Dota 2 Thread: REBORN SOURCE 2 HYPETRAIN NOBRAKES

[Katsuki]

I'm curious. Tusk makes a good roaming support if your team knows what it's doing, should be nice to see him outside of tusk-only mid games.

[Natirasha]

Isn't that more of an Icefrog thing than a valve thing?

And what do you mean "top 4-positions"?

While icefrog does have ultimate say in balance patches, he has people in Valve and outside the company who work with him on the beta team. Its a mix--i know some famous pubstars like Meepwn are on it, as well as a mix of icefrog's personal friends and pro players. I know Puppey was on the beta team at one point, I'm fairly certain Fear is/was, I know Maelk did at one point(his stream was the one that spoiled the 6.75 Batrider buffs, iirc). My suspicion is that Brax is one(he made some suspiciously specific statements about Alchemist before the current patch was released on his stream, but it might have been one of the LGD.cn players that fed him the info). I have my suspicions on other pro players, but the whole thing is hush-hush. Following the dota2 subreddit is actually really useful--there is a solid network of about six beta testers on there that have the tendency to slip up. I actually have a theory one of them is ice frog, but that's conspiracy territory.

Tldr: I got my ways(streams, posts, friends of friends). Other heroes I would keep an eye on are Vengeful Spirit and Disruptor. In the carries, Sniper is one to invest in(actually god tier right now, but no one will give him time of day).

[Staeg]

Disruptor

I think this guy is actually 100% fine. He has 2 retardedly good abilities and 2 alright ones - it's just that he doesn't bring the heavy deeps or traditional forms of CC. Playing certain heroes against him is cancer.

[BBmolla]

A minor Disruptor buff couldn't hurt, depends in what area. He's just situational atm.

VS buff could be nice, depending on what it is.

Where would you lane sniper Nati?

[Natirasha]

Disruptor buff should not be a damage buff, it should be towards his aoe or duration of his ult--it's his weakest skill.

Sniper is a good mid in today's bottle-crow no-aggression world, since you actually can't stop him from farming in the lane(Take Aim). You have to play him like an SF. You can also run him the traditional way of a protected carry. His *best* lane is a sidelane solo v solo though. Someone like Dark Seer or Bounty Hunter is good, Naix or Gyro is best case(Full disclosure: Sniper is one of my favorite & best heroes, so I do probably overestimate him--just a little though).

Shrapnel is a really sick spell and people skip it unnecessarily. All three skills have their uses though, and Sniper is one of the most adaptable heroes when it comes to leveling up. The only 'core' item on him is Phases, imo, since he is the most positioning dependent hero in the game and utilizes the bonus damage well. Otherwise, deciding whether you need the tank from Drums, a Shadow Blade, rush a Rapier, grab a Mjollnir or Skadi is so completely situational. There is even a place for the Arcane/Orchid build.

Sniper is good vs most of the top carries right now--I would go as far to say that Sniper is Naix's worst matchup, Alchemist is weak to the hero too, and Gyro is food. Weaver is a bad matchup though.

I can go into more detail if anyone is interested, like I said--this hero is my bread & butter.

[Shamrock]

I agree that Sniper has good matchups vs. most of the other currently-popular carries, but I have a hard time seeing how he would be viable when Batrider and Wisp and Puck and other such heroes are everywhere.

I also have a hard time seeing what he gets out of bottle ferrying (I mean, Shrapnel is decent, but it's not Shockwave).

[Staeg]

Weaver is a bad matchup though.

Get someone to pool you sentries and weaver's toast.

Also, I don't think he should go mid at all. A batrider can easily slay you alone, a magnus can with little to no help, a DK with some setup stun to close the distance and dragon tail will have you dead in no time, etc. The big range for farming doesn't kick in for a while, and even then, your best shot at escaping a gank is 'shoot shrapnel and hope that they let you walk away'.

[BBmolla]

Sniper is also ridiculously easy to gank.

Also, I don't think he should go mid at all.

^

I guess you could trilane him, but it'd have to be mega defensive.

[ActionDan]

sniper really should go mid. You're useless in a dual lane anyway. Maybe tri? but I dunno. seems sucky

[Staeg]

A trilane that includes a visage is probably a solid choice.

[ActionDan]

A batrider can easily slay you alone

not really.

sniper is surprisingly good against certain heros. like tinker for instance

[Staeg]

You can't do the thing that sniper likes to do against people running at him (kite, basically) because of sticky and you have enough hp to die in a couple seconds. The alternative would be walking away from creeps if you hit 2-3 stacks of sticky icky, but uh, that's not what a sniper is looking for

[Natirasha]

Eh, its not too bad vs Batrider. Its hardest at level 2. To be successful versus the bat, you need to have a stick and max take aim asap. I mean, you're not going to win the lane--but who really can win vs Bat, there are like three heroes who can. Puck's easier because her lane control comes in the form of a large, fairly slow orb. I tend to put more into headshot vs puck to maximize my harass damage, 2 points in take aim suffice. Obviously, the changes based on other heroes as well.

You don't get a bottle on sniper mid, I typically go the old invoker build of tango+branch+blade, but different matchups need different builds. The only constant is phase boots, honestly--i cannot stress how important they are.

[Shamrock]

The problem with sniper isn't winning the lane, he's not that bad at laning, the problem is when you get blinked on and dream coiled by the enemy puck and have nothing to fall back on.

[Katsuki]

Eh against Bat, you can just harrass him whenever he comes up to try and napalm. There really aren't many matchups you lose mid with sniper unless you mis-position, have shitty last hitting and lane controlling skills, or get constantly ganked. The last is the scariest, but you're pretty much betting that you'll be playing against people who don't know how to rotate supports and gank.

[Natirasha]

I mean, yeah, ganking sniper is pretty easy--my second item is usually a drum, it let's you get enough HP to survive most characters level seven combos. He's a hero that, by default, relies on map awareness and positioning. He's not particularly good in soloq.

[TheButtonmen]

The story of the last three TBM was thinking about playing DotA 2.

1) Maybe I should play some DotA
2) Wait in queue for 10 mins
3) Quit

[Katsuki]

I mean, yeah, ganking sniper is pretty easy--my second item is usually a drum, it let's you get enough HP to survive most characters level seven combos. He's a hero that, by default, relies on map awareness and positioning. He's not particularly good in soloq.

I typically gank mid when I reach lv2 or 3 depending on the support and the mid heroes if my support partner also knows what they're going. Theres really nothing sniper can do against repeated ganks pre-lv6

[Natirasha]

Same thing can be said about Shadow Fiend, Outworld Destroyer, Razor or any number of mid-carries...

[Staeg]

Same thing can be said about Shadow Fiend, Outworld Destroyer, Razor or any number of mid-carries...

SF, yea. That guy's the magnet of getting pubtrained for the first 15 minutes of the game in every skill level. OD and razor... not so much. OD has his banish which is at least 2 seconds where he can run away and/or dodge enemy stuns, if they have a casttime/traveltime. Razor can zoom zoom away and make an enemy hero's attack become 0 in a matter of seconds.

[Natirasha]

Just a quick shout-out. So, my account was hijacked. There's something going on with dotalounge I guess? If you get anything from the Hooker Punch account, IGNORE IT

[Saki]

It's not online atm
w.e

[Katsuki]

So you got a new accy now or still same?

[Natirasha]

I'm using one of my old tf2 idling accounts at the moment. Am waiting for steam support to help me get my old account back though.

[Redelphic]

So I just started playing Dota 2, I've really enjoyed it so far. I originally played a bit of LoL but never got into it, there was something about it that I didn't like.

My favourite characters so far are Viper and Luna.