Sure! Although I have not played in a while due to my Internet situation at the moment. I will most likely be able to play some time after the New Year's.

What do you guys think of the latest patch?

My thoughts:
VS: a fitting ability for a vengeful hero. It also fits her playstyle. I've always been a bit puzzled as to why they gave a teamfight aura to a hero whose job in teamfights is to suicide swap with their carry.
sven: I guess I don't need to buy quelling blade on this guy anymore.
razor: strength gain is important on this hero. He gets damage from static link and eye of the storm already, so he just needs tankiness.
Silencer: curse is pretty crushing in lane, and a whopping 1.1 extra agi for level means more attack speed, which is a big deal if you're going semicarry.
PA: 10% evasion is a pretty big deal.
naga: one thing to keep in mind is that this doesn't reduce damage from radiance or diffusal blade.
lycan: glad I won't have to deal with this guy anymore. He really was pretty nuts.
luna: she was pretty op in pubs. She kinda had it coming.
lone druid: I think this is deceptively big, just because the bear ends up tanking so much damage. Maybe this gives us LD jungle?
lich: Good? Maybe. Hilarious? Definitely. Frost armoring buildings is cool too.
keeper of the light: nightstalker isn't the only one with maphax anymore, although kotl's inability to maphack on command weakens his somewhat. Still, blinding light on demand is pretty nice, and the heal is pretty sweet too.
juggernaut: base attack time upgrades are nice because they scale so well throughout the game, even if it's only 0.1 seconds.
ember spirit: pretty significant nerfs.
chaos knight: I like how this encourages you to put a point into phantasm at 6 instead of going the max nuke build, and I also like how it adds some chaos, since that's kinda his deal. It's also a pretty solid buff.
batrider: Batrider is a weird hero, because he's insane in competitive dota, but **** in pubs. He's been nerfed so many times and in so many ways, and yet he still keeps getting picked by pro players. Maybe this will finally be the nerf that pushes him into unplayability.
abbadon: Now that's a cool upgrade, and maybe even powerful enough to warrant a 4.2k gold investment.

its good

I just played a game of slardar after playing a bunch of centaur games. You'd think that the centaur games would make me a good slardar player. You'd be wrong. I kept trying to use q to stomp, because that's the hotkey for centaur stomp, but it turns out that w is the hotkey for slardar stomp. Oops.

i always used to confuse the hotkeys for maledict and voodoo restoration on witch doctor, but i think that's the only time that has happened to me

For you dota players, this guy on pc gamer has been writing a pretty interesting weekly blog series on DotA 2, it has what I find pretty funny writing and interesting thoughts.

Here's an excerpt from "how to communicate effectively in solo ranked matchmaking", to whet your appetite:



This one is also quite funny:

Link to the archives of Three Lane Highway.

Everyone in DOTA knows that the matchmaking system is broken. Clearly they're better than everyone else on their team, but for some reason, the millions of dollars that valve has poured into developing and calibrating their matchmaking system has come to nothing. They've been playing perfectly, but for some reason, every game, matchmaking puts them with a bunch of noobs, who they need to call *** ****** *****s. It's the only way.

meepo is probably the best thing in any game

Did you see the Fnatic vs VG game where Fnatic went Meepo and VG went agh's refresher lich?

no, but i did see the game where i picked meepo and the enemy 5 stack immediately picked sand king, earthshaker and lich

Lich isn't really good vs meepo unless he gets agh's. Meepo's high base magic resistance, combined with the fact that the chain frost gets split up, means that his ult won't do much against you unless you suck at micro and keep all your meepos right next to each other.

i agree, but unfortunately this one rushed aghs and had it before i was able to start fighting properly

Look on the bright side, if he's getting a fast agh's on a lich, that means he's taking farm from his carry

they didn't have one, it was a lich + ogre magi lane

What? A dota 2 pub game with fewer than 5 carries? What is this madness?

Tips for playing carry:
1: Whenever you die, spam >We need wards. Even if they're out of stock.
2: Whenever anyone on the other team has more farm than you, it's because your supports didn't gank them.
3: If a support dies, it's because they are noob, but remember that the same thing applies to you. When you die, it's also because support is noob. Make sure to tell them to uninstall.

Despite increasing evidence that I'm the only person who reads this thread, I've decided to make a brief guide to my favorite hero, dark seer:

What are dark seer's skills?
http://dota2.gamepedia.com/Dark_Seer

What role does dark seer fill?
Dark seer is a solo offlaner who uses ion shell to last hit from a safe distance with ion shell while making it difficult for the enemy carry to farm, and can escape from ganks with surge. While his skills don't scale particularly well with farm, he can use the gold he gets to buy important utility items for his team.

So how do I play dark seer?
First, you're going to want to make sure that you get the offlane to yourself. Ion shell will push the lane hard, making it difficult for your lane partner to last hit, sometimes even to survive.

Next, you're going to want to buy a stout shield, a set of tangos, a healing salve, and a soul ring recipe, then head to the offlane. Then you'll want to figure out how many people you're laning against. Usually it will be 2-3, and if that's the case, wait until your creep wave is about to reach theirs, then put an ion shell on the melee creep that's 2nd or 3rd in line. The front creep will take aggro and die first, and the ranged creep won't get close enough to do anything with the shell. However, if you're laning against a single opponent, ion shell yourself, then stand in the middle of the enemy creep wave. If the enemy approaches, move towards them and right click them. If they don't, focus on last hitting.

Now I'll talk about skill and item builds. For skill build, you're going to want to max ion shell first, leveling it at 1, 3, 5, and 7, while getting surge at level 2 and possibly 4 if you think your opponents have that much kill potential. After that, put all your points into vacuum. Your ultimate is a tricky thing. Since it's pretty ineffective until you have several points in vacuum, you don't want to get it too early. I usually go for it after I have 3-4 points in vac, but I've heard a lot of different opinions on the subject. The item build is pretty simple. You want to build soul ring first, then boots. I personally prefer tranquil boots, but it's perfectly acceptable to build arcane boots or simply stick with the basic boots. After that, buy a magic stick, which you can upgrade to a wand if you want (I usually don't because I'm trying to rush mek), then buy a mekansm. From there, you can go for any number of items, depending on what you and your opponents are playing. Pipe of Insight and Shiva's Guard are strong in teamfights if your opponents have a lot of physical or magical damage, and Black King Bar can be an OK choice some games. You could also go for a blink dagger to better use your wombo combo, or a scythe of vyse to lock down an enemy. An aghanim's scepter can be nice lategame, but since it's much stronger lategame, it's probably a bad choice to build early.

So, now that that's out of the way, let's go back to the game. You were ion shelling creep waves to last hit, right? Well, by now you probably have your soul ring and boots, so you can try "creep cutting". What you're going to want to do is ion shell yourself, go around behind their tower through the jungle, and get the enemy creep wave to start following you before it even reaches their tower. Then you're going to want to run, because this is the perfect opportunity for the enemy team to kill you. Once the enemy heroes stop chasing you, position yourself in the middle of the enemy creep wave and burn it out with ion shell. This guarantees you all the last hits, and forces the enemy heroes to tank your (probably ion shelled) creep wave under their own tower.

There are some offlane heroes that just want to get a couple of levels and brown boots, then go around ganking lanes. Dark Seer isn't one of them. Unless they're diving your teammates under tower, you probably want to stay in lane until you get your mekansm, 3-4 points in vac, and at least one point in wall of replica. Once you have those, though, you want to start grouping up with your team and pushing a lane. The early mek should give your team a huge advantage. Keep 5manning until you win the game.

What are some tips and tricks for dark seer?
-Remember to use your buffs on your teammates. A timely surge on an ally can secure a kill or save a life, and ion shelling your melee carry can give some good damage.
-Vacuum has a ridiculous cooldown, don't use it lightly.
-Your base damage and armor are both pretty high, so you can trade hits with most heroes at level 1.

So. How is this game different from LOL? I've been interested in trying it out but want to know some more before doing so. Preferably from a ..... well if not an unbiased then a more explanatory source.

Also good guide but it only helped to heighten the confusion a little .

And yes I lurk here occassionally.

No account-related benefit, each player fights on equal terms. Micro transactions provide cosmetic changes, and similar stuff.
Game is a lot more lethal. Spells do more damage in the early game. At the same time, they don't scale through AP.
Denies are a thing.
Higher emphasis on carries and support.
Barracks don't respawn. Killing them is a big deal, although I assume this is also the case in LoL.
Jungle can be stacked, meaning you have them spawn several times in one spot. Jungle can also be used to creep pull, meaning you drag them into lane creeps so they fight each other.
Rune spawns are a thing.

The biggest differences is that spell damage doesn't scale with stats, so casters fall off super hard lategame. You can also attack your own creeps when they get below half health, "denying" the enemy gold and experience. The duration of stuns is longer in dota than it is for LoL, and you'll run out of mana a lot more quickly if you spam your spells. Other than that it's mostly a bunch of little things.

I can play a couple bot games with you if you'd like. You're in the steam group, right?