Time to end Rat Dota?

The topic title is misleading, you talk of illusion pushing yet the topic name critisizes a whole gameplay option.

Illusion pushing might seem as a slow cancer(unintended pun) slowly chipping away at towers but heroes like kunka or ember are a great counter to it.

Ember can just keep a remnant in lane tp clear the wave and return.

Only PL can really spam multiple illusions in EXTREME succesion.

Other counter would be Kotl who can just recall allies after they are done counterpushing

This is mostly true. The second primary playstyle is turtle, though, not split push. Split push is a variant on turtle strats where you draft a pusher rather than a hard carry. It's much harder to draft against than a basic 4-protect-1, because splitpush lineups can usually out-teamfight a gank lineup and out-push/farm a teamfight lineup.

Naga and TB are the only real issues, thanks to illusion spam. PL's weak enough already. For Naga I'd like to see some combination of base dmg nerf, weakened/removed riptide+illusion interaction, and ulti CD increase. TB's meta should 100% be an ultimate (it's better than DK's ultimate before level 16), and maybe have a bit less uptime.

I like this suggestion more - if the range was say 500, it would force the base hero to be much closer (and therefore more vulnerable to counterattack) in order to get the job done. Would the restriction apply to Soul Keeper and Naga Siren too? (they have 30-32 secs of illusion time). I think it would have to apply to Manta Style, but wouldn't work for illusion runes (which aren't really the problem anyway). How about Chaos Knight as his ulti has a 140 second cooldown at all levels?

The big issue I can see with this is that it would effect their farming speeds quite badly - good illusion hero players with say a Radiance often split farm over a wide area (a few jungle camps and a lane for example). This is quite a big mechanical change for them and they'd probably need a fair amount of rebalancing.

The change I'm thinking of would be that base buildings have the "illusion immune" ability (in the same way T2s and above have backdoor protection, but T1s dont - hell you could even make it part of the Backdoor Protection ability) - they can't be damaged by illusions. A small change, but it would prevent this tactic from working. Icefrog has previous here by nerfing the Wall of Replica scepter upgrade.

Well here's the flaw in that. The first suggestion just makes it go from turtle paced pushes to snail status. The push would require the illusion hero to have a Radiance, the illusions would be sent out the same way they do now but would need the minions to be pushed very fast, followed by the illusion taking the highground and relying on the creeps to do the damage while the illusion either pulls the next enemy wave away from the tower or tanks the tower shots. It would make need to TP in minimal but at the same time still be chunking away slowly at the tower. I believe making a hero be present within the push would be the most viable, Treant Protector and Blink Daggers would be the go to for safe pushes. Probably see Timbersaw against these lineups, the AoE damage and the ability to clear the 1000 AoE of trees around the tower would be a good defense against illusion based heroes. The likes of NP and Clinkz would still be strong. Increasing backdoor protection would most likely do more harm then good as it'd make team rush pushes a lot more difficult after a winning a teamfight, as well as slowing most single split pushers down by a lot.

Cammando's suggestions are more reserved nerfs, 10% less damage isn't that bad. I think having an illusion degrade greatly hurts the purpose of some illusions though. It limits scouting and is a dead give away to enemies that it is an illusion, which limits the ability to bait.

I think nerfing the ability to split push isn't necessarily needed though, it is as you said more of a focus on illusion heroes that maintain the split push so safely while being able to be a big presence in a fight. A Naga Siren can easily throw her 3 illusions out and split push while TPing back, using Requiem, Manta, and then proceeding to turn the fight around. Whereas a Tinker or an NP have to decide whether they want to fully commit and hope their team can turtle, or TP back and teamfight. While Necronomicons can still commit to the push they're definitely more risky as you won't have them off cooldown if you return to defend, and since you're an Int hero their right-click isn't as effective as a Naga or PL going for any of their items.

I'm thinking along the lines of adding the regen that other structures have to towers that sit on the highground, it improves the turtling gamestyle, discourages denying the towers, and requires a more dedicated pusher to apply damage to the tower. Combined with Lich or Treant its a pretty good defense. Which I think having a mechanic that diminishes the snowball of teams after the tier 2 pushes is a good thing, it allows a little recoup, and extends the time in which the enemy actually gets to start harassing the ranged Rax if defended properly.

Eh i dont think necro is refreshable by rearm mate. Correct me if i am wrong.

No, you're right. For some reason I was thinking Just BKB and Refresher Orb. Which fortifies my point even more, thanks man. I added my own suggestion for defending against illusions, I know a lot of people won't like it because it has a mentality of arts games outside of Dota, but its a small enough change where its not like a game of Smite where even if they push down and are crushing you the Respawn Timers will actually hurt them and make it harder to push. Or league where XP is compensated and the respawn on inhibitors are extremely low. Its just a minor mechanic extended to all the highground structures, a mechanic you can take advantage of that's small enough to not make a difference if your team doesn't help it along.

If you want Rad Doto to end you are aware of that we need Techies for that.

Even more of a reason to split push with illusions and Necrobook.

Had the best split push line up today. Was Chen with Necro 3 and HotD. So two Centaurs, a Wildken, and Wolf with my two necro minions.

I do like the idea of how when Illusions attack towers/buildings, the original hero MUST be within a range of say, 750 to 1000 units.