Games26

This question would only probably be helpful for thoe 4k and 5k above who are intending to get better to play as a team.
While watching TrueSight ep 3, in one of their analysis of their games, they said "We could have defended this ward". I have never heard of anything like this before. I don't watch a lot of full professional matches so I might have missed a moment where analysts pointed this out.
But the phrase caught me off guard because I spend a lot of time researching and thinking about the strategic aspect of Dota and not once have I heard "Defending a ward" until True Sight. I do not know much about how one can defend a ward, and would like to hear someone elaborate the phrase. Obviously, with defending also means "attacking" a ward, which some might interpret as simply dewarding, but in higher caliber games I am sure it means a bigger movement than that, especially in competitive/team scenario.
Please, 6k dieties of r/learndota2, giff me knowledge.

Full changelog can be seen here

• Total Subscriptions, pre-7.00/.01: 182,203,920 - [Full Data Sheet]
• A total of 831 changes changes applied across 150 guides out of 152 guides
• This a preliminary update. I will monitor and adjust the builds across two weeks as the meta irons out.

Special Notes:

• In total, this patch took 70 hours to complete, in comparison to 6.87 which took 21 hours

• Since the Hero Builds Cloud Server is currently de-synced, I cannot implement these changes in-game yet

• Talent Perks have not been implemented in the hero builds system. I will have to redo the hero builds if/when they are implemented.

• This is Part 1 of 2 updates. The second update, planned for January 2017, will be eliminating some of the redundant builds in the current project and replacing them with hero builds that have been suggested over the years

I played quite a bit from 2011 - 2015, I have 2200 matchmaking wins - but my last game was October, 2015. With the amount of changes I'm sure happened in the last 2 years, what's the best way to go about relearning the game? Even the main menu and armory are confusing as hell.

Today I met my goal of getting to 4k by the end of the year. I started the year around 3k and made a goal of hitting 4k by playing supports (position 4 or 5) only. I calibrated at around 2.8k when ranked came out. Here's my DotaBuff.
Some notes for the curious:

• This is my first MOBA-like game (it took me 3-4 tries to get into DOTA2 because there was just so much to learn). I started playing seriously in mid-2013, but didn't start playing ranked seriously until late 2015.
• I watch a lot of streams/VODs. Purge, Merlini, and BSJ are probably my most watched, but I will put anyone on if they are chill and don't rage.
• I play 1 game a day Monday through Thursday on US West only between 5pm and 8pm PST. I felt that this netted me the best teammates in the best mindset. I try not to play on weekends. If I have the urge to play outside of that window, I will queue unranked or 10v10.
• After each game, I will download the replay and make note of what I could improve on for my next game. I also used the private notes feature in DotaBuff to keep a semi-diary of my games.
• I was able to spam Omni to get up to 3.5k, but after that he felt like a crutch and I wasn't improving myself as a player so I stopped picking him even after he got popular in the pro scene
• I typically write "I'll be supporting" and pick first so I just pick a support I'm comfortable with that can be of general use to the team. I rarely get to counter pick.
• My map awareness and time management improved a lot since starting
• When I first started playing, I blindly followed the builds that were available in game. It wasn't until I started my climb that I began to analyze what I really needed in the game and bought and skilled accordingly.
• I never rage in chat to my team or at the other team. I will immediately mute and report anyone who rages or tries to tilt my team. I prided myself on this and thanks to only playing 1 ranked game a day, I basically never tilted. I have a 10k behavior score.

Things that I plan on improving on:

• Last hitting (especially under tower)
• Expanding my support hero pool
• Further improving my map awareness and time management
• Understanding power spikes and optimizing my rotations
• Predicting where enemies will be and what builds they will go

I think 7.00 is a really fun patch, especially for supports (just like 6.88) since there is so much fighting and activity even early on in the game. Now with talents, you are able to scale in ways you weren't before so even the late game can be enjoyable for a position 5.
I will be taking a small break from DOTA now that I've met my goal to play some of the other games I've neglected in my backlog. See you guys on the road to 5k.

Call me a 2k srub but I think shadow blade/silver edge is the best item in the game. Gives decent stats, extra damage when attacking out of shadow walk, forces supports to waste tons of money on sentries because one player has a shadow blade, can be upgraded to reduce enemy damage and passives, completely changes the way you play, you can no longer feel safe anywhere, in your own jungle, even right next to your own tower , if you're a support your life becomes hell, you spend all your money on sentries and you can't do anything because you never know when a legion or slark or viper could be right behind you . It's kinda like playing against monkey king, you really never feel safe

How does Batrider counter Monkey King you ask? Let me list the ridiculous number of ways

• With lasso and force staff, you can cancel his ulti
• Firefly lets you see him on trees
• Firefly destroys trees, and therefore stuns him for 4 seconds
• He can't abuse his long range as much when he can't turn
• Flamebreak also can affect his ulti by pushing him out
• MK likes to go mid or safelane; Batrider prefers mid or offlane. Batrider's Q can dominate MK in lane, and naturally being against him in lane helps
• With lasso and destroying his tree, Batrider can disable Sun Wukong for a grand total of 8 SECONDS.
• Even if he gets linken's and you can't easily pop it, flamebreak can still cancel his ulti, and firefly still obliterates his tree hopping
• Sticky napalm number also lets you see him through disguise, credit to /u/Narwhalbaconguy

Seriously. I'm a decent batrider, but both games against MK I was 10+/<2 K/D. Ridiculous. Even my friend who has played bat like once ever stomped the lane.