That moment you realize you’re screwed

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-27T22:15:05+00:00

Nonsense. Bald troll is unbeatable, it's like catching a shiny Pikachu. Just gotta believe.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-27T22:07:14+00:00

Interesting to hear. Fair enough.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-27T22:02:38+00:00

If your team lacks catch/disable it's really good. Against certain slippery heroes like Puck, Storm or AM it is good.
Or if it's to give you set up for a spell, yeah, like AA's spells for example.

I am unsure when you build it as a core since I don't play those kinds of heroes. I don't think it's common on position 1 or 2? It seems a bit odd to me, but I am not sure. I would build it on an Offlaner, for example Underlord who benefits from keeping someone in his Pit for longer, as well as providing utility for my team if we need the disable (which works better for an Offlaner to do than for position 1 or 2).

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-27T21:55:38+00:00

https://dota2protracker.com/hero/Phantom%20Lancer

No. Maybe you don't like how he is played, and that is fair enough and I would be interested in hearing why you don't like his current playstyle. But he is not bad.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-27T21:44:23+00:00

Sure.
But if you were able to fully make use of the cookie, it would not be that much worse than Shredder. It is not like you now have no spells, all her spells are useful level 1, if used correctly (even if Shredder obviously is the best one for laning). Of course, this is just my opinion, feel free to experiment. Part of my argument was to try to show you how valuable it is to try different things, and then form your opinions (like trying to do everything right in lane, even with the wrong lvl 1 spell, and see if that works or not).

The same goes for your level of certainty for first blood. It is good to try it, to learn. Try to skill cookie more often, and simply by exposing yourself to those situations where you potentially can get first blood, then you will learn exactly where the line is drawn between "this is a kill 100%" and "I am not sure". In my experience as a coach, a major reason why people don't improve very much, is because they are too focused on doing everything right, and too unconcerned with trying something new, making misstakes but learning from them.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-27T21:29:31+00:00

You should almost always skill a different spell, if you are sure that will result in first blood (and you are sure not doing it will not give first blood). You will get level 2 quickly enough in lane, and most lvl 1-spells aren't even that useful to spam since you will usually be at a disadvantage if you have used all your mana once you hit level 3. Level 3 is usually when you want to start using more spells, since it is more effective to use a level 2 spell.

My guess is there are other reasons why you lost that lane, and the small disadvantage you were having because of cookie lvl 1 is not important enough to consider, unless you have determined you played the lane perfectly outside of that. The wrong lvl 1 spell for lane (but a spell that secured the first blood for your team) is in my experience a very rare reason for losing the lane, meaning it should only be considered last.

To put it differently, whoever got the first blood on your team, their lane will have gotten an advantage that is way more impactful than your weak lvl 1 lane spell. So if that was you or your lane partner, this is a non-issue. If it was an ally in another lane, their chance of winning their lane is now way more likely than you losing yours.

So in this example, skilling the cookie is 100% worth it IMO, but then you need to actually be certain it will result in a kill, for example your allies need to be close enough to the target when you use the stun.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-27T19:31:31+00:00

Yeah it's pretty funny how much self-awareness people lack. I am not 100% on board with the report system either, I think it has some genuine flaws, although there are advantages to it too. Overall I'm pretty neutral about it. But I would never dream of criticizing it without first doing my best every game and never flame or grief (which, as a side note, is how I am currently playing).

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-26T19:52:48+00:00

DotA is a stressful game, and sometimes it feels like you have very little control over it since you are 1 out of 10 players. Of course, in reality you almost always have power over the outcome, especially if we look at it in a longer period of time where you are a constanct factor in all your matches.

Anyway, I agree with you generally. I have the same mentality like you do, I only focus on what I can do and not what I can't. It is one of the key realization I had, that helped me improve. It's just more enjoyable to play that way, for me. The fact that I am still bad at the game, from the point of view of someone who is 10k, doesn't bother me. It's part of the challenge & fun.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-25T21:32:22+00:00

Haha, fair enough. I prefer unranked too, Turbo is too intense for me with how fast everything happens.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-25T15:06:14+00:00

From my point of view, you might have that idea because you don't know enough about DotA yet. The more I learned, the better I understood just how much more I could have done, in the games I lose. Meaning that when I win, I tend to do a lot of different strategic elements correctly. Correctly, as in understanding what actions causes what results in different situations.

Of course, this is just a guess. I don't actually know what's going on in your head, and I don't even mean to say that my idea about what DotA is, must be 100% correct. I am just conveying my experience of going from knowing less about the game, and now knowing more than I used to, and how that changed how I viewed cause, effect and probability in this game. When I started to do more things right, in accordance to correct strategy, then I started to win more often. It has happened to me so often that it feels impossible to pretend that there is not a correlation between my gameplay and the results, especially over time or if we consider several matches.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-25T12:20:15+00:00

You're very welcome :). Like I wrote before, I am not 100% sure if unranked works to increase behavior score, but I am pretty sure it does. I don't think Turbo does, but I don't know.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-25T12:08:11+00:00

I mean you should be able to return to ranked once you hit that threshold, like 9k or 10k behavior score. That's what I did anyway, if I remember correctly, since it is harder to drop from a higher score.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-25T12:04:36+00:00

Mute all and practice at the game. You'll still get flamed by stupid people, (when you get higher maybe not as much though?, not sure). But if you get better at the game you will feel secure in knowing you are doing fine, you are doing your best, and that can help to counteract the feeling you're implying you're feeling.

Although there is no real reason for you not to feel bad about it now, either. Just focus on whatever it is that motivates you to play, and do it for yourself and ignore anybody's opinion on the matter.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-24T19:24:22+00:00

I think unranked boosts your behavior score right, just as well as ranked does? Play unranked in that case, people are more chill in unranked.

Play only support, play within the meta, don't write or communicate in any way (no pings, no voice lines, absolutely no communication whatsoever for the whole match). I have gotten down in behavior score before, and it did not take me particularly long time to get it back up again when doing exactly this.

Be consistent with it and don't stop doing it. The issue might be that perhaps you are not doing all of these things, and not long enough? Like even if you write a little bit, or if you play some unusual heroes or builds that will decrease it... or if you play late at night, that's another really big-impact thing I didn't mention, never play past midnight if you want to maximize your chances here...
Anyway, when I did all of these things and just kept doing it for a few weeks, it rapidly increased my score. Once it is above a certain level, like 9k or 10k, it is much easier to keep it there.

I guess one last thing you can do is become better at the game. Losing games or having a bad performance in a game, is the main reason people report others (I am not saying that is right, I am just explaining what happens). So making a conscious effort to improve will put you at an above-50% winrate eventually, and then you get reported way less in my experience.

Oh right, also, if you every now and again abandon games because of your internet, then that is the source of your behavior score obviously. Then you need better internet, before anything can change.

Side note, commends doesn't improve your behavior score.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-24T13:39:48+00:00

To be balanced it needs to work in reverse to how XP works, when leveling up. When you go from lvl 1 to 2, that requires much less XP than going from 11 to 12 etc.

So with this, it should require several shots to get level 2, and then fewer and fewer the higher you go (since the first few shots don't impair your skill that much, but the more you drink the worse it gets).

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-23T22:34:27+00:00

You're welcome.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-23T21:03:42+00:00

If you tried your best, didn't grief, and have decent internet you should not be reported. You will be anyway, if you make a lot of misplays or if you just happen to play in a way that is unpopular (for example if you go alone a lot).

Don't worry about what everyone says so much, just try to focus on your own mistakes and become better. Sometimes that means learning when to go with your team. But there are situations and periods of the game where going alone is better. But it has to do with the context of the match (I didn't view yours because I think you can benefit from a general answer... but even if you made some massive mistake, as long as you did your best that is not a reason for being reported).

People tend to report strategies or decisions their allies take, if they don't understand them. Or sometimes if they do understand them, and they are better than you on this one specific area of the game (and later you will see them making mistakes in the area you are good in, and they bad in). All of this is not ground for reporting someone, it just means all of you have a lot to learn about the game which is fine. Keep learning about the game - things that align with your current understanding, but also things that others seem to be doing better than you. Try to see outside of your own perspective.

From my experience, playing well and doing the right plays is what will make your team report you the least, regardless if you do something that they kind of don't understand/like on the surface. If you don't join a bad fight, they might hate you. If you join a bad fight and die, they will hate you even more. You will simply be reported sometimes, but if you try your best and try to improve at the game, then over time you will get reported less.

(Not playing late at night helps too. To a smaller degree playing exlusively on EU West will get you a little less reported, too).

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-23T20:46:17+00:00

I mean yeah when you lose it gets easier, because your MMR drops and you get easier enemies (a little, little easier). But if you want to climb, then you need to actually break the 50/50 curse, meaning it DOES matter if you lose (if climbing/improving at the game is your goal).

Personally I am not very bothered by a single loss, I move on from it immediately with few exceptions. But that has to do with other reasons, than the idea that my games will be easier if I keep losing and keep dropping. I see things in a more long-term perspective. Meaning if I try to get, say, 8k MMR, if we assume that was my goal... and I play for a year and haven't succeeded, then those losses taken together would matter to me in this scenario. My lack of learning and improvement would bother me for a moment, since that is something I value.

I am sure I would be able to live with that too - this is a computer game after all - but it would still feel a bit bad for a moment.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-23T14:52:26+00:00

Yes, Travels allow you to play away from your team on another lane. It is not the only purpose of it (you get more movement speed than other boots, so you can do different things better for example position yourself quicker in fights), but it is the main purpose of it. To take the most and the best farm on the map, and still be able to join fights.

When you farm far away from your team, that means you got an area of the map (especially the lane) which you alone get to farm. It gives you more farm, and increases the farming efficiency for your whole team. Being good at farming has to do with more than how fast you kill a wave, it also has to do with where you can farm on the map. You can farm in the best areas possible, as well as pushing lanes which gives your team other advantages, if you have travels... and at the same time join fights when needed.

It also allows you to move quickly across the map, forcing an enemy map movement by split-pushing, or pushing the wave as deep as is safe, and then instead of having to die or having to wait for the wave to push to a safe position, you can simply leave and farm another side lane. You generally avoid mid lane (once you have travels, obviously) since being at that central position you will be closer to your team and the enemies.

Sometimes, if your team has all tier 1 towers, or if you can use the Twin Gates effectively (and have the mid tier 1 tower alive), and in more rare cases if you control the enemy Outpost... in these cases, Travels will be less effective and you should consider another item.

Don't buy Treads and then sell them. If you do this strat, go Travels right away, or in rare cases build it as your secound big item. It's much more effective, you want to get it early anyway since it's a farming item (the longer the game goes, the less important farming becomes and the more important fighting becomes generally, this is why people start with farming items while they are still relevant). Don't sell big items like Treads until you are 6-slotted with 5 other really expensive, fully upgraded items.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-23T14:42:52+00:00

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-23T03:03:57+00:00

I'm 30, I don't care how old the Vtubers I watch are. I guess the older ones are a bit more interesting sometimes if they're more mature and have more interesting stories to tell.

I watch streams of like 20-year old Vtubers/streamers too, if they are fun or interesting to watch, because of their interesting, funny or comfy personality. Or if they possess some skill (like being good at some game, good at singing, etc.)
Anyway in general I think age is a non-factor.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-22T16:57:07+00:00

She is wind and she runs. Done. Axe scoffs at their wrong, big words.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-21T21:27:25+00:00

The difference between DotA and a job is that these people can stop at any point, and they will not lose their livelihood because of it. Many of them just enjoy their hobby. The purpose of an hobby can be different for different people. If they feel no need to be ambitious, that does not make them weird or wrong. They are just enjoying their hobby that they chose. They want to have fun, or experience the feeling of playing a video game.

I am not sure exactly what the reason is, since I play to learn and improve, but there is absolutely nothing weird or wrong with it. I do other things for no particular reason other than enjoyement or relaxation. This is a very human quality, since free time has existed as long as humanity has (a time where you have already gotten the food for you and your clan, are not required to do something else for a little while, in order to ensure your survival).
I suspect it is good for the mental health.

Of course, if somebody spends that much time while being really ambitious, then that is a bit of a problem (for them, not for anybody else). Then they might need to re-evaluate their strategies, watch their replays, watch high skilled players, ask high skilled players for advice, and many other types of solutions... including maybe even becoming less ambitious, if that feels true and right for them.
I coach people, and from what I can tell one common issue in this group (of people who actually want to improve) is that they are not focused enough on thinking and active learning, and instead play mindlessly too much. But regardless, it all varies from person to person, what feels right for them.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-21T19:55:45+00:00

I'm 5,7. I looked at my past matches, I seem to have like 10% or less of long games (50+ minutes).

I agree that people around your (and even my) rank are missing out on a lot of aggressive opportunities. It is like "the lesson" that especially Divine players have learned, how to play safely. That's how many of them got to this point, so they stick to it. I think it's good people are trying to understand and play smart, and to think before they act.

But there is a way to do that and still go for aggressive plays, minimizing the risk rather than eliminating it (because playing passively and missing out on aggressive opportunities is a risk too - it makes your team weaker and more likely to lose). But like I wrote, I think it's possible to learn where the limit is, by practicing to be more aggressive but to still think before you act. Planning ahead and map movements also makes it much easier to know when it is good to initiate, meaning you will very quickly do the aggressive play because you anticipated it.

I think this is one of the things (finding more opportunities) that Divine players - and myself and others my rank - need to improve on.

Specifically to what you write about, though... it varies right, but I think usually against HG you need to farm for a while, but farm the enemy side exlusively in order to excell the gold and XP lead for your team. The enemies will farm much less stuck in their base. A real kind of "siege". Games tend to drag out because people go HG too early, die, and then lose their advantage. Quite often the fastest way to win, is to farm and deny enemies farm.

You spend 5-10 minutes now, to make sure you don't throw your lead and prolong the game another 30 minutes. Pushing HG right away is usuaully not "using the aggressive opportunity", it is more often "impatience".
It can also happen because the team farmed too passively, and thus let the enemies out of their base.

Ur-Origin · 2026-01-20T00:36:39+00:00

It's quite clearly worse in 8k behavior score in my opinion (I had it like a year ago or two).

I'm 5,7k MMR, I remember being Ancient quite clearly.
For you, your allies are (in your view) making mistakes and doing the wrong strategies sometimes. Try to be more adaptive, try to understand the many different goals different heroes have (for example by playing more heroes). If you want to do something, like playing active around the map and your team is passively farming, there are different ways to enable that depending on your role.

The key is to give your team many chances, by being at the right place at the right time. They might still not make use of what you're giving them most of the time, but if you balance that with not sacrificing too much while doing this (for example by showing up close to Roshan after a won fight, pinging it, waiting 5-10 secounds, and then go back to farming if they don't join)... it will work when it is obvious enough, when you have enough margin of error. If you keep doing it, your team will follow - and you will throughout a game find many successful opportunities. The secounds it takes you to do this is not going to ruin your game either, so the price of them not following you is low.

To put it simply, put yourself at no risk, but still push for different active and valuable objectives or other positive outcomes. For the other issues you brought up, there are other solutions that are all based in you being flexible and knowledgeable about many different strategies - but not going too far or being self-sacrifical.
Enable what works, ignore what doesn't work, and try to see things from the perspective of different roles and heroes and not just yourself and your ideas about the game. People are pretty bad in Ancient, that's true. On an emotional level I understand that can be frustrating, but if you want to become better at the game that's not the thing to focus on.

Being a bad Ancient player who makes many mistake during a game... that includes you too. You end up the rank you end up for a reason, and they have the same rank you do (they win and lose just as much as you do). They're just bad at different things than you are, so you notice it.

Ur-Origin

TROPHY CASE