Xyrus vs Peppo: FIRST BLOOD!

If you were Dire offlane Tide, I'd agree with stacking ancients.. Being Radiant offlane, stacking ancients isn't really that easy, and it causes you to abandon your lane.. As for jungle, your Enigma is already using up the jungle, and he needs the Blink Dagger asap if he is jungling full time.

If you are abandoning your offlane as Tide, that means you lose your Tier 1 very fast.. Pushing bot is possible, but again, you are abandoning your offlane, while Peppo's Centaur Warrunner can draw creep aggro and delay your push, possibly with the Puck coming in as well.



I agree about the denying xp part, and the possibility of a gank from Enigma. However, I feel that the combo that the Dire have on their tri lane is a LOT easier to pull off.. Between "Look at it go!" and SWM's nukes and Void's Time Lock, I see Tide going down easily. Ancient Seal even ensures your tide cannot get off his Anchor Smash (which is what made Tide offlane viable in the first place) before he is nuked down. On top of it, Tide neither has a decent escape mechanism (like a Dark Seer or Batrider) nor does he have a stun to buy a couple of seconds (like a Centaur Warrunner or Nyx Assassin).

For the Radiant trilane however, there are a lot of variables. It includes the Centaur overextending and Doom finding a Centaur creep to chain stun before Centaur Warrunner can Hoof Stomp and back away. Lich might deny a creep every wave, however, with 2 lane supports, I feel the Dire can keep Tide out of xp range a lot more effectively. Again, I feel Enigma + Tidehunter was kinda odd.. Your main reason for picking a Tide is the possibility of a Ravage during teamfights. In that case, why go Enigma? If you wanted a jungling support, you could instead have picked an Enchantress that provides a LOT more early game presence with her rotations and ganking potential. It even synergizes well with your argument of "If they push top, I push bot". However, if you wanted Enigma jungle, you already have a strong teamfight ult in Black Hole. Why go for a Tide off lane in that case? Wouldn't a different offlaner, even a Nyx Assassin have been better?



Even if you turtled during mid game, I feel Peppo has a stronger late game, don't you think? With Void being the better late game carry than Doom, if the game drags long enough, Witch Doctor grabs an Aghs and Centaur Warrunner gets Heart of Tarrasque + Blademail + Pipe of Insight, and eventually, Lich's ult and even Doombringer's ult hurt a lot less. Plus, in Peppo's lineup, who would you cast Doom on? If you doom the Puck, Void is free to run around and do his thing, and Centaur is hoof stomping and double edging with impunity, and all the while, Witch Doc is standing back with his channelling ult.

If Radiant wins, it would have to be in the mid game, snowballing and not letting the game drag past 40 mins or so.



I'm not sure what the Tidehunter + Enigma combo offers?! Ravage into Black Hole? Or vice versa?!?! I feel one of the two would have been a lot more effective. Maybe I'm missing some wombo-combo from Tide-Enigma. In my opinion, you already have a great combo in Black Hole + Chain Frost or Ravage + Chain Frost.

2-3 Peppo wins. though game 4 would be close as all hell. would love to see that played in game..... please do so???? and post match ID so we can watch!!!!!!!

I suppose being Radiant is a bit less convenient for Tidehunter, but it should still be possible for him to Farm Ancients (not to mention, it's a lot harder to block the Radiant Ancient Camp).

Losing the Offlane Tower isn't that big a deal, it gives Void more space to Farm, freeing up the Supports to Gank, which could be annoying, but they're not going to stop the Doom Bringer from Farming that easily. Dragon Knight can also back up to the Tower and Flash Farm safely with Breathe Fire.

So long as Tidehunter is careful, there's no way to keep him Locked Down for more than a second. The 2 Slows could be painful, but with enough HP, he can Purge them with Kraken Shell and simply run out. It's only when Void has Chronosphere that Tide has to start worrying.

Also, as much as I'd like to "win" all my Lanes, sometimes you have to accept that your Offlaner is going to get Zoned out, e.g. no Offlaner "wins" against Mirana + Bane + Ancient Apparition. Good Offlaners have a backup plan for who to get Farm. Tidehunter is probably the best here, since he can Stack Ancients. Batrider would end up having to share or take Farm from Enigma and if Nyx Assassin gets Zoned Out, he has to Gank to recover.

I have an immensely stronger Late Game tbh. 40:00 in Doom Bringer is much stronger than Void, and he's going to be at least on par in terms of Farm. Void doesn't contribute much other than Chronoshpere, Doom is Tanky, he deals a lot more Damage than Void (Lvl?Death + Command Aura). Timelock is nice, but it doesn't win fights. Backtrack is nice, but only if you're not Doomed.

Speaking of Doom targets, it really depends. Puck, Centaur Warrunner and Skywrath Mage are all useless against Magic Immunity, so Dooming them isn't so important. Dooming Void before he gets Chronosphere off is pretty huge though, if Doom Bringer has his Blink Dagger and Black King Bar up, he can win fights as son as he Initiates onto Faceless Void. There's nothing Dire can do to a Magic Immune Doom Bringer...except Death Ward, but every Hero on Radiant has a good method for stopping that in the middle of a fight. If Void gets Chrono off? then whoever's Ult is still up is probably the biggest threat.

Remove Chrono from fights and Dire lose hard. 8{)

Even with Black King Bars, Dire aren't safe, even adding Linken's Spheres isn't going to help much.

As for winning in the Mid-Game, bear in mind that I'll almost certainly have the Exp and Gold advantage thanks to Devour, Sacrifice and Summon Eidolons increasing Domm Bringer's Farm and reducing Dire's Farm. It doesn't matter if the Lich gets nothing, Sacrifice gives him Exp and that's all he needs. Skywrath Mageand Witch Doctor will have a harder time hitting lvl6, since even if they do Gank sucessfully, they'll still take as long to reach 6 as Lich and Enigma. If they don't...they're gonna be behind in lvls and have nowhere near Enigma's level of Farm.

The combo is Ravage -> Midnight Pulse -> Black Hole. With the recent buffs, Midnight Pulse is beyond amazing, but Enigma can't set it up himself. He needs someone else with an AoE Disable to go in first and give him time and space to set it up, so Enigma can chain a Black Hole onto it. This combo is game changing, even into the Super Late Game. I reserve Chain Frost for breaking Death Ward since I feel that's the best use for it. It's a better Counter-Initiation tool than a source of Damage imo.

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We'll need 8 other people for that...8{)

Remember I can roam around with a Smoke of Deceit and get a kill before breaking high ground: both Centaur Warrunner and Skywrath Mage (and even Witch Doctor) can easily bring down an enemy in your jungle, and if you just stick to your towers I can take the Aegis, after which the Doom on Void would be useless. Also, consider I can Stampede back or use BKB after Tide comes in.
But really, it depends more on the players than on the draft: this is the kind of match that drags for 60 minutes until a team gets bored and throws, unless someone wins the mid game.

Also:

If only there was some Item that allowed me to have a 2nd Doom 8{3

Refresher Orb ftw!