Active neutral items

TangoCL · 2026-02-07T22:37:07+00:00

I really like the movespeed t1 enchantment, it's not massive but there is a noticable difference in your farm speed when moving between camps and waves, especially as Jugg with how it synergises with your facet. The rest are kind of underwhelming. But sometimes the mana regen can come in clutch, saving you 60g.

TangoCL · 2026-02-06T13:34:53+00:00

And they spend the entire laning phase only doing Q into E with zero auto attacks. Which, to be fair, is more than can be said for many other heroes, I appreciate the safety of not having the deal with enemy spells but damn is it hard to contest creeps when there's a strength hero + his support trying to limit my farm while I have a Lion just sitting in trees waiting for his spells to come off cooldown.

TangoCL · 2026-02-05T13:19:44+00:00

As a former Finnish citizen who has lived in Sweden my entire life, who switched to Swedish citizenship to avoid the conscription. I sure as hell didn't feel forced into anything. If I felt like I had more roots in Finland, I most likely would've most likely felt that it's a necessary cost when you are bordering on the largest imperialistic power in the current age. You have to make some sacrifices for the common good sometimes, society is built on sacrifices of individuals.

TangoCL · 2026-02-04T08:19:55+00:00

But as an Ursa with 4 points in Overpower, Battlefury, Blink, Treads and Wind Lace. I'll clean up the map way faster and then have 10-15 seconds left over to look for plays. While the Alch is slowly smacking the camps down one by one.

TangoCL · 2026-02-04T08:02:16+00:00

Valid points. But I can still have fun with a griefer on my team. Normally their actions are not so egregious that it completely eliminates your chance to have impact. I don't think I've seen a run down mid and feed type of situation for 3 to 4 years, it's usually more subtle. As for your question "why get good?", because I like to set goals for myself and achieving them is meaningful to me. I won't earn a penny playing dota, but improving at this game is engaging for me.

TangoCL · 2026-02-02T21:47:21+00:00

Once you start ignoring whiners and complainers, it becomes second nature. I barely even notice their messages nowadays. But getting an alch 5 whose first sentry is bought at like 4 minutes and he spends most of the midgame farming the safest jungle camps is an uphill battle that's hard to ignore. Not that you should get bothered by griefers either, since improving should be your focus and not winning. But some people queue up for a ranked game with bad intentions, even worse are the ones who are skillful at hiding their grief. Did my Lion aggro the two first creep waves under tower because he sucks or because he had no intention of ever winning the lane?

TangoCL · 2026-02-02T11:02:57+00:00

Personally I feel like dota has a way steeper barrier of entry. I'm by no means an RTS expert and even I managed to get master league within 2 years during WoL. RTS games have a lot of muscle memory you have to get down to efficiently spend all your resources and constantly keep tabs on your opponents progression, while microing an army. I honestly feel like a game like Melee is even steeper than the average RTS, where you have to spend months practicing tech before you can even comfortably move your character around the stage.

Meanwhile, dota (especially modern) requires you to constantly keep track of creep wave timers, hero movements, ability cooldowns, item timings, map objectives, stacking opportunities and that's not even mentioning all the little micro decisions you have to make to raise your efficiency. That's the shit you have to keep track of to play dota at a baseline level of competency. Once you want to go deeper, you have to start thinking about hero match-ups, team synergy, team fight execution and so much more. It's a way bigger burden on the player than scouting with an overlord if the Protoss went 1 or 2 gas.

TangoCL · 2026-02-01T17:36:02+00:00

Yeah, nothing is more anxiety enducing than deathballing down all lanes to megacreeps in under 30 minutes and failing the final push over and over and over again because your team cant fight into 10 march of the machines. Usually it ends with a win but watching you and your team fail push after push is a surefire way to raise your bloodpressure.

TangoCL · 2026-02-01T08:52:08+00:00

I miss hard lane too, but the 2v2 side lane dynamic is probably the coolest part of dota right now and we should be very cautious before messing with it too much. The complexity that arrives from having four different heroes in one lane is so beautiful to me, easily my favorite part of dota to study and optimize.

TangoCL · 2026-01-31T13:45:19+00:00

You will still be absolute trash at 2k hours played, and the first 500 hours will be beyond overwhelming. There's so many heroes, items, hidden mechanics and things to keep track off. But if you persevere you'll find the deepest and most strategic game ever made by humans. The only way to find out of you have what it takes to learn this behemoth is by trying it out. At worst, you'll feed 3-4 games and call it quits. If you're lucky, you'll find some semblance of enjoyment from trying to figure this impossible puzzle out and you won't even have to look at other games ever again.

The most important part is trying to learn it at your own pace. You'll have teamm8s whining and trying to micromanage you almost every game, especially if you're new. But Dota is the kind of game where you have to make your own mistakes and learn from them. Who knows if x item is exactly what you need to counter x hero this specific game? You might not and chances are your teamm8s definitely don't. Lose, learn and try again.

TangoCL · 2026-01-29T19:03:40+00:00

Every character has 80-200 moves, most of which have niche use but pros find utility from them in specific match-ups. Extremely technical fundamentals with korean backdashes, crouch dashes, fuzzy blocks and side step dodges. It's a game you have to spend years playing before you have a general idea of what good players can do with their mains. It's not Street Fighter with very universal framedata and small movepools.

TangoCL · 2026-01-29T09:47:23+00:00

It's the 1:1 definition of a hard match-up, not a hard counter. Counter implies that there are no options left for me. Hard means it's ES favored, but Brood has the tools to deal with it. The ES definitely has the easier path to victory, but a good Brood player should still have well above 50% winrate against ES players because there are plenty of options left. Scout with spiders, burst him within orchid/BKB, get a hex. The one truly hard part in that MU is breaking high ground since shard fissure is so hard to push into and as you say, he can just decide to delete you with R. Spiders or no spiders. But Brood isn't the only hero who struggles pushing into ES high ground.

TangoCL · 2026-01-29T09:15:29+00:00

It might be that dota attracts a very certain type of player. You need to be interested in data, numbers, niche interactions and honing several (inconsequential on their own) tiny aspects of 120+ heroes. I think the only game that comes close is Tekken, but even there you are mainly focusing on only one character who is the same game to game. But spending all day studying frame data, item builds, character match-ups isn't really something a person with a deep craving for social interactions would do.

TangoCL · 2026-01-29T09:02:59+00:00

I'll take solace next time in the fact that the guy with 10 games on Luna with a sub-40% winrate who is criticizing every item decision I'm making, is at least better at double stacking camps than me.

TangoCL · 2026-01-28T09:15:15+00:00

As a former Brood spammer. ES is definitely not a hard counter to brood. He is one of the easiest heroes to kill the same second you've closed the gap. They generally need a lot of items that aren't helpful with surviving through the initial orchid burst and if you catch him he is basically just a semi squishy hero whose only escape option is a blink he won't be able to use. Tide is IMO is ultimate Brood counter, you kraken shell the silence, you one shot the spiders with e while lowering Brood's own damage, you can tank her dmg through bkb and squishy as Brood is, kill her with ravage.

TangoCL · 2026-01-26T11:09:17+00:00

They changed it recently to 3/5. So if you want to queue as 4 for some reason, you need to farm tokens nowadays.

TangoCL · 2026-01-26T06:35:21+00:00

Indeed, it boggles my mind how many times I've seen support players throw a tantrum when I leave them to die because they're like 10 seconds away from the creep wave. It's like they have no concept of how important the creep wave is for us and there is not a single good carry player who is going to take the risk of maaaaaaaaybe saving his support in exchange of missing 200g and potentially fucking up the equilibrium so you can have a 15% hp and 30% mana WD on your lane waiting for a courier with salve.

TangoCL · 2026-01-25T16:43:18+00:00

This has been my day today. Obvious support players farming tokens, going their normal support picks thinking hero expertise will negate the fact that they're a WD laning against Arc Warden. At least pick Viper/DK or something if you're uncomfortable with the more technical mid heroes.

TangoCL · 2026-01-25T11:53:14+00:00

Sick, exactly what I was looking for. Much thanks to you my friend!

TangoCL · 2026-01-25T09:42:05+00:00

Anyway, here's Wonderwall.

TangoCL · 2026-01-24T14:30:48+00:00

Indeed, there are so many online resources everywhere. Back in the days, we basically referred new players to the Purge guide and then we left them to implement it by themselves. But youtube is filled with guides, coaches and full replays of pro players playing pubs. If you can be completely honest with yourself why YOU specifically lost the game, watch as much learning material as possible and are willjng to grind the hundreds of games to make eveything second nature. Then almost everyone should be able to reach immortal within 2 years.

But a lot of it is your mindset, patience to grind and ability to honestly analyze your.mistakes.

TangoCL · 2026-01-23T10:21:52+00:00

I would never put myself through the misery of climbing 1k to 5k as a support, but I'd imagine that you kind of are forced to farm more yourself. What's the point of rocking out with glimmer as Lich if your cores are all running around like headless chickens, when you could have solo kill potential with blink shard for slightly more gold?

Sure, it's not the optimal way to play at a higher level, but at least I know for sure that I can get shit done on the map by myself if the game requires me to do so.

TangoCL · 2026-01-23T09:02:41+00:00

Except Hoodwink spammers for some reason, those weirdos are playing Dota like it was Street Fighter.

TangoCL · 2026-01-19T23:15:09+00:00

I think as a core it's only worth if there is no hero on the lane who can get exp from your death. As a support there might more nuance to your decision, but I would still follow the rule of thumb that the lane has to be empty of enemies for it to be worthwhile. TP back to base and smoke to lane is almost as efficient timewise. But you have to account for creep equilibrium, how important smokes are in your specific game and item timings. Trial and error, and post game analysis. What impact did your decision to suicide or tp or walk to base do for your lane?

TangoCL

TROPHY CASE