DOTAFire Blogs

I have been getting tilted as I train with Ursa. I feel very uncomfortable going for a naked dagger because that's a lot of money to get that early in the game. I'm always leaning on my phase boots and Poor man's so much that knowing I can't run away from trouble that easily when I have to step up to the creep wave to get the money is a problem. If I don't have a ranged attacker on my lane to back me up, the task seems very uphill. I'm just going to set Ursa aside for a little while and expand my horizons so I can get out of just using Lich and Veno all the time in Pubs. Yeah, nobody else wants to play the support and if I choose anything else I might lose the match... but... not everyone is a jerk. So I decided to pick up Sniper.

I've cussed this character out in matches many times. The first thing I notice is that he has no animation time in his attacks. You point, you click, you first hit. He doesn't do a lot of damage when you are in the first levels, but that's okay. Once you get…
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Hey all... I was messing around in Demo to get a feel for the distance of a Force Staff when I came up with a brilliant idea.

Troll Soccer

This is ONLY to be used on people who do bad things on purpose. Newbs don't deserve this kind of punishment. This is only a last resort to the unteachable or just plain mean. Nobody deserves constant verbal abuse. Now... give them one pass before deciding to do this. Some people just have a bad day. This is also ONLY to be used if there is little to no hope of winning (I.E. there is a high tier hero that has been fed, all your towers are down etc).

Step One: The rest of the team who has been harassed by the offender (and they have tried to reason with him, but he's being a jerk) decided unanimously to play Troll Soccer with the offender. If everyone is okay with this, you pause the game.

Step Two: Make your intentions known to the opposing team, citing why the offender is about to be humiliated. Tell them the rules of the game.

The Troll will b…
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Ten losses with that bear. I'm not the worst player of the group, I just have a hard time gauging how much damage he can do. A friend of mine told me to rush Vlad's and do Rosh at level 6 at all costs, but I'm seeing the pros doing something completely different. Is it really that important to get Rosh ASAP? I think it's a timing thing because it seems to be a waste of an Aegis if it only lasts for 5 minutes. Having it mid game seems much more productive unless the team really wants Cheese.

I'm going to try Phase Boots, Poor Man's shield, THEN Vlads. I can get the Blink Dagger after I Rosh, then... I'm kinda stuck. I could go Shadow Blade or Bar. A wand is useless. Linkin's maybe? I need to understand the art of ganking, though. I chase too much and end up in the enemy's traps.

Venomancer on the other hand, I've been rocking fairly well. I notice that his wards aren't affected by most Area of Effect attacks and they make good "poor man's wards" when giving chase or trying to reveal t…
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Sorry for being inactive for quite some time! I took a week-long break from Dota 2 and now I'm back! Currently, I'm working on the Bloodseeker guide and afterwards I'll be making an Anti-Mage one. Hope you'll enjoy it and please rate the guides accordingly. Tell me if there are any mistakes (there will be that's for damn sure) and what I can do to improve em. See ya!
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OMG! The karma doesn't like the fact I did three heroes in one run. I've worked with Ursa before, and I've lost 6 straight matches with him! I'm going to take a break from all of this because I can't seem to catch a break on my lane. They always have someone with an obscene aoe that they spam like sniper, underlord, and CM. I got stuck with a sniper and phantom assassin on offlane twice! O_O

Range freaking owns Ursa! :( He has a small aoe with his Q, but it only seems to be helpful while jungling everything else is just "RAWR! I'm a melee bear!" I didn't even get one kill in my last match because of the wreckage!

I won't let this detour me, I'm just going to practice the art of the blink dagger. I know I haven't been using it right and I don't know it's range well enough to get the ganks off.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Peace!

Ursula
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Wow, I got three heroes done in one run!

Puck was intimidating for me to use because I know he's a speedy character and I'm not into speedy heroes. Then again, it was a welcome change from Tiny who is slow as molasses. I started tinkering around with him on solo and the first thing I noticed was that he had fairly high damage starting out as well as a good mana pool. I practiced the concept of teleporting through the glowy ball, and it seemed simple enough until I had to use it properly in combat. Since I could never position myself very well and using it to run away was counter productive in the way I used it, I simply didn't use that aspect of Puck. He was a lot easier to last hit with than Lich and I thought he was just an adorable character.

... Then I learned how to farm with this monster. A fully-loaded glowey ball with his silence attack will two shot a normal creep wave very quickly. When I have items which grant me the ability to not care about my mana, the little punk tends…
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Wow! Two in one sitting!

Man, Tiny really wrecks late game! I still like my previous build of him, and it worked out nicely. I knew how to properly stun in team battles and we mopped the floor with them.

Now, before going to Tidehunter, I decided to do a quest playing Lich in a match for my Intelligence heroes. Man... we got a really noob team. I really felt sorry for the guys. At the start at the match it was only Drow Hunter in the safe lane. I forget who my second was, but she was solo for about 5 minutes. I kept harrassing the heck out of her and my partner decides I can solo this lane. I'm level 6 fairly quickly because I killed DH twice... and then, Juggernaught appears! So now I'm soloing two! I back away, Jug stops and starts killing creeps... I spike him twice with my fully loaded Q and... he dies.

... Okay, I just soloed a Jug as a support...

He comes back! A little smarter this time! DH is nowhere to be seen, but I'm keeping the lane around the tower and Good old Jug app…
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I just won with Undying, and I feel kind of bad because the opposing team rage quit... I was okay, I suppose, but I played him almost as my full support Lich. I didn't realize until the 40 minute mark that I totally forgot to buy him a blink dagger... x_X I also learned that his ult should be used for team fights and siege attacks. I completely poo-poo'ed it until level 9 when I could level up his Soul Rip and ... that circle attack... Decay? I'm really tired. Suffice to say, I tried to play him like a melee Lich and ended up underleveled for ten minutes.

Greaves are nice for a support, but trying to decide between the BD and the SB is one of my early game ponderings. Most people in pubs aren't smart enough to drop sentry wards unless their fighting a Riki. I don't want to get into the bad habit of relying on invis to save my bacon on a constant basis. None the less, that sweet attack bonus on the SB makes it more appealing to me than a bd, for the simple fact that I can use it when b…
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Hi! My Steam Name is Ursula, and I've been on DOTA for almost three weeks. I'm disabled and I live with my mom because she has MS, but still works. I get very scatterbrained in work places, and I forget to take care of myself a lot. Since I had to give up my dream of Professional Wrestling in 2005, I've been searching for another dream to get me excited to get up in the morning.

I heard how toxic the DOTA 2 community can be. I thought immediately that... well, I'm an okay gamer, so why not be a light in this community so that people will have someone cool to play with. I've been playing video games since I was 5 and have won several fighting game tournaments in my youth. I don't have the magic for fighting games, and I'm mediocre at FPS, but DOTA 2 has been a very pleasant experience for me and I'm catching on quick. I'd like to one day go pro or at least be a good enough player to be well-respected.

I have a long way to go, but my first goal is to complete the All-Hero Challenge so …
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Any recommendations for an A to Z series of guides for every hero in the roster? New to making guides here.
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