Do you use a RangeFinder.exe, and is it cheating?

If you're unfamiliar with the "Range Finder" in DotA 2, it's a command in the game that displays an area around your hero. You've probably seen this when hovering over a spell, and the range finder will display a circle around your hero to let you know the maximum range of your spell.

Well, some people use the range finder differently. Since it's a console command, and can be put into a .exe file, you can display any range (from 100 to a 99,999) by pressing a key. I'll use Kunkka as an example, since he relies heavily on landing difficult spells.

The first picture is when I press "Z", it constantly displays 1000 range around my hero. This makes it very easy to land boats.

The second picture, is not a hotkey I actually use. It displays 600 range, which is the range for tidebringer, according to the tooltip.

The third picture I have assigned to "X", which is 1025. This is the range that smoke reveals at. You're actually able to splash people in smoke, because the AoE is slightly larger. This shows that Tidebringer AoE is about double the 600 range it says in the tooltip. I use this in lane as Kunkka to make the most out of my splash, and make sure it rarely misses.

The fourth picture is assigned to "C". It displays 1300 range, which is exp range which I use if I am long lane solo. Torrent range is 1500, so this shows that you can torrent outside of EXP range. I use this to leech EXP in long lane, or push the opponent out of EXP range if I am supporting.






Range finder can be used for all sorts of things. If I am SD, and smoke ganking middle. I can press "X" to display 1025 range. As long as the opponents middle hero doesn't enter the displayed range circle around my hero, I will not be revealed. Or I can assign a key to 1325 and always be outside of hook range. I can even bait hooks by APPEARING to be in hook range, when I am 100% certain that I am not (or can easily leave hook range).

I think this is a pretty interesting topic since I know a lot of people who use it and think it's great, as well as people that have used it and think it's worthless.

Vote your stance on it, and get some discussion going on the topic.

Edit: I should probably start some discussion with my vote. I voted "little/no advantage". It helps a lot in a few rare situations. Overall, it won't make you a better player or anything. It won't make decisions for you. Plus, it's very hard to remember the hotkeys at first, when you first start using them. When pudge is coming to gank, and you press the "smoke" hotkey instead of "hook" hotkey... it can be pretty frustrating. -_-

Interesting, I was unaware of this...but I don't think its necessary, the circle is included for most range-sensitive spells (ex. Kunkka's boat, Timber/Clock hook, don't know about Pudge's since I never play him). I could see the smoke or EXP ranges being useful somewhat, but I feel like I have a pretty good sense of how far a given distance is (especially 1200, blink dagger range) just from experience.

I don't have a problem with others using it, but I would expect it to be banned at most tournaments (pure speculation on this).

It was included in sv_cheats by Valve, because AdmiralBulldog was overusing it when playing solo Lone Druid.So yes, technically its a cheat.

Yes it's quite unfair I think since everything else in the game relies on knowledge of distance rather than having an easy work-around to calculating distance in your head. As Wulf said, most tournaments don't allow it, and Admiral Bulldog using it for the distance on his bear is a big reason why.

well, I didn't use it yet, but now that I know that it's even considered cheating I really won't even try. I also would really hate if it was used against me by a player of ~the same skill level and just dominated me with it. If it was a lower skill level player we could view it as evening the odds, but it's still not fair

I find the range finder incredible for exp range. I can do most ranges on skills in my head but the range finder alows me to stay as far back as possible when solo laning. As a support I can be giving solo exp to a cary and still be close to support him. If we are about to get a kill I can slip into range for the exp.

If you blink out of 1200 range. it will blink only 1000. If withing 1200, it will do exact range. so it's very useful with blink dagger. but... wasn't this command removed from games or do you use a program?

I tend to just memorize the ranges, so, I don't see this as cheating at all. Infact, it kind of reminds of people who put a red dot on their screen for shooting games.

I made my own .exe file. If you're interested I will post it when I get home from work.

Also... OMG. MIRROR. MASTER OF BLACKHOLES. *takes out notebook*

Not using it, but not because it's unfair/cheating. It's because i'll improve faster without this.

And that option should be added, because i vote cheating even though it was actually personal reason.