May 29, 2012
Pushing, what to do?
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LuvLes
At the moment, all anyone does is complain about pushing line-ups and the entire meta is surrounded by pushers. Just a quick FYI as to why that is: A lot of the competitive Gankers, Teamfight and Turtle-oriented heroes are not in the game yet, or heroes that are needed for them to work. Examples of this are Medusa, Wisp, Pit Lord, Nyx, Tauren Chieftain and Undying are the big examples. Medusa's ultimate denies Pipe since it purges effects, her nuke drains the entire team of mana, she can turtle back and amass gold, becoming what is considered one of the best carries in the game right now. Wisp's ability to gank and deny pushes is also very good and also gets exponentially better late game with his buff. Wisp can also suicide which has pretty much been falling to heroes like Windrunner and Queen of Pain these days. Nyx is an amazing ganker and can really shut down any semi-squishy hero in the game, with his recent buffs (though some see them as nerfs), he has become even better in a turtle line-up. Tauren Chieftain is a comparable pick to Earthshaker or Tide Hunter in my personal opinion. Undying's ability to turn any game around if your team can just get a good teamfight with a decent line-up is amazing, so this all-in pushing strategy with him on the board can turn into all kinds of wrong. The last that I mentioned is Pit Lord, who upon getting his rework, was left in a permanently banned state and eventually made 'illegal' in tournaments. His ability to serve as an amazing hero in just about any line-up and makes the current Tier 1 heroes look like tools. The last mention I have here will be Soul Keeper, who scales extremely well into the game, having an increasingly better laning phase as time goes on and a great mid game.
So if you are getting tired of seeing the same dozen heroes all the time, just wait: When these heroes are released, the game will change quite a bit: Expect teams a little focused more towards turtling with a side of ganking, versus the "who can push better."
If anyone has some comments that may disprove what I have said, knock yourself out and I will update this blog as need be.
As you say, this suits early game heroes - even with a weak late game, if they're massively ahead on farm and xp they can take it anyway. A lot depends on the ability to take an early rax - a good base defence/team fight can be enough to give the other team a shot.
The nice thing with moba is there's hopefully room for the meta-trend to change again, would be interesting to see some more turtle/anti-push strats. There are heroes who have strong anti-push even at low levels, but they don't seem to get picked a lot at the mo.
I think the recent match between Mousesports and Infused is a great example. That game was basically a push-heavy line-up versus a gank-heavy line-up. If either team bothered picking a hard carry they would have likely lost a quick game just because of the initial disadvantage in the laning phase by having a hero that requires a lot of farm to be effective. Instead since both teams filled out with purely early game line-ups, the game was quick, intense and almost dead even until the very end. (It was won by the pushing line-up, for the record.)
The basic point is, why focus on picking up carries when you can win quicker by going with heroes that can contribute from the start?
And with Medusa, again, her days are just gone. She can make a decent counter push, but even then it's not enough to instantly stop a dedicated push without her getting stunned before-hand and just dying. She takes way too much farm for her to be of good use. She was like the old-old meta, back in the days of Alchemist. Like, before Faceless and Spectre even had their run.
And Siren, she was never really THAT great outside of pubs.
As much as this is true, can't the actual sleep effect be Purged? If so, if someone isn't caught, wouldn't that kind of counter the counter-initiation? (If that made any sense)
She would be a bad Naga if she missed the carry that has the purge or a hero that can override it, supposing she doesn't get them all. Even then, she has her snare.
Plus what about Naga Siren? She is the best counter-initiator in the game and has quite a few other reliable traits, which are desperately needed in the game at the moment.
As much as this is true, can't the actual sleep effect be Purged? If so, if someone isn't caught, wouldn't that kind of counter the counter-initiation? (If that made any sense)
Several pro players seem to agree that Chaos Knight is the only remaining hero with any real relevance in the competitive scene. Medusa had her glory days, but I think her days are over (for a while anyway, until another meta-shift).
The thing is, most of the competitive players are all EU. The metagame will greatly change when the CN's favorites get added and surely will be into the DOTA2 competitive scene by then. We all know how they can seriously change the game, plus the game will constantly shift and change when they realize, "Hey, we don't just have to ban the pushing line-ups anymore. We can just counter it with a standard line-up focused on denying pushes or making them useless."
The meta never stays the same for long and when the heroes I listed are added, will definitely impact that. Pipe is commonplace every game and she outright cancels it out without sacrificing anything.
Plus what about Naga Siren? She is the best counter-initiator in the game and has quite a few other reliable traits, which are desperately needed in the game at the moment.