armor but heart of tarasqe is very good too for general tanking. And the vanguard shield isn't that great but is half the price of these other expensive items.

So there's a lot of choices and I haven't found a great path yet. I seem to lose most of my games with doom but it's generally been from really poor other carries, though doom is listed as a carry as well. He doesn't feel like a carry to me, more like a durable support.

 

[bonefang]

I usually play him as a ganker, hellfire > stomp >(3rd skill) > ulti on casters , back to farming..... radiance is good on him as a pure pusher.

 

[civvver]

Yeah I need to try him with phase boots and radiance. Could be an ultra pusher then.

Ursa sucks. Had an epic match last night, my team of omni (me), ursa, nerco, evoker and gyro vs luna, mirana, sniper, shadow demon and chen. Seemed like a pretty even match except they're all ranged. We crushed them early, destroyed both first rows of towers, ursa was 3 level 16ish, rest of our team around 13, their team around 12. And then it all fell apart. Once sniper had desolater and shadow blade he could drop ursa if my ult was down, ursa couldn't kill more than one ranged before they all ran away, it sucked. Ursa is one of those heroes completely dependent on slowing and disabling supports like surrounding him with shadow shaman and viper. Then he might be ok. But the range is this match destroyed him. Evoker and gyro didn't play well enough to carry us otherwise.

 

[bonefang]

a sven/ earthshaker would have tilted it in your favor. Anyways, its always easier to criticize after the match is over ... also, did the ursa get blink dagger ?

 

[civvver]

Yup but their ranged just picked him apart every team fight once my heals we're down. Really the rest of our team sucked, but I was pointing out how severely gimped and overrated ursa is.

Other overrated heroes: Riki (easily countered with one totem), Drow (very good hero but not the absolute best everyone considers her), Bloodseeker (ganker, lives off that ult), Clinkz (pure ganker), Lycan sorta (I think people don't realize he was nerfed and still try to jungle him like before).

Underrated: Shadow shaman (people seem to hate playing him even though he's the best disabler), Jakiro (another under appreciated disabler), Enchantress (does amazing damage late game), Spectre (no one plays her even though she's every bit as good as phantom assassin).

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Ah, yes, the enchantress...
...squishy, as hell, but if she is able to get a decent itembuild you go SPROINK!