DOTA 2 Catch-all

Coaching in game. Prolly the best bet is to 4 v 4, with a person sitting out on each team.

Atomicvideohead wrote:

Coaching in game. Prolly the best bet is to 4 v 4, with a person sitting out on each team.

Yes, coaching in-game. But I think I disagree with 4v4 being the best approach. You can certainly cover the basics that way but the flow of a 4v4 game can be quite different than a 5v5. Things like vision and map awareness in particular would be different. When it might be appropriate to help with another lane or move to farm in the jungle. There's space in a 4v4 game that you wouldn't normally get.

casktapper wrote:
Atomicvideohead wrote:

Coaching in game. Prolly the best bet is to 4 v 4, with a person sitting out on each team.

Yes, coaching in-game. But I think I disagree with 4v4 being the best approach. You can certainly cover the basics that way but the flow of a 4v4 game can be quite different than a 5v5. Things like vision and map awareness in particular would be different. When it might be appropriate to help with another lane or move to farm in the jungle. There's space in a 4v4 game that you wouldn't normally get.

1 Person playing could cast the game on twitch, or own3d, and be in vent as well.

So, the last time I fired this up I noticed something and have to ask... does the game have an absolutely awful memory leak in the menus? They get progressively more laggy and unresponsive the more games I play without restarting the client.

That's true, Harry, but I find it is pretty difficult to really analyse someone's play and offer feedback while trying to play a hero myself. Particularly when most new players start as support and you need to be last hitting while laning with them. Sitting in the broadcast seat in-game and talking in vent has been the way I've seen it done in VODs. And there are multiple broadcaster seats for coaches to use. Of course, you have to be careful not to give the coachee knowledge they wouldn't have based on team vision.

I have a couple of Dota 2 Steam gifts to give out. PM me here or on Steam if you or someone you know could use one.

-T

Thin_J wrote:

So, the last time I fired this up I noticed something and have to ask... does the game have an absolutely awful memory leak in the menus? They get progressively more laggy and unresponsive the more games I play without restarting the client.

Ya, eventually it slows down my entire computer after a few games, and my GPU is pegged at the top.

We were talking about Dota 2 over on The Well yesterday, and someone posted they felt like they had to avoid Dota 2 or be consumed by it. Reading through the last three or four pages, I know what they mean. I went through Casktapper's list of links on p. 14 here, picked a couple Beginner heroes off the difficult ranking page, looked at their skills and builds on AltTab, and thought "Damn, even the easy heroes aren't so easy."

The one thing I didn't have time to do from Casktapper's list was to watch the videos from the Pub Casting YouTube channel, and that's probably what I should be doing next. I think watching people play other people while hearing critique might be what it takes for certain concepts to gel for me. Using the courier, different roles in different lanes with different characters, when to buy items and what shop to buy them from, how much some heroes roam compared to staying in their lanes, denying (I thought I was bad at last hitting, but I'm really bad at figuring out when to deny and who should be doing it)...it's a ton of stuff to absorb, and I feel like if I don't go all-in on Dota like I did with MMOs, I'll never reach any sort of competence. And I don't think I want to jump in quite that much, so I stay away entirely.

Probably could have lifted this post from a dozen different places, talking about SC2 or League or HoN or Dota/Dota 2...I often wish I was 20-25 years younger and had the free time I used to have to dive into stuff like this for months at a time

sithload wrote:

We were talking about Dota 2 over on The Well yesterday, and someone posted they felt like they had to avoid Dota 2 or be consumed by it. Reading through the last three or four pages, I know what they mean. I went through Casktapper's list of links on p. 14 here, picked a couple Beginner heroes off the difficult ranking page, looked at their skills and builds on AltTab, and thought "Damn, even the easy heroes aren't so easy."

The one thing I didn't have time to do from Casktapper's list was to watch the videos from the Pub Casting YouTube channel, and that's probably what I should be doing next. I think watching people play other people while hearing critique might be what it takes for certain concepts to gel for me. Using the courier, different roles in different lanes with different characters, when to buy items and what shop to buy them from, how much some heroes roam compared to staying in their lanes, denying (I thought I was bad at last hitting, but I'm really bad at figuring out when to deny and who should be doing it)...it's a ton of stuff to absorb, and I feel like if I don't go all-in on Dota like I did with MMOs, I'll never reach any sort of competence. And I don't think I want to jump in quite that much, so I stay away entirely.

Probably could have lifted this post from a dozen different places, talking about SC2 or League or HoN or Dota/Dota 2...I often wish I was 20-25 years younger and had the free time I used to have to dive into stuff like this for months at a time :)

I miss The Well. I keep meaning to reactivate my account and then never quite get around to it.

I will confess that I fell pretty deeply into Dota and it has absorbed much of my free time over the past four months or so. There are two aspects that are extremely appealing to me. First is the fact that there is always more to learn and improve. And there is so much material to process outside of the game (livestreams, articles, forums, vods) that even when I'm taking a break from actually playing, I can still be working on my game. Second, a well played Dota 2 match requires significant teamwork and can produce the same sense of satisfaction as I used to get playing competitive sport, or when I participated in well-run MMO raids later on. Those two factors have had me compulsively addicted to the game since I dove in.

That being said, I don't know if that level of commitment is absolutely required to get any enjoyment from the game. I know many people who play much more casually than that and I still able to have a good time and win some matches. The matchmaking is actually pretty good and I've had satisfying games at every stage of my journey with the game. And if you know the right people they can help give you a bit of a crash course in what you need to know and point you in the right direction as you progress so that you don't have to do all the legwork yourself.

But the risk is definitely there for getting sucked in.

I was out of town for the holidays and just got back last night, looking forward to resuming regular Dota play.

The new patch just hit test. Looks like we get Medusa this week after all: http://dev.dota2.com/showthread.php?...

I guess it isn't so long that I can't repost it here. I wonder if the new all-chat option for private lobbies would include broadcaster slots?

Test Update: January 9, 2013

Added Medusa!

GAMEPLAY
- Witch Doctor: Fixed Aghanim's Death Ward attacking Familiars and other psuedo heroes.
- Doom: Scorched Earth now only applies damage from Doom himself, not all the units affected by his aura.
- Pudge: Fixed being able to get units stuck using Refresher.
- Keeper of the Light: Fixed Recall interaction with non-hero units.

UI
- Added a Haste button to the courier HUD element.
- Added Mid Only game mode for private lobbies (disables other lanes and allows the same hero to be selected).
- The Announcer Share dialog has been replaced with a Shared Content dialog.
- Added a badge to the top bar to count the available shared items.
- If shared content is available in a game, a message is now printed pregame.
- Added Balanced Shuffle button to non-tournament private lobbies.
- Added All Chat private lobby option for enabling voice chat among all players.
- Fixed "Equip" appearing in the right click menu for some chests.

AUDIO
- Fixed hearing the wrong announcer after equipping a new item in the loadout.
- Fixed bugs with muting cobroadcasters causing other sounds to be muted.

BOTS
- The bots are now less likely to push with more heroes than what they deem necessary (less 5-man Dota). Probably needs some tuning.
- Made bots slightly less self-concerned when considering defending an ally. Also made them more likely to jump in if they have a slow or stun.
- Bots that are capable of jungling during the laning phase may now do so.
- If purchasing an item from the secret shop would complete an item, desire for going there is now increased.
- When their next item is purchasable, their desire to farm is significantly reduced.
- Fixed bad tuning that was causing bots to almost never farm lanes.
- Improved bot responsiveness to pings on Roshan.
- Bots are now less likely to assume that humans will purchase wards.

Yay, Medusa!

Boo, all random!

Where's all random? I used to play AREM constantly.

It was all pick. We chose all random. They chose pub stompers.

Atomicvideohead wrote:

Yay, Medusa!

Boo, all random!

Yeah, boo all random. It seems like we end up with even worse heroes when we end up in All Pick. I felt like the first two matches I played last night I played relatively well, despite the losses. But the last two were a mess. We really need to work on making sure we have a decent lane set up and reacting to events in the laning phase a bit more. We saved a game the other night when we switched Skeleton King out of a lane where he was getting dominated in favour of a ranged hero that would take less harass. Of course, I could have played better mid with Clinkz and my underfarmed Undying could still have been better in the mid-game.

Another cool addition is the "Balanced Shuffle" added for private lobbies. It'll help us out with some of the 5v5s we run.

Oh i thought you meant an All Random pick mode was implemented.

Happytime Harry wrote:

Oh i thought you meant an All Random pick mode was implemented.

No, all random still requires willful obstinateness on the part of all involved. (huh, who knew, I thought it was obstinance, but I guess not)

I just played Pudge wars with a few guys. 2v2 3v3 and 4v4. I think 3v3 was the most fun, you guys should definitely give it a shot. Create a loby for mid only and all select pudge - hilarity ensues.

liquid wrote:

I just played Pudge wars with a few guys. 2v2 3v3 and 4v4. I think 3v3 was the most fun, you guys should definitely give it a shot. Create a loby for mid only and all select pudge - hilarity ensues.

That actually sounds kind of horrifying. But probably a much better way to work on your Pudge skills.

Team of Pudges Vs. Team of Clockwerks.

I have a half dozen invites available for those that want them. Send a message via Steam.

So how hard is this to drop into? I was invited ages ago, and played a match, then went back to WoW.

My WoW addiction is waning, wondering if this is easy enough to pick up without learning every character and strategy!

mateo wrote:

So how hard is this to drop into? I was invited ages ago, and played a match, then went back to WoW.

My WoW addiction is waning, wondering if this is easy enough to pick up without learning every character and strategy!

I wouldn't call it easy, and you do have to put some work in, but it is very rewarding. And you don't have to know everything to have fun or win matches. The gold ring is that every match can feel like a wow raid when your whole team is a well-oiled machine and everything's clicking. Or pvp, if that's your thing. And no gear grind. Or monthly fee (or any fee).

It looks like I will be having a non-gwj friend start playing (i still have 5 invites if anyone needs) so i might be in some easy bot games coaching him this week if anyone wants to join.

Anyone down to organize a team for this?

I'd be down to play in something like that.

What's the worst that could happen?

Can someone fire me an invite to Gamers with Dota? I just played a game with liquid (that unfortunately ended in rage quit, it seems).

(http://steamcommunity.com/id/KRALock/ if needed)

Happytime Harry wrote:

What's the worst that could happen?

I'm interested in finding some league/tournament opportunities. It seems like there are a few amateur level events opening up recently.