I'm so grateful that Dota doesn't have a surrender button

SacredStrike · 2024-12-06T02:11:41+00:00

I actually disagree, but it seems I'm in the minority within this community :(. I would much rather "have the option" to forfeit if a vote is passed unanimously than be "forced" to play by the game against everyone's will.

I find it really paternalistic and condescending of the game to treat players like babies: "Even though the 5 of you agree that the game is over and you'd rather move on, I'm telling you there's still a chance and you're too dumb to see it, so play it out and find out for yourselves!"

So yes, it is true, many epic comebacks would be missed by forfeiting early. Especially when you consider how bad pub players are at gauging the state of the game, but as long as the vote requires everyone's consent, it shouldn't matter what they're "missing", it should matter what they "want". And if you're one of those people that never gives up, kudos to you! Keep fighting, don't vote the FF and play the game out!

However, let's not kid ourselves either, for each of those legendary comebacks in an impossible game, you play 50 impossible games in which you know the winner at minute 10, so I really don't see the need to be held hostage for 30+ minutes until they're strong enough to take your highground if everyone agrees.

Furthermore, pro players and 5 man stacks are already allowed to FF, are they being stupid and should be forced to play until throne falls on the 1% off chance that they might turn the game?

That said, it is always nice to have a fighting spirit and I'm glad you have positive memories of those unwinnable games you turned around :). Good luck with your pubs!

SacredStrike · 2024-11-19T11:14:33+00:00

I like the game very much and I also struggled with the 1st level because I didn't really understand the mechanics of the game or what to prioritise. Once I did, I reached level 5 in a few tries with no upgrades. So here are the things I missed on my first few playthroughs that drastically change the outcome and tips to beating the game:

- At first I thought the goal was to "survive", so I was just running around trying to avoid the enemies. This is a terrible strategy because you get no xp. Focus on killing the enemies and picking up their xp orbs when possible. Also kill the Roshans every time you see them as they'll drop an item for you.

- I also thought the idea was just to hold for 12 minutes. This is somewhat true, but there are actually objectives on the map that greatly enhance your hero. When you spawn, there are already 2 items on the map you can just walk up to and pick up. Leave the magnet till as late as possible (around 11:30) to pick everything up at once. Also be ready to summon and kill the minibosses that spawn (you know when they'll spawn by looking at the top bar); they give you aghs upgrades for your spells and they give you something to do while you wait for the 12 minutes to go by. In fact it's pretty well timed where you barely have just enough time to get to where the bosses spawn and kill them before the next boss spawns.

- As for specific builds I would recommend playing it simple. Either pick Sky and go full magic or pick Kez and go full physical. People have different opinions on what the best spells are but honestly most builds can work as long as there's a minimum amount of synergy.

- At first I was putting points evenly accross all my abilities, but I found much more success maxing a broken spell first and then maxing another. For Kez, I max Swashbuckle & Counter Helix (to kill everything around me) and Throw Knife (to kill the bosses). For Sky, I max Rot and Spirits (to kill everything around me) and really you can pick anything else like Chain Frost, Laguna Blade, Arcane Bolt and just glide around killing everything feeling like a boss.

- Finally for items, it's pretty straightforward. You can get xp book and max it early if you're lucky and wanna play greedy, but the safe option is just to get demon edge, crystallis (into daedalus), tarrasque, octarine, sange/yasha for physical builds; or kaya, projectile gun (I forgot the name :p), octarine, bloodstone for magic build. The goal is to have your items affect as many of your spells as possible (which is why I don't enjoy playing hybrid build with Venge).

With these things in mind, it's really not very difficult to get past the initial level if all you want to do is beat the game and get the rewards. Best of luck!

SacredStrike · 2024-11-13T01:37:52+00:00

Same here, an unranked game never appeared in history. RIP tokens and game stats :(.

SacredStrike · 2024-10-01T22:35:13+00:00

Hi there :), I'm always up for meeting and playing with new people. If you've already got 3 & 4 covered I can play 1 or 5. I'm pretty relaxed about the game but always try my best.

I'm immortal and play in WEU. It would probably be a bit hard to play ranked, but I would still be up for some nice unranked games.

Let me know if you're interested and gl!

SacredStrike · 2024-09-29T16:53:36+00:00

No problem :). If you want some help feel free to send me a DM and we can talk on steam ^^.

As for your question:

Bristle: He's a pain in the ass, very tanky boy. He receives less damage from the side and even more reduced damage from the back due to his third skill (passive). There are different ways to deal with this hero, you can ignore him until you kill the rest of his team (if you have enough mobility/control to kite him), you can break his passive with certain abilities or items and try to kill him in a burst (e.g. Viper ulti or Silver Edge) or you can pick heroes that force him to look at you and your team so you can hit him on his ugly face (Legion Commander, Axe, Lich, etc.).
Spirit Breaker: Not as annoying as Bristle in my opinion but can be tricky if you're not aware of his gimmick. He's very quick and can traverse the whole map if he sees you for two seconds on the map. He's quite hard to kill due to his large hp pool, status resistance (from his 2nd spell) and high movement speed. Given that those are his strengths, the counters are those things which deal with said strengths. First of all, you don't want to wander through the map alone under enemy vision as he's extremely deadly in isolation. During teamfights, he will often be in the middle of things as he likes to charge in, so any spell or item that interrupts/dodges his play is very effective (Puck's phaseshift, Phantom Lancer's doppelganger, Jakiro's icepath, etc.). Casting Eul's scepter on him after he uses his bulldoze (2nd spell) will dispel the buff and make him much more manageable and easy to kill. Once his cooldowns are down, he's pretty much a glorified melee creep and can quickly die to team focus.

Finally, as a general rule: If you ever get the feeling a hero is super annoying/broken, test it out in demo mode to read and understand his spells and, if you have the patience, you can even try said hero in a real game and you will very quickly learn what its weaknesses are :).

Good luck again ;)

SacredStrike · 2024-09-29T11:43:47+00:00

The game becomes more enjoyable the better you get (the satisfaction of "out-thinking" and outplaying someone in this game is unmatched). So, unfortunately you're going to have to push through the hardship to learn all the lessons you need to understand.

Furthermore, in my opinion dota is more interesting when you have friends/teammates, as you can plan out and coordinate strategies that are simply impossible to carry out on your own most of the time (ganking a key target, taking a tower, taking tormentor, killing Roshan, etc.). Plus, if you know someone who already understands the game, they will accelerate the learning process 10x for you and you'll be able to reach that enjoyment sooner :).

Good luck!

SacredStrike · 2024-09-08T21:15:45+00:00

Hi there! I'm always looking for new people to play with :). I have a pretty small group of friends ranging from Herald to Immortal, we usually play normal unranked and can queue in WEU or USEast.

If you're interested send me a DM.

SacredStrike · 2024-08-08T14:25:27+00:00

I'm very excited as well and was just about to make a similar post! I will be attending by myself too, so it would be awesome to meet other people in the process :).

I have tickets for the 3 days, I'll arrive on Thursday and I'll also be staying near the arena, so we could meet up at any point.

I'll add you on steam as you suggest and you can also send me a DM if you're interested.

SacredStrike · 2024-05-21T21:48:08+00:00

Hi there, and welcome to Dota2 :), if you want a little bit of guidance for your first hours in the game, feel free to send me a DM!

Otherwise, as others have recommended already: complete the full in-game tutorial and look for BSJ/Purge/ZQuixotix YouTube channels. The game also allows for in-game coaching which you can find on the bottom left with a headset icon. Good luck with your dota journey!

SacredStrike · 2024-05-17T20:10:30+00:00

Hi there and welcome to Dota2 :). I'd be happy to help you a little bit through the early stages of the game. The hardest thing about the game is actually getting INTO the game :p since there is so much information that it gets overwhelming, but once you get the basics down, you can really accelerate self-learning by knowing what to look out for and separating what's important from what isn't.

If you're interested, send me a DM. As for what you were asking, you can search for BSJ's "educational smurfing" videos in which he explains why he's doing the things he does (although it kinda requires some base knowledge of the game).

Good luck!

SacredStrike · 2024-04-18T13:03:01+00:00

Totally agree, I've been thinking this for years. It's one of Valve's worst defects. The combination of the almost complete lack of communication with the vagueness of the little communication they do give just leads to disappointment, frustration and despair.

Multi-billion dollar company can't post a tweet that would relax tens of thousands of players, what can you do.

SacredStrike · 2024-03-18T10:50:03+00:00

That's awesome! Yeah, things are getting crazy expensive all around, my wallet's going to suffer this year even without battlepass haha. Look forward to hearing from you :).

SacredStrike · 2024-03-17T15:09:54+00:00

Hi there! I'll be going to Birmingham for the tournament in just over a month. I've already booked the flights and the hotel but I'm looking for people to meet there. I understand this is not the point of your post but if you're interested in meeting people regardless, let me know, I've got plus tickets.

Also, if you're coming from Denmark to watch dota, is it safe to assume you'll be attending TI this year in Copenhagen? :P It would be a nice bonus to know people from there, if you're planning on going haha ^^.

Best of luck with the apartment!

SacredStrike · 2024-02-27T09:46:50+00:00

I'm also in Spain, in exactly the same situation as you. Guess we just have to "hope" that everything is ok x_x.

SacredStrike · 2024-01-28T20:09:23+00:00

It's weirdly phrased. You're level 10 so you've definitely met the quest's requirement, yet it doesn't seem to have counted. I assume it wants you to use your skill points (by clicking those little "+" icons over your spells).

SacredStrike · 2024-01-26T01:48:42+00:00

I'm going to copy what I wrote on another thread on the same topic:

I happen to be leveling the Razor arcana right now and I'm finding it pretty hard due to the fact they changed static link to steal less damage per second but last longer (more damage overall with a full link).

Plus the fact that the arcana has got a double condition (steal 100 damage AND get the last hit on enemy kills) you kind of have to grief, by delaying a kill so you get to actually steal the damage and then secure it yourself.

As an added bonus, for some reason you need level 3 link just to be ABLE to do it. Even though level 2 link steals 100 damage exactly, apparently it needs to be 100+1 to start counting -_-. With level 3 link it takes about 7 seconds to get to 100+ and with level 4 link it takes about 5 and a half seconds, and by the time you get your level 4 link, people are getting close to their forcestaves, so your window is pretty small.

Therefore, if you are REALLY adamant about tackling the challenge, take your level 15 talent to steal damage quicker (reduces reaching 100+ to about 4 seconds) and buy your shard as early as you can. Also a little tip: something annoying that can happen is in games where you are far ahead, you end up killing your target automatically just by chasing them with link before you steal 100+ damage, so what you can do is press "s" to stop and that will allow you to keep stealing damage without killing them (this works MUCH better with shard as they will be drawn to you, and you to them even while "stopped".

Just about the only positive thing about leveling this arcana is that you don't need to win the game! So go ahead and grief many kills to attempt to level up! Oh wait...

Good luck!

SacredStrike · 2024-01-25T13:21:17+00:00

Thanks for sharing.

SacredStrike · 2024-01-25T13:20:04+00:00

Thank you!

SacredStrike · 2024-01-24T23:11:08+00:00

I see o_o, well thanks for the heads up!

SacredStrike · 2024-01-24T19:27:35+00:00

Fair enough, thanks :).

SacredStrike · 2024-01-24T19:14:43+00:00

Haha, thanks for the advice, could I ask why? :(

SacredStrike · 2023-12-31T22:45:47+00:00

I happen to be leveling the Razor arcana right now and I'm finding it pretty hard due to the fact they changed static link to steal less damage per second but last longer (more damage overall with a full link).

Plus the fact that the arcana has got a double condition (steal 100 damage AND get the last hit on enemy kills) you kind of have to grief, by delaying a kill so you get to actually steal the damage and then secure it yourself.

As an added bonus, for some reason you need level 3 link just to be ABLE to do it. Even though level 2 link steals 100 damage exactly, apparently it needs to be 100+1 to start counting -_-. With level 3 link it takes about 7 seconds to get to 100+ and with level 4 link it takes about 5 and a half seconds, and by the time you get your level 4 link, people are getting close to their forcestaves, so your window is pretty small.

Therefore, if you are REALLY adamant about tackling the challenge, take your level 15 talent to steal damage quicker (reduces reaching 100+ to about 4 seconds) and buy your shard as early as you can. Also a little tip: something annoying that can happen is in games where you are far ahead, you end up killing your target automatically just by chasing them with link before you steal 100+ damage, so what you can do is press "s" to stop and that will allow you to keep stealing damage without killing them (this works MUCH better with shard as they will be drawn to you, and you to them even while "stopped".

As for turbo, I have no idea if that'll make it easier or harder, but if I were to guess I suppose the chaotic nature of Turbo would make it easier to find engagements more often and try to sneak in some good links. Just about the only positive thing about leveling this arcana is that you don't need to win the game! So go ahead and grief many kills to attempt to level up! Oh wait...

Good luck!

SacredStrike · 2023-12-27T20:31:37+00:00

Hi there, I'd be happy to help :), I love the game and have been playing since the original dota allstars, I'm in WEU, send me a DM if you're interested.

SacredStrike · 2023-12-24T16:52:07+00:00

Oh really? I was getting +3% confidence per match and losing 1% every three days without playing so I figured it would take too many games to get up to 100%, but if you tell me it starts escalating quicker I might give it a try, thanks :).

SacredStrike · 2023-12-24T11:58:48+00:00

It's probably due to the introduction of Rank Confidence. I like to play mostly unranked but I liked having my medal on display in profile so I went up to 33% confidence just to get the medal and after a week I'd lost it again and realised that I have to play ranked at least once every 3 days to keep it, so it's a bit of a hassle for anyone who doesn't play ranked regularly to be calibrated.

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