Wulff

James (AKA 2GD) always cracks me up.

Since when? Have you ever actually piloted a Magrider in any sort of terrain that isn't a flat road? Prowlers and whatever the NC tank is called bump around like crazy, Magriders zoom across the landscape easy peasy. If you're getting outmaneuvered in a Magrider, versus other tanks, something is going terribly wrong. The rest of the cons are definitely valid, but it is the fact that the Magrider can get around way easier than other heavy tanks that makes it shine. Source: I drove around in a Magrider during half of the beta with a buddy of mine in the gunner position and we wrecked other tanks. Admittedly, I haven't played since launch, but that's what it used to be like.

The saddest fucking death lines in this game: http://www.dota2wiki.com/images/7/7d/Bat_death_03.mp3 http://www.dota2wiki.com/images/5/5a/Chaknight_death_03.mp3 http://www.dota2wiki.com/images/e/e3/Tiny_death_13.mp3 http://www.dota2wiki.com/images/4/49/Omni_death_04.mp3 http://www.dota2wiki.com/images/9/94/Alch_death_16.mp3 http://www.dota2wiki.com/images/9/9a/Venm_death_05.mp3 ;_;

To add to that, the VS have the best tanks by far if you know how to use them.

Vanguard can be used quite efficiently if you can get it before 10 minutes. It all depends on what hero you're playing and how long you want the game to go on for, of course.

Invoker isn't as hard as people make him out to be, getting to learn him is relatively simple -mastering him is hard though. As for tips. - Make sure to read the tooltips of your spells, understanding what they do will allow you better decide when to use them properly. - Don't expect to be this all-powerful master who can keep the entire enemy team crowd-controlled for ten years whilst killing them at the same time, not even the best of Invokers can do that. Invoker is very squishy and relies on not getting focused in teamfights. Stay back, cast your spells, know when to back off. - Remember that basically all of your spells have a medium cooldown, you gotta remember those, because they won't be shown if you dont have the spell invoked and there will be times where you invoke a spell, thinking it is off cooldown and you die because it wasn't. I'll list you some good "Combo's" that Invoker can pull off. EMP + Tornado (Guarantees the EMP to hit the enemy if you time the tornado right. Chaos Meteor + Deafening Blast (The Chaos Meteor keeps doing damage as it rolls, with Deafening Blast you can forcefully push people into its path, causing a ton of damage). Cold Snap + Forge Spirits (Cold Snap freezes from all instances of damage (Apart from Rot, AFAIK), this will mean that combined with your own auto-attacks and those of your Forge Spirit(s) you can keep a guy locked down for a good while. Finally, and this is important. Do NOT throw points into all three orbs in the early game. Doing so will give you a lot of spells to juggle, but because Invoke's cooldown is very high at lower levels, it is not worth it all. Focus your points on either: Quas/Wex for great mobility, ganking and teamfight potential Quas/Exort for great pushing power, right click damage and global presence with Sunstrike. The reason Exort/Wex is not really used, is because the spells you get out of this combo are not very useful in the early game and Quas is extremely potent in the early game, where regen is king. It is very hard to push a Quas Invoker out of lane. Hope this helps.

Generic "fuck-this-gay-earth" response followed by the usual rant over how shitty the gaming industry is and how companies like Activi$ion (lol see the funny thing there i did with the dollar-sign? xD) and EA are the reason everything sucks and fuck shit cunt badgers jesus christ i hate this world my god what is my life coming to holy bageezers i am so upset at this happening when in reality i just shrug and continue on with my life because-whoop-de-doo plenty of good games are still produced that i will buy and enjoy. Yes.

That moment when you realize that you preordered Hitman: Absolution months ago and now suddenly there are cosmetics for it and you won't actually ever use these cosmetics. welp.

It's obligatory that I get mad over this. Grr...

you're a faggot.

Guinsoo wasn't the first modder. That would be Eul. And he works at Valve along with Snowtoad.

This is standard.

Bane Elemental is a great hero. Look I am going to make a statement here, for everyone getting into this game. You might hear from more experienced players that this hero or that hero is not very good or not very viable. Ignore that shit. EVERY Hero in Dota 2 is viable, the only times where you can start talking about heroes being unviable is at PROFESSIONAL LEVELS OF PLAY, which NONE of us here are no-where even remotely close to. P.S. Bane Elemental's voice acting is Sand King tier good, have a listen. http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Bane_responses

Unfortunately that response is not used in-game.

Invoker. The way his voice echoes combined with his voice-lines makes it feel you're playing a Sith Lord or something. That along with the fact that he is so versatile and can achieve so much if played to his full potential makes him a hero you always feel like you're improving with as you play, even if you are losing. Finally, Invoker is a smug motherfucker, which makes it even more hilarious when you kill people. Other than Invoker, Kunkka, Shadow Demon, Dazzle, Ancient Apparition, Juggernaut and Omniknight are also up there OG LOOK AT IT GO

Me too, he was my second most succesful hero prior to his buff, because lo' and behold he was really good even before his buffs, you just had to time your attacks better. I've barely touched him since the buffs though, I guess it's the gamer in me that feels bad about playing borderline broken heroes.

I'm game.

Welcome to the club buddy, of the people Facade and I usually play with I am usually the only one who puts up wards without being asked 7 times over the span of 5 minutes to place some wards. Just let me know if there's any support related info you need. PS. Best supports: Omni, Dazzle, AA, Shadow Demon

What Facade says is true, Bottle first is horrible, but there is ONE situation where I would MAYBE CONSIDER Bottle first and that is if you randomed the hero. Only then would I even think about it and even then it is very much reliant on you getting rune-control.

Omniknight functions best with some farm, which is why he isn't a common pick in higher tier games. He is a bit of a situational pick, but is very, very potent if played well. - Maxing your Purify is usually your first priority. - Repel is a free BKB in the early game, but remember: YOU CANNOT HEAL OR USE YOUR ULTIMATE ON TARGETS YOU HAVE REPELLED, Omniknight takes a bit of getting used to, because he can very easily ♥♥♥♥ over his own teammates if you Repel the wrong target (You can also repel enemies, so watch who you click!) - Your ultimate nullifies right-clicks 100% for 3 seconds, it is really good against heavy right-click teams. Remember, if you pop your ultimate and THEN use Repel on someone, both of them will be stacked, making that target impervious to basically all damage (Very very few exceptions). Omniknight can be a lane support, but he truly shines when you allow him to get a few items, he doesn't need to farm all game like a carry, but a Soul Ring, Arcane Boots and potentially a Mekansm are all very valuable to Omni. He suffers from mana issues in the early game. Remember that your Purify does a bunch of Pure Damage to enemies around the target you heal, you can make deadly combo's with this spell (NOTE: The Purify Damage radius is very small, not even as big as the little ring that springs out from your healing target, you basically have to be RIGHT next to people). Degen Aura's radius is TINY, but if you're looking for a visual queue, enemies affected by it have a white particle affect on their feet. It is really good for chasing if you can get close. Finally, Omniknight is one of those heroes who has rather long cast animations. You will need to get used to those too. Source: Omniknight is my most played hero, one of my favourite supports and the hero I started out learning Dota 2 with.

Everybody I've introduced to Dota 2, both IRL buddies and online buddies alike have taken a liking to the game. I myself had never touched the "MOBA" genre (Well, I tried both League of Heroes of Newerth and thought they both sucked) until trying Dota 2 because I was willing to give Valve the benefit of the doubt. Dota 2 has rapidly become my most played game in the past 7 months, even closing in on TF2 which I have owned for 4 years. TL;DR At least try it. Dota keys aren't that hard to come by these days, so if you end up not liking it, you won't feel too bad.

Tell him what he needs to do, why he needs to do it and tell him to man the ♥♥♥♥ up. There is no easy way to learn Dota unfortunately, being timid with people who have bad habits will only make it worse in the long run.

This isn't League of Legends

Didn't notice this thread, I just responded in the General thread, but I'll respond here too for good measure. Your ability levelling order and initial item choices are fine. Your continued item build is a bit confusing however. I'd say skip the Sage's Mask, the percentage based regen is not that useful in the early game, just go straight for your bottle. Arcane Boots and Magic Wand is fine, but an Oblivion Staff? Why? Did you mean to write Force Staff? THE biggest weakness Zeus has is that he has -zero- mobility. It makes it extremely easy to gank him and makes him a hard hero to gank with, unless you strike when they are low. Force Staff is absolutely 100% core on Zeus, no questions asked. That's his core, in regards to Aghanim's, it is a decent pickup for Zeus, but you should never keep a static build in Dota. If you are wrecking mid and have been ganking sidelanes like a pro and you have a good level advantage, I'd say go Aghanim's, because at this point it will really help you snowball and absolutely crush the enemy team. If this has not been happening and you are just having "an average" game, I'd say go Blink Dagger into Eul's, even with a Force Staff. It costs like 1000 more gold than an Aghanim's but gives you the ultimate mobility. If you are having a bad time, skip the Blink and just go straight for Eul's. If the game is not over by this point, then either a Sheepstick or Refresher is viable on Zeus. Sheepstick if they have carries that are wrecking your team, Refresher if you're going for the full on teamfight. The last item you could consider on Zeus is Bloodstone, but I don't really like that item on him, compared to what you could buy for the same cost. /2cents.

Your ability levelling order and initial item choices are fine. Your continued item build is a bit confusing however. I'd say skip the Sage's Mask, the percentage based regen is not that useful in the early game, just go straight for your bottle. Arcane Boots and Magic Wand is fine, but an Oblivion Staff? Why? Did you mean to write Force Staff? THE biggest weakness Zeus has is that he has -zero- mobility. It makes it extremely easy to gank him and makes him a hard hero to gank with, unless you strike when they are low. Force Staff is absolutely 100% core on Zeus, no questions asked. That's his core, in regards to Aghanim's, it is a decent pickup for Zeus, but you should never keep a static build in Dota. If you are wrecking mid and have been ganking sidelanes like a pro and you have a good level advantage, I'd say go Aghanim's, because at this point it will really help you snowball and absolutely crush the enemy team. If this has not been happening and you are just having "an average" game, I'd say go Blink Dagger into Eul's, even with a Force Staff. It costs like 1000 more gold than an Aghanim's but gives you the ultimate mobility. If you are having a bad time, skip the Blink and just go straight for Eul's. If the game is not over by this point, then either a Sheepstick or Refresher is viable on Zeus. Sheepstick if they have carries that are wrecking your team, Refresher if you're going for the full on teamfight. The last item you could consider on Zeus is Bloodstone, but I don't really like that item on him, compared to what you could buy for the same cost. /2cents.