[DotA2] Nanor's A-Z Dota 2 Challenge

[Nanor]

I read about this challenge on the Dota 2 sub-reddit and I thought I'd give it a go. The idea is you play each hero in alphabetical order and you may only progress to the next hero after you win a game. "Easy" wins don't count (I.E. half the enemy team drops or feeds). I'm not looking forward to getting to heroes like Invoker or Meepo but hey, good fun. Anyways, first up... ABADDON.

Abaddon
Damn this guy doesn't die easily. Played one game there with a bunch of random Russians. The side was ultimately let down by a pretty poor Riki. I elected for an offensive support role as we already had 2 carries - Riki and Outworld Destroyer. We had an Invoker as well who could carry in a tight spot. We had a Rubick to support but sadly he didn't do much supporting. He played alright, though.

I did a pretty swell job of keeping people alive and harassing enemy heroes, unfortunately it wasn't enough. Abaddon has some real carry potential. The fact he's hard to kill and with his third ability offering solid DPS he'd definitely do well.

I'll give him another go in a bit and hopefully not get stuck with our communist brethren.

 

[Panda with issues...]

Abaddon is going to make some serious noise as a 4 role support I think. His Aphotic Shield purges STUNS, he has a cheap low CD heal nuke and is inherently ridiculously survivable compared to your normal supports. Sick trilaner I think.

I wish Sniper players in pubs understood his ulti...

 

[Nanor]

Played a game with him last night going good old carry. Pretty simple build of Sange & Yasha, Phase Boots and Vlad's offering saw me pretty damn beefy while still being able to support my team. I found a nice tactic is to pop your ultimate at about 50% rather than wait for it to pop automatically as a semi-competent player will know to stop attacking around that point so it catches them off guard. You really do feel like one of the horsemen of the apocalypse. Your passive which gives a 20% slow and 15% bonus movement speed leaves your enemy crawling and you rocketing. Couple that with the proc from your Sange and Phase Boots and you can just run people down with absolutely no regard for your own well being. At the end game it took 5 people to get me down I was that god damn beefy.

Final Verdict
Difficulty to Play: 2/5. I'd give him a one if it wasn't for your aphotic shield removing de-buffs. Couple that with the using the mist coil at the right time and popping your ulti in certain occasions to maximise healing just knocks him slightly above a 1.
Fun: 4/5. It's honestly hard to beat slowing your enemy to a crawl and being able to take one of the biggest beatings in the game. There isn't really any skill required (I.E. sunstrikes from Invoker or Kunkka boats) where people will say "holy shit that was awesome!" which I love from heroes.
Usefulness: 4/5. The heal, the tankiness, that shield... Definitely a welcome addition to any team.
Overall: 4/5. Good hero, wouldn't unpick if I random'd him.

Next up: Alchemist!

 

[Nanor]

Alchemist
Not a hard guy to play. Once you pick up a bit of steam there's no stopping you. The fact you farm quicker than any hero in the game really helps you to rake in the cash. By the end of the game I had a Radiance, Mjolinir and an Assault Cuirass. I'd greet the day by punching the sun. You're not playing right if you're not punching 4 times a second. I wasn't sure on the radiance but it netted me a few kills in team fights with those pesky invisible bastards when combined with acid spray. Made farming a breeze too. I was playing against an Undying and when he spawned his tombstone I just stood there and let me radiance do the work. The zombies themselves are only worth 8 gold but when you add the passive I was getting 30 gold per zombie. There were a lot of zombies. CASH DOLLAHHHH.

I kept getting caught out with the bonus health your ultimate gives you. I'd walk into a team fight, have it wear off and find myself at 200 health and hightailing it the hell outta there.

Final Verdict
Difficulty: 3.5/5. If you're pub stomping this character can be piss easy. If you get yourself rightly farmed I'm fairly certain you could just attack move into a team fight with your ultimate and not have to pay attention. The real difficulty is mastering the stun. You have to sneak out of range so the enemy doesn't hear you pop the cork, then run into the fight and throw it at them. It takes a bit of knowledge to know when you're not going to hit them so you have to run back so you can be stunned in peace. A shadow blade makes this fairly easier but still a challenge.
Fun: 3/5. Ehh, he's alright. It's so satisfying to get a stun off that you've been cooking down to the wire but I find right click heroes terribly boring. Though it is fun to hit 4 times a second pooping out thunder while the enemy try in vain to hit you.
Usefulness: 4/5. The stun is an amazing initiator and the acid is great for taking off some armour. He'll take a beating and give one too. A welcome addition to any team.
Overall: 3.75/5. Useful and kinda fun with the concoction but wouldn't be my first pick.

Next up: Ancient apparition!

 

[Panda with issues...]

I like the flexibility of alchemist. You can build him as a carry, or you can use him as a support with the stun and acid, then allow him to transition into a harder hitter later in the game due to greevil's greed and chemical rage.

 

[Nanor]

Yeah, he's a good sport. Making no-go zones with your acid is great fun. Had a few games the other night and progressed a few heroes...

Ancient Apparition
Told my friend I was up to AA in the A-Z challenge and he laughed and told me I was in for a shit time as a shit support. He was wrong. I took him mid against a Dragon Knight and, despite his high regen, harassed the crap out of him. Your cold feet ability basically makes people run away, 'cause if they don't they're frozen in place. Couple that with a Eul's after you cast cold feet and it continues the countdown to freezing them in place for a pretty nice 3.5 seconds. Your Ice Vortex has a massive range of 1500, slows by 30% and increases magic damage by 20%. If you can get that and a cold feet they're in a lot of trouble. I didn't find much use for chilling touch so I didn't touch that much.

His ultimate is the ballz, though. There's room for a lot of skill here. You pick anywhere on the map globally and it fires out a tracer in that direction. You press R again and that's the target. AA then fires a big smelly jizz ball at the tracer. The further away the target, the greater the radius of the attack. At one stage I got DK down to really low health in mid and he had to retreat. Firing that jizz ball and hitting him perfectly as he climbed up the steps into his base is SO satisfying. It's great if team mates are having a bit of bother in a faraway lane. It also works a treat in lanes that are being overrun with enemy creeps.

Difficulty: 3/5. Your attack range is pretty long and your projectiles hit almost instantly making last hitting/harassing pretty easy. Your pretty squidgy with low armour so you have to play cautiously but it's the type of hero you run in, pop your shit then run out to get a jizz ball brewing. The difficulty comes from anticipating the enemy movements and hitting them with the ulti. Can be quite tricky.
Fun: 4/5. Great fun. You're just an asshole. It's so annoying having to get out of the way of cold feet in the early game when you're trying to farm. It's fun watching them do that. Casting ice vortex before you hit them with your ulti is a nice skill test too. Would definitely recommend if you want a support.
Usefulness: 4/5. Good stun, increases magic damage, can increase damage and his ability to clear lanes from anywhere on the map is a definite bonus. Get good support items and don't feed and that's you.
Overall: 4/5. Actually like this guy. Not only would I not unpick him, I'd probably pick him if I was playing support. Give this guy a go and cover the map in jizz.

Next up, (p)anti-mage!

 

[Nanor]

Anti-Mage
Fun fact: Anti-Mage's real name is Magina lolololol. Anyway, Anti-Mage is a hard carry. He starts off slow and if you don't die you'll slice through enemies like a hot knife through butter. Sounds fun. Nah, s'not. It's incredibly boring. You have two usable abilities; blink and your ultimate Mana Void. Get into safe lane, get all the last hits and bolt at the slightest sign of trouble. There is nothing more useless than an unfed AM. If you've a good support babysitting you that stacks camps you can get fed faster. Sure, you can run around the map and hope to get the jump on a low health intelligence hero but that's about the height of your fun early game.

Mid-late game you're a powerhouse. You blink in, right click a few times, mana void, blink out. Rinse repeat. If you have BKB or evasion you'll be pretty hard to kill and you can probably stay in fights longer attack moving from hero to hero. Basically, you get rewarded for being a little bitch early game. Late game you can be completely shut down with a Heaven's Halberd so any competent team will take you down. Chances are though you can just blink out, have a quick fap in the jungle and go back in good as new. You're a complete asshole. Sure, I mentioned Ancient Apparition was an asshole but he was a fun asshole. Let me explain, Anti-Mage is this kind of asshole. Look at that little bastard. He runs in, hits you and blinks out before you can hit him and back in. Admittedly it's a really slow blink and it looks a lot like walking but give the monkey a break, fuck. When Ancient Apparition messes with you it's usually your fault. You had four whole seconds to get out of that stun or else that was a really well placed jizz ball.

You're probably thinking being that monkey type asshole is fun, but it's not. You ate all your vegetables, said no to drugs and now you're big and strong. Here's your reward. You get no input into winning. Just attack move over there like a good wee spud. Sure you won but you're a loser. Your name rhymes with vagina. Get out.

Difficulty: 2/5. I want to give him a one but there's a certain skill to last-hitting, jungling effectively and knowing when is and isn't a good time to jump in for a gank. Late game this crashes to a zero. You get spell resistance of 50%, like for God's sake.
Fun: 1/5. BORING. Farm farm farm. Where I come from in Ireland is considered the countryside compared to a big city like Belfast. People from my area when we come up for work or university are usually referred to as culchies, a play on agricultural. They love farming. Now, I am not a culchie. I'm a townie, but Belfast people don't know the difference. I do know several real culchies, though. They spend most of the day with their hands up various animals rear ends and love nothing more than a good day out in the field. If I was to show them this level of farm required with anti-mage they'd run for the cities and pray for another potato famine. No-one in their right mind is prepared for that amount of farm and culchies are god damned insane.
Usefulness: 3/5. You know how when you're drinking and you just tip yourself over the edge of being too drunk? You just slammed a big glass of whiskey and you're not sobering up any time soon, it's just going to get worse. You get that wee niggling feeling in your stomach, you're going to be sick. Anti-mage is that feeling. The game is taking a while and you're not really having fun. Eventually the feeling of being sick is getting stronger. Eventually anti-mage is getting stronger. Eventually you get up, go to the bathroom and stare at the toilet to make the urge stronger. Eventually you stack ancients and do Roshan to make anti-mage stronger. Finally, you fall to your knees and shout "huey green" down the big white telephone. Finally, anti-mage attack moves into their base and everyone dies. You go back to the party and join the fun. You go back to the lobby and join another queue.
Overall: 1/5. In case my vomit metaphor wasn't clear I don't like this man. I'm sure he's a nice guy but he smells like vomit and all my whiskey is missing. If I randomed him, I'd probably unpick.

Next time... AXE!

 

[Ronin Storm]

What happened? AXE HAPPENED!

 

[Panda with issues...]

There's a reason he's nicknamed Anti-Fun. Actually more than one. Basically, he's not a massive amount of fun in any way. He's no fun to face, he's no fun to have on your team as he needs more babysitting than any other character. He's no fun to be on the same team with because most pubbers can't use him and can't farm fast enough to bring him online before the game is lost, and as you've pointed out, he's not a massive amount of fun to play unless you like farming, like all late game carries.

'The Fun ends here'

 

[Ronin Storm]

Axe, however, is made of fun.

"Blade versus book. Blade wins!"

 

[Nanor]

Axe is my favourite hero. Hopefully I have a funny game to write about.

 

[Nanor]

Internet in new house is being a bit of a ball bag so it'll be a while before I update this.

 

[Ronin Storm]

Hope that sorts really soon for you Nanor!

 

[Nanor]

Internet managed to behave itself for a couple of games and I got a nice go as...

Axe!
Axe is probably my favourite hero in the game. Managed to get a cute two wee games in. First one I messed up quite a bit by not getting my ultimate off in about 3-4 perfect opportunities. Our Pudge quit half way through after some light criticism so that didn't help. Second game went a treat and I managed to see Axe in his full potential.

I play Axe a little differently from most. For example, I don't use an Axe. I use a sword. I actually use swords so much I have one sticking out of my fuckin' head. A lot of people I see play Axe take him as a jungle role and while he is super effective in this role, I prefer him as a big old asshole. Once you get to level three, you should definitely be in there for first blood. It's real simple. Battle hunger is my favourite ability in the game. It's a psychological ability moreso than anything else. Battle Hunger can be dispelled by getting a last hit so if you get it on a hero they think "I could just eat a tango and have this do nothing OR I'll blindly charge in trying to get a last hit". Usually they charge in blind and that's when you get your game face on. You run through the creeps and start pummeling the hero you battle hungered. The creeps starting hitting you proccing your counter-helix which hits the hero. At the point they realise how god damn stupid they were to try an take on that big, red, veiny war head that is Axe. They'll try and run away and just when they think they've made it you cast battle hunger again, watch them disappear into the fog of war only to hear the clink of gold into your pocket. Beautiful.

At this stage you buy your tranquil booties. This gives you that much needed ankle support to be an even bigger asshole. You just run into the middle of creeps and spin your wee heart out. When a hero sees you make a run in their direction they always shit themselves 'cause they know you're gonna open up a can of whoopass. The ones that try be brave are stupid. You do the same as above except your counter-helix is even more powerful and you probably have your ultimate which means chasing them down to slam dunk their candy asses. Seriously, get to level 8 and play the space jam theme when you play Axe. Boner Town, population: you.

My build is Tranquil Boots > Wand > Sange > Blink > Heaven's Halberd > Chainmail > Heart. Once you have your blink you are the initiating KING. Blink in, Berserker's Call and spin SPIN SPIN. I'm dizzy! And horny.

Difficulty: 4/5. One of the more difficult heroes when played right. Harassing effectively early game, knowing when the kill threshold has been reached for your ultimate, managing blink/berserker's call/chainmail/heaven's halberd so you can blink, get attention then wait for BC to end to activate chainmail (40 bonus armour from BC makes chainmail useless if used in conjunction) and using HH on a hero that isn't attacking you so your counter-helix will still proc. Tricky stuff. Also not kill stealing with slam dunk is a hard one...
Fun: 5/5. FUN FUN FUN. Chasing your enemies down with the speed boost from Battle Hunger and slam dunk-ing them is so satisfying. Having someone die from the DoT from your battle hunger is so satisfying. Going toe-to-toe with an enemy melee and watching your counter-helx proc over and over again is SO. SATISFYING.
Usefulness: 4/5. Get this guy enough farm and his ability to draw attention away from other heroes who are in trouble with his Berserker's Call and his general initiation skills make Axe a valuable addition. His ability to push an lane and harass enemy carries early game are an added bonus. A swell guy.
Overall: 5/5. Gonna give Axe full marks. I don't think I've ever had a bad game with this guy and there's been several times I've single handedly turned the tide of a team fight. If I had to play one hero for the rest of my games, it'd be this guy.

Next up, Bane!

 

[Panda with issues...]

Axe and Abaddon are an interesting dynamic.

In the early game, Abaddon is a solid counter to a laning 'dickhead' style Axe intent on spamming Battle hunger, as Mist Coil and Aphotic Shield counter BH almost completely. Using Aphotic Shield absorbs the damage battle hunger would inflict, and, assuming you have enough mana, you can use AS+ Mist Coil to heal a teammate at no damage to yourself as AS blocks the self inflicted damge from mist coil, making a laning Axe almost useless against an Abaddon lane.

This switches hard in the mid to late game with level 2 and more importantly lvl 3 of culling blade, where the threshold is enough to dunk abaddon completely avoiding triggering borrowed time (at lvl 3 650 culling blade is a good margin of error over the 400hp BT, compared to the 450 at level 2 which is pretty close for comfort).

 

[Nanor]

I thought AS would dispel BH but it turns out it doesn't. Still absorbs all the damage, though. It's also worth nothing that Culling Blade will go through Borrowed Time if Abaddon is below the threshold. As a matter of fact if anyone is under the threshold the insta-kill can't be blocked. That's why it's so damn terrifying to see him run towards you when you're on low health.

 

[Panda with issues...]

I thought AS would dispel BH but it turns out it doesn't. Still absorbs all the damage, though. It's also worth nothing that Culling Blade will go through Borrowed Time if Abaddon is below the threshold. As a matter of fact if anyone is under the threshold the insta-kill can't be blocked. That's why it's so damn terrifying to see him run towards you when you're on low health.

Actually, I'm almost certain that Shallow Grave (Dazzle) prevents it, but other than that, I think you're right. Does it go through BKB?

 

[Panda with issues...]

Actually, I'm almost certain that Shallow Grave (Dazzle) prevents it, but other than that, I think you're right. Does it go through BKB?

In fact, no, it even goes through grave, wow.

 

[Nanor]

Yep! He's a mean sonuvabitch. Goes through BKB as well. Particularly handy against Huskar who seems to be perpetually around 1% health.

 

[Ronin Storm]

Yeah, the thing to remember about BKB is that it prevents magic damage only. It's not some super-shield. So, against primarily physical damage heroes such as PA, it's pretty much useless. Culling Blade does no damage; it just kills outright. Unless you flub it, in which case it does a small quantity of magical damage.

Edit: actually, BKB confers magical immunity. It's slightly surprising that CB goes through it, but it appears that it does.

Edit 2: wiki article on magic immunity - http://dota2.gamepedia.com/Magic_immunity