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DOTA 2 |OT8| DOTA Asian Championship (1/27-2/9)

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M

Monochromaticx

Member
Now that I woke up, calmed the hype down and read the patch notes I found some cool nuggets like:
Added a Terse option to Fight Recap
Click to expand...
So it will no longer cover a quarter of your screen all the time
Spectating in DotaTV will now show player pings and drawings
Click to expand...
Added an option for sorting items in your armory by those received most recently
Click to expand...
FINALLY!
Updated emoticons in the DotaCinema Captains Draft 2.0 bundle
Click to expand...
Yay!
 
B

balladofwindfishes

Member
Zia said:
Huh. That sounds... good?

Thanks for the quick answer.
Click to expand...
It's not good. I have yet to see a single drop in the three weeks the system has been in place, which I would have had twice as many single items as whatever set I'll get dropped eventually.

This system might as well not even exist for me. If you told me they entirely removed drops, I would believe you.
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
I think Disruptor might be another one of my go-to ranked supports. I haven't played him consistently, and I'd forgotten that an AoE silence nuke is basically...always relevant,
 
K

kvk1

Member
oracle has some solo queue pub rage inducing spells

there is gonna be some massive salt from misused abilities with the hero methinks
 
shira

shira

Member
Haly said:
Looking at it closer, the attack animation for PA Arcana kind of stinks. Not nearly as smooth and natural as LC Arcana.
Click to expand...

http://zippy.gfycat.com/WhichWatchfulIceblueredtopzebra.webm

This is too much.

k83ocrK.png


Report PA not even gold tier

rhophiehalul78 said:
Damn. Is Oracle already pickable on test client?
Also, do I need to buy PA Arcana to get rewards for the Nemesis Assassin event?
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ya, there has to be someone on your team to own it I think.
 
D

DarkKyo

Member
Question about the Arcana: Does it evolve and change persistently over time and many games? Or does it evolve during a match depending on your performance/kill count and reset to the original appearance for the next match?
 
shira

shira

Member
SteveWinwood said:
yes

very doubtful

edit re: the second thing i just read the thing and it might be true
Click to expand...

Nemesis Assassin Event
So the Nemesis Assassin event seem to be an in-game thing where players can gain items by fulfilling or denying contracts.
When a game is started, a player with the Phantom Assassin Arcana will be given a contract to kill another player in the game.
If that player kills the given target, then the entire team of PA will be rewarded and the contract will be fulfilled.
If the enemy player kills the PA, then the entire team of that player will be rewarded and the contract will be denied.
If no one on the team owns the Manifold Paradox, the rewards will be left unclaimed.
At the end of the game, the rewards are listed out.
More or less that. There's gems and etc to go with the same.
subject to change. Wait for the full update on Day 3.
 
I

ink4n3

Member
shira said:
Nemesis Assassin Event
So the Nemesis Assassin event seem to be an in-game thing where players can gain items by fulfilling or denying contracts.
When a game is started, a player with the Phantom Assassin Arcana will be given a contract to kill another player in the game.
If that player kills the given target, then the entire team of PA will be rewarded and the contract will be fulfilled.
If the enemy player kills the PA, then the entire team of that player will be rewarded and the contract will be denied.
If no one on the team owns the Manifold Paradox, the rewards will be left unclaimed.
At the end of the game, the rewards are listed out.
More or less that. There's gems and etc to go with the same.
subject to change. Wait for the full update on Day 3.
Click to expand...

It seems like in any given game, PA will more than likely kill and be killed by most of the players. I wonder if it is just a first to kill/be killed type of thing. It seems pretty weird to me.
 
R

RVinP

Unconfirmed Member
shira said:
Nemesis Assassin Event
So the Nemesis Assassin event seem to be an in-game thing where players can gain items by fulfilling or denying contracts.
When a game is started, a player with the Phantom Assassin Arcana will be given a contract to kill another player in the game.
If that player kills the given target, then the entire team of PA will be rewarded and the contract will be fulfilled.
If the enemy player kills the PA, then the entire team of that player will be rewarded and the contract will be denied.
If no one on the team owns the Manifold Paradox, the rewards will be left unclaimed.
At the end of the game, the rewards are listed out.
More or less that. There's gems and etc to go with the same.
Click to expand...

I don't like this, it sounds cool. But I know how the majority of the Dota 2 playing community will behave in game, they gonna pursue the contract instead of playing the fucking game (for the greater good).

None of the previous cosmetic items actually altered/intruded player behavoir (in this way), this Aracana item/feature will fuck most of the PUB games where a PA_with_arcana is picked.
 
D

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
shira said:
Nemesis Assassin Event
So the Nemesis Assassin event seem to be an in-game thing where players can gain items by fulfilling or denying contracts.
When a game is started, a player with the Phantom Assassin Arcana will be given a contract to kill another player in the game.
If that player kills the given target, then the entire team of PA will be rewarded and the contract will be fulfilled.
If the enemy player kills the PA, then the entire team of that player will be rewarded and the contract will be denied.
If no one on the team owns the Manifold Paradox, the rewards will be left unclaimed.
At the end of the game, the rewards are listed out.
More or less that. There's gems and etc to go with the same.
subject to change. Wait for the full update on Day 3.
Click to expand...

I think you can get a specific reward if you own the Manifold Paradox, as it doesn't seem you need the Arcana to get the contract, just play PA. What we are going to see is PA played all game every game. What would be good is if they bring back the option for seasonal maps back, and make the version with the Nemesis event the Seasonal version.
 
Q

Qvoth

Member
i'm thinking that nemesis mode will be a separate game mode only for PAs with the arcana
didn't the oracle mention in the comic PA will need to kill all the other PAs of the alternate worlds?
 
D

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
I don't think you will need the Arcana to get rewards flat out, you will just be locked off from getting the good rewards. That way you are tempted to buy the Arcana. Maybe.

Oracle's Ult has some interesting thing with the particle above the unit. It looks like it gives a rough indication of how much damage and healing you may have done, and may even be able to indicate if the hero will live or die once its over.
 
S

sephi22

Member
Yo, I wrote an essay about Oracle on facebook to impress my 2k MMR friends. If anyone's got time to read a trench tier player's thoughts on why Oracle is the OPest motherfucker in the game, please do, and tell me why I'm wrong.

I played a bit of Oracle in the test client and after theorycrafting I believe he's going to be one of the strongest heroes in the game (if not THE strongest), when he comes out. To put it into perspective, take every healer and intelligence nuker in the game, fuse them all together, then take the resulting hero and give it 1.4 Base Attack Time and cut all his cooldown times in half. That's Oracle.
Why I think Oracle is so strong is because his abilities let him fill different roles as the game progresses - he can be a strong first blood hero, a strong healer, a strong nuker, an itemless support, or a snowballing semi-carry. His skillset is the most versatile since Invoker, since his abilities have multiple positive and negative effects, and can be used both offensively on enemies and defensively on allies. When used in certain combinations and order, his abilities lead to different outcomes/playstyles.

FIRST SKILL POINT AND FIRST BLOOD
Unless you get lucky with a DD rune against a squishy support, its hard to get solo first blood with Oracle. But when paired with another hero, Oracle becomes lethal. There are two ways to get FB with him - his Q or his W.

His Q is a projectile that can be channeled. It always nukes for fixed damage when hitting, but purges and roots in an area around enemy depending on how long it was channeled. Imagine finding a solo enemy checking rune at 0:00 with an ally with a stun/slow. You can channel Q while your ally stuns/slows the enemy, you let the ball go after charging, leaving them stuck in place while you and your ally pummel them to death. If you can bait surge/windrun out, you can let your Q go then so that it purges those buffs, making even Seer and WR manageable.

His W is a debuff that disarms the enemy and makes them immune to magic damage, but take 50% extra physical and pure damage. This style of first blood is for smoke ganks at level 1, or to kill offlaner using trilane, or when facing a foe who has enough right click damage at level 1 to make your gank backfire. Make your allies use their slows/stuns first, then use E on enemy and have them take 50% extra damage as separate instance after right clicks from all sources. If you can control their offlaner for 3 seconds, they won't survive taking +50% right click damage from 3 heroes. You can also gank their mid by roaming with your other support and taking help from your mid. Shadow Fiend is a super easy target as he cannot right click back to retaliate.

While I'm talking about his W, let me just mention that his W screws Legion commander over in duel. If the Legion makes the mistake of dueling your carry, casting W on Legion makes her not be able to right click your carry, while your carries hits eventually lead to a +50% damage instance. While there are other non-ultimate abilities that counter duel (Disruption, Astral, Nightmare), Oracle's W makes duel even more of a liability as it disarms her while leaving your carry unimpaired.

3 PLAYSTYLES AT LEVEL 2
Oracle's skill build is quite open, and what 2 abilities you take at level 2 open and close certain doors for your playstyle. Hopefully you took Q or W at level 1, as I don't think his E is a good level 1 ability. Here's why:

His E is a nuke that does great damage, but heals for a greater amount. It can be used on both allies and enemies, much like his W. Its a bad nuke at level 1 because if you don't last hit the enemy with it, they are going to heal quite a bit of health gradually. Its a bad heal at level 1 as you nuke your ally and make them more vulnerable before healing them for only a small net amount. If there was some way of removing the healing on enemies, or removing the damage on allies, this ability becomes really amazing. Well, his Q and his W let you do just that.

Q+E = The Offensive Nuker
His E is a 3 second cooldown instant cast nuke, while his Q is a chargeable projectile. The combo is as follows: Charge Q at enemy, cast E at enemy to cancel Q's charge, E damages them, the Q projectile purges the healing of E and roots them, right click them, wait for E to come back off cooldown (2-3s) and cast E again for the kill.

Damage at level 2: 255 magic damage
Damage when both maxed: 1020 magic damage (More damage than Level 3 Finger, Level 3 Laguna blade, and level 5 Dagon at level 8 if ulti is skipped)

W+E = The Defensive Healer
W is a great spell when ganking with right clicks, and also for escaping ganks (disarm their right clicker), it becomes a great healing tool with his E. The combo is as follows: Cast W on Ally, immediately cast E on ally. If W is levelled up, keep casting E on ally at each cooldown till W debuff is removed.

Healing at Level 2: 99
Healing when both maxed: 616 (2 staggered casts of Level 4 E during Level 4 W). Can be repeated every 12 seconds.

Q+W = The Balanced Laner
If you don't need the healing, you can have Q as an offensive/harass spell for nuking and rooting/purging them, and W as an offensive spell for damage amplification. W can also be used defensively in two ways - on enemy to disable their right clicks, or on ally to nullify magic damage from their ganker's nukes. This is my least favorite combination at level 2, but even then it has many uses and is better than most heroes at level 2.

LEVEL 3 - THE DEMIGOD
Putting your third ability point in the ability that remains opens all these possibilities - magic nuke, healing, disarm, purge/root, magic damage nullification, and damage amplication. At level 3, you're able to use any of these combinations in any fashion, which makes Oracle one of the strongest level 3 heroes in the game, alongside Undying, Earth Spirit and Skywrath Mage.

LEVEL 6 - WELCOME TO THE BONE ZONE
There are very few heroes in Dota 2 with all 4 abilities being great. Most heroes have 1-2 great non-ultimate skills (Q/W/E) and a strong ultimate, while there are a few heroes with great Q/W/E and a situational ultimate (Leshrac/Nature's Prophet/Dark Seer).

Based on the strength of Oracle's Q/W/E skills, it would make sense from a balance perspective to give him a mediocre, situational ultimate to make him a strong early/midgame presence and make him fall off late game. However, this couldn't be farther than the truth.

Not only is Oracle's ultimate one of the strongest ultimates in Dota 2 that makes his other abilities seem balanced, but it makes these other abilities and their combos even more potent.

His R - False Promise - is Aphotic Shield + Shallow Grave + Shadow Dance, but even better than each of them individually. It is a 20 second ability that for 7/8/9 seconds does the following:
- Pauses Oracle or allies healthbar
- Gives invisibility that is not broken by attacking or casting spells, but can be revealed by truesight
- Counts all the damage and healing taken during its duration, then adds the damage with double the healing, and does the resulting damage/healing at the end of the duration. For eg: If you cast it on a Sand King that currently 400 HP/800HP. He takes 300 Damage during 7 seconds and 200 HP of healing. At the end his HP will be:
400 + 2x(200) - 300 = 500

As long as you are healed for atleast 50% of the damage you take during the duration of R, you will come out with the same or more HP than what you started with. Oh, and casting R removes negative debuffs, so its like Aphotic Shield in that sense. Its a 20second cooldown dust of appearance removal on friendly invis heroes.
Not only does his R make other heroes amazing gankers (hello False Promise + Huskar), it takes Oracle's healing ability to stratospheric levels. Here's some healing math:

Level 4 E = +36 HP (+396 heal -360 damage)
Level 4 W + Level 4 E (x1) = +396 HP
Level 4 W + Level 4 E (x2) = +616 HP
Level 16 R + Level 4 E = +432 HP (+396 +396 - 360)
Level 16 R + Level 4 W + Level 4 E (x2) = +924 HP (+396 + 396 +132)
This is assuming that healing from multiple Es doesn't stack. If it does, the healing is even more.
Click to expand...
 
B

bounchfx

Member
kasane said:
When is ees luna set coming
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I wish I had an answer.. :( hopefully sometime ever! haha. we'll see I guess. No one tells us nuffin.

also yeah! the VS set is in, hope you guys dig it :D. that thing was a bitch to create haha, I'm really happy with it though. It's very different from the other vs sets so far.
 
S

sephi22

Member
bounchfx said:
I wish I had an answer.. :( hopefully sometime ever! haha. we'll see I guess. No one tells us nuffin.

also yeah! the VS set is in, hope you guys dig it :D. that thing was a bitch to create haha, I'm really happy with it though. It's very different from the other vs sets so far.
Click to expand...

Yo bounch, do you know the deal with this guy? (DNADota)
http://dev.dota2.com/showthread.php?t=142369

I think his Axe set is accepted for the game. I need my hat purchases to be guilt free.
 
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