Wednesday, February 24, 2010

DotA Thoughts

DotA is amazing. It’s absolutely amazing and epic. Anyways… see I had a revalation about DotA a while ago when I was tyring to think of the heroes and define their roles and stuff.

See, my primary mistake I think is trying to use stats to determine role. DoTA has three stats, Intelligence, Agility and Strength. My previous thoughts went something like this: Intel: powerful spells, early game nukers. Agility: late gamers, often called “carries” Strength: Mid game, tanks.

But then I realized that you also had pushers, chasers, killers and support. Then I realized something, my entire premises were wrong. See the problem is that stats do not determine role. Abaddon a strength hero is not a tank, he’s support. The same with Treant. Beastmaster, a strength hero can carry. Bloodseeker (agility) is a weird kind of ganker/carry I would assume. Ogre Magi, a strength hero, is a caster/ganker (though not a good one….) anyways… you get the point: stats do not determine role.

So then, what are the roles? What determines the roles? Ahh that is where things get tricky. I think the best way to explain this is that spells and stat gain determine stuff. For instance, a carry needs good attack speed, high damage, and the ability to farm and escape in order to be effective. Drow gets a lot of damage, but doesn’t have good escape mechanisms or good farming techniques. On the other hand, Naga Siren has 2 disables (one is ulti, but still) and mirror images for escape. Mirror images also do a very good job at farming. Abilities determine role.

But anyways, I’ve also been reevaluating the 3 phases of the game and using various other skills I’ve learned to understand how to build a team. See, before, I assumed you’d want a team makeup something like this: 2 str, 2 agi, 1 intel. One agi should be able to carry.

But… that’s crap, honestly. See in reality you want something like this: 2 support, 2 gankers, 1 carry. Support heroes spend lots of gold building wards, crow, and TPs. They don’t need items to work their spells and abilities, so they can get team stuff (like things listed above). Support heroes “support” the team in team battles as well as protect carries early game. Gankers don’t focus on farming so much as they do waiting for the ideal moment to strike and kill an enemy hero. Again, XP and gold are so important for a good ganker. Finally, carries need to farm, farm farm. They get lots of gold and lots of XP so they can build items and easily defeat 2-3 enemy heroes with little to no help from other players. Carries “carry the team to victory.”

So anyways… as a thought experiment I created a possible team matchup that accounts for the bans inherent in a CM match. The thing about CM matches is your team should be flexible and focus on the players’ skills not the hero pickings. My brother is amazing with most Intel heroes, especially support ones, so you shouldn’t pick a specific hero for him to play so much as you should keep in mind 2-3 possible heroes for him to play with. However, here is a team I think has a pretty good chance of getting played in the café. Now all I need to do is actually get my teammates to let me play as the Captain for one match…

Support: Tormented Soul, Treant Protector
Carry: Beastmaster (really carry/support)
Ganker: Chaos Knight
Initiator: Magnataur

Initiators aren’t something I referenced above, but basically they are another role that is not as important, but still there. Initiators need good AoE spells that give the rest of the team a chance to move in and deal lots of damage. For Magnatur this would require getting Blink, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Boots, Blink, Battefury (or even just perseverance), set.

Possible swaps include Rhasta or CM for Treant, and beastmaster will be swapped for any better carry (Naga Siren, PotM) assuming players/bannings provide.

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