[DOTA] Meta-Game Theory - No More Supporters! DDoS Attackers

I talked briefly about Silencer a few articles ago and how I didn't think the changes made to him would affect his game at all. I now realise, after some theory crafting how wrong I was. The issue was just that Silencer was being played wrong and that the meta-game was evolving quickly without people really realising what was now possible in DotA.

So here is where I predict the new meta to go and I'm sure it will be met with objections, the only way to see it is to wait and watch carefully.

So here it is: No more support heroes.

But that doesn't mean that no-one will play the support role. Of course there will always be a need for the ward ***** and the baby-sitter. But now the game will evolve into hero's like Silencer playing the support role and I will explain why.




Firstly Silencer makes an amazing babysitter, using glaives to harras and Curse of the Silent is simply amazing (click icon to be taken to skill info) Silencer makes a great ward *****. Consider a team fight against enemy supporters like lion/lina/cm classic supporters. Not only does Silencer grow immensely in power as the game goes on, whereas the others stay static in their abilities (the reason they are supporters is because they are not item dependent and do not grow in strength steadily as their items increase.) Silencer is a pain in the ass to fight against with his aoe silence aura and ulti. Whereas previously Silencer would be played for his dps and get nuked early in a team fight, using him in the back lines as just a supporter for his ulti and aura, and treating his dps as an added bonus as oppose to something that makes the hero means he is a lot stronger team-wise and you can use more powerful heroes in your lineup.

The basic reasoning behind losing the traditional supporters, is that it is possible to use better or more diverse heroes. In my next article I will cover a series of choices of other supporting heroes that can be used in the place of the traditional ones, but for now the theory behind it.

Using the heroes I mentioned above lion/lina/cm the strength is in the early game and by late game there is very little these heroes can do, the nature of there play is that they get very little farm throughout the game because even with items, there strength does not increase. Sure a blink dagger increases mobility, but is not necessary. The difference between say ES getting a blink and lion farming it is night and day. Using heroes that instead, can farm and give more utility to a team and heroes that will actually grow in power over the course of the game can make a line-up a lot stronger and you see it a lot more in Asian play.

A supporter does not have to be a stunner or slower, but can also be able to counter these abilities or give added utility to your own team. I'm not saying Kunkka will no-longer have a lion or cm in his lane to help him lane, but a lot of traditional supporters will begin to be replaced by more team-fitting and utility based heroes.

The current gank-heavy meta is able to be countered with a pushing and team fight focused line-up where you can force the fights.



Replay spotlight
Below is a great game with the new Xeo.int team playing. Their opponents are NON - A Spanish team that I will be playing against in the dota-league tournament and have played a few scrims against.

Sadly NON get outplayed by Xeo and the team looked great. Their Zeus racked up kills so fast and there was some really amazing play by Morphling. Using a haste rune with only 2 wraiths as dps items he gets a 1v3 triple kill with just really good play.

I didn't fully understand the Lich pick at the start, but throughout the game it proved to be a great pick and the pure nuking power of Xeo's team and long-range strat was really amazing to watch the plays and fast paced ganks they were able to pull off.

Game HERE

Morph also manages to get to level 20 in around 30 minutes of gaming, really impressive gaming there as well.


Protip: when using a tp, shift click in the direction you want to go after the tp. Same can be done with anyone with a windwalk, just shift click the ability and it will be used after you tp. This is min-maxing in dota and Maelk even uses it to use a tango gaining something like 0.1 seconds - it all adds up.

Also in DotA news:
Dota-league has been under attack the last two days from DDoS attacks reports show it being from a particular rival league, where they will strike next, and if there will be a retaliation noone yet knows, but Dota-league will not take this lightly.


~Also a shout-out to my single reader in Jordan