Dota 2

[null--69]

If anything, I'm pretty good at using the Chaos Knight.

[SteelCurtain]

I have no idea what a Dota is.

[Marsellus Wallace]

I have no idea what a Dota is.

Do you have steam ? if not, install steam and then download Dota2 from it . Its a very nice game , you'll enjoy it .

[SteelCurtain]

I used to play Day of Defeat on Steam. Loved that game when I was at Prep School. I might try it this weekend.

EDIT: I just realized it was Valve, not Steam.

[Aractus]

If anything, I'm pretty good at using the Chaos Knight.

A great beginner's character is Lich, he's a powerful support and anti-carry hero. Even late game it is difficult for carries to beat him since he can cast chain frost if they try to gank him with 2 or 3 carries. He doesn't require items all he needs is stats - 2x bracers will suffice for most of the game, building a scepter also helps. He doesn't need any additional intel, so if you had boots bracer bracer scepter you're free to get whatever support item you want, or you can get support items before scepter. But it's probably best if you're new to get scepter first though since all (three) of his castable abilities are powerful support abilities (the other ability lets him keep getting mana from sacrificing creeps which keeps him able to use the other three abilities). You can then ask your teammates what support item they want you to build - hex, force staff, hood, etc it really doesn't matter to Lich what he builds at all once he has some stats he can build whatever the team needs from him. Or if the team doesn't need those items he can get bkb or damage items. In order to pick him off they really need hex or silence. Early-mid game you can kill almost any hero on 50% hp with a combination of frost blast + chain frost without any bounces + physical attack, making him a very powerful nuker and very good at picking off a hero that may be neuting in their jungle. He's an easy hero to master.

[null--69]

If anything, I'm pretty good at using the Chaos Knight.

A great beginner's character is Lich, he's a powerful support and anti-carry hero. Even late game it is difficult for carries to beat him since he can cast chain frost if they try to gank him with 2 or 3 carries. He doesn't require items all he needs is stats - 2x bracers will suffice for most of the game, building a scepter also helps. He doesn't need any additional intel, so if you had boots bracer bracer scepter you're free to get whatever support item you want, or you can get support items before scepter. But it's probably best if you're new to get scepter first though since all (three) of his castable abilities are powerful support abilities (the other ability lets him keep getting mana from sacrificing creeps which keeps him able to use the other three abilities). You can then ask your teammates what support item they want you to build - hex, force staff, hood, etc it really doesn't matter to Lich what he builds at all once he has some stats he can build whatever the team needs from him. Or if the team doesn't need those items he can get bkb or damage items. In order to pick him off they really need hex or silence. Early-mid game you can kill almost any hero on 50% hp with a combination of frost blast + chain frost without any bounces + physical attack, making him a very powerful nuker and very good at picking off a hero that may be neuting in their jungle. He's an easy hero to master.

Alright then I'll take your advice, then again it's been a while since I played the game.

[Marsellus Wallace]

Alright then I'll take your advice, then again it's been a while since I played the game.

Here is another tip , If the opposite team chooses Riki or Bounty hunter , just go and pick "slardar" , his his stuns fuck those little sneaky heros and their invisibility will be worth nothing , cuz of Slardar's ulti .

[Categories+Sheaves]

I see the 2x Vanguard + Battlefury on Death Prophet in the OP and I immediately run out of wat.
+1 to the forum playerbase, but I'm all pedantic and critical about the game (this is the spirit)

[Aractus]

So Silencer ...



Here's a brief overview of how I play him. Silencer is a powerful carry and he's a mid hero - don't pick him unless you're going to play the middle lane. You also need to have acute map awareness because it's important to know when and if you should use your Global Silence to help your teammates. Curse of the silent is the most useless skill in the entire game, and yet I still see 90% of Silencer players getting it first - you do not skill curse at all, and I'll explain this a bit later. At lvl1 silencer should have 2x mantle of intelligence a Circlet and one set of tangos. The first skill to get is always glaives of wisdom.

How to use Glaives - it's a powerful harassment skill because you can "orb walk" which means manually casting it at the enemy hero to avoid the enemy creeps from retaliating. It also helps you get last hits on creeps. When fully levelled Glaives deals bonus damage equal to 75% of your intelligence. The second skill to get, and the first one you max, is Last Word. LW is a very powerful skill when going for kills - it enchants the hero and when the duration finishes or when the hero casts a spell they are silenced - and if they don't cast a spell they are also disarmed. This ability in combination with your Global Silence are the two disable skills you have, and Silencer requires his disable and damage to be effective. That's why curse is useless - it's neither a disable nor does it do effective damage - you're much better off with the stats bonus than with having curse skilled. Curse has a mild mana-drain - but why do you need a mana-drain when you've got such powerful disables (LW + Global Silence)? Curse also wastes your mana and you'll end up needing clarities, when the enemy can counter any damage done by it with a tango. In the game above, Clinkz was mid and I drew first blood I think at lvl6 when I used Last Word for the first time. The finial reason you don't need Curse is survivability - stats increase your hit points passively, and Last Word and Global Silence can help you survive - Curse never helps you survive. +8 to all your stats will do much more for you than having a skill as useless as Curse.

I aim to get 2x Null Tailsmen and then Power Treads which I generally leave on strength (and did in the game above). Sometimes I will get a 3rd Null Tailsmen (it's a very cost-effective way of boosting your intel). From there the next two items you should aim for are Monkey King Bar and Scythe of Vyse in whichever order you feel is needed. MKB is for damage, and Scythe of Vyse is for disable.

I sometimes see people getting Orchid Malevolence or Aghanim's Scepter for Silencer - both these items are wrong. Silencer thrives on two things - damage and disable. As he already has two silences (Last Word and Global Silence) he doesn't need another. Scepter has very little to offer Silencer - it only offers +10 intelligence (which equals +10 damage with +7 bonus from Glaives), gives you agility you don't need, strength you don't need and mana points you don't need. If you need survivability it's not the right item - a BKB would be a much better choice for survivability.

The next item I would get, should the game keep going, is a hyperstone, and then more damage.

At the end of the above game I had stolen 64 intelligence, my total intel was 138+65 (203 and that's still with treads on strength), my base damage was 212+153 (365 total) +152 bonus damage from Glaives on each attack. OUCH!

Silencer is a good counter for Pudge and also for Riki (when riki is silenced from Last Word he loses his invisibility just like if he was tracked by bounty hunter, and that is generally long enough to get a kill on him.)

[Categories+Sheaves]

*cracks knuckles*

Silencer is a powerful carry and he's a mid hero - don't pick him unless you're going to play the middle lane.

With all the silence/disable he brings to the table, he's also a really good support. Exemplo Gratis: http://youtu.be/kd77FMTDn7Q

You also need to have acute map awareness because it's important to know when and if you should use your Global Silence to help your teammates.

Agreed, it's sad how often you go into a pub and your silencer pops his ult after the enemy team has initiated on you and used all their big abilities.

Curse has a mild mana-drain - but why do you need a mana-drain when you've got such powerful disables (LW + Global Silence)? Curse also wastes your mana and you'll end up needing clarities, when the enemy can counter any damage done by it with a tango.

See, but if you pop curse after they're silenced by Last Word, you can drain their mana enough so that they don't have anything to cast the next time you pop LW, and get the disarm effect (also: curse damage scales better with levels). If you're in a lane against multiple opponents who don't have cheap, spammable spells, Curse can do a lot to stop them from fighting effectively (and you definitely could have supported it if you had gotten a bottle for mid). Is Curse overrated? Yes. Should you skip it if you're trying to be a hard carry? Probably. Is it useless? No.

I sometimes see people getting Orchid Malevolence or Aghanim's Scepter for Silencer - both these items are wrong.

Last word isn't a hard silence, they have 4 seconds to cast a single spell before the silence hits. If you need to gank a Weaver, Storm Spirit, Morphling, or Anti-Mage*. it isn't going to stop them from casting the shukuchi/time lapse, ball lightning, morph to replicate, or blink they need to get away. And given how long the cooldown is on Global Silence, you want to make sure you save it for teamfights, and not just isolated pickoffs. There are plenty of reasons why you might need the extra silence.
*really, anyone with a good escape

Silencer is fun, but he can't carry that hard if he doesn't steal a lot of intelligence--which generally means you need to be stomping your opponent in the first place. Pubstomp doto is worst doto. Every time a bloodseeker gets a kill because the people in your game don't buy teleport scrolls, a kitten dies. Save the Kittens!