Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

5 stack mastery

Whilst we have been waiting for everyone to return to 5 stack night we have been practicing new combinations.

Broot is elite at SB now (see http://www.dotabuff.com/players/4455932/trends?metric=win something like 13 wins out of the last 16 games) and not only has it allowed proficiency with Spirit Breaker, but also he has been able to look at item builds to counterpick the other team.

The outstanding one so far is

Spirit Breaker (Broot)  -- Solo offlane
Lifestealer (TJ)  -- jungle

Although we only tried once, PA mid with this combination was awesome.   Riki as another host for lifestealer could be viable but needs more practice.  Juggs+safelane support would also be another viable addition.

Spirit breaker buys dust and the occasional offensive observer ward, to relieve some of the solo support issues.

My ideal combo for the other 3 spots are below.  There are many combinations that work, but we definitely need some further hitting power (from both mid and safe) and more disables.

SB - solo offlane
LS - jungle  - farms a Midas then jumps into SB every 90 seconds.

Combination of final three is then chosen based on other teams pick.  But in general we need a hard lategame carry high damage right clicker, a good mid that can carry the early-mid game and a support (courier and some wards). Utility/stunner support such as Earthshaker, Shadow Shaman, Crystal Maiden.

Troll - mid
PA  - safelane
Warlock - safelane
Storm Spirit - mid
PA  - safelane
Crystal Maiden - safelane
Troll - mid
Juggs  - safelane
Shadow Shaman - safelane

Gameplan:  Post-laning phase - spirit breaker starts harassing, once LS gets ulti they combine everytime it is up to try and gank their safelane carry.
This is to give room to our safelane carry to farm safelane/jungle.  If thinks are going well then mid is also participating in ganking.
Troll is added above as everytime we get to a tower he throws on his Ulti.  Troll and Sniper and generally considered to be OP at the moment.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Tri-Lane Guide

http://www.dotafire.com/dota-2/guide/playing-trilanes-an-in-depth-guide-by-peppo-opaccio-5728

Hey guys,

Check this out.  Its a pretty in depth guide to the concepts of tri lanes.  In essence though its to zone out farm for the opposing teams carry or zone out the enemy to allow our carry to farm uncontested.

The trick is to have a support pulling lanes to be gaining gold and experience to be not left behind.

I also think the combo's might be a bit out dated in this guide but its a decent start for us to think of more.

Thoughts?

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Tip of the Week

Sensible Tip
* Let TJ rebut the oppositions abuse

General Tip
* Always carry a TP

Carry
* Nearly always in team fights, kill the character with crowd / map control first

Support
* Wards are more important than your boots

Monday, March 23, 2015

Strengths and Weaknesses

Now that we are getting to the higher levels of competition, we need to work on improving our areas of effectiveness. Can everyone please comment on what you think is your strengths and weaknesses. Here are a couple from my observation.

Strengths
  • Broot - Good overall knowledge of strategy, excellent 1 v 1 or small group encounter, ganking and execution skills.
  • Phil - Large & small team fight execution,(probably the best of us at this). Farming efficiency & tower destruction strategy.
  • TJ - well rounded knowledge of heroes, outstanding farming efficiency, strong knowledge of game strategies, good fight execution.
  • Nank - excellent technical knowledge, character knowledge, good idea of overall strategy.
  • Dia - good overall strategy knowledge,

Weaknesses
  • Broot - 5 v 5 team fight execution (Don't get lost in the clutter)
  • Phil - Adapting style/meta game strategy based on enemy heroes abilities
  • TJ - A little solo minded. You cant win the game against good opponents on your own. Share the wealth bro. ED TJ - I think this explains it all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxUA-n40PWo
  • Nank - Heat of the moment execution & overall communication.
  • Dia - Heat of the moment execution, not assuming the team know what I am thinking & farming efficiency, miss clicking God!
My largest weakness is getting frustrated very easily. I understand this is effecting my ability to play well and more importantly taking away from the enjoyment of the game for all the team. I am working on it and in the mean time happy for you guys to tell me to stfu when it is impacting your fun in the game.

Things we can do better as a team:
  1. Set a team leader each match that we all abide by. I think rotation may cause problems but we can do this until a clear and obvious leader comes out of the trials. (Steve's idea and its brilliant)
  2. Discuss when to dive and when to back out based on abilities. i.e watch out for WD ulti.
  3. Set stun rotations, set enemy priority kill lists in team fights. Assign responsibilities. (i.e. Stun CM/WD during their ulti's.)
  4. Watch replays of our fight encounters at .25 speed and see what was good and what could be done better next time. (I have been doing this with Storm Spirit and it has improved my farming efficiency and team fights immensely.(I now right click whilst zipping as SSpirit)

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Heroes we should learn

Was thinking off the back of TJ's latest post of hero's we should be playing in our ranked games and who we should be playing in the fun/pub games.  We should also be thinking of heroes that we should learn (or more of us should learn). In all the roles.

Ones I'm thinking would be good additions:
3-5 spot
Sand King
Witch doctor (or more Witch Doctor!)
Earth Shaker
Necro
Ancient Apparition
Jakiro
Disruptor
Tidehunter
Enigma

1-3 spot
Tiny
Timbersaw
Sven
Storm Spirit
Brewmaster
Razor
Outworld Devourer
Slark

Any thoughts or additions.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Fun nights and try hard nights

We should till try out different combinations on fun nights and then when we get ranked Zen 5 try out our best combinations.
The addition of Windranger to our ranked has changes us from a team that is searching for team fights and defending to tower push team, able to extend into the end game with advantage!

Ranked hard core lategame sniper+void

Safelane core: Void (Diash)
Safelane support: Witch Doctor (Bishop)
Mid core: Sniper (TJ)
Offlane core: Spirit Breaker (Broot)
Offlane support: Lich (Nnank)

Ranked - hard carry, moderate tower push:

Safelane core:  Juggs (Phil)  [alt: Wrath King]
Mid core: Drow (TJ)  [alt: Troll Warlord]
Offlane core: Windranger (Broot) [alt: viper]
Offlane support: Mirana (Nnank)
Safelane support: Warlock (Diash)
Summary :
Disables:   OK
Tower Push: Great
Gank: OK
Team fight: OK
End game: Good
Mid game: Good


Ranked - hard carry, great tower push:

Safelane core:  Juggs (Phil)
Mid core: Drow (TJ)
Offlane core: Troll Warlord (Nnank)
Offlane support: Windranger (Broot)
Safelane support: Warlock (Diash)
Summary:
Increases tower push and mid-late game team presence



Pubmatch - ultimate tower push:

Jakiro
Warlock
Windranger
Shadow shaman

Pubmatch - stun smash, feed the storm:

Sven
Jakiro
Shadow Shaman
Earthshaker
Storm Spirit

Monday, March 2, 2015

Something funny to watch - guide to escaping MMR hell

http://youtu.be/_-J9mfcExhg

funny dude. not sure good the advice is but funny none the less.

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Zen5 progress to date

Match IDResultOpponentDurationHeroes
1273334062Lost Match
LEL39:24
Warlock
Crystal Maiden
Axe
Viper
Luna
1273099513Won Match
iNFAMOUS57:18
Shadow Shaman
Phantom Assassin
Drow Ranger
Mirana
Spirit Breaker
1221585183Lost Match
29:03
Shadow Shaman
Juggernaut
Dazzle
Puck
Slark
1221452883Lost Match
35:44
Drow Ranger
Viper
Shadow Shaman
Mirana
Weaver
1211517490Lost Match
41:00
Weaver
Lion
Ursa
Puck
Spirit Breaker
1211269445Lost Match
36:24
Mirana
Morphling
Witch Doctor
Viper
Axe
1162262913Won Match
35:47
Dazzle
Slardar
Wraith King
Viper
Shadow Shaman
1096634574Lost Match
34:16
Dazzle
Drow Ranger
Tiny
Phantom Assassin
Shadow Shaman
1081975014Lost Match
21:09
Elder Titan
Lion
Spirit Breaker
Shadow Shaman
Faceless Void
1081784481Lost Match
32:45
Disruptor
Juggernaut
Drow Ranger
Dazzle
Tidehunter
1066660764Lost Match
25:00
Drow Ranger
Disruptor
Spirit Breaker
Rubick
Juggernaut