Magic-Resistant Heroes

Magic Resistant Heroes by Role:

Pipe Carrier / Offlane:  Centaur?  Elder Titan?  Pudge?

Carry:  Meepo / Ember / Anti-Mage (Lifestealer  - Rage?))

Supports:  Rubick + Visage (Omniknight – Repel?)

Mid:  Huskar / Viper

Other items:  Infused Raindrops

Example:

With Rubick + Pipe Aura…

Formula =

1 - (1 – Base Hero Resistance) × (1 – Ability Added Resistance) × (1- Pipe Aura) x (1- Rubick Bonus) = XX.X resistance

Anti-mage would have (L4 Spell Shield):

1 - (1 - 0.25) × (1 - 0.5) × (1-0.10) x (1-0.22) = 73.7% resistance

Huskar would have (at or below 10% hp, L4 Berserkers Blood):

1 - (1 - 0.25) × (1 – 0.5) × (1-0.10) x (1-0.22) = 73.7% resistance

Viper would have (L4 corrosive skin):

1 - (1 - 0.25) × (1 - 0.25) × (1-0.10) x (1-0.22) = 60.5% resistance

Visage would have (L4 Gravekeeper Cloak, max layers):

1 - (1 - 0.10) × (1 - 0.64) × (1-0.10) x (1-0.22) = 77.3% resistance

Add: Glimmer Cape = 81.8% resistance

Base Formula (http://dota2.gamepedia.com/Magic_resistance )

Total magic resistance = 1 − ((1 − natural resistance) × (1 − first resistance bonus) × (1 − second resistance bonus) × (1 + first resistance reduction) × (1 + second resistance reduction))

Note:  While magic resistance % increase shows diminishing returns, effective HP vs. magic damage still increases in a linear fashion.

A reddit link list

Here's Google Doc of a compilation of some really good dota 2 strategy posts.

Dota 2 Common Mistakes

Common Dota 2 Mistakes to Avoid

From a Reddit Post.  <source needed>

* Trying to defend a T2 tower when the enemy has better teamfight / Aegis / more players at the tower.
* Using glyph on a T2 tower that is sure to die / not being defended (better to delay and force them to fight uphill)
* Fighting instead of disengaging when the fight is in an area where we have no vision and there is no map objective.
* Chasing a wounded enemy for a really long time with no vision of where they are going.
* Trying to kill Roshan without having any vision around the pit and without having vision of most or all of the enemy team.
* Trying to contest Roshan without vision / without the whole team / against a team with better teamfight.
* Saying "we need to end fast" and trying to push onto the high ground with the entire enemy team alive (without having a massive advantage) instead of containing the enemy team to their base and farming the entire map to gain the necessary advantage.
* Not having TP/BoT at all times after a few minutes into the game.
* Staying in lane and trying to farm with very low HP.
* When defending a tower, running out in front of it to fight instead of forcing the enemy team to fight under the tower. (Or, running down off the high ground instead of forcing them to fight uphill.)

Zrog's Additions:

• Movement:  after blowing your abilities, unless you are a hard carry with right-click items, you should back away from the (team)fight, then re-engage as abilities come off cooldown. (Exception: before L6, in small skirmishes, your right-click is still valuable).
• Communication:  Always call out when an enemy is diving you under the tower.  If one or more teammates can TP to assist, it really punishes the tower dive (or at least deters the gank)
• Split-Pushing Alone when you have no vision and the enemy team is off the minimap.  You are just asking to get killed.
• Failing to Check the Mini-map Frequently:  I don't care if you're playing bots - you need the habit of checking the mini-map frequently.  Spend a few games focusing on creating this habit.

Positioning Videos

I just found and watched a video by slasher that shows some of the best positioning tips that I've seen in awhile.  He discusses using camera positioning and team-positioning to prevent the enemy from getting good engagements and ultimates.

This is Slasher's "Road to Top 200", focusing on Windranger.  However, the tips he gives are applicable to many engagements.

Positioning and Zone Control, by FiercE:

I like this video more because it talks about some very basic things, that new players don't even think about.  I find the information he shares to be most valuable to support players who are wondering what to do in team fights, and how to stay alive when low on farm.

Teamfight Analysis of Positioning:

A very chaotic teamfight between Na'Vi and C9, broken down to enable you to see why each player on Na'Vi is doing what they are doing.

Sustain

A lot of casters are now talking about team line-ups having "sustain".  What's being referred to is the ability of a team to replenish health and mana on an ongoing basis, so the team can keep fighting or pushing.

How to get "sustain"?

Items for Supports:
- Arcane Boots
- Urn
- Mekanism

Items for Carries:
- Hp-regen items (BFury, Bloodstone, etc)
- Lifesteal items (MoM, HoD, Vlad's)
- Early Mekanism (built on mid-heroes such as SFiend, Viper, Dragon Knight)

Drafting:
- At least 1 healer (see List of Healers)
- Pick heroes with low-cooldown ultimates

Why is this important?

In the "fighting meta" of the 6.85 patch, a won team fight can often result in large gains (i.e. some kills and more than 1 tower), if the team has the items and abilities that they need, to avoid returning to base.

6.86 Predictions

Okay, so I've watched a TON of pro games lately, and I'm getting good enough to predict wins fairly accurately based on drafts alone.

So.. I'm going out on a limb here, and giving my predictions for the future.

Last Edited:  December 9, 2015.

Deadly combinations of Note in 6.85:
- Shadowfiend + Ember or Beastmaster usually heralds a win.
- Wyvern + Bane support combo.

Nerf bat incoming:
- Shadowfiend (Raze damage will likely be decreased, possibly to something like 80/140/200/260), to reduce his flash-farming ability.  His win-rate at the pro level is too high right now.
- Ember spirit will receive a nerf (Flameguard damage absorption amount, probably.  May also get a slight nerf to remnant recharge time).
- Tusk will have some of his nuke damage reduced, or cooldowns increased.  His Ice Shard range may be decreased.
- Wind Ranger's Shackle Shot duration will be reduced slightly (currently rivals many ultimates).
- Winter Wyvern:  ultimate cast range decrease.  Cold Embrace will be nerfed.
- Slardar:  Ult's armor reduction may get reduced slightly, and will only give vision of the hero itself.


Popular but balanced:
- QoP will not be buffed or nerfed.  She's a strong laner, but very squishy and can be brought down.
- Broodmother:  popular, but balanced and can be countered.  Often countered by laning choices.
- Gyrocopter: will likely be untouched.  Suits some team line-ups but not others.

Still needs work (buffs or re-tooling):
- Legion Commander:  despite her recent buffs and popularity, picking her usually means a loss (in Pro games).  Needs slight re-tooling to balance pub vs. pro play.
- Crystal Maiden:  will receive a minor buff, probably to base strength or strength gain.

What you will see ( or see more of ):
- Armor reduction drafting strategies (also enables quick Roshan kills)
- Vengeful Spirit as a carry
- Keeper of the Light will be drafted more often in competitive games, especially for his Chakra magic and anti-push.
- More carries buying Desolator to gain an early fighting advantage.
- Pro teams picking Omniknight or Abaddon to protect against armor reduction and physical damage
- Elder Titan to counter Agility carries
- Huskar, because of trend towards early aggression (possibly dual-offlane or even dual-lane safelane until L6).  Huskar with Maelstrom may be a thing (so he can farm / wave clear / push).
- Luna, with support picks to compensate for her low hp (Abaddon, etc).
- Warlock, especially in low-tier team games.  His abilities, I feel, are underrated.

Trends that will continue:
- Early aggression and mid-game aggression
- Continued dependence on drafting heroes with "vision" abilities (at least in the pro scene), such as Nightstalker, Clockwerk, Beastmaster.
- Picking at least one "greedy" support, or a support that could transition to semi-carry
- Heroes such as Spiritbreaker and Beastmaster will still be strong picks
- Slardar will remain a "pocket pick" for many teams
- Dazzle & Witch Doctor will continue to be strong supports.

You'll see less of:
- Shadowfiend, after a nerf.
- Ember Spirit, after a nerf.

Dota 2 Patch 6.83 Review - Part One

From the recent Shifting Snows Dota 6.83 update...

Summary of Gameplay changes:

• Barracks destruction provides more team gold, less individual gold
• Some buffing abilities now affect magic immune.  'bout time...

Here's a quick summary of hero changes and what they mean:

Who got buffed:

• Abaddon:  slight buff to ultimate.  Meh.
• Alchemist:  Greevil's Greed buffed.  Alch can farm faster, should be relevant sooner.
• Windranger:  Focus Fire & Power Shot buffs.  Higher semi-carry potential, easier skill shot
• Bounty Hunter:  Buffs to Track cooldown & self-gold.  Teamfight buffs, ganker buff.
• Bristleback:  buff to Quill Spray dmg.  Slightly better laning.
• Chaos Knight:  Reality Rift dmg buffed, Phantasms last longer.  Comes online earlier.
• Chen:  more units, can now summon units to you.  Large buff.
• Clinkz:  slight attack range boost.  Slightly better laning.
• Crystal Maiden:  buffs to all damage skills.  Better ganking, teamfight.
• Dark Seer:  slight armor buff, cast time buff.  Meh.  Are they hoping to see more of him as an offlaner?
• Dazzle:  slight attack range buff.  Slightly stronger lane harass.
• Disruptor:  cooldowns decreased, mana cost of Glimpse rescaled.  Slightly stronger overall.
• Dragon Knight:  Corrosive Breath now stays for Levels 2,3 Dragonform.  Slightly better push mid to late game.
• Drow Ranger:  Illusions now benefit from Marksmanship.  Carries slightly harder with Manta.
• Earthshaker:  Buff to Enchant Totem (mana cost reduction).  Slightly better early game with Enchant Totem + Aftershock.
• Enchantress:  now moves even faster (335!).  I have no idea why a speedy prancing Dryad needs to be even faster..
• Gyrocopter:  Buffs to ultimate, slight buff to homing missile (using Force Staff).
• Huskar:  slight buff to Inner Vitality.  May result in stronger laning.
• Juggernaut:  More agility = better early laning, Blade Dance ult slighlty early-mid game.
• Kunkka:  Buff to "X" skill. Icefrog attempts to encourage more use of this powerful skill.  Mostly affects Kunkka as a support, and late-mid game.
• Leshrac:  slight buffs to Edict and Lightning.  Slightly better for push and positioning.
• Lifestealer:  An interesting buff to infest, where you can now use a creep as transportation.
• Lina:  Fairly large damage buffs.  Lina likely to return as a ganking support or mid.
• Lion:  better early right-click for harass, slight utility optimization on Mana Drain
• Luna:  slight buff to Glaives and Eclipse.  Not sure what Icefrog was trying to fix here, but the problem is usually Luna getting to the higher levels, not doing damage once leveled and geared...
• Morphling:  buff to Adaptive Strike stun.  Slight utility improvement.
• Nightstalker:  Buffs to early laning and to Crippling Fear.  I view the Darkness changes as a slight buff, allowing more frequent use and the standardization to enemy vision is a boon.

Who got nerfed:

• Brewmaster:  Armor & Thunderclap nerfs
• Death Prophet:  nerf to strength growth (2.2 to 1.9).  Snowballs less hard, slightly weaker later in game compared to previous.
• Earth Spirit:  Rolling boulder nerf
• Elder Titan:  nerf to Astral Spirit damage.  Slightly less strong in lane.
• Faceless Void:  Time Walk debuff nerf, Chrono cooldown nerf.  Hero offense slightly weaker.
• Jakiro:  Liquid fire damage nerf.  Slightly weaker push and lane harass
• Meepo:  slight nerf to respawn time after level 16.
• Ogre Magi:  Nerf to Fireblast damage and range.  Booo!

Who got rebalanced / small fixes

• Axe:  Changes to Battle Hunger
• Bane:  Nightmare cooldown now static by level
• Bloodseeker
• Broodmother:  nerf to Broodling vision (1400 --> 1100 daytime)
• Io (Wisp):  No turning required - slightly less delay on cast, nice fix because how can you tell which way he's facing, anyway?

How to Accelerate Your Farm

Here are some tips for accelerating farm like a pro.  Gathered from reddit and other sources.

Tip:
- if mid laner ganks the safe lane, he doesn't stay there to nuke down the next two waves of creeps before going back mid. Leave those creeps for your safelane carry!

Zrog's Tips:
- Don't die.  While this may seem like stupid advice, it also means "don't take risks when you don't have your core items yet", and "abandon fights and escape when they look iffy".
- Your supports may be jumping into a losing fight to ensure that you, the carry, make it out alive, and if you go back into the fight to "save" them, you're doing the wrong thing.
- Don't farm risky zones without support.  Farming the enemy Ancients with no wards or supports nearby is asking to be ganked.

by mido9:
A really important part of finding farm is that in pro games, unless you're immediately grouping to take a tower, every lane+jungle is occupied. There's very little farm that should go straight to the tower or die to an enemy creep wave.
Mid going to gank offlane? A position 5 support rotates to mid for a few quick levels and ward gold.
Carry just finished a gank with his two supports? Immediately back to the safelane he goes.
Offlaner farming his lane, support at safe, midlaner at mid? Carry instantly into the jungle he goes.
Just finished a good deathball and took the Tier 2 Tower? Immediate delta split into each lane + a jungle.
Anti-mage just TP'd to help a mid fight? To ancients ASAP afterwards.
It's a large part of why net exp and net gold is so much higher in pro games on average than in pubs, there's just a lot of gold that goes away for no reason because the mid stuck around to nuke some waves, or a tri-lane support was babysitting a little unnecessarily, or the offlane was running around looking for ganks too often and fell behind in gold, etc. The default state of a lane is to be occupied usually unless there's a really big, clear opportunity to gank and push or some other big deal.

by Jalapen0s
(As a carry): If you see a big fight somewhere else on the map, chances are unless you are 95% sure that you can TP in and get kills on retreating low HP enemies, you shouldn't join the fight, and just keep farming with the space that fight created for you. Also, when your supports pull, after you kill the enemy creeps, detour into the camp and get XP/ cs, then go back into lane.

by Noblewingz

1. Always BUY OUT. Almost never do I lose gold on a death unless I'm saving for buyback or a big item.
2. NEVER miss last hits, as a mid player it's acceptable to miss a few because of the enemy mid, but if i'm getting uncontested or under tower, I get almost every one. (Learn to estimate hp under tower so you don't miss last hits, or with quelling drop quelling for easy hits.)
3. My farming patterns are very efficient, I studied arteezy and burning to get a idea of the best patterns for a mid carry :)
4. Supports should stack frequently/all the time!
5. Finally, carry a Town Portal (TP) Scroll at all times and USE IT. That 100 gold often can earn you a extra 300-500 by going to a different lane, instead of waiting for jungle to respawn/creeps to hit your wave!

HiyoleX , paraphrased:
1. Basic Boots.  Moving faster between camps is worth the money.  Get [brown] Boots before your farming item.
2. Know which farming item to get for which carry.  Gyro = HoD.  Anti-mage/PA = BFury.  Medusa = HoD or Maelstrom. Naga = Radiance (usually).  Sniper = Dragon Lance, Maelstrom or Midas.  Void = Midas

FMERCURY writes:

I'd like to emphasize the importance of buying a quelling blade on melee carries. It drastically increases the rate at which you can farm the jungle, not only by boosting your damage against neutrals, but by allowing you to cut more efficient paths (also, removing trees that can obscure enemies). And I guarantee you will improve your CS in the laning phase.
You can even make a case for it on some ranged carries. Radiant gyro is a great example.
[also very useful for cutting trees to make faster farming paths - Zrog]

DROWNING_WITH_SIRENS writes on Reddit:

• Missing less last hits in lane is going to be the first and most important thing to do well.
• Clearing camps between waves is another way to increase your farm instead of just waiting around for the creeps to meet again. You can also clear camps if you are struggling to last hit in lane or the lane is too pushed for you to safely do so. [Zrog says:  You should ideally be pushing the wave, and then side pulling with the large camp]
• Farming where fights are going to happen. If you have the capacity to be useful early, farming near to where you think a fight is going to break out is a good idea. Farm until fight starts, run in and get aoe gold, then go back to farming. Keep a tp if the enemy team is diving. This doesnt mean standing around waiting for the fight to happen like people love to do in pubs, you want to be farming a camp or something while the teams are waiting for someone to do something.
• Good itemization. It doesn't matter how farmed you are, if you buy bad items you are going to be setting yourself back.

[–]Berbacat writes on Reddit:

• Planning. Carries that require a minimum amount of farm already know what items to get at minute -1, minute 2, and minute 10. They also have enough experience to know what to get based on how well the laning phase went.
• Efficiency (1). There are 2 aspects to this: Time and space. Sometimes, identifying space that is available (such as a creep wave pushed up to a Tier 2 tower due to a Tier 1 tower immediately crumbling before) can nab you an extra 200 gold within that minute compared to joining a push that is already guaranteed to get you a Tier 1 tower in the lane you're already in.
• Efficiency (2): Maximising time that isn't farming. This includes traveling, fighting and most importantly, pushing. If you're traveling to another lane, efficient carries think of the possibility of stacking, or using their mana to clear out a camp somewhere in if they know that they'll regen it later.
• Disciplined. Carries that know how to farm will generally resist temptation to fight, depending on how close they are to a particular item. If they have foresight, they can even convince teammates to delay a smoke gank or something similar by a minute because he knows in advance what his farming progression is like.

These are just examples at the top of my head, let me know if any of them don't make sense

more from Reddit:
A big part of [farming] is TPing to other lanes with waves opening up. Do not miss CS, farm the jungle in between waves, especially after getting your basic items (treads, aquila). Do not run to base unless necessary, bring yourself regen. Do not die, dying is the #1 reason [carries] fall behind.

by Barnyyy
http://www.twitch.tv/barnyyy
or
http://youtube.com/barnyvods

 by Merlini:

Article: How to Support by Camocspro

I liked this comment/post, but it was buried in Reddit, and I knew I'd never find it again.  It is re-posted here for posterity.

Captured from Reddit.  Post by camocspro.

Here are certain simple rules to all support players who are in low MMR. People at higher level MMR probably all know this already, so ignore from here on.

1. Always buy wards at level 1. If you think your enemy is an invis hero like clinkz, bounty, weaver, you have to buy sentry wards. Go gather around rune at 0:00 with help. Assess your enemy lanes, if you feel that they are going to safe lane and you are safe laning too, its always better to ward near the enemy's safe lane rune spot, so your mid can see incoming ganks.
2. Always check the offlane player's inventory. If he has wards, keep tabs on his inventory as he walks around. If he doesn't have it at any moment, he has likely placed the ward around where he walked. Always check pull camp at 0:30, to make sure it hasn't been warded. If it has, buy sentrys ASAP and deward and start pulling. If it hasn't then stack, go zone out if its a strong offlane like phoenix or bristle back and then pull. Else just zone out and pull through. Try to avoid staying in lane with the carry unless he requires it and make sure you get XP and so does his carry. Don't unnecessarily babysit carry. Just zone out offlane and come back in between to help. When harassing try to stay off the aggro range from creeps. Do not unnecessarily harass enemy while taking aggro from creeps. Harass mainly when there are fewer creeps and away from aggro range. Eat a tango before trading hits. Take off creep aggro after each harass. Learn aggro tricks searching on google. Do not trade hits with a hero who has more damage than you. Use harass with spells instead, of course you should have mana regen for that. If you need the carry help in harass and zoning out. Ping the enemy offlane hero to notify your carry to help you. When in lane DO NOT try to steal a creep. Deny and get your gold from pulls. Do not single pull unless you intend to get a tower.
3. After zoning out, go roam towards mid especially as a 4 role. If you are 5 role, don't bother roaming unless your carry is doing really well and doesn't need any help. As a 4 role, you should buy smoke to gank before minute 6, as most often enemy supports have wards. If you try to gank without a smoke, your move towards mid woulda be of no use. As a 4 or a jungler try to secure the rune for your mid hero if he has a bottle. Come around 55 to the rune spot and ask your mid to go to the other rune spot. This will ensure your mid hero wins the rune battle. Try upgrading courier as soon as possible after minute 3.
4. Watch for enemy hero levels. I've seen the players perspective of my 3k MMR friend and he didn't even see the scoreboard or the other hero inventories etc to see how everyone else is doing, until he died. Watch for levels of all heroes, especially mid and invis killers like nyx bounty. As soon as nyx hits level 5+, go get sentry wards and place one at mid and one at carry. You also need to get teleport scroll to be ready to TP since around level 6 laning stages transitions into ganks. You will NOT have money for magic wand, or arcane boots unless you have kills. At max you will have boots and a magic wand. This should be enough. That is why position 5 is really hard. You have to try your best to gather gold to invest on wards etc. Also remember to stack, supports even my level of MMR just refrain from doing this. They walk next to a creep camp at 53 and are completely oblivious to the idea that they can stack a camp/ancients without wasting any time. You need to pay a lot of attention. Your gold and levels depends on how well your team is doing, not on how well you are doing. You support your core heroes to win the game. You don't carry the game for your team.
5. Don't worry too much about your levels, ensure that your core heroes are at good levels as when you are near kills, you will catch up on levels. The more greedier you play the worse it is for your team. If youare position 5 you can control the tempo of the game with your support especially early game. As a position 4 or even position 5 do NOT stay in lane with low hp or mana without any form of regen. Just walk to base to come back. You don't need to use TP to come back. You can just walk back. That TP should be saved to help someone in danger.
6. The most important thing is to watch enemy inventory. There is no point in ganking someone with a haste rune bottled up if you don't have a really hard disable for a long time. Assess killing potential and hp. HP percentage bar is not enough to gauge killing potential. High strengh gain heroes can have 500 hp at 50% health which is not an easy kill. Also notice mana pools. If weaver has only mana for one sukuchi then it is a great time to gank. If he has full mana, unless you have good lockdown and burst, ganking him is fruitless, because he is going to ulti.
7. Watch for tier 1 HP. If it is under 50% HP, single pull the small camp and destroy the enemy creeps faster and get tier 1 quickly. This is especially useful, if your safe lane is doing really well and your carry is going midas. This will get his midas faster due to tower gold and therefore accelerate GPM.
8. Do not deward and place the ward in the same spot. Place in different places all over the map so your ward doesn't get dewarded easily. Always carry dust against shadow blade/invis heroes, sentries is not that useful. Get sentries against heroes that use invis to initiate, like nyx, mirana ultimate etc.
9. Do not stack disables, and please for the love of god don't buy an aghanims on supports. Buy mobility items. Blink/forstaff euls. My friends always go aghs on bane which is ridiculously dumb and I can't even imagine why. Unless you are warlock aghs is a stupid item on supports. Blink/forcestaff/euls will be better any day. Have a lot of gold, buy necro and stay relevant. Even a bkb/ghost sceptor/halbred is better.
10. In fights you shouldn't try to right click. Cast your skills and get away from the fight. You are not there to take any damage whatsoever. Once your cooldowns are done, come back into the fight and cast spells again.

Good Follow-up Comments:

by rascast5:
So don't just create space for your carry. Your job isn't to stand next to the carry so he 'has space'. Work to get him kills, work to get mid kills, and work to kill the enemy carry, while keeping vision up around the map so your team doesn't get ganked. Always have a tp so you can tp to ganks to help out and get return kills. Your carry doesn't need to be ultra farmed. If your mid is decent and you help him stomp his lane by controlling runes and ganking then the game becomes 4v5. If you kill the enemy carry as well and stop him from farming it doesn't matter if he could be last hitting better than your guy.

by Myzzrym:
If you see for instance that people are not paying attention to the mini-map, do not place wards in "passive" areas to "avoid ganks" (because they won't notice it anyway). Place your wards aggressively where you know you can catch someone or at least disturb them, or place them in a way where you have sight so you can harass safely because you know the enemy supports are not near.
If you see your carry isn't reliable, it's time to go and try to shut down someone else instead of making sure you own carry can get farm. Be careful, it's really easy to get into a "everyone sucks anyway" mindset and start playing solo, which is not what I'm advocating for. People make mistakes, and you shouldn't entirely abandon your carry because he missed some CS or got killed stupidly once or twice.

Article: the first 3 months of Dota2

What I learned in my first 3 months of Dota 2:

• How to last hit and deny.  With each small improvement, your gold income increases dramatically, and you can start to pull ahead of your opponents in XP as you deny better.  Remember always that last hitting > denying.  Always choose a last hit on a creep over a deny.

• When to last hit and when to push.  Even when pushing, you should attempt to last-hit as much as possible.

• to stay alive:
•  Learn how to move back and forth to be a harder target for ground-targeted spells
• Learn that when you’re on low health, you need to retreat and heal, even if it means going all the way back to base.  Lost laning time is better than dying
• Learn to juke into the trees and use your Town Portal scroll to escape a gank (you DO always carry a TP scroll right?  RIGHT?  Stop being a noob and carry one).

• A general idea of how most of the (popular) heroes play, and their abilities.  This involves playing a lot of vs-bot games, and being really terrible at heroes for most of the game.

• That the default hotkeys are NOT your best friend.  You really need to rebind the courier and your items to more-convenient keys.

• How to use the courier without thinking about it:  create your own lobby-game and practice nothing but using the courier.
• What the most-common items are based on their icons.  You do not have time in game to read every item description!  Create a lobby of your own, or read the Learn tab online, and get familiar with the items and how to build them.
• How to stack and pull creeps into the safe lane to pull back your creep line.
• Respect for tower damage, especially at low levels
• How to use deny to back up your creep line.  You can only attack your own creeps when they are less than 50% health!

• What different roles mean, and how they affect how you play:

o   Carry:  weak early-game, dominates late game if farmed up (need items to be any good, and need superior last-hitting skills to get the gold in the first place!)

o   Support:  a character that doesn’t need a lot of items to be viable, and thus should take care of putting down wards, buying Dust if necessary, and generally helping a carry to stay safe and get last hits.  You buy the team-supporting items like Drums of Endurance, Mekanism, Pipe of Insight, and possibly Arcane Boots.  You DO NOT steal last-hits from your carry to get these items!

o   Initiator:  In team fights, it’s your job to go in first and set up an advantageous situation for your team, using your abilities (usually your Ultimate, but not always).

o   Pusher:  You excel at pushing lanes and taking down towers.  You need a game-sense of when the time is right, and when you have enough levels and gear to successfully take down an enemy tower.

o   Ganker:  you get yourself a few levels, maybe a few key pieces of gear, and then you go kill enemy heroes for most of the rest of the game.

• Observer and Sentry wards are valuable
• You do not stay in an area where you are outnumbered by enemy heroes unless you have allies, a tower, or an escape route closeby, or a nearly-failsafe escape.
• Places where enemies can get behind you or pincer you are bad places
• Know where the enemy team is, and where you allies are by looking at the minimap frequently.  TP to defend your allies.
• Don’t fight battles you can’t win; you’d be surprised how many people do this, just because they have a full mana bar, their ultimate off cooldown, and they are just itching to use their abilities.
• Fight only battles that are unfair in your favour.
•  “Fair” 5v5 fights are won through superior timing or positioning
• Learn what to buy to stay in lane.  Saving for big items doesn’t keep you safe in lane.  Buy regen and branches at the start, generally.
• The suggested starting items are generally good picks.  When you’ve played dozens of games, you can start making your own choices.
•  If you’re forced to return to base, buy and use a TP to get one direction; it is worth it to trade the cost of a TP scroll for the XP and last hits that you will otherwise miss by spending all your time running.
• Participate in team fights whenever possible!  If you don’t think your team should be teamfighting, say something instead of just being absent or hanging back.  Your lack of participation is the same as if you were ganked pre-team fight, forcing a 4v5 against your team.
• Do not dive towers directly into a fresh enemy creep wave before around level 8, when creep damage starts to matter less.
• Physical damage is king in late game, but burst nukes are king in mid-game.  Stuns or disables are useful pretty much all the time.  The deadliness of burst nuke damage tends to fall off after level 12-14, as people gain gear and levels.

If-Then Drafting Tips

More Drafting Articles:

Generic Counter-Pick Heroes
Basic Drafting Tips
List of Hero Synergies for Drafting

If-Then Drafting & Banning Tips:

Healers:

• If you want to draft direct, burst healers (Omni, Dazzle, Undying), ban Ancient Apparition (Ice Blast)
• If you want to run Dazzle, ban Axe and/or Necrophos.  Both heroes make Shallow Grave fairly useless.  Ancient Apparition is also very annoying, as his Ice Blast makes healing useless.

Ban (or Pick) Pugna When:

• You want Sand King (Nether Ward disables Blink Dagger when channeling Epi)
• You want Skywrath Mage or Zeus (Nether Ward counters both quite handily)
• You want Lina or Lion

Armor Reduction:

• If you run armor-reduction strat, ban Omniknight (Guardian Angel counters physical damage)
• Winter Wyvern is also annoying, as Cold Embrace blocks all physical damage.

Ban Silencer when:

• you use initiators with combos (Magnus, Brewmaster, Sand King, Storm Spirit, Puck, etc)

Ban Rubick when:

• you want to run Enigma, Phoenix, Witch Doctor, Bane, Pugna, or anyone with a channeled ult.
• The enemy team needs a disabler or hard support
• You plan to have stronger teamfight than the enemy team

Initiators:

• If you run a squishy carry as a mid hero with no escape, consider banning Vengeful Spirit, Ogre Magi, Rubick, Crystal Maiden, Earthshaker (early ganks) or Batrider (midgame initiation).
• If you run a squishy, ranged right-click hero (Drow, Sniper, Clinkz, Shadowfiend), consider banning Storm Spirit, Batrider, Axe, or Legion Commander
• If you want a squishy carry that relies on escapes (Weaver, Clinkz, Bounty), or is highly dependent on low-cooldown abilities (Storm Spirit, QoP, etc), consider banning Doom (and possibly Silencer).  Skywrath isn't a bad ban in this case, either (long silence).
  

Dual Mids:

You may encounter a dual mid if any of the following occur:

• Io pick (add Tiny, CK, Sven, PA, etc)
• Lich + Hard Carry (Terrorblade, Faceless, etc)
• Two strong semi-carry solo laners picked (e.g. Bristle + Brewmaster)
• The enemy is running a three-core lineup, and none of the heroes are strong mids

Counter-Initiators:

• If you run a burst lineup, ban Vengeful Spirit (Swap) or Dazzle (Shallow Grave). Chen is also very annoying, but not usually ban-worthy.
• If you want Batrider, consider banning Vengeful Spirit (Nether Swap out of Lasso)
• If you are against heroes with good-over-time ultimates (Death Prophet, Brewmaster, Jakiro), consider picking Naga (wait out their ultimates, re-engage).
• If you want to draft a big-teamfight-ultimate team, consider banning Rubick, Silencer or Naga.  Ban Rubick to prevent spell-stealing, Silencer if you rely on combos, and Naga if you rely on abilities with temporary buffs (Primal Split, etc).

Disablers:

• If you are facing heroes that typically go BKB as a core item (Sven, Luna, Gyro), consider picking a BKB-piercing disabler (Bane, Enigma, Beastmaster, Magnus).

Illusion Carries:

• If you want an illusion-based carry (Terrorblade, Naga, CK, PL, etc), consider banning carries with Cleave or multi-target right-click (Luna, Sven, Gyro, Medusa, Dragon Knight).  Alternately, pick your carry last.
• If you want Meepo, consider banning single-target bursty heroes (Lina/Lion/Centaur/Zeus)

Countering Carries:

• If you need to counter a tough melee carry, consider a ranged carry that can "kite" the melee carry:  Viper, Weaver, Drow.  Alternately, go Lifestealer and use that health pool against him.
• If you draft a squishy, farm-dependent hard carry like Spectre, PA, or Terrorblade, ensure that you pick defensive (i.e. not greedy) supports that would do well against an enemy tri-lane.  Ban common enemy tri-lane heroes, or gankers (such as Bounty Hunter or Storm Spirit) if you intend to spend a lot of time jungling.
• If you want Broodmother, ban Earthshaker.  Echo Slam will destroy you unless you are very good at micro'ing your broodlings separately (and away from) your hero.  Alternately, run a non-Broodling build on Broodmother to mess with your opponents.

Picking Stealth Carries (Riki, Bounty, Clinkz)

• If you want Riki or Nyx, DON'T ban Slardar or Bounty Hunter - it's too obvious.  Instead, pick the stealth hero later in your draft (or ban Slardar/Bounty if you get last ban).

Drafting Analysis: Good Draft, Stupid Lanes

Foreword

I didn't draft this game, but I was watching it.  I thought "yeah, that's a decent draft", and then the guy totally messed up the lanes. Thus, I thought it would be a good example to explain why the lanes wouldn't (likely) work, even though the draft itself is fine.

The Draft:

http://dota2draft.the-cluster.org/show?fp=d&pick=S1Zk0zb1Y2Zy1ZY4t4ZR2r0b1&ban=ZfZdMZmLzgZCKOze

Analysis:

The way these lanes sit, all Dire lanes will lose, even though I think they have a more balanced draft with better hero synergies.

Morph against Razor:  Razor has a longer attack range, can steal Morph's damage, and harass Morph a lot.  Yes, the roamers that the draft proposed COULD shift the balance, but only if the Razor was bad at denying and the lane stayed pushed out, or the Razor played badly when the supports were missing.

Meanwhile, Centaur isn't going to do well against Tide's Anchor Smash.  Tide can spam it, meaning that Centaur will find it hard to get CS.  Tide is also VERY tough, and hard to burst down.  Again, the roaming supports could make a difference, but the way the lane stands, it will lose.  Tide will get Blink before Centaur, and team fights will swing the way of Radiant.

Sven isn't up against a lot of disables in his lane, so he actually might survive, although with that much healing, the enemy tri-lane isn't going to worry about diving the tower.  Also, Necrophos' Heartstopper aura might drive Sven out of lane all by itself, even without much aggression from Rubick and Abaddon.  Sven won't be able to contest pulls, and Warcry isn't a huge movement buff for escaping.  Unlike using Centaur as a solo offlaner, Sven doesn't really get a game-changing ultimate at Level 6, and needs a lot more farm than just a Blink Dagger.

While I think the Radiant lineup lacks damage, push, and is healing-heavy, the lanes are quite strong.  Furthermore, after Sven is driven off or at a level disadvantage, Rubick and Abaddon can also roam, probably just to keep Razor safe and to annoy Morphling further.

In summary, I like the idea of Venge + Sky roaming (or pulling), and the Centaur solo.  Morph might do okay if the roamers get kills, but Sven cannot handle suicide lane - he's only got enough mana for 1 stun, and he MIGHT escape with Warcry, but he can't spam it.  Likely, he's going to be driven off lane, or feed.  He can't catch up easily by doing ancients early, unlike Tidehunter.

I would have laned Dire like this:
Mid:  Skywrath (vs. Razor) - Skywrath has long attack range, and can harass with nukes.  Instead of early-game roaming, he can go ganking once he gets level 6 (and might even kill Razor in lane).

Bottom:  Morph + Sven + Venge (vs. Tidehunter)  - supports could probably roam, or pull, or stay and drive Tidehunter away or even possibly kill him with Storm Hammer + Magic Missile + Waveform/Adaptive Strike.

Offlane:  Centaur (vs. Def trilane) - Centaur isn't going to get much farm, but his Level 6 ultimate is game-changing, and all he really needs is a Blink Dagger, and going early Tranquil Boots to help him survive this lane doesn't hurt his build or effectiveness.

Alternate Laning Strategy for Dire:
Mid:  Sven + Skywrath (vs. Razor) - Sven's farm is secured with the help of Skywrath's harass.  Could probably get a kill early on Razor, especially with a rotation from Venge.  Skywrath could also help with (top) rune control, while Venge secures bottom rune.

Bottom:  Morph + Venge (vs. Tidehunter) -  Morph isn't likely to get ganked and could probably solo this lane adequately against Tidehunter, but denying Tidehunter an early Blink Dagger is probably a good reason to keep Venge near this lane.  A haste rune from Skywrath could enable a gank on Tide.

Offlane:  Centaur (vs. tri-lane):  given the defensive tri-lane, this isn't a bad choice, for the same reasons mentioned above.

The Math on Axe

There's been an idea that taking a double-stout shield on Axe is actually more effective for damage mitigation than other alternatives.

Now, double-Stout Shield doesn't completely stack.  However, you get a 60% chance to block 20 of the damage that gets through the first 60% chance, meaning your net block chance is 84% to block 20 damage.

There's been some controversy about the usefulness of double-stout shield on Axe as early items.  I did the math, and here's the result:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4HHV8LhGPUuSUxFS1VpT0ZjNUU/edit?usp=sharing

Summary of Double-Stout on Axe:

Yes, double-stout IS actually quite effective for damage mitigation.

It's only once attack damage passes 60 per hit that the RoP + single shield option overtakes the double-Stout choice.  Thus, for almost all camps and neutrals (except Rosh), you actually mitigate more damage by using two Stout shields.

The Math on Ogre Magi

Here's a spreadsheet of the math on Ogre's Magi's Fireblast-versus-Ignite damage scaling:

As of patch 6.81:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14qwcEPuv6nckulk4z2ZnvjQ1iotvasxWKwzhm7AH6sk/edit?usp=sharing

As of patch 6.82b:

Fireblast has a fixed damage scaling of 65 additional damage / level after L1.

Ignite, on the other hand, increases in damage faster than Fireblast, and each subsequent level adds more damage than the previous level-up.

Ignite is also more efficient damage per mana, at all levels.

This leads to the idea that maximizing Ignite first actually boosts your damage slightly.

As of patch 6.85:


Fireblast has a fixed damage scaling of 55 additional damage / level after L1.

Ignite, on the other hand, increases in damage faster than Fireblast, and each subsequent level adds more damage than the previous level-up.

Ignite is also more efficient damage per mana, at all levels.

This leads to the idea that maximizing Ignite first actually boosts your damage slightly.

If you look at the damage including Multicast, you get the following average damage:

DoT Ultimates (with Treant Overgrowth)

Treant's Overgrowth is a strange AOE disable in that it does no damage by itself.  It needs something to go with it.
This is similar to Enigma's Black Hole, except Overgrowth can't be interrupted.

Heroes with AOE Damage Over Time or Delayed Damage:

Sand King - Epicenter
Leshrac - Pulse Nova, Edict
Gyro - Call Down
Kunkka - Ghost Ship
Earth Spirit - Magnetize
Venomancer - Poison Nova
Jakiro - Macropyre
Lich - Chain Frost
Undying - Tombstone (it's not an ult, but it's close)
Disruptor - Static Storm
Witch Doctor - Cask + Death Ward (can still be interrupted)
Warlock - Infernal (Aura + Right-clicks)
Doom - Scorched Earth
Any Radiance carry (Naga, Spectre, Doom)
KotL - Illuminate
Elder Titan - Earthsplitter
Invoker - Deafening Blast, Chaos Meteor, Ice Wall, EMP
Death Prophet - Exorcism
Dark Seer - Wall of Replica illusions
Crystal Maiden - Freezing Field

DoT Ultimates By Role:

Carries:  Gyro, Kunkka, Doom
Supports:  Sand King, Earth Spirit, Veno, Jakiro, Lich, Disruptor, WD, Warlock, KotL, CM
Mids:  Death Prophet, Veno, Leshrac, Warlock, Invoker
Junglers: Dark Seer
Offlaners: Dark Seer, Elder Titan, Doom, Lich, Venomancer, Undying

See also:  Team Ideas with DoT Ultimates

Item Spotlight: Maelstrom

Hypothesis:  High-Strength heroes should build Maelstrom more often.

Chain Lighting avg damage = 120 * 25% = 30.  Item gives +24 dmg = +55 dmg.  Attack speed of +25 on top of that, gives AT LEAST another 25 damage (total of +80), more if the hero’s #attacks / sec is less than 1 to start with. 

+80 damage for a 2700 gold item?  Yes, please!

Unique attack modifier that stacks with others UNLESS it procs.  So what?  I’ll take the 120 damage, multi-target lightning over any other proc!

Farming:  Battlefury; cost = 4350,  cleave = 35%.  Average base damage of 80 + 65 = 165*35% = 51 to multiple targets.  Average Mael dmg (multi-target) = 30… and that doesn’t include the AS, and it’s ranged but gives no hp or mana regen.  However, Battlefury is also (4350-2700 = 1650) / 4350 = 38% more gold.  If you need regen with Mael, you can buy some for 1650 gold… this is almost the cost of a Perseverance (1750).

Mael can be used by ranged or melee heroes, unlike Battlefury.  Magic dmg > physical damage once heroes have 6 armor or better (link to armor table:  http://dota2.gamepedia.com/Armor) , whereas magic resistance stays at the 25% base without items.

When NOT to take Maelstrom early: 

·        you need tankiness first (armor and/or hp) before you can start right-clicking people

·        You have great abilities, but severe mana pool or mana regen problems that prevent you from using them when you need them

·        You already have flash-farming abilities and have the mana to use them

Examples:

L6 Dragon Knight

Suffers from low attack speed early game.  Already a great pusher and tanky – Mael makes him better.  Doesn’t usually build his own regen items anyway (except Soul Ring).

L6 Centaur Warrunner semi-carry

Suffers greatly from low attack speed early to mid game.  Already tanky and mana requirements are low.

L6 Broodmother

She’s a pusher, not a teamfighter, until much later.  She’s a bit squishy earlygame, so a Bracer or Urn might be a good pickup first.  However… Mael gives more early push.  Attack speed makes her ult even more deadly.  What’s not to like?

 

L6 Ogre Magi (no lust), semi-carry

Needs to be effective early game, suffers from lack of pushing power.  Mael solves both problems BUT does nothing for his mana problems.  Mael only viable if supports have Arcane Boots / Basilius, or you have CM on your team.