i think i decided on my goal for dota 2. i want to finish the all hero challenge one time. raising mmr is a lame goal and one that just makes you mad at everything. the all hero challenge is an incentive to sincerely try and learn a bit about everything while utilizing your fundamentals in the game. you get assigned heroes in order. when you finish one the game tells you your next one. i'm probably going to write a bit about each one (or most of them) since it'll be a fun way to talk about the game and the heroes. gonna make each post a reply to this one and also tag it with "d2ahc" and "[hero name] (dota)" in case anyone wants to find these later for some reason. technically i started this years ago and forgot about a couple of the early ones...
i'll probably also try and get in some games with my favs from time to time in the middle still. especially bc i've still gotta figure out how you can win with morphling. i think he's the #1 hardest hero in the game to play...
i've always liked playing everything, in fighting games too. being so close to competitive scenes kinda beats that out of you unless you really play only one game and are really smart, which does not describe how i feel about myself in fighting games. but maybe this'll teach me something about that. i'd like if it did. but the first one i got...is "wisp"
stop me if you've heard this one before, this hero is a universal hero who summons animals and his ult turns him into another one of that animal and...no, i swear lycan's actually quite different from lone druid. obviously it's short for "lycanthrope", and the werewolf install is genuinely a godlike ultimate that makes him incredibly dangerous especially in this new universal era. the wolves are great too, not game-dominating in the same way as the bear, but they deal good damage in the early-mid game and eventually become invisible when they're not attacking, which opens all kinds of scouting and sneaky plays. (in particular, people have destroyed the aegis with them before an enemy picks it up, even in pro games.) he's also got a roar that has a short fear but also lowers armor and (in the late game) can lower enemy damage. his passive buffs himself and all units he controls, which leads to this hero wanting not just to use his skill-based summons like LD but incentivizes building the item (helm of the overlord) that lets you control another creep as well. there's some strong creeps for fighting depending on what you need to counter on the enemy side, but there's also a troll that makes skeleton warriors which are ridiculously good at killing buildings. those are the ones you pick up during the item buildup, but eventually you can control huge "ancient" creeps with tons of hp and damage, and strong castable abilities or auras as well. since you're going to be controlling 4 units most of the time (and even 10 if you're using the skellies), lycan wants to build up those kinds of aoe buffs and heals, which led to him being played in the offlane (a moderately rich role which involves running around to start fights and/or create map pressure) for a long time, though after the universal change he's also been seen in the carry role since he can still build some of his team-based items while dealing huge damage thanks to the werewolf powerups.
most notably, he becomes really fast, which makes him super good at chasing down heroes who would try to run away. but he also gets critical strikes and extra hp, making him even better at bullying supports early in fights but also capable of going head to head against most other carries who don't use similar installs...and all the while he's getting extra debuffs, damage, and skills from the other units. out of the so-called "zoo" heroes he has the most raw power on the hero and, imo, is the easiest to play; despite not having stuns or anything like that, he just often doesn't need them that badly. on top of that, his scepter upgrade gives him the ability to give an ally the werewolf form as well, doubling the threat of those buffs, and his shard makes wolves automatically spawn in lanes, which are stronger than usual wolves against towers. this ups the threat of undefended lanes by a lot, since the group that has a wolf will basically always beat one that doesn't, and generating passive tower damage. enemies can kill the wolves for extra experience and gold, so you generally don't want to get your hands on it too early, but as the game settles into bigger team plays later on, that kind of passive pressure really adds up.
to be honest, i kind of understated in the lone druid writeup how frustrating it can be to play with no stuns. that's also what was up with disruptor. lycan is one of my favorite heroes who doesn't have a stun or silence, though i haven't played him in a long time; like i mentioned in the death prophet writeup, building team oriented and defensive items and just standing tall through the fight (or against buildings-druid may be the game's reigning building damage champion, but lycan and death prophet are close behind) is one of my favorite playstyles. the first game i picked this hero was a leaver game which i won without doing anything. that got me challenge credit, but it wasn't very satisfying; the next game my team didn't pick in the first phase and i didn't want to choose a support, so i clicked the "random" button...and got lycan. (the button is rigged, and says that there is a bias toward heroes you've played recently.) this one was a real game, and while sadly i couldn't justify picking up scepter till it was too late, i got to buy some of the other highlights: guardian greaves (a boots-type item that heals your allies restores mana, and gives armor; he doesn't need fast boots as much as other cores because of the werewolf speed), vladmir's offering (gives nearby allies lifesteal), the aforementioned helm, and spirit vessel (a pickoff focused item that damages an enemy and lowers their healing hugely. each use requires a charge, which you gain from being near an enemy when they die). i had a ton of money at the end because the game kind of turned into a nonstop fight and was trying to get assault cuirass (lowers enemy armor while raising your team's, and gives you a ton of extra armor and attack speed on top of that) and scepter delivered too. but they didn't reach in time. i was already doing too much damage...
cool hero. next time is the one who was my favorite for most of like, the first decade i played dota...he's considered unplayable at higher levels this patch because so many people buy mage slayer right now, but that probably won't ruin my life in those matches.
probably.