True Dota 2 - A Giant Storm Spirit Guide (x-post from /r/learndota2) |
- A Giant Storm Spirit Guide (x-post from /r/learndota2)
- Lone druid tip
- Thoughts on invokers buffed xp gain talent
- Playing with/against invis
- Best Safelane Carries in 7.02?
- Nyx tips?
- Question about Chinese people's dota client
- What are the advantages of running carry Vengeful Spirit over Drow ranger or Luna?
- Serious topic: How to get my teammates to actually do things
- So I've been playing TA -- I'm underwhelmed.
| A Giant Storm Spirit Guide (x-post from /r/learndota2) Posted: 10 Feb 2017 11:01 AM PST Good day players! Today I'll share my way of playing Storm Spirit. I've began learning the hero at around 3k, climbed to 3.8k, improved further over time, and now I hover around 4.5k.
Disclaimer before we begin: I'm in no way a Storm Spirit authority, things that I'll write may not work at higher/lower mmr, may even not work for you, may look plain wrong (and it's possible that it is) but if you decide to adapt the playstyle and climb with it, great!
Lets zap right in. Quick summary on how to play/master the hero: Storm Spirit can be played in Mid, and definitely in the Safelane if your team has other man-fighting cores. You are extra squishy pre-6, know that, play/itemize accordingly. Most important thing every SS player should master -- mana expenditure. You must have a good feeling how much mana you will expend doing a specific jump, will you have enough mana to kill your target, and/or escape.
Now for the specific playstyle: At this point I will split Storm into two roles -- Teamfight Storm, and Pickoff Storm. Depending on the role you choose to do, items and playstyle will differ greatly.
When to build Teamfight Storm:
These 4 rules are not always the deciding factor, and each game should be judged individually.
How to build the Teamfight Storm: Bloodstone, BKB/Orchid, Hex/Aghanim, further luxury items like Bloodthorn and Shiva's. Talent choices: Damage, Health, AttSpeed, Vortex.
How to play the Teamfight Storm: You will want to mostly stick with the team -- if they initiate, you initiate -- if you initiate, you make sure team is near -- if team is getting initiated on, you jump in to fight. In the fights you are very tanky thanks to HP talent, treads, and bloodstone, making you an unlikely target in bigger teamfights. TL:DR -- stick near the team, collect BS charges, manfight along with your carry.
Honestly, Teamfight Storm is the basic default way to play and build SS, especially for new players, so there should be plenty of guides analyzing the playstyle even deeper. However, for my taste, it is pretty boring, and when the situation allows, I go for the different playstyle.
When to build Pickoff Storm:
There are fewer prerequisites to playing Pickoff Storm, because, this time, YOU are shaping how the game plays out.
How to build the Pickoff Storm: First and foremost -- Orchid, your most important tool. Average Orchid timing is 15 to 20 minutes. Afterwards, Boots of Travel+Linken's Sphere. Then Bloodthorn. Then Hex/Aghanim. Talent choices: Damage, Intellect, Attack Speed, Vortex.
How to play the Pickoff Storm: Everything went good and you have your Orchid in good timing? Great, time to go ham on the enemy team, and snowball to victory! Start looking for pickoffs immediately. Your early orchid allows you to solo-kill almost any enemy hero, and it takes a few deaths until the enemy becomes aware of the new threat and starts playing defensively. Those few free orchid kills should bring you close to your next item: Boots of Travel. It's minute 20-25, and your Storm Spirit just became a global threat. Start doing even more aggressive pickoffs, since now you can easily teleport to/from the base. At this point either enemy is forced to play grouped up - allowing for easy pushes, (not to mention space for your carry), or continues to feed solo kills to the Storm. By now you should be collecting final items for your Linken's. What to do with Linkens? Enemy by now is very aware of your potential, so solo pickoffs will become harder - they might pickup an item or two not to die from you, simply stay grouped, or try baiting you. So you just splitpush like mad. Linken's and BoT makes you impossible to kill by a lone hero, and if they send forces to take you down -- once again -- space. By now from the gold you collected, you should be nearing Bloodthorn. And, just as with Orchid, your primary role gets back to ganking. With the previous items, talents, and Bloodthorn active, you hit like a truck, and can kill most heroes under 5 seconds that Bloodthorn gives. Most of the time, not enough time for the enemy heroes to react. Look for carries pushing back, supports trying to ward/deward. Zip in, delete a hero, zap out. Watch as chaos ensues. You control the whole map. In the teamfights, you can annihilate squishier heroes. With all this space your team simply outfarms the enemy, and you win the game.
Now, in case something didn't go as planned, you do things a little bit differently. Even if you're very ahead, rest of your team can be behind, and/or feed the enemy. If enemy picks up some anti-Storm items, then you rush Linken's before BoT, and pick up Treads+Raindrops to survive the fights, since your team is behind and isn't as strong. In the late game, you may skip Bloodthorn, and go straight Aghanim, since pickoffs are less common, and controlling the enemy team becomes priority. Eventually, with the right plays, your team should regain control of the map, and your role shifts back to Pickoffs.
Most recent game ID best depicting Pickoff Storm: 2989572698
Couple of tips viable for both playstyles: If the enemy mid will have higher damage for lasthits, item order goes like: Circlet, Branch, Branch, Bottle, Soul Ring, Boots. Rely on your spells for lasthitting. If not, and you can successfully right click, then the regular Null, Faerie Fire, Branch, Bottle, Soul Ring, Boots. Wards are your best friend while playing Pickoff Storm. If nobody is buying, consider getting some yourself. Once again, Pickoff Storm relies very heavily on mana management. Know what you can kill with mana left over for escape, or, if there is no way enemy can reach you, just enough mana to TP-out after a kill. Will update this section once my memory digs out more Storm tricks.
Added clarifications: Reasoning for not getting Bloodstone on a Pickoff Storm: You are all about the sweet sweet damage, and Bloodstone simply cripples SS in that area. Yes, Bloodstone allows you to jump around and waste mana more, which is great for teamfights, and that is the traditional Storm playstyle. If you plan to play Pickoff Storm and rush Bloodstone first, your pickoff potential is reduced to just squishy heroes with no escapes, hence it's best to play traditional Teamfight Storm at this point. A Pickoff Storm, instead of Bloodstone, simply utilizes Boots of Travel to quickly recover between the ganks. As you acquire more items, you get naturally tankier, and a 6 slotted Pickoff Storm sports 50 mana per second. At that point, the only bonus from Bloodstone is the respawn timer, which, in my opinion, is not worth an item slot.
For now, thank you for reading, and may this guide help you in becoming an unstoppable zipzapping force. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 10 Feb 2017 10:03 AM PST So with the popularity of lone druid I think people sometimes overlook some of the other utilities of the hero. They get so focused on the ranged aspect that they forget that there are other aspects of him. The biggest thing I think that is overlooked is how battlecry applies to all units under his control. Between LD and bear, you get +300 damage but here are some other items to consider, either as a backpack slot or for additions to your bears items: HOTD: -A regular HOD creep will obtain the +150 damage as well. Pretty good attack speed aura, I'd put it on the bear. -Troll summoner :Probably the most overlooked aspect of LD. the troll summoner. Before the ranged LD, and the HOTD stacking nerfs,I would stack HOTD's and stack troll summoners. With troll summoners, and summon skeletons, you gain a total of +450 damage from a single spawn skele cast. (150 on each skele, and 150 on the troll) With this strategy, you can EASILY backdoor through backdoor protection. You can also hide said troll in the trees near rax and just travels onto it. -Necrobook 1 : Another pretty good pickup, even just a casual pickup on the bear. You will be able to spawn 2 units who both get +150 damage and they push pretty well too. You could pick up one on yourself and one on your bear, and maybe upgrade them to level 3. I'm not sure if manta works but it would be pretty good as the only other defensive itemization ranged druid has is normally hurricane pike. [link] [comments]  |
| Thoughts on invokers buffed xp gain talent Posted: 10 Feb 2017 01:58 PM PST 7.02 doubled invoker xp gain talent from 15% to 30%. When the talent was 15% invokers rarely chose xp over 2nd forge spirit even as quas wex invoker. Would you ever take the xp now? I think the talent is really strong now because it allows you to go quas wex and fight all game and still level fast and hit 25 as early as a quas exort invoker who took 2x forge. You can be 3-4 levels behind and you will still reach lvl 25 a level or 2 before anyone on else. This is a huge change as invoker used to have to chose between helping his team early and then falling off because he leveled to slowly or splitpushing/afk farming and throwing sunstrikes until mid/late-game. Now you can have your cake and eat it too. I feel like this is mostly a buff to qw because qe already levels fast enough anyway and the second forge is more important to qe. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 10 Feb 2017 03:42 AM PST So we all know invis items / heroes are relatively common, and that it can be fun to sneak up and just wreck someone, but I have a few questions for you guys about a few situations. First off , when you have invis on both sides , at what point do you decide a gem is worth the risk rather than the unending gold sink that is sentries / dust ? Don't get me wrong I'm not saying sentries and dust are bad or anything , just that cost can be problematic when dealing with multiple sources of invis. Second , say only your team has invis , what do you recommend to do to handle the situation? Like the more sources of invis you have, especially if the enemy team has none, the more cost effective a gem/dust/sentry pick up becomes for the enemy team , as well as the less efficient your items / hero are. Third , in what situation would you buy a shadow blade / glimmer cape if your team already had a source (or multiple sources ) of invis? The only time I really see it being useful is for silver edge's break effect , but even then I feel like it's a major flaw that your options for break are so limited (because even if you invest in the item for the break effect, it's still encouraging detection faster / in larger quantity if your team already has a shadow blade , or natural invis of some sort , glimmer , etc.) So the fact that silver edge is one of a few things in the game that break is pretty shitty imo). Fourth , what do you suggest for warding / maintaining map control when an enemy picks up a gem due to your invis hero(es)? I find it particularly annoying when I'm supporting and the enemy is just running around 5 man to safeguard a gem wiping out wards. Is it better to just purchase the wards as usual and hold them until you can get the gem , or use them knowing there's a high chance they won't get full duration out ? Fifth and not really the same time of question as the others , more of an opinion thing , what's your opinion on Riki's cast range talent ? Once he takes it his little jump you for an anal assault spell is higher range than gem's truesight radius, making riki capable of jumping a gem carrier even outside of the radius which can really be problematic. Do you think it's a necessary nerf to make the hero viable against detection , or just an annoying aspect they threw in there because they didn't think riki was strong enough ? I personally don't mind much since dust is so much stronger against him but I've noticed a lot of people raging in my games when a riki exists past that point in the game. [link] [comments]  |
| Best Safelane Carries in 7.02? Posted: 10 Feb 2017 07:44 AM PST Basically the title. I'm 5k if it helps, I feel lost as a carry this patch. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 10 Feb 2017 06:25 AM PST Just looking for some nyx tips offlane mostly, items, pos, ideal picking and so on [link] [comments]  |
| Question about Chinese people's dota client Posted: 10 Feb 2017 03:01 AM PST Do they have to buy dota? Do they play on valve's Chinese servers or on perfect world servers? Why are there so many Chinese sets and events in dota? [link] [comments]  |
| What are the advantages of running carry Vengeful Spirit over Drow ranger or Luna? Posted: 10 Feb 2017 11:38 AM PST Seems like VS is more popular as safelane carry now [link] [comments]  |
| Serious topic: How to get my teammates to actually do things Posted: 10 Feb 2017 12:35 AM PST Hey guys, I'm on a losing streak lately with major constant problems. My teammates have just been doing 'nothing'. By that I mean they spend most of their time not committing to anything when they should be farming or we need to push or something else along those lines. For example in my last two games there was a lot of focus on pushing. I was TB against AM and Techies (screw me) and then Alch with a Death Prophet against an TB and Techies yet again. Both times I had rough starts due to the lanes but kicked it in to gear at a decent time. I know I probably could've made better choices myself but my teammates just weren't helping out. Any chat messages or pings about pushing fell on deaf ears as the team half assed whatever they were doing. While refusing to push or just not communicating often lead to losing, I notice no one else has any items either. Usually when people aren't pushing or really doing anything you assume they're farming, until you see both of the other cores have networths below shadowdemon at the end of the match who had a sub 400gpm. Now feel free to criticize me as well or give me some tips too but I'm just tired of this lazy dota. If anyone is around 3k or doesn't mind playing with one in PST shoot me a message. I'm more than ready to communicate and take advice to improve and play better [link] [comments]  |
| So I've been playing TA -- I'm underwhelmed. Posted: 09 Feb 2017 07:17 PM PST I love the vision, and I spam wards. I get supporting kills from them. The invis option is super meh beyond a value point. Refraction and psi blade are both for real.....until the laning stage ends. Even if I get lots of kills/assists, get an early deso, whatever, I feel pretty supportish around minute 40. And I never feel comfortable rolling in on teams even if I'm the most farmed carry on map. TL;DR at least at shitty mmrs (1-2K), TA feels pretty bad, even when I snowball I can't carry. Not Good! I'm obvs not the greatest but I've watched pro games, read guides, etc (for post 7.00 TA). Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from True Dota 2. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
Post a Comment