Archive for January 2014

[MOVIE] Spirited Away

By : z3lover

Spirited Away - 10/10


Dear god, if Disney could make animated films that were even half as good as this one. Don't get me wrong; films like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast are absolutely amazing...but Spirited Away is a masterpiece. It has wonderful and interesting characters, a great story and superb animation, not to mention a sumptuous soundtrack to go with it all. To anyone who is yet to see this movie, you have to watch it. It's one of those films you just have to see before you die.

I've only seen it twice, ten years apart, but it's just as good as I remember it being the first time. There are some great comic moments in this film, made all the more special because it's not a comedy.

The story starts with the main character, a 10 year old girl named Chihiro, and her family moving to a new house. On the way they get lost and come across what they think is an abandoned amusement park, when in fact they've come across something else entirely. I won't spoil what happens next, but the title of the film (if you know anything about Japanese culture) should provide a bit of a clue.

There is a copious amount of imagery in this film drawing on many different fairy tail stereotypes and using them in an entirely fresh and interesting manner, and there are also a few pointed portions that take aim squarely at environmental pollution, though they never get in the way of anything and they are subtly handled, but apparent nonetheless. For me this added to the critical integrity of the film all the more.

As with all animated work from Japan, there is vicious argumentation about whether the dub or sub is better. Quite frankly I think it has one of the best dubs going around. And any fans of Skyrim out there might recognise the voice of one of the main characters as well. Overall this is one of the best films of the last decade and it's wonderful to come back to it after so long a time.

This movie is a must watch.
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[TV SHOW] Must Watch TV shows

By : z3lover

If you are a tv show addict, you would appreciate this blog post. TV shows are quite addictive and story arcs are quite amazing. Unfortunately a huge number of bad quality tv shows might scare many people off, but there are some hidden gems that every one should watch atleast once. The general rule I follow mostly is to watch the pilot episode, if I like the theme and  story of show, I keep watching a few episode on trial basis.
Most of the American shows follow a typical format. 24 episodes per season, with story progressing VERY slowly and about 18-20 "filler" episodes. I find these filler episodes extremely boring because they mostly have same cliched story and contain VERY little of the main story. So I mostly prefer shows with low episode count. With all that being said lets start our list.

(Ranking is in no particular order, as I would recommend all of these shows)

Dollhouse:

Dollhouse explores some really interesting philosophical ideas about what it means to be a person. The idea is that after Echo has her mind wiped, she becomes a blank slate, and no one thinks of her as a person. But over time, wiping doesn't return her to blank slate mode, and she develops her own personality from the ground up. The question becomes "Is Echo a person, and if so, when did she become one?" Personalities are crafted, and sometimes a pre-existing personality is augmented. It had me wondering what actually defines the person. Is it the body, the mental state, the exact combination of both? If a personality is transferred to a new body, does it have the same rights it had in its original host? What if it never had a host, and was only designed as an imprint for a doll?

Anyways, philosophy aside, its an amazing shows with an awesome intro song. Only has 2 seasons with like 10 episodes each, although it ended abruptly, still had me satisfied near the end.

Sherlock (2013) : 

Simply put, one of the best shows going on right now. Every episode is a roller coaster of emotions, mystery and just pure fun. Imo the best adaptation of Sherlock Holmes ever. You just need to watch first few minutes of this show and you will be hooked for life, its THAT good. Just forget everything you know about sherlock when watching this and you will have tons of fun.

Has 3 seasons so far with each seasons having only 3 episodes. My only complaint is it ends too quickly.

Game of Thrones:

Ah, the infamous Game of thrones. A show so widely popular and so controversial that it lost majority of its fans over 3 years of its run. The show is so emotionally brutal, it will leave scars in your heart for months. This show will change your perception about tv shows, and you will claim it to be the most beautiful thing you ever saw in your life. Just avoid googling anything about it because there are ALOT of spoilers which will ruin your watching experience. As the show is based on "A song of ice and fire" novel series, there are thousands of spoilers out there.

3 seasons are available, each season with 10 episodes. This show has yet a long way to go, so you might give novels a chance, they are equally brilliant.

OZ

HBO show that is centered around the life inside a maximum security penitentiary. It is extremely dark in the realistic kind of way. The character arcs are astounding and flawless.

6 seasons and ended.

LOST

50% of people love it, 50% of people hate it. Half of the people that hate it enjoyed the first two seasons, and then at that point proceeded to hate it. It is a show that was entirely written before they started showing it, so all of the shots and dialogue and everything else has its exact place. The show is an enigma. There are tons of puzzles wrapped inside of it that take acute observation to pick up on, which some people enjoy. There are also hidden riddles underlying in the show that you don't need to find and answer to enjoy the show, but they add to it if you wanted to. It's another sic-fi show that goes down the rabbit hole over time, so it will start slow. 

This is the show that will occupy your mind for weeks until you finish it and you will LOVE every moment of it.
Has 6 seasons with most seasons having 24 episodes. (Yes even the filler episodes are good) Its already ended so you wont have to wait for new seasons.

The Newsroom

HBO show that takes place in, well, a newsroom, as in all of the behind-the-scenes of a national news station. All of the events are real events that happened in America, but a few years ago so it can properly build different things up. If you don't live in America, the events won't mean as much to you and therefore will break the immersion, but the writing is still great enough to watch.

You will either like it or hate it, there's no guarantee so give it a try and see how it goes. 2 seasons so far.

The Walking Dead

Another amazing show. based in zombie apocalypse setting. I absolutely enjoyed the first 2 seasons but for some reasons, I started hating it after that. So I dont know wheter to recommend it or not, but I should say its worth watching for first 2 seasons and "Daryl Dixon" ..

FIREFLY:

Argued by many to be the best tv show ever created in existence. Yes the fans loved it that much. Unfortunately it was cancelled in its first seasons (you can google the issues why it was cancelled) . the show is amazing, the characters were amazing, setting was amazing, and comedy was classic. It was supposed to be the perfect show.

Has only one seasons with a full length movie "Serenity" wrapping up the series. Its my MOST favourite TV show of all time.






Thats it for this blog post. There are still tons of other shows in my list which I will add in next few blog posts.
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The Butcher's in Business

By : z3lover
                                       The infamous Pudge ladies and gentleman. According to the statistics, the most played hero in dota 2 ( arguably also in dota1 though we dont have reliable stats for that). Pudge is played in every skill pool, Competitive tier, Elite tier, Normal tier and in Potato tiers.

This guide is NOT for:

  • People trying to play this hero for the first time. There are hundreds of guides on steam/playdota other sites that will teach you the basics spells/descriptions etc much better than I could. Also this will not teach you how to hook. There are better guides with gifs and videos for that purpose.
  • People above 4000 MMR , you probably know all of this stuff below so why bother reading it again?  
So this guide will focus on those players who are already quite experienced in playing pudge but still lack the finishing touches required for perfection.  So its more like a collection of tips rather than an actual guide, highlighting the common mistakes. So lets get started.



Laning:

                Even though pudge needs solo mid lane, he not a good laner. He is a melee hero, with no lane control, no way to harass ranged enemy, zero armor, pathetic movespeed. So remember this, pudge is NOT supposed to win lane by any means. He is redeemed only by the fact that IF he somehow manages to hook the enemy he can easily kill him.
Lot of regen+stout shield will allow you to take enough creeps in lane for a quick bottle. After that its all upto the runes and ganking. If you are a Dendi fan and want to follow his build, he usually starts with 2 salves+1 guantlet of STR. Get early last hits+denies, take a lot of beating in the process. Get back > drop gauntlets on ground and use salve, when salve ends pick up gauntlets and go for some more lasthits. It should go without saying that you should ALWAYS LOOK FOR HOOK OPPORTUNITY.

Midgame:

        Mid-game is where pudge shines the most. 360 pure dmg (equivalent of 450 mgc dmg if you want to compare) Hook damage is devastating and almost no one can survive a full pudge combo at this point. Keep ganking and creating room for your carry, make good use of smoke+tps scroll. Don't be a cheap bastard, buy tps.
Aim for some utility items at this point. Force staff and Blink are good choices.
Tranq Boots instead of Hood of defiance. Tranq cost you 525 extra gold (You already buy brown boots in either case, so total cost for tranq is just 525) and Hood costs 2125. Tranq 10hp/sec regen and hood 8hp/sec.  Tranq gives much needed armor while hood gives a somewhat redundant mgc resistance (pudge already gets resistance from Flesh heap on top of normal 25% mgc resistance. So the actual mgc resistance that hood gives you is NOT 30%, its alot less than that) In short, get Tranqs+bottle+stout+Force staff and you are set for the lategame.

Lategame:

      This is the moment where most of the pudge players fail. You may have raped enemies whole game but if you fail to transition into lategame there is no point in getting all those kills. This is the time where you should hook carefully. DO NOT GO ALONE. Stay with team try to disable enemy carry with your ulti and hope for the best. There are no definite tips to give here, stick with your carry (who hopefully farmed decently whole game) and be a meat shield for him.

General Gameplay:

  • Get armor on pudge. ALOT OF ARMOR. Armor scales with hp, as pudge already gets alot of hp from Flesh heap, he benefits ALOT more from armor than any other hero. Every armor point adds an additional 6% of your maximum HP to your EHP. Consider a pudge with 1000 hp and 0 armor. To kill it one needs to deal at least 1000 damage to it. If we give pudge 10 armor, he gets 37.5% reduction, so it will take 1600dmg to kill him. You can say that pudge now has "600" extra hp. This "1600" hp called EFFECTIVE HEALTH POINTS (EHP in short). 
  • Tranquils boots are the BEST boots for pudge. They give good armor, imba hp regen to heal up after ganks, awesome movespeed but most of all, they are cheap as dirt. You can always sell them for Travels later in game.
  • Always click hook ON TOP of enemy heroes. Many people just select hook and click in general direction of the enemy. The problem with this appreach is that if you miscalculate the range, the hook will fall short and you will miss by inches. By clicking on top of enemy, pudge will not throw hook until he walk in range to make sure the hook reaches where you clicked.
  • A good way to land your combo is to select hook > Click on enemy hero>When hook is lanuched, immediately select Ulti and use it on hero before the hook connect> press rot button. Now sit back and watch how hook connects+pudge uses ulti immediately and stats the rots autometically. Benefit of this method is you keep your mouse on a single place, you immediately use dismember to less time for enemy to react. The downside of this method is that after the Chen+pudge fountain hook fix, this method causes problems if there is fog of war between enemy and you (e.g when you hook a hero through lot of trees. There is a delay when hero reaches pudge. So its better to just hook then manually dismember him when he reaches you)
  • Pudge dont need alot of items during midgame. Buy the wards and smoke, the extra vision+smoke will ensure that you keep getting kills, that 150 gold investment on obs gives good profit . DO NOT BEG your teammates.
  • When its lategame, use Dismember on enemy carry who used bkb instead of that poor Crystal Maiden.
  • DO NOT MAKE DAGON. If you already made dagon DO NOT KILL WITH IT. Use hook or rot to finsh off heroes. The reason is that Dagon range is larger than flesh heap range. You miss out on soo many flesh heap stacks with dagon thats its not even funny. Remember flesh heap range is 450 (its half the range of lvl 1 hook. Yes its VERY LOW range)
  • Your mid enemy is QOP, OD, Quas+Wex invoker, Bristleback or Slark ? Go passive mode. Killing these heroes is hard so just try to get last hits+denies but focus on staying alive and keep your hp high.
  • Lvl 1,2,3 Rot doesnt disable Salve. So when you are rot+chasing enemies early game and they prefer running instead of man fighting you, you can safely use salve.
  • Having problem hooking an enemy who keeps moving? Wait until one of your creep is low hp. This is the moment when he will stay still and try to lasthit it. That's your moment. 
  • NEVER HOOK TIDEHUNTER IN LATEGAME. Its always funny watching a Tide getting hooked and landing a 5 man Ravage on enemies. His kraken shell will always ensure he is able to land his ulti.
  • Try to enjoy playing him.

I will add to this guide, if i come up with something else.

#89 Some sets before WN update

By : z3lover

In next few days I will try to cover the bridge between the item sets, hopefully all the items will be covered until now. Remember to thank artkhv on his site (if you understand russian, I dont want to take credit for his work)

Includes following sets.

The Seers Command Set
Armlets of Command
Collar of Command
Ring of Command
Waistguard of Command


Gifts of the Shadowcat Set
Bow of the Shadowcat
Furstole of the Shadowcat
Gaiters of the Shadowcat
Paws of the Shadowcat
Quiver of the Shadowcat
Pelt of the Shadowcat
Trophy of the Shadowcat
Anointed Armor of Ruination Set
Mistplates of Ruin
Darkstar the Mistforged
Netherax, Nightmare of the Mist
Tarnhelm of Ruin
Winged Shroud of Ruin


The Second Disciple Set
The Second Disciple's Bastion
The Second Disciple's Blade
The Second Disciple's Chakram
The Second Disciple's Dagger
The Second Disciple's Veil

Threads of Entwined Fate Set
Whiskers of Entwined Fate
Limbs of Entwined Fate
Stinger of Entwined Fate
Crown of Entwined Fate
Feelers of Entwined Fate

Coco the Courageous
Cosmetic icon Coco the Courageous.png
True courage is not how high you can hold a sword but how high you can hold your spirit... And sometimes, even the strongest of heroes need their spirit boosted! Introducing Coco, a courageous courier of the Redpaw Brewery, determined to bring brew to the battlefield at any cost! No longer shall a heroes thirst go unquenched! The call for brew is sacred and by oath it must be upheld! The brew must flow.


Tory the Sky Guardian
Cosmetic icon Tory the Sky Guardian.png
It's been told that Tory, the Sky Guardian, has been riding the winds since the beggining of time, serving the ancient tribes faithfully as a proficient messenger. Everlasting glory shall be provided to those who are chosen by Tory as allies, as the winds seem to open a path for him while he gracefully flies towards his destination. A skilled companion who can fly above the highest mountain and glide over the bloodiest battlefield, Tory can surpass every flying being in every way possible.





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ILLUSIONS

By : z3lover
In this post we try to understand Illusions with detail. Illusion scale very well into lategame, thats why most illusion based heroes are lategame carries. They pretty much have a straightforward skillbuild and item build. Pub players always misunderstand how illusions work

Illusions can't use any active ability. Passive abilities that illusions can use:
  • Evasion
  • Critical Strike (it should be noted that the red number is before the illusion's percentage reduction on damage)
  • Feedback (only works on melee illusions)
  • Movement speed (flat and percentage)
  • Attribute bonus (Strength, agility and intelligence)
  • Flat HP or mana
  • Radiance burn aura
  • Spell resistance from abilities, and base spell resistance
  • Quelling Blade's boost on damage
Following passive abilities do not work on illusions.
  • Raw damage or armor. (Only damage from stats and armor from agility is given)
  • Raw Attack speed (Only AS from agility and yasha bonus)
  • Orb effects (except Feedback on melee illusions)
  • Spell resistance from Planeswalker's Cloak, Hood of Defiance or Khadgar's Pipe of Insight (Only resistance that illusions get are from base resistance (25% for all heroes except Meepo's 35%) and skills like Antimage's Spell Shield, Phantom lancer's Phantom edge, Viper's Corrosive skin

How this knowledge affects dota:

This knowledge helps to understand how to play illusion based heroes which include.

HEROES WHO USUALLY BUILD MANTA:


  • Focus on bulking up on raw hp and agility is effective way of boosting dps and surviveability of illusions. Prioritize getting Agility giving items (Yasha,Manta,butterfly,Ethereal Blade) over raw damage items(MKB,Daedalus,Desolater).
  • Diffusal is common choice because it gives good agility and melee illusions deal full damage from manaburn.
  • Manta is another core item because it furthur increases the number of illusions( which also benefit from your illusion based item build). Extra movespeed and attackspeed from yasha do work on illusions.
  • Althought illusions do get critical strike but you should try delaying it as much as possible. After rushing daedalus as first item on PL you find out that even if overheard red numbers show 500dmg critical your illusions still deal pathetic damage. That's because the numbers show a fake crit. As Illusions do not get raw damage from daedalus so the actual damage is calculated by considering the damage from stats, applying crit multiplier on this number and then reducing it by %age reduction of illusions)
  • Illusions do not get damage block from Vanguard. So a vitality booster provides your illusions ALL the benefits that a vanguard could give (with a furthure benefit of upgrading it to Heart of Tarassque later)
  • Quelling blade works on illusion damage. It may not have significant impact but still boosts your jungling ability.
  • Illusions do not benefit from Vladimir's offering or Assualt Cuirass auras. They do not get the +armor,lifesteal,damage or attackspeed auras that these items provide but they do however grant other nearby heroes these auras similiar to radiance. Try to avoid making these items, if you are so desperate for lifesteal, a simple Morbid mask could be more cost effective than a finished vlads for same purposes.

(The topic is incomplete for the time being, I will add more stuff in future)

Scaling II

By : z3lover
This is the second part of the previous class. We discussed the basic nature of scaling skills and how a hero should be properly skilled. There are some heroes that are inherently difficult to asses the proper skill build either because they had been misplayed from the very beginning or those whose skills are too complex to make sense of scaling...  Skill Points=sp for future reference.


Berserker's call should always be maxed AFTER Counter helix and Battelhunger are maxed. Berserker's Call provides 0.5 seconds of extra disable for every skill point. The reason why disable time scaling is so bad is because its a BKB piercing AOE disable giving you insane armor, meaning its VERY strong skill in lategame. 1.5s would be enough early, if you decide to max it, you will lack dmg output from other skills and u wont have mana anyways to make use of it,

Wild Axes deal composite dmg (its dmg is reduced by enemies armor and mgc resistance) so they deal high dmg early game when heroes have low armor and neglible dmg lategame when enemy carry has bkb+high armor. in most cases max this first.
People mostly skip Call of wild. Its one the BEST skills in whole game. You get free moving observer ward with huge vision and 35% slow that goes through bkb. Max it second.
Only max inner beast early IF you are going for push strategy and start roaming as 5 man very early, because thats where this skill shines most.

Dragon breath: A nice aoe,spammable nuke. Max at lvl 7.
Dragon Tail: One of the most powerful lvl 1 stun. 2.5second and only 9s cooldown. But has worst scaling possible, a pathetic .25s and 25dmg. When a skill has such scaling you know it must be a strong skill. It is one of very few stuns in dota that are instant (fireblast, telekinesis etc) combine it with instant spell casting animation of DK and you got your self the most powerful stun in game (non-ulti skill). Take one skill point at lvl 1 and max it last.
Dragon Blood: Makes you tanky, max it 2nd.

Tiny is usually played correctly. but if you absolutely want to max you dmg output at lvl 7 then take skill points in following order. Avalanche/Toss/Avalanche/Toss/Avalanche/Grow/Toss/Toss/Avalanche . We stop taking points in Avalanche because of its weird scaling after lvl 3. (80 dmg for first 3 lvls then mere 40 for 4th level). Also take Grow whenever possible, the benefit are too good to skip and people in pubs skip ulti in order to max first 2 spells.

Burning Spears: Max them at 7 or max berserker's Blood if you are facing heavy nukes but NEVER skip Spears altogether. people still play huskar like the old version when you got upto 96 free dmg from berserker's blood and made lifesteal. Now if you make lifesteal skipping Burning Spears, huskar will hit like a crystal maiden autoattacks. A single attack of Burning Spear does around 200 dmg. Tell me why this skill is not AWESOME.. and its sad to see people not taking a single point in it.

DO NOT MAX Vengeance Aura early. Its based on base dmg and stat dmg ONLY. so by the time you max it at lvl 7, most heroes have around 70 base dmg, so it barely gives your teammates 25 dmg maximum. So max it later in game when drow ranger got 200 base dmg where you provide her with 72 free dmg. Take early points in Magic Missile and Wave of Terror. Wave gives gud vision+pure dmg+nice armor reduction which is nice for early game and helps alot in pushes.

DO NOT SKIP Shrapnel. Its very underrated spell and frankly his best skill. His skills are flexible and you max the skill based on how your game is going. You have good supports roaming and protecting you? Max headshot first. Game is hard and enemy heroes are scary ganker? Max Take Aim. You got pushing heroes in team? Max shrapnel.
Just make sure you dont ignore shrapnel and your games with sniper will be improved significantly.

Spectre being a melee farming carry get harassed ALOT. Thats why many people make the mistake of maxing Dispersion. Dispersion is a scaling skill and a single point is more than enough early game. Get a shield and get lot of regen, do not make yourself a useless creep for whole early game only because of a little harass.
Max Desolate at lvl 7. You don't even have to join fights, just activate your ultimate and your illusions will hit the enemies for 65 pure dmg each hit. You can deal upto 200 pure dmg to every enemy in map just by pressing a button.

Almost NO ONE builds this hero correctly and I don't know why. Why do people not understand that scaling of 1 sec and 20dmg per level on nightmare is pathetic? Take a single point and leave it at that.
Max Brain Sap. Its pure dmg and it heals you.
Max Enfeeble second. It reduces enemies dmg by 120 with a cd of 10 sec and 20 sec duration, meaning you can apply it on 2 enemies. So it permanently blocks 240 dmg for all of your team and you thought 40 dmg block of vanguard on a single hero is good? It is also not removed by bkb.

Do not ignore Upheaval. Its an amazing spell. Doesn't matter when you max it but just dont skip it in favor of stats. Learn to use it then you will appreciate how OP this spell actually is.




Chilling Touch: The strongest spell this hero has. It gives total of 2400 dmg to your team at lvl 7. Theoritically you can kill the whole enemy team with nothing except this spell and autoattacks. Practically it is still very strong. So either max it first or second depending on situation. Its a very OP spell and surprise surprise.. Majority of people don't even take a single point in it.

Ice Vortex is weak skill. Max it last.



























So this was the list of all the heroes that I feel are built wrongly in pub games. Ofcourse many of the skills still depend on different scenarios (fore example You could max Ice vortex at lvl 7 for Ancient apparition, if you have Pugna and Skywrath mage in team and you 3 start roaming with your mgc dmg amplification skills) so unless you are going for some crazy strat like that, above skillbuilds will give you maximum efficiency in almost every scenarion.

Next post I will start some interesting Advanced Mechanics stuff and some tips that even veteran Dota players could find useful.

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