- Joined
- Oct 26, 2018
I think right now is a weird time to get into Dota but also a good time. I haven't played as much on the latest patch, but there was some changes as to how gold and XP gets split during fights which I think helped out. Neutral items are not as cancerous anymore and allow for a little bit of build diversity while keeping it somewhat balanced. I have seen a few games where one team got the one item they needed and then proceeded to steam roll, but nothing like when an AM who failed hard and ended up with a 20 minute BF could enter the jungle and pick up what felt like 10k gold worth of items in five minutes. The outposts are nice for the little XP boost, vision, and TP spot they give, and they're also less stressful than the shrines. You can usually take a fight under the shrine due to the extended TP channel they have, but with the shrines it was a death sentence fighting into them.
From a support stance obs wards are free, which I don't love because it added some difficulty as to how I was gonna get to the next item and still have observers, but now I find I'm way more generous in sentry/smoke/dust purchases so it did have its benefits. I'd also suggest if you're pos 1-3 not being afraid to take a ward if you think you need the vision since they are free. I play with a lot of people who don't think about that and spam >We Need Wards. Its also unacceptable considering every player has a courier, and said courier's move speed is tied to player level, so a lvl six mid can fly out a ward faster than the lvl 4 support can walk one out. Just little things like that to be aware of now.
All in all I think the main focus would be playing your role and paying attention to the map. The outposts allow for fast and safe rotations as long as its under your control. I've been having fantastic games as hard and soft support just by paying attention and rotating if it looks like being there will change the fight. Because of the jungle items I think its also more important to try and emphasize five manning a little sooner to apply more pressure across the map. It can be debilitating to a team if the other side has all four t3 neutrals and they're sitting with none.
It also depends on how tolerant you are of dumb people. Pretty much every game I've lost this month has had TAHXIC player who died once and ran jungle or just blamed the person one role below them for all of their woes. There's also a few heroes who can just become unkillable with the correct items but that's not new. Its just shocking to see an AM reflect every spell cast for what feels like forever as he rips your team apart.
From a support stance obs wards are free, which I don't love because it added some difficulty as to how I was gonna get to the next item and still have observers, but now I find I'm way more generous in sentry/smoke/dust purchases so it did have its benefits. I'd also suggest if you're pos 1-3 not being afraid to take a ward if you think you need the vision since they are free. I play with a lot of people who don't think about that and spam >We Need Wards. Its also unacceptable considering every player has a courier, and said courier's move speed is tied to player level, so a lvl six mid can fly out a ward faster than the lvl 4 support can walk one out. Just little things like that to be aware of now.
All in all I think the main focus would be playing your role and paying attention to the map. The outposts allow for fast and safe rotations as long as its under your control. I've been having fantastic games as hard and soft support just by paying attention and rotating if it looks like being there will change the fight. Because of the jungle items I think its also more important to try and emphasize five manning a little sooner to apply more pressure across the map. It can be debilitating to a team if the other side has all four t3 neutrals and they're sitting with none.
It also depends on how tolerant you are of dumb people. Pretty much every game I've lost this month has had TAHXIC player who died once and ran jungle or just blamed the person one role below them for all of their woes. There's also a few heroes who can just become unkillable with the correct items but that's not new. Its just shocking to see an AM reflect every spell cast for what feels like forever as he rips your team apart.
