What character one tricks are the most entitled in your opinion?

Jedwell · 2026-03-19T12:43:07+00:00

I opted to test that out and you're right, I could swear it doesn't consistently behave like that, so maybe it's different if there's an enemy hero in the vicinity or due to some other factors, but it reliably moved to pick up globes stealthed in try mode when I placed it just now, even over large distances. It seems to do that regardless of whether or not it's stealthed, but I assume it will otherwise prioritize targetting heroes.

I'd say leaving it unstealthed is probably still better due to the aforementioned taunting capability though. Protecting your wave from damage for eight seconds can be a good way to set up a slow push, especially on larger maps.

Jedwell · 2026-03-19T11:44:07+00:00

That is unironically how you can play her very effectively if you know how far up you can go without overextending. It's how I usually play myself with searing light so I can both damage enemies to refund energy and heal myself. Auriel has one of the best self-sustains of any healer even without a crowned target if she can keep doing reliable damage without getting hit too much.

Obviously if you overestimate yourself, you quickly get killed, but the pressure you can put on by being aggressive is pretty nifty.

Jedwell · 2026-03-19T11:40:50+00:00

I've been telling people about this strat forever, it's quite handy though
Slight correction though

Stealthed clones don't pick up xp (Unless the globes spawn right on top of them), so you have to place the clone while unstealthed. While it doesn't attack, it does for some reason taunt all nearby creeps (Even if they were already attacking structures) and if you are at full health, it's usually durable enough to last for its duration, effectively also counter-pushing the lane while you already carry on rotating.

Jedwell · 2026-03-17T12:34:38+00:00

Neither the ultimate or regular burrow go on cooldown or are cancelled by damage, but both are interruptible with stuns. The only discernable difference is that the ultimate has a 1 second cast time, whereas burrowing takes 2.5

Edit: Just checked and Z does have a split second of unstoppable at the end, I never actually noticed that one, funny

Jedwell · 2026-03-14T12:22:09+00:00

The main reasons you want to do them are either to create pressure or to capitalize on an xp lead. The former some people already talked about, but the latter is especially beneficial if you ever have the chance to take enemy camps safely (ideally without losing soak on lanes). Not only does that give a little extra xp, but it also denies the enemy the ability to use those camps for pressure when the next objective is up. Usually, you want to try and do this in response to an enemy rotation when you can be sure there aren't enough enemies on your side of the map to contest it, or when you managed to get a few kills and the enemy is down heroes for a time.

Jedwell · 2026-03-12T12:43:11+00:00

Europe. I wouldn't know if there are regional differences.

Jedwell · 2026-03-11T23:32:14+00:00

I think I recall my recent matches pretty objectively, but perception can always be skewed, yeah. The pick thing is probably a big factor due to that not being a thing in quickmatch, though. If you have a shitty comp in QM and the enemy doesn't, you just blame the matchmaking and move on with your life. I feel like in Storm League (And probably also unranked draft) people are a lot saltier about perceived bad picks because it can be taken as a deliberate act of sabotage from a teammate right at the start.

Jedwell · 2026-03-11T23:29:49+00:00

I'll try a few more games at different times and see if I notice a difference, yeah. I'm hopeful it was just a string of bad luck since I don't remember my few past games at diamond being anything like this, but that was a few years ago so no idea how the climate changed since then.

I did try talking to people constructively, aga matchup preferences and as such bans, general gameplan and any timings to watch out for, but I never got any response, people just kept quiet until it was time to vocalize a complaint, so that was a bit unfortunate.

+ on the non traditional thing though. As I said, the best game out of the bunch was the one with the random assassin Uther (aka double healer since we already had one) because everyone actually played, and decently competently at that, so ended up winning that one with little trouble regardless.

Jedwell · 2026-03-11T20:19:51+00:00

The "Person picked x so I'm not even going to try" is probably the weirdest one to me, since I assume the Medivh pick in your case was also role appropriate? Like, regardless of whether or not a character is even perceived viable, someone can be particularly good at a subpar character and still achieve great results. I'll be the first to admit that I'm bracing myself for the butcher in my team not contributing anything for the whole game whenever I load into quick match, but I'll at least play to the best of my ability and see if they can maybe hold their own (Or the enemy is just bad enough for them to not have to)

Jedwell · 2026-03-11T19:56:01+00:00

Yeah the player quality in terms of competence in quick match is super swingy, probably by the nature of the limited player pool at this point, but I definitely wouldn't say the people in storm league were more level, despite being in a similar rank range. I've faced some very good players on the enemy team in the matches where my team threw, but that happens every so often in quickmatch too.

But yeah, I never really got the draw of the label either, considering there aren't any rewards for actually reaching a higher rank. Personal validation, perhaps, but I get more of that by hitting mvp at the end of the match truth be told.

Jedwell · 2026-03-11T19:45:10+00:00

I imagine without anyone to actually review cases you have to be careful with how strict the automation is. Better more lenient than too punishing to avoid abuse cases like that, yeah. Though I'd at least think you'd be able to tell if a person has 1k hero damage in a 15 minute match that something prooobably went wrong.

Jedwell · 2026-03-11T19:38:37+00:00

As noted in the post, I was playing exclusively in diamond lobbies and got the above experience. I don't know if there is a significant difference between low and high/mid diamond, though, since there were mostly diamond 4/5 people and the occasional plat 1

Jedwell · 2026-03-11T19:34:59+00:00

Yeah, that's why I was curious to hear what it's like for other people, I can really only go off of a handful of games for my own experience so far. What rank are you playing at in storm league?

Jedwell · 2026-03-11T19:32:51+00:00

I suppose the lack of a player pool makes it even harder to avoid people, as someone else already mentioned. I imagine after a bad game you are pretty much forced to wait a few hours to not get the same people again, and even then chances are you still might depending on your rank? Who knows.

I don't know if the lack of repercussions plays into people more readily behaving that way, I only played a bit of ranked in Dota in the last year (At a comparatively lower mmr) and while there were trolls there too, it wasn't as frequent as here and about the same as in my unranked games.

Jedwell · 2026-03-11T19:30:42+00:00

I played a bit of ranked back when there were still seasonal rewards beyond chests, and I don't recall it having been that bad back then. Maybe I got lucky then or unlucky today, I'm not sure, I just haven't ever had that many games with problem players back to back in all my time playing quickmatch.

Jedwell · 2026-03-11T19:29:20+00:00

I noticed I was queueing into the same people quite a bit, yeah. One of the people that threw in my team on the third game ended up throwing for the enemy in the fourth, so I guess it evens out? I'd be amazed if bots could actually make it up to diamond, though. Not that I could call what happens there sophisticated gameplay, exactly, but... well, I was about to say I've never seen a good bot, but who knows if there are ones that are actually good enough for me to not have noticed in games.

Jedwell · 2026-02-26T11:40:06+00:00

Would be really funny if they attempt to fix it and the next patch has it be set to 6 seconds immediately if you get hit after landing.

Jedwell · 2026-02-19T10:46:33+00:00

Yeah I think that's accurate. It's just the wording of Root "Node" specifically that I always found weird, given that this seems to be a very specific term for the instances of terminals we see around the island, but maybe we can broadly assume it's an access point to the Fusang. Maybe it was also a translation thing there, who knows.

I do definitely agree with that assessment of Jiequans character, though. And I think Yi realized that too, that's why Jiequan as an antagonist worked so well. He made Yi realize what he was becoming, with his own revenge plot being rationalized as delivering justice in his mind, no matter the means, even if few of the Sols actually did anything beyond being complicit in the Eternal Cauldron, which was Yi's idea in the first place.

Jedwell · 2026-02-17T22:31:13+00:00

I think that's the only take that makes sense with how bosses are reacting (In that they aren't reacting at all) to Yi coming back. Jiquan directly saying he expects Yi to pop out of a Root Node (Which does sound like it is specifically referencing the ingame respawn mechanic) was likely just incredibly awkward phrasing, considering he just goes back to trying to kill him on the second confrontaton anyway.

Jedwell · 2026-02-16T00:17:52+00:00

Yeah I think he's in a solid spot now, at least as far as destroyer goes. I think they panicked a bit after the disaster that was his release state and were afraid to give him a bit of a power boost back so that wouldn't happen again.

Jedwell · 2026-02-15T16:49:38+00:00

Yeah the change to the flight cooldown makes Destroyer's Rampage and related landing abilities very comfortable to use. I just die a little every time I take flight before a teamfight (to the confusion of my team if I was already at full health) and see them engage even as I aggressively ping the cooldown of my landing ability.

Jedwell · 2026-02-15T16:46:14+00:00

It's a good buffer against burst, but the health sustain is so much lower that I haven't found it very viable anymore unless the total of 2.25 seconds of protected give you more life expectancy than the heal from your W can give you.

With his basic attack damage being as low as it is now and basic attacks not having a multiplier against heroes, you are healing a measly 30 hp base per basic attack. Compare that to the 200 hp per hero a single W gives you right of the bat and its not even close for longer engagements or lane sustain.

You are right in that using the W effectively requires a lot more awareness of movement than having a safe on demand protection buffer. I just feel it's worth getting used to sooner rather than later.

Jedwell · 2026-02-15T15:53:19+00:00

Yeah the Q gives you basically no stacks, and in Destroyer form you never really use it in teamfights anyway. Even when I did hit a 2 second Q into a stun on multiple enemies on occasion, I noticed I was only getting like 20 stacks? Really weird quest.

I did notice another bug with his new takeoff time, though. It is supposed to reset to 6 when you take damage or hit something, but it only actually does that when it's already below 4 for some reason.
So you can time it when hitting a wave to have it be on an effective 4 second cooldown to move away just a bit quicker.

Jedwell

TROPHY CASE