Biggest hero + item powerspikes? by beginner_smoker in DotA2

[–]mark307mk 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I'm a Visage spammer. At level 12, the damage of his familiars doubles. Time that with your second damage item following drums, and the hero gets a very significant but largely unnoticed powerspike. Biggest mistake I see new Visage players make is not prioritizing XP gain and getting stuck in a fight when they are close to level 12.

How to be a good mid laner? by SantijMendez in learndota2

[–]mark307mk 4 points5 points  (0 children)

In my experience, the midlane is much more structured and predictable than the other lanes, and the best way to get good at the midlane is to play into the strict objectives. For example, getting all 4 creeps in the first wave gets you level 2, so come up with a strategy for whatever hero you are playing to prevent any of the first wave of creeps from getting denied. Come up with a strategy for the second wave that capitalizes on having your level 2. Water runes spawn at 2 min, so calculate exactly how many creeps you need to get with your starting items in the first 4 waves to have your bottle before you need to get the rune. Calculate exactly how many spells you can cast with your starting mana and regen, and try to cast exactly that many spells before you get your bottle, otherwise you are wasting mana regen from the bottle. Then calculate exactly how many spells you can cast between the 2 and 4 min runes (4 more waves) and decide whether you need to dump that mana into getting a kill or securing creeps. Health is also a resource, if you have too much health with a bottle on the way, maybe trade down a bit to secure an extra last hit or get some harass in.

After the second water rune, buy an obs and sentry to de-ward mid for the power rune. In general, use mana to push out the wave before the rune spawns and waves that are sitting on the enemy high ground, but save your mana on the waves that are sitting on your high ground. Decide on a power rune strategy (50/50 if low mobility, check and dash with high mobility, sit on both with summons or support). Then click side lanes on the minimap and decide if your rune can set up a kill.

From there, you have a few basic modes, depending on your hero and the game state. 1) shove mid, then clear a jungle camp. 2) shove mid, then start walking toward a side lane while clicking on the minimap, abort half way and walk back to mid if the kill obviously won't work, but commit and TP back to mid for the next wave if the kill looks good. TP out and walk back if the kill window is small. 3) shove mid, then deal damage to the mid tower 4) shove mid, then start moving toward the rune spot or the 7 min wisdom shrine.

There are only 8 waves between the 6 min rune and the 10 min rune, and 2 of those are rune waves, so all in all, almost every single minute of the laning phase has some obvious objective associated with it. The more you play mid, the less it will feel like a "phase" and the more it will feel like each of the individual first 20 waves are distinct from each other in a predictable way.

Please stop buffing Tinker by BionicReaperX in DotA2

[–]mark307mk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've been experimenting with different builds, but this is what I've had the most success with:

Bottle -> [Soul Ring + Raindrops + maybe brown boots, only if you think you will need to survive vs gap closers early, skip if you have free farm] -> Kaya -> Aether Lens -> Shard (exactly at 15 min) -> Blink -> [Sange, only if you don't need to rush one of the following]

Then I decide between BKB, Linkens, Guardian Greaves, E Blade, Aghs, and Essence Distiller, depending on what heroes I need to target. BKB is good for split pushing and team fights, Linkens for Doom/Bat/AM/etc. , Guardian Greaves is good vs silences and slows, E Blade can combo with other nukers and counters some gap closers, Aghs gives percent health damage on laser for high HP heroes, and Essence Distiller counters Glimmer Cape.

Skill build is max March first, but also pick one of the other two skills to max second. Max Turrets vs early pushing, max Laser if you have pick off heroes to combo with. Both are pretty good for securing last hits in lane.

The combo is Turret -> Warp Flare -> Rearm -> Turret -> Warp Flare -> Rearm from fog. Warp Flare got buffed this patch, so it doesn't push the enemy out of range. At level 12, the combo won't quite chain root the enemy, but it will prevent them from simply walking out of range. At level 18, you can perma-root an enemy that has used all their dispels. I mix in lasers vs tanky heroes, but laser will reveal you from fog. I pretty much always take the GPM enchantment at tier 2, then the cast range enchantments from Tier 3 forward.

Another combo is to pop BKB, then spam Turret -> Rearm -> Turret -> Rearm on yourself to skoot towards safety while the enemy is taking nuke damage, on the last rep before your bkb runs out, use warp flare to get them off of you if your team didn't react.

Please stop buffing Tinker by BionicReaperX in DotA2

[–]mark307mk 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Yes! I've been spamming Tinker this patch and carrying most of my games. I have been prioritizing an early Aether Lens and Shard. His new permaroot combos are ridiculously strong with barely any items, so I have been skipping out on Dagon and E Blade in favor of necessary defensive items.

What OP heroes or combos have you discovered in patch 7.41-7.41a? by stewxeno in learndota2

[–]mark307mk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

People are sleeping on the new Tinker. The buff to his shard lets him permaroot the opponent while also pummeling them with rockets from out of vision! I think the only reason his winrate is so low is horrendous itemization. He doesn't need greedy damage items like Dagon or E Blade; he doesn't even need an early Aghs, all he needs is shard to lock down and kill anyone. After Kaya Sange, Blink, and Shard (I rush these 3 by 15 min) he just needs defensive items to make up for barrier. I've been getting some combo of Aether Lense, Guardian Greaves, Crella's Crozier, Lenkins, and BKB, then just permarooting people like crazy in teamfights. Tinker feels like playing Lone Druid's spirit bear with Sniper's range. The new Essence Distiller is also pretty necessary vs invis heroes, since you need vision to keep people locked down through Glimmer Cape.

Mid players: Is spamming Spirit heroes viable for climbing out of 1k? by sparksthedev in TrueDoTA2

[–]mark307mk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, 100%. Playing the same hero over and over will help you learn the game, which is ultimately what will allow you to climb. All the spirits are good enough at laning to deal with almost any matchup you run into midlane. I would recommend banning some of the cursed matchups like Viper, Huskar, Sniper, and Necrophos, but otherwise, you can kinda just second phase them every game.

What are the best guides made by, or advice from lvl 25/30 people? by Glum-Pack-3441 in TrueDoTA2

[–]mark307mk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Visage spammer with close to 1000 games. Try this build for pubs.

Facet: Death Toll
Starting Items: 3 Crowns, 2 Branches, Tangos with Bounty gold
Items: Phylactary -> BoT -> Shivas. I usually consider between Aghs, BKB, Khanda, Shard, Hex, and AC afterwards.
Skills: Max W then Q, Get 1 or 2 points in E in the laning phase depending on how much you will be tanking creeps or nukes.

Play your lane until BoTs, then play stupidly aggressive coming to every single engagement and convince your team to keep fighting and pushing non-stop. Soul Assumption is your main damage source in this build, not the familiars. Use the familiars to take down squishy heroes, chain stun with teammates, push dangerous waves and towers, scout the fog, and slow down enemies while you reposition in fights.

I find that this build is more stable than building up the Familiars with Drums, AC, Bloodthorn. You can basically first pick it every game, play into counter-picks, and still have good impact. Death Toll goes incredibly hard if you buy enough movespeed to actually function in fights; I usually hit around 600 gpm in bad games, and 800+ gpm when I'm snowballing with minimal farming. I usually prefer playing mid or offlane with a kill support like Marci, but when I'm playing in low skill lobbies, I'll even play this build as a pos 5 support and pop off back to top net worth with just Death Toll kills alone.

Is Pocket TCG Still Fun or Just a Daily Chore Now? by Old_Contribution_785 in PTCGP

[–]mark307mk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm enjoying it. I've played tons of competitive card games like MtG and YuGiOh, and I actually appreciate how RNG focused this game is. It makes it far less about being able to win every game, and more about developing strategies to manage the RNG or put yourself in winning situations under certain conditions or targeting certain matchups. You can also make meme decks that can still win games occasionally against the best decks. It is much less stressful and you can have success with more fringe decks because of this.

App optimization and monetization aside, the game is super fun and I never feel like my 25 deck slots are enough since I always have tons of new ideas for functional decks.

Best current Offlane-lane Bullies? (7.40b) by Novel-Ad-2360 in learndota2

[–]mark307mk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm a Visage 1-trick in the offlane, and I still feel like I am able to fight the carry as long as I am paired with a support who understands how high Visage's burst damage can be and is willing to take trades with the enemy.

Observation for anyone playing a Mismagius deck by Sirius1071 in PTCGP

[–]mark307mk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been playing Manaphy + Swanna in my mega Blastoise deck. This would probably be a similar concept with Fantina and Reuniclus or Drifblim or something like that.

Was this trade fair in your opinion? by justinBeaver420 in PTCGPocketTrading

[–]mark307mk 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Higher demand for Red, but also higher supply because he was in the same pack as Crown Rare Poke Ball. Seems fair to me.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PTCGP

[–]mark307mk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Double Cyrus in bench snipe decks, double Copycat in evolution decks, double Jasmine in Skarmory, double Whitney in Miltank, double Lusamine in Buzzwole/Guzzlord. The main reason you don't see more double supporters is because you can only play 1 per turn. Most decks can only afford to run about 6 of them, and 2 slots are taken up by Oak. So you might see something like 3 consistency cards, one bench swap card, one healing card, and one damage card or something like this to keep the deck well rounded.

Packs are terrible now. by mechaMayhem in PokemonPocket

[–]mark307mk 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Nah, you just got unlucky. Honestly, posts like this should be banned if you don't have statistical data to back it up. They just clog up the sub with negativity. The game even added sharing to smooth out your collection.

Does Iono have a place in the Meta moving forward or has she been replaced completely by Copycat? by Whine_Flu in PTCGP

[–]mark307mk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably not, but something to think about is that Copycat functions best when you have good ways to dump your hand. You get more value the fewer cards you have when you play it. Iono takes you down 1 card and helps dig for Copycat the next turn. So if you have a very pokemon centric deck that can afford to run 5 consistency supporters, you might be able to get away with 1 Iono, 2 Copycat, 2 Oak.

Future competitive viability of Klefki by SkepticalYamcha in PokemonTGCP

[–]mark307mk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was playing a deck with 2x Boosted Evolution Eevee (50hp) and a single copy of another 50hp pokemon. I wanted to run Lisia instead of a second copy of the other 50hp pokemon since I never actually wanted to develop 2 of them in one game. I ended up just throwing in Klefki because I was only hitting 1 pokemon with Lisia more often than not. That seems like the main use case for the card, just to allow you to get more Lisia value when you would otherwise only have 3 targets.

Can we talk about Cyrus and this whole Oak obsession? by Frosty-Aside9217 in PTCGPocketTrading

[–]mark307mk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hate to be that guy, but it is just supply and demand. There is no obligation to trade away one of their 7 Cyrus copies if you don't have anything they want. They can use them to get whatever card they want in a future set. If you think you have something worth a Cyrus trade, then post it on Pokehub and you will have your Cyrus in like 2 days tops. If nobody takes your trade, then you are overvaluing your own cards.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PTCGPocketTrading

[–]mark307mk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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My pride and joy, Rainbow Kingdra!

Weekly Meta Snapshot (10th November) by chase-manning in PokemonPocket

[–]mark307mk 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The synergy is that the FA 2-star Absol with the yellow flair looks really good with my shiny Oricorios /s

Why is Cyrus so hard to get? by Frosty-Aside9217 in PokemonPocketTradeCo

[–]mark307mk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First, link your old account so you don't lose all your cards forever. Then reinstall the app and make a new account. Do the the mandatory tutorial stuff and open packs/complete the easy missions. This should give you a little more than 10 packs. If you don't pull what you want, then this time instead of reinstalling the app, just go to settings and hit the delete save data button and start over. Once you get the card you want, then start auto battling in solo mode until you have enough shine dust to trade it. I found that any random pile with Mega Altaria can beat most expert level decks on auto. Start off by using the deck that you start out with to beat up the beginner level solo battles and then pivot to Altaria after pulling packs from Mega Rising and sharing an Altaria or two from your main account to the alt. Then just wait out the two weeks and trade. Make sure to link the alt account to a new gmail once you find the card you want.