They patched it so that it's only single draft, and you have to win games to get out. It's actually not that bad.

You have to win? That sounds awful.

Yeah. Fortunately, having at least 2 people on your team who are actually trying puts you at a decided advantage.

New patch is up. Highlights are...
-OD being the only hero really nerfed into the ground. Other than him, there was no "stop playing this hero damnit" nerf to anyone.
-More starting HP and armor auras on towers should put a check on some of the aggression we've been seeing.
-Scan will probably have a huge influence on high level play, but I'm 3.5k, so I'll probably never use it.
-50 extra base int is a change I don't like. Heroes like earthshaker, venge, and tiny should have issues with early mana for the same reason blue should have difficulty dealing with creatures: because it makes them unique.
-I don't like the spell damage scaling with int either, but realistically, the increase is going to be negligible.
-Echo sabre seems really strong.
-I expect a wind lace nerf
-Hurricane Pike would be great if OD were still a real hero
-Blade mail buff is the real clockwerk buff. Not instalosing to BKB is huge.
-Dragon lance and silver edge buffs are huge because they let agi carries build the items, and the stats are a lot better now.

Uniqueness is certainly good, but I don't agree with that reasoning. One can make heroes unique by gimping but that does not make for interesting gameplay (a hero that cannot attack, for instance).

Eh, not really sure I agree with the Dragon Lance part. The item is still woefully slot-inneficient and the only item it upgrades to is pretty situational. Now Silver Edge's become one hell of an item, even more so with its hefty cost reduction.

I just really those big patches because DotA does some really, really awesome wtf-esque things. I know it looks minor in the grand scheme of things but I'm just stumped TB gained a whole 3 more armor.

A small mana pool doesn't keep you from casting spells, it just restricts how many spells you can cast unless you itemize to compensate for the restriction. For example, VS could always cast magic missile, even with 50 less mana, but she would have to buy clarity if she wanted to cast it more than once in lane, and she would have to think carefully about whether she really wanted to use her stun. Restrictions mean that you have to make decisions, which is part of what makes games interesting, and when you take away restrictions, you take that away too.

One could also just buy two branches. I don't think it's such a big deal. Moreover, I believe meaningful decisions generally (rather than any decision) make for compelling gameplay. I guess 'Should I do this? I might run out of mana...' is meaningful in a sense, but I believe other considerations are of greater value (What advantage will I get from casting this? How vulnerable will I be while it is on cooldown? What is the tradeoff? Will I have followup? etc).

In the end, I think the game is much more about heroes being special, more than just creeps; it's about them having unique abilities and using them. Spells are fun and engaging. I understand the DotA model does not lend itself to the LoL model, but I think there can be a middle ground between 'spam' and 'going oom after casting a spell or two'.

Pit Lord seems like a fun hero, I look forward to trying him in the period between the release hype where everyone's playing him and the inevitable nerf when he's added to captain's mode.

Pit lord is out, so here's my two cents:

1: This guy will need serious nerfs before he's allowed into captain's mode. Imagine trying to mid against this guy. He has 65 base damage, plus 5 every time a creep dies, and he cuts your base damage by 10 with just one point in aura. When he hits 3, he can start using firestorm to keep his opponent from even approaching the creep wave while he pushes it out so he can grab rune. Once he hits 6, he can be a constant threat to anywhere on the map even while he's showing in lane. You know how people always suggest an io agh's that lets him relocate multiple allies at once? Pit lord has that for free. Did I mention he has bkb piercing aoe frostbite with 750 range.

2: I think he goes mid. His skills are very well suited for winning mid lane. I could also see him offlane, since he can trade hits with supports pretty well, and he's pretty farm independent, although his lack of escape hurts him here.

3: I think the build is PMS>bottle>upgraded boots>mek, with maybe a vlad's somewhere. Mek is the go-to item for core heroes that don't have anything else to buy, and he really fits the bill. His skills and stat gains aren't really suited to dps, and unlike most utility cores, he doesn't really need a blink. His 2.6 int gain means that he can support mek pretty well, and his 1.3 agi gain means he needs the armour. I don't know what he goes. I think auras like vlad's and shiva's are probably the answer, just for want of a better option. Boots are probably either treads or arcanes.

OSfrog why BibleThump

lul stay salty dota players

Their backpack implementation seems incredibly poorly thought out. Having people drop items to make hp/mp restoration more efficient is ugly enough, encouraging players to use a drag-and-drop interface in the middle of battles to abuse on-use items and stat sticks is pretty absurd (and even if there's convolutes keybinds to do it, it's still bad).

Items moved from backpack to main inventory don't become active for 6 seconds unless you're in base, so that isn't actually a problem.

swaps are hard

6 seconds is not all that long. There won't not be situations when micromanaging your inventory because of Refresher or Necro is an advantage, and even if it's just when initiating a situation with a Shadow Blade or something, it's still an interface that is really poor for hectic situations.

I tried Sand King today in a bot game and wow it is so stress free. Press W in jungle and alt-tab. Shift-queue your Epicenter combo and right click until someone dies. Best hero? Best hero.

It's not better for what you were talking about, which was dropping items to use mana sources more efficiently, because that dropping and picking up can be done instantly.

I didn't say you were supposed to use it for that purpose, I brought it up as another DotA skill that leads to poor gameplay, which is something the game should move away from, not add more of. If you could use the backpack for that purpose, it would arguably lead to marginally better gameplay, since you wouldn't have this awful risk/reward situation where people can snipe your items at the cost of a bit more mana or health.

I've gotten back to playing dota 2, and I'm in love with the new aether lens. Since the recipe got changed from a ring of health to a void stone, it now basically solves your mana regen problems on top of providing the 200 extra cast range. I've started building it as my first major item on dazzle and rubick.

I really like the new talents, they feel a lot less generic.

The math on the mana regen changes looks complicated, but it isn't. They added 0.9 base mana regen, but cut the mana regen per point of intelligence roughly in half.