DOTA

[Vigormortis]

I honestly don't get it. Given how toxic the community for MOBAs is considered to be, maybe that's for the best.

Like I'd said in my previous post, the Dota 2 community is no where near as "toxic" as many claim. In fact, most of the people I've heard assert as much often either don't play the game at all or played one or two matches, ran into an abrasive player, and then generalized the entire community as being like that player.

If anything, games like Call of Duty breed far more toxic communities.

And that's not some blind assertion. Just look up a collection of Call of Duty and Dota 2 tournament videos. Then, just observe the behaviors of the players in a given match.

There is a much greater chance of you seeing the Call of Duty players jumping around, slamming controllers, screaming, cursing, and just generally acting out of control than the chance you'll see the Dota 2 players acting the same.

 

[Vigormortis]

The new Tranqs are what they are meant to be, in my opinion: support boots.

• Cheap
  Big buff to speed (CM needs it badly)
  Health regen to make up for your lack of items as support
  A bit of armour so you don't get nuked down late game as easily
  Cheap

Who they aren't for: Axe lol

But as support items they are terrible.

You basically have two options while laning with the new boots.

Be useful by denying or harassing, but lose the benefits of the boots. (Rendering them pointless)

- or -

Be useless by standing around doing nothing the whole time but gain some nice heals. (Rendering you a pointless support)

Really, they're just awful. The biggest problem being that interminable 13 second cooldown until they go active again. And now, given the changes to Tangos, the new TranqBoots are made even more pointless.

 

[Grach]

Common misconceptions and misleading assertions often perpetuated by those not a part of the Dota community.

In truth, the Dota 2 community is no more or less "caustic" than any other online community. Anyone asserting as such clearly isn't taking a close enough look at any other online communities.

You get your occasional jerk, asshat, or douche-bag, sure. But that's basically par-for-the-course when it comes to online gaming.

As for the game, there are enough ways to play that any player can ease themselves into learning the ins-and-outs of the mechanics. It even includes a decent tutorial now. It's no where near as "unforgiving" as many assert.

Yeah? I saw my cousin play for a while. The guys that he played with reported each other for simply being bad at the game. So, no thanks.

That's a shame. It really is a fun game.

I used to think along the same lines as you years ago when it was still a Warcraft 3 map mod. But once I finally gave Dota 2 a try I learned that many of my preconceived notions about the game and the community were woefully incorrect.

If I may make a suggestion, I think it's best to simply stop listening to others complain (many of whom probably never played the game) about the game and just try it for yourself.

Except it still sounds very hard to get into, nevermind me being not into MOBAs in general. Again, no thank you.

 

[blackrave]

Please, can someone explain this in terms average gamer can understand
(with assumption that this gamer haven't played DOTA or LOL)
All I got from this comic: DOTA2 is bad?

 

[scw55]

DotA is a game I love to hate.

I enjoy the game itself. I don't enjoy the other players.

I can cope with my own poor performance. But it's really hard to deal with other players failing. It is demoralising playing your best, but you still lose because of your team's performance overall. It's like, to secure a win you must play so well that you actually carry your team enough that you actually obliterate the enemy. Those factors rarely coincide.

But yeah, my last game went down very well. Carry-Support Abaddon ftw (when the team setup lets it).

Problem is with random match making, you won't get a balanced team. You need a support. You need an initiator. You need a carry.
Random players fail at executing turtle strategies or aggressive pushing.

 

[Cecilo]

And that's why you play Dota 2 with friends...

...Dota 2 is also a game where the player adapts to the game, not the other way around.

No. You do not ever play DOTA or DOTA 2 with friends. It will destroy your friendships if you play with those friends competitively. Slowly tearing apart your friendship while you hold back your rage for each other because you mess up.

 

[Vigormortis]

Yeah? I saw my cousin play for a while. The guys that he played with reported each other for simply being bad at the game. So, no thanks.

Okay? You watched a few matches and that's indicative of the entire game and community?

The vast majority of the matches I and others I know have been in have been nothing like the one you described.

There would be the occasional match where a few jerks with "smurf" accounts would comprise the entirety of the other team and would trash talk the entire match. But again: that's true of every online community.

The only time you will consistently run into abrasive players is if you're stuck in the low-priority pool; of which you end up in by either being a jerk or quitting too many matches.

If your cousin consistently ends up with those kinds of players, I can't help but assume he's in the low-priority pool. Out of curiosity, how long has he been playing?

Except it still sounds very hard to get into, nevermind me being not into MOBAs in general. Again, no thank you.

If you're not into the genre, that's fine. I can appreciate that.

I'm just trying to tell you that it is a good game. One that can be both incredibly fun and rewarding if given the chance. And, it's really not that hard to get into.

 

[kortin]

Seems accurate to me. I'd get pissed too if Dota 2 just suddenly decided to install itself on my computer. It's such a shit game, I'd not put volvo past that so they can claim it's actually a good game.

 

[Artemis923]

Meh. Too invested in LoL to bother with DotA...and LoL has cooler champions anyways.

 

[AWAR]

No, just no..
You see the actual average players play Dota.
It's the impatient people who are not willing to invest time in the game that uninstall it after their first loss.

Spoiler: In short:

Unless you're making a joke as well, I think you missed it.

No, I'm serious
Right now there are 476.000 people currently playing that game. It's always the number 1 most played game on steam so I don't really think the "average Dota player" uninstalls it after their first game

 

[Vigormortis]

But as a support (both hard support and normal) you spend most of your time moving: warding, dewarding and lane switching for ganks. You have a lot of time where you aren't attacking (the carry should be denying for the XP) and a lot of time moving between points that could have left you taking some hits (like a gank).

All in all, I think they took away the cheap, easy to abuse (dismantle) boots from heroes like Meepo and Axe, and gave support heroes exactly what they need.

But the thing is, a few tangos solves most of your healing needs now. And, for the occasions where you're far too low in HP for tangos or salves to help, a trip to the fountain and back is actually faster than the boots regen.

Likewise, by the time you're in need of more tangos or heals you'll have an Urn or a Mek. And, by that point, you'll likely be wanting mana boots instead of the TranqBoots.

If I'm honest, I think it would have been much better to have either just removed the dismantle aspect of the old boots or to shorten the 13 second cooldown on the current ones. (or, perhaps, to have changed the recipe. make them a bit more expensive)

As they are now, the only heroes I can see them being useful on are Bounty Hunter (who spends most of his time roaming anyway), or a very small number of supports that have skills they can spam to some degree. (as in, they don't ever really need to right click)

I guess my biggest problem with them is the simple fact that I can't really be a fully effective support. It's that choice of either harassing/denying or roaming. With the current boots I can do only one of them effectively. With the old boots I could do both.

 

[Gorrath]

I honestly don't get it. Given how toxic the community for MOBAs is considered to be, maybe that's for the best.

Like I'd said in my previous post, the Dota 2 community is no where near as "toxic" as many claim. In fact, most of the people I've heard assert as much often either don't play the game at all or played one or two matches, ran into an abrasive player, and then generalized the entire community as being like that player.

If anything, games like Call of Duty breed far more toxic communities.

And that's not some blind assertion. Just look up a collection of Call of Duty and Dota 2 tournament videos. Then, just observe the behaviors of the players in a given match.

There is a much greater chance of you seeing the Call of Duty players jumping around, slamming controllers, screaming, cursing, and just generally acting out of control than the chance you'll see the Dota 2 players acting the same.

See, I have to disagree with this a bit. I played a ton of LoL and a significant amount of DOTA2 and the thing that gets me about the communities that surround both DOTA2 and LoL is that they are VERY toxic. Now what I mean by toxic is that they go beyond just being abrasive and start to actually interfere with your ability to enjoy and even play the games. The constant threat of being reported for "feeding" when someone is simply new and doesn't understand a lot about the game is a very toxic environment. And these threats are hardly rare. The constant barrage of abuse is one thing, the out and out accusations of purposefully tanking matches followed by several players reporting you for abuse is asinine and goes beyond even the juvenile antics found in COD.

People don't like losing, and I understand that, but the way they react to even someone being somewhat sub-par is freaking ridiculous. While I always tried to be as inclusive and understanding as possible with new players, I was in a tiny minority. I've been in fistfights that I found more enjoyable than some matches of DOTA2 and LoL that I played.

 

[Darth_Payn]

This is weird, I keep hearing about DOTA so many times, I forgot what that acronym stands for. I just hope its worth playing.

 

[themilo504]

I myself don?t seem to have any problem playing moba games, maybe I?m just lucky since I generally seem to end up in decent teams with some rare exceptions.

 

[shrekfan246]

No, just no..
You see the actual average players play Dota.
It's the impatient people who are not willing to invest time in the game that uninstall it after their first loss.

Spoiler: In short:

Unless you're making a joke as well, I think you missed it.

No, I'm serious
Right now there are 476.000 people currently playing that game. It's always the number 1 most played game on steam so I don't really think the "average Dota player" uninstalls it after their first game

The joke...

Spoiler: If I really have to kill it

Is that it's not the first game, but rather a daily occurrence of installing the game, playing, raging at it, uninstalling it, and then doing the entire thing over again the next day because that's the nature of MOBAs.

Hence, "a day in the life of the average DOTA player".

 

[Grach]

If you're not into the genre, that's fine. I can appreciate that.

I'm just trying to tell you that it is a good game. One that can be both incredibly fun and rewarding if given the chance. And, it's really not that hard to get into.

This is going to sound mean-spirited, but i'll just put it bluntly: Stop trying to tell me it's a good game. I already made my mind up, so you're just wasting your time. It's good that you like it, but I don't. It didn't convince me then and you won't convince me now.

 

[RookwoodX]

I mean it only takes 50 hours or so before you're not completely terrible at the game. You just gotta stick with it.

 

[RJ 17]

Hmmmmm, apparently Erin never watched this video:


The game seems pretty easy to me. :3

 

[Vigormortis]

See, I have to disagree with this a bit. I played a ton of LoL and a significant amount of DOTA2 and the thing that gets me about the communities that surround both DOTA2 and LoL is that they are VERY toxic. Now what I mean by toxic is that they go beyond just being abrasive and start to actually interfere with your ability to enjoy and even play the games. The constant threat of being reported for "feeding" when someone is simply new and doesn't understand a lot about the game is a very toxic environment. And these threats are hardly rare. The constant barrage of abuse is one thing, the out and out accusations of purposefully tanking matches followed by several players reporting you for abuse is asinine and goes beyond even the juvenile antics found in COD.

People don't like losing, and I understand that, but the way they react to even someone being somewhat sub-par is freaking ridiculous. While I always tried to be as inclusive and understanding as possible with new players, I was in a tiny minority. I've been in fistfights that I found more enjoyable than some matches of DOTA2 and LoL that I played.

Maybe I and those I know are in a minority when it comes to Dota players, but much of the behavior you've described rarely occurs in our matches.

Unless, as I'd said in another post, you're stuck in the low-priority match-making pool. This is usually the only time I've seen that kind of behavior. But then, most of the people that get stuck in the low-priority pool are there because they're not exactly the shining-beacons of good sportsmanship.

It might also be an occasion of most of us only playing when we can get a few together in a party. Many of us rarely, if ever, solo-queue.
:/

 

[Vigormortis]

The healing effect of the boots is just a bonus. The much needed armour and huge speed boost is the draw. Dewarding and moving between ganks as your standard supports (Bane, CM, Rubik, etc.) is so much easier with the new boots.

The cooldown period is a non-issue. If you're attacking, you shouldn't be on the receiving end of attacks, so no amount of cooldown matters; if you are trying to 1 v 1, you're playing support wrong; if you're being targeted in a team fight, your carry isn't, so it's a win.

TPs cost a lot of gold for a support. Walking to fountain is a long period of time you're not doing your job. The regen is often enough to keep you from having to go back. Tangos aren't cheap either and (unless they have a NP) you want them out of your inventory as soon as possible. Boots you keep for the entire game.

To me, the boots do exactly what they need to, without being open to abuse or too well rounded. They have their place and nothing more. The boot selections aren't perfect, but they are going a ways towards giving each pair a use and a role. Most of all, I am so glad Axe can't spam ring and keep his damn BH up nonstop lol.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely agree the old boots were exploitable by the likes of Axe and others. I'm glad they nerfed them in that regard.

However, I still feel like the new version is too limiting. I can appreciate making them more specific in terms of the niche role they fill, but I feel like they inadvertently made them useless on support heroes that would ordinarily have relied on them. Thus, by proxy, making those supports less effective.

I suppose I won't be as bothered once I've sussed out a new meta for item builds for the supports I'd normally get boots on. Even so, I'm still of the opinion that they made them too "niche".