#89 Some sets before WN update
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 | |||||||
| |||||||
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.
|
ILLUSIONS
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:
How this knowledge affects dota:
This knowledge helps to understand how to play illusion based heroes which include.
HEROES WHO USUALLY BUILD MANTA:
(The topic is incomplete for the time being, I will add more stuff in future)
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
- 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)
Tag :
Gameplay Guides,
Scaling II
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.
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.
Just make sure you dont ignore shrapnel and your games with sniper will be improved significantly.
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.
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.
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.
Tag :
Gameplay Guides,
Scaling of Skills
This is NOT the typical post about cosmetic items or anything related to mods. I'm just in a mood to write and I got no other place to go. So I think I'll just use this blog for my personal opinions and stuff like that. If you want to get the updates of ONLY the cosmetic posts, then I suggest you subscribe to the facebook page because I will ONLY post cosmetics related links there that will link you to the appropriate post. Feel free to ignore any other posts.
I recently got the idea to write about dota related tips/tricks/mechanics needed to become a better dota player or in general to improve your skill. First of all, I would like to start with my personal info. I started dota back about 4-5 years ago. I was a die-hard fan from the beginning. I was an ACCA student and had ALOT of free times (we used to have 4 holidays each weeks) so I played like 12 hrs per day. Needless to say I became quite good at it, I spent most of my spare time surfing the forums and mechanics related stuff, so I became good at theory crafting too. So in this (and future) post, I will write about stuff that I feel every dota player should know in order to improve.
Today's topic is Scaling of skills. In DOTA, certain skills have a scaling factor, to make them relevant in lategame. Take Lina's Dragon Slave skill, its a standard 280 dmg skill. It may be strong early game when heroes have low hp but it will keep getting weaker and weaker untill its neglible. Lategame when enemy has 3,000 hp with bkb and lifesteal, 280 dmg doesnt even matter. This is an example of non-scaling skill.
So what is a scaling skill you might ask. Most of the skills with percentage element attached to them. Consider a few of them,
Do you notice the pattern? See spectre has pathetic hp in start, same with drow and centaur with very low agi and STR respectively. Taking PRECIOUS skill points early game in these scaling skills is useless ( drow gets like 10 dmg from lvl 4 aura early game..at lvl 7 spectre has roughly 700 hp. Lvl4 dispersion will block and deal 150 dmg to enemies when you die. (and thats dealt to melee enemies, ranged enemies get zero dmg)
The point is, ALMOST every hero got some kind of scaling or some logic behind its skill build, enabling you to prioritize 2 skills and while taking one point in the 3rd skill (take ulti whenever you want). Most of these scaling spells are either one point wonders or not relevant in early game.
The main reason this is important is the popularity of wrong skill builds. Taking earlier points in proper skills can help you play the hero at maximum efficiency. I think an example would be more appropiate to make it clear. Lets take Storm spirit.
At level 9, there are 2 popular builds.
Why 1 point in remnant? Thats where most people get confused. You see the scaling is horrible on remnant. There is ONLY 40 dmg increase per level and its pathetic. The cd remains the same, while mana cost get significant. Storm already have ALOT of mana problem during start and higher level remnant mana cost cripples him badly. Inshort, its a 1 point wonder skill, You get all the benefits from lvl 1 remnant without maxing it to lvl 4.
Why 4 points in overload? Now this is the main source of SS's damage output. You gave up 120 dmg by leaving Remnant at lvl 1, thats a 80% dmg output of remnant usage. But by taking 4 points in Overload, you increase your dmg output from overload by 300%. You see, the 220% difference is huuuge. And wanna know whats the most important part? This damage costs you ZERO mana. As you know overload is just free dmg whenever you use other skills, Use your low mana cost level 1 remnant, get free 90 dmg, use your slightly low mana cost vortex, gets 90dmg, use ulti, 90 dmg, use ulti again 90 dmg.. I think you get the point.
In short, this skill build will get you MAXIMUM dmg at the cost of MINIMUM mana cost.
The purpose of this post was that every single hero has a certain logic to how you are supposed to build him with limited amount of skill points. Getting that EFFICIENCY and maximum DMG OUTPUT is the key factor for dominating early game fights. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments, or want to discuss any skill build for your favourite hero.
I recently got the idea to write about dota related tips/tricks/mechanics needed to become a better dota player or in general to improve your skill. First of all, I would like to start with my personal info. I started dota back about 4-5 years ago. I was a die-hard fan from the beginning. I was an ACCA student and had ALOT of free times (we used to have 4 holidays each weeks) so I played like 12 hrs per day. Needless to say I became quite good at it, I spent most of my spare time surfing the forums and mechanics related stuff, so I became good at theory crafting too. So in this (and future) post, I will write about stuff that I feel every dota player should know in order to improve.
Today's topic is Scaling of skills. In DOTA, certain skills have a scaling factor, to make them relevant in lategame. Take Lina's Dragon Slave skill, its a standard 280 dmg skill. It may be strong early game when heroes have low hp but it will keep getting weaker and weaker untill its neglible. Lategame when enemy has 3,000 hp with bkb and lifesteal, 280 dmg doesnt even matter. This is an example of non-scaling skill.
So what is a scaling skill you might ask. Most of the skills with percentage element attached to them. Consider a few of them,
- Spectre's "dispersion" - More hp you have, the more dmg you will disperse.
- Drow's "Aura" - More agility you get more dmg you get. (same with Riki's backstab)
- Centaur "Return" - More STR you get, more dmg is reflected to anyone who attacks you and more dmg they take from your ultimate.
Do you notice the pattern? See spectre has pathetic hp in start, same with drow and centaur with very low agi and STR respectively. Taking PRECIOUS skill points early game in these scaling skills is useless ( drow gets like 10 dmg from lvl 4 aura early game..at lvl 7 spectre has roughly 700 hp. Lvl4 dispersion will block and deal 150 dmg to enemies when you die. (and thats dealt to melee enemies, ranged enemies get zero dmg)
The main reason this is important is the popularity of wrong skill builds. Taking earlier points in proper skills can help you play the hero at maximum efficiency. I think an example would be more appropiate to make it clear. Lets take Storm spirit.
At level 9, there are 2 popular builds.
- 4 points in remnant, 3 in vortex, 1 in overload and 1 in ball lighting
- 3 point in remnant, 4 in vortex, 1 in overload and 1 in ball lighting.
- 1 point in remnant, 3 points in vortex, 4 in overload and 1 in ball lighting.
Why 1 point in remnant? Thats where most people get confused. You see the scaling is horrible on remnant. There is ONLY 40 dmg increase per level and its pathetic. The cd remains the same, while mana cost get significant. Storm already have ALOT of mana problem during start and higher level remnant mana cost cripples him badly. Inshort, its a 1 point wonder skill, You get all the benefits from lvl 1 remnant without maxing it to lvl 4.
Why 4 points in overload? Now this is the main source of SS's damage output. You gave up 120 dmg by leaving Remnant at lvl 1, thats a 80% dmg output of remnant usage. But by taking 4 points in Overload, you increase your dmg output from overload by 300%. You see, the 220% difference is huuuge. And wanna know whats the most important part? This damage costs you ZERO mana. As you know overload is just free dmg whenever you use other skills, Use your low mana cost level 1 remnant, get free 90 dmg, use your slightly low mana cost vortex, gets 90dmg, use ulti, 90 dmg, use ulti again 90 dmg.. I think you get the point.
In short, this skill build will get you MAXIMUM dmg at the cost of MINIMUM mana cost.
The purpose of this post was that every single hero has a certain logic to how you are supposed to build him with limited amount of skill points. Getting that EFFICIENCY and maximum DMG OUTPUT is the key factor for dominating early game fights. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments, or want to discuss any skill build for your favourite hero.
Tag :
Gameplay Guides,
Wraith Night Items
Sorry for disappearing like that, but considering the fact that NO ONE responded to my call of help regarding running this blog and facebook. I really expected someone to step up and take charge of this, but anyways, I will keep running with my own slow/lazy pace. I have also started making workshop items for dota2 so I will showcase them here and make them available for download without them having to appear in workshop. (the chance is really slim though)
I have also thought about writing some general gameplay guides on certain heroes who are misplayed in typical pub games, I have one such guide on Playdota.com. Its pretty unfinished but I intend to finish it in near future. So expect a lot of random NON-COSMETIC related blog posts in future, just ignore them if you are not interested.
Link
Guide : Couriers with particle effects.
Okay, I promised a detaailed guide for making particle effects on courier but then I realized if you had read and uderstood the previous guides, there's not much new stuff to do here. So I will just list concise steps of the procedure and I'm sure you wont run into problems. (meh who am I kidding? You will run into ALOT of problems, but fixing those problems is part of the fun)
Okay lets get started.
The basic flow is like this. Decompile the courier model you wish to put particles on > Edit .qc file > Recompile model > Done. (lets take baby rosh for example).
1: Decompile using studio compiler. Place all decompiled files in a folder.
2: Using the "Notepad+" open the file "mdldecompiler.qc".
3: Search for "$keyvalues" . The box infront will be empty. You insert the commands for particle effect here.
4: Recompile the model using studio compiler. And rename the files to default donkey model and place them in props_gameplay folder.
5: Repeat the process for flying version.
Troubleshooting:
1: Now the first problem you will run into will be an error during decompiling. Just rename the file "babyroshan.dx90.vtx" into "babyroshan.dx80.vtx" and it decompile just fine.
2: Here is the command for applying the particle effect that you will paste into $keyvalues box.
$keyvalues { particles
{
effect
{
"name" "courier_trail_fungal"
"attachment_type" "follow_attachment"
"attachment_point" "attach_hitloc"
}
} }
Preview: How it should look like
*name= the name of the particle effect you want to apply. (You can preview the courier particles using the previous guide)
If you face any more problems, do let me know, I will add them to the guide.
Okay lets get started.
The basic flow is like this. Decompile the courier model you wish to put particles on > Edit .qc file > Recompile model > Done. (lets take baby rosh for example).
1: Decompile using studio compiler. Place all decompiled files in a folder.
2: Using the "Notepad+" open the file "mdldecompiler.qc".
3: Search for "$keyvalues" . The box infront will be empty. You insert the commands for particle effect here.
4: Recompile the model using studio compiler. And rename the files to default donkey model and place them in props_gameplay folder.
5: Repeat the process for flying version.
Troubleshooting:
1: Now the first problem you will run into will be an error during decompiling. Just rename the file "babyroshan.dx90.vtx" into "babyroshan.dx80.vtx" and it decompile just fine.
2: Here is the command for applying the particle effect that you will paste into $keyvalues box.
$keyvalues { particles
{
effect
{
"name" "courier_trail_fungal"
"attachment_type" "follow_attachment"
"attachment_point" "attach_hitloc"
}
} }
Preview: How it should look like
*name= the name of the particle effect you want to apply. (You can preview the courier particles using the previous guide)
If you face any more problems, do let me know, I will add them to the guide.
