DOTAFire :: DotA 2 Builds & Guides for Hero Strategy

How Balance Patches Change DotA for Me.

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Over the last few weeks I've been a bit mystified. My winrate had dropped a bit, and I couldn't figure out why I was dropping games, I kept feeling like I had little control over the outcome of a match.

However, this evening I had a bit of a revelation.

The current patch and meta has ever so sneakily shifted me away from all the heroes I am great at and has left me with the ones I'm only average with. When I look at a hero pool now I don't see my early/mid game favorites of , , , and . No, I immediately go towards (sorry), [[Juggernaut]}(really sorry), or some other late-blooming carry.

Now it's not bad for my group of preferred heroes to change, I just can't expect to get the same results trying out a new build on Troll to the results I get with my Drow or DK of a few patches ago.

I suppose the point of this is to encourage others that may be having the same experience. Don't just blindly remember that Jugg is good, figure…
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One-Trick Pony

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Just FYI, this blog is gonna jump around all areas of Dota probably, I'll try to post relatively frequently.

I can't remember the last time I bought a .

I've played all the common carriers, , , Troll, a few others--but I never feel that I want to invest in the item. But why?

Well, The famous crit stick offers one thing: An attack damage increase through base attack damage and critical hits. It does this really well and you can melt people with it, but what if.

what if the enemy core suddenly grabs evasion and I need MKB, what if the enemy gets a few damage items and I suddenly need to be tankier or get evasion, what if the enemy gets BKBs and I need an Abyssal or Skadi to keep them off of me?

I end up never getting a because it only gives me one dimension of usefulness. gives me stats, damage, and a slow-- gives me damage and a disable--MKB gives me true strike-- gives me damage, attack speed, and evasion. …
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Close but Not Quite

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For several years I was completely immersed in following college and professional sports. I could tell you stats, names, schedules, and trades for year after year.

But then all of the sudden I was immune to it. I only saw it as this continual cycle of wins, losses, trades, and scandals(by no means am I bashing the following of sports, just sharing my experience with it). I couldn't get an interest going in it, so my attention gradually shifted toward games--eventually leading to DotA.

Since grabbing my attention, dota has held it firmly. But why?

Balance Patches.

These amazing things allow us to play vastly different games than those of the previous patch were, and the next patch will cause things to be just as different. Sure those strategies can rollover a bit and still be effective, but here's to hoping TI5 will be waaaay better that its predecessor. And if it is, we will have balance patches to thank for it.

Every game of dota even within a patch is markedly different, but a b…
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Calm before the Storm

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I've played a lot of DotA in the past few days, because everything is about to change.

6.84 is Coming

Yes, I'm busy embracing playing Troll and [hoho]Sniper[haha] and getting rekt by rubberband mechanics because soon it is all gonna be gone. This patch is about to be something we all look back on and say either "remember that garbage patch where nothing mattered for the first 30 minutes" or "remember that amazing patch where we had an amazing lategame!"

So when our new patch gets here and suddenly is OP(I wish, means more hits for mah guide :P ) Let's try to embrace it for once instead of the usual cycle of

This patch is awesome!

This patch is garbage

This patch is great!

This patch is garbage

I'm bored with this patch, so now it's really garbage

I'm excited to learn the new hero combos, gold mechanics, and maybe new heroes (???pls!???) that are coming, so let's get ready.

My prediction?

SPLIT PUSH IS COMING BACK BABY

PS: Short post I know, but how is my small…
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Hindsight is 20/20

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6.84 is here!

I have like 5 blog posts I could do but here's the one I'm going(starting) with, here are some reflectionssnoitcelfer on 6.84 after playing some games.

So when the change-log came out I, like many others, was mindblown. The amazing OP new items, the big hero changes, weird new aghs, I thought this would make the game crazy.

However, as I should realize by now, the General Changes are what makes the biggest difference for every single game of dota that goes on. Suddenly I couldn't try to hard carry the game by farming for 20 minutes, I have to be ready for bloodshed super early in the game. Suddenly my 13 minute turns into a 15 minute simply because creeps aren't worth as much.

But most of all, you can't just throw leads around every team fight because of rubberband. The game can of course still shift, but I appreciate that one mistake is not punished so harshly now.

Now on to the OP items:

Glitter thingie-pretty good, manacost nerf makes it…
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In with the old and In with the New

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Just a few quick announcements I suppose:

So as you may have noticed from my last blog post, I love so I am going to make a guide for him(woohoo), which I hope you guys will like. I don't know exactly when I will have it ready but I will have a lot of free time this summer hopefully.

I can't get you a picture yet, but I'm graduating tomorrow and my cap is decorated with.... The DotA logo :D

Finally, I feel kinda bad doing this but I'd love it if you could check out my general carrying guide. I think its gotten a little buried but I'm proud of it so I really want to share it with you guys.

Here it is, I'll update it shortly for 6.84

I enjoy writing on this blog and thanks for those of you who read it, more real posts are coming up!

HOLD YOUR POSITIONS

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Just played a ranked game as Bane against a , , , and Clockwork. They very obviously had a lot of stuns to stop my ult from happening, and yet I only got it interrupted ONCE, and it was only because I failed to micro a necronomicon unit correctly in front of a Mirana arrow.

So recently I updated my Drow guide to include a section on positioning, and I realized those principals are so much more far reaching than just one hero. Where you are in a team fight can be so much more valuable than people realize. I was able to get off an uninterrupted bane ult against 6 stuns purely through where and when I used it.

Step 1: I made sure our team had the superior vision for a teamfight. I needed to know where they were so that I could position myself accordingly.

Step 2: I entered the fight late. I LOVE doing this unless I'm a hard initiator. I honestly don't care if someone dies before I come in because I will be in such a superior position than the enemy team. If you …
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Featured Site

How Balance Patches Change DotA for Me.

One-Trick Pony

Close but Not Quite

Calm before the Storm

6.84 is Coming

SPLIT PUSH IS COMING BACK BABY

Hindsight is 20/20

6.84 is here!

In with the old and In with the New

HOLD YOUR POSITIONS

DOTAFire & Defense of the Ancients

DOTA 2 Heroes