I don't Trust Valve and Neither Should You

Sitting here and watching DOTA2 unravel more of itself every passing week truly is a exciting sight to behold, and while many enthusiasts and fans tend to watch with awe and admiration, my reaction is usually more in the likes of somebody with both hands on their face, fingers parted at the eyes- terrified of what could potentially ruin the game at any moment. So far, so good. But with the inevitability of the ever dreaded Microtransactions already well underway it's only a matter of time before Valve starts unveiling stuff they plan to sell.

It seems to me that most people aren't worried. Part of this sense of calm comes from the fact that, after all, "It's Valve!"- the company that can "do not wrong". But for me, somebody who know all too well what a Microtransaction store can do to an ARTS game in particular, the whole shebang leaves me with this terrifying sense of possible bullshit still to come. League of Legends, Bloodline Champions, Heroes of Newerth- all these games have incorporated Microtransactions to their games and in many ways made them worse in the process. Of course, I don't blame them, as the money is good and League of Legends has proven time and time again that it's simply the most Economical strategy for an ARTS game. Nevertheless, as a player of the game it's virtually clear (at least, to me) that Microtransactions can only make an ARTS game more bloated. HoN got Early Access, BLC got a weird rune system and a bunch of other weird garbage, LoL... well, I've never played LoL so let's just leave it at that.

All this sort of raises the question inside of myself- how badly could Valve fuck this up if they really wanted to? How much could they get away with? The answer to that in my own mind sort of scares me. People tell me that I shouldn't worry because Valve is a beloved company that would never do any harm, but to me that's ironic- I'm scared because valve is a "beloved company"- because anyone knows that "credibility" in the video game industry is just another form of currency waiting to be cashed in- the question is simply when?

Team Fortress 2 is, in many ways, the poster boy in all of this. The F2P model in TF2 has been very successful and there's no doubt among anyone's mind that DOTA2 will have a very similar model. While a lot of people seem to have embraced the TF2 Man Co. Store (I would be lying if I said I had not spent some money in there) I must confess I never really liked the whole thing. Perhaps I'm in the minority here, but the as "Trading Hats General" replaced "TF2 General" on the Forums I became increasingly annoyed at how much the actual gameplay was being replaced by the ever-present "hat market". As somebody who values Gameplay over gimmicky items, luck and lottery garbage, this whole change was a rather unwelcome one for me. What's more, the implemented "Crate System" that Valve introduced later was basically a cash grab- players were required to purchase keys in order to unbox Crates they got (you couldn't do anything else with them) and proved to be the only way to get Unusual Hats (aside from trading, but nobody would trade you an Unusual Hat for anything less than another Unusual Hat). Stuff got so out of hand that people began making TF2 items and "Hat Pricing Lists" to put value on the things. Sometime around the day I was reading an Excel spreadsheet online trying to figure out how much my virtual Fedora was worth I had to stop what I was doing and wonder what I was doing with my life.

It feels like Microtransactions ruin everything they touch- and while a lot of people seem to put it passed Valve to ruin DOTA2 with them, I don't, and to be honest, neither should you. A lot of players don't consider TF2 "ruined" by the in-game store, but I see TF2 as a shell of its former glory. The new weapons are fun, but often blatantly overpowered (stuff like the Pomson) and purposely difficult to craft in order to entice players to buy it in the store instead. Many players rationalize a lot of the stuff from TF2 with the idea that "it's only cosmetic" and that most of the stuff you have to spend money on to get doesn't influence gameplay. But really, I don't buy it. Even if this were true, the entire cosmetics "market" creates such a strain on the Community by shifting the focus from gameplay to meta-gameplay (people idling TF2 for hats instead of actually playing the game). But the worst part is it's not even completely true. Valve likes to walk a fine line of what could be considered "pay for power", a while back they introduced a hat for the Sniper that could make him immune to headshots when worn in combination with other items, making the hat very valuable and would basically have to be purchased in the store.

I suppose I just don't really trust Valve (any more than I trust any other video game company) to make Microtransactions not-obnoxious. Even if they continue to walk their fine line of "not pay-4-power" then I'm still not really going to be satisfied. I feel like DOTA2 is a competitive game that, much like HoN, shouldn't be tampered with. HoN already "blew it" by limiting the Hero pool for new players (which makes countering some Heroes difficult if you don't have the Hero you need unlocked), something that DOTA2 players like to critique. But really, DOTA2 players who make fun of HoN because of the cash shop are in for a rude awakening- the same rubbish is coming to DOTA2 in some form or another. So, while I guess I do respect Valve more than other game companies, I wouldn't put it passed them to clog up the game with a bunch of cosmetic garbage that will get in the way of features and hero development (looking at you, HoN). I don't want to see every character in DOTA2 with alternate costumes, I don't want to see "items" that I can equip my character with to look "cooler", I don't want different looking versions of the same spells- I want a competitive consistency, something that, apparently, is on the way out.

All the Little Things

Both HoN and DotA2 are games full of small differences. Being a native DotA player since the early 2000s when DotA got started, I remember quite vividly exactly how the game was when I left it for HoN. Since I played HoN, frankly, I haven't looked back- I could never again get used to the graphics, the UI, the clunky gameplay. As DotA2 came along and upgraded all of the above the same way HoN did, returning to DotA seemed like stepping into a parallel dimension- a blast from the past.

For me, returning to the "DotA world" was a very interesting experience, because I started noticing all these changes- not just largescale changes like Alchemist's Unstable Concoction being reworked from a channeling ability to an instant cast "countdown" mechanic, but also smaller, much more subtle differences. Now, it could be that a lot of these small differences are actually things that HoN changed and DotA never did- my memory is not perfect and I don't remember exactly how many things were changed within DotA while I was gone compared to things HoN changed for some reason. But what I do know is that these small subtle differences make a huge difference in the way Heroes work in the game, and that many people take these subtle things for granted. So off the top of my head, enjoy this little list of cool little things I've noticed.

Anti-Mage versus Magebane

While both Heroes are relatively the same concept (hard carry with blink mechanic, no real CC or way of keeping the enemy still) they carry with them some unique characteristics. First of all, Magebane's Spell shield is combined with his Flash ability. When this ability was first put into the game, a lot of people were upset because it seemed really overpowered. After all, it meant that not only Magebane got to benefit from his already strong anti-magic shield, but now his whole team did, too? Sounds OP. But in reality, the change ended up being more of a Nerf than a Buff. How? Simple- since Magebane had to Blink in order to provide the shield for anyone, it meant that if enemies could sneak up on him, he wouldn't have any protection at all. Because of this, Magebane is much more susceptible to Ganks, whereas Anti-Mage is protected constantly. Seeing as how survivability in Carries is extremely important to craddle them into the lategame, it comes to no surprise that this is a very important difference between the two. Of course, it also helps that HoN has a lot more brutal gankers out there- Fayde specifically really butchers Magebane with her two abilities which burn his Mana. Another interesting difference between the two (aside from the passive on on Magebane which Anti-Mage doesn't have) is the cast point on their ultimates. Magebane's ultimate takes years to cast in comparison with Anti-Mage's ultimate, which goes off seemingly instantly. The fraction of a second extra that Magebane needs to cast his ultimate makes all the difference in the world- as it means that Anti-Mage has a much more powerful tool for killing wounded Heroes in the Early to Mid game. Magebane's ultimate, on the other hand, has such an unbearably long cast time that it's almost a skill shot if you don't have clearvision.

Lina's a little on the Slow Side

Back when I left, I think Icefrog was still trying to figure out what he wanted to do with Lina's third ability. Back then, it was an activatable ability that gave you a lot of attack speed. The ability didn't really synergize with Lina very much, as she was a caster, and built her items around having a larger Mana Pool, more HP, etc- but not +damage. As such, the increased Attack Speed wasn't really very significant and a lot of people didn't even end up picking up the skill at all. Somewhere between then and now, both DotA and HoN have opted for a passive ability instead, that procs when you cast spells. Arguably, the HoN passive is better in every aspect. It gives Pyromancer a Damage over Time on every single attack, which is invaluable for preventing enemies from using potions, plus it provides significant damage to buildings and Kongor. But really, the unsung Hero of this entire deal is the increased cast time. Lina's Light Strike Array is, in fact, so incredibly difficult to land with her casting animation half the time, that the small increase in cast time that only 1 rank of Fervor provides seems to completely negate the brutal cast time. Indeed, in Heroes of Newerth Pyromancer's 1 rank of Fervor that is often picked up early seems to make all the difference in landing his spells more reliably- and turns him into quite a monster in the later game.

A Bloody little Pat on the Back

Blood Hunter is sort of like the younger, physically handicapped cousin of Blood Seeker. Although seemingly better in every aspect, Blood Hunter somehow manages to be a bottom-of-the-barrel pick in HoN. Even lower level pubs are hesitant to pick him up these days, I personally can't even remember the last time I've seen him. And yet, for some reason, Blood Seeker, the Hero that seemingly does everything Blood Hunter does and worse, is a decent pick, at least from what I can see in current DotA2 pub games. So what's the deal? Where did Blood Hunter go wrong? Different metagame, easier to counter, better alternatives? Maybe- but really, the most distinct difference is in the itemization: Blood Hunter has no good mid-game items for him besides Mock, which is pretty darn difficult to farm in a real game. Blood Seeker, on the other hand, will be all too happy to pick up a Force Staff- an item that increases his ganking potency drastically. Funny how one item can make such a difference, but Force Staff works with Rupture in DotA, whereas Tablet of Command doesn't do anything for Blood Hunter. With one click Blood Seeker can launch his enemies helplessly in a direction, providing them an untimely advance in their menstrual cycle. The extra burst damage this provides seems to really make a difference in the games I've been in, and really helps Blood Hunter to dominate the mid-game if he plays his cards right.

Back To The Dumpster

Chronos and Faceless Void have always sort of been the staple of a "Hard Carry" in both games, and, while I can't really speak for DotA, Chronos seemingly has always been either complete rubbish or totally overpowered. It seems like no matter what S2 does, he's always either too good or too shitty. Returning to DotA2, I can't help but feel like DotA has done a better job taking care of everybody's favorite deaf, blind, purple time traveling alien. Faceless Void seems to out perform Chronos even though they're extremely similar in every way. Two subtle changes seem to make all the difference, at least for me: For one thing, Faceless Void can Bash you randomly at any time. Chronos needs a bit of a warm up and will only bash you every 5 hits, a prospect that doesn't seem like much of a threat compared to a static 25% Bash with no cooldown. This alone makes a huge difference, not just because of the lack of stun on Chronos but also the extra bonus damage that Faceless Void gets during his Chronosphere, which brings us to point #2- Chronosphere's duration. Chronosphere (DotA version) has a 4 second Duration at rank one, which scales only 0.5s a rank to 5 seconds at rank 3. Chronofield on the other hand, only freezes time for 3 seconds at rank 1, adding an extra second every rank. This seemingly small difference makes a huge difference in the early game. While Chronos might like to boast that his Time Leap deals damage, this small early game advantage is easily overshadowed by Faceless Void's massive 4 second Stun combined with a very reliable Bash that hits hard.

I'm sure other players who are currently undergoing the same transition will have their own small differences to write about. Flint outclassing Sniper due to his Flare over Shrapnel, Pharaoh's Wall of Mummies that seemingly suck everything in a thousand mile radius into them, Necrolyte's permanent 1000 range Heartstopper Aura- all of these subtle small differences completely make or break Heroes!

Things DotA2 and HoN can Learn from Each Other

Having played both DotA2 and HoN for a while now, I've observed a few things. Both games aim to improve the functionality of the original DotA by adding new Features and Interfaces aimed at making the game more "DotA player friendly", seeing as how Warcraft 3's interface obviously wasn't designed for DotA alone. And while both games have come far, it seems like both games still have improvements over the other. I feel like both games could learn a thing or two from the other, so here we go:

Things HoN can learn from DotA2

Smart Autocombine

In DotA2, when you have items on the courier and the courier delivers them to your Hero, the game will basically search for every single possible way to combine them in such a way that A) all the items will be on your Hero, combined and B) done all at once, without having to press any buttons more than once. This feature is extremely convenient in DotA2, and consequently, extremely inconvenient in HoN because it doesn't exist. If my Hero in HoN, for example, has 5 random items and one component for 3 component recipe and I have the two other components for the item on the Courier, the Courier will not deliver any items at all and the item will not combine. This is because the courier can only deliver a maximum of one item at a time if my inventory is full, whereas DotA2 basically uses a system that pools all your items together, tries to combine them, and then tries to put them in your inventory. In other words, a lot less scrambling to try and combine stuff together, a lot less headache, a lot smoother gameplay.

"At a Glance" Mana Cost UI

A feature which has been requested for HoN since the dark ages, it's something nobody really knows why it hasn't happened yet. Mana Costs for abilities in DotA2 are displayed in a clean simple manner which does not obscure the icon. By simply looking down at my interface I can easily check how much Mana a spell costs, a feature which provides real benefits in hectic situations where I don't have time to hover over the spell to check. For something that seems like it would only take an hour to implement, S2 seems to persist with the idea that that should be a mod and not a real thing- an opinion I hope will change as they run down their checklist of things to borrow from DotA2. Similarly, the "level pegs" of the ability beneath the icon are equally handy and are definitely something I wouldn't mind seeing in HoN.

Commendations / Karma System

All ARTS games have gameplay which breeds the fabled "bad community" problem. The best way to counter this sort of thing, in my opinion, is to create a system which encourages and incentiveses players to behave better. These "Karma systems" have been heavily requested for Heroes of Newerth for a long time, but the idea has never been taken seriously or implemented. DotA2, on the other hand, is making a distinct effort to better the community- not only is the new Stat screen very selective in which stats it displays (no KDR- thank god) but it also features this Commendation screen where you can commend players for being nice, forgiving, for being a good teacher or displaying leadership. Of course, this feature is still half baked (because the game is in beta), and it remains to see exactly how Valve plan on developing it into a full fetched system, but I for one am already extremely excited and I expect great things in the future.

Things DotA2 can learn from HoN

Efficient Tooltips

When HoN first came out, it had very, very, very long tooltips. For new players, these were very intimidating, because it felt like they were reading a book when all they wanted to know was what the ability did. Sometime along HoN 2.0, S2 decided that the old, heavily detailed Tooltips had to be shortened, but at the same time they didn't want to remove crucial information that the player needed. Thankfully, S2 pulled through and created some very sleek yet efficient tooltips which get straight to the point, yet don't leave out valuable information. In most of the cases, these new tooltips kept all the important information including Mana Costs, Cooldowns, Ranges/Radii, etc- but the long tooltips are still available in the menu for people who still prefer them. DotA2 tries to do what S2 did but falls short. The DotA2 tooltips are often short, but they are ruined by the fact that they withhold vital information. Things like Mana Cost and Cooldown are displayed, but often ability-unique numbers and important details like the type of damage (Physical or Magic, etc.) are left out. DotA2 also "lists" the details of the spell in an often long large tooltips, whereas in HoN the numbers are written into the sentence which describes the spell chronologically. And finally, DotA2 features flavor text in their tooltips, something that I personally don't like because it only takes up space and doesn't really contribute anything- Ideally there would be an option to turn these off.

Voting System

HoN takes care of most problems that players have via a vote. In DotA2, any player can pause the game at any time via the press of a button, something which becomes extremely annoying if somebody feels the need to turn a teamfight into a slideshow. In HoN, when a player wants to pause, 3 of his teammates must agree and then the pause is announced and counted down before the game actually pauses. Similarly, the game will also announce and count down the unpause. It's debatable how and if DotA2 will chose to implement a system like this, but for now its current system definitely seems lackluster. While the Kick option would certainly be a controversial move, I would also argue (and have argued) that a unanimous concede option should also be implemented into DotA2. Similarly, if enough players on both teams agree, a remake vote would also be beneficial to the game.

Sell Items Anywhere

In HoN, you can sell items anywhere on the map, even if they are on your courier and not you. In fact, all you have to do is hold down two buttons and right click the item to make it sell. I don't see why this isn't a feature in DotA2 as I don't think it would influence balance in any meaningful way, all it would do is make the game a lot more convenient for everyone. If you accidentally buy the wrong item in DotA2 with the Courier, you're screwed. There is no way to sell it unless you can teleport back to base in time. One missclick can therefore lose you the game if you accidentally make a Mekansm on Faceless Void by accident, something I don't really feel should be punished as hard as it is. Situations in which you are doing Roshan are often plagued by the fact that you can't simply sell items back to the store, the result is players finding Iron Branches sprinkled across the map.

5 Reasons Torturer is better than Artesia

Artesia just came out, and after playing a few games with her I am prepared to risk embarrassing myself after a few weeks by saying that she's pretty mediocre. I will preface this by saying that there's a good chance I'm completely wrong about this. I often scold people for sharing opinions about Heroes that aren't out yet, or Heroes that literally just came out the same day. With that in mind, I could just be stupid. But alas, in the few games I've played with Artesia, I spent most of the time wondering to myself: "Why am I playing this Hero and not Torturer?". So here you go, my top 5 Reasons why Torturer can replace Artesia on my team any day:

Torturer can Farm better

This might surprise you but Artesia is more of a Carry than a Ganker. Really, her role is almost identical to Torturer (with some small exceptions which I will get into later)- she's a semi-carry that can also (apparently) Gank. Despite not having any direct scaling factors besides the fact that he can literally turn Mana into damage, Torturer excels (in addition to other factors) because he can farm well. His area of affect damage makes clearing both large creepwaves and double/tripple stacked creeps easy. Artesia, in comparison, is completely lackluster. Her Q deals damage in a small area of effect, but in order to hit multiple targets realistically you have to have them literally standing in front of you, ideally attacking you. Being able to farm up a lot of Gold if you are playing a relatively item dependent Hero (like Torturer or Artesia) is going to be hard when this is already a challenge.

Torturer can Push

In addition to (in my opinion) eclipsing Artesia in every way, Torturer also sports the ability to Push. When you first think about it, it seems unfair, like I'm comparing apples to oranges. But really, since Torturer can already do literally almost everything better than Artesia, it seems like a fair comparison. Being able to deal tons of damage to Towers with a non-ultimate ability is huge, something I don't think I need to tell anyone because Torturer has been around for ages.

Torturer has a Stun and no Skillshots

Artesia doesn't have a stun. Not even a mini-stun. This instantly puts her in a difficult place when ganking, because if I see her coming I can just TP away. S2 has gotten a lot of flack for putting stuns and mini-stuns on a lot of Heroes, but honestly, it almost seems unfair thee days to make a ganker/carry that doesn't have some sort of stun. The only other Hero that functions this way is Blood Hunter, and we all know how great he is. A long time ago, in a place called DotA, Torturer's Stun was hard to land. Combined with a very long casting animation and incredibly small AoE, Leshrac's Q was (and to my understanding still is) a skillshot. Torturer's Q, on the otherhand, is not. The ability has been nerfed many times but next to Leshrac's stun it's still the size of Texas. It isn't hard to land. Q aside, all of Torturer's abilities require 0 skill to land, contrary to Artesia. Artesia's Q is technically not a hard ability to hit- it basically locks on to your target. The problem arises with the fact that it can hit creeps, basically making Heroes that are standing next to creeps extremely difficult to hit. Additionally, Heroes with summonable minions like Wildsoul, Balphagore, Keeper, etc, are all extremely difficult to chase down when they can just place their minions in your way. This technically wouldn't be too big of a deal if Artesia's Q was the only real damaging ability she has. E's damage is negligible, and hinges on the fact that the enemy is near me, which is obviously not always the case.

Artesia is an inferior Teamfighter

Artesia has a huge potential damage output- this I cannot deny. Using your ultimate combined with all the charges on Q after using W produces huge amounts of damage- but the problem is that this never really happens because it's ridiculously hard to pull off. First of all, Artesia has to channel her W ability to even begin fighting. In late-game teamfights, the damage W puts out through E is laughable- it's barely even worth mentioning. So basically, after I drop my R, I begin channeling my W which does nothing. Through playing Voodoo Jester we all know how hard it is to keep a channeling ability up a teamfight- which is why he is rewarded so greatly for every second it stays up. Same with Tempest ult. All channeling abilities in HoN tend to reward the player greatly because they're so difficult to maintain. In a teamfight, Artesia's W grants her negligible regen and negligible damage. By the time I've started channeling W, Torturer could have already rolled his head around on the keyboard and produced more than I will through the entire fight. After I'm (hypothetically) done safely channeling my W, I can begin shooting Q. Problem is, since my ult is stationary, half my damage is probably going into creeps. The Area of Effect is not very large and I can't exactly steer the projectiles, so there's no real guarantee they will hit properly. I've basically just spent 3 seconds channeling to be able to output less damage and effects than a hero like Torturer.

Torturer and Artesia share almost the same Stats

You might think because of all these natural disadvantages, Artesia might have a lot more INT or STR gain than Torturer. This isn't the case. All their stat gains are almost the same, Artesia only sports 0.3 more STR gain than Tort, with 19 Starting Strength over his 18. Their INT is 100% identical and Torturer actually features (a lot) more agility than Artesia for some reason. Additionally, for some reason, Artesia is also slower than Torturer. I guess the idea here was that since Torturer needs to be near his enemies to deal damage he could use higher movespeed to catch them- but really, what is that worth when Torturer has an AoE stun to easily get close to people. Artesia can only run into the lane guns blazing and hope that her 15% slow will be enough to kill the enemy before they make it to the tower. Also, Torturer has 600 range while Artesia, for some reason, only has 525.

Concluding, I feel like Artesia is pretty weak right now. It feels like there are Heroes that can do what she does and better. She doesn't really excel in the early game as a Ganker as I thought she might, but her Lategame isn't much better either. In addition to dealing comparable damage to Torturer, Artesia's damage is 100% Magical, making her especially weak to Shrunken Heads later in the game. Torturer wins out here again, having at least 1 ability which deals Physical damage. Let's not forget that Artesia is a Hero that has to cast a lot of smaller spells to be effective, a playstyle that is dangerous because it's easily countered by Heroes like Vindicator.

If I had to buff Artesia right now I'd probably:

- Increase the AoE of her Q's damage by about 50.

- Increase her Movespeed by about 10 MS.

- Increase the damage of Arcane Bolts to at least 100 damage at rank 4.

But of course it's only the first day and we have yet to see anyone play Artesia to her full potential. As usual, it's a waiting game and we'll all just have to see if I'm right or not- hopefully I'm wrong.

"Give Up Already!"

If you're even remotely connected to the ARTS/MOBA community you will know that DotA2 beta is in full swing with more and more invites being sent out daily. I myself have been lucky enough to receive one of these invites and I've already played several games over the course of the last few days and weeks. As somebody who started with DotA before he switched to HoN- and as somebody who has, in his lifetime, definitely played more DotA than HoN, I was (and still am) naturally excited about DotA2. From the start, there have been aspects of the game (and the company, Valve) I dislike. Nevertheless, the positive aspects of the game far outshine my petty grievances and I've already started playing the game actively alongside Heroes of Newerth.

Despite my inherent love for DotA2, I can't help but feel like a lot of the features are still missing. And obviously, this isn't surprising- because the game is in Beta. When Heroes of Newerth came out, it brought about a lot of changes that DotA players had longed for that were simply not feasible on the Warcraft 3 engine. One of these options is the concede vote, which is currently a hot topic in the DotA2 community, as people aren't seeing eye to eye.

For me, this is a non issue. The game should definitely have a concede vote- the question is simply: should it be the same as the one in HoN? As you may know, players in HoN require a unanimous vote to concede until the 30 minute mark, at which point only four players are required to pass the vote. This is definitely debatable, and I don't carry any distaste for anybody who has a differing opinion, because after all, there are pros and cons on both side of the table.

What I don't understand, however, are people who believe DotA2 should simply not have a concede vote. These so called "brave" people argue that, should DotA2 have a concede vote (even if it is only a unanimous vote), it will turn the entire community into "quitters". DotA hotshot and Glenn-Beck-of-the-DotA-Community Maelk wrote an article a few days ago promoting the idea that DotA2 doesn't need a concede option at all. To nobody's surprise, he blames LoL and HoN players for coming up with these silly ideas for features- after all, how could a glorious DotA purist come up with such a retarded idea? He would know, he's never played anything else besides DotA.

HoN and LoL players in DotA2? We need to build a wall!

I find this way of thinking hilarious, not simply because I disagree with it entirely but because it doesn't actually make any sense whatsoever. What Maelk is saying in this article is that, if five people unanimously agree that they want to stop playing a video game, they shouldn't be able to, because he knows what they want better than they themselves do. Proponents of this way of thinking argue that often players will have given up a game that is not quite lost yet.

To this point, I present a rebuttle: who cares? If five players want to give up, let them. It's a unanimous vote, the entire idea of such a vote excludes the situation of one player being on the team who doesn't want to give up. If the entire team wants to give up, who are you to tell them differently? Statistically speaking, who is in a better position to tell a team of five people that their game can still be won: The players themselves who have been playing the game for several minutes, or... some random guy on a forum? I'll go with the five guys who want to give up.

Ironically, Maelk backs up his argument saying "Most players will try harder from the get-go and are less inclined to flame and piss off their allies"- a statement I find hilarious considering a group of players who don't want to play anymore seem more likely to, you know, fuck around than a team that has already counted their losses and moved on. He also writes that he believes that the inability to concede will cause players to become better at the game, because they will have more time to sit and mope around thinking about what they've done. This seems like a silly argument to me, as I would argue playing more games equals gaining more experience and having more wisdom under your belt. He's essentially arguing that since you are "punished more" by having to sit around and waste your time, you're going to play better. Right- because I'm not actually always playing my best, I need a "time out" to bring me back in line?

"Maybe Dagon on Dazzle isn't the ideal build..."

To me, these "pros" of a lack of a concede feature are non-existant. And what's more, I haven't even started talking about why not having a concede vote doesn't even make sense in itself. DotA2 will always have a "concede vote"- its the part of the game where I sit in the fountain and AFK because the game is over. What people don't seem to realize is that DotA1 had a concede vote all along- it was the big shiny "disconnect" button that had no consequence. If I wanted to leave a game, a game which I saw as a waste of time, I could do so at any time with no problems. Banlist wasn't an effective way to stop leavers, as anyone could simply host their own game and it would always fill.

As it currently stands, DotA2 has a concede option- the ability to sit in the fountain. The only difference this makes is that the 5 players sitting in the fountain are wasting their fucking time, something Maelk seems to think everyone has plenty of. A player AFKing cannot play another game of DotA2, he must first wait for it to end, something which does not happen automatically, and in actuality hangs much in the hands of your opponents who are often all too happy to farm up for another half an hour just to spite you.

Even if DotA2 implemented an anti-AFK and a Report-a-Player option (hey look, HoN features!) into the game, do you really think people would continue to fight with all they've got until the "bitter end"? I doubt it. DotA2 is ripe with fresh and creative ways to troll your team while still walking the line of "not rule breaking".

But really, now we're just wading off into hypothetical territory; there is no excuse for not having a unanimous concede vote in DotA2. If the entire team wants to forfeit for whatever reason, they should be able to do so- it was their idea to start the game in the first place and if they all want to stop, they should be able to. A unanimous vote means that there would never be a situation where one player wants to keep fighting but is forced to quit; it would simply mean that the team doesn't want to fight anymore. The enemy team would still win, and that's that.

Shadowblade: First Impressions

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My blog has undergone quite a transformation- originally a place for me to rant about things I don't like about S2, it somehow recently became the opposite- a place for me to defend S2 from day-to-day forum insanity. But really, the more I think about it, the more this Blog should really be about one thing and one thing only: Heroes of Newerth. So instead of analyzing forum behavior, let's instead talk about the game at hand!

It's only been a few measly hours since Shadowblade, the latest "Agility" Hero was added to Heroes of Newerth. Since then, I've played around 6 or 7 games with mixed results. And while I can't say I won every game with him (I did win ~half), I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed every single one. Indeed, I'm actually very excited about Shadowblade, something which is perhaps in part due to the fact that I neglected playing him in Super Beta Tester games. This lack of knowledge on my part was a pleasant change of pace, as usually I've already gotten the gist of a new Hero by the time they've came out. This time would be different- although I knew approximately what Shadowblade was about (in theory anyways, a "hybrid hero with multiple roles" doesn't really say much these days!), I had no real idea what was to be expected.

First off, Shadowblade is a "hybrid" hero, but not the kind you are used to. Typically what a hybrid means, is that the Hero will be capable of two things, but (if balanced) not a master of either. A good example of a typical hybrid is perhaps Valkyrie. She's a Ganker, but she's also a semi-carry. She is not the hardest Carry in the game, nor is she the best Ganker in the game- she does both roles but only to a certain point. Shadowblade is different in this respect- because unlike these traditional Carries, Shadowblade can actually do multiple things to full extents. Shadowblade is a hard carry, but he's also a pretty hard initiator, and while at times he can be a hard squishy carry, he can also become a hard survivability machine that refuses to die.

To me, Shadowblade is what Morphling was supposed to be but never really achieved. A Hero that could do multiple things. I don't know DotA or DotA2 enough to know how Morphling turned out these days, but back when I played he was designed pretty badly. The option to change between a "tank" and a "agi carry" was managed through two autocast abilities which drained one attribute for the benefit of the other. Your primary attribute would change through this. His adaptive strike would also change depending on your primary attribute. Despite this effort to make Morphling an interesting Hero, Morphling ultimately (at least for me), failed in this regard. He was fun, but for all the wrong reasons. Waveform basically became your bread and butter, the skill he was most known for and his attribute changing mechanic, for the most part, took the back seat unless you really needed Strength to tank through a hectic situation.

By looking at Shadowblade for the first time you almost fear like its going to be the same thing. An ult which is essentially a passive that grants you a percentage of a target's primary attribute permanently? Sounds repulsively boring. But much to me surprise, it really wasn't.

Shadowblade succeeds where other Heroes have failed, to create a balance-able "hybrid" Hero that can actually do multiple things just as well- if only one at a time. Shadowblade's ultimate allows him to change his primary attribute to any he desires, and also gives him a bonus to this attribute depending who he targets. Using this ability, he can switch between a rather squishy but dangerous Agility Hero, or a formidable Strength "tank" (there is a fiasco about whether "tank" is a role or not- to me "tank" is a sub-role that simply means you have a lot of hitpoints). The fun part really comes into play when you use this ability in battle to suddenly change from a full fletched Tank into a squishy hard agility carry in the bat of an eye- a feat no other Hero can really pull off.

But really that's just the beginning. Your other abilities are what truly change the Hero into whatever you want. Gargantuan's Blast gives you a huge heaping load of extra Survivability and works well as an initiation ability (following Feint's Siphon). By using it after you've jumped into a fight (especially when you are using your ultimate to become a Strength Hero) you can be an extremely formidable Initiator, soaking up large amounts of Physical and Magic damage while your team widdles down the slowed masses.

Feint's Syphon is your most versatile spell. In addition to granting you +agility and +damage when used on an enemy (the +agility and movement boost stay on you even after you change forms!) it also provides you with movement speed. It can be used as many things: an initiation tool to combo with your Gargantuan's Blast ability for quick slowing, a simple burst in damage for out-damaging an enemy carry or bursting a support down, an escape mech (although admittedly very weak), or simply a burst in damage to be combod with Soul's Sight. Feint's Syphon can even be cast on yourself for a handy movement speed boost wherever you may currently be. It's your bread and butter and unlike your other abilities, is far from only situational.

Soul's Sight is basically the icing on the cake, the cherry on top of what would otherwise be an only mediocre and possibly boring Hero. Most Agility melee Carries suffer from not being able to maneuver around fights very easily. Their melee attack is a disadvantage right until the very end of the game, where every second of Shrunken Head activation time is precious and every moment not spent wailing on an enemy Hero is time squandered. These hard Carry Agility heroes- Heroes like Chronos or Magebane- they all suffer from this problem. Shadowblade suffers from other problems- primarily a lack of a reliable escape mechanism, no stun or mini-stun. What he lacks, however, he makes up with the ability to be permanently ranged whenever he wants. Yes, you read that right- Soul's Sight has an 11 second duration and only a 10 second cooldown. If desired, although this wouldn't be very practical, Shadowblade could stay in ranged for for how ever long he could sustain the (cheap) Mana cost.

Not only does he become ranged, but he gains vision of an area, making Juking impossible. When combo'd with his other abilities, a clear routine for teamfights begins to emerge:

1. Be a Strength Hero via Essence Shift (prior to engagement)
2. Initiate with Feint's Siphon
3. Activate Gargantuan's Blast for Initiation, Slow and Tanking ability
4. Wait for the initial onslaught of damage to dwindle, then activate Soul's Sight

At this point, you've become a ranged Hero that still has bonus damage from Feint's Syphon. If all goes well, at this point, your team will have followed up and layed waste to many of the Support Heroes- but perhaps there are still Carries that are alive. Usually at this point I hang back and lick my wounds for a moment, before I begin the second onslaught- this time with less crowd control on the field, I can roam more freely and become a glass cannon:

1. Use Essence Shift on an ideal Agility Hero
2. Initiate with Feint's Siphon
3. If the enemy is distracted, simply wail on them until they react
4. Activate Gargantuan's Blast for the slow only
5. Activate Soul's Sight for the ranged attack and finish off the wounded enemy

When I had originally begun playing Shadowblade, I thought Soul's Sight was more of a situational ability, or perhaps an ability that was only worth using if I was using Intellect as my primary Attribute (something you should never do, thus making the ability pretty useless). As it turns out, Soul's Sight turns you into a ranged hero, buffs your auto attack damage, gives you a nice vision boost, and has no drawbacks! If it weren't for the fact that Feints Siphon (probably) gives more attack damage overall (although I can't confirm this), I'd be using Soul's Sight to damage enemies all the time. If it does turn out that Soul's Sight gives comparable DPS, I will probably just neglect using Feint's Siphon for anything else than a positioning tool for Gargantuan's Blast (and +Agility and MS boost), which I would then mostly chain into Soul's Sight.

Concluding, Shadowblade is a fun and effective Hero. Unlike other hard Carry Melee Heroes, he suffers greatly from not having a reliable escape mechanism, doesn't have any stun and has very little crowd control (just one Slow). What he lacks, however, he makes up for in his ability to be on your ass all the time. His blink strike, his ranged attack damage and vision- in a teamfight where the enemy can't make a full retreat, it's almost impossible to keep him off you. There is no place to run and no trees to hide behind. I love Shadowblade for what he is, a unique Hero that scales in an interesting way- having a metric crapton of one primary attribute is a very fun and interesting way to be a carry- having 2.7k HP very early in the game is definitely amusing, and if you have an Arachna or Gemini on your team, +40 Agility is basically ensured once you hit level 16.

It's complicated

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, back when DotA was still nothing more than a custom map in Warcraft III that people played alongside other horribly unbalanced just-for-fun "Hero Arena" maps, things were a lot more simple than they are today. DotA, when it started, competed directly with these other Hero Arena maps, but the core concept was the same; the player would chose one Hero out of a large pool and duke it out alongside other players. Since Map Makers were lazy in these days, many Hero Arena Maps would recycle existing skills from the game, often simply exchanging models or graphics while keeping the trigger intact. As Map Makers became increasingly skilled and more tools became available to them, however, more complex skills began to surface and the Heroes became more dynamic, something people appreciated because it showed effort and added complexity to the game.

Fast forward a few years and you'd almost think you've landed in some sort of dystopian future where designers create horrible abominations of skills, the stuff that Mary Shelley probably has wet dreams over. At least, that's what the community might have you believe. As I have pointed out in the past, the community will cry overpowered whenever a new Hero is released, regardless of what kind of Hero it is. But this special kind of gripe that the community holds isn't even about balance; I'm talking about complexity.

In order to properly experience the irony of today's complaints regarding skill and hero complexity you'd have to go back in time... or just have played DotA. The year was 2009, the place: The PlayDotA forums. Tensions were growing as Icefrog had just released his newest overly complicated, overpowered abomination: Huskar, the Sacred Warrior. But as it is today, balance was only half the story. The problem people had with this Hero was that he was too complicated, after all, DotA was just a "Hero Arena" map that (the majority of) people simply played to relax and have fun, why should they have to bother to try and figure out the rocket science that was a percent sign. Indeed, the Community was upset, it seemed Icefrog was forsakening the very values that had made DotA a success! Simple heroes with simple designs. Stuff like Sven, the Rogueknight, who, as many people love to bring up, was "easy to describe" and could be summed up by saying "he has a stun, a cleave, armor aura and double damage". Trying to describe a new Hero in a few sentences these days is indeed somewhat challenging, "He's got a charge that deals your auto attack damage, an ability that jumps over another player and knocks them back and slows them- and you can use it twice if you are fast, and an area of affect stun that also damages and also goes off twice- and a passive ult that makes you go faster if the enemy doesn't hit you, and it also lowers your cooldowns...." just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Damn kids! Back in my day we didn't have Spell Vamp!

As we know the present is doomed to repeat the past because it cant remember it. But back when people asked Icefrog why he didn't just create another simple Hero with a stun, an aura and a double damage ult, his answer went something like "because that's fucking boring and we already have a hero that does that". As Huskar aged and people began to accept him as a classic DotA Hero, presumably through rose colored nostalgia goggles, his "complexity" problem was quickly forgotten (and pressed onto the next Hero instead). Fast forward back to the future and we've got the same deal between the Community and S2 designers. People often ask S2 why they don't simply create a "simple" Hero that wont boggle their minds. Aside from the fact that there is an equally large pool of people who would be outraged if S2 recycled an ability 1:1 (something DotA used to do, how many Heroes in DotA have crit?), this just isn't exactly possible to create a brand new ability that is both simple and original. A New hero with recycled abilities would quickly be picked apart by the community and quickly dismissed as a boring pile of rubbish- hell, even Cthulhuphant, a Hero that is fairly original by most people's standards, was ridiculed for having "Magmus Stun" despite the fact that the abilities worked differently in almost every way imaginable.

Of course, there are those who link complexity to balance, an age old fallacy that I think I've spent enough time debunking in last week's article. Complexity or "the amount of stuff a Hero does that I can count" doesn't actually have anything to do with balance since everything is relative. A "simple" Hero like Hammerstorm can be viable and strong because his "stun", while simple, is actually an incredible un-missable AoE Immobilize/Silence/Perplex/Disarm that he can spam with a Blood Chalice. When people make simplistic comparisons like "Hammerstorm has a Stun, Monkey King has a Stun and a Slow, Monkey King is superior" they are leaving out important details like "how long does the stun last?", "how easy is it to hit?", "how much Micro/skill is involved", or "how much Mana does it cost?". Gemini has three stuns? That's nothing, Rhapsody has six!

Presenting: The most overpowered Hero in the game - 9 Stuns

In conclusion, it is my firm belief that complexity is not a choice, but a consequence. HoN has over 90 Heroes, each with 4 skills. When you set out to design a new Hero, odds are you are going to have to mix a few things together to create a skill that hasn't been done before. Whether or not mixing all that stuff together will make the skill or the Hero overpowered is something that remains to be seen.