Drafting Practice: Day Three, Part Two: Improvement

Draft #4:  Me as Radiant

The idea of this lineup was to have some tough carries who also come online midgame, and then back them up with a healer (Abaddon in this case).  Elder Titan (ET) would provide valuable armor and resist removal against enemies, and add a nice followup to Chronosphere.  My last-pick Brewmaster SEEMED like a good idea, as he's difficult for Bane to lock down, and has quite a bit of CC of his own during his ultimate, and even in normal form he'll dodge a lot of TA's right-click.

Ok, so I thought I was being all clever with my tri-lane bottom, but then he puts Void down there, and I doubt I have enough lockdown to kill him before he Time Walks away.  However, Brew will likely do just fine solo against him (even at level 6, when Void can't do much damage in the Chrono).  Thus, Abaddon and SShaman could roam.  SShaman would likely pull the lane repeatedly to get some farm of his own, and Abaddon could roam, guard runes, help tower dive vs. TA, or assist Elder Titan top.

ET will do fine against Mirana + Bane, simply because he can use his Spirit to farm and stay far from initiation range of Bane.  If he makes a mistake, he's dead, but that's typical with the suicide lane.

DK and TA are probably equal mids, although TA's armor reduction could really hurt DK, and DK doesn't have anything to deal with refraction, except in Dragon Form Level 1, once level 6 hits.  TA has rune control advantage with her traps after Level 6, but without much psi-blade impact until later on, both heroes will likely get enough farm to come online for midgame.

Pushing power:  Okay, here's where his lineup falls flat.  He's really got no good midgame push-antipush against SS Wards + DK Dragon Form + my backup/sustain from Abaddon / ET.  Heck, ET could even put Void to sleep inside the Chrono! (I think?  Do spirits work in Chrono?)

The main issue would be:  can Void get enough farm, or can TA get enough ganks, to make it to lategame?  I have a feeling I could seriously roll over the enemy lineup during midgame.  However, against more cores and harder carries, it would have to be a short game or I'd lose.

After the draft, my opponent pointed out that Brew makes a terribly tri-lane hero, as he needs levels more than farm.  I think I could adjust lanes to make that happen, though.

Draft #5:  Me as Radiant

I feel that I drafted poorly here.  I don't really have anything to stop Lycan from running around killing all my supports, my Wraith King will get kited around by Storm Spirit and even Lycan.  If he stands still, a Black Hole is waiting for him.  Razor can steal damage really well from Lycan, which is why I let the Lycan through the first ban, but NP will be food to the Storm Spirit ganks, and Lich doesn't really offer anything at all beyond denying Centaur a bit of farm, which isn't even a big deal.

Let's just move on...

Draft #6:  Me as Dire

Ok, so I got too greedy here.  I'm going to be punished heavily with an aggro tri-lane, unless by some miracle I can get an upper hand on kills.  Early game, before level 6, Wraith King is only going to have 1-2 stuns before running out of mana, although both AA and Viper have very long-range attacks to harass Void.  Void can likely get away from most ganks, but he's not going to get a lot of farm.  Jakiro is likely to get caught out and killed if he doesn't hang in the back, and if he hangs back, he's not helping against the harass.  My best choice would be to actually be very aggressive from level one, and hope that a good Burrowstrike + Dual Breath would allow me to get an early kill.  With a slight upper hand, I would be able to get an edge against a severely-slow-leveling Viper.

My mid matchup is far better.  I think Brew, as a melee character, would have a great deal of trouble against an Exhort Invoker.  However, once Brew hits 6, he's going to be a lot stronger than anyone in my lineup.

I basically lose bottom.  Sure, Darkseer will get XP, but OD will get freefarm and levels, which is bad.  I can't gank with Invoker, and Dark Seer is unlikely to kill OD, and may even get Astral Imprisoned one too many times and lose the ability to Ion Shell for some farm.

Lesson learned here:  while Faceless Void is a great character, he's not really a great first-pick, tri-lane carry.  You need to get creative in how you lane him so that you can take other characters with better midgame.