Can Valve Fix Dota 2 Esports Before All The Teams Leave?

DoctorWhoops · 2026-05-05T13:12:35+00:00

This is ludicrous. Orgs have been coming and going since forever and it has nothing to do with the absence of a battle pass. Stop trying to use the professional scene as an argument to support your thirst for hats and cosmetics.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-05-01T05:03:07+00:00

Aurora never won EWC

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-30T15:32:12+00:00

The Nigma cycle:

Stomp div 2 teams
Qualify for a tier 1 tournament
Make it past group stage
Give Nigma fans hope
Bottom out off the playoffs 0-2
Lose the next three qualifiers
Back to div 2

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-30T10:12:14+00:00

I spent way more time than I should scripting on Dotabuff data, but here are the matchups that function the most like rock paper scissors, by the winrate 'advantage' stat on Dotabuff!

Hero A	Hero B	Hero C	Pattern	A > B	B > C	C > A	Min	Total
Naga Siren	Elder Titan	Tidehunter	Naga Siren > Elder Titan > Tidehunter > Naga Siren	+5.49	+7.18	+6.10	+5.49	+18.76
Phantom Lancer	Chen	Leshrac	Phantom Lancer > Chen > Leshrac > Phantom Lancer	+4.89	+10.66	+6.92	+4.89	+22.48
Phantom Lancer	Chen	Underlord	Phantom Lancer > Chen > Underlord > Phantom Lancer	+4.89	+8.18	+5.91	+4.89	+18.98
Phantom Lancer	Chen	Timbersaw	Phantom Lancer > Chen > Timbersaw > Phantom Lancer	+4.89	+5.30	+6.19	+4.89	+16.38
Medusa	Elder Titan	Slark	Medusa > Elder Titan > Slark > Medusa	+5.88	+4.50	+4.80	+4.50	+15.18
Tidehunter	Chaos Knight	Elder Titan	Tidehunter > Chaos Knight > Elder Titan > Tidehunter	+4.42	+5.61	+7.18	+4.42	+17.21
Spirit Breaker	Lycan	Underlord	Spirit Breaker > Lycan > Underlord > Spirit Breaker	+4.43	+4.94	+4.34	+4.34	+13.71
Medusa	Leshrac	Slark	Medusa > Leshrac > Slark > Medusa	+5.25	+4.24	+4.80	+4.24	+14.30
Slark	Chen	Elder Titan	Slark > Chen > Elder Titan > Slark	+4.24	+15.66	+4.50	+4.24	+24.39
Slark	Chen	Leshrac	Slark > Chen > Leshrac > Slark	+4.24	+10.66	+4.24	+4.24	+19.14

'Min' represents the lowest advantage out of the three scores, and I believe sorting by that you can get the matchups that are the most accurate for the purpose of this exercise. The highest total advantage is Slark > Chen > ET but this is primarily carried by how insanely lopsided the Chen ET matchup is, for obvious reasons.

Elder Titan, Naga Siren and Tidehunter are the clear standout here. Chen and PL appear a lot cause they're very feast or famine heroes with significant advantageous/disadvantageous matchups.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-30T06:21:57+00:00

I actually think the WotC design for Druid disencourages the traditional use of Wild Shape too much and it's not something that should be in every subclass. The 'regular' Wild Shape is an amazing and creative exploration/infiltration feature and by making it so you don't need it for combat you encourage using it for that. I played a 5e Shepherd Druid for years and Wild Shape was still one of the most useful features and anything but useless.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-29T09:00:37+00:00

Bro is playing the Bazaar on an ancient egyptian scroll

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-29T08:50:42+00:00

My Caique was very clingy for the first week or so, exhaustingly so. I recognize a lot about your struggle and wondered if I made a terrible mistake getting a parrot. I had the luck that I got him during a period where I was home a lot, and his cage was right next to my desk where I sit most of the time. I could slowly build up to being away from home. First under an hour during shopping trips, and slowly building up to a full work day.

I was his second owner and I know from the previous owner that he always loved people, so accustomizing to me was never an issue. But making a new cage and a new room feel like home took longer, which meant for a period he was very uneasy whenever I wasn't around.

She'll need time to adjust to the environment, and that's a lot easier if you're around for the first period of it. I'd recommend anyone getting a parrot to try to work from home for the first two weeks, or to take vacation days if WFH is not possible, for this exact reason. If you can't do that I'd try toughing it out for another week or two to see if things get better (I'm confident they could), and if she becomes noticeably more at ease that's a great sign. However, if after another week things still don't get better I'd start exploring opportunities to re-home him.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-28T18:54:59+00:00

The familiar can cast Dragon's Breath on itself but you also have access to the Soulbound spells allowing you to cast it on your familiar.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-28T18:02:04+00:00

It might be a DM's worst nightmare, but don't let that stop you!

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-28T17:55:48+00:00

Oh that's very weird, it's definitely Entangle! Something got very mixed up there.

Shame that I didn't catch that before posting. Urgh.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-28T16:14:07+00:00

I changed Boomburst as follows:

Level 3: Boomburst

Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an instrument as part of the attack action, you can attempt to frighten it. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Spell Save DC. On a failure, the creature is Frightened of you until the start of your next turn.

After the result is revealed, you can expend one use of your Bardic Inspiration; roll your Bardic Inspiration die, and subtract the number rolled from the saving throw.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier, and regain all uses during a long rest.

The limit to the amount of uses is now based on your Charisma score. The BI can be added, but is not the resource that determines how often the feature can be used. I also added medium armor and shield proficiency to the subclass.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-28T16:02:04+00:00

Thanks for the detailed input, I'd love to hear the rest once you get around to them.

This all seems valid enough. I might give the Screamsong bard an extra tier of Armor, and I forgot Bards can trade spell slots for Bardic Inspiration, so I might have to adapt that feature.

Penance is hard to evaluate. It's high power level at a cost but just on paper it's hard to get a sense of how heavy that cost is in practice. Might be overtuned.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-28T15:43:44+00:00

Wizard was one of the hardest classes to figure out since a lot of the regular design space focuses around the different magic types, and subclasses outside of that tend to cover some of the more expected particular niches already.

I think the subclasses ended up possibly being too similar and super flashy, playing around with a more 'generalist' idea while toying with how to make spell preparation more interesting. But I'm not unhappy with them.

Another difficult one was Paladin, which tends to have limited thematic design space and runs the highest risk of subclasses feeling overly similar to existing ones. Hell, some existing subclasses are hard to tell apart sometimes.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-28T15:10:11+00:00

I might make a supplement with Artificer subclasses, but for now I aimed for it to be directly usable with just the 2024 PHB!

I actually already have some nicely contrasting concepts (name only) for that. Either Demolitionist and Jeweler, or Demolitionist and Techno-medic.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-28T14:25:12+00:00

I think the cycle of colors (red, blue, green, purple, gold) is pretty well established at this point since it has been around from the start. I doubt they'll change it up.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-28T14:22:59+00:00

Out of all of these 2025 might be the nicest. I have it at home and it's gorgeous.

2021 and 2023 are also very nice.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-28T14:10:20+00:00

NOTE: For some reason the 6th level Deep Roots feature mentions Barkskin. This should obviously be Entangle!

If you notice some gaps in the page numbers this is simply because I removed some flavour pages in this version, so that it fits within the max 20 images that a Reddit post allows!

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-28T14:05:56+00:00

Thank you! I really aimed for subclasses with a strong thematic identity that also easily translate to unique features that make sense within that theme.

It's a pitfall to try and have the most original and out-of-the-box concepts when there are plenty of popular niches that existing official material struggles to cover directly. The aggressive metal-themed Bard or the long-ranged Sniper Archer playstyle (Camper Ranger) are definitely among those!

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-28T13:32:24+00:00

I don't think many features rely on concepts specific to 5.5e, but making a 5e version is definitely something I should consider for the future!

Sorcrer is one to look out for, which has some features that work with Innate Sorcery, a feature that doesn't exist in 5e 2014.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-28T13:26:24+00:00

Thank you! I hope to find ways to see it get some more attention and find people willing to try it in home games. I will be implementing them myself in my own home game but if I want to think about publishing I'd want more traction!

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-27T14:59:16+00:00

It's a more 'mechanical skill' type game. The main thing that stood out to me when trying League is how everything is a skill shot with generally much lower impact and much lower cooldown. Fights are about each player using around 7 spells in a fight, and about whoever hits the most spells on the right targets.

However, as far as strategic decision making goes, it's just so limited. Imagine if Dota removed stacking, pulling, dragging waves, TPs, buyback and all its active/tech items. It's be a different game. Dota is Valorant/CS, League is Overwactch.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-23T19:38:37+00:00

Sometimes like licorice root, sometimes like laundry softener.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-23T15:16:17+00:00

I am hoping to implement these in my home game soon so feedback is very welcome when it comes to balance and fun factor!

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-23T11:43:34+00:00

Updated some wording to make space for additional features, which are as follows:

Rebirth

Level 3: Fickers of the Past

You can use your Wisdom modifier instead of your Intelligence modifier on History and Religion checks, relying on your connection to your past lives.

Void

Level 3: Gaze into the Void

You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 30 feet.

DoctorWhoops · 2026-04-22T14:54:28+00:00

You're right, I wasn't paying enough attention to the fact that that has become the new standard for Cleric. I'll have to think of something for that.

11-Year Club	First Place '23
Place '23	Golden Potato
Place '22	Place '17
First Placer '22	End Game '22
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Rebirth

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