Drafting

So I Drafted Dire

My team yelled at me for picking "trash tier heroes". Honestly I don't get how these are trash picks.

AA prevents Dazzle healing and LS from life stealing and amplifies Avalanche damage with Ice Vortex. I was AA

Viper has built in magic resistance and okay armor and an anti-harass passive which counter a lot of stompers. He also it good at killing low mobility heroes like Dazzle and Leshrac (who was not picked but just in case).

WW for locking down the storm, and anti-right clickers. Also good lane presence.

Tiny for stuns and pushing and basically one shooting supports with his combo.

Clock just for offlaner and good initiation. Also Rocket Flare/ Ice Blast combo.

Lanes were 3-1-1

Why the hell were they yelling. "trash draft" "dumb captain" "these lanes will be horrible".

And then we stomped them. Got first blood. Wrecked every lane. Shows them…

What do you think of this draft right off the bat? also would anyone like to practice drafting with me on this drafting simulator site

example of practice drafts with me as radiant

well dont listen to your team :/ haha

AA was amazing pick against dazzle.
Viper against storm was decent but AA is in danger of Storm.

you banned right clicker yet picked WW?

also they kinda ****ed up badly

storm into viper
ls into ww
ls AND spectre ... i just ... wot?

your draft was solid and mostly well rounded.

i am super suprised u let leshrac go through the whole pick phase :P

From the sounds of it you didn't go into the Draft with an actual plan. It's always good to have an idea of a lineup or 2 before you start the Draft. For example, how is your team going to win fights? How are they going to find Farm? Do they have any good Peaks where you should press the advantage? How likely are you to be able to Pick the Heroes you want / need? etc.

You can start by thinking of a 2 Hero wombo combo and then adding in a 3rd Hero to balance it out, e.g. Axe + Dazzle with Templar Assassin. Additional Heroes to add to the mix could be Earthshaker, Slardar, Juggernaut, Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden, Phantom Assassin, Lina, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, etc. Ensure you Ban Winter Wyvern in the 1st Phase as this hero is the biggest counter to this kind of lineup. Dazzle is the only Hero likely to be Banned in the 1st Phase, so jumping for Dazzle at the 1st Pick, followed by Axe is the best way to kick off the Draft. You can then look to ban out

Berserker's Call + Heal Bomb is an amazingly powerful combination. Axe provides good Initiation in fights, and Dazzle is good at beefing up Physical Damage Dealers with Weave while keeping them alive with Shallow Grave + Shadow Wave.

You can put the Axe and Dazzle in a few places, especially Dual Offlane, giving you the option to wreck weaker Tri-Lanes, or put Axe in the Jungle while Dazzle babysits a ticking timebomb in the Safe Lane ( Juggernaut, Leshrac, Gyrocopter, etc.).

Adding Templar Assassin into the mix gives you a strong Mid Laner who can Farm Ancients and Burst most Heroes well into the Late Game. You need to make sure she's not going to get shut down in Lane by Ganks. Picking up a good Support like Earthshaker to babysit Mid a bit might be necessary if you're not running a Dual / Aggro Tri. If she's up against a Razor or Viper, consider rotating the Dazzle and your other Support Mid early on to shut down the opposing Mid.

Peakwise, getting Blink Dagger on Axe + Templar Assassin will allow you to jump a Hero and annihilate them fairly quickly. Picking up a good AoE Hero will be necessary in order to follow up in Teamfights as Axe will only be landing 1 or 2 man Calls most of the time against Teams with brain cells. In Terms of Farming, you can slow down an Axe's Blink by not Feeding him Kills, but you can always have a Support Stack Jungle for him. So long as TA can clear her own Stacks, there's plenty of room for both of them to Farm Stacks, leaving you open to picking up a less Farm Intensive Safe Laner, who can really benefit from your Aggressive lineup, e.g. Slardar, Slark, Phantom Assassin, etc.[/i]

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Ursa Ban seems wasted. If they Pick him in the 1st Phase, just focus on building a Team that can contest Roshan from 6 minutes onwards. Ursa is trash against a solid lineup if he can't get Aegis.

Typically, you want to open with a strong Combo that gives you plenty of Flexibility in your Lanes while giving you a method to take fights and win them. AA + Viper is incredibly flexible, but I feel there are plenty of stronger opening Picks, like Undying + Queen of Pain if you Banned out Gyro 8{3 .


Yeah, this is...kind of contrary, you Picked a Hero that deals incredibly well with these Heroes, and since you had the 1st Pick in the 2nd Phase, there was no reason to fear the other Team picking him up. If you were worried about Winter Wyvern getting Banned, you probably should have Picked her up in the 1st Phase since she's a Top Tier Pick.

The Final Ban and Pick are fine. Lion + Axe can be difficult to deal with as it gives a lot of control in Teamfights, not to mention...they have a Dazzle.

^^ Pretty much xyrus's first sentence.

Its not like your lineup is bad, it just lacks a certain plan. Try to learn heroes tining windows and make a nice lineup with that.

The opponent picked really badly though. Lifestealer into his biggest counter AA and one of his other hardest viper.

they said everything already.

However, no one else talked about your practise draft yet, so i'll talk about that.

Honestly that draft was pretty bad. There was no focus anywhere and the dazzle pick was just not good with your team.

First, there was no focus. You lack physical damage, so you cannot afford to take it late, plus dazzle just doesnt do much offensively if you have no physical damage. And you can win teamfights early to mid, but you don't have a fast way to push towers.

Next, you don't have a carry that can help carry you in the lategame. Your heroes are all midgame focused. That in itself is ok, but you need to have a pusher that can take down towers easily, which you didn't. So you are left with a team that can only take fights and gank, but will find difficulty pushing.

You lack lockdown, so you cannot chase and gank effectively.

All in all, your team is too unorganised, dazzle does not fit in, Silencer carry was a bad idea for that draft, huskar wasn't the best idea either. Your first 3 picks were solid, but your choice of carries just screwed you up.

The easiest way to fix that would be to pick Tiny in your 4th pick, making him not able to ban tiny, or a carry that can bring you late like jug, sven and pa. Tiny would work best because of his ability to push, but the other heroes would be good as well.

And if you wanted a carry that works early game, Drow, Slark or Gyro would be a solid pick. Otherwise, a pudge would also be a good idea, as most of their team can easily be caught by pudge pudge has the potential to destroy ta mid. If you put pudge in mid, QoP can go offlane and do decently if she manages to survive. If needed, one of your support can go top to help, but it would be best if they stayed in your jungle to stack for tiny and lane ds away.

pudge wont beat TA mid.... she will just max meld and make pudge butter. pudge isnt a midlaner in current meta at all. TA is defs not going to lose to him.

Oh right, pudge has no armor. My bad, i was only thinking that rot destroys retraction.

It's not that, Pudge automatically loses Mid to anyone since he needs to be off the Map constantly. That's why he's usually played as a Roamer or Offlaner these days.

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Play Video

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This ^ is the only way to play Pudge "Mid" against good players. 8{3

Pudge mid can destroy the other mid laner by constantly killing him and not allowing him to farm at all, but it is a high risk high reward play.if TA gets caught out at say level 2, she is probably dead. If pudge level 6 catches ta and ults her, she is probably dead. Without refraction she is incredibly squishy, and it is eady to kill her with just a small rotation and pudge hook.

nobody wanted to play him except me, but I was also they only one who was decent at AA :P



Yeah it was dumb, but it was more a frustration ban because I lost badly to a Ursa based lineup and didn't want to deal with that **** again :P.