[Zanderax]

I have 7 DOTA 2 keys up for grabs. PM me your steam e-mail.

[MazEi]

For the key giveaways, please use the Key giveaway thread =)

[Torniquet]

+ [Patch notes for the Test Client, April 18] +

http://dev.dota2.com/showthread.php?t=31260

GAMEPLAY
- Enabled Brewmaster!
- Bane: Fixed Nightmare dispelling on self damage (e.g. Rot).
- Clockwerk: Fixed Hookshot target sometimes being able to move away while you are traveling.
- Clockwerk: Fixed aoe around Hookshot not reliably affecting the area.
- Earthshaker: Fixed cases where invulnerable units could get stuck inside Fissure.
- Juggernaut: Fixed Omnislash jumping to couriers.
- Lina: Fixed Dragon Slave's cast range being too short.
- Lone Druid: Added a visual effect at the Spirit Bear's old location when it's recast.
- Lone Druid: Fixed a bug when Spirit Bear would disassemble an item, causing it to have no owner.
- Nightstalker: Added duration buff for Darkness.
- Pudge: Fixed Dismember damage happening one second too late.
- Spirit Breaker: Fixed case where he could get stuck when using Nether Strike.
- Viper: Fixed Corrosive Skin affecting Serpent Wards.
- Fixed being able to deny yourself (while under poison) if you attack through the hero icon at the top.
- Fixed Linken Sphere proccing for secondary hits of Chain Lightning and Lightning Storm.
- Fixed Magic Immunity removing Poison Attack debuff.
- Fixed hero deaths not disjointing incoming projectiles (in the case of fast respawns/buyback).
- Fixed bug that was causing attack projectiles to be slightly out of sync with the server.
- Fixed units not always respecting the ability backswing time (without animation canceling), causing animations to sometimes end faster than normal.

UI
- Fixed creepstats not being visible to spectators.

VISUALS
- Updated Nevermore's Requiem of Souls.
- Added an effect for Nevermore's Necromastery.

DOTA 2 BOTS
- Bots will now use couriers.
- While there are any disconnected humans on the opposing team, bots will now select the most appropriate corresponding hero or heroes on their team to go back to the fountain to try to keep teams somewhat balanced.
- Bots will no longer forget about heroes they're trying to kill when they go invulnerable.
- Changed how bots think about attacking wards/minions, they should behave more reasonably now.
- When bots defend a tower, they should now be more aggressive about transitioning into attacking, rather than milling around behind the tower.
- Mid bots are now less likely to roam at early levels.
- Fixed bug that was causing Zeus to killsteal (too much) with his Ult.
- Earthshaker bot will no longer use Echo Slam to kill a lone hero unless that hero is a hard carry.
- Earthshaker bot will no longer use Echo Slam on a target that it thinks is about to die anyways.
- Windrunner bot will now buy Mekansm rather than Blademail.
- Fixed bug that could cause poorly-aimed fissures and powershots.
- Windrunner bot will now use Powershot when pushing/defending a lane, and sometimes to harass/last-hit while laning.
- Fixed bug where Kunkka bot would freeze when trying to kill a non-hero target.
- Fixed bug where Dire bots would respond to pings from spectators.

[Daboo]

Randomed invoker today! o.0

I was completely bamboozled, and didnt understand a thing...whats more, I had to solo lane at the top,against huskar and rikki. So I'm standing next to my tower and think what the how the crap do I play this guy, why doesnt my mana go down when I cast quas.

Kinda figured out how to play him as I went and stuck with tornado and meteor for most game, and then emp and tornado. But overall I think you need to memorize the spells a bit to play this guy so you can switch rapidly, should be enormous fun. Also made the mistake of not making aghanim scepter for some reason :/

Hope I random this guy a few more times, watching a pro play invoker should be very entertaining.

[MazEi]

Go watch that play of the week some weeks ago, the one with that Invoker player for number one and you'll get what a boss that guy is.

[Jaywalk]

a good invoker is a beast - haven't seen many good ones even in the pro matches

[Torniquet]

+ [Brewmaster on the test server.] +

http://www.youtube.com/embed/3CfcVVH7X5A

+ [Patch notes for the Test Client, April 18] +

http://dev.dota2.com/showthread.php?t=31260

GAMEPLAY
- Enabled Brewmaster!
- Bane: Fixed Nightmare dispelling on self damage (e.g. Rot).
- Clockwerk: Fixed Hookshot target sometimes being able to move away while you are traveling.
- Clockwerk: Fixed aoe around Hookshot not reliably affecting the area.
- Earthshaker: Fixed cases where invulnerable units could get stuck inside Fissure.
- Juggernaut: Fixed Omnislash jumping to couriers.
- Lina: Fixed Dragon Slave's cast range being too short.
- Lone Druid: Added a visual effect at the Spirit Bear's old location when it's recast.
- Lone Druid: Fixed a bug when Spirit Bear would disassemble an item, causing it to have no owner.
- Nightstalker: Added duration buff for Darkness.
- Pudge: Fixed Dismember damage happening one second too late.
- Spirit Breaker: Fixed case where he could get stuck when using Nether Strike.
- Viper: Fixed Corrosive Skin affecting Serpent Wards.
- Fixed being able to deny yourself (while under poison) if you attack through the hero icon at the top.
- Fixed Linken Sphere proccing for secondary hits of Chain Lightning and Lightning Storm.
- Fixed Magic Immunity removing Poison Attack debuff.
- Fixed hero deaths not disjointing incoming projectiles (in the case of fast respawns/buyback).
- Fixed bug that was causing attack projectiles to be slightly out of sync with the server.
- Fixed units not always respecting the ability backswing time (without animation canceling), causing animations to sometimes end faster than normal.

UI
- Fixed creepstats not being visible to spectators.

VISUALS
- Updated Nevermore's Requiem of Souls.
- Added an effect for Nevermore's Necromastery.

DOTA 2 BOTS
- Bots will now use couriers.
- While there are any disconnected humans on the opposing team, bots will now select the most appropriate corresponding hero or heroes on their team to go back to the fountain to try to keep teams somewhat balanced.
- Bots will no longer forget about heroes they're trying to kill when they go invulnerable.
- Changed how bots think about attacking wards/minions, they should behave more reasonably now.
- When bots defend a tower, they should now be more aggressive about transitioning into attacking, rather than milling around behind the tower.
- Mid bots are now less likely to roam at early levels.
- Fixed bug that was causing Zeus to killsteal (too much) with his Ult.
- Earthshaker bot will no longer use Echo Slam to kill a lone hero unless that hero is a hard carry.
- Earthshaker bot will no longer use Echo Slam on a target that it thinks is about to die anyways.
- Windrunner bot will now buy Mekansm rather than Blademail.
- Fixed bug that could cause poorly-aimed fissures and powershots.
- Windrunner bot will now use Powershot when pushing/defending a lane, and sometimes to harass/last-hit while laning.
- Fixed bug where Kunkka bot would freeze when trying to kill a non-hero target.
- Fixed bug where Dire bots would respond to pings from spectators.

+ [Dota 2 Top 10 Weekly : Ep. 7] +

http://www.youtube.com/embed/veNdhI9ZXPo

+ [Dota 2 18th April Patch – Content Analysis] +

http://www.cyborgmatt.com/2012/04/dota-2-18th-april/

Quick Comments

iM yang:

[iM yang]

I'm loving these updates tourniquiet, thanks a bunch!

[Torniquet]

Brewmaster added to Dota 2.

+ [Dota 2 Update - April 19, 2012] +

http://store.steampowered.com/news/7784

GAMEPLAY
- Enabled Brewmaster!
- Bane: Fixed Nightmare dispelling on self damage (e.g. Rot).
- Clockwerk: Fixed Hookshot target sometimes being able to move away while you are traveling.
- Clockwerk: Fixed aoe around Hookshot not reliably affecting the area.
- Earthshaker: Fixed cases where invulnerable units could get stuck inside Fissure.
- Juggernaut: Fixed Omnislash jumping to couriers.
- Lina: Fixed Dragon Slave's cast range being too short.
- Lone Druid: Added a visual effect at the Spirit Bear's old location when it's recast.
- Lone Druid: Fixed a bug when Spirit Bear would disassemble an item, causing it to have no owner.
- Nightstalker: Added duration buff for Darkness.
- Pudge: Fixed Dismember damage happening one second too late.
- Spirit Breaker: Fixed case where he could get stuck when using Nether Strike.
- Viper: Fixed Corrosive Skin affecting Serpent Wards.
- Fixed being able to deny yourself (while under poison) if you attack through the hero icon at the top.
- Fixed Linken Sphere proccing for secondary hits of Chain Lightning and Lightning Storm.
- Fixed Magic Immunity removing Poison Attack debuff.
- Fixed hero deaths not disjointing incoming projectiles (in the case of fast respawns/buyback).
- Fixed bug that was causing attack projectiles to be slightly out of sync with the server.
- Fixed units not always respecting the ability backswing time (without animation canceling), causing animations to sometimes end faster than normal.

UI
- Fixed creepstats not being visible to spectators.

VISUALS
- Updated Nevermore's Requiem of Souls.
- Added an effect for Nevermore's Necromastery.

DOTA 2 BOTS
- Bots will now use couriers.
- While there are any disconnected humans on the opposing team, bots will now select the most appropriate corresponding hero or heroes on their team to go back to the fountain to try to keep teams somewhat balanced.
- Bots will no longer forget about heroes they're trying to kill when they go invulnerable.
- Changed how bots think about attacking wards/minions, they should behave more reasonably now.
- When bots defend a tower, they should now be more aggressive about transitioning into attacking, rather than milling around behind the tower.
- Mid bots are now less likely to roam at early levels.
- Fixed bug that was causing Zeus to killsteal (too much) with his Ult.
- Earthshaker bot will no longer use Echo Slam to kill a lone hero unless that hero is a hard carry.
- Earthshaker bot will no longer use Echo Slam on a target that it thinks is about to die anyways.
- Windrunner bot will now buy Mekansm rather than Blademail.
- Fixed bug that could cause poorly-aimed fissures and powershots.
- Windrunner bot will now use Powershot when pushing/defending a lane, and sometimes to harass/last-hit while laning.
- Fixed bug where Kunkka bot would freeze when trying to kill a non-hero target.
- Fixed bug where Dire bots would respond to pings from spectators.

+ [Brewmaster introduction] +

http://youtu.be/3CfcVVH7X5A

[Daboo]

^^Just downloaded the update. The first two skills resemble ursa. The one I'm really interested in seeing is meepo, seems like a ton of fun.

If you guys like doing completely random shit Check this out: http://divinecourage.dy.fi/

Randomly chooses a hero for you, and a build aswell..gogogo!

Given my current trend going random in all matches this seems very interesting,..I also feel like playing pure invoker for a while though.

[Torniquet]

Most of the people who used to play Dota would remember Wodota. They have started doing dota 2 videos now as well. Heres the first two of their top 10.

+ [Episode 1] +

You Tube

You Tube

+ [Episode 2] +

You Tube

You Tube

Also free to play model will be used but one with a twist and unlike any other game out there. Article here podcast here.

[Daboo]

Oh wodota is doing this too, A lot of people commenting on the dota cinema videos gave dota cinema hell over their selections, and constantly compared it to wodota.

Damn that chinese web site is s-l-o-w, loads up a bunch of stuff
There's the youtube link to those videos.

You Tube

You Tube

Edit: Why didnt they use it's electric? And the first volume was not that good really..the dota cinema ones were better.

[ToRsupapower]

Originally Posted by firehand101

+ [spoiler] +

it will be free?!?! wow holy mamoly! i wanna play! and we will see how popular it gets before we think it deserves its own sub forum (or we can see how many of us actually play and determine it from that)

It won't be free, there are no unlockable in the Beta atm so no income will come in, they need to make money somehow especially since all the characters are unlocked straight away, items all availabe, and it will have to compete with League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth... so it will most likely be pay2play

Originally Posted by cruxis

LoL is more casual. No denying creeps and towers. Trees just there to look pretty, with no use, A free ability to travel back to the fountain. A lot slower in game play. More about heroes and what lanes they'll be rather then a good team fight composition. No neutral stacking or pulling. High ground has no effect on line of sight. Baron gives the team a buff, rather then just 1 person with re-spawn.

Actually with the introduction of LoL to Korea, the Koreans are more popularising the team comp meta, to pick for teamfights only, that meta has been around for a while but the idea of counterpicking a lane champion, and winning your lane bascially carries onto late game where you can win from just winning your lane and last hitting well.

[MazEi]

Originally Posted by ToRsupapower

It won't be free, there are no unlockable in the Beta atm so no income will come in, they need to make money somehow especially since all the characters are unlocked straight away, items all availabe, and it will have to compete with League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth... so it will most likely be pay2play.

http://www.joindota.com/en/news/2910...y-with-a-twist

It is f2p.

[Daboo]

I think it was established by a blog that unlockables were included even in the current client, but they're just not public. There was an orca whale skin for tide hunter, and a bunch of other stuff, like a forgiveness soul to get you out of the low priority queue.

They see china as a big market(and rightly so), and dota2 needs to be free else they'll just continue to play dota 1.


o.0 @no deny in lol, I thought that was a nice mechanic in dota, wonder why they didnt put that in.
I really hope they fix their match making, it seems so random at times, I get put into matches where people feed 10 times in 15 minutes, either on my side or the other side, it's just not fun. The times when the matches are well fought makes you feel so good, whether you win or loose.

[MazEi]

Yeah LoL has no denying, which made for some farming extravaganza when I was playing. Alongside the fact that its more casual-player-friendly, there were more less skilled players who just auto-attack all the creeps. Wasn't really my type of game, but it has its own merits.

Though it pisses me off that LoL players make it seem as if LoL is supposed to be the only moba game to exist and every other game sucks/is copying LoL. That and some of the players don't even want to keep an open mind when trying out another moba game like HoN or Dota(1 or 2), they just play 1 game and right away bash the game as bad.

EDIT
This article particularly pissed me off http://asia.gamespot.com/features/do...layer-6372137/

[Torniquet]

+ [Dota 2 Top 10 Weekly : Ep. 8] +

You Tube

You Tube

[Daboo]

^^ that No 5. pudge shouldve been No.1 ! that roshan steal was funny though.

[|Erasmus|]

Is there a roadmap for what heroes they are adding? I want to try troll warlord again, as I found him fun when I used to play a few games of dota with friends...

[Torniquet]

Nothing official but you can usually get a decent idea from the hero textures and particles that are added in game throughout the patches. Like if you look at this post, you can see Luna, Undying, Treant and Phantom Lancer. With his guess being Phantom Lancer next patch due to the amount of files of his already belonging in the game.